--------- good morning everybody it's 8:30 we'll call this morning's meeting of the Clay County Board of Commissioners to order for Tuesday April 1 our first item is the approval of the agenda Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the agenda second okay we have a motion by
commissioner M second by commissioner eer any further discussion additions okay seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried next we have an employee recognition this
morning all right Holly seille 20 years huh yes well thank you for your dedicated service to Clay County and Kiren I think you want to say
something um so yes holl's worked at Social Services for 20 years the last 13 correct in the behavioral health unit um and I've had the opportunity to work with Holly for the last 13 years as a cooworker and then as her supervisor and
the one characteristic that has stood out the most for me um in regards to Holly is her genuine connectability with with clients um it's not easy to gain trust and earn trust of our clients and
Holly's downto Earth demeanor um and her just realness um assist in her ability to do that and we've had conversations over the years about a couple of individuals in particular and you know who I'm talking about um but you have been that
constant you have been their cheerleader their support their voice of reason um and that is invaluable um so all I can say is congrats on your 20 years and keep doing what you're doing because
that is your greatest attribute you have your speech ready um I do not you don't want to give all right well thank you thank you Kristen [Applause] all right citizens to be heard do we
have any citizens to be heard on items not on the agenda this morning nothing Mr chair okay very good approval of bills and vouches I'll make a motion to approve the bills and vouchers second we have a motion by commissioner bear second by commissioner
krabbenhoft any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried approval of minutes from March 18th I'll make a motion to approve the
minutes from March 18th 2025 second okay we have a motion by commissioner bear second by commissioner evinger any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I
oppose the same motion carried our 835 item is a public hearing regarding reder Valley Co-op power petition for resoning do we have a motion to open the hearing I move second motion by commissioner krainov and second by
commissioner bar to open the public hearing all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried we'll turn over to Matt good morning good morning Mr chair and Commissioners uh so before you it's a petition for rezoning um for a property
from agricultural General Urban expansion District tier 2 to Highway commercial uh brought by Red River Valley Co-op power and the Rural Electric Supply cooperative and the land owner is uh Barry oberg so this is right on the corner of Casa 18 and 34 Street
so it's north of the um resource recovery center in the Walmart uh the zoning right now the basee district is agricultural General and then there's an overlay District uh Urban expansion District tier 2 uh that
is tied to the city of dilworth's um Urban growth area so the request is to petition or is the to rezone this property um only the portion that is in this um subdivision that is shown
here currently it's uh land uses is agricultural um there aren't any structures on the property um pretty high um Prime Farmland uh but again it's in that growth area and so the proposal here is uh two parts um so on one of the
lots of the subdivision uh Resco they are looking to build a 40 to 60,000 square foot uh distribution warehouse uh on a 15 acre uh lot in this two lot um platted subdivision
and so this is actually an example of um their building a building in Wisconsin and they're looking to do basically the exact same thing here so look and when it's built um looking at opening this up in in 2026
2027 uh be about 30 employees on site here and then um Red River Valley Coop power they're looking um to build a service center on the second lot uh of this subdivision it's a smaller lot um 5
ACR here's some examples of what that would look like uh essentially uh place to store and house their uh maintenance equipment and their trucks and for their um linemen and they're looking at uh building that in the next um two to
three years as well in terms of the two two lots uh in this proposed subdivision um they would essentially meet all the highway commercial standards um
and the subdivision right now it's as I had mentioned it's in the ET area the extra territorial area of the city of Dilworth so the city of Dilworth has the subdivision uh jurisdiction where we have the zoning uh jurisdiction and they
did recommend uh they did approve the preliminary plat and I think I believe that um if this rezoning is passed this morning then um the city of Dorth will uh look at approving the final plat tomorrow at their meeting
tomorrow so Matt any any action that we would take today would we have to be contingent on that or we are we just going to assume that that will happen I think at this point just because the uh preliminary plat was approved that yes I think that it would
um it would happen yep thank you so and they did have some conditions on their on their plat um just um getting making sure that they have utility easements um roadway accesses and things like that um a development agreement for
future extension of City Utilities to the property and then any um they did have give the Planning Commission an opportunity to add any comments as well and the Planning Commission did not do that so again this um just looking at our
comprehensive and transportation plan goals and objectives this proposed resoning really does kind of fit um with the goals and objectives uh for land use and development in our comprehensive plan uh especially um with the city of
Dilworth um being on board with this as well and so um yeah the recommend from the Planning Commission was unanimous um to rezone just the subject section of that plat so not the entire property just um what would be in that uh
described in that Cooperative energy subdivision any questions for me at all one question sh yes so it' be the West 20 acres of that 80 correct yep and we did have some um public comments
at the at the Planning Commission meeting um as well but and nothing from the township also had comments from the city of Morehead and they said they didn't have any issues all
right any question yes commissioner were there any issues expressed by the public on this I think just the the main concern um being just the future developments U moving out kind of into the to the more rural areas of the of
the county um but I think once um the public who were concerned kind of saw what the plans were I think those concerns were were alleviated okay yeah I think that comment was addressed in the at the Planning Commission level right I believe there some comments in
the any other questions from the board uh anything additional from the applicant okay all right at this time the applicant didn't have anything else to add um anything else from the board that
we need to have while the hearing is open I entertain a motion to close the hearing oh yeah public input yes any other public input any other public input commissioner Mr chair I I'll move
to close the public meeting open hearing oh or close it you want to close the here close it okay I'm sure you're right I will second that okay any further discussion commissioner Mall thank you Mr chair we
have I've served on the Planning Commission for a while and I know this company is uh invested in making sure that they address any gaps in coverage throughout the county this is uh the second proposed site and this one really seems to fit better maybe with uh some
of the concerns that that came out of the last one and and given the fact that the city of Dilworth is also supporting this I think it um is something that this board should also support yeah I I agree with that and I I think this is this site is really a a good
location for this and I think if I remember right back when the previous site was select part of what they want to do is they wanted to bring some of their utility shop things closer to other parts of the their
service area and and so this is this is a critical component I think to help have faster access you know in times of trouble maybe for for their customers they have a shorter time time frame to get those folks there so this is I think
this is a really good fit so any other comments if not all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried all right and now just close the public hearing yeah we just closed the public hearing yep
now we got a thank Mr chair yes commissioner thank you I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation of the rezoning of the portion of the subject property is described in the packet I will second
that okay we have a motion by commissioner moo second by commissioner bear any further discussion commissioner Mojo you I might also uh notice that uh we've worked through the findings of fact at the Planning Commission and and given that recommendation in the packet
as well would uh reflect in my motion okay so the motion and the second then uh including includes the findings of fact provided by the Planning Commission all right any further
discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried that is done thank you Matt thank you Mr chair thank you applicants good luck with you in the future all right thank you
all right our next item is the request to approval for uh overfill Deputy position due to military leave good morning sheriff and morning Chief Deputy Martin good morning good morning Mr chair Commissioners
thanks for having us here this morning uh our request is to overfill a deputy position um currently we had a deputy that was was deployed uh a couple weeks ago and he is anticipated to be deployed until about December 9th um we did meet
with the pck committee on March 18th to discuss this um during that meeting we discussed several things to include um the 2026 budget challenges that the County May face due to some State uh state budget challenges as well I think we're all aware of what what what those
may be um but as you can see from the handout we did uh we did look at what what budget savings would be with the deputy gone and then what the cost would be if we did overfill that that position my plan was for 2026 to add this
position into the 26 budget um but with uh with seeing what the savings would be we just thought we'd take an opportunity now to see if we'd be able to overfill and get somebody started sooner rather than later with that I would yield to the board um for questions or if Chief dep
has anything to add maybe I can just um give a little brief overview of our conversation at p and um ultimately P felt this was an appropriate uh thing to
do to move forward with this uh we did talk about the uncertainties of 2026 and and uh we had a quite lengthy conversation about that and and I think the the recommend a a pick of course
would would be to approve this and and then to have the sheriff um put it in his 2026 budget uh but at the same point in time I think we we kind of put the message out there that with the uncertainties of
2026 you know we may have to deal differently through attrition or something as as as may be a way to deal with hopefully we won't have to get to that point but but that's kind of the where the conversation was and that we as a pick committee could support moving
this forward commissioner arer do you have anything to yes thank you Mr chair uh a couple of factors we took into consideration this position is part of a task force that requires a Minnesota participation at this time the deployed
employee was part of that task force and Morehead uh because of their issues with staffing has not been able to put somebody on that assignment so this would effectively hamstring having a very valuable task force uh engaged in
Minnesota issues you need to have a Minnesota badge with them um additionally it's clear I think the sheriff and the chief Deputy were were aware when we described our concerns about future budget incumbrances that
this is an overfill and that it will not be restaff through it uh through when attrition occurs if we don't have the ability to open up a new position in 2026
uh this is an investigative position and I've always been surprised how lean the sheriff's office has has been running here on those positions and when you need somebody to do it particularly given that our partner agency is having
staffing issues of their own if you need somebody to conduct investigation it's not something you can fill with an overtime or we bringing somebody in it's got to be an investigator so I think this is a critical position and Pi is decided uh to make a recommendation on
this that we fill it and I I am part of that decision think it's a prudent one and I do understand that uh we could have to look at Future positions I'm hoping it doesn't come to that I don't have any division that's really uh over overly uh full right now I mean we're
all kind of running Bare Bones by the time you factor in sick time vacation comp time who knows what ESS is going to bring to us so it's there's there's a lot of things to consider as we move forward with this as well and and you know and that that was the difficult conversation that we had and we had to
at least put that uh potential thought out there um because we could we could be having this same issue with several of our other departments you know and so so we need to make sure that we're um being consistent with all of our
departments but this is a I look at this as a critical position too that that we need to uh be maintaining so uh any other comments or questions i i w okay commissioner bear Sheriff tin
the so this person would be on the investigation division yep that is correct all right essentially what we would do is we'd hire somebody for a patrol level position and somebody that uh is currently a deputy would have an opportunity to move into invations Mo
Okay so yep right commissioner AB M Sher make a motion to approve the hiring of the Deputy to overfill the sheriff's position in investigations due to a military deployment I will second that we have a motion in a second any further
discussion on the motion any further discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same MO security there you thank you all right good luck thank you you got you get are
you got the search going somebody yep we have uh we have advertised for the Minnesota post board I did look on the POST Board site before I came over here today there's 144 departments across the state of Minnesota that are currently looking for officers or deputies and that's that's a lot as of last week it
was 150 so it's dropped a few but there's there's a lot out there yet all right well good luck triple what what it was when I was just a few years years ago when I was working way years ago now it was 20 departments sometimes you know
back then now it's now it's up to quit a youel all right our next item we have um annual update and request approval of the resolution 2025-the going to talk about snow Mr Mr chair I don't believe that Greg is here yet he's here at 9:00 and
so okay we do have Justin here who has the next couple items that we could all right Justin we we'll move into um item number five request approval yes good morning so the first item I have is requesting approval to
advertise for yearly suppl yearly Supply bid so what this is is it's gravel we also get bids for binous mixture if we want to buy anything to patch culverts and then also if we need to rent construction equipment so the bids will be opened April 30th at the highway
department and then I bring it forward in a packet for approval on May 6th any questions one question do you bid each of those individually or do you bid those as one individually individually
bids yep and so gravel for example is Bid in 30 different so it's all 30 townships get a separate number and then we also allow the opportunity for townships to join our bid so far we have three and then one city how how many
townships do you normally have usually about three to four yeah but there are some items where we have multiple vendors that we approve right correct so binous mixture we usually we try to get a number from everybody so we get a number from northern Central just and
it's basically laid out in there that if they're Paving or something that we obviously understand we can't get mix but depending on where we're at in the county it's nice to have numbers to be able to buy mix from whoever yeah same with Culver's correct yes commissioner Mo thank you Mr
chair I am curious to see how these will come in given some of the uncertainly uncertainty of some of our bids that we've received certainly on the low end I'm hopeful that it could be uh duplicated ated with these numbers as well
definitely all right Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve advertising for the yearly Supply bids with the letting date of April 30th second we have a motion by commissioner moso second by commissioner kbn any further discussion one one other
question for staff the gravel B do you gravel a certain certain type of gravel there or is it yeah so we it's it's a class one mod ifed so we have our own gradation that we call out that the contractor has to meet and we have a testing schedule in which we run all the gradations all
right and then each year the gravel map is different based on needs throughout the county so so you set the specs for the gravel correct okay good any further questions seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same
sign motion carried all right your next item is a request to approve advertising sap 04- 6452 yes so this is approval advertise for the mill and overlay project on Casa 45 so it is the it is in Dilworth it's a
little horseshoe through town um pretty simple project this is on the 5year plan and it's been planned for quite a while so excited to get this one done and then this was also approved at dwor city council via resolution last week for
state aid project projects within municipalities there is a resolution of support that needs to be completed and that was last week so any questions I'll move to approve the advertise in Mill and overlay of project
onad 45 in newor sap4 6452 with letting data May 6 25 second we have a motion by commissioner krainov second by commissioner abinger any further
discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried thank you anything else for us this morning Justin no hopefully we
don't get uh on the high end of the snow that we're predicting I still on the trucks yeah I just uh I happen to see through some of commissioner Mojo's work down in St Paul that you were also down there on behalf of Clay County and
I just want to thank you for absolutely it worked out perfect I was down there for a conference I was able to attend thank you for being able to be there in support of the needs of Clay County so definitely I just wanted to comment on that when when you know that there might
be some technical questions that come up there's nothing more reassuring than having your own County engineer Pres in case something were to come so I do really appreciate you dropped everything to head over to the capital for that hearing absolutely very good thank you thank
you all right so we are I could do mine Mr chair if you'd like number uh number 10 okay Steve let's do number 10 we're looking for a request approval to submit Congressional directed funding
application for the West Central Regional water district project thank you Mr chair as this board is aware we're working closely with Norman and po County to establish a r Rural Water District uh and through that process uh the the board has worked uh diligently
to find uh uh additional uh resources to to uh fund this project both on the state and local and federal level and so before you this morning uh as a consideration to submit uh uh to for Congressional directed funding through
Senator clob bashar's office uh the request before uh you this morning is would be an amount of 5,566 888 which is a 5% increase over what uh this board requested last year through this process uh again as this board has
heard in the past this is part of a a process or a staging uh the the focus of the these funding needs would affect uh Ving Felton craes Morin flowing Keen uh Cromwell and then the cities of Ulan and Hall uh would uh would where these
funding fundings funding dollars would be directed as part of the application uh there is some staging and so that uh the minimum amount that we would ask would be ask for would be about $3.3 million but the hope uh the Hope total project is about 6 million but we'd be
requesting the 5,566 188 with that i' yield for any questions just to um keep everything above board here too um our our administrator
reached out to me on Friday about this I believe it was and and this is basically a a resubmitting uh to a previous application that we had done and the deadline for that was actually yesterday and so there was
um I gave Steve the approve approval on behalf of this board because it was a resubmittal uh to go ahead and sign that to make sure that we got it in an in in time and so this action is a followup to that that action to make sure that we
met those those timeline so any further discussion I want to thank you Steve for being on top of that too to make sure that we were able to meet those timelines so it did get submitted yesterday so
yes okay so we are looking for the um the board's approval of the uh resubmitting of that Congressional directed funding application so I'll make a motion to approve the submitting the Congressional directed funding application for the West Central Regional water district
project I'll second the motion we have a motion by commissioner bear second by commissioner Mojo any further discussion any fur further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion
carried thank you Steve thank you chair and board for your flexibility all right um we have sitting out the hallway J all right why don't we let's see what else do we have here
why don't we just Jackie do you have something okay let's take a let's take our break right now um at this point in time we will uh move to our agenda item number
eight and that is a recognition a proclamation for child Abuse Prevention month and when I would imagine you have some opening comments I do thank you Mr chair good morning Commissioners uh I'm here today to ask for your support in CL claiming April as Child Abuse Prevention
month here in Klay County uh our kiddos are our future uh and it's up to all of us uh saying is it really does take a village and it does um to help create a safe supportive environment for children where they can Thrive child abuse is a serious issue that affects families and
communities but prevention is possible when we work together and support one another uh this Proclamation is about raising awareness encouraging Community involvement and reminding everyone that we each play a role in protecting children and supporting families in our community uh thank you for considering
this important recognition and for your ongoing commitment to the safety and well-being of children in Clay County with that I would ask that we Proclaim April Child Abuse Prevention month all right we will uh start by uh reading the
proclamation Child Abuse Prevention month whereas our children are our most valuable resource and will shape the future of Minnesota and Clay County whereas in the year 2024 Klay County Social Services has completed 35
assessments and investigations of families and licensed facilities 221 assessed children assessed children for reports of alleged child abuse or child neglect Pro providing 116 families with child protection SL child welfare Case
Management Services and provide care and services for 176 children in out of home placement whereas child abuse is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community and can have long-term psychological emotional and physical
effects that may cause lifelong consequences for victims of abuse whereas effective Child Abuse Prevention s succeeds because of meaningful and trusting Rel relationships Partnerships created between parents practitioners schools Faith communities healthc Care
organizations law enforcement agencies and the business Community whereas family serving youth Focus prevention programs offers positive alternatives for young people encourage parents and youth to develop strong ties to their
communities as well as protective factors that reduce or eliminate Risk by promoting social emotional and developmental well-being of children whereas we acknowledge we must work together as a community to increase
awareness about child abuse and contribute to the promotion of Children and Families social and emotional well-being in safe stable and nurturing environments now therefore be it resolved that Klay County Board of Commissioners do hereby Proclaim April
2025 as Child Abuse Prevention month in Clay County County and call upon all Citizens Community agencies religious organizations me medical facilities and businesses to increase their participation e in efforts to prevent
child abuse and neglect thereby strengthening communities in which we live Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the RO Proclamation second we have a motion by commissioner Mojo second by commissioner
ebinger any further discussion commissioner ainger just real briefly I had the the honor working with your division for 12 years uh leading the Morehead police department and whose detectives worked with your people in so
many of these cases I also worked these cases and led a squad of uh detectives that worked in my prior employment and um I want to reach out and thank you and your employees for doing something
that is one of the most difficult investigative jobs in the world I've seen many many big tough cops who couldn't work these cases because they they number one weren't aware of
the self-care takes to stay in the game on this and number two uh it is so depressing that there's more fun things to do like working homicides than dealing with children who have been broken and B battered uh your division
has always saw to it that your investigators get the self-care and mutual support that's necessary uh your predecessor did that and as in everything I've seen so far you're carrying that torch so I'm grateful for it but please be mindful on on how
detrimental this is to your your people you know that you've worked it and let us know if there's something you need to that and to keep everybody in the game but thank thank you uh thank you commissioner abing those are good words and I just I want
to agree with that and on behalf of our board I think it's um we're all grateful for um the work that's done and the difficulties of the jobs that are done especially in this regard it's um it's
never easy we we can see some of the um things that happen as a result of what we have our juvenile centers and um the difficult work that goes in and it's it's it's got to be tough so thank you
to all of your team for the work that they do all right any other comments all right thank you Quinn we vote oh oh yes oh oh yes okay yes we have to vote uh all in favor of the motion
signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried thank you my jet lag must be all right so we will move right in Quinn to your update and you have several folks with you
today looks like we have Michelle and Kirsten and Amy yes is here and Tiffany all right when are you going to start it off I I'll be very brief and then I'll stop talking and let all right
true experts okay take over from there um thank you Mr chair and Commissioners we are here to give you uh I'm going to say part one of three of Social Services uh annual departmental overview uh today we're going to be touching on our Behavioral Health and adult protection
division as well as our children and um very very brief overview um in terms of our organizational chart uh what you what you'll hear today represents the green columns and the blue column in Kirsten's unit and then the child protection division which is Amy aminon
Tiffany January and Michelle Thor doll as well um quick highlights of Social Services we have 149 full-time staff one variable hour uh we're comprised of eight divisions with 11 units that make up those divisions um again hearing
about two of the divisions today uh with more to come next week and the week following and just a brief overview of our other divisions and Social Services there um to note we also have our office support uh which is typically doesn't
have a departmental update component to it as well as our uh fiscal supervisor and the four staff that work in central accounting uh that do social services work as well uh with that I'm going to kick it over to Kiron to speak to our uh adult mental health and adult protection
and civil commitments good morning chair Campbell and Commissioners um commissioner bear I have not had the opportunity yet to meet you it's nice to meet you um like Quinn said I am Kirsten leapard and I supervise our Behavioral Health and
adult protection division um they are three very separate um units that make up our larger unit um so I'm going to start with our adult mental health division uh currently we have uh five full-time staff um for that focus on
civil commitments um and one who does um rule 79 targeted case management um so an overview of adult mental health and what we do um like I said we do prepetition screenings and civil commitments um based off of Statute
253b um we monitor individuals at the Minnesota sex offender program and are folks that are committed as mentally ill and dangerous um that are at State facilities um typically those are located in St Peter um we have two staff
that do level twos which are the pre-admission screenings for mental illness um for individuals that are looking to be placed in a nursing facility um and that is to ensure that the most appropriate placement and recommendations um for mental health
services um are received when they are uh located in nursing home um and then we have Lori who is our sole um targeted case manager um who maintains a consistent case load um commissioner
krainov you hear that every month at our La meeting um that Lori is consistently full with her case load um so that makes up the the Staffing pattern um of our folks within the adult mental health unit um so just an overview of our
prepetition screen ings for the past couple of years um the numbers have gone down and in 2024 on paper um it looks significantly lower and I will chat about that in a
little bit um uh but consistently um and Mr Milton can attest to this as well is that we have had pretty high numbers of um folks that we are asked to pursue civil commitment on that are stemming from a rule 20 and so that's from a
criminal case um there has been um some type of um arrest um and it's been determined that due to their mental illness um they are not able to Aiden their defense um so per statute then it
switches from a criminal matter to a civil matter um and those numbers have been pretty consistent over the past couple of years oops so like I said our number of actual um
commitment cases has gone down um over the past year but I will tell you just because our numbers have gone down that doesn't mean the work has gone down um the cases are extremely
complex um the individual's needs are severe our placement options are limited um and so the number may be lower on paper but overall the workload is consistent if not greater um just
because of those barriers um and what we're seeing with each case um do you want to take yes I wanted to jump in here and just speak to that a little bit um the civil commitment process in Minnesota really does serve a critical role and uring the public
safety providing necessary mental health care for the folks that we serve but it does have a very significant if ific uh financial obligation for counties um particularly in the does not meet medical criteria realm um you'll see this when I when I do the kind of the
budget overview for 2024 but I wanted to give you some preliminary numbers as well um this is does not meet medical criteria cost um is a financial obligation that we are required to pay it's basically unreimbursed expenses for
hospitalization and treatment we're 100% responsible for dnmc expenses related to Regional Treatment Center placements um these can exceed $2,000 per day for one individual so um it has very significant financial
implications for our County do you want to yeah thank you I might just briefly comment on that uh We've honestly done a lot of work in elevating the discussion on Mental Health gaps in the state and so I just want to go back to that $2,000
per day caveat that he said we're talking about addressing the prtf reimbursable rate 1,800 to the state um to bring those costs up to what what folks are needing to pay and we're getting a lot of push back from DHS and
the state legislature on that but counties and representatives from all over the state are saying we are already paying that and then some in regards to what the the true cost is so um just for the minutes I wanted to be reflect Ed
that we're asking for a rate that is lower than some of the cases in which we're paying thank you so I just want to highlight a few of the Partnerships um that the adult mental health um realm works with you
may or may not have heard of our Becker clay otter taale wilin adult mental health initiative um lovingly referred to as bcow if you ever hear that that's what that stands for um and so we have through that initiative um monthly
meetings um different Partnerships that and collaborations that have developed um we work closely with Bri over at the jail um who is the um rap planner over there and so we work um closely with her especially when we have those
individuals that have been referred for civil commitment from rule 20 um sometimes they are over at the jail and so we connect with her um to ensure that we can um complete our interview with them um and get the most upto-date
information um again we work with the River Project over at the jail as well um we sit on several different um homeless and housing committees um the FM Coalition and homelessness the car's governance board we just had our first meeting yesterday um in a couple of
years um and then also the clay wilen housing Advisory Board um I said earlier that commissioner krainov is the co-chair of our uh local advisory Council we meet once a month um there's also participation in the this is very
lengthy the C clay threat assessment threat management team um which is a collaboration with Clay County individuals Cass County individuals um the FBI you name there's a there's a several committees that that meet um to
discuss potential um individuals that maybe are on the radar um that we just need to um work through and how can we provide services to them um we also work closely with the sheriff's office for
transports um Mr Melton and his team um for consults Direction um just any discussions that we need to have when we're looking at the commitment for individuals so that makes up our adult
mental health division um so then I'm going to move into our substance use formerly known as our chemical health division uh the state has changed our the language so we are trying to change our language it's not always easy um so
there are several individuals I there are two um staff that um have have their LC's so they can do our comprehensive assessments um currently there are two staff that do civil commitments um and
treatment coordination we have recently lost one staff to the Department of Human Services and have hired and will be stealing one of Tiffany's staff um so working on that transition piece then we will be fully staffed um and then one
case Aid who does all of our scheduling of our assessments um and the monitoring of referrals for treatment coordination and our specialty courts um so just a couple of numbers here pretty consistent over the past couple years of the number
of Assessments that have been scheduled the number of Assessments that have actually been completed um just noted that no shows and cancellations continues to be a trend we talk about it all the time um that that is really the nature of the individuals that we work
with um so it's nothing that our staff is doing or not doing it's just trying to get the folks in there once the comprehensive assessment has been scheduled um and Cheryl our case Aid is very good that when um someone has no
showed repeatedly she she lets them know that there are other agencies within the community that they can go to that do walk-ins every week we do not do walk-ins um we used to in the past we have talked about it but I don't think think that would change our cancellation
and our no-show rate um so Cheryl is making sure that individuals are aware that there are other agencies that they can go to to get the assessment done um so a little bit about treatment coordination again there's uh two
full-time staff there's uh one of the ladcs does part-time treatment coordination and then um Chelsea will be joining us hopefully within the next couple of months to start this as well um so we've always provided case
management um to individuals that have a substance use disorder but within the last couple years we have been able to bill for that um and it's now referred to as treatment coordination um so just a couple of the numbers that aren't on
your screen um I just wanted you to know how many clients we have served again this is relatively new that we can bill um so staff is still trying to um figure out what that piece looks like but in 2023 there were 40 clients that
were served 2024 there were 57 um and noted to date but that was a couple weeks ago before I went on vacation in 2025 we have 10 that we are currently serving um so treatment coordinators help with housing employment scheduling
Mental Health appointments um addressing any social determinants of health and um an individual is likely to stay engaged in treatment if there is someone that is working with them so that's
again we we've always provided that case management piece we can continue to do that just now we can build for that so we can bring in some Revenue which is always a nice thing um and treatment coordination can and reduce
um Reliance on emergency room visits detox stays um calls to our law enforcement agencies um and that just overall then lowers other County C so again it's a positive um service that we
are able to provide to individuals in Clay County uh just a couple of the different Partnerships and committees um again work very closely with Bri and scheduling those comprehensive assessments over at the jail um staff
participate in our specialty courts drug court veterans court and the newly formed D DWI Court um which I think is going to be very positive influence here in Klay County um participate in the
Klay County suicide and substance prevention Coalition that commissioner krainov and commissioner ebinger also attend um again we collaborate with detox work very closely with them um ensuring services and um programming for
individuals that are over at detox um and I can go on and on there's you know we work with our community providers very closely um I don't need to go into all of these things that are on the screen but we are working closely with the schools now in Clay County that is
something that we have started to do within the last year or two um and working very closely with the Department of Human Services um in some of the different um meetings that they have and that just helps us
um know about anything that's coming down through the state and how that's going to Impact Services that we provide um to our clients so then moving into adult protection this is the the third piece
of the division um have two staff um wonderful staff that um are very busy as you can see by some of the numbers um our screenin reports screened reports um have increased over the last four years
and our screened in um assessments has greatly increased in the last year um and that is just again a change from the state um we follow Minnesota statute um and and the state has changed um our
language a little bit and and how we actually do our screenings and our intakes um through the vulnerable adult act redesign um and so we have moved from a very reactive system to a more proactive system and that has just changed the
number of um assessments that we have actually screened in um so again just a couple different um Partnerships that we have through adult protection um we um work with Cass County and and um agencies in Clay
County through the elder abuse forensic Network which is our multi disciplinary team and also the coordinated Community response Coalition both of those work um meet monthly um we participate in the FM hoarding Coalition um our regional
committee for adult protection um we meet quarterly with our DHS representative um and then monthly um as a regional team we also collaborate with very closely with the Morhead Police
Department um Klay County Sheriffs um on goinging out and and doing some of those assessments um and also with other Clay County law enforcement agencies um we have started to collaborate with um the Morhead fire department they within the
last year year and a half have started a new program the community risk Reduction Program and so we work closely with Mike Miller um and we also collaborate with the uh dancing Sky Area Agency on Aging so I'm not going to lie Quinn I need to change this move this a little
bit because my old eyes have a hard time reading these very small words that are now on the screen um um so some of the um challenges and I'm not going to take up a lot of your time because I could talk all day and probably into two tomorrow
about some of the challenges that um staff face but one of them is just the continued shortage of our state operated beds um you all have heard that you're going to continue to hear that I do not foresee that getting any better that is
at all levels at our community behavioral health hospitals at Anoka and our forensic Services um and as a result of that individuals who are committed if they're in the jail they're not able to be placed in the state
operated system um because the folks that are in that system there's not enough beds in the community to move them on so it's just this backlog everywhere and that is um what we see and that then leads into what Quinn was
talking about our dnmc cost once they're determined no longer needing that level of care um we are notified and we have to foot that bill um and sometimes we are able to find placement sometimes it takes a little while and that's why that
cost has increased um we also are seeing in the last several months is that folks are being discharged in our opinion too quickly from State operated Services um and that's due to there is this chronic
weight L at those beds they need to get people moved out we understand that but what we're seeing then is folks are being discharged when we don't think they're ready to be placed back in the community and then that causes a huge burn on our providers in
the community um and the services that we can actually provide to them um they're provisionally discharged too soon um and we've also started to see that state facilities are now refusing
to accept our folks um because they may be too chronic so that's been something new um again that's the population that we work with um so it's quite frustrating for for staff
um why like I said continued shortage of our providers um folks being discharged um too quickly we're seeing some of the barriers being language barriers um um legal status when and then that's going
to be pretty big moving forward as well um having to um we've had clients that have lost their paperwork so until we can prove their status or obtain U replacement documentations
they're not eligible for insurance which makes them not eligible for the waiver which makes them not eligible for our community- based programs um so huge barrier um again increased um serving of
individuals from different cultural backgrounds language barriers citizenship status um we have Ed increase in cost for um our interpretive Services um we have a couple agencies that have been great to work with us um
but it is an increased cost that we haven't had in our budget um for this before um barriers with being a border state it can be good it can be bad but there are definitely barriers um we have
to determine residency for Civ commitment for our sub use services and also when we're doing adult protection assessments for all of those we have to make sure that they are not only a Minnesota resident but a Clay County resident um and obtaining especially
when a person is has is homeless um or cannot prove where they have been staying um that can impact how quickly Services can be established for them um and also just obtaining information from
North Dakota that yes they're getting benefits over here no they're not getting benefits over here um that can be very lengthy lengthy and trying to obtain some of that um and then just lastly in our um substance use disorder
unit just the fany and opioid epidemic that you all are aware of as well um and again trying to determine which state they may reside in where they're getting benefits so we
can best serve them but I do want to end on a positive note that through direct access um which the state of Minnesota implemented for substance use disorders um a couple of years ago direct access has been a huge
benefit for our folks before they had to come to the county to get their assessment our our weight list could be long depending on how many referrals we were getting and now an individual can choose CH where they want to go for an assessment where they want to go for
placement we do not have to be the placing agent um which has reduced and hopefully will continue to reduce some of those wait times um for individuals trying to access Services I think that's it all right
Quinn before you move on I think maybe if we have comments or questions regarding kirens and I I just want to start off by saying you know we just talked about the and had a resolution regarding our the child abuse and those uh but we we also have the frustration
levels that we deal with um in behavioral health for adults mental illness uh Clay County I think I think it's a credit to all of you that I think we're looked at across the state and I think commissioner moel can testify to
that fact that when we're down in St Paul we always seem to be a Beacon Light sort to speak in terms of the efforts that we put in to mental health issues in Clay County and we are a leader uh in
the state and that's a credit uh to you and and your group in doing that and you know I even though I I sense the frustration out of you today on behalf of all of your of your team that works on this and
but the good news from our standpoint back to you is that they should take credit for the good work that they're doing even though it's not to the level they wish they could could reach so thank you so commissioner krainov yeah just Echo
off what you were saying all the things the um services that you provide in so many complex areas uh that we see all all the time I just want to refer back to a few the groups I work with the alc
lac's whether it's adult or children um I just also well thank you to our staff and the commitment they have but I also want to say a thank you to our community providers that certainly are part of
this bigger picture and I think we're lucky to that we live in a community that we have so many along with our hospitals and other treatment facilities we're very fortunate it could be um more
challenging than it is but um I just see a lot of commitment and investment toward these issues that are unfortunately continuing to grow but I I personally feel you're keeping Pace as
as the very best you can so thank you Mr chairman I could uh I would want to just uh join I think what Mr or commissioner krainov said and and uh I think all the team that's up here we as the County attorney obvious get an opportunity to work with all of them I
personally get to work a lot with uh Kiren and her team um you know the mental health area is a very important area I think that the board has very much uh worked to keep Pace with a lot of the issues that are out there we do see a lot of it and I just would Echo uh
what Kiren said you know even as we see you know some numbers temporary uh you know weighing for a little while it it doesn't feel like it uh there's a lot going on there a lot of those numbers represent 2 three four five live court hearings as well as numerous you know
other matters that they're coordinating each day to to help move uh individuals you know say from Klay County to to the amrc or to uh to St Peter if it is and um you know a lot of uh pretty uh important hearings where we're doing
things like intrusive medication you know Force medications on individuals that don't accept or don't realize that they're ill and mentally ill and and could be a danger to themselves or could be a danger to the public um and so it is important work that her team does and
all the teams up here we we do a lot of work and I know they're going to talk about even other areas but I know kon's done a lot of good things um and it it is one of those areas that it can be some of the most rewarding areas but some of those frustrating at times too so I want to thank
her all right thank you Brian uh I didn't put a slide up for this and Kiron doesn't know but kudos to Kiron for super vising three separate program areas when I think back to my previous role and how much I needed to know for one program area I'm actually
pretty astounded when you come up here and present such detailed information on three separate program areas so I just wanted to highlight that to all of you that kerson is an expert in three areas not just one one thing before you move on Quinn just real briefly and I I I
think it would be worthy of discussions at another date and time to dig into more about the the lack of um what we might be receiving at the state level I think that would be I think that
would be a good conversation for us to openly have here uh in a little bit more detail about where things might be falling short and how we as Commissioners uh can help Advocate I'm sure that you probably are doing things
through AMC through you know your Department of Human Services and so on and so forth but uh we need to be more involved with that so at some point in time maybe arrange with Stephen let's let's get more involved in that discussion glad you brought that up I've
got a packet on my desk for something called an Z's facility an intensive Residential Treatment uh services facility think of prtf but for adults um that's that's essentially what we're talking about it's my understanding that Ronda kind of started well we have we
have a little bit something on that and the on the back burner right now with all the other things we got going and that you know that we probably have room to expand on and that in the future but let's have that conversation but we got we got some others that are anxious to speak here I can tell so with that I'll
kick it over to um Amy Michelle and Tiffany who supervise our child protection division yes good morning morning uh thanks for having us um so in our child protection division we have three supervisors so um we have 32 two staff total that are in our division um
Tiffany um supervises our assessment and intake so she has um she's responsible her team is responsible for assessing um those initial reports um Amy and I between Amy and I we supervise 14 case
managers uh four case AIDS um and so essentially when a report comes in for a child abuse or neglect Tiff's team will screen it they'll if they screen it in if it meets criteria they'll conduct an assessment after that assessment they'll make a determination whether services
are needed or not if services are needed we can work with those families voluntarily sometimes we need to consult with our county attorney's office and have those Services court ordered sometimes cases can children will remain in the home sometimes they have to be court ordered out of the home due to
safety concerns so we do multiple things we work with families really closely assess for services and refer for services is the big thing that we do for our case management um we also supervise Children's Mental Health Services so we contract out our rule 79 case management
um and manage a lot of other service providers that we work with to be able to provide those services to the families that we work with too so I'm going to jump into talking about some data here but before I do I just want to say thank you for being able to be here with everybody today
obviously this is my first meeting where I've got to sit in front of all of you um I took over quin's position position when he took the director I spent all of my career in child protection so my heart is really with this unit and I'm glad I get to lead them um in 2024 uh Michelle kind of talked about our
intakes so in 2024 we took a total of 2364 intakes that's about 175 up from the year prior that includes child protection intakes any voluntary reports we get records requests are also included in that um so the number does
look quite High however the total CP intakes the cases that we would have worked that were child protection cases were or that intakes that would have came in were 1,595 which is 200 down from the year prior and then of all those 1595 cases
we opened a total of 305 which is 11 up from 2023 continuing on with some data specifically we screen our reports by allegations so the state mandates certain allegations meet certain criteria for us to work um my eyes are a
little line too so I'm going to have to really look here um our highest percentage of cases in 2024 were neglect cases for our neglect cases that includes educational neglect medical neglect supervision substance abuse um and our prenatal exposure cases which we
do some crossover work with Kirsten's unit in those cases as well um our highest percentage was 18% percent that's with our pregnant and using parents that we try to partner with to offer support to ensure that they don't end up in our system once baby is born
born from there our next highest was physical abuse with 22% of our reports being specific for physical abuse uh next was threatened injury at 15% sexual abuse came in at 133% and then medical neglect we saw at
2% as well as mental excuse me mental injury at 5% good morning everyone just continuing on into our 2024 data for outof home placements um in 2023 we had
176 unduplicated children in out of home placement which was down nine from the previous year um this does include all of our probation cases voluntary Children's Mental Health cases and then our um mandated um child protection
cases so the net cost to the county in terms of out of home placements was approximately 3.1 U million which was up 220,000 from 2023 some factors that we feel plays into that is just inflationary costs of
care higher daily rates higher per Dums we oftentimes have to place a lot of our uh older youth over at the Juvenile Center which is a higher rate of care versus a foster home um we've had longer stays of cares for older youth with
significant mental health and behavior issues who've been in placement longer than say a large Sibling Group who's in a shorter term placement in just your standard foster home um we also which is exciting have placed a lot more children
over the last year um with relatives however when you go to a grandpa and grandma and say Here's four kids and they're still working we have a lot of support to offer them or in terms of daycare startup costs and paying deposits and helping those those um
relatives become licensed and be able to be the providers for those kids um the primary location of children in placement remains in non-relative foster care homes so our County licensed homes or our therapeutic um foster homes and
then our second and third area where most of our kids are placed are either at the West Central Regional juvenile center just in terms of kids with significant mental health and behavioral issues and um lack of foster homes for kids
over the age of 13 we just don't have as many foster homes as we need for those kids so they're not there based on what they have done it's because we don't have foster homes for that level or for those age of children and then um our third highest is
relative Foster hes so we're Tiffany's unit and our unit are out there meeting with those families meeting with relatives finding grandmas grandpas aunts a to try to place those kids with family which is very important in terms of our state and
federal measurements this is pretty exciting um we have been over the last few years on a performance Improvement plan with the Department of Human Services for kids um not being placed timely with relatives and this year we met that goal almost double so it is
exciting 68.6% in two 20 24 we met that standard so that means we were out there asking about family asking about relatives getting those kids in taking any barriers away from those grandparents or
aunts and uncles and getting those kids placed with family um in terms of our monthly face-to-face case worker visits we also met this performance standard at 97.5% in 2024 that means those social
workers were getting out and seeing those kids in their foster homes in their placement facilities every month face to face making sure that those kids are receiving the services they need that they're safe that they're um meeting all the requirements of their
outof home placement plan so those social workers were going out to homes to foster homes and out to all over the state as many of you know we have a lot of kids placed down in Austin Minnesota we have kids placed in duth Grand Rapids so they were going out and meeting those
kids where they're at okay I'm just going to finish off with the last state and federal measurements we have so timelines to our initial contact this happens on the frontend in the assessment unit where we received the reports and were required to make either contact with the child within 24
hours or 120 hours the performance standard for that is 100% as you can see our agency came in at 91.2% which means of the 319 kids our assessment unit was responsible to see they saw 291 of those children within
timelines um I think it's important to note some of the barriers that our workers run into is law enforcement unfortunately sometimes we have to wait for criminal investigations getting interviews set up Transportation sometimes it's just halted because we're waiting for the appropriate services to
be in place so we're only interviewing kids one time versus reinie them over and over um the last one is Mal treatment reoccurrence which is uh where we investigate a case for abuse or neglect and then we determine that something occurred and we offer the
appropriate Services the state standard for that is 99.1% or less we have come in at 0% we've never missed this this would mean that we've never had to reassess an active abuse or neglect against a child we've met this standard almost every single year at least since
I've been at the county so that's huge for our team uh so Child Protection is often reactionary um but we are able to provide some Prevention Services and so we really focus on that when we can um one of the things that we've um we
received the uh parental support outreach program so we contract with the village to provide that service that service is for those screened out intake reports that we refer to them um and their providers will go and re reach those families and try to offer services
the whole point is to try to prevent them from coming into a child protection system so that's a really important program that we have another one is family group decision- making we have a grant that receive we receive money to provide these meetings for our families to really be in the the driver seat of
their plans so we've had a lot of good outcomes with that so that's a really good service that we're able to offer um the other thing that we we off we often offer financial assistance as well we have some Flex Flex funds that is in our budget that we can often use some of
those funds just to help meet some of those immediate needs to keep kids in their home so I think that's an important thing to note too um we did have all of our staff attend um The Family Resource training last year was um a lot of training as a very involved
um thing and so looking forward to that partnership in the future um the other thing I want to mention too is we still um we have in our County contract we had the sibs program through LSS and mentioned that here before um that we
had a grant for that that's gone but the county has put money into that and that's been a really important service to try to keep kids in their home who are facing really significant mental health needs um and we've had a lot of success part of the issue is um we don't have a lot of
capacity for it so so just some updates in child protection that are coming um over the next year for sure is the upcoming legislative changes to include the Minnesota African-American family
preservation act known as Mitha or mafa excuse me so this will require Social Services agencies to provide active efforts to African-American families similar to the Indian Child Welfare act this may have fiscal implications which
Quinn will speak to a little bit more and this law will expand Statewide January 1st 2027 um we also have some new requirements in terms of our billing for um motivational interviewing requirements of staff so we had all of
our staff participated in motiv ation interviewing and this will be part of our fore claiming um the sarb which is the student attendance review board which we'll go into a little more detail I'm just getting the highlights here but um which is an exciting kind of new program
that we're working with our Community Partners to um look at treny in our community and then legisl legislative proposal to amend our response to Tru and children I just wanted to touch briefly on the mafa uh fiscal
implications uh recently I needed to complete a legislative budget office survey uh for kind of what Klay County's estimated costs would be you know I provided that to Steve and he shared a little bit of that information with you um in order to do this right in order to do it the way that the state wants it
done uh similar to the way that IA and MFA is implemented we would need to bring on about four full-time staff uh including one supervisor so it has very significant financial implications uh ranging anywhere between 46 and $473,000 DEP depending on the different
implementation requirements that the State has yet to be clear or figure figured out um the reality is is I don't know if that's doable so we're going to do the work regardless of if funding comes in from the state to help support the implementation of this law or not um
the one thing that I'm very confident in is our supervisors and the staff that do the job so um we will figure it out one way or another um but I just want I thought it would be very important for you to know that's a very significant impact to the
county yes is at this point none of the funding has come through for that has it no I'm not aware of any my understanding was had and none of it's recoverable anywhere else I mean if the state doesn't do it it's going to have to come
out of the counties correct Mr chair I also would note in in addition to uh the four social workers that Quinn spoke about there would also be an impact on Mr Milton's Department that also would very likely uh lead to a need for Mr Milton to ask for additional
staff uh to help help with this process you so uh we'll talk about a little Revenue capture that we can have so we um have had all of our staff uh go through a motivational interviewing training that's a requirement through
our ffps for us to be able to claim down those funds so those workers need to be certified in mi um the training was very intense we had a lot of great feedback that you know when you tell staff that you have to go to four days of training
and um record yourself and upload it to the computer to be tested you get a little push back but quite frankly the after the first day everybody was really motivated and felt like it was one of the best trainings that they've had right Amy um anyways yeah so once once
we have our staff certified they'll be able will it be able to pull down those funds part of becoming certified though is having to do quarterly reviews so we have to have a certified staff which would be myself um and maybe a couple others too that will have to meet with
our workers quarterly they'll have to upload a video um and send it to the state so when you ask really busy Child Protection workers to do these additional things it can cause some stress but I think people really see it the uh benefit to being trained in mi
and using it with our families um so I think it'll be a good thing moving on to more positive things our starboard which Amy brought up earlier so luckily this year we had the opportunity to partner with partner with Morehead Public Schools as well as the
county attorney's office for the SAR board uh the Morehead Public Schools got some grant funding to Pilot a program right now Michelle and I have each one staff member that are piloting this program with the Morehead Public Schools basically this program is set up to help
alleviate some of the treny concerns that come through our system and limit the amount of Court petitions that are getting filed through the court so we have two workers that meet bi-weekly with um a select group of ninth grade students at Morehead public high every two weeks and then report to this board
to try to improve attendance hook them up with Services um just be peer supports for them our hope is approaching the end of the year here we're kind of running out of time to fully see what this pilot looks like our hope is we can start it again next year include more students have more workers
pilot the program so that we can see a decrease in those educational neglect reports that we're seeing so so high numbers of right now as well as our true Andy reports too so on to some challenges in our child protection that we're seeing you
know I I feel like we sound like a broken record and but I'll say it again we do have a lack of provider for inhome workers for those intensive inhome family skills that are so needed to keep families in their home um providers you know we talk to our contracted providers and they're having difficulty finding people who
want to do that work and so that's really where that lies and so it's just such a critical service that we're seeing a lack of I will say our contractor providers do a great job of getting cases assigned and working with those families they do prioritize working with us but then we'll see you
know some families who are maybe on the fridge that are waiting a year for some of the similar services so it you know the impacts are are uh significant as far as that goes um again facing a lack of resources regarding our kiddos who were looking for residential treatment
centers you are all very well aware of that um but it's something that we continue to see a struggle we're also continuing to see see a need for more foster care homes available to take children 13 and older it's been a barrier for quite a few
years and continues to be a barrier and then last of affordable housing remains a barrier to the families that we serve we see a lot of homeless families that can't get into housing whether they have history or can't find affordable housing so this continues to be a main barrier
to continue to play off of that lack of affordable child care especially for our infants a lot of our foster home placements uh want to take infants but unfortunately we have an inability to lack to find the appropriate child care for those settings as well uh Quinn is going to talk a little bit more about this but but also in
2026 uh their 13 and under children will no longer be able to be charged with delinquency matters which potentially will have an impact as well yeah if you remember James James's departmental update he spoke briefly to this as well but uh what this does it effectively shifts responsibility from the juvenile
justice system to the child protection system and Social Services um but james' math adds up it's about a 5% increase that that we think we're going to see of kiddos that ultimately end up being placed at the Juvenile Center again correspondingly with the higher payment cost that that Amy spoke about at that's
part of the plan and nsecure right correct yes James has seen this coming with this legislation and kind of built that in for what he expects his capacity uh to need to be in order to kind of account for this um again that's it's
going to take up bed space for the kiddos that we need it for um that historically we haven't had to use this as a as an option um and it's going to it's going to drive up the case loads for our child protection staff these will fall under what are called child welfare responses um but they're still
going to end up being uh families that we serve and it's going to drive up those case loads um I just wanted to speak to that as well it likely will have a financial implication for us also when when we referred to the um need for
more foster care homes for um for our older children where where are they going now mainly West Central mainly the ju so there that has a significant daily price
tag to it correct correct correct so like we've did in the past we tried to do offer some incentives for on the child care side of things is there anything from an incentive thing that we
should be looking at that could maybe bring in uh more potential foster care as AOS you know I mean it an investment in one way might be uh much more feasible than the alternative of the
higher cost of West Central I think we are doing some more specialized trying to do specialized recruitment for older Foster owns and then also really trying to work with the relatives to see what barriers they might have to being options for these kids and trying to
offer if we need to whatever it might take to help get them in a place to be licensed for those older youth so we can transition but often times if we do find placements that are non-relative then they're out of the community and then you're pulling a teenager who's gone to
Morehead high school out of his high school that he's known for all so it's it's a really challenging complicated kind of um challenge but we keep continuing to try to be creative and how can we keep these kiddos in their
Community with family or out of the juvenile center too I I'll speak to this a little too we really worked hard on our respit care with our respit care Grant um to really try to increase um the utilization of our foster care homes
and so we've worked really closely with Gail and and when we've been going out and meeting with our rle 79 providers and really talking about these older kids and hoping that if maybe some of our our foster care homes would be willing to provide respit for some of these older kids they'll see that oh I
could maybe have them in my home full time too so we've seen some movement in that area since we've been doing that Outreach so maybe some of those grassroot efforts and and really it's just as simple as talking about the strengths and really building those up and of course you have to talk about the
the difficulties that some of these kids have too but just in the way that message is relayed sometimes um we'll get people to the door for people who might be watching this or watching a replay of this explain a respit so respit care is is um a service that we
provide to families that um that gives Children and Families a break from each other so kids might go there from one day to a weekend um and it's really just to you have a commissioner just can I send my kids so yeah so um so yeah so it's it's
really built in to give everybody a break and the idea is that you know when you're you're faced with some really difficult and challenging behaviors but for everybody in the family that getting that break will help them um maintain in their home and some of our families don't have those outside supports they
don't have grandpas or grandmas or aunts and in the community who can take care of those kids for a quick weekend break to give those parents some Rel so building those supports so so part of an part of a deal could be that you know maybe looking at somebody who maybe
wouldn't have to take care of these people on a regular basis but you know um a fill in type of a deal right that's and and we're lacking in that area yeah corre and I don't I don't know if I don't know if the public is really aware that that's there there's a need for
that it's not like it's this is a full-time commitment type of a thing either you know so I I think that's important to note yeah one question on yes foster care is there a lot of red tape to become a foster parent from the state that you have to jump through a
bunch of Hoops to be come that or significant paperwork yep lot lots of paperwork go with that um tring background checks correct and we can have Jessica speak to that when we come next week for Jessica's in the Licensing Division um as Amy and Michelle were talking about we do everything we can to
eliminate those barriers oh you don't have a specific type of fire extinguisher that they say well we're going to buy that we're going to give it to you that seems like a silly reason to not be able to provide care for your relative or for this teenager that needs it so if there are those easy I'm going say low hanging fruit barriers we've
we've installed Windows before like they don't have a specific window in a room room the needs to have two exits and you only have one well if a$6 to $700 window is that barrier we'll figure out a way to make that work so that we can get that good quality caregiver for the
Adolescent okay okay so then just some exciting Child Protection successes in 2024 in terms of adoption after 897 days in placement a six child Sibling Group were adopted together by a
relative so that was probably one of one of the most exciting days we had um after 1,635 days in placement a child was adopted by a kinship care caregiver which is a significant relationship to
that child so um we also had a sibling group of six who were reunified with their parent they were in placement with a grandparent and ended up being reunified with their parents so all very exciting um in 2020 before we
established permanency for 32 children meaning either they were adopted or there was a transfer of permanent physical and legal custody whether it's to a relative or a kinship Giver a caregiver um we are actively participating in the S pilot program
with hopes to expand in the future so really partnering with all our Community Partners the schools probation the county attorney's office trying to work on creative ways to address the issue in our community and then we restructured
our Child Protection Team to collaborate with more Community Partners bringing in those Community Partners seeing how we can wrap around these families and get them the services they need trying to prevent outome placements so any
questions questions commissioner moel thank you thank you for the presentation thank you for including the successes you know I I just can't think about the amount of time that is pass for some of those kiddos the amount of
different uh folks that they worked with to get to that point I think is is the uh the point that sometimes goes unknown and so I really appreciate the work that you all do your teams do it's critically important um vitally important I no you
can't say this but I'm going to the irony of DHS putting Clay County on a Improvement plan uh when we are begging at the capital to have uh leniency in some of the mandated components that
we're dealing with uh counties are doing the best they can to meet the needs of the citizens that we're working with and um sometimes those mandates get in the way of providing amazing care and so uh thank you for being part of telling that story
um I'm urging you to help us tell it louder and so in any way that you can share those stories I do want to hear uh the elongated version of the frustrations because that's how we uh B bang that door down for lack of a better
term um I will also uh comment on what commissioner Campbell said we are a beacon in the state as to how we are thinking critically about giving uh supplying care in a way that's um multifaceted it's meeting people where
they need to be met often times outside of the box and that's really hard to uh uh for folks to understand sometimes but you're doing a phenomenal job with the limited resources that I know you all have so thank you for that I and I will say that uh these
are uh stories that you know we get criticized a lot for how large the social service budget is and uh I appreciate you bringing forth why we're doing the work how we're preventing uh a cycle of
um you know uh a trouble if you will trying to get kids out of really horrific uh situations and getting adults the care that they need in a state that wants to talk about how well we treat
citizens uh there's a huge huge gaps in care that's available in beds that beds that are available and how some sometimes it's really easy to say oh well we got the person the care that they needed and we're going to kick them on out with no supports uh in a
structure that's vitally broken so I'm going to get off this soap box uh for uh the sake of our our schedule but thank you you know we we up here don't get to see the faces or the names of the people that you work with I I just find it
amazing to to hear this six um this group of six siblings were adopted by a family member I think that's just amazing and it's just too bad that we're not allowed to put an name in a face to that uh here at this level so whoever
that person is thank you very much and hopefully we can see more of those types of things happen so yes commissioner abinger I I try not to go backwards too much but I worked in a system that was
broken and we worked at huge expense Us in the in the prosecuting attorney's office worked at huge expense to try and Shuffle the problem and try and litigate the problem
and it just gratifies me and it's it has since I came here in 2006 understand what the fight you guys are fighting and it's got to be frustrating but you're doing doing such a better job than most communities
do and we need to support this and commissioner Mojo is right we hear a lot of static about the cost of of your uh your operation trust me there's a cost to not having the kind of people you've
got and as the state attempts to shift you know the costs on the county we've got to fight that but we also have to support what you're doing out there and we understand that and again the story six
kids uh just your highlights you hit I come from place where there aren't any of those stories where success is considered we sent somebody to jail or we got that little kid that's gang banging because nothing has been
available to him all his life we got him sent off to juvie uh when West Central is the worst case scenario that we deal with and that's a wonderful place sure you don't want to send kids
there when they can be in a family but there there there I don't think we throw anybody away in this community and you guys are a huge part of that so thank you all right well thank you very much for for being here and giving us your updates today
Steve do you want to take the uh item number four I understand that um our presenter had a conflict yes uh thank you Mr chair uh Mr strowman sends his apologies he ended up
getting pulled into a meeting uh prior to heading over here this morning and so uh the resolution before you this morning is a partnership that's been gone gone on many years uh with Clay County and the snowmobile Klay County Trail Alliance uh and we act as the
legal sponsor through the DNR for funding uh for the grooming of the trails that they provide uh in in Clay County and so uh they also act as our through this resolution they also act as our liaison of working with uh working
with our land owners in Clay County to have permission to utilize uh the RightWay or in certain cases parts of their land uh for the trail to go through and uh and so uh they're required to maintain maintain that documentation and ongoing conversations
with our citizens uh through an audit process through the DNR uh and so our request here today is through resolution 20 25-13 would be to continue that uh acting as the legal sponsor it would also this would also provide an
opportunity for for myself when uh documentation comes as part of this grant that this board allows me to sign on this board's behalf for the upcoming calendar year with that I'd yield for any questions questions I have one question okay commission bar does this have to be
dealt with today to get in for Grant or um it it it doesn't um but uh I've dealt I've done this before on my own just based on Greg's Greg's schedule it's sometimes hard for him to get here uh and so um it doesn't have to be done
done today I mean it could it could still be done today and if you wanted to invite Greg in to provide an up date for um on the last on the last year's snowmobile season we could certainly in back back well I you know I think we can act on this today and if we want to get
an update him from him on activities you know maybe maybe a fall would be a better time we're going into a I guess we are going into our snow oh wow so anyway um I guess I would just assume us act on it now and
um move forward so any questions commissionary mayor yeah I'll just go ahead and make a motion to approve resolution 2025-the by Clay Trail uh Alliance I'll second the motion we have
a motion by commissioner evinger second by commissioner Mojo any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion carried thank you all right thank you Steve all
right and then that leaves us with our committee reports I know that commissioner krainov had to leave for an appointment so um commissioner moo would you to today thank you Mr
chair as you know I've been at the capital a lot to advance the agenda that the board has put forth so I appreciate the opport to do so uh happy to report we've been successful to uh acquire a number of hearings for
both our prtf non-secure facility and flood mitigation I also had the opportunity to partake with the uh water water district creation conversations uh we've met with over 20 legislators on both the Senate and House
side uh met with both chairs of multiple committees Vice chairs of multiple committees and uh as we all saw last week with the uh House and Senate proposed budget components there's a lot of Gap in regards to what we're seeing
and needing locally and what is uh left to pay for those components um last week we had the capital in or capital investment hearing for the non-secure facility I just want to thank James for attending with that it was really
helpful to have his um insight and I think it goes to not only the presentation that we just had but uh many of our departments who uh when we ask to help uh discuss and explain the needs Statewide not only do they say we'll do whatever it takes but they'll
say how can we be there to help so I really appreciate that last week I also attended the compliance committee kickoff uh meeting that was held I was able to attend virtually uh Rory's brought that group together just to make sure that we're working on the it compon
components with all of our departments uh to um be not only in compliance but also making sure that uh we're taking the threats cyber security threats into account so I appreciate being uh included in that
group I attended the Land Management for the FM diversion Authority meeting talked about the Horus uh land component that one's tricky there's so many different nuances to that but heard from a lot of residents making sure that uh they had the
opportunity to bid on that uh as well so that was recommended to the full board the next day I attended the MCC jpa meeting uh we had a um a land parcel that we dealt with on
the wilin County Line uh there was a recommendation for action on that and then last week I also had the Metro Cog executive commit Comm meeting we were discussing uh planning and uh the presentation to this full board on what
Metro Cog would or what we would like to hear from Metro Cog so I appreciate bringing it being brought in on that piece and then Friday I attended the AMC board of directors meeting in uh at in
niswa uh really um it's it's hard to get a good accurate beat on all of the different issues that are affecting us locally not only from the federal government but the the state uh budget outlooks we talked for a long time on
Medicaid that Federal re reconciliation status um what our uh stances on that how we will Implement something locally what the proposed changes will mean to budgets
um there's a lot of high high level uh issues that are going on that have uh dire uh implications to local budgets so I appreciate being part of that discussion and then
um I also attended a meeting with the city of Morehead Chamber of Commerce and Clay County in regards to flood mitigation strategy for legislation I'm going to go back on a comment that I said uh earlier in March uh the projects
in Minnesota are vitally important and required for all of the permits and settlements that have been signed I will fiercely defend that those projects need to be completed in a timely manner and I
will also say that I I don't think if we had an unprecedented flood today there are components on the North Dakota side that would allow um some sort of uh operation of that channel and unless the Minnesota components are done nothing can be operated through that channel in
my uh point of view and so I'm hopeful that those of us that are around all of those tables will continue to Advocate that position uh forward I understand that there might be delays for funding I understand that there might be timelines
that uh need to be Consolidated or pushed out but those projects must be completed uh that was the promise that we gave uh settlement agreement component or people Downstream and Upstream people those understandings
were in play as we've moved forward with eminent domain and land purchase agreements uh they must be done so I appreciate being part of uh the the collaboration and how we think critically and Advocate those uh needs
forward I'm hopeful that we're able to get governor walles and Governor Armstrong together to revisit what the governor's task force proposals and agreements were so I'm hopeful that we can do that it looks like we're looking at a date maybe a week and a half two weeks
out uh so that's all I have on that piece and then also attended a meeting with Senator cek that morning with uh Social Service staff uh Juvenile Detention staff Steve and commissioner karavanov and how we work forward in
advancing those uh legislative priorities and discussion components forward that's all I have thank you commissioner bear on Wednesday March 26 I went to the historical cultural Society of Clay County where we discussed hiring a new
executive director the longtime one is retiring and they've had 100 applicants which they weeded down to 15 and they're going to start interviews they also discussed uh renewing their line of credit there in
case of an emergency which they did that and that's pretty much all that was discussed there and then yesterday I went to the West Central Regional water district meeting up in Hallstead where we
discussed anou with Felton to receive their $1.75 million Grant so we can bring that into the water district and we'll be having a meeting with city of Felton next
Monday we also had an update but from the operator of the East Central Regional water district from North Dakota giving us a an update on where all their water comes from because that'll be the first
water we would be receiving purchasing from for the district to come from North Dakota to feed the Hol dead line we also discussed the budget and we're sitting pretty well right now with all three
counties bringing in a few more funds and I'd like to thank Jenny for being part of those meetings down there in St Paul and with that that was all that I had for the last week thank you commissioner
eringer it's last Tuesday after our commission meeting we had Kim savageau bring in a record's office compliance report uh everything looks in order and that information will be B brought before the commission at some uh
upcoming date uh then later that day I had the Red River Regional Dispatch Center meeting um had General business and really I think the only thing that stood out on
the uh Dispatch Center facility update there were some upgrade updated costs 423,000 uh almost 424,000 uh allocated for consoles um that needed to be increased uh
16,000 for w wireless access points within the building uh and then uh additional power outlets redundancies to the consoles of uh uh almost
$118,000 all those were passed uh there was a $672 credit for a uh coiling door that is still being contested it seems like every new facility has got door problems but uh that pretty much completes that
report on uh Wednesday the 26th uh I attended the greater far Fargo Morehead EDC executive board meeting uh covered some of the projects or some of the programs that are
currently underway with uh company culture discussions and Workforce recruitment um innovate 28 was a point of discussion um Mr uh
Joe uh Brasso talked about some of the data that he's provided for both sides of the the river uh to the Chamber of Commerce to help with legislative issues um they discussed the matching funds that the innovate
28 fund generates uh from the state of North Dakota through Cass County and that they continue to try and find private sector investors in this and that was a point of discussion U Cass County members
indicated they wanted to know why some businesses were not joining uh or and Mr raso indicated a lot of it was comfort with traditional Investments they were had made donate donations to the EDC and they didn't
want to donate to innovate 28 they wanted to continue to donate to the EDC and they didn't have a relationship with the chamber uh which I find kind of ironic I think we have a relationship with the chamber and our donation still went to the
EDC uh so that they get the North Dakota match but uh there was a request at uh from C County that they want to see what the return on their investment is from the innovate 28 program and that is an issue to come uh
later that day I went to The Drug Court graduation they were running quite a bit late because they were doing Staffing they were bringing some of the participants up and having them report in so I missed about half of the graduation itself but I just want to say
that is a remarkable program right now and haven't heard what we did this morning particularly from Kirsten it was really great to see some people that have got some huge issues and they're coming back in and
this Court's assisting them and getting turned around uh there was a woman who was reunited with four of her kids that were in foster care because she's clean and sober and she's taking the steps and the the drug court uh was there to help her
uh stay on path so I wished I could have stayed for the entire thing but I had a meeting following up later that day at the uh diversion Authority finance committee and I attended uh as the alate but I
attended because we had Minnesota funding updates uh in the agenda I'll get to that in a minute we had the usual business uh andou and agreements that we discussed uh some uh budget reports but when we
get to the the Minnesota funding and the the projects we have over here I was quite happy Jason Benson uh and Tony grimberg both acknowledge the efforts that commissioner Mojo and the Minnesota
people are making in the legislative uh initi initiatives that we got and I think that set some of the concerns we've heard I think they got some peace peace of mind through that knowing that these extraordinary efforts
are being made to get these critical uh projects funded and I don't think we could I don't think and and again I'll throw thank you to our staff and to the people that have been up there and to commissioner Mojo for the real efforts
that they put into this executive director Benson pointed that out uh commissioner grimberg nodded when it was said uh which this is a this is a good uh position to be in right now we
just need the funding and we need the two Governors to sit down and look at the commitments were made on on behalf of the state of Minnesota uh and North Dakota by their predecessors so hopefully that's going to
happen um The Following day I attend the uh the diversion Authority board meeting again A lot of it was a repetition of uh regular business issues we had uh we did find there is been a a
break on the uh technical dispute review board and uh Chris Kaine who's both an attorney and a a public engineer uh has a agreed to serve on that as you know we had problems with
the old uh Resolution Team because they are being forced to have an open meeting over North Dakota through the Drew Wrigley the Attorney General's ruling on it it looks like they've got a
team of people put together that uh are willing to work in an open meeting environment ironically enough through allow engineers and lawyers as lawyers I think they're probably a little more open to public scrutiny and that process is proceeding
on the the issues that we have uh um under consideration right now uh again uh executive director Benson uh made reference to house house file
2224 and the work that's going on there we also talked a contract was established with uh H&H modeling for FEMA certification presentation that's going to help get it
get uh the mapping done so that the flood insurance can be addressed by thema in a timely manner and again as commissioner Mojo mentioned as long as these projects that are necessary for certification can
be completed in a timely manner and that oh uh later that day at a lake Agony at Lake agazi Regional Library board meeting a major issue under contention there was establishing a a
monthly rent for Lake agasse will be occupying 9% of the new Community Center Library uh and we had two proposals and and we agreed to have a uh a executive subcommittee put together
I'm on it along with Barry Nelson from Becker County and Steve Jacobson from Norman County and we will be engaging in the negotiations with the city of Morehead for a library lease uh we have a quarter million dollar set aside for
FF uh as soon as we have a lease we'll be able to discuss that with them they've given us a couple of options uh we're going to meet and then we'll meet with them and continue to work towards getting a lease that's affordable and that completes my report thank you commissioner moser do you have
a couple additions thank you I appreciate your perspective on that uh Lake Gacy and city of Morhead Le I think those discussions will be helpful as we look over square footage occupied uh in regards to what rent should be for
um projects last week I attended the HR Committee of the Lakes and prairies Community Action we did have a opportunity to review the executive director uh and then had that meeting on Thursday so I apologize for not reporting on that happy to report that uh Lori is just doing a fantastic job in
regards to what how she's leading and really a time of uncertainty for funding really doing the best to be as financially conservative as possible while also making sure that services are being delivered and then we did have a great update uh from HR on the components that they're working through
I know HR world was kind of tricky too as different requirements are going through but uh that was helpful and then we did have a very good dialogue in the vaita tax site that continues to be uh present in clay and wilin counties as um
uh tax prep season is upon us that concludes my report thank you thank you uh I'm going to go back to March 18th I did attend the Personnel issues committee meeting which um action was taken today regarding that hiring of a
deputy sheriff um while the one of our members one of our deputies is on Military deployment and uh then on last week I was I attended virtually a meeting on the on March 25th with the trip
RDC uh commissioner ebringer has reported on that and I think really the the main topic of discussion there were the two change orders um that that he explained and on the
27th I attended the MCC japa meeting and we you know we get our usual land updates and where we are percentage wise in completion um commissioner moo talked about the uh one one agreement that we
had settle a purchase agreement settlement agreement that we have with a land owner there and part of that agreement was that we would build a ring Levy U for them as part of that agreement
and and that the reason that ring Levy was allowed to be done is because it met all the criteria that the diversion Authority staff and Engineers felt was uh reasonable and could be and the ring Levy could be sustainable
so that was that and that concludes my committee report Steve thank you Mr chair uh on the 25th I participated in Kimberly's compliance report update that uh commissioner as doc talked about on the
25th also met with the sheriff EMP on a series of County issues uh on the 26th think I met with everyone every commissioner here except for commissioner uh Campbell last on on certain issues on on the 26th also on
the I met with um Dale Arnold and Joe uh as this board knows we've been kind of having to have or have discussed a vision of this uh facility here at the courthouse kind of morphing into a Justice Center o over the last several months just about a year uh Joe has been
working with the Department of Corrections uh in looking at different places within the facility that would bring all of their probation uh into one building uh there there was funding that was initially secured from the state of Minnesota uh to to make the funding with
the like a lot of things with the upcoming uh budget out there uh that dollar amount was cut fairly significantly uh and at this point it would not uh the the remodel of areas in the first floor came out to between 600
and $640,000 uh which unfortunately at this time the Department of Corrections uh in the state of Minnesota does not have and so uh that uh that'll be placed on hold for this moment I think that there benefit in going through the process uh as you
recall they had an engineer structural engineer looked through the different areas as a part of the study that the state paid for and so I think that'll be benefits as benefits as either one we move forward with the Department of Corrections in the future Andor uh future needs of the
county um on 27th participated in the MCC jpa meeting which has been covered uh also um met on the 28th met uh the flood mitigation uh with the chamber and Morehead that's been been addressed also the non-secure detention meeting with
Senator cek s Senator cek and uh on funding for non-secure detention that evening I did uh participate with several of you in this room uh to Chief monro's retirement we want to thank him uh for the relationship of the work that he's done here with uh in Clay County
and with our with our Sheriff's Department wish and well in retirement um it participated in the water district meeting that been well addressed also this afternoon we do have a Clay County EDC Eda meeting here at the courthouse
on Thursday we are also going to be having our rural cities and County meeting at the law enforcement center from 4 to 6 and and on the upbeat note uh the 7eventh annual Clay County Soil and Water District pollinator night will be uh April 22nd so with that I uh
conclude my report thank you I just want to um I Brian do you have something Darren very briefly uh I also attended the annual compliance meeting uh that Kimberly had uh she'll be bringing that to the board at a later date during her
budget briefing I also attended the compliance committee uh kickoff meeting with Roy Schmidt and mostly the department heads um looking at uh trying to get a compliance all of our compliances in one area and in one document um we talked about government
data practices acts foer requests um talked about data retention those type of things uh Wednesday I had a discussion with our jail administrator uh chief deputy sheriff and uh HR Director reference of personnel issue started work on the 2026 budget that was
fun uh worked on the county code with uh Mark and uh Mark and Brian on Wednesday the 26th yeah that's depressing um also on Thursday continued work on the 2026 budget and had a meeting with Mark
Sloan and Steve and then listened in on the Minnesota Association County administrators conference call they have on Fridays very uh entertaining also um they talked about the paid leave and some of the the things that they're
trying to do with that and also um it seemed like some progress at least according to AMC there's some progress on the technology improvements to the uh Human Services and and Social Services uh technology issues which was uh was
certainly needed and um and that was it Jackie okay I just a couple things I I just wanted to um say thank you to uh our administrator lison um I I was gone
last week but I was able to be in touch by email and I believe some of you you others were also informed about um a letter he was sending out to our external agencies that that we fund and
I think the letter was uh appropriate and timely as we heard again this morning and of all of the new things that might be coming forward at the state level uh that could really have an impact on um our 2026 budget I think
it's I think it's uh important for everybody to really understand the difficulties that we may be having uh with a $6 billion deficit at state level and U in addition to that new
program requirements that are falling down on us through the um mandates at the state level um and also that U Steve mentioned that he's he has talked already uh with your with the um
individual department heads uh in regards to this same issue moving forward so I think it early on discussions on that is really important and Steve I just want to follow up with you to a conversation I had with you uh regarding and my computer last week
reminded me of it when I was about to get online and I had to spend six hours updating my old computer before I could do anything and notice the word I used the word old computer and I I still would like to have a
conversation with Rory about these laptops when they're turned in uh I I believe that there's a better alternative than what we're currently doing which would allow these laptops to be used by um people who might otherwise
not have the ability to get them so I I'd like to have that conversation and I know I've I've spoken individually with u with our commissioners and I I think there's an agreement there that we could do something better and more significant with those so thank you Mr chair I will
certainly line something up I've had some conversations both with Rory and also Lori Johnson in regard to that and so that maybe that would be something we could bring up at a upcoming work session or something very good anything else okay I we will stand to
journ e Part: 2
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 April 1st Our first item is the approval of the agenda Mr Mr Cher I'll make a motion to approve the agenda Second Okay we have a motion by
Commissioner Mojo second by Commissioner Aber Any further discussion additions okay seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign Motion carried Our next we have an
employee recognition this morning All right Holly Seville 20 years huh yes Well thank you for your dedicated service to Clay County And Kirsten I think you want to say something
Um so yes Holl's worked at social services for 20 years the last 13 correct in the behavioral health unit Um and I've had the opportunity to work with Holly for the last 13 years as a co-orker and then as her supervisor And
the one characteristic that has stood out the most for me um in regards to Holly is her genuine connectability with clients Um it's not easy to gain trust and earn trust of our clients and
Holly's downto-earth demeanor um and her just realness um assist in her ability to do that And we've had conversations over the years about a couple of individuals in particular and you know who I'm talking
about Um but you have been that constant you have been their cheerleader their support their voice of reason Um and that is invaluable Um so all I can say
is congrats on your 20 years and keep doing what you're doing because that is your greatest attribute Do you have your speech ready um I do not We don't want to get All right Well thank you Thank you Kristen
All right Citizens to be heard Do we have any citizens to be heard on items not on the agenda this morning nothing Mr Chair Okay Very good Approval of bills and vouchers I'll make a motion to approve the bills and vouchers
Second We have a motion by Commissioner Bear second by Commissioner Krabanhoff Any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I Oppose the same sign Motion carried
Approval of minutes from March 18th I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from March 18th 2025 Second Okay we have a motion by Commissioner Bear second by Commissioner Evinger Any further
discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I Oppose The same Motion carried Our 835 item is a public hearing regarding Red River Valley co-op power petition for reszoning Do we have a motion to open
the hearing i move Second Motion by Commissioner Kavanagh and second by Commissioner Ber to open the public hearing All in favor signify by saying I I oppose The same sign Motion carried We'll turn over to Matt Good morning Good morning Mr Chair
and commissioners Uh so before you is a petition for reszoning um for a property from Agricultural General Urban Expansion District Tier 2 to Highway Commercial uh brought by Red River Valley Co-op Power and with the Rural Electric Supply Cooperative and the
landowner is uh Barry Oberg So this is right on the corner of CASA 18 and 34th Street So it's north of the um resource recovery center and the Walmart Uh the zoning right now the base
district is agricultural general and then there's an overlay district uh urban expansion district tier 2 uh that is tied to the city of Dworth's um urban growth area So the request is to petition or is the
to reszone this property Um only the portion that is in this um subdivision that is shown here Currently it's uh land uses is agricultural Um there aren't any structures on the property Um pretty
high um prime farmland Uh but again it's in that growth area And so the proposal here is uh two parts Um so on one of the lots of the subdivision uh Resco they are looking to build a 40 to 60,000 square foot uh distribution warehouse uh
on a 15 acre uh lot in this two lot um platted subdivision And so this is actually an example of um they're building a building in Wisconsin and they're looking to do basically the exact same
thing here So and when it's built um looking at opening this up in in 2026 2027 uh be about 30 employees on site here And then um Red River Valley Co-op
Power they're looking um to build a service center on the second lot uh of this subdivision It's a smaller lot um five acres Here's some examples of what that would look like Uh essentially uh
place to store and house their uh maintenance equipment and their trucks and for their um linemen And they're looking at uh building that in the next um two to three years As well in terms of the two lots uh in this
proposed subdivision um they would essentially meet all the highway commercial standards Um and the subdivision right now it's as I had mentioned it's in the ET area the extr territorial area of the city of
Dworth So the city of Dworth has the subdivision uh jurisdiction where we have the zoning uh jurisdiction and they did recommend uh they did approve the preliminary plat And I think I believe that um if this
resoning is passed this morning then um the city of Dworth will uh look at approving the final plat tomorrow at their meeting tomorrow So Matt any any action that we would take today would we have to be contingent on that or are we are we just
going to assume that that will happen i think at this point just because the uh preliminary plat was approved that yes I think that would um it would happen Yep Thank you So and they did have some conditions on their on their plat um just um getting making sure that they
have utility easements um roadway accesses and things like that um a development agreement for future extension of city utilities to the property and then any um they did have the give the planning commission an opportunity to add any
comments as well and the planning commission did not do that So again this um just looking at our comprehensive and transportation plan goals and objectives this proposed resoning really does kind of fit um with the goals and objectives uh for land use
and development in our comprehensive plan uh especially um with the city of Dworth um being on board with this as well And so um yeah the recommendation from the planning commission was unanimous um to reszone just the subject
section of that plat So not the entire property just um what would be in that uh described in that cooperative energy subdivision any questions for me at all one question chair Yes So it would be
the west 20 acres of that 80 correct yep And we did have some um public comments at the at the planning commission meeting um as well but and nothing from the township Also had comments from the city
of Morhead and they said they didn't have any issues All right Any questions yes Commissioner Were there any issues expressed by the public on this i think just the main concern um being just the future
developments uh moving out kind of into the the more rural areas of the of the county Um but I think once um the public who were concerned kind of saw what the plans were I think those concerns were were alleviated Okay Yeah
I think that comment was addressed in the at the planning commission level right some comments in the Any other questions from the board uh anything additional from the applicant okay
All right At this time the applicant didn't have anything else to add Um anything else from the board that we need to have while the hearing is open all right I entertain a motion to close the
hearing Oh yeah Public input Yes Any other public input any other public input commissioner Mr Chair I'll move to close the public meeting Open hearing Oh or close it You want to close
it here close it Okay I'm You're right I will second that Okay Any further discussion commissioner Mushell Thank you Mr Chair We have I've served on the planning commission for a while and I know this company is uh invested in making sure
that they address any gaps in coverage throughout the county This is uh the second proposed site and this one really seems to fit better maybe with uh some of the concerns that that came out of the last one and and given the fact that the city of Dworth is also supporting
this I think it um is something that this board should also support Yeah I I agree with that and I I think this is this site is really a a good location for this and I think if I
remember right back when the previous site was select Part of what they want to do is they wanted to bring some of their you utility shop things closer to the other parts of the their service area And and so this is this is
a critical component I think to help have faster access you know in times of trouble maybe for for their customers They have a shorter time time frame to get those folks there So this is I think this is a really good fit So any other
comments if not all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I oppose the same sign Motion carried All right And now we just closed the public hearing Yeah we just closed the public hearing Yep Now we got a Mr Chair Yes Commissioner Thank you I'll
make a motion to approve the recommendation of the reszoning of the portion of the subject property as described in the packet I will second that Okay Have a motion by Commissioner Mojo second by Commissioner Bear Any further discussion commissioner Mojo
Thank you I might also uh notice that uh we've worked through the findings of fact at the planning commission and and given that recommendation in the packet as well would uh reflect in my motion Okay So the motion and the second then
uh including includes the findings of fact provided by the planning commission All right Any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign Motion carried That
is done Thank you Matt Thank you Mr Chair Thank you applicants Good luck with you in the future All right Thank you All right Our next item is the request to approval for uh overfill deputy position due to military leave
Good morning Sheriff And Chief Deputy Martin Good morning Good morning Mr Chair commissioners Thanks for having us here this morning Uh our request is to overfill a deputy position Um currently we had a deputy that was deployed a couple weeks ago and he is
anticipated to be deployed until about December 9th Um we did meet with the pick committee on March 18th to discuss this Um during that meeting we discussed several things to include um the 2026 budget challenges that the county may
face due to some state uh state budget challenges as well I think we're all aware of what what what those may be Um but as you can see from the handout we did uh we did look at what what budget savings would be with the deputy gone
and then what the cost would be if we did overfill that that position My plan was for 2026 to add this position into the 26 budget Um but with uh with seeing what the savings would be we just thought we'd take an opportunity now to
see if we'd be able to overfill and get somebody started sooner rather than later With that I would yield to the board um for questions or if chief deputy has anything to add Maybe I can just u give a little brief overview of our
conversation at pick and um ultimately pick felt this was an appropriate uh thing to do to move forward with this Uh we did talk about the uncertainties of 2026 and and uh we had a quite lengthy
conversation about that and and I think the the recommendation to pick of course would would be to approve this and and then to have the sheriff um put it in his 2026 budget Uh but at
the same point in time I think we we kind of put the message out there that with the uncertainties of 2026 you know we may have to deal differently through attrition or something as as as maybe a way to deal with this Hopefully we won't have to get
to that point But but that's kind of the where the conversation was and that we as a pick committee could support moving this forward Commissioner Abberinger do you have anything to Yes thank Mr Chair of a couple of factors we took into consideration His position is part of a
task force that requires a Minnesota participation at this time The deployed employee was part of that task force and Morehead uh because of their issues with staffing has not been able to put somebody on that assignment So this
would effectively hamstring having a very valuable task force uh engaged in Minnesota issues you need to have a Minnesota badge with them Um additionally it's clear I think the sheriff and the chief deputy were were
aware when we described our concerns about future budget incumbrances that this is an overfill and that it will not be restaffed through a uh through when attrition occurs if we don't have the ability to open up a new position in
2026 Uh this is an investigative position and I've always been surprised how lean the sheriff's office is has been running here on those positions And when you need somebody to do it particularly given that our partner
agency is having staffing issues of their own if you need somebody to conduct investigation it's not something you can fill with an overtime or or bringing somebody in It's got to be an investigator So I think this is a critical position and PIC has decided uh
to make a recommendation on this if we fill it and I I am part of that decision I think it's a prudent one and I do understand that uh we could have to look at future positions I'm hoping it doesn't come to that I don't have any division that's really uh over overly uh
full right now I mean we're all kind of running bare bones by the time you factor in sick time vacation comp time Who knows what ESST is going to bring to us So it's there's uh there's a lot of things to consider as we move forward with this as well And and you know and that that was the difficult conversation
that we had and we had to at least put that uh potential uh thought out there um because we could we could be having this same issue with several of our other departments you know and so so we
need to make sure that we're um being consistent with all of our departments But this is a I look at this as a critical position too that that we need to uh be maintaining So uh any other comments or questions i I
have one question Okay Commissioner Bear Sheriff the So this person would be on the investigation division Yep That is correct All right Essentially what we would do is we'd hire somebody for a patrol level position and somebody that uh is currently a deputy would have an
opportunity to move into Okay So yep All right Commissioner Ab Mr Sher I make a motion to approve the hiring of a deputy to overfill the sheriff's position in investigations due to a military deployment I will second that
We have a motion and a second Any further discussion on the motion any further discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same motion carried There you go Thank you All right
Good luck Thank you You got you got are you got the search going for somebody yep We have uh we have advertised through the Minnesota Postport I did look on the postboard site before I came over here today There's 144 departments across the state of Minnesota that are currently looking for officers or
deputies And that's that's a lot As of last week it was 150 So it's dropped a few but there's there's a lot out there yet All right Well good luck triple what what it was when I was just a few years ago when I was working eight years ago
now It was 20 departments sometimes you know back then Now it's now it's up to quite a few All right Our next item we have um annual update and request approval the resolution 2025-13 for Klay County to act as legal
sponsor for DNR funding for snowmobile trails managed by Klay County Trail Alliance How appropriate are we going to talk about snow mr Mr Chair I don't believe that Greg is here yet He's here at 9:00 And so we do have Justin here who has the next couple
items that we could All right Justin We'll we'll move into um item number five Request approval Yes Good morning So the first item I have is requesting approval to advertise for yearly supply yearly supply bid So
what this is is it's gravel We also get bids for batuminous mixture if we want to buy anything to patch culverts and then also if we need to rent construction equipment So the bids will be opened April 30th at the highway department and then I bring it forward in a packet for approval on May
6th Any questions question do you bid each of those individually or do you bid those as one individually Individually bids Yep And so gravel for example is bid in 30 different so it's all 30 townships
get a separate number and then we also allow the opportunity for townships to join our bid So far we have three and then one city How many townships do you normally have usually about three to four Yeah But there are some items where
we have multiple vendors that we approve Right Correct So batuminous mixture we usually we try to get a number from everybody So we get a number from Northern Central just and it's basically laid out in there that if they're paving or something that we obviously
understand we can't get mix but depending on where we're at in the county it's nice to have numbers to be able to buy mix from whoever Yeah Same with culverts Correct Yes Commissioner Thank you Mr Chair I am curious to see how these will come in
given some of the uncertain uncertainty of some of our bids that we've received Certainly on the low end I'm hopeful that it could be uh duplicated with these numbers as well Definitely All right Mr Chair I'll make a motion to
approve advertising for the yearly supply bids with the letting date of April 30th Second We have a motion by Commissioner Mojo second by Commissioner Krabnoff Any further discussion one one other question for staff The gravel bit Do you
gravel a certain certain type of gravel there or is it Yeah So we it's it's a class one modified So we have our own gradation that we call out that the contractor has to meet and we have a testing schedule in which we run all the gradations All right And then each year
the gravel map is different based on needs throughout the county So So you set the specs for the gravel Correct Okay Okay Any further questions seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I Oppose The same
sign Motion carried All right Your next item is a request to approve advertising for SAP014-645-002 Yes So this is approval to advertise for the Millan overlay project on CASA 45 So it is the it is in Dworth It's a little
horseshoe through town Um pretty simple project This is on the five-year plan and it's been planned for quite a while So excited to get this one done And then this was also approved at Delworth City Council via resolution last week for
state aid projects within municipalities There is a resolution of support that needs to be completed and that was last week So any questions i'll move to approve the advertising mill and overlay of project on facade 45 in
Neworth SAP 014 64502 with a lighting date of May 6 25 second We have a motion by Commissioner Kraov second by Commissioner Abinger Any further
discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I Oppose at the same time sign Motion carried Thank you Anything else for us this morning Justin no Hopefully we don't get
uh on the high end of the snow that we're predicting I was still on the trucks Yeah I just uh I happened to see through some of Commissioner Mojo's work uh down in St Paul that you were also down there on behalf of Klay County And I just want to
thank you for Absolutely It worked out perfect I was down there for a conference so I was able to attend Thank you for being able to be there in support of the needs of Klay County So definitely I just wanted to comment on that when when you know that there might
be some technical questions that come up There's nothing more reassuring than having your own county engineer present in case something were to pop So I do really appreciate you dropped everything to head over to the capital for that hearing Absolutely
Very good Thank you Thank you All right So we are I could do mine Mr Chair if you'd like Number uh number 10 Okay Steve Let's do number 10 We're looking for a request approval to
submit congressional directed funding application for the West Central Regional Water District Project Thank you Mr Chair As this board is aware we're working closely with Norman and Pole County to establish a rural water district Uh and through that process uh
the the board has worked uh diligently to find uh uh additional uh resources to to uh fund this project uh both on a state and local and federal level And so before you this morning uh is
consideration to submit uh uh to for congressional directed funding through Senator Clolobashar's office Uh the request before uh you this morning is would be an amount of 5,566,888 which is about a 5% increase over what uh this board requested last
year through this process Uh again as this board has heard in the past this is part of a a process or a staging Uh the the focus of these these fundings would affect uh Vitin Felton Craigness Morin Flowing Keane uh Cromwell and then the
cities of Ulin and Holly uh would uh would where these funding funding funding dollars would be directed as part of the application uh there is some staging and so that uh the minimum amount that we would ask would be ask for would be about $3.3 million but the
hope uh the hope total project is about $6 million but we'd be requesting the 5,566,888 with that I'd yield for questions just to um keep everything above board here too um our our
administrator reached out to me on Friday about this I believe it was and and this is basically a a resubmitting uh to a previous application that we had done and the deadline for that was actually yesterday And so there was
um I gave Steve the approval on behalf of this board because it was a resubmitt uh to go ahead and sign that to make sure that we got it in in in time And so this action is a followup to that that action to make sure that we met those
those timelines So any further discussion and I want to thank you Steve for being on top of that too to make sure that we able to meet those timelines So it it did get submitted yesterday So
yes Okay Okay So we are looking for the um the board's approval of the uh resubmitting of that congressional directed funding application So I'll make a motion to approve the submitting the congressional directed funding application for the West Central Regional Water District Project
I'll second the motion We have a motion by Commissioner Bear second by Commissioner Mojo Any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign Motion carried
Thank you Steve Thank you chair and board for your flexibility All right Um we have All right Why don't we Let's see what else we have here Why don't we
just Jackie do you have something okay let's take a let's take our break right Okay So do do the proclamation and then um at this point in time we will uh move to our agenda item number
eight and that is a recognition of proclamation for child abuse prevention month and I would imagine you have some opening comments I do Thank you Mr Chair Good morning commissioners Uh I'm here today to ask for your support in claiming April as child abuse prevention
month here in Klay County Uh our kiddos are our future Uh and it's up to all of us Uh saying is it really does take a village and it does um to help create a safe supportive environment for children where they can thrive Uh child abuse is a serious issue that affects families
and communities but prevention is possible when we work together and support one another Uh this proclamation is about raising awareness encouraging community involvement and reminding everyone that we each play a role in protecting children and supporting families in our community Uh thank you
for considering this important recognition and for your ongoing commitment to the safety and well-being of children in Klay County That I would ask that we proclaim April Child abuse prevention month All right We will uh start by uh reading the proclamation
child abuse prevention month Whereas our children are our most valuable resource and will shape the future of Minnesota and Klay County Whereas In the year 2024 Klay County Social Services has completed 305
assessments and investigations of families and licensed facilities 221 assessed children assess children for reports of alleged child abuse or child neglect Pro providing 116 families with child protection/ child welfare case
management services and provide care and services for 176 children in out ofome placement Whereas child abuse is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community and can have long-term psychological emotional and physical
effects that may cause lifelong consequences for victims of abuse Whereas effective child abuse prevention succeeds because of meaningful and trusting relationships or partnerships created between parents practitioners schools faith communities healthc care
organizations law enforcement agencies and the business community Whereas family serving youth focused prevention programs offers positive alternatives for young people encourage parents and youth to develop strong ties to their
communities as well as protective factors that reduce or eliminate risk by promoting social emotional and developmental well-being of children Whereas we acknowledge we must work together as a community to increase
awareness about child abuse and contribute to the promotion of children and families social and emotional well-being in safe stable and nurturing environments Now therefore be it resolved that Klay County Board of Commissioners do hereby
proclaim April 2025 as child abuse prevention month in Klay County and call upon all citizens community agencies religious organizations me medical facilities and businesses to increase their participation in efforts
to prevent child abuse and neglect thereby strengthening communities in which we live Mr Mr Chair I'll make a motion to approve the rec proclamation Second We have a motion by Commissioner Mojo second by Commissioner
Ebinger Any further discussion commissioner Ebinger Just real briefly I had the the honor working with your division for 12 years uh leading the Morehead Police Department and whose detectives worked with your people in so
many of these cases I also worked these cases and led a squad of uh detectives that worked them in my prior employment And um I want to reach out and thank you and your employees for doing something that
is one of the most difficult investigative jobs in the world Uh I've seen many many big tough cops who couldn't work these cases because they they number one weren't aware of
the self-care it takes to stay in the game on this And number two uh it is so depressing that there's more fun things to do like working homicides than dealing with children who have been broken and battered
uh your division has always saw to it that your investigators get the self-care and mutual support that's necessary Uh your predecessor did that and as in everything I've seen so far you're carrying that torch So I'm
grateful for it but please be mindful on on how detrimental this is to your your people You know that you've worked it And let us know if there's something you need to that end to keep everybody in the game But thank you Uh thank you Commissioner Abbering Those
are good words and I just I want to agree with that and on behalf of our board I think it's um we're all grateful for um the work that's done and the difficulties of the jobs that are done
especially in this regard It's um it's never easy we we can see some of the um things that happen as a result of what we have in our juvenile centers and um the difficult work that goes in
and it's it's got to be tough So thank you to all of your team for the work that they do All right any other comments all right thank you Quinn
Oh oh yes Oh oh yes Yes we have to vote Uh all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I oppose the same sign Motion carried Thank you My jet lag must be All right So we will move right in
Quinn to your update And you have several folks with you today Looks like we have Michelle and Kirsten and Amy Yes Amy is here And
Tiffany All right When are you going to start it off i'll I'll be very brief and then I'll stop talking and let All right True experts okay take over from there Um thank you Mr Chair and Commissioners We are here to give you uh I'm going to say part one of three of social services
uh annual departmental overview Uh today we're going to be touching on our behavioral health and adult protection division as well as our children and family Um very very brief overview um in terms of our organizational chart Uh what you what you'll hear today represents the green columns and the
blue column in Kirsten's unit and then the child protection division which is Amy Amenson Tiffany January and Michelle Thorall as well Um quick highlights of social services We have 149 full-time staff one variable hour Uh comprised of eight divisions
with 11 units that make up those divisions Um again hearing about two of the divisions today uh with more to come next week and the week following And just a brief overview of our other divisions and social services there
um to note we also have our office support uh which is typically doesn't have a departmental update component to it as well as our uh fiscal supervisor and the four staff that work in central accounting uh that do social services work as well Uh with that I'm going to
kick it over to Carson to speak to our uh adult mental health and adult protection and civil commitments Good morning Chair Campbell and commissioners Um Commissioner Bear I have not had the opportunity yet to meet you It's nice to meet you Um like Quinn
said I am Kirsten Leard and I supervise our behavioral health and adult protection division Um they are three very separate um units that make up our larger unit Um so I'm going to start with our adult mental health division Uh
currently we have uh five full-time staff um four that focus on civil commitments um and one who does um rule 79 targeted case management Um so an overview of adult mental health and what
we do Um like I said we do pre-petition screenings and civil commitments Um based off of statute 253b um we monitor individuals at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program and our folks that are committed as mentally ill
and dangerous Um that are at state facilities Um typically those are located in St Peter Um we have two staff that do level twos which are the pre-mission screenings for mental illness um for individuals that are looking to be placed in a nursing
facility Um and that is to ensure that the most appropriate placement and recommendations um for mental health services um are received when they are uh located in a nursing home Um and then we have Lori who is our sole um targeted
case manager um who maintains a consistent case load Um Commissioner Krabanov you hear that every month at our LEAC meeting um that Lori is consistently full with her case load Um so that makes up the the staffing
pattern um of our folks within the adult mental health unit Um so just an overview of our prepetition screenings for the past couple of years Um the numbers have gone down and in
2024 on paper um it looks significantly lower and I will chat about that in a little bit Um uh but consistently um and Mr Milton can attest to this as well is that we have had pretty high numbers of
um folks that we are asked to pursue civil commitment on that are stemming from a rule 20 And so that's from a criminal case Um there has been um some type of um arrest um and it's been
determined that due to their mental illness um they are not able to aid in their offense Um so per statute then it switches from a criminal matter to a civil matter Um and those numbers have been pretty consistent over the past couple of
years Oops So like I said our number of actual um commitment cases has gone down um over the past year But I will tell you just because our numbers have gone down
that doesn't mean the work has gone down Um the cases are extremely complex Um the individual's needs are severe Our placement options are limited Um and so
the numbers may be lower on paper but overall the workload is consistent if not greater um just because of those barriers um and what we're seeing with each case Um
do you want to take this yes I wanted to jump in here and just speak to that a little bit Um the civil commitment process in Minnesota it really does serve a critical role in ensuring the public safety providing necessary mental health care for the folks that we serve but it does have a very significant uh
financial obligation for counties um particularly in the does not meet medical criteria realm Um you'll see this when I when I do the kind of the budget overview for 2024 but I wanted to give you some preliminary numbers as well Um this does not meet medical
criteria cost Um is a financial obligation that we are required to pay It's basically unreimbured expenses for hospitalization and treatment We're 100% responsible for DNMC expenses related to regional treatment center placements um
these can exceed $2,000 per day for one individual So um has very significant financial implications for our county Do you want to Yeah thank you I might just briefly comment on that Uh we've honestly done a lot of work in elevating
the discussion on mental health gaps in the state And so I just want to go back to that $2,000 per day caveat that he said We are talking about addressing the PRTF reimburseable rate to 1,800 to the state um to bring those costs up to what
what folks are needing to pay And we're getting a lot of push back from DHS and the state legislature on that But counties and representatives from all over the state are saying we are already paying that and then some in regards to
what the the true cost is So um just for the minutes I want it to be reflected that we're asking for a rate that is lower than some of the cases in which we're paying Thank you So I just want to highlight a few of
the partnerships um that the adult mental health um realm works with You may or may not have heard of our Becker Clay Ottertale Wilin Adult Mental Health Initiative Um lovingly referred to as BCAW If you ever hear that that's
what that stands for Um and so we have through that initiative um monthly meetings um different partnerships that and collaborations that have developed Um we work closely with Bri over at the jail um who is the um wrap planner over
there And so we work um closely with her especially when we have those individuals that have been referred for civil commitment from rule 20 Um sometimes they are over at the jail and so we connect with her um to ensure that
we can um complete our interview with them um and get the most up-to-date information Um again we work with the River Project over at the jail as well Um we sit on several different um homeless and housing committees Um the
FM Coalition to Homelessness the CARES Governance Board We just had our first meeting yesterday um in a couple of years Um and then also the Klay Wilin Housing Advisory Board Um I said earlier that Commissioner Krabangh is the
co-chair of our uh local advisory council We meet once a month Um there's also participation in the this is very lengthy the caslay threat assessment threat management team um which is a collaboration with Klay County
individuals C County individuals um the FBI you name it there's a there's a several committees that that meet um to discuss potential um individuals that maybe are on the radar um that we just
need to um work through and how can we provide services to them Um we also work closely with the sheriff's office for transports um Mr Milton and his team um for consults direction um just any uh
discussions that we need to have when we're looking at civil commitment for individuals So that makes up our adult mental health division Um so then I'm going to move into our substance use formerly known as our chemical health
division Uh the state has changed our the language so we are trying to change our language It's not always easy Um so there are several individuals and there are two um staff that um have their LAC's so
they can do our comprehensive assessments Um currently there are two staff that do civil commitments um and treatment coordination We have recently lost one staff to the Department of Human Services and have hired and will
be stealing one of Tiffany's staff Um so working on that transition piece So then we will be fully staffed Um and then one case aid who does all of our scheduling of our assessments um and the monitoring of referrals for treatment coordination
and our specialty courts Um so just a couple of numbers here pretty consistent over the past couple years of the number of assessments that have been scheduled the number of assessments that have actually been completed Um just noted
that no shows and cancellations continues to be a trend We talk about it all the time um that that is really the nature of the individuals that we work with Um so it's nothing that our staff is doing or not doing It's just trying to get the folks
in there once the comprehensive assessment has been scheduled Um and Cheryl our case aid is very good that when um someone has no showed repeatedly she she lets them know that there are other agencies within the community that
they can go to that do walk-ins every week We do not do walk-ins Um we used to in the past We have talked about it but I don't think that would change our cancellation and our no-show rate Um so Cheryl is making sure that individuals are aware that there are other agencies
that they can go to to get the assessment done Um so a little bit about treatment coordination Again there's uh two full-time staff There's uh one of the LAC's does part-time treatment coordination and then um Chelsea will be
joining us hopefully within the next couple of months to start this as well Um so we've always provided case management um to individuals that have a substance use disorder but within the last couple years we have been able to bill for that Um and it's now referred
to as treatment coordination Um so just a couple of the numbers that aren't on your screen Um I just wanted you to know how many clients we have served Again this is relatively new that we can bill Um so staff is still trying to um figure
out what that piece looks like but in 2023 there were 40 clients that were served 2024 there were 57 Um and noted to date but that was a couple weeks ago before I went on vacation In 2025 we have 10 that we are currently serving
Um so treatment coordinators help with housing employment scheduling mental health appointments um addressing any social determinance of health and um an individual is likely to stay
engaged in treatment if there is someone that is working with them So that's again we we've always provided that case management piece We can continue to do that Just now we can bill for that So we can bring in some revenue which is always a nice thing Um and treatment
coordination can and reduce um reliance on emergency room visits detox stays um calls to our law enforcement agencies um and that just overall then lowers other county costs
So again it's a positive um service that we are able to provide to individuals in Klay County Uh just a couple of the different partnerships and committees Um again work very closely with Bri and scheduling those comprehensive
assessments over at the jail Um staff participate in our specialty courts drug court veterans court and the newly formed DWI court Um which I think is going to be very positive influence here
in Klay County um participate in the Klay County Suicide and Substance Prevention Coalition that Commissioner Krabanov and Commissioner Ebinger also attend Um again we collaborate with Detox work very closely with them um
ensuring services and um programming for individuals that are over at Detox Um and I can go on and on There's you know we work with our community providers very closely Um I don't need to go into all of these things that are on the
screen but we are working closely with the schools now in Klay County That is something that we have started to do within the last year or two um and working very closely with the Department of Human Services um in some of the different um meetings that they have and
that just helps us um know about anything that's coming down through the state and how that's going to impact the services that we provide um to our clients So then moving into adult protection this is the the third piece
of the division Um have two staff u wonderful staff that um are very busy as you can see by some of the numbers um our screenin reports or our screened reports um have increased over the last four years and our screened in um
assessments has greatly increased in the last year Um and that is just again a change from the state um we follow Minnesota statute um and and the state has changed um our language a little bit
and and how we actually do our screenings and our intakes um through the vulnerable adult act redesign Um and so we have moved from a very reactive system to a more proactive system and that has just changed the number
of assessments that we have actually screened in Um so again just a couple different um partnerships that we have through adult protection Um we um work with Cass County and and um agencies in
Klay County through the elder abuse forensic network which is our multidisciplinary team and also the coordinated community response coalition Both of those work um meet monthly Um we participate in the FM Hoarding Coalition
Um our regional committee for adult protection Um we meet quarterly with our DHS representative Um and then monthly um as a regional team We also collaborate with very closely with the
Morhead Police Department um Klay County Sheriff's um on going out and and doing some of those assessments um and also with other Klay County law enforcement agencies Um we have started to collaborate with um the Morhead Fire Department They within the
last year year and a half have started a new program the community risk reduction program And so we work closely with Mike Miller Um and we also collaborate with the uh Dancing Sky Area Agency on Aging So I'm not going to lie Quinn I need to change this move this a little
bit because my old eyes have a hard time reading these very small words that are now on the screen Um um so some of the um challenges and I'm not going to take up a lot of your time because I could talk all day probably into tomorrow about
some of the challenges that um staff face but one of them is just the continued shortage of our state operated beds Um you all have heard that you're going to continue to hear that I do not foresee that getting any better that is at all levels at our community
behavioral health hospitals at Anoka and our forensic services Um and as a result of that individuals who are committed if they're in the jail they're not able to be placed in the state operated system Um because the folks
that are in that system there's not enough beds in the community to move them on So it's just this backlog everywhere And that is um what we see and that then leads into what Quinn was talking about our DNNC costs Once
they're determined no longer needing that level of care um we are notified and we have to foot that bill Um and sometimes we are able to find placement Sometimes it takes a little while and that's why that cost has increased
Um we also are seeing in the last several months is that folks are being discharged in our opinion too quickly from state operated services Um and that's due to there's this chronic
weight list at those beds They need to get people moved out We understand that But what we're seeing then is folks are being discharged when we don't think they're ready to be placed back in the community And then that causes a huge burden on our providers in
the community um and the services that we can actually provide to them Um they're provisionally discharged too soon Um and we've also started to see that state facilities are now refusing
to accept our folks um because they may be too chronic So that's been something new Um again that's the population that we work with Um so it's quite frustrating for for staff
um that's why like I said continued shortage of our providers um folks being discharged um too quickly We're seeing some of the barriers being language barriers um um legal status when and
then that's going to be pretty big moving forward as well um having to um we've had clients that have lost their paperwork So until we can prove their status or obtain um replacement
documentations they're not eligible for insurance which makes them not eligible for the waiver which makes them not eligible for our community-based programs Um so huge barrier Um again increased um serving of individuals from different
cultural backgrounds language barriers citizenship status Um we have at an increase in cost for um our interpretive services Um we have a couple agencies that have been great to work with us Um
but it is an increased cost that we haven't had in our budget um for this before um barriers with being a border state It can be good it can be bad but there are definitely barriers um we have
to determine residency for commitment for our substance use services and also when we're doing adult protection assessments for all of those we have to make sure that they are not only a Minnesota resident but a Klay County resident um and obtaining especially
when a person is has is homeless um or cannot prove where they have been staying um that can impact how quickly services can be established for them Um and also just obtaining information from
North Dakota that yes they're getting benefits over here no they're not getting benefits over here Um that can be very lengthly lengthy and trying to obtain some of that Um and then just lastly in our um substance use disorder
unit just the fentanyl and opioid epidemic that you all are aware of as well Um and again trying to determine which state they may reside in where they're getting benefits so we
can best serve them But I do want to end on a positive note that through direct access um which the state of Minnesota implemented for substance use disorders um a couple of years ago direct access has been a huge
benefit for our folks before they had to come to the county to get their assessment Our our wait list could be long depending on how many referrals we were getting And now an individual can choose where they want to go for an assessment where they want to go for
placement We do not have to be the placing agent Um which has reduced and hopefully will continue to reduce some of those weight times um for individuals trying to access services I think that's it All right Quinn before
you move on I think maybe if we have comments or questions regarding Kristen's and I I just want to start off by saying you know we just talked about the and had a resolution regarding our the child abuse and those uh but we we also have the frustration levels that we
deal with um in the behavioral health for adults mental illness Um Klay County I think I think it's a credit to all of you that I think we're looked at across the state and I think Commissioner Mojo can testify to that fact that when we're
down in St Paul we always seem to be a beacon light so to speak in terms of the efforts that we put in to mental health issues in Klay County and we are a leader uh in the state and that's a
credit uh to you and and your group in doing that and you know I even though I I sense the frustration out of you today on behalf of all of your of your team that works on this and
but the good news from our standpoint back to you is that they should take credit for the good work that they're doing even though it's not to the level they wish they could could reach So thank you So Commissioner Krabanov yeah
just to echo off what you're saying all the things the um services that you provide in so many complex areas uh that we see all all the time I just want to refer back to a few of the groups I work
with the ALC LIC's whether it's adult or children Um I just also well thank you to our staff and the commitment they have but I also want to say a thank you to our community the providers that
certainly are part of this bigger picture And I think we're lucky to that we live in a community that we have so many along with our hospitals and other treatment facilities We're very fortunate it could be um more
challenging than it is But um I just see a lot of commitment and investment toward these issues that are unfortunately continuing to grow But I I personally feel you're keeping pace as
as the very best you can So thank you Mr Chairman I could uh I would want to just uh join I think what Mr or Commissioner Kavanagh said and and uh I think all the team that's up here we as the county attorney's office get an opportunity to work with all of them I
personally get to work a lot with uh Kristen and her team Um you know the mental health area is a very important area I think that the board has very much uh worked to keep pace with a lot of the issues that are out there We do see a lot of it and I just would echo uh what Kristen said you know even as we
see you know some numbers temporary uh you know Wayne for a little while it it doesn't feel like it Uh there's a lot going on there A lot of those numbers represent two three four five court hearings as well as numerous you know other matters that they're coordinating
each day to to help move uh individuals you know say from Klay County to to the AMRPC or to uh to St Peter if it is and um you know a lot of uh pretty uh important hearings where we're doing things like intrusive medication you
know force medications on individuals that don't accept or don't realize that they're ill and mentally ill and and could be a danger to themsel or could be a danger to the public Um and so it is important work that her team does and all the teams up here We we do a lot of
work and I know they're going to talk about even other areas but I know Kristen's done a lot of good things Um and it it is one of those areas that it can be some of the most rewarding uh areas but some of the most frustrating at times too So I want to thank her
All right Thank you Brian Uh I didn't put a slide up for this and Kirsten doesn't know but kudos to Kirsten for supervising three separate program areas When I think back to my previous role and how much I needed to know for one program area I'm actually
pretty astounded when you come up here and present such detailed information on three separate program areas So I just wanted to highlight that to all of you that Kersonen's an expert in three areas not just one One thing before you move on Quinn just real briefly and I I I
think it would be worthy of discussions at another date and time to dig into more about the the lack of um what we might be receiving at the state level
I think that would be I think that would be a good conversation for us to openly have here uh in a little bit more detail about where things might be falling short and how we as commissioners uh can
help advocate I'm sure that you probably are doing things through AMC through you know your department of human services and so on so forth but uh we need to be more involved with that So at some point in time maybe arrange with Stephen and let's let's get more involved in
that discussion Glad you brought that up I've got a packet on my desk for something called an SS facility an intensive residential treatment uh services facility Think of PRTF for adults Um that's that's essentially what we're talking about It's my
understanding that Rhonda kind of started Well we have we have a little bit something on that and on a back burner right now with all the other things we got going and that you know that we probably have room to expand on in that in the future But let's have that conversation But we better we got
some others that are anxious to speak here I can tell So with that I'll kick it over to um Amy Michelle and Tiffany who supervise our child protection division Yes Good morning Good morning Uh thanks for having us Um so in our child protection division we have three
supervisors So um we have 32 staff total that are in our division Um Tiffany um supervises our assessment and intake So she has um she's responsible her team is responsible for assessing um those
initial reports Um Amy and I between Amy and I we supervise 14 case managers uh four case aids Um and so essentially when a report comes in for a child abuse or neglect TIFF's team will screen it They'll if they screen it and if it meets criteria they'll conduct an
assessment After that assessment they'll make a determination whether services are needed or not If services are needed we can work with those families voluntarily Sometimes we need to consult with our county attorney's office and have those services court ordered Sometimes cases can children will remain
in the home Sometimes they have to be court-ordered out of the home due to safety concerns So we do multiple things We work with families really closely assess for services and refer for services is the big thing that we do for our case management Um we also supervise
children's mental health services So we contract out our rule 79 case management um and manage a lot of other service providers that we work with to be able to provide those services to the families that we work with too
So I'm going to jump into talking about some data here but before I do I just want to say thank you for being able to be here with everybody today Obviously this is my first meeting where I've got to sit in front of all of you Um I took over Quinn's position when he took the director I spent all of my career in
child protection so my heart is really with this unit and I'm glad I get to lead them Um in 2024 uh Michelle kind of talked about our intakes So in 2024 we took a total of 2364 intakes That's about 75 up from the year prior That includes child
protection intakes any voluntary reports we get Records requests are also included in that Um so the number does look quite high However the total CP intakes the cases that we would have worked that were child protection cases were or that intakes that would have
came in were 1595 which is 200 down from the year prior And then of all those 1595 cases we opened a total of 305 which is 11 up from 2023 Continuing on with some data
specifically we screen our reports by allegations So the state mandates certain allegations meet certain criteria for us to work Um my eyes are a little blind too so I'm going to have to really look here Um our highest percentage of cases in 2024 were neglect cases is for our neglect cases That
includes educational neglect medical neglect supervision substance abuse Um and our prenatal exposure cases which we do some crossover work with Kristen's unit in those cases as well Um our highest percentage was 18% that's with our pregnant and using
parents that we try to partner with to offer support to ensure that they don't end up in our system once baby is born From there our next highest was physical abuse with 22% of our reports being specific for physical abuse Uh next was
threatened injury at 15% Sexual abuse came in at 13% and then medical neglect we saw at 2% as well as mental excuse me mental injury at 5% Morning everyone Just continuing on into
our 2024 data for out ofome placements Um in 2023 we had 176 unduplicated children in out ofome placement which was down nine from the previous year Um this does include all of our probation
cases voluntary children's mental health cases and then our um mandated um child protection cases So the net cost to the county in terms of out ofome placements was approximately $3.1 uh million dollars which was up
220,000 from 2023 Some factors that we feel plays into that is just inflationary costs of care higher daily rates higher pdiums We oftentimes have to place a lot of our uh older youth over at the juvenile center
which is a higher rate of care versus a foster home Um we've had longer stays of care for older youth with significant mental health and behavioral issues who've been in placement longer than say a large sibling group who's in a shorter
term placement in just your standard foster home Um we also which is exciting have placed a lot more children over the last year um with relatives However when you go to a grandpa and grandma and say "Here's four kids and they're still
working," we have a lot of support to offer them where in terms of daycare startup costs and paying deposits and helping those um relatives become licensed and be able to be the providers for those kids Um the primary location
of children in placement remains in non relative foster care homes So our county licensed homes or our therapeutic um foster homes And then our second and third area where most of our kids are placed are either at the West Central
Regional Juvenile Center just in terms of kids with significant mental health and behavioral issues and um lack of foster homes for kids over the age of 13 we just don't have as many foster homes as we need for those kids So they're not
there based on what they have done It's because we don't have foster homes for that level or for those age of children And then um our third highest is relative foster homes So we're Tiffany's unit and our unit are out there meeting with those families meeting with
relatives finding grandmas grandpas aunts uncles to try to place those kids with family which is very important In terms of our state and federal measurements this is pretty exciting Um we have been over the last few years on
a performance improvement plan with the Department of Human Services for kids um not being placed timely with relatives and this year we met that goal almost double So it is exciting 68.6% in two 2024 we met that standard
So that means we were out there asking about family asking about relatives getting those kids in taking any barriers away from those grandparents or aunts and uncles and getting those kids placed with family Um in terms of our monthly face-to-face case worker visits
we also met this performance standard at 97.5% in 2024 That means those social workers were getting out and seeing those kids in their foster homes in their placement facilities every month face to face making sure that those kids
are receiving the services they need that they're safe that they're um meeting all the requirements of their out ofome placement plan So those social workers were going out to homes to foster homes and out to all over the state As many of you know we have a lot
of kids placed down in Austin Minnesota We have kids placed in Duth Grand Rapids So they were going out and meeting those kids where they're at Okay I'm just going to finish off with the last state and federal measurements we have So timelines to our initial contact This happens on the front end in
the assessment unit where we receive the reports and we're required to make either contact with the child within 24 hours or 120 hours The performance standard for that is 100% As you can see our agency came in at 91.2% 2% which
means of the 319 kids our assessment unit was responsible to see they saw 291 of those children within timelines Um I think it's important to note some of the barriers that our workers run into is law enforcement Unfortunately sometimes we have to wait for criminal
investigations getting interviews set up transportation sometimes it's just halted because we're waiting for the appropriate services to be in place so we're only interviewing kids one time versus reinterviewing them over and over Um the last one is malreatment reoccurrence which is uh where we
investigate a case for abuse or neglect and then we determine that something occurred and we offer the appropriate services The state standard for that is 9.1% or less We have come in at 0% We've never missed this This would mean that
we've never had to reassess an act of abuse or neglect against a child We've met this standard almost every single year at least since I've been at the county So that's huge for our team Uh so child protection is often reactionary Um but we are able to
provide some prevention services and so we really focus on that when we can Um one of the things that we've um we receive the uh parental support outreach program So we contract with the village to provide that service That service is for those screened out intake reports
that we refer to them um and their providers will go out and re reach those families and try to offer services The whole point is to try to prevent them from coming into our child protection system So that's a really important program that we have Another one is family group decisionmaking We have a
grant that we received We received money to provide these meetings for our families to really be in the the driver's seat of their plans So we've had a lot of good outcomes with that So that's a really good service that we're able to offer Um the other thing that we
we off we often offer financial assistance as well We have some flex flex funds that is in our budget that we can often use some of those funds just to help meet some of those immediate needs to keep kids in their home So I think that's an important thing to note too Um we did have all of our staff
attend um the family resource training last year was um a lot of training as a very involved um thing and so looking forward to that partnership in the future Um the other thing I want to mention too is we still um we have in
our county contract we had the Sibs program through LSS and mentioned that here before um that we had a grant for that that's gone but the county has put money into that and that's been a really important service to try to keep kids in
their home who are facing really significant mental health needs Um and we've had a lot of success part of the issue is um we don't have a lot of capacity for it So so just some updates in child protection
that are coming um over the next year for sure is the upcoming legislative changes to include the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act known as MIFBA or MAFA excuse me So this will require social services agencies to provide active efforts to
African-American families similar to the Indian Child Welfare Act This may have fiscal implications which Quinn will speak to a little bit more And this law will expand statewide January 1st 2027 Um we also have some new
requirements in terms of our billing for um motivational interviewing requirements of staff So we had all of our staff participate in motivational interviewing And this will be part of our fore claiming um the SARB which is the student attendance review board which we'll go
into a little more detail I'm just hitting the highlights here but um which is an exciting kind of new program that we're working with our community partners to um look at truency in our community And then legisl legislative proposal to amend our response to true
children I just wanted to touch briefly on the MAFA uh fiscal implications Uh recently I needed to complete a legislative budget office survey uh for kind of what Klay Countyy's estimated costs would be I know I provided that to Steve and he shared a little bit of that information
with you Um in order to do this right in order to do it the way that the state wants it done uh similar to the way that IQUA and MIFPA is implemented we would need to bring on about four full-time staff uh including one supervisor So it has very significant financial
implications uh ranging anywhere between $460 and $473,000 dep depending on the different implementation requirements that the state has yet to be clear or figure figured out Um the reality is is I don't know if that's doable So we're going to
do the work regardless of if funding comes in from the state to help support the implementation of this law or not Um the one thing that I'm very confident in is our supervisors and the staff that do the job So um we will figure it out one way or another Um but I just want I
thought it would be very important for you to know that's a very significant impact to the county Yes Is at this point none of the funding has come through for that has it no I'm not aware of any Yeah My understanding
is it had and none of it's recoverable anywhere else I mean if the state doesn't do it it's going to have to come out of the counties Correct Mr Chair I also would note in in addition to uh the four social workers that Quinn spoke about there would also
be an impact on Mr Milton's department that also would very likely uh lead to a need for Mr Milton to ask for additional staff uh to help help with this process Thank you So uh we'll talk about a little revenue
capture that we can have So we um have had all of our staff uh go through a motivational interviewing training That's a requirement through our FFPSA for us to be able to claim down those funds So those workers need to be certified in MI Um the training was very
intense We had a lot of great feedback that you know when you tell staff that you have to go to four days of training and um record yourself and upload it to the computer to be tested you get a little push back but quite frankly the f after the first day everybody was really
motivated and felt like it was one of the best trainings that they've had Right Amy um anyways yeah So once once we have our staff certified they'll be able will it be able to pull down those funds Part of becoming certified though is having to do quarterly reviews So we
have to have a certified staff which would be myself um and maybe a couple others too that will have to meet with our workers quarterly They'll have to upload a video um and send it to the state So when you ask really busy child protection workers to do these additional things it can cause some
stress but I think people really see the uh benefit to being trained in MI and using it with our families Um so I think it'll be a good thing Moving on to more positive things our SAR board which Amy brought up earlier So luckily this year we had the
opportunity to partner with partner with Morhead public schools as well as the county attorney's office for the SAR board Uh the Morehead public schools got some grant funding to pilot a program Right now Michelle and I have each one staff member that are piloting this
program with the Morehead public schools Basically this program is set up to help alleviate some of the truency concerns that come through our system and limit the amount of court petitions that are getting filed through the court So we have two workers that meet bi-weekly with um a select group of nth grade
students at Morehead Public High every two weeks and then report to this board to try to improve attendance hook them up with services um just be peer supports for them Our hope is approaching the end of the year here We're kind of running out of time to fully see what this pilot looks like Our
hope is we can start it again next year include more students have more workers pilot the program so that we can see a decrease in those educational neglect reports that we're seeing so so high numbers of right now as well as our truency reports
too So on to some challenges in our child protection that we're seeing You know I I feel like we sound like a broken record and but I'll say it again We do have a lack of provider for inhome workers for those intensive inhome family skills that are so needed to keep
families in their home Um providers you know we talk to our contracted providers and they're having difficulty finding people who want to do that work And so that's really where that lies And so it's just such a critical service that we're seeing a lack of I will say our contracted providers do a great job of
getting cases assigned and working with those families they do prioritize working with us but then we'll see you know some families who are maybe on the fridge that are waiting a year for some of the similar services So it you know the impacts are are uh significant as
far as that goes Um again facing a lack of resources regarding our kiddos who were looking for residential treatment centers You are all very well aware of that Um but it's something that we continue to see a struggle with We're also continuing to see it see a
need for more foster care homes available to take children 13 and older It's been a barrier for quite a few years and continues to be a barrier And then lack of affordable housing remains a barrier to the families that we see a lot of homeless families that can't get
into housing whether they have history or can't find affordable housing So this continues to be a main barrier to continue to play off of that lack of affordable child care especially for our infants A lot of our foster home placements uh want to take infants but
unfortunately we have an inability to lack to find the appropriate child care for those settings as well Uh Quinn is going to talk a little bit more about this but also in 2026 uh there 13 and under children will no longer be able to be charged with delinquency matters
which potentially will have an impact as well Yeah if you remember James James James' departmental update he spoke briefly to this as well but uh what this does it effectively shifts responsibility from the juvenile justice system to the child protection system and social services Um but James' math
adds up It's about a 5% increase that that we think we're going to see of kiddos that ultimately end up being placed at the juvenile center Again correspondingly with the higher payment costs that that Amy spoke about at that's part of the plan and nonsecure right correct Yes James has seen this
coming with this legislation and kind of built that in for what he expects his capacity uh to need to be in order to kind of account for this Um again that's it's going to take up bed space for the kiddos that we need it for Um that historically we haven't had
to use this as a as an option Um and it's going to it's going to drive up the case loads for our child protection staff These will fall under what are called child welfare responses Um but they're still going to end up being uh families that we serve and it's going to drive up those case loads Um I just
wanted to speak to that as well It likely will have a financial implication for us Also when when we referred to the um need for more foster homes for older children where where are they going now
mainly West Central Mainly the juvenile there that has a significant daily price tag to it Correct Correct Correct So like we've did in the past we tried to do offer some incentives for on the
child care side of things Is there anything from an incentive thing that we should be looking at that could maybe bring in uh more potential foster care as oo you know I mean it an investment
in one way might be uh much more feasible than the alternative of the higher cost of west central I think we are doing some more specialized trying to do specialized recruitment for older foster owns and then also really trying to work with the relatives to see what
barriers they might have to options for these kids and trying to offer if we need to whatever it might take to help get them in a place to be licensed for those older youth so we can transition But oftentimes if we do find placements
that are non relative then they're out of the community and then you're pulling the teenager who's gone to Morehead High School out of his high school that he's known for So it's it's a really challenging complicated kind of um
challenge but we keep continuing to try to be creative and how can we keep these kiddos in their community with family or out of the juvenile center too I I'll speak to this a little too We've really worked hard on our respit care with our respit care grant um to really try to
increase um the utilization of our foster care homes And so we've worked really closely with Gail and and when we've been going out and meeting with our Rule 79 providers and really talking about these older kids and hoping that if maybe some of our our foster care
homes would be willing to provide respit for some of these older kids they'll see that oh I could maybe have them in my home full-time too So we've seen some movement in that area since we've been doing that outreach So maybe some of those grassroot efforts and and really it's just as simple as talking about the
strengths and really building those up And of course you have to talk about the the difficulties that some of these kids have too but just in the way that message is relayed sometimes um we'll get people to the door For people who might be watching this or watching a replay of this explain respit So respit
care is is um a service that we provide to families that um that gives children and families a break from each other So kids might go there from one day to a weekend Um and it's really just to we have a commissioner just can I send my kids
so yeah So um so yeah so it's it's really built in to give everybody a break And the idea is that you know when we're you're faced with some really difficult and challenging behaviors but for everybody in the family that getting that break will help them uh maintain in their home And some of our families
don't have those outside supports They don't have grandpas or grandmas or aunts and uncles in the community who can take care of those kids for a quick weekend break to give those parents some building those supports So so part of an part of a deal could be that you know we
may be looking at somebody who maybe wouldn't have to take care of these people on a regular basis but you know a fill-in type of a deal right that's and and we're lacking in that area Yeah And I don't I don't know if I don't know if
the public is really aware that that's there there's a need for that It's not like it's this is a full-time commitment type of a thing either you know So I I think that's important to note Yeah One question on Yes Foster care Is there a lot of red tape to become a foster
parent from the state that you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to become that or significant paperwork yep Lot lots of paper to go with that Um training background checks Correct And we can have Jessica speak to that when we come next week for Jessica's in the licensing division Um as Amy and
Michelle were talking about we do everything we can to eliminate those barriers Oh you don't have a specific type of fire extinguisher that the state say well we're going to buy that We're going to give it to you That seems like a silly reason to not be able to provide care for your relative or for this teenager that needs it So if there are
those easy and we say lowhanging fruit barriers we've we've installed windows before like they don't have a specific window in a room that needs to have two exits and you only have one Well if a $600 to $700 window is that barrier we'll figure out a way to make that work
so that we can get that good quality caregiver for the adolescent So then just some exciting child protection successes in 2024 In terms of adoption after 897 days in placement a six child
sibling group were adopted together by a relative So that was probably one of the most exciting days we had Um after 1,635 days in placement a child was adopted by a kinship care caregiver
which is a significant relationship to that child So um we also had a sibling group of six who were reunified with their parent They were in placement with a grandparent and ended up being reunified with their parents So all very
exciting Um in 2024 we established permanency for 32 children meaning either they were adopted or there was a transfer of permanent physical and legal custody whether it's to a relative or a kinship giver a caregiver Um we are
actively participating in the SAR pilot program with hopes to expand in the future So really partnering with all our community partners the schools probation the county attorney's office trying to work on creative ways to address the truency issue in our community And then
we restructured our child protection team to collaborate with more community partners bringing in those community partners seeing how we can wrap around these families and get them the services they need trying to prevent out of home placements So any questions
questions commissioner Mojo thank you Thank you for the presentation Thank you for including the successes You know I ju I just can't think about the amount of time that has passed for some of those kiddos the
amount of different uh folks that they worked with to get to that point I think is is the uh the point that sometimes goes unknown And so I really appreciate the work that you all do your teams do It's critically important um vitally
important I know you can't say this but I'm going to the irony of DHS putting Klay County on a improvement plan Uh when we are begging at the capital to have uh leniency in some of the mandated
components that we're dealing with uh counties are doing the best they can to meet the needs of the citizens that we're working with And um sometimes those mandates get in the way of providing amazing care And so uh thank you for being part of telling that story
Um I'm urging you to help us tell it louder And so in any way that you can share those stories I do want to hear uh the elongated version of the frustrations because that's how we uh be bang that door down for lack of a better
term Um I will also uh comment on what Commissioner Campbell said We are a beacon in the state as to how we are thinking critically about giving uh supplying care in a way that's um multiaceted It's meeting people where
they need to be met oftent times outside of the box and that's really hard to uh uh for folks to understand sometimes but you're doing a phenomenal job with the limited resources that I know you all have So thank you for that I and I will say that uh these are uh stories that
you know we get criticized a lot for how large the social service budget is and uh I appreciate you bringing forth why we're doing the work how we're preventing uh a cycle of um uh you know
a trouble if you will trying to get kids out of really horrific uh situations and getting adults the care that they need In a state that wants to talk about how well we treat citizens uh there's uh huge huge gaps in care
that's available in beds that beds that are available and how sometimes it's really easy to say "Oh well we got the person the care that they needed and we're going to kick them on out with no supports uh in a structure that's vitally broken." So I'm going to get off
this soap box uh for uh the sake of our our schedule but thank you You know we we up here don't get to see the faces or the names of the people that you work with I I just find it amazing to to hear
this six um this group of six siblings were adopted by a family member I think that's just amazing And it's just too bad that we're not allowed to put a name and a face to that uh here at this level
So whoever that person is thank you very much And hopefully we can see more of those types of things happen So yes Commissioner I try not to go backwards too much but I worked in a system that was
broken and we worked at huge expense Us and the and the prosecuting attorney's office worked at huge expense to try and shuffle the problem and try and litigate the problem
and it just gratifies me and it's it has since I came here in 2006 understand what the fight you guys are fighting and it's got to be frustrating but you're doing such a better job than most communities
do and we need to support this and Commissioner Mojo is right we hear a lot of static about the cost of of your uh your operation trust me there's a cost to not having the kind of people you've
got and as the state attempts to shift you know the cost on the county we've got to fight that But we also have to support what you're doing out there and we understand that And again the story six kids
uh just your highlights you hit I come from a place where there aren't any of those stories where success is considered We sent somebody to jail or we got that little kid that's gang banging because nothing has been
available to him all his life We got him sent off to juvie when West Central is the worst case scenario that we deal with and that's a wonderful place Sure you don't want to send kids
there when they can be in a family but there there I don't think we throw anybody away in this community and you guys are a huge part of that So thank you All right Well thank you very much for for being here and giving us your updates
today Steve do you want to take the uh item number four i understand that um our presenter had a conflict Yes Uh thank you Mr Chair Uh Mr Strowman sends his apologies He ended up getting
pulled into a meeting uh prior to heading over here this morning And so uh the resolution before you this morning is a partnership that's been gone gone on many years uh with Klay County and the Snowmobile Klay County Trail Alliance uh and we act as the
legal sponsor through the DNR for funding uh for the grooming of the trails that they provide uh in in Klay County And so uh they also act as our through this resolution they also act as our liaison of working with uh working
with our land owners in Klay County to have permission to utilize the rightway or in certain cases parts of their land for the trail to go through And uh and so uh they're required to maintain maintain that documentation and ongoing
conversations with our citizens uh through an audit process through the DNR Uh and so our request here today is through resolution 2025-13 would be to continue uh that acting as the legal sponsor It would also this would also
provide an opportunity for for myself when uh documentation comes as part of this grant that this board allows me to sign on this board's behalf uh for the upcoming calendar year With that I'd yield for any questions Questions i have one question Okay Commissioner
Bear Does this have to be dealt with today to get in for grant or um it it it doesn't Um but uh I've dealt I've done this before on my own just based on Greg's Greg's schedule It's sometimes hard for him to get here Uh and so um it
doesn't have to be done done today I mean it could it could still be done today And if you wanted to invite Greg in to provide an update for um on the last on last year's snowmobile season we could certainly invite him back Well I you know I think we can act on this today and if we want to get an
update him from him on activities you know maybe maybe a fall would be a better time We're going into a I guess we are going into our snow season Oh wow So anyway um I guess I would just assume
act on it now and um move forward So any questions commissioner Mayor yeah I'll just go ahead and make a motion to approve resolution 2025-13 for Klay County to act as legal sponsor for DNR funding for the
snowmobile trail management by Clay Trail and uh Alliance I'll second the motion We have a motion by Commissioner Einger second by Commissioner Mojo Any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I
oppose the same sign Motion carried Thank you All right Thank you Steve All right And then that leaves us with our committee reports I know that Commissioner Krabanov had to leave for an appointment So um Commissioner Mojo
would you like to start today thank you Mr Chair As you know I've been at the capital a lot to advance the agenda that the board has put forth So I appreciate the opportunity to do so uh happy to report
we've been successful to uh acquire a number of hearings for both our PRTF nonsecure facility and flood mitigation I also had the opportunity to partake with the uh water
water district creation conversations Uh we've met with over 20 legislators on both the Senate and House side uh met with both chairs of multiple committees vice chairs of multiple committees and uh as we all saw last week with the uh
House and Senate proposed budget components there's a lot of gap in regards to what we're seeing and needing locally and what is uh left to pay for those components Um last week we had the capital invest or capital investment hearing for the non-secure facility I
just want to thank James for attending with that It was really helpful to have his um insight and I think it goes to not only the presentation that we just had but uh many of our departments who uh when we ask to help uh discuss and
explain the need statewide Not only do they say we'll do whatever it takes but they'll say how can we be there to help So I really appreciate that Last week I also attended the compliance committee kickoff uh meeting that was held I was able to attend virtually Uh Rory's
brought that group together just to make sure that we're working on the IT components with all of our departments uh to um be not only in compliance but also making sure that uh we're taking the threats cyber security threats into
account So I appreciate being uh included in that group I attended the land management for the FM diversion authority meeting Talked about the Horus uh land component That one's tricky
There's so many different nuances to that but heard from a lot of residents making sure that uh they had the opportunity to bid on that uh as well So that was recommended to the full board The next day I attended the MCC JAPA
meeting Uh we had a um a land parcel that we dealt with on the Wilin County line Uh there was a recommendation for action on that And then last week I also had the Metrocog
executive committee meeting We were discussing uh planning and uh the presentation to this full board on what Metrocog would or what we would like to hear from Metrocog So I appreciate bringing it being brought in on that piece And then
Friday I attended the AMC board of directors meeting in uh at in Niswah Uh really um it's it's hard to get a good accurate beat on all of the different issues that are affecting us locally not
only from the federal government but the the state u budget outlooks We talked for a long time on Medicaid that federal re reconciliation status um what our uh stance is on that how we will implement
something locally what the proposed changes will mean to budgets Um there's a lot of high high level uh issues that are going on that have uh dire uh implications to local budgets So
I appreciate being part of that discussion And then um I also attended a meeting with the city of Morehead Chamber of Commerce and Klay County in regards to flood mitigation strategy for legislation I'm
going to go back on a comment that I said uh earlier in March Uh the projects in Minnesota are vitally important and required for all of the permits and settlements that have been signed I will fiercely defend that those projects need
to be completed in a timely manner And I will also say that I I don't think if we had an unprecedented flood today there are components on the North Dakota side that would allow um some sort of uh operation of that channel And unless the
Minnesota components are done nothing can be operated through that channel in my uh point of view And so I'm hopeful that those of us that are around all of those tables will continue to advocate that position uh forward I understand
that there might be delays for funding I understand that there might be timelines that uh need to be consolidated or pushed out but those projects must be completed uh that was the promise that we gave uh settlement agreement
component or people downstream and upstream people those understandings were in play as we've moved forward with eminent domain and land purchase agreements uh they must be done so I appreciate being part of uh the the collaboration
in how we think critically and advocate those uh needs forward I'm hopeful that we're able to get Governor Walls and Governor Armstrong together to revisit what the governor's task force proposals and agreements were So I'm hopeful that we can do that It looks like we're
looking at a date maybe a week and a half two weeks out Uh so that's all I have on that piece and then also attended a meeting with Senator Coopek that morning with uh social service staff uh juvenile detention staff Steve
and Commissioner Kavanagh and how we work forward in advancing those uh legislative priorities and discussion components forward That's all I have Thank you Commissioner Bear On Wednesday March 26 I went to the Historical Cultural Society of Clay
County where we discussed hiring a new executive director The longtime one is retiring and they've had a 100 applicants which they weeded down to 15 and they're going to start interviews They also discussed uh
renewing their line of credit there in case of an emergency which they did that And that's pretty much all that was discussed there And then yesterday I went to the West Central Regional Water District meeting up in
Holstead where we discussed anou with Felton to receive their $1.75 million grant so we can bring that into the water district and we'll be having a meeting with city of
Felton next Monday We also had an update but from the operator of the East Central Regional Water District from North Dakota giving us a an update on where all their water
comes from because that'll be the first water we would be receiving purchasing from for the district to come from North Dakota to feed the Holstead line We also discussed the budget and we're sitting
pretty well right now with all three counties bringing in a few more funds And I'd like to thank Jenny for being part of those meetings down there in St Paul And with that that was all that I had for the last week
Thank you Commissioner Eringer And last Tuesday after our commission meeting we had Kim Savajo bring in a recorder's office compliance report Uh everything looks in order and that information will be b brought before the
commission at some uh upcoming date Uh then later that day I had the Red River Regional Dispatch Center meeting um had general business and really I think the only thing that stood out on the uh dispatch center facility update
there were some upgrade updated costs 423,000 uh almost 424,000 uh allocated for consoles um that needed to be increased uh 16,000 for wireless access points
within the building U and then uh additional power outlets redundancies to the consoles of uh uh almost $18,000 All of those were passed Uh there was a
$672 credit for a uh coiling door that is still being contested It seems like every new facility has got door problems But uh that pretty much completes that report On uh Wednesday the 26th
uh I attended the Greater Fargo Fargo Morehead EDC executive board meeting uh covered some of the projects or some of the programs that are currently underway with uh company culture discussions and workforce
recruitment Um Innovate 28 was a point of discussion Um Mr Uh Joe uh Brasso talked about some of the data that he's provided for both sides of the
the river uh to the chamber of commerce to help with legislative issues Um they discussed the matching funds that the innovate 28 fund generates uh from the state of North Dakota through Cass
County and that they continue to try and find private sector investors in this and that was a point of discussion uh Cass County members indicated they wanted to know why some businesses were not joining
uh or Mr Raso indicated a lot of it was comfort with traditional investments They were had made donate donations to the EDC and they didn't want to donate to Innovate 28 They wanted to continue
to donate to the EDC and they didn't have a relationship with the chamber Uh which I find kind of ironic I think we have a relationship with the chamber and our donation still went to the EDC uh so that they get the North Dakota
match But uh there was a request at uh from Cass County that they want to see what the return on their investment is from the Innovate 28 program and that is an issue to come Uh
later that day I went to the drug court graduation They were running quite a bit late because they were doing staffing They were bringing some of the participants up and having them report in So I missed about half of the graduation itself But I just want to say
that is a remarkable program right now and haven't heard what we did this morning partic particularly from Kirsten It was really great to see some people that have got some huge issues and they're coming back in and
this court's assisting them and getting turned around Uh there was a woman who was reunited with four of her kids that were in foster care because she's clean and sober and she's taken the steps and the the drug court uh was there to help
her uh stay on path So I I wished I could have stayed for the entire thing but I had a meeting following up later that day at the uh diversion authority finance committee and I attended u as the alternate but I
attended because we had Minnesota funding updates uh in the agenda I'll get to that in a minute We had the usual business uh andou agreements that we discussed uh some
uh budget reports but when we got to the the uh Minnesota funding and the the projects we have over here I was quite happy Jason Benson u and Tony Grimberg both acknowledged the efforts that Commissioner Mojo and
the Minnesota people are making in the legislative uh initiatives that we got And I think that sets some of the concerns we've heard I think they got some peace peace of mind through that knowing that these
extraordinary efforts are being made to get these critical uh projects funded And I don't think we could I don't think and and again I'll throw thank you to our staff and to the people that have been up there and to
Commissioner Mojo for the real efforts they put into this Executive Director Benson pointed that out Uh Commissioner Grinberg nodded when it was said uh which this is a this is a good
uh position to be in right now We just need the funding and we need the two governors to sit down and look at the commitments that were made on on behalf of the state of Minnesota uh and North Dakota by their predecessors So hopefully that's going to happen
Um the following day I attended the uh the diversion authority board meeting Again a lot of it was a repetition of uh regular business issues we had Uh we did find there is been a a
break on the uh technical dispute review board and uh Chris Kaine who's both an attorney and a public engineer uh has agreed to serve on that As you
know we had problems with the old uh resolution team because they are being forced to have an open meeting uh over in North Dakota through the Drew Wrigley the attorney general's ruling on it It looks like they've got a
team of people put together that uh are willing to work in an open meeting environment Ironically enough they're all engineers and lawyers as lawyers I think they're probably a little more open to public scrutiny And that process is proceeding
on the the issues that we have uh um under consideration right now And again uh executive director Benson uh made reference to House House File
224 and the work that's going on there We also talked a contract was established with uh H&H modeling for FEMA certification presentation that's going to help get
get uh the mapping done so that the flood insurance can be addressed by FEMA in a timely manner And again as Commissioner Mojo mentioned as long as these projects that are necessary for certification can
be completed in a timely manner and that oh uh later that day at a Lake Agony a Lake Aghazi Regional Library Board meeting a major issue under contention there was establishing
a a monthly rent for Lake Agassy will be occupying 9% of the new community center library Uh and we had two proposals and we agreed to have a
uh a executive subcommittee put together I'm on it along with Barry Nelson from Becker County and Steve Jacobson from Norman County and we will be engaging in the negotiations with the city of Morehead for a library lease Uh we have
a quarter million dollars set aside for FFNE Uh as soon as we have a lease we'll be able to discuss that with them They've given us a couple of options Uh we're going to meet and then we'll meet with them and continue to work towards getting a lease that's affordable And
that completes my report Thank you Commissioner Mo You have a couple additions Thank you I appreciate your perspective on that uh Lake Agassy and City of Morehead lease I think those discussions will be helpful as we look over square footage occupied uh in
regards to what rent should be for um projects Last week I attended the HR committee of the Lakes and Prairie Community Action We did have a opportunity to review the executive director uh and then had that meeting on Thursday So I apologize for not
reporting on that happy to report that uh Lori is just doing a fantastic job in regards to what how she's leading in really a time of uncertainty for funding Really doing the best to be as financially conservative as possible while also making sure that services are being delivered And then we did have a
great update u from HR on the components that they're working through I know HR world is kind of tricky too as different requirements are going through but uh that was helpful And then we did have a very good dialogue in the VITA tax site that continues to be uh present in Clay
and Wilin counties as um uh tax prep season is upon us That concludes my report Thank you Thank you Uh I'm going to go back to March 18th I did attend the personnel issues committee meeting which
um action was taken today regarding that hiring of a deputy sheriff um while the one of our members one of our deputies is on military deployment And uh then on last week I was I attended virtually a meeting on
the on March 25th with the triple RDC Uh Commissioner Eberinger has reported on that and I think really the the main topic of discussion there were the two change orders um that that he explained
And then on the 27th I attended the MTCGAPA meeting and we you know we get our usual land updates and where we are percentage- wise and completion Um Commissioner Mojo talked
about the uh one one agreement that we settle a purchase agreement or settlement agreement that we have with a landowner there And part of that agreement was that we would build a ring levy uh for them as part of that
agreement And and that the reason that ring levy was allowed to be done is because it met all the criteria that the diversion authority staff and engineers felt was uh reasonable and could be and the ring
levy could be sustainable So that was that and that concludes my committee report Steve thank you Mr Chair Uh on the 25th I participated in Kimberly's compliance report update that
uh Commissioner Eberger has doc talked about On the 25th also met with the Sheriff Emps issues uh on the 26th Uh I think I met with everyone every commissioner here except for Commissioner uh Campbell
last on on certain issues on on the 26th Also on the I met with Dale Arnold and Joe Uh as this board knows we've been kind of having to have discussed a vision of this uh facility here at the courthouse kind of morphing into a
justice center o over the last several months just about a year Uh Joe has been working with the Department of Corrections uh in uh looking at uh different places within the facility that would bring all of their probation uh into one building Uh there there was
funding that was initially secured from the state of Minnesota uh to to make the funding with like a lot of things with the upcoming uh budget out there Uh that dollar amount was cut fairly significantly Uh and at this point it
would not uh the the remodel of the areas in the first floor came out to between 600 and $640,000 uh which unfortunately at this time the department of corrections uh in the state of Minnesota does not have uh and so uh that uh that'll be placed on hold
for this moment I think that there was benefit in going through the process uh as you recall they had an engineer structural engineer look through the different areas as a part of the study that the state paid for and so I think that'll be benefits as benefits as either one we move forward with the
department of corrections in the future andor uh future needs of the county um on the 27th participated in the MCC JPA meeting which has been covered uh also met on the 28th met the flood
mitigation uh with the chamber and Morehead that's been addressed also the non-secured detention meeting with Senator Coupe senator Coopek and uh on funding for a nonsecured detention that evening I did uh participate with
several of you in this room uh to Chief Monroe's retirement we want to thank him uh for the relationship of the work that he's done here with uh in Klay County and with our with our sheriff's department wish him well in retirement um participated in the water district meeting that's been well addressed also
Also this afternoon we do have a Klay County EDCEDA meeting here at the courthouse Uh on Thursday we are also going to be having our uh rural cities and county meeting at the law enforcement center from 4 to 6 And and on an upbeat note uh the 7th annual Klay
County Soil and Water District Pollinator Night will be uh April 22nd So with that I conclude my report Thank you I just want to um Brian do you have something darren
very briefly uh I also attended the annual compliance meeting uh that Kimberly had Uh she'll be bringing that to the board at a later date during her budget briefing I also attended the compliance committee uh kickoff meeting with Rory Schmidt and mostly the department heads um looking at uh trying
to get a compliance all of our compliances in one area and in one document Um we talked about government data practices acts foyer requests um talked about data retention those type of things Uh Wednesday I had a discussion with our jail administrator
uh chief deputy sheriff and uh HR director reference a personnel issue Started work on the 2026 budget That was fun Uh worked on the county code with Mark and uh Mark and Brian on Wednesday the 26th
Yeah it's depressing Um also on Thursday continued work on the 2026 budget and had a meeting with Mark Sloan and Steve and then listened in on the uh Minnesota uh Association County Administrators conference call
they have on Fridays Very uh entertaining Also um they talked about the paid leave and some of the the things that they're trying to do with that And also um it seemed like some progress at least according to AMC there's some progress on the technology
improvements to the uh human services and and social services uh technology issues which was uh was certainly needed and um and that was it Jackie Okay I just a couple things I I
just wanted to say thank you to uh our administrator Larson Um I I was gone last week but I was able to be in touch by email and I believe some of you you others were also informed about um a
letter he was sending out to our external agencies that that we fund And I think the letter was uh appropriate and timely as we heard again this morning and of all of the new things that might be coming forward at the
state level uh that could really have an impact on um our 2026 budget I think it's I think it's uh important for everybody to really understand the difficulties that we may be having
uh with a $6 billion deficit at the state level And um in addition to that new program requirements that are falling down on us through the um mandates at the state
level Um and also that uh Steve mentioned that he's he has talked already u with your with the um individual department heads uh in regards to this same issue moving forward So I think it early on
discussions on that is really important And Steve I just want to follow up with you to a conversation I had with you uh regarding and my computer last week reminded me of it when I was uh about to get online and I had to spend six hours
updating my old computer before I could do anything And notice the word I used the word old computer And I I still would like to have a conversation with Rory about these
laptops when they're turned in Uh I I believe that there's a better alternative than what we're currently doing which would allow these laptops to be used by um people who might otherwise not have the ability to get them So I
I'd like to have that conversation and I know I've I've spoken individually with with our commissioners and I I think there's an agreement there that we could do something better and more significant with those So thank you Mr Chair I will certainly line something up I've had some conversations both with Rory and
also Lori Johnson in regard to that and so that maybe that would be something we could bring up at a upcoming work session or something Very good Anything else okay I we will stand adjourned