--------- Good morning everyone. It is 8:30 and I will go ahead and call today's meeting of the Klay County Board of Commissioners to order. Our first item on the agenda this morning is an approval of the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> We have a motion offered to approve the agenda. >> Second.
>> And a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Same sign. carried. Our next item today is our employee recognitions.
Okay. Our first individual that we're going to recognize this morning is Kent Severson. Kent, you want to come up here? And this certificate is given to you in grateful recognition of 25 years of service to Klay County and our residents. Thank you so much for all the
work you've done during that time. >> And I know Jessica is not available this morning, but Steve has some comments. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Uh Jessica sends her wishes she could be here this morning, but did want to pass along uh this her her thoughts. Kent began his
career with Klay County in 2001 in the planning and zoning department before transitioning to public health in 2004. He served for many years as a sanitarian working alongside Bruce Jaster and in 2019 stepped into the role of director of environmental health just before the
COVID 19 pandemic. Throughout his career, Kent served Klay County in many ways. He holds credentials as a registered sanitarian, asbestous inspector, and septic system inspector. Environmental health covers a wide variety of responsibilities including licensing regulated
establishments, responding to complaints and nuisances, supporting outbreaks, uh, investigations, sampling public water supplies, enforcing environmental regulations, and helping ensure safe food lodging pools, campgrounds, and mobile home parks. While much of his
work happens behind the scenes, it plays a vital role in protecting the health and well-being of everyone who lives, works, and visits Klay County. Kent often Kent often says that no two days are the same in environmental health and just when you think his day is planned something comes up and pulls him in a different direction. His flexibility,
knowledge, steady approach has been a tremendous asset to our department and to the community. Uh beyond his professional expertise, Kent's sense of humor and easygoing attitude have made him a valued colleague and someone who helps Klay County a great place to work. Kent, thank you for your 25 years of
service, commitment, and leadership. And I was expecting that Jason was going to give you that big trophy, but I I guess that's for something else. >> Our next individual that we are going to recognize today is Tammy Gerky.
>> This is pretty amazing. Tammy, we are recognizing you today in grateful recognition of 40 years of service to Klay County and our residents. Thank you so much for all that you've done during that time. >> All right. >> Okay. I got a lot to say, but I talk
fast, so it's good. So, today we're celebrating a truly special milestone. Um Tammy's been here for 40 years. She didn't quit and come back like some other people I've had. >> She was 10. >> Yeah. And she stayed.
Um, so she started in 1986 as a clerk typist in the child support unit. Uh, she was a newlywed at the time, so she's also celebrating a big anniversary. Yep. Um, didn't have any kids at that point. She's got two now and she's got two grandkids.
>> Three. Oh, that's right. Oh, she just had another one. Um so she uh when she started here she was beginning a new chapter in her work life and her personal life and her career's become defined by her dedication, her
expertise and her compassion. And the best part is that I've been by her side the entire time. Yeah. In 1992 she was promoted to a support enforcement aid in the child support unit. And then in 1996 she moved into her current role as a collections
officer. Uh I would have to say you're probably one of the longest running collections officers in the state and um yeah people approach her for her expertise and her guidance from all over. It's it's awesome. Um for the past
three decades she's been responsible for collecting debts that are owed to public assistance programs and to Klay County. Um, it might not be the most visible work that we do, but it's incredibly important and every dollar recovered helps to protect taxpayer resources and
ensures that public funds are managed uh, responsibly. When we hear discussions about outdated technology and government, um, Tammy's work is a perfect example of that challenge because unlike most other programs, um, there is no statewide
system for collections. So instead she works across multiple computer systems. They don't communicate with each other. So it's you have to enter everything twice. And then um constant cross-checking, manual entries and attention to detail
is a big part of her job. Um despite those obstacles, she's the one people turn to for answers. She's an expert on the those complex rules and um you just can't learn it all overnight. And through it all, um,
one of her most difficult parts of her job is a state recovery and she works with grieving families regarding medical assistance recovery. Um, it takes a lot of knowledge and professionalism, a lot of kindness and grace, and Tammy brings all of those
qualities every day. On a personal note, Tammy and I essentially grew up together as county employees. We lived through the crazy 80s. Questionable clothing and hair choices. Um, orange offices, six complete office
moves of the entire unit to different buildings or floors. Uh, paper fl files. So many staff changes we've kind of lost count. Talking about that before. Um, we've watched our department, our technology, our programs, and our community change
over the years. And through all those changes, Tammy's remained a steady, knowledgeable, and dependable presence. I feel very fortunate that you're still part of our team and that you continue to do the amazing work that you do. So, thank you for 40 years.
>> Thank you. >> Sorry, Ken. She gets a trophy. Thank you. Well, if anything speaks to the culture of uh working for Klay County, those uh stories are a testament. So, thank you both and thank you to the staff and
other department colleagues at your work with uh for doing the great work. Citizens to be heard today, are there any citizens in the audience wishing to address the county board? Anyone wishing to address the county board?
>> Steve, have you had any requests? >> Nothing, ma'am. Madam Chair, >> thank you. >> Next item today is the approval of the payment of bills and vouchers. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the payment of bills and vouchers. >> We have a motion offered to pay the bills from Commissioner Ebinger, a
second from Commissioner Kraban. Any further discussion? Discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I >> I >> oppose same sign carried. The minutes
from June 6th, 2026 and June 23rd, 2026 were uh published in the packet. >> Madam Chair, do you want those in separate motions or one motion will work? >> That's due separate, please. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from June 16th, 2026. >> Okay, we have a motion offered from Commissioner Barry to approve the
minutes from June 16th >> and a second from Commissioner Campbell. Any further discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Carried. Next item would be the 23rd.
>> Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from June 23rd, 2026. >> Okay. We have a motion offered to approve the minutes from the 23rd as presented. >> Second >> and a second from Commissioner Campbell. Any further discussion? Discussion.
All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign carried. Item two, the five-year community impact update. Jason, >> good morning. >> Morning, Madam Chair and commissioners.
Um, I have a brief PowerPoint I'm going to share with you guys. Thank you, Sarah, for having this voted for me. So I'm ju June 30th, 2026 was the end of our positive community norms grant. Um five years ago, some of you will
remember um we had this vision given to us um from Minnesota DHS that uh substances and substance abuse could be changed by focusing on the positive. And that was brand new to me, brand new to anyone
here in the area at the time. Um, at that point in time, my career was show the scariness of vaping, show the scariness of nicotine use and um, and then hope that people will make change. And I was introduced to the science of
the positive. Um, Jeff Lincolnbach is the head scientist behind that. Um, this concept of positive community norms. How do we actually change culture? How do we actually make lasting change? And um I'm going to start right away from the beginning with just showing the numbers.
We did it. In 2019 at DGF schools, our vaping rates were 24%. We are now at 5%. Just to put that in perspective, we are in the top 10 schools of the state as far as uh vaping
uh not being used. Uh we didn't really focus on alcohol or cannabis. And yet you can see that the science worked there too. Alcohol use rate, these are past 30-day numbers um dropped from 23% to 8%. Our cannabis use rate went from
12% to 5% which is fascinating from a preventionist uh standpoint. Whenever I was asked to to study across other states and see what legalized marijuana would do, usually you see a a temporary jump in use rates and we actually
continued going down in our use rates. Now beyond this um some of the the softer sciences that actually stepped in as well our bullying rates are down our mental health rates are up. So in short we've we've made DGF into something that
has been um is being studied across the the nation. And I'll I'll show you a little bit more of that. As a county our tobacco use rates now are amongst the lowest in the state. Uh Klay County now has an overall vaping rate across
all high schools of 9%. So we've done amazing work and a lot of that comes to you. So I will actually kill the suspense right away and I'll just let you know this this trophy we we bought for our kids out at DGF for our rice club. Uh you've met many of them
when they've been here to speak about ordinance and stuff. It says, "We beat big tobacco." Because when I first uh came out there, uh those of you who knew uh principal Wayne Leard was the principal of the high school at the time, he asked me to end vaping for DGF.
Now, did we end it? Not 100%. Have our kids absolutely won? Yes. We went from a a perspective of 24 to 25 kids per per grade that were regularly vaping down to less than five of them. So, that's an amazing thing to know. So
that's that's what we bought them the trophy for. It'll be displayed in a a really nice case that we bought for them out there. We've uh created a community room that allows them to um talk about, you know, wins in speech or national honor society or different things like
that. Um and just reward them for being just generally good citizens. Now, how do we do that? One of the biggest things I learned was that the solution was already there. Um, one of the big things we we oftentimes
have to focus on the concern, right? 24% of kids vaping was a big concern and yet 76% weren't. That mean threequarters of our kids said no. And that's amazing when we consider that over a million dollars an
hour gets spent by big tobacco every single hour to try to get our kids to use, right? So, the fact that we had such great kids to start with made this process uh very growable. This right here is our wise
club. Um in high school, we went from 13 kids that wanted to talk about prevention work in their school to 43 kids regularly showing up. That's an eighth of our high school that is involved in this. Now, there's another 18 kids in our middle school and the
group just keeps growing. So, it's just been an amazing uh experience for me to be able to be a part of. And really what we what we changed was instead of asking what was wrong with us, we started asking what was strong with us and
growing that. Um, one of the cool things we got to do here in our last year of the grant, um, we brought in, uh, John Nolner. He runs a business called a piece of my mind which is p a ce because it sounds a little like little argumentative at
first. Um and we asked the question of the kids and the staff and the community members. Um what um where do you see the positive show up in DGF? And this was one of the young uh ladies answered my community shows kindness through everyday respect and small thoughtful
actions. And it just really goes to highlight the change in the in the community and things that we had. We had hoped that we would get maybe 50 people that to part participate and they over exceeded us again. 94 people showed up um for this project. Um we created that
was the video that I was able to share with you guys. Hopefully we could share it out um with the community as well. It's been shared around DGF. Um there's so many powerful stories that just popped up um from his visit. The second I wanted to share with you when I said
that DGF is is landing on a national uh storyboard. Um there's a journalist her name is Rochelle Sharp and she writes for the New York Times, Washington Post, places like that. Um and she had written a uh article on one of the frameworks we use called healthy outcomes from
positive experiences. and through that she learned about the positive community norms that led her to us and she came here and did a story that's that's being in it's in the editing phase right now. It'll it'll be in the New York Times where they'll be talking about our kids
um and all the work. And one of the cool things that she noticed and she started asking the kids is like you guys don't talk about not using substances anymore. What do you do? And the answer that came from one of our seniors was, you know,
in the beginning we did, but what we realized is we don't need alcohol or any other substance to have fun. So we just invite people to come and hang out with us and see that we don't need substances to actually have a good time. And as they realize that that's true, more and
more people just come to us. Now our kids at DGF are talked about in the other schools. Like they're asking me like I get calls, how do we duplicate this? What do we how do we make this work? Um, this here was Olivia. She was our student president. Uh, you may remember she was here whenever um we
were working on the tobacco ordinance. And I love her her quote that I was inspired to lead after realizing that there was a problem and someone needed to speak up for change that somebody was me. That's the kind of culture that's changing out there. Uh, it's been a
complete community effort. Uh, no part of this uh process has been only Jason McCoy. has always been um the students vote. We pilot test everything with staff, with community members, with students to make sure that all of the murals that are out there, all of the
different um uh items that we've done, even this trophy, you know, had voting done on it to make sure that um everything was part of a process. And that message really took hold. So over five years, every year we did a different um a different survey to make
sure that we could follow our data. And this this I just loved the numbers. You know, 5% of our kids not vaping or using cannabis. That's amazing. But this tells the real story, right? 83% of the kids say my family would disapprove. They
understand that means their parents are talking to them. That means this communication has actually saturated. Threearters of them say, "My friends would disapprove of me vaping or drinking." And so they understand that threearters of them don't need it to
have a good time. Right? That's cultural change. That's the kids really truly realizing that I don't need this. I can actually go out and accomplish my life without substances. These are community norms. So what lasts? As five years is
wrapped up, um, we now have a a student body that leads. They they have found their voice. They want to keep moving forward. We have a culture that supports healthy choices and a community that's committed to helping these young people
thrive. One of the coolest things I saw in our last Minnesota student survey data was we changed in year one. Only 37% of the kids thought their community cared about them. This last one, over 70% of them believe the community cares.
So, we've changed that mindset and I look forward to seeing how it continues to grow. So, thank you for supporting us with your allowance. We were able to do this work. Um, we're looking forward to seeing what happens in the future from now on. Any
questions you might have for me? >> Thank you, Mr. McCoy. Any questions for him on the presentation or the work? Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Yeah, just Jason to you and your team
just an incredible thank you. Um um as a grandparent and and a parent of my kids in school. Um you know just to see where a school community works together I
think is just um kind of overwhelms me actually. Um, good work. That's just why I'm saying that. >> Thank you. Additional comments or questions. >> Will you be giving the same presentation to the city councils and the school
board? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I've already been to the school board and I'm I'm on the uh board or on the agenda for the city councils. >> Great. Yeah. I think this really speaks to the collaboration on how different entities can do the work and help
realize some cost savings outside of all of the fantastic points that you brought up about uh healthy community norms and uh students um perspective on substances. So, thank you so much. >> Any questions? Yes, >> Madam Chair, again, Jason, just great
work. appreciate the dedication and leadership not only in the region but uh sharing with the state on all the work that you do with this grant ending. Do you want to share a little bit about what your next steps are? >> Sure. Absolutely. Um so um first of all I was worried that I didn't have a job
after the grant because that is the nature of grant work. Um but we do have uh within public health we have the foundational public health responsibilities um which will be paying for point eight of my time and then point two will be from the um cannabis and other substance use prevention
grant. So um I am now in a really cool position where I get to share across Klay County and Becker County through through our community health board. Um so my my job will continue to cover any policy work you that you would like to uh see addressed. Um, I also get to work
on making partnerships in our community. Um, and um, a lot of our social media, a lot of our mental health work. So, credible mind. I'll be back soon to present uh, that to you guys. So, you so you guys know this really cool resource that we have out there. Um, mostly is
just helping with mental behavioral health um, issues across both counties. Um, one of the coolest things that I I'm doing right now, Commissioner Campbell, I remember one of the first times I reported on this, he was like, "What about Morehead? what are we going to do for Morehead? Um, we have a really awesome program that started at Morehead
right now um around recovery and it came from I had a principal come to me in year three of this grant and say, "Okay, I believe you at that point 93% of our kids aren't." And that 7% that are using that's my entire day. What do we do for them? And so I've been working with
Morehead to create this recovery program. How do we keep kids in the school and actually help them quit and give them that that power to be able to understand what cessation looks like so we can actually bring them over to join the rest who aren't using. So there's a
lot of really awesome things going on. That's again that's a that's an original pilot that MDH is allowing us to do. So there's some awesome work right here in Klay County that's happening. >> Thank you for following up on that. Any other questions?
Great work. >> Want to take a picture with a trophy before pardon? >> Do you guys want to take a picture with a trophy before I leave? >> Sure. >> Yeah, let's do it. >> You guys are part of this works. >> Yeah. All right. Bring her up. >> How are we doing this? All of us.
>> All right. Our soccer team lost, but we won. >> Thank you. Okay. Next on our agenda today is the item three, the request approval of the state of Minnesota grant agreement. We have our county engineer with us this morning, Justin Sorum. Good morning.
>> Good morning. So yes, the item that I have for approval today is the state of Minnesota grant contract agreement. So this contract is just for the art trail that runs from Uland to the north county line. So every year I come forward to the board with a resolution. That's the
first part of this and then the actual agreement is the second part. What this does is it just allows us to get reimbursed for anything that we spend on the trail and then anything that the local mudslingers OV group also incurs.
>> Okay. Thank you. This has been I believe a really positive agreement uh you know for for minimal cost really to maintain uh such a great trail system. Any questions from the board on the trail or the agreement?
This this is budget neutral as well. So we don't the amount that we get each year covers our costs and covers the mudslingers costs as well. So >> great. >> Board wishes. >> Madam chair. >> Yes. Commissioner Ebinger.
>> I move to approve the state of Minnesota grant contract agreement 292935. A >> second. >> A motion offered from Commissioner Ebinger to approve the agreement. A second from Commissioner Bayer. Additional questions? Any additional questions?
All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same. Sign. Carried. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you also for uh utilizing social media to get messaging out there on the construction projects. That's been very helpful for folks.
>> Definitely. Thank you. Item four today is the Klay County Board of Commissioners consideration of a potential modification of the University of Minnesota Extension contract. We have Cecilia with Good morning, Cecilia. >> Good morning.
>> Testing. Good morning, >> Steve. >> Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. As you're certainly well aware, we contract with the University of Minnesota for our extension program services. Uh we currently have uh two
full-time employees uh and a 1.8 or excuse me, a 08 FTE and also an administrative assistant uh who the extension university of Minnesota provides services for. Generally, we are we are in that in the contract with them
over three years. We are in the third year of that contract and we currently have a have a opening in our youth development uh position and there's been some discussion over previous um uh previous board meetings where we've had some challenges or we know we have
challenges with the upcoming budget uh and uh it was a good time to have a discussion of whether or not we would continue to maintain the same number of staff moving forward. Uh and so the the question before the board today would be is uh in looking at the contract, the
contract is scheduled to end at at the end of this year. Uh she'll be coming forward later this fall with a new contract. Uh but having said that and have an opening now, we thought now would be a time to have that discussion. Uh so we weren't in a position where if the board were to make a decision to
need to cut cut things next year uh for next year's budget that we would have a person advertise for that point. uh the position that that you approve of. So that I'd yield for any questions. >> Questions? Uh Commissioner Bear. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. How long has
this position sat open? >> Um it's been open for about since May. >> Since May. >> And it's uh if I might, it's not um been open because it's not been advertised the way the university system is. I mean it's they uh hire during similar seasons
or different timings and so it's not been advertised yet. Yeah. >> Yes. Commissioner Campbell, >> can you describe a little bit of what um a youth development director does? >> Um the educator position. >> Yeah. >> Um yeah. >> Yep. That individual is in charge of
managing all the programming happening um in Klay County. uh managing the volunteer system is a great about 40% of their job is really recruiting, maintaining and sustaining volunteers to continue the program. Um they're also in charge of recruiting new uh families to
join in for um in charge of just managing the educational piece that happens. Um we have ambassadors in the county that um requires a lot of just making sure that young people have the leadership skills that they need. Um they took trips um to DC. they they do a
lot of service um oriented work in the community and that takes somebody dedicated to guide them in that way. Um so they spend a lot of time doing that and then obviously just daytoday engaging with um Klay County residents but also um volunteers and and young
people that are in the program. >> Is it primarily um >> this is the for >> Yeah, this one is the 4 position and then we also have the A position. Um slide the point eight. >> I've always been a strong advocate for 4
and and the educators in 4. At the same time, I've also um said that the numbers have to support it. >> And I so I'm I'm curious as to where where we're at with how how is how
is 4 grown? Uh because there was a point when we had a half person actually we we had one full-time extension educator in Klay County and then we went to a half and then we went to full >> and so you know I I guess I' I'd like to
just see where we're at in those numbers. >> Yeah. I don't have the specific numbers in front of me but what I can say is um we've had a period where the position was open. It's been open close open close. So we can't really um speak to
the trajectory of where it's at right now because the program was just building when we hired Mon'nique um has been in her position a year and some change now and has made a really good um connection with the the Klay County Fair Boards um build relationship there that
takes some time dedicated time to do that and so we spent majority of the time just really making sure that that relationship was strong because we understand that we can't we can't be good partners when we don't have strong relationship. So really managing that relationship and working with the
families to bring them back up to speed of where things were before that position was then open. Um and now that she's up and running then now we have an opening. Um so yeah, it's just been kind of back and forth trying to get that position those two positions up and
running. Uh, one example that I can speak of that I'm sure of that will um impact the program is a sci-fi grant is a relationship between NDSU and um, University of Minnesota Extension to really make sure that we're reaching out to our populations that typically don't
participate in 4. Um, and so we have somebody in our regional office that Klay County is not paying for that position but supporting Klay County. Right now they have three clubs that meet and eventually the goal is that to make that program more sustainable and so um Klay County would absorb that um
club and they will become more of a quote unquote traditional club um feel. Um and so Mindy Grant has been managing that program and working with um that group to really make sure that they can be embedded in the program and eventually that will be that will also
show growth. Um when uh Amelia was here, she started a lot of afterschool programming in the not not uh Morehead but like the outskirts of um more smaller communities. And that was really um good um avenue there to engage in
young people that typically don't have access, you know, after school program or before program option. So the program is growing. I just can't tell you exactly what the number is. >> Can I just have a follow? So um Sure. >> Yeah. So I' I'd be curious to know what
what kind of enrollment we have now compared to in the past in terms of kids in for in the 4 program and then also uh it wasn't too many years ago where some of our school districts were forced into situations where they had to
reduce and in some instances if I remember call recall correctly even eliminate after school programming and I know that that 4 and extension really stepped up in that regard. >> And is that still is that still going on? And what kind of numbers what kind
of numbers are we seeing enrolling in after school programming through um extension? >> I I mean I I don't expect you to have those today, but I'd like to at least see those numbers moving forward because again, >> I I think we need to be able to show to the community
>> that what we're investing in is is working. >> Yeah. And I think the group just shared an update. Um I think you were out that day when the group came um the educators came and shared the impact report. Those numbers were in there and we have that data that we can share. I can send it to
Sarah. >> There are reports that we just had at our June extension committee meeting that we can uh get that really speak to all of the questions Commissioner Campbell had. And I, you know, I can defer to Commissioner Kavanagh here, but we we are really seeing enormous strides
in the program and the afterchool program. I mean, is over 300 individuals uh all countywide that we're seeing participating in this. I I think the reason behind this discussion to the board is felt that one just similar that
we do with other openings and staffing wanted to make sure there was a space for this board to approve moving forward in whatever advertisement it is. Understanding that budgets are challenging right now and that this board may want to make some sort of adjustment to see some sort of savings.
I I can tell you it kills me to have this discussion the week of the Klay County Fair in a time when we finally got How many years did it take commissioner for us to get them to 2.0 I know in that office finally starting to
see positive changes in not only numbers uh the ex static exhibits the animals at the fair are higher than they've ever been and we're hearing from the fair board that they are having the support from the extension office that really they were wanting for a long time. It's really a great partnership, but also
understanding that budgets are challenging and we need to have the conversation if it makes sense now to move this opening to a point 8 to amend it. Uh, you know, my my worry would be is if we hired this at a full-time uh
employee now that we get to a point in 6 months where we're talking about the uh master agreement, maybe there are costs that need to be adjusted there and then needing to shift that position down. That's really hard for people. I think we would lose a an employee going from
1.0 to point8. U maybe it made sense to hire at 08 now. Um, but I will tell you a cut will come with substantial cuts to what we're seeing in the afterchool programming. That's those are your non-traditional 4 uh experienced kids.
Those aren't the after or those aren't the community club 4 kids. Those are the afterchool programming kids. And if that's the direction that this board wants to go, uh certainly we can talk about that. But just wanted this board to have a discussion. Commissioner Bear, >> could you get by with a 0.5?
Um it will be very hard um speaking to Commissioner Kumbbo's um point earlier on and Commissioner Mojo has just mentioned we are working on trying to make that um sci-fi non-traditional club group more embedded into our 4
programming and at a point 8 we're going to see some significant impact to the program at five is going to be even more significant. So the growth is going to uh for lack of better word is going to stall the growth that you want to see uh
for a county this size. >> When just a point of history, when did we go from one to one and a half to 1.8 to two? >> 2023 is um so we've kind of gone back and forth. 2023 it was a point 8 and
then we moved that back up but we also took a shift in our other program that was also open the ANR position so we went we took a that one was a full-time position we took point A from there and added it to um so we didn't necessarily come back for it wasn't a financial
impact it shift >> we just shifted uh we had seen growth in numbers in the 4 area that's why we went to the 2.0 know there and then the natural resources position to a point A which by the way she's doing phenomenal work uh in the community at a point 8 but you know th these shifts don't come
without substantial um challenges but did you and I just want to just add to if that's okay um just looking at the staffing model too when we have um to your point a.5 that that person is working that two and a half days and when you have fair it's very challenging
to have somebody at that level um it just impacts that showcase experience too. >> Mr. Kavanagh, do you want to share? >> Yeah, thank you. Uh, so uh I'll just begin with um
the thought of bringing this point I I think was after uh Amelia had um uh vacated the position. Uh the fact that we had after school programs needing to get this position filled um just put
some urgency to it. Uh I think asking for the numbers is good. I I think you showed that when we were here. We know that the after school programs are really growing. Uh we also know that we're making inroads in
Morehead mainly uh to new communities to start community clubs. >> So I think the work is growing. Um I think um I I would not support five. This is a a big role to fill. We need
the recruitment. We need the people to fill it in. Um I am in favor of the 0.8. I think for all the reasons Commissioner Mojo talked about um every every word of what she said is kind of what what I was going to say so I'm not going to repeat
it uh but it's vital work 4 is impactful uh the work that you do through extension is impactful and it's to the whole community I mean municipalities into our schools and and into the rural
areas is and then as well as the fair every part has been showing increases in big ways and uh so I um uh while I don't want to u I know we had this discussion
at last meeting uh with Carrie Robo uh who was a is a regional program director right >> and uh and with her and we we discussed the challenges of even going to point eight but I still think that's the place
I I would like to see us go and I would like to do that as soon as possible so we get this u uh this position filled. >> I think it's also important to note obviously with the opening since May there is a substantial savings that the
county is seeing this year because of that. Correct. >> That's correct madam chair commissioners. The contract does read if the position is open that the county won't will not be build for the time that there's no one in that position. >> So if we move forward at a refilling it
at a full time, we would still see a savings this calendar year similar to what it would be in a point for next year. Is that correct? >> Correct. Madam Chair, >> Commissioner Bear, >> could we get the the the numbers for the last 10 years on how this how the how
it's grown when it was one full-time to a 08 to a one? >> I'd like to see the numbers before we make a decision. Could you have those numbers by next week and we can act on this next week? So, if I I might, there is some challenge um in terms I hear what you're
saying and we can actually probably get that today because we have that information that was just provided, but um my concern is that if this is not approved now, we're already behind on the min on the ex's advertising process
and so there's a chance that if this isn't approved today that they will not be able to hire for fall school programming. just the way their timeline is >> on the contract too like we'll have to amend the contract. >> Can you um
I'm trying to figure out can you get the office to send we do have that data. >> Yeah. The 10-year period that commissioner is wanting >> is that that's dependent on how we amend
the contract today. I I'd like to see the data before I make a decision on point 8 or >> additional comments from board members. >> Well, I'll see how this goes. In respect to what you want, uh I think we had this
report. We saw the growth. We see the uh we're at these meetings seeing the growth of what's going on. And I I just want to make a motion and if it doesn't make it, that's it what it is. But I'd like to see that we move forward in uh
um in moving forward having funding this uh position at a point uh 8. >> Second. >> Okay. We have an a motion from Commissioner Kavanagh to amend the contract to rehire at a point 8. Is that the correct wording? >> Yes.
>> Okay. We have a second from Commissioner Ebinger. Additional discussion. I I would just like to see the last 10 years on how it's grown or how it's grown with a full-time employee to a point 8 to a half or just one employee. I'd like to see that data before I vote on this. So
>> I hear that. We can get that information to you. >> Additional comments from the board. Commissioner Campbell, >> I I I agree with Commissioner Bear. I again I um I want to see if there's justification no matter what it is whether it's to keep it at two or
whether it goes to 08 or whether it goes to 0.5. I think a lot of it has to be in the numbers and and I haven't seen the numbers and I don't I don't I don't like to vote on something when I don't have the numbers.
So I believe I'll be voting no. Commissioner Kavanagh, would you like to maybe withdraw the motion to see if we can get additional information before the end of this board meeting? >> I can come back with you. Um, so curious. Okay. Commissioner
>> Carbidov withdraws his motion. Commissioner Ebinger, >> I'm good with it. Just an indication. All of us have our portfolios. Okay. And I don't want this to reflect on either of you not providing us with good information coming from your the
meetings that you're responsible to attend. But if we have other commissioners here that want more data and we can do it within the time frame that's going to meet our needs, I have no no objection to that. >> Okay. So, um fine with that. See if we can get the information. I will say that
I believe staff is at the the fairgrounds today because entry day is Thursday. So there might be a chance they're not able to get that information. >> We have other ways to get it. >> Okay. So we um the enrolled data >> for the past 10 years.
>> Correct. And this the the school participation because I know we've grown the uh school districts. >> And that last part I think was even you know you know where to go but I mean we were shown these numbers in your PowerPoint.
>> This what was it last month or whatever. Yeah, >> that one has more of a a threeyear period, but >> yeah. Okay, >> obviously CO in there, too. So, we'll >> Right. I know that's challenging and I I think part of where the board is coming from and maybe particularly Commissioner
Campbell, we talk frequently about the Brenda Schaefer, Kroom, Becky Harrington years. And in those years, how we saw the ambassador program exploding, participation exploding, and uh I think the data does show that since we've had
the adjustment, the additional uh outreach that has been able to be utilized, but uh if you're able to get that, communicate with Steve if we can get it back on the I'm happy to offer a a break later. Okay,
are we good? >> Thank you. Okay, we can move that as needed. Thank you, Cecilia. >> Thank you. >> Uh, but you do have the extension present budget. Should we weigh it? And how do you want to utilize? >> Um, Madam Chair, commissioners, I think that if she has the ability to get those
numbers today, that would make more sense to have the budget discussion after. >> Okay. >> Thank you for your flexibility, Cecilia. Uh, we are ahead of schedule. Is Anna on the
way? She's outside. There she is. Good morning, Anna. Thank you for being here a little early. We have your budget presentation for human resources. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Being the first budget to present, do you want me to go line by
line or do you have a preference in what this looks like? >> Is this your first bud budget presentation? >> Um, sorry. I did have my budget presentation last year, but I mean the first for all the departments. >> Oh, got it. Uh, well, I'm not seeing your budget yet, so
there's an L. There we go. Let's uh It's not that long, so do you mind? >> Thank you. All right. The first seven lines of my budget are um kind of our fixed increases from year to year. That includes salary. Um the
only thing that would be increasing with my department's salary next year would be step increases and the COLA. Um I do not budget anything for overtime for human resources in our health insurance. Um we do currently have a 15% cap
scheduled for or a max of 15% cap for next year. So that's factored in for health insurance. Um PFML that premium um is also a fixed rate that will go up based off the salaries. Um and same with PAR, Social Security, and Medicare. So the first seven lines my budget are just
all fixed based off of salaries. my department uh had cell phone. There's no increase to that. So that would be neutral for next year. I do not budget anything for printing and publishing. And my next item would be subs our annual subscriptions. I'm requesting to
increase that by $150 just due to a slight increase in the DDA uh HR technical assistance program. My association and dues and memberships, there is no increase requested for that for next year.
I am asking to remove a $500 item um for advertising. HR does not um publish or pay for any advertising for our jobs. That would be department specific um other professional service. So you'll see that I um am increasing this for
next year or requesting to increase this um and that is due to the 10 unions um that have agreed to a market study. I do have a plug number in there for $30,000 for the market study. We I don't know if you would like to see that in HR's budget or come from a different area of
the county budget, but it is a plug number in my budget right now. >> Can I ask a question maybe just directed at Steve? How have we budgeted that piece in prior years? >> Madam Chair, you've done it in two separate ways. You've uh done it where you've added in the HR budget, but
you've also done done it where you acknowledge that there's going to be a study done and we just uh utilize fund balance, so it's not as part part of our levy. Uh curious what the board how the board would like to see that reflected going
forward or if maybe that's a a personnel issues committee item. Commissioner Campbell, since you're on pick, what what >> Well, I um I guess I guess when we do
a a wage study, it's something that has implications for more than one year. And I guess I would be I would be more inclined to want to remove that 30,000 from your budget
>> and um basically use our reserves like we've done that in the past. I think that's that's where I would like to see us go with it and and if we willing to do that now as a board then it wouldn't have to go to pick I don't think. Well, and I to that I think it does probably make more
sense just so it's not I mean it's not a continual hit in your area whenever it comes up. But >> I I agree with that. >> Okay. >> Well, and again I think it I think it goes to keeping our align item like this
consistent on on an annual basis because you don't do these wade studies every year, right? >> You know, it's similar to what again what Lori does in elections, you know. she keeps it kind of consistent year to year even though there's some years where there's no elections and it helps
stabilize that levy and that's what I think this would help do. >> Okay, I'll work with Lori on removing that piece. >> You'd happily do that, wouldn't you? >> Yes. >> Um so the other port um portion of that other professional service um is UKG
costs are just going up slightly for next year. Can you for the public explain UPG? >> Yes. So, UKG is our HR payroll system. Um I will have um currently in 2026 I have let's see here
$8,250 budgeted. Um for 2027 I had $45,000 removing the $30,000 for a market study. So $15,000 um requested in total for UKG which is our HR apparel system. um that
also does our recruiting and onboarding piece. So it has saved us from having to hire or ask for another hire agent. >> Right. It has saved substantially >> Yes. >> employee cost. >> Absolutely. Um no increase or change to my training budget um as well as my
conference and workshop registration. No change there. Um dropping down to my travel and expenses. No changes for 2027 as well as my office supplies. office supplies includes our ID badges and like the lanyards and such we purchase for county employees. And that would be the
total or that the um overall budget for me. I did work with Lori prior to today's presentation. Um you'll see that there's a 17.89% requested increase removing the market study not showing knowing how conversation would go today. Um it would
be a 10.66. Um, and that is accounting for the increased UKG cost and then the fixed cost for my salaries and benefits. >> Thank you, Anna. Questions from the board? >> Any questions? I appreciate that you're continuing to
keep in those professional development uh opportunities. you have uh newer staff and I think that the training dollars go very long ways in uh preparing your staff and department for the changes that we're seeing. So I appreciate that you've kept that in
there. >> Questions from the board? >> Well, I'd say for the first department, you did a great job. >> Thank you. And if you have just one minute more minute, I'd like to give you an update on paid family medical leave claims. Um, as of July 1, we've had 46
employee claims processed this year. Um, 15 of those have been for bonding, so related to child birth. Five or seven of those have been related to a serious medical condition for a family member. And 20, excuse me, 24 of those have been for a serious medical condition for the
employee. Um, to date, or I shouldn't say to date, to as of July 1, United Healthcare has paid out $288,444 in claims to our staff. um and in premium thus far we've paid $1,089,000100
excuse me $189,350. So they've paid out more than they've received from us. Um we have if you I don't necessarily want to call it a shortage at this point. Um but there's a difference of $99,000 in expenses paid versus premium collected.
We do are we are fortunate that we have um a lock a rate locked in for 2027 um for 2028 will likely be in an RFP um position for future years. And in collaboration with your state
partners, uh, folks that have the the same title as you and other counties, >> is is there a pretty good network on conversation on how the roll out has been going, where the the pinch points have been, how we can >> streamline better? >> So, we talk what feels like weekly, at
least monthly, with many counties. I'm in a pathways program, so all new HR directors in the state the first two years we collect we have monthly meetings. Um it's been the I think a lot of the pain points have been worked out at least from our end and in Klay County. Um it's there's a lot of
communication pieces in the beginning. Really the delay is just on the paperwork from the employee um to UHC side of things. So I do feel like we're in a pretty good place right now with it. >> Okay. Commissioner Campbell >> and I thank you for updating us on that. And I guess um one of the one of the
unknowns and one of the things I think all of us have been concerned with over time on this is um not ne I mean there obviously the indication that we're 90,000 short of what the premiums they're collecting are isn't a very good sign of what's to come.
>> Correct. you know, uh, but in addition to that, um, are you hearing anything in terms of the number of staff, how long they have to be gone and what's that doing to um,
the workforce that obviously when somebody leaves that work has is not getting done or it's shifted. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, what are you hearing there? >> So, I'll use myself for example. Um, I was out for 12 weeks on maternity leave
and I was very fortunate that I was able to delegate those things to Darren and my staff. I know that they had to work tirelessly um throughout those 12 weeks to keep things going and afloat. Um, as for other departments, I know that there are employees that are working extra
hours. They're flexing time um to get work done. So, I have not heard from a department head that they're in a position where they're needing to hire temporary or new staff to to fulfill those temporary vacancies or absences. Um, but I do know that other staff are putting in extra work and
>> and I you know and again your the example that you used I think I think we've always uh handled that particular situation. I you know it's been something that we did before the paid family me for the reason you were gone. Yeah.
>> Right. So, but now with that, there's an awful lot of new um reasons why people might take the leave that weren't there before. >> Yeah. So, I >> those are I think those are more of the concerns that that we might see out
there in terms of demands on workload. >> Absolutely. So, um one thing to note, we do run FMLA concurrently when applicable. So, as long as the employees eligible for FMLA, um, we run that concurrently. And I can I didn't look at these numbers exactly, but I'm pretty
confident to say that almost all of them have also been an FMLA qualifying event. So, it hasn't been one of those new reasons um, per se or not many new reasons. Um, so I think these would be things that people would have been out for regardless. >> Well, the FMLA pays the difference.
>> No, so FMLA does not pay the difference. Um, FMLA would be job protection where PFML would be like partial wage replacement. And so, um, we when they when the event meets the criteria for both, we would run them concurrently.
Um, under FMLA, they can use their sick and vacation to like top off um or there's maybe short-term disability, long-term disability, other things in place, but FMLA does not automatically pay them um or to make up the difference. So it's the it's the sick
pay that we allow to top off. >> Correct. >> Yeah. And under ESST provisions, so there's all these inner workings with all these different laws. Um under ESST, they can use their sick vacation comp or flex to make them whole. So we can't
just limit it to sick leave. Additional questions. This component is going to be very uh important for us to continue to track the data. We've had some conversation with state legislators on curiosity on how it's working, where are areas where
we will see challenges. I know we've discussed and one I I do want to say um I'm really appreciative of the staff members that are are stepping up and putting on additional time and effort to get it done to make sure we're covered.
Uh but we have had conversations about um you know these mandated staffing level pieces. If we get challen have challenges meeting those what does that mean particularly in the correctional facility just continue to give us that
data and and we can uh communicate that to the state leaders. >> Absolutely. We get a report quarterly so I'm happy to provide. >> Okay. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you.
Um, Matt, do you mind if we do your budget presentation? We might have to have a break later uh because of um some data that we're asking for from extension. Are you Is Erica coming or is it just you
>> or did I jump over to you? I'm sorry, >> Mark. Is that okay? I Sorry. I didn't mean to leap frog you, but >> good answer. >> All right, so let's go ahead. Uh if you don't mind, I'm sorry for that. But
let's do the GIS and communications uh budget. >> Good morning. >> Morning, Mark. >> Good morning, ma madam chair and commissioners. So GIS and communications, I'm well aware of the fact that we are probably the most discretionary
department that there is um because there's nothing that we do is required by statute. We're there specifically to support the uh other departments, what they're doing and with the information and services. So, we try to make sure that we're doing it as effectively as we can and as efficiently as we can and
trying to get the most bang out of our bucket. So, we're constantly doing that. Um, so I meet with my staff a few times a year. We talk about this stuff, uh, what we're doing, how we can do it better. Uh, so when it comes to budgeting, one of the things I do is I
keep my own spreadsheet. This is my 2027 one of trying to keep track of exactly what do we need to spend money on and what what's the best use of those dollars that we're requesting from you. Um, one of the biggest challenges we have is guessing what we're going to be
needing to spend money on, you know, up to 18 months from now. So because sometimes things change like a really good example in my 2027 budget that you're looking at today I've got money setting setting in there for chat GPT which is something a year ago we didn't even think about. So we're always trying
to be ready to adapt and uh put those things to use. Um, one of the things that I'd like to mention is in 2025, at the beginning of that year, we changed the position of our GIS technician to a full-time slot. That has been uh very
beneficial to the county. Um, it's allowed us to change how some workflows work and who does what tasks in the GIS division, which specifically has made it possible for us not to use contractors as much as we used to. uh we used to use a GIS contractors that do some work for
us and we've been able to have our GIS coordinator do those things instead and the technician has taken over the day-to-day tasks of maintaining our parcel data and some of those things. So at the end of the day I think that makes a really good use of our resources and
as because of that I'm able to reduce my request this year for other professional services because we don't have quite the demand that we used to. So we're actually seeing that change. The other thing I wanted to note on this budget is one thing you'll I don't know whether you'll notice it or not, but uh one of
our positions, our GI our communications coordinator position, we're not requesting it to be filled for 2027. We're going to leave it vacant. Um that's saving us a 100 plus thousand dollars a year. Um so we're just going to leave it as is. So the question then is what aren't we doing? Because of
that, uh the probably the single biggest things we're not doing is our direct department support that we were doing before, which has to do with uh graphics and brochures and um helping uh the departments with their specific uh communication needs. Right now, we've
kind of pushed that back to the departments to do on their own. We still will support them as best we can with the resources we have, but um we aren't doing that as well as we're not doing quite as much social media posts or those kind of things. So, we've kind of cut back on that to try to be as
effective as we can. However, my staff are still doing amazing things. I mean, they're doing u all the stuff that we've been requested to do. We are doing that well. Uh we're still doing graphic arts. We're still doing signage. We're doing ADA compliance is our biggest one for this year we've been working on. Another
big one we've been doing is training uh training activities for our our staff specifically. We're rolling those kind of activities out. And for those of you that happen to be at the county fair this week, uh if you see a sign or poster there, chances are it came from our shop. We are producing a tremendous amount of product that's going out to
the fairgrounds. So we're able to help extension and some other departments with that. So it's a really effective way of get using our tools that we have on hand. So to talk about the budget specifically, we have no new requests. Um we have um one reduction which is in
other professional service. reduce that one by uh 20% or or what was it? Yeah. >> 10,000 >> $10,000 and then we're increasing software because of software has been costing us more and more and more. We
just it the cost of that's been going up anywhere from 9 to 12% that we're getting increased. So we're basically just matching what the costs are expected to be for next year. With that I'll ask for any questions. One question, Madam Chair.
>> Yes, Commissioner Bear. In >> the computer software, is that where you're putting chat GBT in there or >> Correct. >> Absolutely. And uh one of the thing I didn't mention, I probably should, was last year we had a couple line items I went over a little bit. Um mostly
because one of the things we missed, you know, we we try to plan this stuff out, right? We try to think of things. One of the biggest things we missed was new buildings, right? We had these two new buildings came online at the end of 2024. The thing we missed was cameras.
You know, we got c surveillance cameras everywhere. There's two in this room. Even if you're in a public space in a Klay County building, you're in there's a surveillance camera watching you. The c piece we missed was that each of these cameras have a license agreement that we pay for and I was in my budget at that time and it's $59 a year per camera.
Well, we added now we have 416 cameras. We added 86 alone in the withdrawal management detox facility. When that bill came last September, we were like, "Oh, shucks. We missed that." So, if you remember, uh, Rory actually came to you last fall. We moved that to his budget and you changed his 2026
budget to capture that extra cost. So, we've already addressed that, >> but it was it's just an example of we try our best to guess what we're going to need to spend money on, but sometimes things happen and we just miss things or, you know, that kind of stuff. So, we we
try try to be good stewards of the of the taxpayer dollar >> and and to that, you know, the reasoning for adding the additional cameras, and we've talked about this is uh the the liability of not having that far exceeds what that payment. >> Oh, absolutely. They're well worth the
money we spend on them when >> questions. I do want to highlight a a point that you talked about the amount of work that your department does to help additional uh county departments but also partners
is huge and you know I've tal we've been at the SWCD when you have worked with them to provide maps and they've commented on that as well. you know, I really do appreciate that and and I think in many ways uh your department um
gets um jobs get put on your department because it seems to make the most sense and how do we communicate and and tell the story to the residents about what services are available, when things would be closed, where you can go. So, I appreciate that flexibility and continuing to meet that need. Thank you.
>> Questions? Questions? I >> uh Commissioner Camp I'm >> Mark I'm trying to um when I when I look at your uh salary line items from 2026 and which you're
proposing in 2027 when when was it that we um no longer used had the one position was that >> it would in 2026 >> yeah it was yeah we actually at the end of last year we I came to you and we
took it So they took it out of the budget this year. I'm not entirely sure the numbers work for what they took out this year. >> That's that's why that's why I'm asking the question >> my math actually >> because if we have if we have one less full-time person >> Uhhuh.
>> than we did uh when we established a 2026 budget and you have you've had no other new hires or anything. Um, why are why are we that much more? >> I I I just think I my guess is is the
number they took out of this year's was not exactly what it should have been. >> I I I with or without >> I think there's >> Yeah. >> issues here. >> Yeah. Just on that item. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't I don't know that answer for sure. >> Okay. Maybe we can just get clarification on it because because I
would think that, >> you know, when we look at what Anna just did on Mhm. >> on her report and you look at the increase which included both steps and the cola, >> right? >> That was like 7.68% I think it was something like that. And
and even just with steps and cola, you would think you'd be in that same percentage range. >> Yeah. >> And yet we're at >> 12 >> 12.59 plus we um no longer are funding one position. >> Right. Well, I I think on this um when
on the 2026 budget under salaries, I think they've removed that one position salary >> or it's been taken out. >> It's been taken out, but I don't think that my guess is and I I didn't have access to that, but uh my guess is the number they took out is not the right number. It was either before or after COLA or
>> Okay, >> my that's just my estimate on that. >> I believe in I believe last year in the 2026 budget, the cola was added after it was a line item. Um and so that none of the budgets last year included Nicola the 4%.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Additional questions. >> Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Your microphone. >> That being said, is it only in this number this year? >> It is. If you recall last year,
commissioners, we were in the process of negotiating negotiating the union contract. And so we we had a we we knew a we had a number pegged in that or we didn't have a number pegged in there because we didn't know where the cola was going to land. And so essentially,
you're seeing a a 4% and a 3% >> from from the 2025 number. So, is that going to be consistent then every um budget? >> Well, when we get now that we're back on track with our union contracts of going
two years and three years, the goal is we're always going to know the next year's. >> Yeah. But I'm saying from last year to this year, we'll have to account for that cola not being in one year and and now will be. >> That's Yes, that's correct. >> So, in our minds, that's all I'm saying.
>> Right. >> Part of the increase. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> Additional questions. Thank you, Mark. >> Matt, can we do yours as well? Uh, we're waiting on some communication from
extension and then we will take a break after your budget presentation. The next item is a budget presentation for the planning and zoning department. Our planning and zoning director, Matt Jacobson. Good morning. >> Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. So, here today to present
my proposed 2027 budget. I just want to make a note of one um change on here. If you look at the DNR shoreline um that $2,944 should be included in 2027. So, I will
update that um just to make sure that that is included. Uh 2,944 >> revenue. >> Yep. It's under revenue. Yep. >> It's our uh >> shoreline >> shoreline from shoreline grant. Yep.
>> All right. So, my budget is um looking like it's going to have a a 3% um increase, just over 3% increase this year. This is largely uh almost 100% driven by um personnel costs um staffing costs uh and everything else in my
budget um just in terms of operating expenses I proposed to stay remain the same um from 2026. Uh I should say that um we're able to keep those costs um fairly flat um
because we've been able to do a couple things. One is we've um been able to expand online permitting and payment capabilities. So, we're now taking every single application, whether it be for a building permit uh all the way up to a text amendment or a resoning petition, we can take online now. Uh we can review
it online. Um and it just increases efficiencies in in that respect. And I want to thank Erica for that because she's largely been driving um that work and she's done a fantastic job um with getting us into the 21st century and and getting our our payments and everything
online. >> Yes, Commissioner Bear. >> What percentage are we getting online now on >> permit? >> I would say it's over 50% at this point. So, we're trying to drive more people to if people ask for a a a permit application or something that we tend we
want to >> Yeah. steer them towards online option. Um, of course we do have paper options as well, uh, for those who prefer that. Yep. >> Yep. >> So, um, we're also looking at just really laser focused on automating any
repetitive tasks when necessary. Um, as I had mentioned, moving customers towards our online applications. One thing that's nice about the online applications is it really reduces um the amount of back and forth between our staff and applicants. Oftent times with
the paper application we will get them and they will not be 100% complete. Um so there's a lot of back and forth ask trying to get additional information. with the online application, you're basically required to fill in everything. And so that has really uh
upped the number of completed applications that that we've received. Um we're also looking at or we have started just updating our staff reports, standardizing those, modernizing those a bit more um just to make things more consistent and that also improves
efficiencies as well. Um, and really we're looking at just anywhere where we can um, if there is a um, increased demand or increased something that's causing an increased workload, we're looking for technology solutions to to
make that more efficient. Um, I will say too that a lot of our um, some of our permitting this these past couple years has been a lot more complex. Um, mainly because of flood plane. Uh we've been dealing with a lot more after the-act
flood plane um violations um and just flood plane permitting in general. That takes more time. And um we've fortunately been able to leverage some technology to help make that expedit or
expedite those processes a little bit more uh make them go be a little bit more efficient. Um and that's where I can thank uh other departments like Mark's department um for providing support uh to our department for that. >> Um and
also just looking at how we um spend our grant money that we receive from the state in terms of our shoreland grants, our um in terms of we can use some of our shoreland grant funding for paying for noticing and things like that. if there's a hearing that has a a shoreland
component to it, we can also kind of use that money for some flood plane stuff as well. And so looking at at being more um efficient with those dollars. Um, other than that, uh, I think just beyond the the staffing
too, we also support our planning commission and board of adjustment. And so, um, making sure that, you know, uh, they're supported through their pdiums and their and their travel and mileage and then also providing training opportunities for them as well. There haven't been as many training
opportunities this year. Um but in the past there have been a few um planning commissioners and board of adjustment members who've taken advantage of of the training opportunities that come up. So >> to that uh you know I I know in the past those training opportunities have been
very valuable particularly when hot button issues come before the board to have that experience before we have those conversations. Obviously, we've talked about some some big uh potential land use issues that could be happening throughout Minnesota, particularly uh
that would be helpful. AMC is doing those lunch and learns and sometimes I wonder if that would be a helpful uh just forwarding that availability opportunity to planning uh and um board of adjustment uh folks. I think that would be a helpful if there's something
pertinent. Absolutely. >> Commissioner Campbell, >> Matt, do you um you got to I I look at your salary line item here and it doesn't you know when it when we think of all the things that you do um you
know with the planning commissions and all those different meetings and I certainly think this is very reasonable. Uh, and I I do I do hope that uh with what we've done
over the past few years and I think back when Commissioner Bear was on the planning commission before commissioner, I think, you know, we tried to look at ways to um really modify what what requires a permit and what doesn't
>> because I think there was an awful lot of additional demands that were put on you for what were being routine accepted um permits anyway. So I so I you know and I think with your your guidance on that and suggestions about how we can um
reduce those requirements where where we can has been a good thing and I you know I'm just glad that you've done a good job. That's what I can say. >> Thank you Commissioner Campbell. I would agree with with how we've um changed
some of the uh the um permitting requirements and then also say like what might require a variance as well. >> Yes. >> Um that those changes have been >> I do think it's important though to mention that uh because we don't require someone to get a permit for a 10x10
Menard's storage shed that we're not seeing decreases in planning and zoning permit revenue. Y >> and that was something that came up. We we wanted to make sure that uh if it made sense, we changed it, but uh you know, not to the detriment of what the
revenue that you um you're anticipating. Uh it's nice to see growth there. >> Yep. And uh Madam Chair, just regarding uh revenues too, I think one thing that we might want to look at this year too with our fee schedule is maybe looking at some slight increases. Um not to to
make a profit at all, just to cover the actual costs. um especially with say after the fact permits um and then also our permits that require public notices in the forms of publications in the newspaper and then u mailed notices as
well. Uh right now we are not anywhere close to um breaking even on those unless we have a certain number of hearings in a night. Um, so it'd be good to look at that uh relative to the costs of printing and publishing, >> which I appreciate because we have had
substantial conversation on that as well and understanding that the levy goes into um providing the services that um sometimes are required. But I do think it's important. There have been some fairly large applications that take a substantial amount of time and wanting
to make sure that the fee structure reflects the additional workload that would go into that. Yep. questions. I I just want to clarify. So the uh let's see the salaries and predium line
uh is what goes the payment to the planning commission >> correct >> members for the meetings. And this is an interesting trend because uh it seems like we've we always have a quorum but um it if you look at the actuals from the past two years we're we're trending
downward in participation >> at those is that >> well Madam Chair I would say it's it's been fairly steady. Um one thing I will say though with this year is there we had a stretch where we did not have a board of adjustment meeting. >> Right. >> Um we we went about a three-month
stretch. So >> there's not a lot a lot of members on that board either. >> Exactly. Yeah. It's a five member board. Yep. >> So I appreciate that. But I I do want to continue um just to reiterate to folks if they're willing to serve in that capacity that we really do appreciate their presence
at that board. That's really important. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Additional questions from the board. >> Just make a comment if if I was able to, Madam Chair. I think to to Matt's comments that he made earlier, his engagement as far as, you know, one of
the challenges that we face with permits is we're many times our citizens are having to act on our time uh and going allowing it to do it after hours has made a difference. I think your investment in the position that Erica has also goes to the to the amount of followup that we're able to do now. And
so I think that when you see that the revenues maybe didn't dip, I think it's really a combination of one uh the work that our our citizens may know that okay, well, I'm just going to go ahead and do this because I can't get to Matt's office to get this permit. Uh but now understanding that there's also
maybe going to potentially that there is followup. Uh that they are there those two are connected. I feel like >> absolutely. >> Okay, additional questions. Uh same goes to you. Thank you for this thoughtful budget. But I know that um
you know department heads have heard the concern from this board and what the outlook is and uh really want to as a member of the planning commission give huge applause to your entire uh staff. The preparation that goes into all of those meetings is topnotch and you're
able to to really have so much of the work done. So when it does come to the planning uh commission it's it's really fairly seamless and and that doesn't happen without a lot of work. And so I want you to know that we appreciate that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Any other questions for Matt on the
budget proposal? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will go ahead and take a a fivem minute break now. Come back at 9:56. All right. Thank you for that. We are back with our item 10 today which is a
request that Klay County Board of Commissioners consider authorizing the West Central Regional Water District and AE2S staff to continue evaluating the potential addition of Wilin County to the West Central Regional Water District. Steve, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioners, uh, as you are well aware, uh, as we've
become part of, uh, this project with Norman and Pulk County, there's been a great deal of interest not only within our three count threeount area, but also some of our partners uh, partner counties uh, in uh, next to us. And so we did we've had several questions that
have come to the West Central Regional uh, Water District Board. Uh and of of note on June 16th, Wilin County Board of Commissioners uh for formally submitted a request to the West Central Regional Water District uh expressing interest to
join uh that district. Uh they also have identified having the different issues with their with their water sources and their wells uh and feel that it would be a good investment and infrastructure for their county also uh to look in what they were doing. And as part of their request, Wilin County also acknowledged
that it would be that there's been a great deal of work that's gone on by Pul Pope Pulk Norman and Klay County and a lot of expense that's come with that. Uh and Wilin County has acknowledged that they would be responsible for all legal engineering, administrative, and other
costs association with uh having them being included within the water district moving forward. Uh this this uh topic was uh was addressed with the water district board on June 29th. Uh and they uh uh then
requested moving this forward for discussions from each of our counties. Uh again, this does not commit them commit them to allowing them to join. Uh what it does is it commits uh your willingness to have Wilin County uh potentially be considered and the work
that would go into it both uh both internally from the water district staff or our our board uh also then to to uh the financing requirements that I would take with Wilin County. With that I'd yield for any questions. >> All right. Questions or comments from
either of you that are on that board? Commissioner. >> Um thank you. As Steve mentioned, uh, Wilin has expressed interest in in this and, uh, Commissioner Bear and I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of the Wilin County Commissioners prior to
their requested letter to the West Central Regional Water District. And what they're really looking for here is um some sort of a consent that you know um if they go
through this process uh that they're there's a likelihood that they would be accepted in um as what as Steve mentioned you know we each of us three counties had a significant invest
investment into both the legal and engineering moving this point forward. Wilin County is going to have to basically go through a lot of the same steps that that we did. Uh and I I believe the estimates that were given to them are up upwards of a quart million
dollars that they're going to have to pay to do that. And so before they go through and spend that quarter million dollars, they they want to have some sort of an idea uh from each of ultimately for that for that district to change
all boards have to approve of it individually, not just not just the West Central board itself. So, um, so they've been they were basically their request is, okay, if we go through this process,
you as a Klay County board, would you be willing to accept them in? You know, I think that's really what the question is here. And and of course, I we encourage them. I think both Commissioner Bear and I encourage them to. Um, just on a side note, by having Wilin County come if
they were to come in, it also expands our our lobbying efforts and our our representation on there. It brings in another uh another House Senate or Senator uh in Minnesota into our group
that's could be beneficial in Senator Rasmmanson is pretty influential in in St. Paul. So, and he I believe he firmly is working with Wilin County to >> see their problem solved. So, that's kind of what what >> representative
>> what we're asking for here is just a wink and a nod, I guess. >> Commissioner Abinger. >> Yes. I've had a couple of the Wil County Commissioners that I serve on the boards with. They're excited about this and the
whole purpose of this thing is is to get rural water. and they have a need and they certainly meet the criteria of rural communities that have have this need. So I think it's a good opportunity for them and and very
supportive of it. >> Commissioner Bear, >> the only comment I want to add from Commissioner Campbell is we I've been talking with them for the last about year. They came up to me and approached me and wondering if they could join or what the process is and we were waiting
for them waiting for us to finally get certified in April which we did. So that's why this is coming to light now. >> Additional questions. Commissioner, >> not a not a not a question, but you know, once once this does happen, of
course, the way the statute works is that we would have to um redo the makeup of the board. That that would be required by statute. So, we don't know if we would if a count if there's a
certain county who would lose a member and it would go to Wilin or if we would increase by a member or or two members. So, that's that would that's yet to be determined, but I just think the board, you know, in full transparency needs to know that that would be something that
would be required under statute down the road. We'd have to adjust that. And it's so we asked a question of um one of their Wilin County Commissioners who was at our West Central meeting and I believe it would be their intention to
include their entire county including Breenidge in in their district. So that that's that really where they gain the population base. Uh that that of course that's beneficial to all of us and of course Breenidge could end up being a
supplier. So anyway that's >> all right. Any additional comments or feedback? But uh there is a requested action before us. And madam chair, commissioners, if the board were to move on this, the the attorney for uh for the water district
has requested that the motion be read as it as it's written. >> All right, Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Commissioner Barry, >> like to make a motion to approve the authorization supporting the continued evaluation of a Wilin County's request to join the West Central Regional Water
District, acknowledging that Wilin County has agreed to fund all legal, engineering, administrative, and other costs associated with its proposed inclusion inclusion such that no additional costs will be incurred by the existing member counties
during the process. This support is contingent upon the identifying identification of acceptable funding, completion and approval of all necessary legal memorandums and asso associated associated agreements between Wilin
County, the West Central Regional Water District and Pole Clay and Norman counties. Comp completion of any required engineering, fiscal and stationary evaluation and satisfaction satisfactory of all
applicable requirements under Minnesota statutes chapter 116A. The county board reserves the final approval of Wilin County's occlusion into the West Central Regional Water District until all contingencies have been satisfied at which time the matter shall return to the county board of consideration and
the final action of formal resolution. >> Second the motion. >> We have a motion offered from Commissioner Bear, a second from Commissioner Campbell. Would you like to read the second, Commissioner Campbell? >> You want to read it for the second? >> You want to read the whole thing for the second? Any additional comments?
Comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same. Sign. Carried. Thank you. I also agree. I think this benefits the region as a whole. It really bolsters our legislative advocacy adding
additional representation into it as well. Item 11, the request approval of agreement with uh Winthrop and Weinstein to provide lobbyist legislative services on behalf of Klay County. Uh thank you, Madam Chair, commissioners. Uh again,
you this board has taken an active role uh with legislative priorities for our county in addition to those of AMC. Uh this past year uh this board agreed uh to a contract with the Winthrop and
Weinstein uh for lobbyist services uh that the cost per month was $4,000 per month over $48,000 on an annual basis. Uh we had a uh an update from from Haley and Tom on June 9th and also they were
part of our work session uh to evaluate uh one that what was accomplished and also what potentially could be accomplished at the upcoming session. Uh and uh and so I'd ask them to bring forward a contract for this board to consider. Uh again, if you take a look
from the contract, uh they they kept the amount the same, $4,000 per month or or $48,000 for uh for the next 2027 budget. Uh if you take a look at the the work that they've done alongside of all of
you uh down in St. Paul, uh if we our two main priorities last year, uh flood mitigation and also the non-secured detention, uh we were able to secure 11.8 $8 million working together. Uh so if you if you figure that out, uh for
every $1 that we invested in our lobbyist, we had a return of 248 or $24583. So with that, I'd yield for any additional questions. >> Thank you. I would I would also say that given the additional priorities that we
had um as as secondary with the watershed the water district and the uh PURM component we did have conversations about that with them while we were there and so I would argue that we actually that that figurees doubled over $20
million to Klay County and benefit really uh out of the legislative session. Questions from the board? Commissioner, >> I don't have I don't have a question, but I I guess as we as we um I I really um was impressed with I was somewhat
skeptical going into it, but I I certainly impressed with the results and I it certainly as far as I'm concerned warrants us uh moving forward with them. Again, I I would like and I and again, it's been primarily on bonding issues
um you know, like the flood mitigation and and the juvenile detention facility. But, um another area that I I think maybe they could be helpful on is the helping us with the message, even though
AMC does it. Um, you know, when we start looking at these policies that are coming out there and when we're seeing these formula where where we're penalized for doing a good job, you know, in the areas of social services,
maybe that's another area that they can lend us a hand in in trying to convince the legislature that, you know, don't penalize uh counties who, you know, have a 1.8% 8% error rate when the state has
over a 10% error rate and it's costing Klay County in $1.5 million. Uh probably at a minimum. I think those are areas that I don't think we need to have them just work on infrastructure issues.
I think they can help us on policy issues >> and I so hopefully that can be a message that this board gives to them moving forward into next year. I I think that that's probably a more costly thing down the road. >> Yeah. >> Than than some of our other requests are
now that the flood mitigation is I mean we're probably still going to be doing some small asks there. But anyway, that's that's my >> my thoughts on that. Sure. >> I I do really appreciate that perspective and Commissioner the floor in a moment. I do want to say that we
have had conversations about pivoting now that we're out of a bonding cycle year. We're into a policy piece highlighting those that are really going to be hitting the levy in a a challenging way if the legislature doesn't act on their mandates. So, I appreciate that and I certainly can give
the direction to them if the board chooses. Commissioner Ebinger. >> Yeah. Just one one item, excuse me, one item that or aspect of this that I think the heaven lobby it when almost becomes vital. We're looking at the issues with
the score fund that or with the score funding the >> Oh, that too. >> That too. >> Yeah, that too. But many of the funding elements we're dealing with right now, counties have different counties have different positions on it. And when we
rely on AMC to to be our representative on this, they at times are going to have issues where there's conflict within the counties. And it's good to have a talented team with you when you're trying to go in and show that we we are meeting the
qualifications that are desirable in dealing with with our funding that we get from the state and from the federal agencies. and that other counties that are not as successful aren't going to be inclined to join us in trying to lobby
for what's the best interest of the Klay County residents. So, these folks have done a good job. I certainly think it's money well spent. And uh having said that, I might as well make the motion to approve the agreement with Winthre and
Winream Weinstein PA to provide lobbyist legislative services on behalf of Klay County. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion offered from Commissioner Ebinger, a second from Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Just one comment. >> Commissioner Bear,
>> this was budgeted for last year, right? This is not going to be an increase on our >> That's correct. Everybody knows. Yeah, >> correct. the uh and this contract goes through the end of this year as well. So we have had conversation with them on additional work. I think uh Commissioner >> Campbell had talked to them about uh
coordinating the DNR has mitigation funding application components as well. >> My question uh has this been reviewed by the attorney's office? >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Additional questions from the board? I would note, Madam Chair, that that Commissioner Campbell's
comments are very timely. I had a conversation with Quinn yesterday. He is going to be coming to board next week uh with some additional updates, but we did were notified that the state has air rate has gone up over 10% now, which will put us in the 15% category.
All right. >> Questions? Uh, we have not voted yet. Correct. >> Any other comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> Same sign. Carried. Thank you for prepping that.
uh in looking back at the item uh five and uh four and five where Cecilia was before us earlier, we've left messages with Cecilia. I know they're scrambling to get the data uh that was requested. I did reach out to Carrie Robu who is the
direct supervisor of the program and felt like it would be helpful for her to help get information. it. Um I would prefer that and they would as well that we table um since the budget component needs to happen after the item four that
we table both items to next week so that we could have in-person presentation with um there is a a hiccup there but just given given what staff is under with the county fair this week feel that would be uh the most fair and so uh
would take up um if the board wanted uh tableabling ing them one at a time to next Tuesday. >> You need a motion for that. >> Correct. >> Yeah. I'll make a motion for to let's see >> item four.
>> Item Yeah. Okay. I have a motion to table the Clay County Board of Commissioners uh considering modification University of Minnesota contract on staffing level le levels. >> We have a motion offered to lay on the table. Item four from Commissioner Kabanov, a second from Commissioner
Bear. That is a non-debatable motion. >> Well, Madam Chair, I think the motion needs to include table till when? >> I thought it wasn't included in what he said. >> I apologize. Uh tabled until >> next Tuesday. >> Next week being what's the date? 14.
>> 14th. >> Uh July 14th. >> Okay. And that resembles your second as well. Thank you for catching that, Commissioner Campbell. >> All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Same sign carries. >> I'll also make a motion that the uh
present uh the extension budget presentation for 2027 also be um tabled until next week's meeting on July 14th. >> Motion offered from Commissioner Kabanov, a second from Commissioner Bear
to lay item five on the table until next Tuesday. Additional com or no. Uh all those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Carried. Thank you. Okay. Going back into item 12 would be
our committee reports. Commissioner Ebinger. Uh two weeks of reports. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's see. On Tuesday the 23rd of June, I uh myself and Commissioner Campbell attended the trip authority board uh
meeting at the dispatch center. Uh, I think probably the high point of it all was we did pass a uh a motion was sent up from the executive board uh for 2027 budget.
Um the budget was an 8.28% 28% increase and it included um a uh technology specialist position which I mean is is fairly critical for for succession
there. Um we have a wonderful talented uh individual in the position of technology supervisor. Uh but he is he's been there for 20 years and sooner or later he needs to retire. and we have a
a competent uh younger employee who's moving into the position to learn learn what uh what he does. So uh we passed the motion to make to approve that budget and it will be coming up here during our budget discussions
for review. Uh we also defined the uh public service T1 call taker job description which at this point we do not have. We've not taken a call taker dispatcher model on yet. But to have
those positions and a pay structure on them uh is essential if they're going to transition at some point which I think they'll need to. So that was done. Um also recognized uh Commissioner Colek from
um from Fargo, uh Commissioner or Mayor Mahoney from Fargo and uh Commissioner Olsen, all of whom have been on the board but who were moving
out because of the elections. North Dakota. We'll have new people coming on board here shortly from those from the North Dakota partners. Um on the 24th, Wednesday, I attended the
Partnership for Health entrance meeting with state auditors and staff from Becker County and uh Klay County discussing the upcoming audit. Since there's a transition from the four county model to a new twocount model,
there's going to be a higher level of scrutiny paid attention to uh to us on this audit. But as it stands right now, everything looks good and uh they'll be moving in and starting the audit process. Um later that day I attended the
Morehead or the the uh Metro Flood Diversion Authority Finance Committee meeting. Uh basically it was general business where we approved a couple of the financial reports
to forward to the next day to the uh diversion authority board of authority. And on the 25th I attended that meeting. Uh we uh the uh executive director gave report there's an intention to get a new
committee and board member orientation set up for new members that are coming in. As Commissioner Campbell pointed out, we're gonna have in the next year six new members on the board. >> We're gonna have eight new members. >> Eight new members. So, there's going to be a turnover and it I think it's
critical that we have u some of the u new people brought on board and brought up speed with with what's a pretty complex board assignment. There's going to be a board retreat on September 15th. Um,
I apologize. I did not review this prior to leaving the meeting here a week ago. Regular project updates and regular business. And again, there was recognition uh for Mayor Mahoney and
other board members who were leaving uh because of term limit limits or retirement from their positions. On uh Friday the 26th, I attended a remote meeting of the
Greater Fargo Mortad EDC board. Uh Charlie Johnson updated this on the convention center over in the decision to have a downtown location for it. Uh we also discussed
um the executive director's uh performance review and reviewed some of the material that was provided to us earlier and u there was a plan to prevent return or to
present return on investment and some of the other concerns that were brought up in that evaluation. Uh there were two nominations for new members of the executive board and that completed that meeting.
And on the 1st of this month, I attended uh out of James Nelson Farm south of uh city Morehead, Amy Clolobisher had a press conference. The snap problems we were identifying
earlier were discussed uh as part of that presentation. Uh she also presented uh some potential pro projects that she would propose if she were governor to address needs of rural Minnesota.
Uh we did discuss the cost that we've got of snap air rates. U which now it looks like the state has gotten worse and we've continue and maintain an excellent position and yet we're going to be penalized even more now. So
that completes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Ebinger. Thank you also for being present for that. I think that was an important dialogue. Commissioner Kavanagh, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um have two meetings here. Uh going back to
the um June 24th and June 25th, Commissioner Bear and I went to a two-day um um a a two-day government to government which is tribal state relations training
and uh this was held in Granite Falls. Um the presentation was done um in line with a statute that was passed in 2021 under Governor Walls
um and it's statute 1065. And what it uh the essence of the um uh of the of the statute is that the relationship between state government meaning their agencies
mostly and and the uh legislators themselves. um understand uh and gain knowledge of past history. uh also current uh situations that are
going uh within uh the 11 tribal uh uh tribes in the state of Minnesota and requires them to create education and conversation so that they understand
each other uh to the highest ability that they can do. It also gives rules and regulations as to how to um go about uh respecting and honoring and working
with each other's authorities and rights uh so that in order to uh work better in a relationship that honors each other and helps each other jointly. So that was the overall view of it. Uh it was
um o overwhelming at point I I would say with information it was really I mean when they started at nine and they did go till five. I mean it was one thing after another was a few breaks. Uh a big
part of the what they did was to give a historical background starting all the way back uh to Columbus uh to present day. Obviously um um you know the some of their story that they've presented is
very tragic and yet at the uh the other end of it as we get more current day we see uh some of those areas that have created can create and still uh create challenges
uh for the two entities. So you have your federal government, you have your state government, and you have your tribes. And how they all um share their identities, uh they use the word sovereignty. Um uh
how how you mix and mingle all three and when one one's authority uh um overseas uh overlays the other one. Um maybe I'll uh that's a good overview of that on my
part. Um Commissioner Bear may have more specific things to ch share. Um they've done this educator that was leading this has done 50 of these trainings over the years. Um it varies from year to year
how often they have them. It's kind of up to the tribes. They've had as up to as many as 11 a year. And this year they may only have two or three, but I would suggest for the future I I found it very very um uh important information to
know. Um I would suggest you know we uh participate best we can whenever it returns over to uh white earth. um just to help our relationships or grow our relationships I should say um you know
with our uh the with the tribe closest to us. So um later on the um that was the 24th and 25th and then that evening the 25th I had my monthly meeting for CAP LP. Uh we had a full review um of
our audit done by Bergen KDB. The audit audit report showed that CAP LP is in good standing and had no negative marks. That's the highest uh it can do. Um and then um so with that that
that was approved by the board which then led into uh the financial statements uh that go along with um uh the report and our 109 and our 1090 form
uh nine I'm sorry our 990 form uh to the IRS for the 25 uh 2025 um tax year and we did approvals of several grants as we do every month. Again, it's amazing all
the grant opportunities people work at um over at that agency. And then uh they had a head start self assessment uh report as required by federal head start uh oversight. Uh they gave detail of
that um and everything has turned out uh in the report to be fine. So, um, that's what I have to say about that. So, um, that completes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Kavanagh. Commissioner Campbell.
>> Thank you. Um June 18th we had our um Grey Lake Solid Waste Budget Committee meeting which we were delegated to present the budget to the
full board and the items of um of note on that were there was going there is a $220,000 projected increase due to labor and benefits. Uh there was an estimated increase of
$55,000 in electrical costs, an increase in autotail management by 18,000. That's the first time they've increased that um in many many years. And then we had an increase of the
internal service fund fund from 250,000 to 350,000. And I'll touch on that in a minute. and we had a reduction of $25,000 in the property insurance premium.
And so the what it amounts to is there was an additional $355,000 in total cost in 2027. Uh which calculates out to a 4.6% increase as it relates to Klay County.
That's an increase of $15,531 to the Klay County U solid waste budget for 2027. Uh if you want to look at it from a tipping fee standpoint, the tipping fee went from $160.31
to $167.71. So that meeting was held and recommended for approval. Uh I back on the issue of the um 250,000 to 350 on the internal service fund
over the next five years um the need uh in the internal service fund is $630,000. And so we're we're just even by increasing it by 100,000 we're still going to be short. Uh but the nice thing
about that is in year five uh there is a million dollar project scheduled in year five um but by the time that rolls around one of the previous five-year capital improvement bonds that we had will be
paid off and and so we we're hoping that we could then incorporate another a new capital improvement bond um that would would help cover that to offset the need for that internal service fund. Otherwise, we'd really have and again it's it's all to try to make these
annual increases as level as possible and that's that's part of what what that helps to do. So then on uh the 20 I guess I have my a little bit backwards here. Oh yeah. Okay. On the 23rd, uh we did have the Red River Regional
Dispatch Center board agenda and at that we we did uh review the um budget from the U recommended from the budget and finance committee and as
Commissioner Eberger noted, we did approve that budget as a board and then in also in addition to that we did consider consider approval of the call taker position uh and we um did not move forward on
that uh for 2027. And we also considered a pay structure for the call taker job position and we did approve that but with the idea in mind that it's not going to be
implemented right now because of the other demands on the budget that we have to deal with. Um, other things of note, we there's 36 of the 38 full-time positions
uh in place right now. Um, and there's two part-time. Commissioner Abinger mentioned about the succession plan for the technology specialist position. And I think that's that was a critical thing. I think everybody agreed with that, including
the executive committee, which is all the sheriffs and police chiefs and fire department. They all agreed that that position is critical to have somebody get in there and to learn the work that Brian does because it's important work.
Then on the 24th, I attended the MORED wellhead protection plan uh part two meeting on the 24th and um we just kind of went over uh some of the changes um one of the one
of the things that I brought up that they are incorporating into the wlet protection plan now that wasn't didn't exist back 10 years ago when it has done was the fact that there is now a one watershed one plan deal through the
wershed. So, so there's language in in this new weather protection plan that identifies that one wershed, one plan program that's there. Uh then also then
on the 25th we had our Klay County solid waste advisory committee meeting. Um, we got some grant updates and reports from Ella. She did a fantastic job with her work in those grants.
Corey gave a good report on the landfill activities and um he presented a recycling formula that I think is going to come before this full board here soon that kind of
addresses how we're going to distribute that re those recycling dollars in rather than just kind of pick some numbers out of the thin air. we have a we have a formula estab established that's going to help be consistent.
There was a little a few little um suggestions on it. Um but I think overall uh it was well received. Uh on the also on the 25th we had our more Clay County Joint Powers Authority
meeting and with that we um we had our usual status reports. Um, we did we did our final appointment on the representatives of the Minnesota funding or or the that and then the
um the funding requests moving forward, how that would how that would be prioritized. And then there was a some small contracting actions that we approved as well as a reimbursement request from
family on their moving. And then the diversion authority board meeting was held that same day. Uh a lot of a lot of updates. Uh, one thing of note, um, under the finance
committee, uh, Mayor Dardis, um, gave a report, the sales tax collections both from the Fargo sales tax and the Cass County sales tax has been somewhat stagnant or level. Uh, there's indications now in
this last one that they've seen that there's they're starting to see that move in the positive direction again. So, that was good news. And of course it was um kind of a kind of kind of a day where we said
goodbye to Chair Mahoney uh who meant a lot to me. I'd worked with him since day one on it. We were co-chairs of the on the original project. So it was kind of sad to have to say say goodbye and um but so it goes. and also uh Bernie
Dardis uh who was you know it's it's nice when you uh have board members who might lead in committees that you have a lot of respect for and you know that what they're going to provide you is just good information and Birdie
Dardis was just solid in that regard when it comes to the finance financing reports Um and then we did go into an executive session to discuss the um nest crop loss
issue and we came back into um once we were done with that, we got some updated information. when we came back in and and the board took action to um get that contract or that um nest crop
loss agreement agreed to and that was um supported by everybody. So, uh, and then I I I I should mention Denise Copek, too, was the other board member who, um, she'd been on there for
four years and had done a a really good job, and she will be missed, too. And it's it's, uh, the the nice thing about that thing is we're getting to October is the date that uh, is supposed to be substantially complete. So the uh
efforts on behalf of all those people for as many years as they worked on it, they're going to they're going to see the results of that. It's going to be historic when it's all said and done.
Uh then um on the 29th, Commissioner Bear and I attended the West Central Regional Water meeting and we that one was held in Grand Forks. Uh items of note, we had some of the
things that were in there. Of course, we had Wilin County was there. So we talked about that what we did today in terms of funding earmarks. um the 2024 earmark, we finally were approved for our first reimbursement of $327,000.
We've been waiting that for quite some time. Um in terms of the 2026 earmark, we've we now have a case manager assigned. So that's probably also a good thing. Um and we, you know, our priorities were to
really be talking about getting the water to Felton, Georgetown, Pearly, and Hendum. That's part of our key. That's to get this thing moving. And um I think that's all I have on that. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Campbell.
Commissioner Bear. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I also was down at the government to government tribal state relations training down in Granite Falls with Commissioner Kavanagh where it was a very eyeopening two-day retreat. We
learned about a lot about the federal Indian policy and uh just the treaty obligations that the federal government has gone in with the tribes across the nation and specifically in Minnesota. It was a great retreat and I would I would yeah
like to advise you everybody on board if it does come around closer to White Earth I'd advise you to go to it that yeah it's very very eye opening very well worth the two days and then on June 29th I was also at the
West Central Regional Water District Board meeting up in Grand Forks where Commissioner Campbell gave a very good update on that the one thing the one thing I'd uh add to that we're also our next step is to do outreach with Felton, Georgetown, Pearly,
Hendram, and Hollstead on getting that getting contracts with them in the next couple months so we can move forward with pipeline. And after that meeting, we had a financial policy workshop up in Grand Forks, too, with the West Central Regional Water District where we were
just setting more policies on the district. And that concludes my report. Madam Chair, >> thank you, Commissioner Bear. On the 23rd, I with all of you attended the employee appreciation picnic. Really
great opportunity to uh celebrate the um amazing staff that we have at the county. Huge gratitude to the staff member and department heads that really helped shape uh what that was. to uh thanks to Troy and to Commissioner Bear
for providing the pork. Um one of my favorite times of the year and I can't go without saying that Kurt Cannon's got some sweet moves on the grill. So there's that. That evening I attended the planning commission meeting. We did have a request from Ryan and Michael Hog
uh from Hog Farms uh Kayo expansion of a feed lot um in Humbult Township. There were some concerns in regards to fencing, but uh that is those are conditions of the permit and the board did approve uh the request. June 24th, I
had the opportunity uh was appointed to the Fargohead diversion authority debris removal and restoration uh committee. Really uh that is that is a promise that we saw through to the the folks that will be inundated with uh the project
once it's in operation. And so it was our first meeting about uh coming up to speed, making sure that we had a process in place, uh articulated some of the language, dialed that in a little bit more. We will be having an additional meeting next month so that we do have a
a better plan going forward and what the communication strategy is to land owners. Appreciate uh the MCCJPA for appointing me to that board. Uh so thank you. On the 25th, I attended the SWAT committee meeting with Commissioner
Campbell. We did have great updates from Ella on the status of the composting grant. I've not heard uh we should hear very soon on that. Really hopeful that we hear soon. And then also the lumber reuse uh grant. That's a a great
opportunity for folks to uh reuse some good lumber that comes into the resource recovery facility. staff is also in addition to what Commissioner Campbell updated on working on the new solid waste management plan that uh is due in 2027. That's a two
10-year plan. So, appreciate staff's work for getting that going. And then uh two, making sure we're dialing into the recycling grants to our cities in the best way possible uh to reflect the effort that all of the smaller cities and uh Morehead too, but uh all of the
cities are doing uh in collaboration with us. I also attended the MCC JAPA meeting with Commissioner Campbell general updates. We did have those resolutions and clarifications on the uh state funding requests. I attended the CAPLP board of directors meeting that
Commissioner Krabanov highlighted on June 26th. I attended the AMC board of directors meeting in St. Paul. We had really good dialogue on on so many of the legislative issues uh that are coming out uh both state and federally and how we continue to uh have messaging
with our state representatives and senators on on how these uh budget these uh mandates are hitting our budgets challenging in challenging ways. On the
Tuesday, I attended that following Tuesday rather, I attended the Romy re-imagined uh reopening uh for a kid that grew up in the Morehead area. Uh really exciting to see that development, but more importantly, exciting to see it
full of uh families and young people alike. Congratulations to Morehead. The amount of grants that they were able to federally secure on that were quite enormous. That afternoon, I attended the Niko public policy steering committee. As you recall, I'm uh been appointed to
that uh with Commissioner McDonald from up in St. Louis County. Uh both he and I were added as co-author sponsors to the uh proposed legislative language for the in u anticipation of the annual
conference next week. Uh that bill is to a proposed resolution to delist the greywolf from the endangered species list. That is something that uh in conversations with providers locally that or not providers uh producers
locally that would be something that's would be really important for them. So felt that that was important to our residents to do that. So I've been added as a co-sponsor. did ask Steve to forward that language to all of you so you're aware of that. The next day I had
an opportunity to uh attend a soil health uh day with members of SWCD, NRCS, USDA providers at the Dan Grassroo uh farm by ROG. Really great to see different
alternative practices in regards to rotations and uh practices on their fields. uh in rotations with the the cattle grazing. Um you know, it's it's not something that fits for everyone, but it certainly is has worked for them and it's a challenge, but a great
opportunity for folks to coordinate and communicate together about what the challenges and opportunities are there. Uh but more importantly to have so many staff members, particularly supervisors from this SWCD there, uh was helpful. Uh
last week I also worked on a um article with Agger Repulse which is a national egg based uh reporting out of Washington DC uh on the SNAP reality that counties are facing locally. Quinn did a
remarkable job communicating where we stand uh to see some huge increases with our minor error rate as we we talk about. So, I think the more we can continue to tell that story, it's helpful. It was in collaboration, not collaboration, but seem to go at the
same time as Commissioner Ebinger's visit with the senator. But I really appreciate that. So, Steve, if you can send that out to staff, that would or not staff, the commission, that would be helpful. And I believe that concludes my report. I do have one final thing. I I I do
think that uh one I'm really appreciative that we have so many departments that are willing to be out at the county day at the fair on Friday. Uh really excited about that. If you have the opportunity to head to Barnesville, it is a free gate, so uh great uh great fun there. But uh so many
folks have put uh time and effort in there. And um there are some pretty amazing champions that will be getting some farm awards, particularly um uh the friend of the fair uh awards. I really uh they've been people that we've all worked with for a number of years. So,
congratulations to them. Commissioner Campbell. >> Thank you, man. I I do have one additional thing here. Um we talked about the West Central Regional Water District. Um when we formed that, we had Commissioner Bar and I are on there and
we have an atlarge member from Klay County and I neglected I neglected to uh be thinking about a predium for that individual. And so this entire time, Don Martyrdom has been going to all of these meetings.
He attends every one with the exception if he's out out of state. And I I I would like to um have Mr. Larson put this on next week's agenda to incorporate a predium rate for Don. I don't
>> I thought we did that. >> I don't think we have done that. >> I can I can look back into information if we haven't brought it forward. I'll bring it forward. If we do, I'll provide an update. >> Yeah, because I I don't I don't recall seeing where we >> I thought, and I could be wrong, but I
thought we did have a dialogue to make sure because he's not been getting mileage either. >> No. So, anyway, I I just want to make sure. So, if it if if we have, then fine. But I don't know that there's even a form that he's filled out to
>> Okay. And I would like to see that be retroactive to January of 2026 if if we have not done it. >> I just >> Yeah, that's I mean >> incredibly fair. >> He travels a long distance to get there
and then some of our meetings last multiple hours there and he shouldn't be doing that for and I would like to see that at the same as what our planning commission is at. >> All right. Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, again, just want to thank everybody involved with the county appreciation picnic. Fortunate the weather held off and we had a a great day. Thank the commission for uh continuing to to serve uh on that day along with Darren and many of his
staff that uh both behind the scenes and after. Uh it was again another great day. uh that afternoon he had the extension uh pre-budget discussion that we'll be hearing having on the agenda again next week. On the 25th participated in the MCCJPA
um uh meeting which has been well covered on the 29th participated uh virtually with the water district uh board meeting also the financial workshop. On the 30th, uh had the technology service pre-budget discussion uh and also the highway budget which
will be coming. Those two will be coming next week. On the 1st, met with Dana, Darren and Anna in regards to a step three union grievance. I had that meeting that grievance hearing the following day. Uh on the yesterday I had had a
conversation with Quinn as I mentioned earlier. Uh again, I'm going to be inviting him back to the board uh next week to talk about uh some new information on the long-term service and supports. Uh this goes back to the 2025 legislature. If you remember, uh in
January and through March this year, we were having some discussions on potential impacts. Uh if you recall there was a task force or committee that was established through legislation that was comprised of commissioners uh administrators and CM or human service
staff directors uh that were to get uh get approval of of information to cut uh help cut uh the the re recommended DHS uh cuts that the state set and get those to CMS for approval. Unfortunately, they
did not get that uh to them in time. Uh and so there's going to be impacts that are going to be to the 2027 budget starting in Jan July 1st. Uh but again, we'll have Quinn here to provide uh more detail, better detail probably than I just provided. Uh yesterday met with
Commissioner Kanghov uh updated on several things that happened over the last week and a half. Uh and also then again met with Darren Troy uh and Anna yesterday on detox uh withdrawal management program. Um also just a notification we did re
hear from Red River Communications yesterday. Uh as this board recalls you've been part of several grant applications providing letters of support. Uh and uh just to let you know that the the Reconnect grant that we received or that they received uh with
your support uh a little over a year ago is starting uh to bring fiber optic uh broadband to to the saving and comtock area. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Steve Brian. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I I did just
want to highlight one uh item. Uh really uh something that combined both uh Quinn uh Jagger's department with mine. It was very uh fitting uh that um Sandy was here with Tammy Gerky. It was a a medical assistance uh claim that was
outstanding, pretty large scale and ultimately the property that was owned by this individual, specifically a house. we were able to do the uh real estate actions um pay the remainder of what was owed on the house and then sell
that to a new seller. Um, and that was a new process that uh both um Crystal Wahlberg and then Katie Stock out of my office worked on and and so I know Quinn highlighted it to Steve and just a a short part of the email that uh Quinn uh
had put out there uh just said uh Katie and Christa really did all the heavy lifting to make this happen. This was a process we hadn't navigated before and they put in a tremendous amount of work coordinating the estate, working through the legal and administrative requirements and seeing the sale through to closing. Katie even identified
several opportunities to reduce closing costs, increasing the recovery even further. Given the budget pressures we're facing, this is a very nice recovery for the county, but it's also a great example of staff being willing to innovate and tackle something new to improve outcomes. And so I I just agree with all that and I thought it was a
very good uh opportunity to get some money back uh you know taxpayer uh money for both the county and then the state. So just wanted to highlight that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that Darren. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Um unfortunately
I was not able to make the county picnic this year. I was sick that day and you definitely wouldn't want wanted me there. Um, so but I want to thank every all the EAC members and everybody that participated and they they really put a lot of work into that. Uh, on Wednesday,
June 24th, had us a meeting with Quinn and Anna about the new law that's coming down on social workers. Um, in the future, to be able to be called an actual social worker, you have to be certified and licensed to use the social
worker title. And so the the human resources uh departments throughout the county are trying to figure out what would if you're not licensed and a certified social worker, what would be what would be the title of you? So where there's some consistency throughout the state. So more to come on that. Um on
the 25th, I attended the SWAC meeting as well. That's already been covered. And I had a meeting with uh Chief Deputy Martin on some personnel issues. I was out Friday as well. Um, Monday the 29th, uh, I had a
demonstration of the Nemo Q appointment review. Um, it's what, uh, the DMV uses to schedule appointments. And so, we're looking at, uh, having that also for public health and social services. This is where uh, citizens can make
appointments online and then it will send them text reminders. um very low cost for I think the benefit that we would get from that. Um it's about $5,000 for for two departments, the public health and social services for
the year. So, uh that was good. And then uh on Monday also we had a EAC afteraction review of the picnic on the 30th. um sat in on some pre-budget meetings with uh tech services and highway
on the first uh we had a meeting on the step one grievance that was put in from the detox and worked some on the data practices project on Thursday July 2nd uh we had a
step three grievance that we had heard um that's ongoing right now. And then on the 6th, um had a meeting for the followup on the the Lauder Mill that uh we've been
working on with a deto detox employee. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Darren. Sarah, >> thank you. Excuse me. So, as I noted, uh, Friday will be Klay County government day at the Klay County Fair
from noon to 4 by the open class, uh, building area. Uh, we have concluded all items on the agenda. Our next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, July 14th at 8:30. We are adjourned. Part: 2
[laughter] Good morning everyone. It is 8:30 and I will go ahead and call today's meeting of the Klay County Board of Commissioners to order. Our first item on the agenda this morning is an approval of the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> We have a motion offered to approve the agenda.
>> Second. >> And a second. Any further discussion? [clears throat] Any further discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Same sign. Carried. Our next
item today is our employee recognitions. Okay, our first individual that we're going to recognize this morning is Kent Severson. Kent, you want to come up here? [applause] Kent, this certificate is given to you in grateful recognition of 25 years of
service to Klay County and our residents. Thank you so much for all the work you've done during that time. >> [applause] >> And I know Jessica is not available this morning, but Steve has some comments. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Uh Jessica
sends her wishes she could be here this morning, but did want to pass along uh this her her thoughts. Kent began his career with Klay County in 2001 in the planning and zoning department before transitioning to public health in 2004. He served for many years as a sanitarian
working alongside Bruce Jaster. and in 2019 stepped into the role of director of environmental health just before the COVID 19 pandemic. Throughout his career, Kent served Klay County in many ways. He holds credentials as a registered sanitarian,
asbestous inspector, and septic system inspector. Environmental health covers a wide variety of responsibilities including licensing regulated establishments, responding to complaints and nuisances, supporting outbreaks, uh, investigations, sampling public water
supplies, enforcing environmental regulations, and helping ensure safe food lodging pools, campgrounds, and mobile home parks. While much of his work happens behind the scenes, it plays a vital role in protecting the health and well-being of everyone who lives, works, and visits Klay County. Kent
often Kent often says that no two days are the same in environmental health and just when you think his day is planned something comes up and pulls him in a different direction. His flexibility, knowledge, steady approach has been a tremendous asset to our department and to the community. Uh beyond his professional expertise, Kent's sense of
humor and easygoing attitude have made him a valued colleague and someone who helps Klay County a great place to work. Kent, thank you for your 25 years of service, commitment, and leadership. And I was expecting that Jason was going to give you that big trophy, but I I
guess that's for something else. [laughter] >> Our next individual that we are going to recognize today is Tammy Gerky. [applause] This is pretty amazing. Tammy, we are recognizing you today in grateful
recognition of 40 years of service to Klay County and our residents. Thank you so much for all that you've done during that time. >> Okay, I got a lot to say, but I talk fast, so it's good. [laughter] So, today we're celebrating a truly
special milestone. Um, Tammy's been here for 40 years. She didn't quit and come back like some other people I've had. >> She was 10. >> Yeah. And she stayed. [laughter] Um, so she started in 1986 as a clerk typist in the child support unit. Uh,
she was a newlywed at the time, so she's also celebrating a big anniversary. Yep. Um, didn't have any kids at that point. She's got two now and she's got two grandkids. >> Three. Oh, that's right. Oh, she just had another one. [laughter]
Um so she uh when she started here she was beginning a new chapter in her work life and her personal life and her career's become defined by her dedication, her expertise and her compassion. And the best part is that I've been by her side
the entire time. Yeah. In 1992 she was promoted to a support enforcement aid in the child support unit. And then in 1996 she moved into her current role as a collections officer. Uh I would have to say you're probably one of the longest running
collections officers in the state [laughter] and um yeah people approach her for her expertise and her guidance from all over. It's it's awesome. Um for the past three decades she's been responsible for collecting debts that are owed to public
assistance programs and to Klay County. Um, it might not be the most visible work that we do, but it's incredibly important and every dollar recovered helps to protect taxpayer resources and ensures that public funds are managed uh, responsibly.
When we hear discussions about outdated technology and government, [laughter] um, Tammy's work is a perfect example of that challenge because unlike most other programs, um, there is no statewide system for collections. So instead she works across multiple computer systems.
They don't communicate with each other. So it's you have to enter everything twice. [laughter] And then um constant cross-checking, manual entries and attention to detail is a big part of her job. Um despite those obstacles, she's the one people turn to for answers. She's an expert on
the those complex rules and um you just can't learn it all overnight. And through it all, um, one of her most difficult parts of her job is a state recovery and she works with grieving families regarding medical assistance recovery.
Um, it takes a lot of knowledge and professionalism, a lot of kindness and grace and Tammy brings all of those qualities every day. On a personal note, Tammy and I essentially grew up together as county employees. We lived through the crazy 80s. Questionable clothing and
hair choices. [laughter] Um, orange offices, six complete office moves of the entire unit to different buildings or floors. Uh, paper fl files. So many staff changes we've kind of lost count. [laughter]
Talking about that before. Um, we've watched our department, our technology, our programs, and our community change over the years. And through all those changes, Tammy's remained a steady, knowledgeable, and dependable presence. I feel very fortunate that you're still
part of our team and that you continue to do the amazing work that you do. So, thank you for 40 years. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Sorry, Ken. She gets a trophy. Thank you. [snorts]
Well, if anything speaks to the culture of uh working for Klay County, those uh stories are a testament. So, thank you both and thank you to the staff and other department colleagues at your work with uh for doing the great work.
Citizens to be heard today, are there any citizens in the audience wishing to address the county board? Anyone wishing to address the county board? >> Steve, have you had any requests? >> Nothing, ma'am. Madam Chair, >> you
next item today is the approval of the payment of bills and vouchers. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the payment of bills and vouchers. >> We have a motion offered to pay the bills from Commissioner Ebinger, a second from Commissioner Krabanoft. Any further discussion?
Discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I >> I >> oppose same sign carried. The minutes from June 6th, 2026 and June 23rd, 2026 were uh published in the packet.
>> Madam Chair, do you want those in separate motions or one motion will work? >> That's due separate, please. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from June 16th, 2026. >> Okay. We have a motion offered from Commissioner Bear to approve the minutes from June 16th >> and a second from Commissioner Campbell.
Any further discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Carried. The next item would be the 23rd. >> Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from June 23rd, 2026. >> Okay. We have a motion offered to
approve the minutes from the 23rd as presented. >> Second >> and a second from Commissioner Campbell. Any further discussion? Discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign
carried. Item two, the five-year community impact update. Jason, >> good morning. >> Morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. Um, I have a brief PowerPoint I'm going to share with you guys.
Thank you, Sarah, for having this loaded for me. So I'm ju June 30th, 2026 was the end of our positive community norms grant. Um five years ago, some of you will remember um we had this vision given to
us um from Minnesota DHS that uh substances and substance abuse could be changed by focusing on the positive. And that was brand new to me, brand new to anyone here in the area at the time. Um, at
that point in time, my career was show the scariness of vaping, show the scariness of nicotine use and um, and then hope that people will make change. And I was introduced to the science of the positive. Um, Jeff Lincolnbach is
the head scientist behind that. Um, this concept of positive community norms. How do we actually change culture? How do we actually make lasting change? And um I'm going to start right away from the beginning with just showing the numbers. We did it. In 2019 at DGF schools, our
vaping rates were 24%. We are now at 5%. Just to put that in perspective, we are in the top 10 schools of the state as far as uh vaping uh not being used. Uh we didn't really focus on alcohol or cannabis. And yet
you can see that the science worked there too. Alcohol use rate, these are past 30-day numbers um dropped from 23% to 8%. Our cannabis use rate went from 12% to 5% which is fascinating from a preventionist uh standpoint. Whenever I
was asked to to study across other states and see what legalized marijuana would do, usually you see a a temporary jump in use rates and we actually continued going down in our use rates. Now beyond this um some of the the
softer sciences that actually stepped in as well our bullying rates are down our mental health rates are up. So in short we've we've made DGF into something that has been um is being studied across the the nation. And I'll I'll show you a
little bit more of that. As a county our tobacco use rates now are amongst the lowest in the state. Uh Klay County now has an overall vaping rate across all high schools of 9%. So we've done amazing work and a lot of
that comes to you. So I will actually kill the suspense right away and I'll just let you know this this trophy we we bought for our kids out at DGF for our rice club. Uh you've met many of them when they've been here to speak about ordinance and stuff. It says, "We beat big tobacco." Because when I first uh
came out there, uh those of you who knew uh principal Wayne Leard was the principal of the high school at the time, he asked me to end vaping for DGF. Now, did we end it? Not 100%. Have our kids absolutely won? Yes. We
went from a p a perspective of 24 to 25 kids per per grade that were regularly vaping down to less than five of them. So, that's an amazing thing to know. So that's that's what we bought them the trophy for. It'll be displayed in a a really nice case that we bought for them out there. We've uh created a community
room that allows them to u talk about, you know, wins in speech or national honor society or different things like that. Um and just reward them for being just generally good citizens. Now, how do we do that?
One of the biggest things I learned was that the solution was already there. Um, one of the big things we we oftenimes have to focus on the concern, right? 24% of kids vaping was a big concern and yet 76%
weren't. That mean threequarters of our kids said no. And that's amazing when we consider that over a million dollars an hour gets spent by big tobacco every single hour to try to get our kids to use, right?
So, the fact that we had such great kids to start with made this process uh very growable. This right here is our wise club. Um in high school, we went from 13 kids that wanted to talk about prevention work in their school to 43
kids regularly showing up. That's an eighth of our high school that is involved in this. Now, there's another 18 kids in our middle school and the group just keeps growing. So, it's just been an amazing uh experience for me to be able to be a part of. And really what
we what we changed was instead of asking what was wrong with us, we started asking what was strong with us and growing that. Um, one of the cool things we got to do here in our last year of the grant, um, we brought in, uh, John Nolner. He runs
a business called a piece of my mind which is pac because it sounds a little like little argumentative at first. Um and we asked the question of the kids and the staff and the community members. Um what um where do you see the positive show up in DGF? And this was one of the
young uh ladies answered my community shows kindness through everyday respect and small thoughtful actions. And it just really goes to highlight the change in the in the community and things that we had. We had hoped that we would get maybe 50 people that to part participate
and they overexceeded us again. 94 people showed up um for this project. Um we created that was the video that I was able to share with you guys. Hopefully we could share it out um with the community as well. It's been shared around DGF. Um there's so many powerful stories that just popped up um from his
visit. The second I wanted to share with you when I said that DGF is is landing on a national uh storyboard. Um there's a journalist her name is Rochelle Sharp and she writes for the New York Times, Washington Post, places like that. Um
and she had written a uh article on one of the frameworks we use called healthy outcomes from positive experiences. And through that she learned about the positive community norms that led her to us and she came here and did a story that's that's being in it's in the
editing phase right now. It'll it'll be in the New York Times where they'll be talking about our kids um and all the work. And one of the cool things that she noticed and she started asking the kids is like you guys don't talk about not using substances anymore.
What do you do? And the answer that came from one of our seniors was, you know, in the beginning we did, but what we realized is we don't need alcohol or any other substance to have fun. So we just invite people to come and hang out with us and see that we don't need substances
to actually have a good time. And as they realize that that's true, more and more people just come to us. Now our kids at DGF are talked about in the other schools. Like they're asking me like I get calls, how do we duplicate this? What do we how do we make this work? Um, this here was Olivia. She was
our student president. Uh, you may remember she was here whenever um we were working on the tobacco ordinance. And I love her her quote that I was inspired to lead after realizing that there was a problem and someone needed to speak up for change that somebody was me. That's the kind of culture that's
changing out there. Uh, it's been a complete community effort. Uh, no part of this uh process has been only Jason McCoy. has always been um the students vote. We pilot test everything with staff, with community members, with students to make sure that all of the
murals that are out there, all of the different um uh items that we've done, even this trophy, you know, had voting done on it to make sure that um everything was part of a process. And that message really took hold. So over five years, every year we did a
different um a different survey to make sure that we could follow our data. And this this I just loved the numbers. You know, 5% of our kids not vaping or using cannabis. That's amazing. But this tells the real story, right? 83% of the kids
say my family would disapprove. They understand that means their parents are talking to them. That means this communication has actually saturated. Threearters of them say, "My friends would disapprove of me vaping or drinking." And so they understand that
threearters of them don't need it to have a good time. Right? That's cultural change. That's the kids really truly realizing that I don't need this. I can actually go out and accomplish my life without substances. These are community
norms. So what lasts? As five years is wrapped up, um, we now have a a student body that leads. They are they have found their voice. They want to keep moving forward. We have a culture that supports healthy choices and a community
that's committed to helping these young people thrive. One of the coolest things I saw in our last Minnesota student survey data was we changed in year one. Only 37% of the kids thought their community cared about them. This last
one, over 70% of them believe the community cares. So, we've changed that mindset and I look forward to seeing how it continues to grow. So, thank you for supporting us with your allowance. We were able to do this work.
Um, we're looking forward to seeing what happens in the future from now on. Any questions you might have for me? >> Thank you, Mr. McCoy. Any questions for him on the presentation or the work? Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Yeah, just [clears throat] Jason to you
and your team, just an incredible thank you. Um um as a grandparent and and a parent of my kids in school. Um you know, just to see
where a school community works together, I think it's just um kind of overwhelms me actually. Um, good work. That's just why I'm saying that. >> Thank you. Additional comments or questions.
>> Will you be giving the same presentation to the city councils and the school board? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I've already been to the school board and I'm I'm on the uh board or on the agenda for the city councils. >> Great. Yeah, I think this really speaks to the collaboration on how different
entities can do the work and help realize some cost savings outside of all of the fantastic points that you brought up about uh healthy community norms and uh students um perspective on substances. So, thank you so much. Any
questions? Yes, >> Madam Chair, again, Jason, just great work. appreciate the dedication and leadership not only in the region but uh sharing with the state on all the work that you do with this grant ending. Do you want to share a little bit about what your next steps are? >> Sure. Absolutely. Um so um first of all
I was worried that I didn't have a job after the grant because that is the nature of grant work. Um but we do have uh within public health we have the foundational public health responsibilities um which will be paying for point eight of my time and then point 2 will be from the um cannabis and
other substance use prevention grant. So um I am now in a really cool position where I get to share across Klay County and Becker County through through our community health board. Um so my my job will continue to cover any policy work you that you would like to uh see
addressed. Um, I also get to work on making partnerships in our community. Um, and um, a lot of our social media, a lot of our mental health work. So, credible mind. I'll be back soon to present uh, that to you guys. So, you so you guys know this really cool resource
that we have out there. Um, mostly is just helping with mental behavioral health um, issues across both counties. Um, one of the coolest things that I I'm doing right now, Commissioner Campbell, I remember one of the first times I reported on this, he was like, "What about Morehead? what are we going to do
for Morehead? Um, we have a really awesome program that started at Morehead right now um around recovery and it came from I had a principal come to me in year three of this grant and say, "Okay, I believe you at that point 93% of our kids aren't and that 7% that are using
that's my entire day. What do we do for them?" And so I've been working with Morehead to create this recovery program. How do we keep kids in the school and actually help them quit and give them that that power to be able to understand what cessation looks like so we can actually bring them over to join
the rest who aren't using. So there's a lot of really awesome things going on. That's again that's a that's an original pilot that MDH is allowing us to do. So there's some awesome work right here in Klay County that's happening. >> Thank you for following up on that. Any
other questions? Great work. Want >> to take a picture with a trophy before? Pardon? >> You guys want to take a picture with a trophy before I leave? >> Sure. >> Yeah, let's do it. >> You guys are part of this works. >> Yeah. All right. Bring her up. [cough and clears throat]
>> How are we doing this all of us? >> All right. Our soccer team lost, but we won. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, next on our agenda today is the item three, the request approval of the
state of Minnesota grant agreement. We have our county engineer with us this morning, Justin Sorum. Good morning. >> Good morning. So yes, the item that I have for approval today is the state of Minnesota grant contract agreement. So this contract is just for the art trail that runs from Uland to the north county
line. So every year I come forward to the board with a resolution. That's the first part of this and then the actual agreement is the second part. What this does is it just allows us to get reimbursed for anything that we spend on the trail and then anything that the
local mudslingers ov group also incurs. >> Okay. Thank you. This has been I believe a really positive agreement uh you know for for minimal cost really to maintain uh such a great trail system.
Any questions from the board on the trail or the agreement? This this is budget neutral as well. So we don't the amount that we get each year covers our costs and covers the mudslingers costs as well. So okay
>> board wishes. >> Madam chair. >> Yes. Commissioner Ebinger. >> I move to approve the state of Minnesota grant contract agreement 292935. A second. >> A motion offered from Commissioner Ebinger to approve the agreement. A second from Commissioner Bayer.
Additional questions? Any additional questions? >> All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Carried. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you also for uh utilizing social media to get messaging
out there on the construction projects. That's been very helpful for folks. >> Definitely. Thank you. Y >> item four today is the Klay County Board of Commissioners consideration of a potential modification of the University of Minnesota extension contract. We have
Cecilia with Good morning, Cecilia. >> Good morning. >> Testing. Good morning, >> Steve. >> Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. As you're certainly well aware, we
contract with the University of Minnesota for our extension program services. Uh we currently have uh two full-time employees uh and a 1.8 or excuse me, a 08 FTE and also an administrative assistant uh who the
extension university of Minnesota provides services for. Generally, we are we are in that in the contract with them over three years. We are in the third year of that contract and we currently have a have a opening uh in our youth development uh position and there's been
some discussion over previous um uh previous board meetings where we've had some challenges or we know we have challenges with the upcoming budget uh and it was a good time to have a discussion of whether or not we would continue to maintain the same number of
staff moving forward. Uh and so the the question before the board today would be is uh in looking at the contract, the contract is scheduled to end at at the end of this year. Uh she'll be coming forward later this fall with a new contract. Uh but having said that and
have an opening now, we thought now would be a time to have that discussion. Uh so we weren't in a position where if the board were to make a decision to need to cut cut things next year uh for next year's budget that we would have a person advertise for that point. uh the
position that that you approve of. So that I'd yield for any questions. >> Questions? Uh Commissioner. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. How long has this position sat open? >> Um it's been open for about since May. >> Since May.
>> And it's uh if I might, it's not um been open because it's not been advertised the way the university system is. I mean it's they uh hire during similar seasons or different timings and so it's not been advertised yet. Yeah. >> Yes. Commissioner Campbell,
>> can you describe a little bit of what um a youth development director does? >> Um the educator position. >> Yeah. >> Um yeah. >> Yep. That individual is in charge of managing all the programming happening um in Klay County. uh managing the
volunteer system is a great about 40% of their job is really recruiting, maintaining and sustaining volunteers to continue the program. Um they're also in charge of recruiting new uh families to join in for um they're in charge of just managing the educational piece that
happens. Um we have ambassadors in the county that um requires a lot of just making sure that young people have the leadership skills that they need. Um they took trips um to DC. they they do a lot of service um oriented work in the community and that takes somebody
dedicated to guide them in that way. Um so they spend a lot of time doing that and then obviously just dayto-day engaging with um Klay County residents but also um volunteers and and young people that are in the program. >> Is it primarily um
>> this is the for >> Yeah, this one is the 4 position and then we also have the A position. um slide the point eight. >> I've always been a strong advocate for 4 and and the educators in 4. At the same
time, I've also um said that the numbers have to support it. >> And I so I'm I'm curious as to where where we're at with how how is how is 4 grown? Uh because there was a point
when we had a half person actually we we had one full-time extension educator in Klay County and then we went to a half and then we went to full >> and so you know I I guess I' I'd like to just see where we're at in those numbers. >> Yeah. I don't have the specific numbers
in front of me but what I can say is um we've had a period where the position was open. It's been open close open close. So we can't really um speak to the trajectory of where it's at right now because the program was just building when we hired Mon'nique um has
been in her position a year and some change now and has made a really good um connection with the the Klay County Fair Boards um build relationship there that takes some time dedicated time to do that and so we spent majority of the time just really making sure that that
relationship was strong because we understand that we can't we can't be good partners when we don't have strong relationship. So really managing that relationship and working with the families to bring them back up to speed of where things were before that position was then open. Um and now that
she's up and running then now we have an opening. Um so yeah, it's just been kind of back and forth trying to get that position those two positions up and running. Uh, one example that I can speak of that I'm sure of that will um impact the program is a sci-fi grant is
a relationship between NDSU and um, University of Minnesota Extension to really make sure that we're reaching out to our populations that typically don't participate in 4. Um, and so we have somebody in our regional office that Klay County is not paying for that position but supporting Klay County.
Right now they have three clubs that meet and eventually the goal is that to make that program more sustainable and so um Klay County would absorb that um club and they will become more of a quote unquote traditional club um feel. Um and so Mindy Grant has been managing
that program and working with um that group to really make sure that they can be embedded in the program and eventually that will be that will also show growth. Um when uh Amelia was here, she started a lot of afterschool programming in the not not uh Morehead
but like the outskirts of um more smaller communities. And that was really um good um avenue there to engage in young people that typically don't have access, you know, after school program or before program option. So the program is growing. I just can't tell you
exactly what the number is. >> Can I just have a follow? So um Sure. >> Yeah. So I' I'd be curious to know what what kind of enrollment we have now compared to in the past in terms of kids in for in the 4 program and then also uh
it wasn't too many years ago where some of our school districts were forced into situations where they had to reduce and in some instances if I remember call recall correctly even eliminate after school programming and I know that that 4 and extension
really stepped up in that regard. >> And is that still is that still going on? And what kind of numbers what kind of numbers are we seeing enrolling in after school programming through um extension? >> I I mean I I don't expect you to have those today, but I'd like to at least
see those numbers moving forward because again, >> I I think we need to be able to show to the community >> that what we're investing in is is working. >> Yeah. And I think the group just shared an update. Um I think you were out that day when the group came. Um the
educators came and shared the impact report. Those numbers were in there and we have that data that we can share. I can send it to Sarah. >> There are reports that we just had at our June extension committee meeting that we can uh get that really speak to all of the questions Commissioner Campbell had. And I, you know, I can
defer to Commissioner Kavanagh here, but we we are really seeing enormous strides in the program and the afterchool program. I mean, is over 300 individuals uh all countywide that we're seeing participating in this. I I think the
reason behind this discussion to the board is felt that one just similar that we do with other openings and staffing wanted to make sure there was a space for this board to approve moving forward in whatever advertisement it is. Understanding that budgets are challenging right now and that this
board may want to make some sort of adjustment to see some sort of savings. I I can tell you it kills me to have this discussion the week of the Klay County Fair in a time when we finally got how many years did it take commissioner for us to get them to 2.0 0
in that office finally starting to see positive changes in [laughter] not only numbers uh the ex static exhibits the animals at the fair higher than they've ever been and we're hearing from the fair board that they are having the support from the extension office that
really they were wanting for a long time. It's really a great partnership, but also understanding that budgets are challenging and we need to have the conversation if it makes sense now to [clears throat] move this opening to a point 8 to amend it. Uh, you know, my my
worry would be is if we hired this at a full-time uh employee now that we get to a point in 6 months where we're talking about the uh master agreement, maybe there are costs that need to be adjusted there and then needing to shift that position down. That's really hard for
people. I think we would lose a an employee going from 1.0 to point8. U maybe it made sense to hire at 08 now. Um, but I will tell you a cut will come with substantial cuts to what we're seeing in the afterchool programming.
That's those are your non-traditional 4 uh experience kids. Those aren't the after or those aren't the community club 4 kids. Those are the afterchool programming kids. And if that's the direction that this board wants to go, uh certainly we can talk about that. But just wanted this board to have a
discussion. Commissioner Bear, >> could you get by with a 0.5? Um it will be very hard um speaking to Commissioner Kumbbo's um point earlier on and Commissioner Mojo has just mentioned we are working on trying to
make that um sci-fi non-traditional club group more embedded into our 4 programming and at point 8 we're going to see some significant impact to the program at five is going to be even more
significant. So the growth is going to uh for lack of better word is going to stall the growth that you want to see uh for a county this size. >> When just a point of history, when did we go from one to one and a half to 1.8 to two?
>> 2023 is um so we've kind of gone back and forth. 2023 it was a point 8 and then we moved that back up but we also took a shift in our other program that was also open the ANR position so we went we took a that one was a full-time position we took point A from there and
added it to um so we didn't necessarily come back for it wasn't a financial impact it shift >> we just shifted uh we had seen growth in numbers in the 4 area that's why we went to the 2.0 know there and then the natural resources position to a point A which by the way she's doing phenomenal
work uh in the community at a point 8 but you know th these shifts don't come without substantial um challenges but did you >> and I just want to just add to if that's okay um just looking at the staffing model too when we have um to your point a.5 that that person is working that two
and a half days and when you have fair it's very challenging to have somebody at that level um it just impacts that showcase experience too. >> Mr. Kov, do you want to share? >> Yeah, [clears throat] thank you. Uh, so
uh I'll just begin with um the thought of bringing this point I I think was after uh Amelia had um u vacated the position. Uh the fact that we had after school
programs needing to get this position filled. Um just put some urgency to it. Uh I think asking for the numbers is good. I I think you showed that when we were here. We know that the after school
programs are really growing. Uh we also know that we're making inroads in Morehead mainly uh to new communities to start community clubs. >> So I think the work is growing. Um I think um I I would not support five.
This is a a big role to fill. We need the recruitment. We need the people to fill it in. Um I am in favor of the 0.8. I think for all the reasons Commissioner Mojo talked about um every every word of
what she said is kind of what what I was going to say so I'm not going to repeat it uh but it's vital work 4 is impactful uh the work that you do through extension is impactful and it's to the
whole community I mean municipalities into our schools and and into the rural areas is and then as well as the fair every part has been showing increases in big ways and uh so I um uh while I don't
want to u I know we had this discussion at last meeting uh with Carrie Robo uh who was a is a regional program director right >> and uh and with her and we we discussed the challenges of even going to point
eight but I still think that's the place I I would like to see us go and I would like to do that as soon as possible so we get this u uh this position filled. >> I think it's also important to note
obviously with the opening since May there is a substantial savings that the county is seeing this year because of that. Correct. >> That's correct madam chair commissioners. The contract does read if the position is open that the county won't will not be built for the time that there's no one in that position.
>> So if we move forward at a refilling it at a full time, we would still see a savings this calendar year similar to what it would be in a point for next year. Is that correct? >> Correct. Madam Chair, >> Commissioner Bear, >> could we get the the the numbers for the last 10 years on how this how the how
it's grown when it was one full-time to a 0.8 to a one? >> I'd like to see the numbers before we make a decision. Could you have those numbers by next week and we can act on this next week? So if I I might there is some challenge
um in terms I hear what you're saying and we can actually probably get that today because we have that information that was just provided but um my concern is that if this is not approved now we're already behind on the min on the
ex's advertising process and so there's a chance that if this isn't approved today that they will not be able to hire for fall school programming. just the way their timeline is >> on the contract too like we'll have to amend the contract.
>> Can you um I'm trying to figure out can you get the office to send we do have that data. >> Yeah. The 10-year period that commissioner wanted
>> is that that's dependent on how we amend the contract today. I I'd like to see the data before I make a decision on point8 there. >> Additional comments from board members. >> Well, I'll see how this goes. In respect
to what you want, uh I think we had this report. We saw the growth. We see the uh we're at these meetings seeing the growth of what's going on. And I I just want to make a motion. And if it doesn't make it, that's it what it is. But I'd
like to see that we move forward and uh um in moving forward having funding this uh position at a point uh 8. >> Second. >> Okay. We have an a motion from Commissioner Kavanagh to amend the contract to rehire at a point 8. Is that
the correct wording? >> Yes. >> Okay. We have a second from Commissioner Ebinger. Additional discussion. I I would just like to see the last 10 years on how it's grown or how it's grown with a full-time employee to a point 8 to a half or just one employee. I'd like to see that data before I vote on this. So
>> I hear that. We can get that information to you. >> Additional comments from the board. Commissioner Campbell, >> I I I agree with Commissioner Bear. I again I um I want to see if there's justification no matter what it is whether it's to keep it at two or
whether it goes to 08 or whether it goes to 0.5. I think a lot of it has to be in the numbers and and I haven't seen the numbers and I [clears throat] don't I don't I don't like to vote on something when I don't have the numbers.
So I [clears throat] will I'll be voting no. Commissioner Kavanagh, would you like to maybe withdraw the motion to see if we can get additional information before the end of this board meeting? >> I can come back with you. Um, so curious. Okay. Commissioner
>> Kabidov withdraws his motion. Commissioner Ebinger, >> I'm good with it. Just an indication. All of us have our portfolios. Okay. And I don't want this to reflect on either of you not providing us with good information coming from your the
meetings that you're responsible to attend. But if we have other commissioners here that want more data and we can do it within the time frame that's going to meet our needs, I have no no objection to that. >> Okay. So, um fine with that. See if we can get the information. I will say that
I believe staff is at the the fairgrounds today because entry day is Thursday. So there might be a chance they're not able to get that information. >> We have other ways to get it. >> Okay. So we um the enrolled data >> for the past 10 years.
>> Correct. And the the the school participation because I know we've grown the uh school districts. >> And that last part I think was even you know you know where to go but I mean we were shown these numbers in your PowerPoint. >> Mhm.
>> What was it last month or whatever? Yeah, that one has more of a a threeyear period, but >> yeah. Okay, >> obviously CO in there, too. So, we'll >> Right. I know that's challenging and I I think part of where the board is coming from and maybe particularly Commissioner
Campbell, we talk frequently about the Brenda Schaefer, KR, Becky Harrington years. and in those years how we saw the ambassador program exploding participation exploding and uh I think the data does show that since we've had
the adjustment the additional uh outreach that has been able to be utilized but uh if you're able to get that communicate with Steve if we can get it back on the I'm I'm happy to offer a a break later. Okay,
are we good? >> Thank you. Okay, we can move that as needed. Thank you, Cecilia. >> Thank you. >> Uh, but you do have the extension present budget. Should we weigh it? And how do you want to utilize? >> Um, Madam Chair, commissioners, I think that if she has the ability to get those
numbers today, that would make more sense to have the budget discussion after. >> Okay. >> Thank you for your flexibility, Cecilia. Uh, we are ahead of schedule. Is Anna on the
way? She's outside. There she is. Good morning, Anna. Thank you for being here a little early. We have your budget presentation for human resources. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Being the first budget to present, do you want me to go line by
line or do you have a preference in what this looks like? >> Is this your first bud budget presentation? >> Um, sorry. I did have my budget presentation last year, but I mean the first for all the departments. >> Oh, got it. Uh, well, I'm not seeing your budget yet, so
there's an L. There we go. Let's uh It's not that long, so do you mind? >> Thank you. All right. The first seven lines of my budget are um kind of our fixed increases from year to year. That includes salary. Um the
only thing that would be increasing with my department's salary next year would be step increases and the COLA. Um I do not budget anything for overtime for human resources in our health insurance. Um we do currently have a 15% cap
scheduled for or a max of 15% cap for next year. So that's factored in for health insurance. Um PFML that premium um is also a fixed rate that will go up based off the salaries. Um and same with PAR, Social Security, and Medicare. So the first seven lines of my budget are
just all fixed based off of salaries. My department uh had cell phone. There's no increase to that. So that would be neutral for next year. I do not budget anything for printing and publishing. And my next item would be subs our annual subscriptions. I'm requesting to
increase that by $150 just due to a slight increase in the DDA uh HR technical assistance program. My association and dues and memberships, there is no increase requested for that for next year.
I am asking to remove a $500 item um for advertising. HR does not um publish or pay for any advertising for our jobs. That would be department specific. Um other professional service. So you'll see that I um am increasing this for
next year or requesting to increase this um and that is due to the 10 unions um that have agreed to a market study. I do have a plug number in there for $30,000 for the market study. We I don't know if you would like to see that in HR's budget or come from a different area of
the county budget, but it is a plug number in my budget right now. >> Can I ask a question maybe just directed at Steve? How have we budgeted that piece in prior years? >> Madam Chair, you've done it in two separate ways. You've uh done it where you've added in the HR budget, but
you've also done done it where you acknowledge that there's going to be a study done and we just uh utilize fund balance, so it's not as part part of our levy. Uh curious what the board how the board would like to see that reflected going
forward or if maybe that's a a personnel issues committee item. Commissioner Campbell, since you're on pick, what what >> Well, I um I guess I guess when we do
a a wage study, it's something that has implications for more than one year. And I guess I would be I would be more inclined to want to remove that 30,000 from your budget
>> and um basically use our reserves like we've done that in the past. I think that's that's where I would like to see us go with it and and if we willing to do that now as a board then it wouldn't have to go to pick I don't think. >> Right. Well, and I to that I think it
does probably make more sense just so it's not I mean it's not a continual hit in your area whenever it comes up. But >> I I agree with that. >> Okay. >> Well, and again I think it I think it goes to keeping our align item like this
consistent on on an annual basis because you don't do these wade studies every year. You know, it's similar to what again what Lori does in elections. You know, she keeps it kind of consistent year to year, even though there's some years where there's no elections, and it
helps stabilize that levy, and that's what I think this would help do. >> Okay, I'll work with Lori on removing that piece. >> You'd happily do that, wouldn't you? >> Yes. Um so the other port um portion of that other professional service um is UKG
costs are just going up slightly for next year. >> Can you for the public explain UPG? >> Yes. So UKG is our HR payroll system. Um I will have um currently in 2026 I have let's see here
$8,250 budgeted um for 2027 I had $45,000 removing the $30,000 for our market study. So $15,000 um requested in total for UKG which is our HR peril system. Um that also does our recruiting and
onboarding piece. So it has saved us from having to hire or ask for another hire in a >> right. It has saved substantially. >> Yes. >> Employee cost. >> Absolutely. Um no increase or change to my training budget. Um as well as my
conference and workshop registration. No change there. Um dropping down to my travel and expenses. No changes for 2027 as well as my office supplies. Office supplies includes our ID badges and like the lanyards and such we purchase for county employees. And that would be the
total or that the um overall budget for me. I did work with Lori prior to today's presentation. Um you'll see that there's a 17.89% requested increase. Removing the market study, not showing knowing how conversation would go today. Um it would
be a 10.66. Um and that is accounting for the increased UKG cost and then the fixed cost for my salaries and benefits. >> Thank you, Anna. Questions from the board. Any questions? I appreciate that you're continuing to
keep in those professional development uh opportunities. You have uh newer staff and I think that the training dollars go very long ways in uh preparing your staff and department for the changes that we're seeing. So, I appreciate that you've kept that in
there. >> Questions from the board? Well, I'd say for the first department, you did a great job. >> Yeah. Thank you. And if you have just one minute more minute, I'd like to give you an update on paid family medical leave claims. Um, as of July 1, we've had 46 employee claims processed this
year. Um, 15 of those have been for bonding, so related to child birth. five or seven of those have been related to a serious medical condition for a family member and 20 excuse me 24 of those have been for a serious medical condition for the employee. Um to date or I shouldn't
say to date to as of July 1, United Healthcare has paid out 288,444 in claims to our staff. Um and in premium thus far we've paid $1,89,000 1,00 excuse me $189,350.
So, they've paid out more than they've received from us. Um, we have, if you I don't necessarily want to call it a shortage at this point. Um, but there's a difference of $99,000 in expenses paid versus premium collected. >> We do are we are fortunate that we have
um a lock a rate locked in for 2027 um for 2028. We'll likely be in an RFP um position for future years. And in collaboration with your state partners, uh, folks that have the the
same title as you and other counties, >> is is there a pretty good network on conversation on how the roll out has been going, where the the pinch points have been, how we can >> streamline better? >> So, we talk what feels like weekly, at least monthly, with many counties. I'm in a pathways program, so all new HR
directors in the state the first two years we collect we have monthly meetings. Um it's been the I think a lot of the pain points have been worked out at least from our end and in Klay County. Um it's there's a lot of communication pieces in the beginning. Really the delay is just on the
paperwork from the employee um to UHC side of things. So I do feel like we're in a pretty good place right now with it. >> Okay. Commissioner Campbell >> and I thank you for updating us on that. And I guess um one of the one of the unknowns and one of the things I think all of us have been concerned with over
time on this is um not ne I mean there obviously the indication that we're 90,000 short of what the premiums they're collecting are isn't a very good sign of what's to come. >> Correct. you know, uh, but in addition to that,
um, are you hearing anything in terms of the number of staff, how long they have to be gone and what's that doing to um, the workforce that obviously when somebody leaves that work has is not getting done or it's shifted.
>> Yeah. >> Right. So, what are you hearing there? >> So, I'll use myself for example. Um, I was out for 12 weeks on maternity leave and I was very fortunate that I was able to delegate those things to Darren and my staff. I know that they had to work
tirelessly um throughout those 12 weeks to keep things going and afloat. Um, as for other departments, I know that there are employees that are working extra hours. They're flexing time um to get work done. So, I have not heard from a department head that they're in a
position where they're needing to hire temporary or new staff to to fulfill those temporary vacancies or absences. Um, but I do know that other staff are putting in extra work. >> And I, you know, and again, your the example that you used, I think I think we've always uh handled that particular
situation. I you know, it's been something that we did before the paid family me. Yeah. >> Right. >> So, but Now with that, there's an awful lot of new um
reasons why people might take the leave that weren't there before. >> Yeah. So I >> those are I think those are more of the concerns that that we might see out there in terms of demands on workload. >> Absolutely. So um one thing to note, we
do run FMLA concurrently when applicable. So, as long as the employees eligible for FMLA, um we run that concurrently and I can I didn't look at these numbers exactly, but I'm pretty confident to say that almost all of them have also been an FMLA qualifying event. So, it hasn't been one of those new
reasons um per se or not many new reasons. Um so, I think these would be things that people would have been out for regardless. >> Oh, the FMLA pays the difference. >> No, so FMLA does not pay the difference. Um, FMLA would be job protection where
PFML would be like partial wage replacement. And so, um, we when they when the event meets the criteria for both, we would run them concurrently. Um, under FMLA, they can use their sick and vacation to like top off um or
there's maybe short-term disability, long-term disability, other things in place, but FMLA does not automatically pay them um or to make up the difference. So it's the it's the sick pay that we allow to top off. >> Correct.
>> Yeah. And under ESST provisions, so there's all these inner workings with all these different laws. Um under ESST, they can use their sick vacation comp or flex to make them whole. So we can't just limit it to sick leave.
>> Additional questions? This component is going to be very uh important for us to continue to track the data. We've had some conversation with state legislators on curiosity on how it's working, where are areas where we will see challenges. I know we've
discussed and one I I do want to say um I'm really appreciative of the staff members that are are stepping up and putting on additional time and effort to get it done to make sure we're covered. Uh but we have had conversations about
um you know these mandated staffing level pieces. If we get challen have challenges meeting those what does that mean particularly in the correctional facility just continue to give us that data and and we can uh communicate that to the state leaders.
>> Absolutely. We get a report quarterly so I'm happy to provide. >> Okay. >> Good. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, Matt, do you mind if we do your budget presentation? We might have to
have a break later uh because of um some data that we're asking for from extension. Are you Is Erica coming or is it just you >> or did I jump over to you? I'm sorry, Mark. Is that okay? I Sorry. I didn't
mean to leap frog you, but [laughter] >> good answer. >> All right. So, let's go ahead. uh if you don't mind, I'm sorry for that. But let's do the GIS and communications uh budget. >> Good morning. >> Morning, Mark.
>> Good morning, ma madam chair and commissioners. [clears throat and cough] So GIS and communications, I'm well aware of the fact that we are probably the most discretionary department that there is um because there's nothing that we do is required by statute. We're there specifically to
support the uh other departments, what they're doing and with the information and services. So, we try to make sure that we're doing it as effectively as we can and as efficiently as we can and trying to get the most bang out of our bucket. So, we're constantly doing that.
Um, so I meet with my staff a few times a year. We talk about this stuff, uh, what we're doing, how we can do it better. Uh, so when it comes to budgeting, one of the things I do is I keep my own spreadsheet. This is my 2027 one of trying to keep track of exactly
what do we need to spend money on and what what's the best use of those dollars that we're requesting from you. Um, one of the biggest challenges we have is guessing what we're going to be needing to spend money on, you know, up to 18 months from now. So because sometimes things change like a really
good example in my 2027 budget that you're looking at today I've got money setting setting in there for chat GPT which is something a year ago we didn't even think about. So we're always trying to be ready to adapt and uh put those
things to use. Um one of the things that I'd like to mention is in 2025 at the beginning of that year we changed the position of our GIS technician to a full-time slot. that has been uh very beneficial to the county. Um it's
allowed us to change how some workflows work and who does what tasks in the GIS division which specifically has made it possible for us not to use contractors as much as we used to. Uh we used to use GIS contractors that do some work for us and we've been able to have our GIS
coordinator do those things instead and the technician has taken over the day-to-day tasks of maintaining our parcel data and some of those things. So at the end of the day, I think that makes a really good use of our resources and as because of that, I'm able to reduce my request this year for other
professional services because we don't have quite the demand that we used to. So we're actually seeing that change. The other thing I wanted to note on this budget is one thing you'll I don't know whether you'll notice it or not, but uh one of our positions, our GI our communications coordinator position,
we're not requesting it to be filled for 2027. We're going to leave it vacant. um that's saving us a 100 plus thousand dollars a year. Um so we're just going to leave it as is. So the question then is what aren't we doing because of that? Uh the probably the single biggest
things we're not doing is our direct department support that we were doing before which had to do with uh graphics and brochures and um helping uh the departments with their specific uh communication needs. Right now we've kind of pushed that back to the
departments to do on their own. we still will support them as best we can with the resources we have, but um we aren't doing that as well as we're not doing quite as much social media posts or those kind of things. So, we've kind of cut back on that to try to be as effective as we can. However, my staff
are still doing amazing things. I mean, they're doing u all the stuff that we've been requested to do. We are doing that well. Uh we're still doing graphic arts. We're still doing signage. We're doing ADA compliance is our biggest one for this year. We've been working on another big one we've been doing is training uh
training activities for our our staff specifically. We're rolling those kind of activities out. And for those of you that happen to be at the county fair this week, uh if you see a sign or poster there, chances are it came from our shop. We are producing a tremendous amount of product that's going out to the fairgrounds. So
>> we're able to help extension and some other departments with that. So it's a really effective way of get using our tools that we have on hand. So to talk about the budget specifically, we have no new requests. Um we have um one reduction which is in other professional
services. We reduce that one by uh 20% or or what was it? Yeah. >> 10,000 >> $10,000. And then we're increasing software because of software has been costing us more and more and more. We just it the cost of that's been going up
anywhere from 9 to 12% that we're getting increased. So, we're basically just matching what the costs are expected to be for next year. That I'll ask for any questions. >> One question, Madam Chair. >> That's Commissioner Bear. >> In the computer software, is that where
you're putting chat GBT in there or >> correct? >> Absolutely. And uh one of the thing I didn't mention, I probably should, was last year we had a couple line items I went over a little bit. Um, mostly because one of the things we missed, you know, we we try to plan this stuff out,
right? We try to think of things. One of the biggest things we missed was new buildings, right? We had these two new buildings came online at the end of 2024. The thing we missed was cameras. You know, we got c surveillance cameras everywhere. There's two in this room.
Even if you're in a public space in a Klay County building, you're in there's a surveillance camera watching you. The ca piece we missed was that each of these cameras have a license agreement that we pay for. And I it was in my budget at that time and it's $59 a year per camera. Well, we added now we have
416 cameras. We added 86 alone in the withdrawal management detox facility. >> When that bill came last September, we were like, "Oh, shucks. We missed that." So, if you remember, uh Rory actually came to you last fall. We moved that to his budget and you changed his 2026
budget to capture that extra cost. So, we've already addressed that, but it was it's just an example of we try our best to guess what we're going to need to spend money on, but sometimes things happen and we just miss things or or you know, that kind of stuff. So, we we try
try to be good stewards of the of the taxpayer dollar. >> And and to that, you know, the reasoning for adding the additional cameras, and we've talked about this, is uh the the liability of not having that far exceeds what that payment. >> Oh, absolutely. They're well worth the
money we spend on them. And >> questions. >> I do want to highlight a a point that you talked about the amount of work that your department does to help additional uh county departments but also partners
is huge. And you know, I've tal we've been at the SWCD when you have worked with them to provide maps and they've commented on that as well. you know, I really do appreciate that and and I think in many ways uh your department um
gets um jobs get put on your department because it seems to make the most sense and how do we communicate and and tell the story to the residents about what services are available, when things would be closed, where you can go. So, I appreciate that flexibility and continuing to meet that need. Thank you.
>> Questions? Questions? I >> uh Commissioner Camp I'm >> Mark I'm trying to um when I when I look at your uh salary line items from 2026 and which you're
proposing in 2027 when when was it that we um no longer used had the one position was that >> it would midway in 2026. Yeah, it was. Yeah, we actually at the end of last year, we I came to you and we took it
out. So, they took it out of the budget this year. I'm not entirely sure the numbers work for what they took out this year. >> That's that's why that's why I'm asking the question. My math actually >> because [clears throat] if we have if we have one less full-time person >> Uhhuh.
>> than we did uh when we established a 2026 budget and you have you've had no other new hires or anything. Um why are why are we that much more? >> I I I just think I my guess is is the
number they took out of this year's was not exactly what it should have been. I I I with or without >> I think there's >> Yeah. >> issues here. >> Yeah. Just on that item. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't I don't know that answer for sure. >> Okay. Maybe we can just get clarification on it because because I
would think that >> you know when we look at what Anna just did on >> on her report and you look at the increase which included both steps and the cola, >> right? >> That was like seven. 68% I think it was something like that.
And and even just with steps and cola, you would think you'd be in that same percentage range. >> Yeah. >> And yet we're at >> 12 >> 12.59 plus we um no longer funding one position. >> Right. Why I think on this um when on
the 2026 budget under salaries, I think they've removed that one position salary. >> It's been taken out. It's been taken out, but I don't think that my guess is and I I didn't have access to that, but uh my guess is the number they took out is not the right number. It was either before or after COLA or
>> Okay, >> my that's just my estimate on that. I believe in I believe last year in the 2026 budget, the cola was added after it was a line item. Um and so that none of the budgets last year included the cola, the 4%.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Additional questions, >> Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Your microphone. >> That being said, is it only in this number this year? >> It is. If you recall last year,
commissioners, we were in the process of negotiating negotiating the union contract. And so um we we had a we we knew a number we had a number pegged in that or we didn't have a number pegged in there because we didn't know where the cola was going to land. And so
essentially you're seeing a a 4% and a 3% >> from from the 2025 number. >> So is that going to be consistent then every um budget? Well, when we get now that we're back on track with our union contracts
of going two years and three years, the goal is we're always going to know the next years. >> Yeah. But I'm saying from last year to this year, we'll have to account for that cola not being in one year and and now will be. >> That's Yes, that's correct.
>> So in our minds, that's all I'm saying, >> right? >> Part of the increase. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Additional questions. Thank you, Mark. Matt, can we do yours as well? Uh, we're
waiting on some communication from extension and then we will take a break after your budget presentation. The next item is a budget presentation for the planning and zoning department. Our planning and zoning director, Matt Jacobson. Good morning. >> Good morning, Madam Chair and
commissioners. So, here today to present my proposed 2027 budget. I just want to make a note of one um change on here. If you look at the DNR shoreline, um that $2,944
should be included in 2027. So, I will update that um just to make sure that that is included. Uh $2,944 >> revenue. >> Yep. It's under revenue. Yep. [cough and laughter] It's our uh >> shoreline.
>> Shoreline from shoreline to ground. Yep. >> All right. So, my budget is um looking like it's going to have a a 3% um increase just over 3% increase this year. This is largely uh almost 100% driven by um personnel costs, um
staffing costs, uh and everything else in my budget. Um just in terms of operating expenses, I proposed to stay remain the same um from 2026. Uh I should say that um we're able to
keep those costs um fairly flat um because we've been able to do a couple things. One is we've um been able to expand online permitting and payment capabilities. So, we're now taking every single application, whether it be for a building permit, uh, all the way up to a
text amendment or a resoning petition, we can take online now. Uh, we can review it online. Um, and it just increases efficiencies in in that respect. And I want to thank Erica for that because she's largely been driving um that work and she's done a fantastic
job um with getting us into the 21st century and and getting our our payments and everything online. Yes, Commissioner Bear. >> What percentage are we getting online now on >> permit? >> I would say it's over 50% at this point.
So, we're trying to drive more people to if people ask for a a a permit application or something that we tend we want to >> steer them towards online option. Um, of course, we do have paper options as well uh for those who prefer that. Yep.
>> Yep. So um we're also looking at just really laser focused on automating any repetitive tasks when necessary. Um as I had mentioned moving customers towards our online applications. One thing that's nice about the online applications is it really reduces um the
amount of back and forth between our staff and applicants. Oftent times with the paper application we will get them and they will not be 100% complete. Um, so there's a lot of back and forth ask trying to get additional information.
With the online application, you're basically required to fill in everything. And so that is really uh up the number of completed applications that that we've received. Um, we're also looking at or we have started just updating our staff reports, standardizing those, modernizing those a
bit more um just to make things more consistent and that also improves efficiencies as well. Um, and really we're looking at just anywhere where we can um, if there is a um, increased demand or increased something that's
causing an increased workload, we're looking for technology solutions to to make that more efficient. Um, I will say too that a lot of our um, some of our permitting this these past couple years has been a lot more complex. Um, mainly
because of flood plane. Uh we've been dealing with a lot more after the-act flood plane um violations um and just flood plane permitting in general. That takes more time. And um we've fortunately been able to leverage some
technology to help make that exped or expedite those processes a little bit more uh make them go be a little bit more efficient. Um and that's where I can thank uh other departments like Mark's department um for providing support uh to our department for that.
>> Um and also just looking at how we um spend our grant money that we receive from the state in terms of our shoreland grants, our um in terms of we can use some of our shoreland grant funding for paying
for noticing and things like that. if there's a hearing that has a a shoreland component to it, we can also kind of use that money for some flood plane stuff as well. And so looking at at being more um efficient with those dollars.
Um, other than that, uh, I think just beyond the the staffing too, we also support our planning commission and board of adjustment. And so, um, making sure that, you know, uh, they're supported through their pdiums
and their and their travel and mileage and then also providing training opportunities for them as well. There haven't been as many training opportunities this year. Um but in the past there have been a few um planning commissioners and board of adjustment members who've taken advantage of of the training opportunities that come up. So
>> to that uh you know I I know in the past those training opportunities have been very valuable particularly when hot button issues come before the board to have that experience before we have those conversations. Obviously, we've talked about some some big uh potential
land use issues that could be happening throughout Minnesota, particularly uh that would be helpful. AMC is doing those lunch and learns and sometimes I wonder if that would be a helpful uh just forwarding that availability opportunity to planning uh and um board
of adjustment uh folks. I think that would be a helpful if there's something pertinent. Absolutely. >> Commissioner Campbell. >> Matt, do you um you got to I I look at your salary line item here and it doesn't you know when it when we think
of all the things that you do um you know with the planning commissions and all those different meetings and I I certainly think this is very reasonable. Uh, and I I do I do hope that uh with what we've done
over the past few years and I think back when Commissioner Bear was on the planning commission before commissioner, I think, you know, we tried to look at ways to um really modify what what requires a permit and what doesn't
>> because I think there was an awful lot of additional demands that were put on you for what were being routine accepted um permits anyway. So I so I you know and I think with your your guidance on
that and suggestions about how we can um reduce those requirements where where we can has been a good thing and I you know I'm just glad that you've done
a good job. That's what I can say. >> Thank you Commissioner Campbell. I would agree with with how we've um changed some of the uh the um permitting requirements and then also say like what might require a variance as well. >> Yes. >> Um that those changes have been >> I do think it's important though to
mention that uh because we don't require someone to get a permit for a 10x10 Menard's storage shed that we're not seeing decreases in planning and zoning permit revenue. Y >> and that was something that came up. We we wanted to make sure that uh if it
made sense, we changed it, but uh you know, not to the detriment of what the revenue that you um you're anticipating. Uh it's nice to see growth there. >> Yep. And uh Madam Chair, just regarding uh revenues too, I think one thing that we might want to look at this year too
with our fee schedule is maybe looking at some slight increases. Um not to to make a profit at all, just to cover the actual costs. um especially with say after the fact permits um and then also our permits that require public notices
in the forms of publications in the newspaper and then u mailed notices as well. Uh right now we are not anywhere close to um breaking even on those unless we have a certain number of hearings in a night. Um, so it'd be good to look at that uh relative to the costs
of printing and publishing, >> which I appreciate because we have had substantial conversation on that as well and understanding that the levy goes into um providing the services that um sometimes are required. But I do think it's important there have been some
fairly large applications that take a substantial amount of time and wanting to make sure that the fee structure reflects the additional workload that would go into that. Y questions. I I just want to clarify. So the uh
let's see the salaries and predium line uh is what goes the payment to the planning commission >> correct >> members for the meetings. And this is an interesting trend because uh it seems like we've we always have a quorum but
um it if you look at the actuals from the past two years we're we're trending downward in participation >> at those is that >> well Madam Chair I would say it's it's been fairly steady. Um one thing I will say though with this year is there we
had a stretch where we did not have a board of adjustment meeting. >> Right. >> Um we we went about a three-month stretch. So >> there's not a lot a lot of members on that board either. >> Exactly. Yeah. It's a five member board. Yep. >> So I appreciate that. But I I do want to continue
um just to reiterate to folks if they're willing to serve in that capacity that we really do appreciate their presence at that board. That's really important. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Additional questions from the board. >> Just make a comment if if I was able to,
Madam Chair. I think to to Matt's comments that he made earlier, his engagement as far as, you know, one of the challenges that we face with permits is we're many times our citizens are having to act on our time uh and going allowing it to do it after hours has
made a difference. I think your investment in the position that Erica has also goes to the to the amount of followup that we're able to do now. And so I think that when you see that the revenues maybe didn't dip, I think it's really a combination of one uh the work that our our citizens may know that
okay, well, I'm just going to go ahead and do this because I can't get to Matt's office to get this permit. Uh but now understanding that there's also maybe going to potentially that there is followup. Uh that they are there those two are connected. I feel like >> absolutely.
>> Okay, additional questions. Uh same goes to you. Thank you for this thoughtful budget. But I know that um you know department heads have heard the concern from this board and what the outlook is and uh really want to as a member of the planning commission give
huge applause to your entire uh staff. The preparation that goes into all of those meetings is topnotch and you're able to to really have so much of the work done. So when it does come to the planning uh commission it's it's really fairly seamless and and that doesn't
happen without a lot of work. And so I want you to know that we appreciate that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Any other questions for Matt on the budget proposal? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will go ahead and take a a fivem
minute break now. Come back at 9:56. All right, thank you for that. We are back with our item 10 today, which is a request the Klay County Board of Commissioners consider authorizing the West Central Regional Water District and AE2S staff to continue evaluating the
potential addition of Wilin County to the West Central Regional Water District. Steve, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioners, uh, as you are well aware, uh, as we've become part of, uh, this project with Norman and Pulk County, there's been a great deal of interest not only within our three count threeounty area, but
also some of our partners uh, partner counties uh, in uh, next to us. And so we did, we've had several questions that have come to the West Central Regional uh, Water District Board. Uh and of of note on June 16th, Wilin County Board of
Commissioners uh for formally submitted a request to the West Central Regional Water District uh expressing interest to join uh that district. Uh they also have identified having the different issues with their with their water sources and their wells uh and feel that it would be
a good investment and infrastructure for their county also uh to look in what they were doing. And as part of their request, Wilin County also acknowledged that it would be that there's been a great deal of work that's gone on by Pulk uh Pope Pulk Norman and Clay County
and a lot of expense that's come with that. Uh and Wilin County has acknowledged that they would be responsible for all legal engineering administrative and other costs association with uh having them being included within the water district moving forward.
Uh this this uh topic was uh was addressed with the water district board on June 29th. Uh and they uh uh then requested moving this forward for our discussions from each of our counties. Uh again, this does not commit them
commit them to allowing them to join. What it does is it commits your willingness to have Wilin County uh potentially be considered and the work that would go into it both [clears throat] uh both internally from the water district staff or our our
board uh also then to to uh the financing requirements that I would take with Wilin County. With that, I'd yield for any questions. >> All right. Questions or comments from either of you that are on that board? Commissioner. >> Um thank you. As Steve mentioned, uh,
Wilin has expressed interest in in this and, uh, Commissioner Bear and I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of the Wilin County Commissioners prior to their requested letter to the West Central Regional Water District. And [clears throat] what they're really
looking for here is um some sort of a [clears throat] consent that you know um if they go through this process uh that they're there's a likelihood that they
would be accepted in um as what as Steve mentioned you know we each of us three counties had a significant invest investment into both the legal and engineering moving this point forward. Wilin County is going to have to
basically go through a lot of the same steps that that we did. Uh and I I believe the estimates that were given to them are up upwards of a4 million dollars that they're going to have to pay to do that. And so before they go through and spend that quarter million dollars, they they want to have some
sort of an idea uh from each of ultimately for that for that district to change all boards have to approve of it individually, not just not just the West Central board itself.
So, um, so they've been they were basically their request is, okay, if we go through this process, you as a Klay County board, would you be willing to accept them in? You know, I think that's really what the question is here. And and of course, I we encourage
them. I think both Commissioner Bear and I encourage them to. Um, just on a side note, by having Wilin County come, if they were to come in, it also expands our our lobbying efforts and our our
representation on there. It brings in another uh another House Senate or Senator uh in Minnesota into our group that's could be beneficial in u Senator Rasmusson is pretty influential in in
St. Paul. So, and he I believe he firmly is working with Wilin County to >> see their problem solved. So, that's kind of what what >> representative >> what we're asking for here is just a wink and a nod, I guess.
>> Commissioner Abinger. >> Yes. I've had a couple of the Wil County Commissioners that I serve on other boards with. They're excited about this. And the whole purpose of this thing is is to get rural water and they have a need and they certainly
meet the criteria of rural communities that have have this need. So I think it's a good opportunity for them and and very supportive of it. Commissioner Bear, >> the only com comment I want to add from
Commissioner Campbell is we I've been talking with them for the last about year. They came up to me and approached me and wondering if they could join or what the process is and we were waiting for them waiting for us to finally get certified in April, which we did. So
that's why this is coming to light now. >> Additional questions, Commissioner? Not a not a not a question, but you know, once once this does happen, of course, the way the statute works is that we would have to um
[clears throat] redo the makeup of the board. That that would be required by statute. So, we don't know if we would if a count [clears throat] if there's a certain county who would lose a member and it would go to Wilin
or if we would increase by a member or or two members. So, [clears throat] that's that would that's yet to be determined, but I just think the board, you know, in full transparency needs to know that that would be something that would be required under statute down the road. We'd have to adjust that. as so we
[clears throat] asked a question of um one of their Wilin County commissioners who was at our west central meeting and I believe it would be their intention to include their entire county including Breen Ridge in in their district. So
that that's that really where they gain the population base. Uh that that of course that's beneficial to all of us and of course Breenriidge could end up being a supplier. Anyway, that's >> all right. Any additional comments or
feedback? But uh there is a requested action before us. And madam chair, commissioners, if the board were to move on this, the the attorney for uh for the water district has requested that the motion be read as it as it's written.
>> All right, Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Commissioner Bear, >> like to make a motion to approve the authorization supporting the continued evaluation of a Wilin County's request to join the West Central Regional Water District acknowledging that Wilin County has agreed to fund all legal,
engineering, administrative, and other costs associated with its proposed inclusion inclusion such that no additional costs will be incurred by the existing member counties during the process. This support is contingent upon the
identifying identification of acceptable funding, completion and approval of all necessary legal memorandums and assoc associated associated agreements between Wilin County, the West Central Regional Water District and Pole Clay and Norman
counties. Comp completion of any required engineering, fiscal and stationary evaluation and satisfaction satisfying of all applicable requirements under Minnesota statutes chapter 116A. The county board
reserves the final approval of Wilin County's occlusion into the West Central Regional Water District until all contingencies have been satisfied, at which time the matter shall return to the county board of consideration and the final action of formal resolution. >> Second the motion. We
>> have a motion offered from Commissioner Bear, a second from Commissioner Campbell. Would you like to read the second, Commissioner Campbell? >> You want to read it for the second? >> You want to read the whole thing for the second? Any additional comments? Comments.
All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> Oppos. Same. Sign. [clears throat] Carried. Thank you. I also agree. I think this benefits the region as a whole. It really bolsters our legislative advocacy adding additional representation into it as well.
Item 11, the request approval of agreement with uh Winthrop and Weinstein to provide lobbyist legislative services on behalf of Klay County. Uh thank you, Madam Chair, commissioners. Uh again, you this board has taken an active role
uh with legislative priorities for our county in addition to those of AMC. Uh this past year uh this board agreed uh to a contract with the Winthrop and Weinstein uh for lobbyist services uh
that the cost per month was $4,000 per month over $48,000 on an annual basis. Uh we had a uh an update from from Haley and Tom on June 9th and also they were part of our work session uh to evaluate
uh one that what was accomplished and also what potentially could be accomplished at the upcoming session. Uh and uh and so I'd ask them to bring forward a contract for this board to consider. Uh again, if you take a look from the contract, uh they they kept the
amount the same, $4,000 per month or or $48,000 for uh for the next 2027 budget. Uh if you take a look at the the work that they've done alongside of all of you uh down in St. Paul, uh if we our
two main priorities last year, uh flood mitigation and also the non-secured detention, uh we were able to secure 11.8 8 million working together. Uh so if you if you figure that out, uh for every $1 that we invested in our lobbyist, we had a return of 248 or two
$24583. So with that, I'd yield for any additional questions. >> Thank you. I would I would also say that given the additional priorities that we had um as as secondary with the watershed with the water district and
the uh pum component we did have conversations about that with them while we were there and so I would argue that we actually that that figure's doubled over $20 million to Klay County and benefit really uh out of the legislative
session. Questions from the board? Commissioner C. >> I don't have I don't have a question, but I I guess as we as we [clears throat] um I I really um was impressed with I was somewhat skeptical going into it, but I I certainly impressed with the
results and I it certainly as far as I'm concerned warrants us uh moving forward with them. Again, I I would like and I and again, it's been primarily on bonding issues um you know, like the flood mitigation
and and the juvenile detention facility. But, um another area that I I think maybe they could be helpful on is the helping us with the message, even though AMC does it. um you know when we start looking at
these policies that are coming out there and when we're seeing these formula where where we're penalized for doing a good job, you know, in the areas of social services, maybe that's another area that they can
lend us a hand in in trying to convince the legislature that, you know, don't penalize uh counties who, you know, have a 1.8% 8% error rate when the state has over a 10% error rate and it's costing
Klay County and it $1.5 million um probably at a minimum. I think those are areas that I don't think we need to have them just work on infrastructure issues. M >> I think they can help us on policy issues
>> and I so hopefully that can be a message that this board gives to them moving forward into next year. I I think that that's probably a more costly thing down the road. >> Yeah. >> than than some of our other requests are >> now that the flood mitigation is you
know I mean we're probably still going to be doing some small asks there. But anyway, that's that's my my thoughts on that. Madam Chair, >> I I do really appreciate that perspective and Commissioner the floor in a moment. I do want to say that we have had conversations about pivoting
now that we're out of a bonding cycle year. We're into a policy piece, highlighting those that are really going to be hitting the levy in a a challenging way if the legislature doesn't act on their mandates. So, I appreciate that and I certainly can give the direction to them if the board chooses. Commissioner Ebinger.
>> Yeah. Just one one item. Excuse me. One item that or aspect of this that I think the heaven lobby it when almost becomes vital. We're looking at the issues with the score fun or with the score funding the
>> Oh, that too. >> That too. >> Yeah, that too. But many of the funding elements we're dealing with right now, counties have different counties have different positions on it. And when we rely on AMC to to be our representative
on this, they at times are going to have issues where there's conflict within the counties. And it's good to have a talented team with you when you're trying to go in and show that we we are meeting the qualifications that are desirable in
dealing with with our funding that we get from the state and from the federal agencies. and that other counties that are not as successful aren't going to be inclined to join us in trying to lobby
for what's the best interest of the Klay County residents. So, these folks have done a good job. I certainly think it's money well spent. And uh having said that, I might as well make the motion to approve the agreement with Winthre and
Winream Weinstein PA to provide lobbyist legislative services on behalf of Klay County. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion offered from Commissioner Ebinger, a second from Commissioner Kavanagh. >> Just one comment. >> Commissioner Bear,
>> this was budgeted for last year, right? This is not going to be an increase on our That's >> correct. Everybody knows. Yeah, >> correct. the uh and this contract goes through the end of this year as well. So we have had conversation with them on additional work. I think uh Commissioner >> Campbell had talked to them about uh
coordinating the DNR has mitigation funding application components as well. >> My question uh has this been reviewed by the attorney's office? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Additional questions from the board? I would note, Madam Chair, that
that Commissioner Campbell's comments are very timely. I had a conversation with Quinn yesterday. He is going to be coming to board next week uh with some additional updates, but we did were notified that the state has air rate has gone up over 10% now, which will put us
in the 15% category. All right. >> Questions? Uh, we have not voted yet. Correct. >> That's giving up. >> Any other comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> Those same sign carried. Thank you for
prepping that. uh in looking back at the item uh five and uh four and five where Cecilia was before us earlier, we've left messages with Cecilia. I know they're scrambling to get the data uh that was requested. I
did reach out to Carrie Robu who is the direct supervisor of the program and felt like it would be helpful for her to help get information. it. Um I would prefer that and they would as well that we table um since the budget component needs to happen after the item four that
we table both items to next week so that we could have in-person presentation with um there is a a hiccup there but just given given what staff is under with the county fair this week feel that would be uh the most fair and so uh
would take up um if the board wanted uh tableabling ing them one at a time to next Tuesday. >> You need a motion for that. >> Correct. >> Yeah. I'll make a motion for to let's see >> item four.
>> Item Yeah. Okay. I have a motion to table of Clay County Board of Commissioners uh considering modification University of Minnesota contract on staffing level leveled. >> We [snorts] have a motion offered to lay on the table. Item four from Commissioner Kabanov to second from
Commissioner Bear. That is a non-debatable motion. >> Well, Madam Chair, I think the motion needs to include table till when? >> I thought it wasn't included in what he said. I apologize. >> Yeah. Uh tabled until >> next Tuesday.
>> Next week being what's the date? 14th. >> 14th. >> Uh July 14th. >> Okay. And that resembles your second as well. Thank you for catching that, Commissioner Campbell. >> All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Same sign carries.
>> I'll also make a motion that the uh present uh the extension budget presentation for 2027 also be um tabled until next week's meeting on July 14th. >> Motion offered from Commissioner
Kabanov, a second from Commissioner Bear to lay item five on the table until next Tuesday. Additional com or no? Uh, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign carried. Thank you.
Okay. Going back into item 12 would be our committee reports. Commissioner Ebinger. Uh, two weeks of reports. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's see. On Tuesday the 23rd of June, I uh myself and Commissioner Campbell
attended the trip authority board uh meeting at the dispatch center. Uh I think probably the high point of it all was we did pass a uh a motion was sent up from the
executive board uh for a 2027 budget. Um the budget was an 8.28% increase and it included um a uh technology specialist position which I
mean is is fairly critical for for succession there. Um we have a wonderful talented uh individual in the position of technology supervisor. Uh but he is he's been there for 20 years and sooner
or later he needs to retire and we have a a competent uh younger employee who's moving into the position to learn learn what uh what he does. So uh we passed the motion to make to approve that
budget and it'll be coming up here during our budget discussions for review. Uh we also defined the uh public service T1 call taker job description which at this point we do
not have. We've not taken a call taker dispatcher model on yet. But to have those positions and a pay structure on them uh is essential if they're going to transition at some point which I think they'll need to. So that was done. Um
also recognized uh Commissioner Colpek from um from Fargo, uh Commissioner or Mayor Mahoney from Fargo and uh
Commissioner Olsen, all of whom have been on the board but who were moving out because of the elections. North Dakota. We'll have new people coming on board here shortly from those from the North Dakota partners.
[clears throat] Um on the 24th, Wednesday, I attended the Partnership for Health entrance meeting with state auditors and staff from Becker County and uh Klay County
discussing the upcoming audit. Since there's a transition from the four county model to a new twocount model, there's going to be a higher level of scrutiny paid attention to uh to us on this audit. But as it stands right now,
everything looks good and uh they'll be moving in and starting the audit process. Um later that day I attended the Morehead or the the uh Metro Flood Diversion Authority Finance Committee meeting.
Uh basically was general business where we approved a couple of the financial reports to forward to the next day to the uh diversion authority board of authority.
And on the 25th I attended that meeting. Uh we uh the uh executive director gave report there's an intention to get a new committee and board member orientation set up for new members that are coming in. As Commissioner Campbell pointed
out, we're going to have in the next year six new members on the board. >> We're going to have eight new members. >> Eight new members. So, there's going to be a turnover. And it I think it's critical that we have u some of the u new people brought on board and brought
up speed with with what's a pretty complex board assignment. There's going to be a board retreat on September 15th. Um, I apologize. I did not review this prior to leaving the meeting here a week ago.
Regular project updates and regular business. And again, there was recognition uh for Mayor Mahoney and other board members who were leaving uh because of term limit limits or retirement from their positions.
On uh Friday the 26th, I attended a remote meeting of the Great Fargo Mortad EDC board. Uh Charlie Johnson updated us on the convention center over in the decision to have a
downtown location for it. Uh we also discussed um the executive director's uh performance review and reviewed some of the material that was provided to us earlier
and um there was a plan to prevent return or to present return on investment and some of the other concerns that were brought up in that evaluation. Uh there were two nominations for new members of the executive board
and that completed that meeting. And on the first of this month, [cough and clears throat] I attended uh out of James Nelson Farm south of uh City Morehead, Amy Clolobisher had a press conference.
The SNAP problems we were identifying earlier were discussed uh as part of that presentation. Uh she also presented uh some potential pro projects that she would propose if
she were governor to address needs of rural Minnesota. Uh we did discuss the cost that we've got of SNAP air rates. U which now it looks like the state has gotten worse and we've continue and maintain an excellent position and yet we're going
to be penalized even more now. So that completes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Ebinger. Thank you also for being present for that. I think that was an important dialogue. Commissioner Kavanagh, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um
have two meetings here. Uh going back to the um June 24th and June 25th, Commissioner Bear and I went to a two-day um [clears throat] um a a two-day government
which is tribal state relations training and uh this was held in Granite Falls. Um the presentation was done um in line with a statute that was passed in 2021
under Governor Walls um and it's statute 1065 and what it uh the essence of the um uh of the of the statute is that the relationship between
state government meaning their agencies mostly and and the uh legislators themselves um understand uh and gain knowledge of past history.
uh also current uh situations that are going uh within uh the 11 tribal uh uh tribes in the state of Minnesota and requires them to create education and
conversation so that they understand each other uh to the highest ability that they can do. It also gives rules and regulations as to how to um go about
uh respecting and honoring and working with each other's authorities and rights uh so that in order to uh work better in a relationship that honors each other and helps each other jointly. So that
was the overall view of it. Uh it was um o overwhelming at point I I would say with information it was really I mean when they started at nine and they did go till five. I mean it was one thing
after another with a few breaks. Uh, a big part of the what they did was to give a historical background starting all the way back to Columbus uh to present day. Obviously um um you know
the some of their story that they presented is very tragic and yet at the uh the other end of it as we get more current day we see uh some of those areas that have created can create and
still uh create challenges uh for the two entities. So you have your federal government, you have your state government and you have your tribes and how they all um share their identities. Uh they use the word sovereignty
um uh how how you mix and mingle all three and when one one's authority uh um overseas uh overlays the other one. Um maybe I'll uh that's a good overview of
that on my part. Um Commissioner Bear may have more specific things to chair share. Um they've done this educator that was leading this has done 50 of these trainings over the years. Um it
varies from year to year how often they have them. It's kind of up to the tribes. They've had as up to as many as 11 a year. And this year they may only have two or three, but I would suggest for the future I I found it very very um
uh important information to know. Um I would suggest you know we uh participate best we can whenever it returns over to uh white earth. um just to help our relationships or grow our relationships
I should say um you know with our uh the with the tribe closest to us. So um later on the um that was the 24th and 25th and then that evening the 25th I had my monthly meeting for CAP LP. Uh we
had a full review um of our audit done by Bergen KDB. The audit audit report showed that CAPLP is in good standing and had no negative marks. That's the highest uh it can do.
Um and then um so with that that that was approved by the board which then led into uh the financial statements uh that go along [clears throat] with um uh the
report and our 109 and our 1090 form uh nine I'm sorry our 990 form uh to the IRS for the 25 uh 2025 um tax here and we did approvals of several grants as we
do every month. Again, it's amazing all the grant opportunities that people work at um over at that agency. And then uh they had a Head Start self assessment uh report as required by a federal head
start uh oversight. Uh they gave detail of that um and everything has turned out uh in the report to be fine. So, um, that's what I have to say about that. So, um, that completes my report.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Kabanov. Commissioner Campbell. >> Thank you. Um June 18th we had our um Grey Lake Solid Waste Budget Committee meeting which we
were delegated to present the budget to the full board and the items [clears throat] of um of note on that were there was going there was a $220,000 projected increase due to labor and
benefits. Uh there was an estimated increase of $55,000 in electrical costs, an increase in autotail management by 18,000. That's the first time they've
increased that um in many many years. And then we had an [clears throat] increase of the internal service fund fund from 250,000 to 350,000. And I'll touch on that in a minute. and
we had a reduction of $25,000 in the property insurance premium. And so the what it amounts to is there was an additional $355,000 in total cost in 2027. Uh which calculates out to a 4.6%
increase as it relates to Klay County. That's an increase of $15,531 to the Klay County U solid waste budget for 2027. Uh if you want to look at it from a tipping fee standpoint, the tipping fee
went from $160.31 to $167.71. So that meeting was held and recommended for approval. Uh I back on the issue of the um 250,000 to 350 on the internal service fund
over the next five years um the need uh in the internal service fund is $630,000. And so we're we're just even by increasing it by 100,000 we're still going to be short. Uh but the nice thing
about that is in year five uh there is a million dollar project scheduled in year five um but by the time that rolls around one of the previous five-year capital improvement bonds that we had will be
paid off and and so we we're hoping that we could then incorporate another a new capital improvement bond um that would would help cover that to offset the need for that internal service fund. Otherwise, we'd really have and again it's it's all to try to make these
annual increases as level as possible and that's that's part of what what that helps to do. So then on uh the 20 oh I guess I have my little backwards here. Oh yeah. Okay. On the 23rd, uh we did have the Red River Regional Dispatch
Center board agenda and at that we we did uh review the um budget from the U recommended from the budget and finance committee. And as Commissioner Eber noted, we did approve
that budget as a board. And then in also in addition to that we did consider approval of the call taker position uh and we um did not move forward on that uh for 2027.
And we also considered a pay structure for the call taker job position and we did approve that but with the idea in mind that it's not going to be implemented right now because of the
other demands on the budget that we have to deal with. Uh other things of note, we there's 36 of the 38 full-time positions uh in place right now. Um and there's
two part-time. Commissioner Abbringer mentioned about the succession plan for the technology specialist position. And I think that's that was a critical thing. I think everybody agreed with that, including the executive committee, which is all our sheriffs and police chiefs and fire
department. They all agreed that that position is critical to have somebody get in there and to learn the work that Brian does because it's important work. Then on the 24th, I attended the MOED
wellhead protection plan uh part two meeting on the 24th and um we just kind of went over uh some of the changes um one of the one of the things that I brought up that they are incorporating into the wlet
protection plan now that wasn't didn't exist back 10 years ago when it done was the fact that there is now a one watershed one plan deal through the wershed. So, so there's language in in this new weather protection plan that
identifies that one wershed one plan program that's there. Uh then also then on the 25th we had our Klay County solid waste advisory committee meeting. Um, we got
some grant updates and reports from Ella. She did a fantastic job with her work in those grants. Corey gave a good report on the landfill activities
and um he presented a recycling formula that I think is going to come before this full board here soon that kind of addresses how we're going to distribute that re those recycling dollars in
rather than just kind of pick some numbers out of the thin air. we have a we have a formula estab established that's going to help be consistent. There was a little a few little um suggestions on it. Um but I think overall
uh it was well received. Uh on the also on the 25th we had our Mor Clay County Joint Powers Authority meeting and we did we did our final appointment on the representatives of the Minnesota
funding or or the that and then the um the funding requests moving forward how that would how that would be prioritized. And then there was a some small contracting actions that we approved as
well as a reimbursement request from family on their moving. And then the diversion authority board meeting was held that same day. Uh [sighs] a lot of a lot of updates. Uh, one thing
of note, um, under the finance committee, uh, Mayor Dardis, um, gave a report, the sales tax collections, both from the Fargo sales tax and the C County sales tax has been somewhat stagnant or level.
Uh, there's indications now in this last one that they've seen that there's they're starting to see that move in the positive direction again. So, that was good news. And of course it was um kind of a
kind of kind of a day where we said goodbye to Chair Mahoney uh who meant a lot to me. I'd worked with him since day one on it. We were co-chairs of the on the original project. So it was kind of sad to have to say say goodbye and um
but so it goes. Then also uh Bernie Dardis uh who was You know, it's it's nice when you uh have board members who might lead in committees that you have a lot of respect for and you know
that what they're going to provide you is just good information. And Birdie Dardis was just solid in that regard when it comes to the finance financing reports. Um and then we did go into an executive
session to discuss the um nest crop loss issue and we came back into um once we were done with that we got some updated information. We came back in and and the
board took action to um get that contract or that um next crop loss agreement agreed to and that that was um supported by everybody. So, uh, and then I I I I should mention
Denise Copek, too, was the other board member who, um, she'd been on there for four years and had done a a really good job, and she will be missed, too. And it's, it's, uh, the the nice thing about that thing is we're getting to October
is the date that uh, it's supposed to be substantially complete. So the uh efforts on behalf of all those people for as many years as they worked on it uh they're going to they're going to see the results of that.
It's going to be historic when it's all said and done. Uh then um on the 29th, Commissioner Bearer and I attended the West Central Regional Water meeting and we that one was held in
Grand Forks. Uh items of note, we had some of the things that were in there. Of course, we had Wilin County was there. So we talked about that what we did today in terms of
funding earmarks. um the 2024 earmark, we finally were approved for our first reimbursement of $327,000. So, we've been waiting that for quite some time. Um in terms of the 2026 year mark, we've we
now have a case manager assigned. So, that's probably also a good thing. Um, and we, you know, our priorities were to really be talking about getting the water to Felton, Georgetown, Plyley, and Hendram as part of our key. That's to
get this thing moving. And um, I think that's all I have on that. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Campbell. Commissioner Bear. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I also was down at the government to government tribal state relations
training down in Granite Falls with Commissioner Kavanagh where it was a very eyeopening two-day retreat. We learned about a lot about the federal Indian policy and uh just the treaty obligations that
the federal government has gone in with the tribes across the nation and specifically in Minnesota. It was a great retreat and I would I would yeah like to advise you everybody on board if it does come around closer to White
Earth I'd advise you to go to it that yeah it's very very eye openening very well worth the two days and then on June 29th I was also at the West Central Regional Water District Board meeting up in Grand Forks where
Commissioner Campbell gave a very good update on that the one thing the one thing I'd uh add to that we're also our next step is to do outreach with Felton, Georgetown, Pearly Hendram and H Hallstead on getting that getting
contracts with them in the next couple months so we can move forward with pipeline. And after that meeting, we had a financial policy workshop up in Grand Forks 2 with West Central Region Water District where we were just setting more policies on the district. And that
concludes my report. Madam Chair, >> thank you, Commissioner Bear. On the 23rd, I with all of you attended the employee appreciation picnic. Really great opportunity to uh celebrate the um amazing staff that we have at the
county. Huge gratitude to the staff member and department heads that I really helped shape uh what that was. to uh thanks to Troy and to Commissioner Bear for providing the pork. Um one of my favorite times of the year and I
can't go without saying that Kurt Cannon's got some sweet moves on the grill. So there's that. That evening I attended the planning commission meeting. We did have a request from Ryan and Michael Hog uh from Hog Farms uh
Kayo expansion of a feed lot um in Humbult Township. There were some concerns in regards to fencing, but uh that is those are conditions of the permit and the board did approve uh the request. June 24th, I had the opportunity uh was appointed to the
Fargohead diversion authority debris removal and restoration uh committee. Really uh that is that is a promise that we saw through to the the folks that will be inundated with uh the project once it's in operation. And so it was
our first meeting about uh coming up to speed, making sure that we had a process in place, uh articulated some of the language, dialed that in a little bit more. We will be having an additional meeting next month so that we do have a a better plan going forward and what the
communication strategy is to land owners. Appreciate uh the MCCJPA for appointing me to that board. Uh so thank you. On the 25th, I attended the SWAT committee meeting with Commissioner Campbell. We did have great updates from
Ella on the status of the composting grant. I've not heard uh we should hear very soon on that. Really hopeful that we hear soon. And then also the lumber reuse uh grant. That's a a great opportunity for folks to uh reuse some
good lumber that comes into the resource recovery facility. staff is also in addition to what Commissioner Campbell updated on working on the new solid waste management plan that uh is due in 2027. That's a two 10-year plan. So, appreciate staff's
work for getting that going. And then uh two, making sure we're dialing into the recycling grants to our cities in the best way possible uh to reflect the effort that all of the smaller cities and uh Morehead too, but uh all of the cities are doing uh in collaboration
with us. I also attended the MCC JPA meeting with Commissioner Campbell general updates. We did have those resolutions and clarifications on the uh state funding requests. I attended the CAPLP board of directors meeting that Commissioner Krabangh highlighted on
June 26th. I attended the AMC board of directors meeting in St. Paul. We had really good dialogue on on so many of the legislative issues uh that are coming out uh both state and federally and how we continue to uh have messaging
with our state representatives and senators on on how these uh budget these uh mandates are hitting our budgets challenging in challenging ways. On the
Tuesday, I attended that following Tuesday rather, I attended the Romke re-imagined uh reopening uh for a kid that grew up in the Morehead area. Uh really exciting to see that development, but more importantly, exciting to see it
full of uh families and young people alike. Congratulations to Morehead. The amount of grants that they were able to federally secure on that were quite enormous. That afternoon, I attended the Niko public policy steering committee. As you recall, I'm uh been appointed to
that uh with Commissioner McDonald from up in St. Louis County. Uh both he and I were added as co-author sponsors to the uh proposed legislative language for the in u anticipation of the annual
conference next week. Uh that bill is to a proposed resolution to delist the grey wolf from the endangered species list. That is something that uh in conversations with providers locally that or not providers uh producers
locally that would be something that's would be really important for them. So felt that that was important to our residents to do that. So I've been added as a co-sponsor. did ask Steve to forward that language to all of you. So, you're aware of that. The next day, I
had an opportunity to uh attend a soil health uh day with members of SWCD, NRCS, USDA providers at the Dan Gruffs uh farm by ROG. Really great to see different
alternative practices in regards to rotations and uh practices on their fields. uh in rotations with the the cattle grazing. Um you know, it's it's not something that fits for everyone, but it certainly is has worked for them and it's a challenge, but a great
opportunity for folks to coordinate and communicate together about what the challenges and opportunities are there. Uh but more importantly to have so many staff members, particularly supervisors from this SWCD there uh was helpful. Uh
last week I also worked on a um article with Agulse which is a national egg based uh reporting out of Washington DC uh on the SNAP reality that counties are facing locally. Quinn did a remarkable
job communicating where we stand uh to see some huge increases with our minor error rate as we we talk about. So, I think the more we can continue to tell that story, it's helpful. It was in collaboration, not collaboration, but seemed to go at the same time as
Commissioner Ebinger's visit with the senator, but I really appreciate that. So, Steve, if you can send that out to staff, that would or not staff, the commission, that would be helpful. And I believe that concludes my report. I do have one final thing. I I I do think
that uh one I'm really appreciative that we have so many departments that are willing to be out at the county day at the fair on Friday. Uh really excited about that if you have the opportunity to head to Barnesville. It is a free gate so uh great uh great fun there. But
uh so many folks have put uh time and effort in there and um there are some pretty amazing champions that will be getting some farm awards particularly um uh the friend of the fair uh awards. I really uh they've been people that we've all worked with for a number of years.
So, congratulations to them. Commissioner Campbell. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I I do have one additional thing here. Um when we talked about the West Central Regional Water District, um when we formed that, we had Commissioner Bar and I are on there and
we have an atlarge member from Klay County and I neglected I neglected to uh be thinking about a predium for that individual. And so this entire time, Don Martyrdom has been going to all of these meetings.
He attends everyone with the exception if he's out out of state. And I I I would like to um have Mr. Larson put this on next week's agenda to incorporate a pdeium rate for Dawn. I don't
>> I thought we did that. >> I don't think we have done that. >> I can I can look back into information if we haven't brought it forward. I'll bring it forward. If we do, I'll provide an update. >> Yeah, because I I don't I don't recall seeing where we >> I thought, and I could be wrong, but I
thought we did have a dialogue to make sure because he's not been getting mileage either. >> No. So, anyway, I I just want to make sure. So, if it if if we have, then fine, but I don't know that there's even a form that he's filled out to
>> Okay. And I would like to see that be retroactive to January of 2026 if if we have not done it. So >> I just >> Yeah, that's I mean >> incredibly fair. >> He travels a long distance to get there
and then some of our meetings last multiple hours there and he shouldn't be doing that for and I would like to see that at the same as what our planning commission is at. >> All right. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, again, just
want to thank everybody involved with the county appreciation picnic. Fortunate the weather held off and we had a a great day. Thank the commission for uh continuing to to serve uh on that day along with Darren and many of the staff that uh both behind the scenes and
after. Uh it was again another great day. uh that afternoon he had the extension uh pre-budget discussion that we'll be hearing having on the agenda again next week. On the 25th participated in the MCC JPA um uh meeting which has been well covered on
the 29th participated uh virtually with the water district uh board meeting and also the financial workshop on the 30th uh had the technology service pre-budget discussion uh and also the highway budget which will be coming. Those two will be coming next week. On the first
met with Dana, Darren and Anna in regards to a step three union grievance. I had that meeting that grievance hearing the following day. Uh on the yesterday I had had a conversation with Quinn as I mentioned earlier. Uh again, I'm going to be
inviting him back to the board uh next week to talk about some new information on the long-term service and supports. Uh this goes back to the 2025 legislature if you remember. uh in January and through March this year, we were having some discussions on
potential impacts. Uh if you recall there was a task force or committee that was established through legislation that was comprised of commissioners uh administrators and CM or human service staff directors uh that were to get uh
get approval of of information to cut uh help cut uh the the re recommended DHS uh cuts that the state set and get those to CMS for approval. Unfortunately, they did not get that uh to them in time. Uh and so there's going to be impacts that
are going to be to the 2027 budget starting in Jan July 1st. Uh but again, we'll have Quinn here to provide uh more detail, better detail probably than I just provided. Uh yesterday met with Commissioner Kanghoff uh updated on several things that happened over the
last week and a half. Uh and also then again met with Darren Troy uh and Anna yesterday on detox uh withdrawal management program. Um also just a notification we did re hear from Red River Communications
yesterday as this board recalls you've been part of several grant applications providing letters of support. Uh and uh just to let you know that the the Reconnect grant that we received or that they received uh with your support uh a
little over a year ago is starting uh to bring fiber optic uh broadband to to the saving and comtock area. And that concludes our report. >> Thank you, Steve Brian. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I I did just want to highlight one uh item. Uh really
uh something that combined both uh Quinn uh Jagger's department with mine. It was very uh fitting uh that um Sandy was here with Tammy Gerky. It was a a medical assistance uh claim that was outstanding, pretty large scale and
ultimately the property that was owned by this individual, specifically a house. we were able to do the uh real estate actions um pay the remainder of what was owed on the house and then sell that to a new seller. Um, and that was a
new process that uh both um Crystal Wahlberg and then Katie Stock out of my office worked on. And and so I know Quinn highlighted it to Steve in just a a short part of the email that Quinn uh had put out there. Uh just said uh Katie
and Christa really did all the heavy lifting to make this happen. This was a process we hadn't navigated before and they put in a tremendous amount of work coordinating the estate, working through the legal and administrative requirements and seeing the sale through to closing. Katie, you identified several opportunities to reduce closing
costs, increasing the recovery even further. Given the budget pressures we're facing, this is a very nice recovery for the county, but it's also a great example of staff being willing to innovate and tackle something new to improve outcomes. And so I I just agree with all that and I thought it was a very good uh opportunity to get some
money back uh you know taxpayer uh money for both the county and then the state. So I just wanted to highlight that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Darren, >> thank you Madam Chair. Um unfortunately I was not able to make the county picnic
this year. I was sick that day and you definitely wouldn't want wanted me there. Um, so but I want to thank every all the EAC members and everybody that participated and they they really put a lot of work into that. Uh, on Wednesday, June 24th, had us a meeting with Quinn
and Anna about the new law that's coming down on social workers. Um, in the future, to be able to be called an actual social worker, you have to be certified and licensed to use the social worker title. And so the the human
resources uh departments throughout the county are trying to figure out what would if you're not licensed in a certified social worker, what would be what would be the title of you? So where there's some consistency throughout the state. So more to come on that. Um on
the 25th, I attended the SWAC meeting as well. That's already been covered. And I had a meeting with uh Chief Deputy Martin on some personnel issues. I was out Friday as well. Um, Monday the 29th, uh, I had a
demonstration of the Nemo Q appointment review. Um, it's what, uh, the DMV uses to schedule appointments. And so, we're looking at, uh, having that also for public health and social services. This is where uh, citizens can make
appointments online and then it will send them text reminders. um very low cost for I think the benefit that we would get from that. Um it's about $5,000 for for two departments, the public health and social services for
the year. So, uh that was good. And then uh on Monday also we had a EAC afteraction review of the picnic on the 30th. um sat in on some pre-budget meetings with uh tech services and highway
on the first uh we had a meeting on the step one grievance that was put in from the detox and worked some on the data practices project on Thursday July 2nd uh we had a
step three grievance that we had heard um that's ongoing right now. And then on the 6th, um had a meeting for the followup on the the lottery mill that uh we've been
working on with a deto detox employee. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Darren. Sarah, [clears throat] >> thank you. [cough] Excuse me. So, as I noted, uh, Friday will be Klay County government day at the Klay County Fair from noon to 4:00 by the open class, uh,
building area. Uh, we have concluded all items on the agenda. Our next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, July 14th at 8:30. We are adjourned.