the Klay County U board of commissioners to order for Tuesday April 22nd our first item is the approval of the agenda and we do have an agenda addition today and that is a request for approval of a letter of support for Senate File 2669
for the Health and Human Services budget and policy omnimous uh formerly the Senate file 2022 i'll make a motion to approve the agenda with the agenda addition i'll second right we have a motion by Commissioner Mos second by Commissioner Bayer any
further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i oppose the same time same sign motion carried our next item is citizens to be heard and at our county
board meetings when we have citizens to be heard we ask for citizens to come up uh that want to speak on items that are not on the agenda and if you are here regarding an item that is on the agenda we will typically wait for that agenda
item and in this particular case I know there's some interest in the White Earth presentation so if you're here for that uh what we'll do with today for that is we will hear their presentation and then allow any comments uh that the citizens
may have following that i only ask that the comments that are made um are addressed to the board and not to White Earth at this time and as as you can tell by the agenda this is anformational um morning only for this there will be
no action taken by this board in any regard uh regarding that the way their uh request or what their proposal is so So with that we'll do we do we have any citizens comments today on items not on the
agenda any citizens comments not on the agenda all right seeing none we will move on to the approval of payment of bills and vouchers i'll make a motion to approve of the payments and bills and vouchers second we have a motion by Commissioner Bear second by Commissioner I any
further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i i opposed the same sign motion carried approval of minutes from April 8th i'll make a motion to approve the minutes of
April 8th second we have a motion by Commissioner Krabanov second by Commissioner Evinger any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i
opposed same sign motion carried we'll move into our 8:35 item request approval to hire a nurse for the West Central Regional Juvenile Center we have James here i don't see James maybe he had trouble finding a
place to park all right well we'll come back to that then there he is justin that's Justin okay justin can we uh we'll take your item here request approval for the dust control
yes good morning we did open dust control quotes last week we did only receive one quote from Glacier Dust Control out of Morehead um it is a little bit more expensive than last year about 5 cents more a square yard one difference between last year
and this year is last year we used magnesium chloride didn't quite see as good a results with that so we did we did up the rate for magnesium and ultimately we didn't end up getting a bid for magnesium just calcium so I'm I am confident in this product and the
quote that we we did receive and that is a $1.78 a gallon $1.78 a gallon mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 dust control quote from Glacier Dust in the amount of 178 a gallon a motion by Commissioner Mojo second by
Commissioner Abinger any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i oppose the same sign motion carried thank you
is your um your bid deal is set at 9:05 right okay all right all right so next we have Did uh James show up okay i'm just glad you're running the meeting because my 4 leader
is here and so I think I would be criticized if I skipped around so I'm just getting crap well we don't if we don't have the presenter here i'm joking i'm filling the time it's my version of Robert's rules of order yeah I like it it's good kevin's
rules it fits in up in Mr chair I could take the addition if you'd like okay let's do that uh thank you Mr chair as the board is aware uh a great deal of time and resources have been invested into one of our priorities this year uh is a a
psychiatric residential treatment facility and non-secured detention facility um we were notified this week uh that our our bill as written Senate file 2022 2022 has been placed in the
omnivous bill uh at 1.234 million uh providing under this bill would be providing uh remodeling uh for the existing uh non-secured detention facility into the PRTF uh should we receive funding for the non-secured
detention uh being on short notice we're not able to be able to testify in person on Thursday uh as part of the ONVIS bill or Wednesday excuse me but would hope that we would be able to present uh this letter of support along with our our
non-secured attention PRTF document uh on behalf of this board for their consideration as they discuss um Senate file 2669 that I'd yield for any questions okay Commissioner Mojo thank you thank you for the opportunity to have this on
the agenda on short notice uh we are thrilled to have this project be included on both the House and Senate file and now coming back back from their Passover Easter break um work feverishly happens in regards to the conference committees and so uh this will be part
of the greater omnimous bill package for the uh health and human services piece and I just uh uh can't stress enough how our continued involvement one has helped us to get to this point but we'll continue to keep it in as it's such a
vital project for Klay County so I can stand to any questions but um the letter of support as you see would be going to the tax chair Senator Ann rest uh for inclusion thank you any further comments um if I
may just and again oh it's only a typo but on the letter uh make sure it's uh says "Dear Senator Russ make sure we get that corrected." We did talk about that last night okay very good just so we got that correct
and then a huge uh thank you to the whole team that's been working toward this whole session and and Commissioner Mojo for your time down there uh extra time down there so with
that so if unless there's other comments I'd make a motion that we uh request the approval of letter of support for Senate File 2669 second the motion we have a excuse me we have a motion by Commissioner Kraboff
second by Commissioner Mojo any further discussion on the motion any other discussion on the motion we've been working on this a long time it's nothing new to us here up here so it's sometimes the discussion's already been had so just in case you're
wondering so all right seeing no seeing no other discussion all in favor of the motion signify by saying I i oppose the same sign motion carried thank you thank you Steve next we have a request approval to
replace a collections officer position in the child support fraud and collections unit we have Quinn and Sandy here this morning good morning morning Mr chair and commissioners packed house today good to see everyone thanks for coming
sure for this came to see Sandy these people all came to see you all right um yes we are here to uh approve hiring a collections officer position as we referenced in our um department update last week we did have a retirement unfortunately in Sandy's unit for collections uh I just want to provide a brief description as to what
that position is um right now we have two collections officers that manage approximately 800 active cases um each handling kind of a complex unique case load uh there are things like MA estate recoveries probate probate related uh claims collections of public assistance
overp payments uh if those go out county burial reconciliation and recovery that's where some of the revenue comes in from the county burial expenditures uh revenue recapture filings uh they do skip tracing and collections for other county departments as well as support functions within the child support unit
um these cases are timesensitive they often require hours of analysis and followup um a lot of detail orientated work collections officers recover approximately a million dollars each year contributing to over $325,000 to our admin overhead and
supporting multiple county departments through recovered funds um little concerned if this position were not filled we might see some negative impacts um those might be a significant drop in our total collections uh unmanageable case load for the one remaining officer that we would have
loss of that critical backup coverage of the cross training between the two and a potential negative impact on county budget as well as that loss of interdep departmental support um we would be looking to post immediately if it were approved today uh with as much overlap
and cross trainining as possible um it's looking like a pretty tight timeline with the hiring and onboarding process so I'm not sure that we would get any at this point um currently the uh position is budgeted uh in 2025's budget at grade 12 step 9 um this position does get 50%
FFP uh it is anticipated a new hire is going to start at grade 12 step one for a minor cost savings of $6,965 after payouts and benefits and everything like that um with that I would yield for any questions that you have mr chair questions yes Commissioner
Bear so we're not we we're going to still have two people in this position not having three correct it would just Yep we have two now one is retiring this would be to fill to fill that so currently still have two all right yes that's all I have commissioner Abner Mr
chair I move uh that we approve the uh to replace the collections officer and uh have backfill with that i will second that you have a motion by Commissioner Abier second by Commissioner Bayer any further discussion we're not even gonna
make Sandy speak this morning any further discussion yes Commissioner Muro thank you uh I just think it's important to note that um your department has recaptured u millions of dollars and so this is vital to ensure
that uh folks that are in in in need of the money um lawfully get it and then if there's any um any potential fraud they're identified and that we're able to recapture that right any other
discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i oppose the same sign motion carried all right you're good win you might as well stay there huh i sure will all right next we have the request approval to reapply for
community living infrastructure grant win all right thank you Mr chair and commissioners uh I am here to request a motion uh approving to reapply for the DHS community living infrastructure grant or CLI grant um and if awarded
enter into contracts for the state funds and subsequent contract with Klay County HR for the implementation of the activities outlined in the grant uh right now Clay H Clay H is a subcontractor with us and subcontracts with various other entities to fulfill
this uh grant's activities a brief description of kind of what this is and what we've done with it in the past uh Klay County Social Services uh is working in partnership with Becker Douglas Grant Ottertale Pope Stevens Traverse Wina and Wilin counties this is a regional grant that we've submitted
together um as well as Klay County HR and regional community action agencies like Cap LP Mahubiatwa and West Central Minnesota Community Action um we are looking to get board approval to apply for this grant i it would be the fourth time I believe we started this grant in
2018 we serve as the fiscal host uh current funding is 1,20,448 was the lifespan of the grant from that time it goes through June 30th of this year dhs issued a new RFP for
the July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2027 grant cycle uh and we're hoping to get approval to apply for that again under the proposed 25 to 27 grant application we will uh Klay County HRA will continue serving as a program
manager under contract with us uh we'll serve as the fiscal host again and the three community action agencies will again be subcontracted to implement activities throughout the region grant funds will continue to serve all 10 counties through the following components the first is outreach and
navigation um that's CAPLP West Central Minnesota Community Action and Mahubiawa they're providing uh staff to locate and build relationships with individuals that are homeless unstably housed or transitioning from hospitals treatment centers or correctional facilities back
into independent living within our communities uh the second component is H's capacity building uh this these funds help support a housing resource specialist that they have um that supports individuals with disabilities helps with service providers and government staff these trained
specialists will help individuals access housing complete documents like applications and other um documentation and connect with benefits and services and then this uh this funding also supports one of our eligibility workers that specifically work with the housing support program um they help uh kind of
monitor that program and the oversight of those state funds administered at the county level um application is due May 8th so we have a little bit of a quick turnaround we've been um feverishly working on this to try and get the application ready to go um this would be
a new two-year grant agreement to be to begin on July 1st uh as I said continuing our role as fiscal host and regional administrator of this housing focused support initiative um we I do not have final numbers from every partner for what uh budgets are going to
look like in terms of the amount that we're requesting but I am estimating it'll be approximately 980,000 for the 2-year period to serve again the 10 county region um I guess with that I would yield any question commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair i
asked the same question to public health last week in regards to grant funding and understanding the um uncertainty of grants and the legislature both uh in Washington and here you know how how are we set up should this grant funding
disappear um we would have to be pretty creative with our one eligibility worker position um it's very likely that this if these funds weren't received the um our partners would have to look at if they would be able to keep staffing patterns the way that they are okay and uh understanding that you're in your
first year but are you still thinking that having Klay County serve as a fiscal host is in the best benefit of Klay County in regards to that 10 county region this one I feel good about yes okay all right well I appreciate you know I think it's important to look critically on all of our partnerships
just to make sure that we're you know it makes sense there's often cost savings there but sometimes it cannot be a cost save so I appreciate you looking critically at that any other comments yes Commissioner Bear i appreciate you coming in this week instead of May 6th
meeting and trying to get this served i appreciate that you bet all right so Quinn is looking for a motion to approve the submission of the community living infrastructure grant applications with Klay County serving as the fiscal host for the 10 county
project mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the request as presented second have a motion by Commissioner Mosho second by Commissioner Ebinger any further discussion on the motion any further discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor signify
by saying I i propose the same sign motion carried thank you Quinn thank you very much all right James is here good morning James morning Mr chair looking to hire a nurse
i apologize yeah I'm looking to hire a nurse um at at a line se line step seven um I brought this before my advisory board and they recommended pushing it through and I um brought through PIC
last week um as you know we we moved on from our medical provider and we've been providing our own medical services now or nursing services by anyway um but we're a nurse short and it's been about five months since we've been able to get a good quality nurse hired here and
we're very excited for this application she's motivated she's got a master's degree in nursing um she's going to be amazing for us if if we're able to hire her all right the quest be the request is to um hire her at grade 19 step seven which
does take board approval um I I will state as being both on the pick committee and the West Central Regional Juvenile Advisory Board that um both those um highly recommend this uh do you
want to just touch on even with this uh increased grade and hiring this how much savings we've still received based on um yeah we'll be sitting um quite a bit um we'll be looking at
probably about $157,996 um that's budgeted for in 2025 that will be there because that's even if we hire at this one that'll still be there um so there's significant savings already so
for the for the public what what we used to do in the West Central Regional Juvenile Center is we hired the nursing done by outside entity and um we found that you know through your
work we found that being able to hire those internally we could save um save our taxpayers a lot of money basically is what and that number that number is still even after this ates grade 19 step 7 is still a significant amount that's
correct and I think that would for those interested just something like that can can equate to a potentially a half percent reduction in levby that we'd otherwise have to have to do you wouldn't know that but we know
that i have one question yes Commissioner Bear one question and how many full-time nurses are employed over there this would be our second second okay and and again both of those were included in your budget the only the
only reason you're here is that you know because of the hiring issues that we have in the metro area with nurses in order to get somebody qualified we need to go to that step grade 19 step seven correct right
sure yes just um I I don't know if you directly said it but PIC did approve this we reviewed it last week and um it is a substantial savings above the contracts that we've had in the past and it takes a little more work to get those
positions filled but James has done a good job of staying on it so this is as you indicated a good savings for the taxpayers and it's getting somebody who is really really qualified with a master's degree in there to work in a
position that h has to have somebody with skills uh nursing providing health services in a juvenile center is not an easy task so this is money well spent with that I would move the motion that uh we authorize this hire
i'll second that okay we have a motion by Commissioner Ever second by Commissioner Bear any further discussion any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I i oppose the same sign
thank you motion carried thank you James yes commission since we still have two minutes before we get on time I just want to say a huge gratitude to James and and Josh and staff last week we received notice that um with the town hall availability we would have the
opportunity to do a tour of the non-secure facility the clips and the new women's transitional facility with uh Senate Majority Leader uh Hoffman and Senator Coop and also the vice chair of not only human services but capital
investment Luke Frederick and Rep keeler and uh it was a fantastic opportunity to walk them through that facility um it was really in response to how available this board has been in St paul to working with them and um when I say I
was personally moved to tears by the new women's transitional facility um I was blown away it is phenomenal it is amazing it is as you recall our last year's capital investment request that didn't come through and Klay County said we're doing it anyway and I walked
through those doors and immediately started balling and I will say that um for uh those folks to see exactly what we're proposing with the other spaces and what we are intending to do really helped us and a genuine gratitude from
all four of those folks that walked through so again I know he's got a busy day and I know you had um your advisory board that day so Josh pitch hit was pitch hitting and it was wonderful so thank you very good thank you all right next we have our
um annual update from our Klay County Trail Blazers Snowmill Club greg good morning commissioners Greg Stumman from Klay County Trailblazer Snowmill Club and the Clay Trail Alliance sorry I bailed on you last time
commitments came up so anyway um we just want to thank the the board for continuing to be the financial sponsor for the uh DNR grants that the club gets and so we have to have a
government entity that is a sponsor um I see we have one new face now so just update you on that the Clay Trail Alliance I mentioned is an alliance of the three snowmobile clubs in Klay County clay County Trailblazers the Angry Dragons out of Holly and the
Felton Snow Riders out of Felton and so we formed the alliance just so we could have one insurance policy one liability insurance policy and that was you know recommended to us by Min USA and so the grant a dollars have to go through a government entity and Klay
County is our sponsor for that so we thank you for continuing to support that and then in return the the Clay Trail Alliance divies the the trail funds out to the three clubs and from there we maintain 179 just under 179 trails in
Klay County um from Ulin well that and those trails will connect to other areas too you know Yulan Felton Georgetown Morehead Barnesville Sabin Sabin over to North Dakota and Barnesville up to Holly and
then from Holly to Glendon and so we have quite a few miles and um it keeps us busy two two years ago when there's no snow not so much busy but um and because of that uh there was a letter that came out Steve acknowledged that
that um our gratade dollars are decreasing next year because it's all off of the number of registrations for snowmobiles and so when there's a brownout year not as many people get excited about riding and even though the majority is excited there's no snow we
are kind of bummed and they don't register their sled so that the income coming in is a lot less so um and that will equate to about a $16,000 loss on one of our grants for one of our payments for next year but because there was a brown out year before you know we managed for that we
know it's coming we've been through this game before and budgeted accordingly so and so for update for last year so actually four years ago the county helped us get a RTB grant um for $75,000
towards the purchase of a newer groomer and we did receive that so we thank you again for that this was the first year of having the diesel exhaust fluid a deaf system on their in their groomer and so it sat the year
before and we didn't run it much and then we went to run it this year and of course what happened it threw codes left and right and it was down for about a month and a half so until they got that fixed but now we know we're supposed to run it all the time so live and learn I guess right so so anyway once we got
going uh December we got teased early with snow so we put 60 hours in 353 miles we groomed um January we got some more snow um 71 hours 404 miles of grooming in February we you know got that late snow so that turned out pretty
good um we did 102 hours and 660 miles in February for a total of 233 hours of grooming time and 1,417 miles that we groomed this year so it was a good year the beauty of the valley you know we get 4 inches of snow
and wind our ditches are full and we can go to town and start grooming so um there was a a lot of we had a night ride on Wednesday night one night and we had a lot of people show up for that there was a lot of people excited to get out and ride this year when we did have the snow and when we did groom so so we
thank you for our continued sponsorship and um open it up to any questions if anyone has anything yes Paul yeah just one I'm curious about um the grant funding based off the registrations so I'm assuming there's a
year lag or right or for the funding cycle yes does that make sense yep and is that I'm guess is that a formula with DNR or what is who drives that yep so there's you know multiple ways you can do the registrations you can do it yearly but primarily it's a three-year
cycle so they do it three-year rotations but when they they changed it year ago there used to be a trail sticker and then the registration the trail sticker was for the grooming dollars but then he combined it well then of course they did that one year so there was this huge cycle so now we're on this up and down threeyear hiatus well statistically it's
going to you know average itself over time but we're still in that little porpusing hysteresus so um and then also in also adding to that into the account is the the gas tax dollars so we're paying you know road tax too so they
figure out based off the number of registrations um you know how many they did a big study a few years ago how many gallons of gas we use and then that goes back into the dedicated stone bill count too so but that that takes a whole another year before that so that's
always in a year later the gas tax because they have to collect the tax first and then you know be able to pay it back right so and is there anything in legislation right now that's threatening any of those funds always okay there's always people coming
after that dedicated account so all right and that's why Min USA is the association for all the SHA clubs the state representative so they're always watching for that so yeah thank you and then so the DNR gets 40% of all our funds because they have their own trails
and then for safety um enforcement and whatnot and then so they get 40% and the clubs get for 60% so any other questions comments should I put my snowmobiles away can now yes i have a kid that's waiting for one last
snow and I think it's over unless you can put wheels on them try they would trails are closed april 1st they closed all right thanks for your work thank you for the update right all right yep thank
you all right we're about three minutes away from our bid opening time frame i think maybe what I'll ask is for maybe a um Maybe the start on committee reports commissioner Abinger do you want
to give your report sure okay last week uh on Wednesday or Tuesday the 15th we had our personnel issues committee meeting as covered earlier uh
by James O'Donnell for the nursing position uh which we we approved to forward to the full board um on Wednesday the 16th uh myself and county administr administrator
Larson attended a meeting with uh the governor he came through here and we discussed the flood mitigation requests or $60.4 million request uh that's before the legislature this year hopefully we'll get a bonding bill uh
the governor was receptive to it um with the caveat on the limits of funding but he did say that he would sign a bill if it got to him on this which was good to hear um on the 17th I attended uh an
executive meeting of the Lake Agassy Regional Library Board uh we reviewed our uh finances it was also meeting in the finance committee and then we discussed the uh current negotiations we're having
with the city of Morehead to try to determine a uh agreeable acceptable level for rent which is still something that we're negotiating at this point and we gave a counter offer to their offer and we'll
see where we stand with it that completes my reports right thank you paul do you wanna do you have you want to give yours last Tuesday uh we had our adult mental health lac
uh we gave agency updates um and provider updates um sharing of information as we do every month and then u the rest of the time was uh spent on final revisions to the annual report which we will get I think May 6th or
somewhere around there that the uh lac will come and present the outcomes and uh areas uh that they're working in for the from the year 2024 uh the next day I had the historical and cultural society finance
committee uh we went through all the numbers uh they're we're in good shape cash flow-wise and uh they're working hard right now on membership recruitment and retention and pushing those to make sure we get a steady stream of uh new
members and uh the memberships have been growing each year on Thursday uh started out the morning with suicide and substance use prevention we had an in-person event over at the law enforcement center i'd say there was
around 30 35 people there uh we really went through and had um sharing of identifying risk factors trends and potential solutions that we could all work toward and in uh keeping um uh
mainly children and and adults uh uh to minimize the risks and uh be working areas uh within the schools um some programs that have been very successful uh working with youth is sources of
strength our re uh restorative justice and then our mentorship uh programs which uh work with uh not only u high-risisk factors but also help with truency uh right after that uh I don't
want to repeat everything uh Commissioner Mojo um gave a very good quick report you know as far as our PRTF tour with the two legislators um it was inspiring i don't know how else to say that when we all came out of there
pretty elevated and lifted and uh and I'll echo the transitional um uh for the girls is uh pretty incredible and the nice layout much better lifting than detox was so um
let's see that's pretty much that one then in the afternoon I drove to Fergus for the West Central Initiative uh we had our quarterly board meeting um and that I don't want to get too deep but anyway
they'll be you've probably seen it even they're going to come out with the almanac and and about the region uh kind of a sense of home what makes the community things we can do in communities for um innovation creativity
to bring people to a community and have community engagement so that was a deep dive into that one and then on Friday I had the uh PRTFT meeting uh that's kind of brought up what your uh resolution is
for and and uh Commissioner Mojo can give deeper detail on that one and then yesterday I was part of the AMC update uh legislative update uh led by Matt Matt Hillard and staff talking about budgets uh they're getting close closer
to the end yeah one more week here uh for the uh uh the Senate mainly to u uh start and the and the House to be advancing their bills and then over the next four weeks uh they'll come together to make a universal budget for the House
Senate and Governor uh certainly some challenges and um who knows what direction they're going to go but we'll see stay tuned that's my report thank you all right we will move back to our agenda now and we will move
on to our um opening bids for SAP 014594002 good morning Justin again good morning yes so this is for the local road improvement project on 15th Street in Holly so as required by the state we are required to be the sponsor on this
project so we do not have any financial implication the funding just comes through us and we just kind of help the city and their engineering company oversee the project um so the engineers estimate for this project was 1,84,571 they did receive five bids all
five bids are complete with a bid bond in the amount of 5% the first bid was from Central Specialties Incorporated their bid was 1,110,3870 1,110,3870 the second bid was from Northern Improvement Company their bid
was $992,64510 $992,64510 the third bid was from Williams Excavation LLC their bid was $955,459.90 $955,459.90 fourth bid was from Selen Brothers
Incorporated their bid was $884,565.15 8.8456515 and then the final bid was Hog Incorporated of Detroit Lakes their bid was $876,81.38 $876,81.38 yep all right and again the estimate was
1,84 or is that what we had on our of course that's that's all that one's not shown on our 5-year plan just because there is no financial implication all right what's the board's and is this is this subject to Holly yep so what I would be looking for would be a motion
to approve the low bid contingent upon no errors and the approval of the city of Holly mr chair I'll offer the approval of the bid from Hog with the approvals as presented i'll second that okay we have a motion by Commissioner Mojo second by
Commissioner Bear any further discussion on the motion any further discussion all in favor signify by saying I i oppose the same sign motion carried just going to say I
see Lonnie's here and that's always good to have bids that come in like that and then good luck i see you're up at Capital Investment this week also with your your project so good luck on that thank you thank you
Justin all right next we have our presentation from White Earth Tribal Nation good morning and Steve did you want to open up with comments on this thank you thank you Mr chair uh this morning we have representatives from the White
Earth Tribal Nation here to speak on on a potential casino uh I think that we're going to hear a little bit of information from them as as this board is aware i believe last November uh the tribal nation purchased about 280 acres on the what would be the west side of
the 336 corridor uh and are looking to do some development in that area and they're here today to to talk to us about that so uh with that I would turn it turn it over to our representatives here can I really briefly just a moment is it okay sure yes mojo uh I just want
to extend sincere gratitude to the White Earth Nation for lending their support to our psychiatric regional treatment facility we had the opportunity commissioner Campbell and our administrator to present to you at MYAK and because this is such a regional
project of importance just want to um have the opportunity to say to you thank you for that thank you Migwitch all right and we have with us um Chairman Fairbanks and
Richard Hanks is that he's coming okay and uh chairman do you want to do other introductions to your group that's here with you today yeah did uh do I address you by chairman sure that'd be fine chairman chairman Campbell thank you chairman i appreciate your time and
thank you board for for having us today and you know and I know that we we were just kind of running here a little bit late so we so I was kind of getting debriefed and uh but I just want to say I'm really glad that I I got here on time and get to meet all of you and I I
know I met a few of you before and you know we we had some good talks and I know Klay County is going to be a good neighbor and been a good neighbor and um just wanted to say Migwitch to to the Okay who I brought with me today is I brought Nate Matthews he's our our
executive director of our TU which is our tribal utility commission um we have uh Michael Lorac our secretary treasurer of our nation we have uh Jacob Severson he's uh our TIPPO and also works in our land department and Richard Hanks is here
he's our government uh our state government relations person so but thank you chairman and I appreciate it all right and I understand that you have uh we were presented this morning with a um a PowerPoint presentation do you want do
you want to start that process yeah I can go first and you know I I know this is something that uh we've been trying to set up for a few weeks now and you know and um having some um discussions with some of the board members and and some of the
community members and you know talking about the the the property we purchased out on uh 94 out there in 336 and you know and as as a nation and you know and we know that
uh that we have to work and that we have to uh you know get support from the community you know and and that's one thing that I've I've always expressed back home here and back home in in White Earth and our
surrounding communities that we've always tried to be as uh as transparent and you know and and open you know with our businesses and what we've done in White Earth Nation and you know and and being a part of your community today
over in uh over on um by Target and down that that roll of the JL Beers property that we purchased and you know and we're still working on that project personally myself and you know and just talking to
the to the members and to the community and and understanding that you know we just want to support and build relationships and create jobs and you know one thing that you know I'll give you a little brief history on with Why we go mashiki is like you know we're
well over a 100 employees now you know we're we're reg we're self-regulating you know we're probably one of the top cannabis businesses in the in the country through our regulations and you know how we mimicked uh you know other nations across the country you know
through our through our own codes and our ordinances and our our code and um these are things I think that you know if you if you ever looked at White Earth and and seen how we we separate ourselves from our tribal nation to our businesses we have exe we have business
executive boards that buffer us so we don't indulge the council cannot ever like get involved with our businesses we try to we try to keep ourselves away from you know of micromanaging and other things so these are things same things that we do with our gaming commission
very similar that we don't uh you know we don't get involved with that and but we are the as tribal council we are the owners of the businesses and as elected officials we report to the people just like you so and these are things I guess that you know give more detail about us and how we run our businesses and how we
hold our meetings and you know and as you know being a 5-year chairman by the oldest on the on the on the council now that uh I've learned a lot too since I was my first year you know cuz I was a young young dude at one time you know
but but now it's like I'm I'm the the elder statesman so but it's uh something I just wanted to say and thank you chairman appreciate it thank you Nate good morning Nate thank you chair and county commissioners and staff my name
is Nate Matthews and I work with White Earth Nation i'm a member of our project team and I'm going to talk you through some of the slides that we've presented for you today to kind of talk about our vision to build upon chairman's comments of how we seek to look to invest in this
market in this area to the mutual benefit of the tribe and this region largely as chairman mentioned we've been looking at this property for a number of years and have been looking at a way to expand our business enterprise and our casino gaming
operations and we've looked at this land as a resort casino complex area um it's more than a resort as far as what we're visioning it's a vibrant community here and this could be a big economic catalyst and engine for this
area of the Morehead Market located in Clare Clay County we envision it to combine state-of-the-art gaming lodging dining and entertainment all under one roof what that means it would be a new casino and a new gaming floor
a hotel with hotels conventioning meeting and banqueting are part of those facilities that have ways to kind of mutually benefit that operation so we will have food and beverage restaurants
associated here another thing we've looked at in this market in this area is an enhanced and a good truck stop and a convenience store on this side of the town in the side of the area very high levels very conceptual as the
project could move forward those conversations will have much more of a targeted focus before the tribe can focus on on a a micro level we need to move forward with uh a trust application and so that
is the point of of us coming and meeting with you to talk to you about uh about that as well and we can have questions about that later my colleague Jake Severson uh facilitates those for the tribe right now just kind of on a high level concept the casino floor would be
right now what we would think around 90 to 110,000 square feet what that would hold is between 900 to,200 slot machines 10 to 12 table games obviously a casino would have office and professional support needs in those
areas obviously we'll have a parking garage we're looking at potentially and or surface lots for a facility of this size right now the hotel could be around 250 to 300 again
based upon what a formal study and a and a uh report to the tribe uh to to inform our design could look like but right now typically around 250 to 300 rooms it would be adjacent to the gaming area and
the convention space want to have attached hotels to have people uh not walk through the wind in the in the snow in the winter time uh also we are evaluating dedicated amenities at at a casino resort complex pool hot tub areas
all of that like I said would have to come out as well in a more formal study of of the business operation the convention and meeting banquet areas would be around 100 to 120,000 square feet i believe that's what we have at
Shooting Star in Manomomen around that size uh which allows for events concerts uh other things that that can be supported in this market and with this with this asset um those facilities
would be custom and allow for event flexibility for a wide range of conventions and or uses for those for that big space of course we would have a state-of-the-art banqueting kitchen and supporting areas for a facility like
this as well typically in our in casinos uh and resort you'll have a number of different pods or pockets of of food and beverage options for customers what that means is potentially three to four different
restaurants branded not sure if it'd be franchised again those kinds of things can be worked out by the tribal council some of them will be a quick quick meal some would be more of a casual dining experience and uh for those of you who
have been to casino resorts um also there is a fine dining component to them as well for a higherend plated meal uh also themed bar lounge area would be built into something like this not sure
if it' be a sports bar not who knows but something something like that to to enhance the facility one of the things that uh out of out of the uh shoot that we feel would be uh successful here would be a truck stop
and a convenience store the location is key right on 94 we would have a diesel fueling island car fueling island also EV charging stations here usually those stores would have about 7500 to 11 10,000 square feet sea store attached
with them with trucker amenities uh that is a facility but we stand alone and that would uh potentially have a franchise fast food component to it as well the employment opportunities and this is what really gets us excited as
as a tribe when we look at investing uh to to lift uh our members but the region and economy around uh us right now uh we would expect a minimum of 450 to 550 jobs to come with this resort casino
complex minimum wage $19 an hour hour but again some of this could be scoped uh and and and sized to what u what a study would inform the tribal council so those jobs could go north of that number
tipped positions uh carry lower minimum but the $19 an hour wage is guaranteed and so the company will make up any shortfall the extra $250 uh bucks an hour for weekend or swing shifts $5 an hour for weekend and swing grave shifts
um so we basically some kind of high level uh concepts of how the tribe uh manages its HR and and I have some more slides for for you coming up on some of some of some typical positions that and
the wages that that these facilities or our facility in particular Manomomen carry so I think as well these would uh we have to study the wages for this market but right now we feel comfortable kind of sharing this with you is what these types of jobs would be and what
they would pay you can see we have table game jobs we have the slot jobs here and I think you have all a copy of this so I'm not going to go through every single one you can see the restaurant jobs the quick serve jobs here various cooks and
supervisors managers fine dining those are very typical in the hospitality industry and where we're at right now with our our food and beverage employees uh banqueting and convention center there'll be a manager for that uh a number of folks involved in uh
managing those events hotel this is a typical front office manager that we'll see some of our our shift workers as well that are there um gift shop convenience store these are all our codes that we have right now so
we're just kind of letting you know that this there's a lot of HR here so um yeah cage games county managers MIS security surveillance marketing player relations admin HR positions also the
benefits uh that the tribe provides we're very proud our our tribal council is very supportive of its employees has a very excellent and robust employee benefits package for health insurance this is uh what we currently have right now and the tribe pays for that for $500
deductible and $3,300 deductible plans um as an employee of the tribe I I'm I'm part of it and it's a it's a very very good program it's a very good program and this would be uh applied to the resort casino all the employees of the
tribe in the various divisions of the tribe are covered under our health plan whether that's the cannabis operation resort casino or the general general government we have an HSA plan a flex
pre-tax benefit plan we have a very good 401k plan the tribe matches 5% of employees 401k contributions that like I said a very robust life insurance and benefit package paytime off holidays as
you'd expect so um that's the end of the slideshow and um again like we we said here is the uh project for you to to to to introduce this to you on a more formal basis like we said uh the tribal council and the
chairman have been working to receive support in the form of letter of support for our tribal trust application i know that we've had some successful conversations already with the local legislators we talked to the governor's office chairman I'll let you speak to that anything you want to comment on
yeah mitch thank you board you know the the presentation that we had is like numbers that we haven't uh we usually will contract that out to a u agency or a contractor that'll get us more robust numbers you know these are all prelim preliminary numbers and you know what
I've been telling the team this week you know with the how fast the more the Morehead Fargo area has been growing and expanding that you know it's going to be I mean it's over getting close to 300,000 people right now and I was like these numbers to me were were a little off and and these are things that I
project that we're going to have probably double what what was on the board i know that we you know these are things that I I forecast you know the jobs that are coming to this area along with this facility and remember that that track of land we got is is a half mile long so I mean there's could be
multiple businesses that we could put out there and I know this something that is going to create jobs and like you said great benefits and you know and uh you know our ask today for for for your board and uh the commissioners is just that letter of support to to start the
process to get to that point where we just presented on and it's something that you know you know we're going to bring this to uh the city council Morehead and also Gilworth and u but this is something that we're first stop is with you guys and of course was with
our legislators but but uh but I really appreciate your time today and I appreciate that you know uh us being a good neighbor and our relationship with Klay County you know and you know talking to Mike Lorac here and you know our secretary treasurer was
a was our our public safety director our police so he had relationships with the with the sheriff and you know we have always had an ongoing um you know good neighbor so I want to say thank you and Mitch to to your board today so thank you chairman thank you
uh maybe maybe a question that I will start off asking and and um we talk about your request is in support of putting this land into trust uh can can you have somebody explain to us that process
right good morning um so when you put a when the tribe buys a piece of land it has the ability to put it into trust status which means is that the United States of America will hold the fee title in trust for the benefit of that band and then this is going to be a big
one but yes it comes out of tax i mean it will not be taxable so that's why with that letter of support we're asking you guys to then in that letter to go towards a cooperative aid
agreements this could be like anou for payment in lie of taxes um stuff of that nature because I believe right now we pay 14,000 a year in in property tax um so with that letter of support then we can move towards cooperative aid
agreements and at this point we have not submitted an application so our first step was to talk to you guys in the local community before we even uh put the application in can you can you tell us who the application goes to and who who is the
authority behind determining that yes final outcome yes chair that goes to the It goes to the Bureau of Indian Affairs um and that's in the regional office in Bloomington so it's their Midwest region um and then it all I believe it goes all the way up to the uh the secretary of
the interior will sign it if approved yep the deputy Yep i think it's Brian Mercer I believe his name is yes so there's there's a state and a federal sign off on it is that am I correct in that yes cuz when we put in the application they will reach out to local
governments um so I mean we could have put the application in and then you would have been notified and you would have been like "Hey what is this and then your you know your county auditor would have been you know throwing throwing their hands up." But yes okay mr abinger yeah
under this trust um my understanding is we would lose all zoning and land use controls the property you've purchased borders on our aquifer and it has no sewer water
service so what obviously septic fields and having a truck stop there a number of issues are concerning we have a water uh an aquifer that is somewhat fragile what uh what steps and how will this be handled to preserve that that water
source for the rest of the county commissioner that's a great question uh we've noted that this property is in a long-standing orderly annexation agreement with the city of Morehead I believe and so I think those types of
conversations of of water and sewer access to the site uh will be forthcoming with them um I I think a facility of this size it would be very difficult to provide the utilities with
water and with a well and a septic field it would be more appropriate to have water and sewer to this location and from my understanding this whole area really kind of is is staged for that eventually and I think a lot of
those little those conversations uh how does how does sewer get here how do lift stations get here how does 12th Street potentially become a factor in this in this in this project i think those conversations um we we as a tribe I want to work in
good faith with the community when I say that the county township the cities here on the best way to to develop the infrastructure here because u this could then be a catalyst from this property back to the city of Morhead as well
along that line well given the discussion here of anou or some sort of an agreement I think it's important right up front that we be clear that that aquifer is a primary uh object that we want to
preserve and we won't have control of what Morehead public service or the city of Morhead negotiates but that is something that's a primary concern to to the county and that's something that certainly hope we can come to an agreement on thank you Commissioner and
you know as chairman of N Whiters Nation you know that as water protectors back home and protecting our wild rice and protecting our our tributaries and our rivers that we we're well aware of protecting water and uh that's one of the first things I mentioned too is like
we we have to find a way how to get water and sewer and power out to this site so that's one of the first things that we we get done with this package and we move it forward that those are things that we're going to be planning on so but of course we you will always be the first to be informed of what our
intentions are we're never here to dirty nothing or pollute nothing we're here to protect that water because we know how important it is but I really like those words that you said there commissioner i appreciate that cuz that's the way I feel too first thing when I come to this thing is just think about our water and
thank you Migwitch mig right Commissioner Bear i have one question for you guys with that being 288 acres does the casino floor have to be in trust land to operate in the state of Minnesota yes and are you you're asking for all
288 acres be put into trust land correct plan do you need all 288 acres to be put in the trust no that's all that's all I have right Commissioner Koff so
in as you uh work toward a trust application is there any way um or in your past experience to kind of know what these look like what what's
involved um you know um how do we set that all up before you move forward or you know so we have we see the pros and cons if you will oh yes we have uh we have cooperative aid agreements with the local counties
for police um on reservation at this time so we can send samples um we can work through those um and our attorneys and obviously the county's attorneys can kind of develop what they want to see in that so in a cooperative aid agreement
it could it could point out uh EMS police zoning it could say that um that you know we would work together towards that um and then you could have the payment in le of taxes figuring out what those dollar amounts are um okay
just and then just one last quick and then go back um I'm curious about I would uh I don't know the time of construction where all these jobs would be happening you know how that works forward on any of this land would
you end up having employee housing is that part of a plan or or do we look to our communities for you know it's a lot of people so right we do look at doing that as well uh on that on that on that
yes okay thank you all right just a um maybe for the people in attendance when we start talking about piler payment in l of taxes for example we have a lot of people in in Klay County who in rural areas who have donated their properties
to certain agencies that basically there ends there ends up not being the typical property tax paid on it but there is a payment in lie of taxes that's done and it's an agreement with the state of Minnesota and the DNR and those types of things and so what
what the um White Earth is talking about here is something similar to that so when we hear about the potential for uh there being no property tax um that they would be paying as as Jacob talked about I think you know um the whole idea is to
make sure from a county standpoint we would want to make sure in that regard that there would be a longstanding uh that would you know we there's a couple of us who have had an opportunity to talk with a couple of the manomomen county commissioners who are well aware
of of you know the tribal lands and that type of thing so you know so I think there I think there are ways to to deal with that component of it there's an awful lot of other issues that still that are still out there um you know and I um chairman and and
members I we have a lot of citizens here today and I think I think a lot of them do have concern and during our during our process this morning we had waited for to have Susan's comments on this particular item
until your presentation was done and I think it's important for um for you folks if you have time to to listen to some of what these people might have concerns over i think at this point in time if you're if you're done with your presentation I will call on the citizens
to to uh come forward and and and again as citizens I would ask that you direct your comments to the board and questions to the board and if White Earth wants to comment on those questions they can or if they want to get back to us with
answer get back to us with answers to those questions we can i don't I don't like to put anybody on the spot here if there's something that needs further um study to appropriately answer a question so So I did you did you want to comment
okay i guess before we do that I'll let's see if Commissioner Mojo Sorry thank you again for the presentation and I I just want to say that I appreciate you coming forward so that we can have dialogue i think that's the most important piece is to understand what your vision is to understand from us
where there might be some concern but how do we work together to find the most meaningful partnership to move forward uh I know that there have been a lot of discussions on the North Dakota side of the river about convention center space and a lot of us go to conferences and
meetings where uh having meetings in Minnesota is not an option because there just isn't an uh equitable space and so to hear this proposal I think would really be an economic draw from really all over the region to allow us to host
conventions and uh of the like uh I've gone to several uh concerts in other places uh that would be a really exciting draw to Klay County as well uh and we're talking all the time about workforce challenges and I appreciate your presentation about uh bringing and
uh employing a a robust workforce with fair wages to the community as well you know I think there's always challenges but those aren't challenges that we can't work through i appreciate having uh the community present today so that we can work through any of those
commissioner Kravangh just talked about one of his commission uh uh meetings committee meetings where they talked about comm community input sessions and listening sessions and I think that's all part of how we move forward on this i think that it's important for uh folks
to know that there are only certain things that we can do from this board in regards to what your request is and I've served on the planning commission for a long time our old planning director is here not old but previous planning director sorry Tim didn't mean to say that but we um frequently would have uh
proposals come to us and it was important to hear those and work through any challenges on the front side instead of just shutting something down so I just want uh the folks in the audience to know that I'm very open-minded about this i think there are concerns but
opportunities of the like and as a Klay County kid who grew up here I think it's really exciting about having additional opportunities for folks to either relocate to Klay County but also have fun in Klay County and be employed in Klay County and stay here too and so uh
for once we're having a discussion that maybe uh trumps conversations on the North Dakota side about convention space and how great that we have something over here proposed so I'll just uh pause my comments and allow for citizen all right so yeah thank you for that uh I
think all commissioners have had their chance i I might have a closing comments after we're done here so at this point in time if there's citizens who would like to speak if they would go up to the podium and and I would I would ask that um because we don't have an unlimited
amount of time if you can keep your comments to a couple minutes and if you if somebody else gets up and speaks and basically says what you would like to say uh I I don't think we need to hear multiple the same thing over again um
but I I think the it's important right now to um both address the board with your concerns but also uh with the tribal nation to hear those concerns uh moving forward with future dialogue as
Commissioner Mo was talked about so so with that I will yeah and then if we can just have your state your name and address please good morning good morning morning my name is Fred
Wright i'm a resident of Morehead uh for over 50 years um thank you for coming to present your proposal um I feel it's kind of vague at this stage of the process especially in exchange for
what you're asking um the gentleman made a comment to trust application and um this is the most important thing going forward I think that the board has to consider
um the tribes were given the initial monopoly I guess you would say over gambling um in the line of equality um to perhaps write past
wrongs um at this stage they are quite successful throughout the state of Minnesota i myself was at a convention last year in Morton at their facility down there very fine it was however on tribal land
you're asking for a specific carve out to make tribal land out of a sugarbeat field out here because it's close to a quarter of a million 300,000 people which would be good for your business this is something that is above my pay
grade but it's something that you folks have to consider when you get down into the specifics um we're looking at um being removed from the tax roles as one of the commissioners applied or uh
responded it's not only just the money it's the codes it's the everything going forward you lose Klay County loses control of everything and then you're in an agreement with a a tribal nation a
foreign tribal nation um which is not necessarily subject to our rules our courts all the time uh there have been references made to Grand Forks to the North Dakota
situation um also I believe the tribe also had done something in the Star Lake area uh down in Ottertale County here 10 12 years ago had referenced they' tried to get a uh similar situation down there uh the
neighborhood was against it uh they withdrew their plans i would suggest that you do some research on that um the big thing that I look at besides being the removal from the tax roles is
the fact that um we're looking at an increase in the social services for Klay County um this is going to be a magnet for people uh we're five miles away from an
intersection of two major interstate highways um we're in the state of Minnesota where social services are much more liberal than they are in the state of North Dakota um on one hand we're taking away the
ability of the Klay County to raise taxes from property tax and on the other hand the uh demand on social services is going to absolutely explode this is my
opinion uh another comm or a commissioner also made reference to the aquafer out there um I've heard talk about uh you've got 336 the aquifers on one side i don't think the water that's underground knows where the
highway is you You've got two truck stops out there in the past that were now closed one of the reasons that they were closed down was because they were over the aquafer now I've heard mentioned this morning uh several times and in the PowerPoint
presentation we're going to have truck stops well here we are we're going we're supposed to be going forward now we're going backward we're going to put truck stop the possibility of problems over the aquifer again something that they got rid of 10 15 years ago 20 years ago
i think we're going to have to wrap up pretty soon here we got several that's about it okay thank you thank you Fred thank you chairman you know I like to say just one thing about um his comment about being a foreigner and you know and talking about um you know Morehead is
1855 treaty area you know and I think those are things that we have to take in consideration too that this is our homelands too you know and we seated this territory back in when we signed that treaty in 1855 so we're not foreigners um we're 28 miles away from
our corner of our reservation to the corner of the property on 336 so we're close to our this property we bought so you know like I said you know we're part of this community you know our my my ancestors were part of this area you
know and I think this is something that needs to be in consideration and and also you know like we said the presentation was up there to put up there so so we could generate and work together on what would be the needs for that area and for this area especially
the jobs and especially if there's a truck stop and there's been multiple truck stops those are things that we'll look at we'll work on together you know these are just preliminary things that we're throwing out there to create economic productivity mitch thank you
okay good morning morning um name name please john Winter i'm a supervisor at the Glendon Township uh you did purchase our land there and I let you know I am from the reservation i grew up I
graduated from Wobin and I I know I went to school with you so So I know you guys i've been up to your casino my family still lives there my dad's enrolled you know I'm I'm I'm here now
for my people in Glendon Township and we do have some concerns because this is a egg preserve land um and my our biggest concern is the land trust i know you guys are going to fight hard to get the land trust and
when when the land gets into a land trust we have no control or any rights and they're going to dominate what happens and what can be done so I mean if you if the casino can be built without a trust land so be but if you
guys are requiring a trust I mean that's going to put a burden on our fire department in Sabin Glendon Morehead it's going to put a burden on our our sheriff department because who's going to take the cost of that when the land
trust comes in we got to look at that i know the tribe does can get some money back to the people but there is a cap on what you guys can contribute back to the people so
um in the aquafer I know you talked a lot about the aquifer i know you guys back in 20121 there was a a project that wanted to be built the city of Morehead shut it down i got the meeting minutes right here i even know three
commissioners voted it down to allow it not to be built so as a supervisor of the commission I'd like to see three things done i'd like to see a environmental study done i'd like to see a economic impact
study done and I'd like to know what the crime rate impact is done from the casino that was built in 1990 to present now i'd like to see what it's done to Manomomen County so and I'd like to see the tribe perform that for us please so
um I've talked to a lot of people from back home a lot of them are against it a lot of them did not approve the purchase of the land they're running what happened you know so we got to think on both sides we got to think
about us here in Klay County and the people back on the White Earth Reservation so I think there should be some studies done uh some more people talking about it i think we should have a public hearing with the people from
from Klay County and the Whiter tribe you know so we can get both representation so I'm glad you guys are here i I know you want to develop in our economy but we do have some concerns and uh hopefully we can come up with a
resolution i know our township did a resolution regarding the land purchase because it'll come out of our tax base you know we're a small township and I know we'll have to change the intersections the county roads will have to change i mean there this is a big
process this ain't going to happen in two three years this is going to be a probably a fiveyear process and I know they talked about the city of water of Morehead well you know there's water treatment plants that can be built there's a solar power that can be put up or windmill you guys put up windmills
there so well let's really think about this i you know and I and by the way I don't expect for you as a tribe to comment on every comment that comes before us because some of them are I I do want to I do want to address the issue of some
of the environmental stuff on the aquafer and those types of things those those are things that this board has always taken very serious and we will continue to take very serious um you know I I I think back you talk about one business that that
um we declined a permit on for for the reasons of protecting the aquifer uh I can think of a bigger project that basically was proposed in the state of Minnesota and because of some of the environmental stuff that went along
right along that area the whole diversion project shifted from Minnesota to North Dakota so so there's an awful lot of things that have transpired that that we take very seriously so there's nothing that I don't think this board is
going to support that doesn't have all those answers resolved you know so so you know and certainly the idea of public hearings we might get to there there's a reason on today we we and I told you at the very start of our
meeting there's going to be no decisions on this today by this board uh regarding their request the idea we we just saw for the first time today was was this idea and this plan I you we've knew about as much as anybody in terms of
what was publicly being said uh some of them were obviously not even in here but but anyway I I you know so I I think I think everybody who has concerns about environmental stuff right now can
be assured that that we're going to we're going to have dialogue with the cities of Dworth and the cities of Morhead because I I don't like you mentioned um Nate I don't I don't think your project can be built without
um services provided i I don't I don't see this being done with with wells and and holding tanks and you know so so there's got to be some cooperation amongst all governing entities here and this is the very first step in it uh
there the concerns need to be addressed there's also concerns i uh I have a lot of good friends who attend places like the Morehead American Legion and other places who are who also have real concern about their charitable
components and and their ability to continue to raise money if this is in place and and how they give back to the community and so th those are all things that dialogue uh we're not going to get to all that today uh but it but it but
but there's so much that's going to need to be talked about and the fact that you haven't haven't submitted your application yet is I I thought maybe you had already uh submitted an application but but um there's an awful lot of dialogue that has to be and and I think
it's important for you folks to hear this and I I'm not suggesting we cut off the other comments this morning but um there there's a there's a a lot to go through in in this process so thank you
for your comments good morning would you state your name please good morning my name is Paul Leman i live in Castleton North Dakota but I I'm representing American Legion Post 21 thank you commissioners for listening to us thank you for the tribe for coming in and doing this
presentation i I'm presenting a letter and a packet of our concerns you've already answered handled most of the questions the the one thing we want you to be aware of is that the Minnesota legislature last session gave the the tribe Minnesota tribal nation the
authority to change how our EABS have been done now we weren't sure how this experiment was going to work so we as my gaming manager and myself ran the numbers from January 1st to March 31st as of the same period in 2024
through 2025 we are down $90,000 that we can no longer donate to our charitable groups now we do a lot of donations we're committed to the city of Minnesota uh state city of Morehead for $250,000 for our baseball our baseball
teams take up between 150 and $180,000 our commitment to the National Cemetery our commitment to the Fargo VA our commitment to the Veterans Home in Fergus Falls this is all we all got to retake another look at this so with that
like I said thank you very much i'm also presenting a letter of opposition from the Morehead Hockey Association and if I remember the conversation right for the same time period they're down over $100,000 this year in donations because
of the changes made to the EABS the EAB is a delicate situation we're competing against North Dakota who has casino type machines where we're stuck to the tablets and we've lost all the motions and lost the free games and I don't know
if you've played them but they are very boring so thank you for your time all right if you want to just leave that with Sarah there and um this is I just just remind everybody that this is not a public hearing process this morning but if if you do have letters that you want
the board to read uh it'll save us time by maybe giving them to Sarah and then she will pass them on to all of us and I assure you we will read every one of them uh this is an important conversation that we're going to have in our community um that's that's going to
take a little bit of time to resolve so um next please david Vipond i am a Manona County resident but I farm and pay uh $40 an acre on my farmland i farm in Klay County so good morning good morning
thank you thank you commissioners and tribal people for presentation i I would say uh the trib's comments about being uh transparent i would say that's the last thing they are when it comes to projects that have gone on in the city of
Manomomen i live one mile north of the city of Manomomen raised my family there uh I am all for the tribe building this facility in Klay County if they build it under the same rules that I would build it under and it's does not go into tribal trust and they pay taxes and
employ people I think it's a great opportunity for Klay County but putting in tribal trust changes the whole game there my uh daughter is an attorney in Minneapolis and she does contract law
and she says when we have to deal with the tribes they operate on totally different rules than everybody else she said unless we can get uh something where they will pass on their sovereign immunity they said we can't do a contract because
they if they change their mind later down the road they don't have to follow the contract uh they operate under different rules so you need to be aware of that uh if you think this is economic development drive in downtown Manomomen
and and see how much that's developed the town of Manomomen having the casino there when I moved to Manomomen the casino site was a barley field now the the facility is a beautiful facility i'm not saying it's not and a lot of people come there but everything the tribe does
uh is for the benefit of the tribe they don't do that so another auxiliary business owned by somebody that's not a tribal member can build a business and and if you listen to the present presentation it said we're going to do this we're going to do this we're going
to they're going to build the restaurants the hotels the gaming all of that the truck stop that's all going to be for the trib's benefit not for Klay County's benefit if you let them off the hook by putting this in tribal trust you aren't going to have any tax revenue to pay for the services you're going to need to provide what you're going to
have to do is put a lot of money in uh infrastructure and services and see very little return and I agree some people are going to enjoy going there they they build a beautiful facility uh and it will employ people but I'm concerned that my taxes are going to go up to pay
for the services and everything else and that the tribe is going to get all the benefits thank you anybody else care to speak why not my name My name is David Leech i live uh outside of Glendon south of Glendon in
Elton Township i don't represent the township but I would like to make a couple comments uh talking to a lot of my neighbors there's a lot of o opposition to this already and I would encourage the the board and and our commissioners to speak to the county
residents just to get their opinion on this um second comment I would just like to reiterate about the two previous truck stops um one was as you guys I'm sure you know was a super fun site uh
cost the government I believe in excess of $40 million to clean up those uh truck stops at the time were built to current standards and they still leaked so you know I I just really have a a hard time seeing a a truck
stop over the aquifer so thank you thank you Mr chair if I could Mr leech did submit uh to be heard so I just wanted to acknowledge acknowledge receipt of your of your you were you were Dave right David okay
okay and we do also have the um u presented here that the commissioners do have we had a gentleman from Glendon Township we do have a resolution from Glendon Township as well just want to acknowledge that we have received that and
and we will be taking that into consideration as well do any other comments this morning here's a familiar face coming up good morning everyone dwayne Ericson is my name i live by Yulan farmed all my life i'm embarrassed to tell him how
many crops I've planted and harvested because then you'll figure out how old I am i'm opposed to this for the simple reason of taxes this trust situation and I think I've got all kinds of support on it my real estate taxes went up 43,000
some dollars this year over last year it was music to my ears when you were saving money on your some of your project and when Mr chairman said "Hey we might even lower the mill rate a half a percent." That's the kind of what I want well from that deal it saved us a
half a percent i can't guarantee you it's going to drop him by half% you know where I'm going okay but but I I won't land on a reservation farm there i've got an aunt Native American for 50ome years married
to my uncle and they've it just blended together i just love where I live but but if you let it go into trust land I had I rented some land five years ago to a guy from San Diego that grew
hemp for CBD oil and it's very interesting we had a permit through the Minnesota Department of A it was an interesting experience and he's kind of discontinued it because the CBD thing doesn't have that what we're all looking for that extra
little nip to get get high but but in fairness taxes is where it's at do not let it go into the trust i think Mr vipon made it clear
that man is you you've talked to commissioners it and back to the head this I've got relatives that deal with CBD oil and gummies but I'm told
check me check me but I think it's 17% that he would have to pay to sell cannabis and pay income tax on top of it but if you put it into the trust if I understand it right this this is all going to go away and social services for
addiction problems is going to be high for the the rest of us so and I forgot to say one thing i'm your watershed appointee for wild rice and I got a cap that says my farmer's cap on but I'm talking about farmer cap on today not for the wild rice watershed
district and I'm open for questions thank you for your comments yes Commissioner Mo i don't have a question for Dwayne but thanks for being here uh I just want to uh chairman Fairbanks maybe a question to you when you opened the facility in Morehead at the JL Beers
property the um tribe did not move forward and asking for that to be trust land correct okay so the tribe had the option an opportunity to do so but that's something that the tribe waved so you are you are paying taxes and on that facility i have one one comment on that
okay commissioner Bear with that facility in Morehead can it be in trust land if you're selling THC out of there we're not sure since it's new i that's in the gray area right right but we we have no plans
at all to put that in trust we we pay property tax across Minnesota to about 12 counties that we have no plans to do so all right thank you it's it it's it's a big deal this tax
thing in you talk about Monomomen County it's not in a trust but I think correct me if I'm wrong I think in Manomomen they paid real estate taxes for five seven years and then they put it in a trust and stopped paying taxes i think it's marvelous what you're attempting to
do you know this is really neat but we got to pay taxes we got to get it on a level playing field we're all Americans is I wake up every morning glad that my parents were US citizens and I was born in US ofA and not some third world country so all I want is a level playing
field and I'll compete with anybody thank you anybody else care to speak anybody else we have one of our our like Commissioner Mojo said one of our former I'm not going to call you old
Tim former former planning directors here and I'm sure he's sitting here with just incredible interest in this process that's going on it certainly has a lot of dynamics to it i think if there's uh I
don't see anybody else standing up this morning so at this point in time I think we'll we'll probably say thank you uh to our tribal nation for your presentation this morning and as as I mentioned uh there there will be no uh resolutions or
motions on any regard today and just based on the public input we have there is an awful lot of questions and u we will continue to work with that and uh as as we talked about um Nate I'm going back again to your presentation
and the significance of of um of how Morehead feels about this and how Dworth feels about this uh we need we need to have those conversations with them as well i I know you would like us
to send a letter of support uh I I for one am don't like the idea of sending a letter of support if we don't have the support of our largest city and and that as well i I I don't I don't think we want to get into a a battle like that
with them so I think it's more important for us to uh chairman as you suggested that we have uh open dialogue and hopefully come to a conclusion that we all can agree upon so chair Mr mojo and and chair uh Yes yeah
um you do have a meetings with the Morehead City Council in Dworth next Monday where we're going to also talk about this um and stress again projects like this of this size are successful with partnerships and communication and
trust and all the comments that we've heard today are taken very seriously and will be part of our ongoing conversations with the community when I say community it's it's bigger it's Clay County it's the It's the cities it's the townships it's the people here so thank
you thank you all right Commissioner Mojo thank you Commissioner Chair thank you again for coming today and uh when I first was elected there was the Fargo Morehead diversion project was quite contentious and not that it's not now but uh there were some substantial
concerns that I had about that going forward about that how that would affect residents uh cemeteries etc and we worked through that process we had a series of intense meetings there were negotiations there were some flexibility
and changes in design and what came out of that was a far better proposal for all of the people involved and there were sacrifices uh I I can't um can't sit here and say that there weren't immense sacrifices but the conversations going forward with your project will be
better because of the feedback that you get the involvement from your tribal members and the community members as a whole and uh I'm not going to sit here and and argue about what the Bureau of Indian Affairs has granted your tribe and all of the tribes uh in our country
uh that's not my place but what my place is is to figure out how we can move together to find the best amicable solution to also take into account our natural resources that I know the tribe is very very uh involved in has been uh
since your inception and so uh just hopeful that we can continue to be part of that dialogue as we move forward yeah and I thank you Commissioner Mojo and I I I do want to there was mentioned earlier by one of our uh speakers the
idea of um maybe a public hearing a public input i I don't I don't think this is something at this stage in terms of us offering a letter of support is something that requires a public hearing but I I I do believe in in
um proper public information being out there and I I would maybe look to um having a discussions with our board to set up additional opportunities for citizens to um meet on behalf with the
board and as well when if we establish a time frame for that uh I don't know chairman if you who you'd like to have us um maybe invite to that as well but I again I this is one meeting on one morning at 9:10 in the morning that we
had here and and this is something that that's going to have a tremendous impact uh on um our communities moving forward and it deserves uh some appropriate dialogue and one meeting at 9 9:10 in
the morning and me telling some our folks here they only have three minutes to talk isn't the really the answer so um but I think this is a good start i want to thank you again for for being here and I want to thank all the people who have their concerns
u um for coming this morning um you probably haven't gotten all the answers that you were hoping to get uh and neither have we um but this is just
a start and um so with that I do you want to make one real quickly please yeah real quickly because we we have to we have to move on
about four to six weeks ago I went to St paul with the watershed board members and our administrator and sitting in a group with the DNR my concern was what does it cost for retention water projects in administrative cost it's anywhere between 25 to
30% and I asked the commissioner to the DNR why can't each watershed district they're savvy on environmental control why can't they pick something and wave the permit fees and this lady
commissioner said "No." So when you bring up the aquafer environment is is a key issue you got to get through the DNR and I'll refer to Mr vipon again he got a permit
from the DNR to do irrigating and and DNR passed it but yet the tribe stopped it environmental review tough one all right once again thank you all for
coming and um our board is we're going to take a five minute break here so thank you thank you chairman i appreciate it thank you board members all right thank you our next agenda item is the presentation on project financial and operational
impacts of the 2025 governor's budget on Klay County Social Services quinn good to have you back again unfortunately I it's under these circumstances thank you Mr chair yeah you you didn't have all the fans apparently looking at
that yes in regards to our tax levy though I think this is probably one of the most important pieces that we'll be discussing today i did genuinely think they'd stick around but well thank you for your time um I wanted to provide an update on again what the proposed uh
impacts are to social services budget specifically regarding um the governor's budget proposal um what I'm going to discuss today is really just uh it's all projection um some of it's exact numbers and some of it's just based on the
information that I know i'll do my best to explain kind of how I got to the figures but if at any point in time you have questions just feel free um really it is an emphasis on the cost shifts from the state level to the county level um different allocations that are being cut and or reduced and um
at least one slide where there might not be a direct fiscal component but concerns about the program implications are that might in turn have uh an increased uh call for demand in other service areas again very difficult to predict but I feel I need to update you
all on that um the first uh first component of this is the 5% uh county share on disability waiverss um I believe initially uh when we first heard about this in the governor's budget it was unclear whether or not this would be on all disability wavered services or
something different um so I believe the initial projection was about $3 million we did receive clarification from DHS later that this is only residential services covered under the disability waiver um so that uh $3 million figure
dropped down to I don't want to say only because it's still a significant cost shift but uh projecting into 2025 1,234,166 um just to kind of show you what's on the graph here DHS did provide specific information as to uh 2023 and
2024 when it ca when it came to residential placements so those numbers would be had the 5% cost share been applied to 2023 and 2024 h having really that being the only data I had available there's a 6% difference between those two years in terms of the increased cost
in those services so projecting that out that's where those numbers came from so again a 6% increase not knowing if that's actually going to hold but I do I would anticipate um the providers that run those facilities have increased cost so I think the six% is probably a good
estimate or accurate increase yes yes thank you thank you Commissioner Barry yes yes for 2026 correct yes um so um the important thing on this one
is with the residential placements um we we don't currently budget the 1.2 2 1.3 million in county shift um that would be something I would be looking to budget based on the governor's uh proposal if it if it goes through um if that 6% cost
share continues over time projecting out into the future that's going to be an increase of about 67 to 78,000 per year of additional cost every year if if that trend continues um I will speak in a few slides obviously my concern with that
cost just growing and growing and growing is we would need to have some sort of legislation to cap or stop the inflationary grow to growth to these disability waiver um we do have some legislation that's proposed now to help with that which I'll speak to but that
also has a catch where I'm concerned about some of the programmatic implications of what that would look like uh moving on to the Minnesota sex offender treatment program um right now uh counties uh have a 25% cost share
that is the green set of bars that you can see in front of you these are budgeted numbers these are actuals from our budget uh what I did was showed you what it would have looked like had uh the 40% cost share been applied to 21 up through 2024 um you can see there's
approximately $100,000 difference between the between the years um some up some down um going from that 25% to 40% there really is no way to avoid these costs um as they come from folks that are uh discharged from or admitted to
the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program um it really is just something that we have to take a take a guess an educated guess based on past trends and usage um and it's Go ahead how do you budget that then uh past trends past
trends yeah and and we hope for the best you can see in 2023 it it kind of spiked a little bit there um it is very very difficult to predict um using past trends and just adjusting as necessary is typically how it's my understanding was done in the past
okay um substance use disorder services so the behavioral health fund um just kind of give you an overview what that is it's a special revenue fund that DHS has that helps pay for substance use disorder treatment uh for folks that are uninsured underinsured or covered by
specific elements of Medicaid um right now the county share is 22.95% as you can see right there what's being proposed in the governor's budget is a 50% cost shift um behavioral health fund is a very interesting
um interesting service uh it used to be something different before substance use reform um however it is essential for clients who can afford treatment but still need access to the critical substance use services that are provided um really kind of acts as that financial safety net for the folks who need
treatment and don't have the necessary coverage um again these costs are are unavoidable they're service driven so folks qualify for the behavioral health fund costs that's how they're utilized and then our county share comes from that uh what happened in the past is we had an administrative allocation that
kind of helped with um billing coordinating eligibility um the staffing patterns that came with serving these folks uh what's being presented kind of together is not only the shift to 50% but also the complete
removal of the admin allocation for the behavioral health fund so those numbers are on the right side there that's the revenue that had come in based on the admin allocation which is a smaller percent of what our share is if that makes sense um there were already cuts
you can see in 2024 you can see it already becomes a little bit disproportionate there were already cuts to the formula of how the admin allocation is uh given to counties so we already saw a reduction in the admin allocation but in the governor's budget it is proposed to be eliminated
completely that's on top of that's on top of the increased cost share from 22.95 to 50% yes and that you don't have on this piece of paperwork the one that uh Steve gave out to us the
admin allocations oh I'm off that on top of that 60,000 right yeah you don't have this page Commissioner Bear no yeah we have that okay oh I'm sorry i was going off the cheat sheet that we
were Okay okay oh perfect thank you um so so again for for Klay County uh the combined impact over the last four years if these uh percentages and cuts would have happened it would have um
exceeded 146,000 um with again the yearly increase being 17,000 to over 51,000 the legislation that I spoke to in regards to capping the residential services 5% cost share is the changes to
the disability waiver rate system um so they are at least trying to stop the increase of those costs uh there are four specific policy changes that are that are I guess in the works um capping inflationary adjustments uh is one of
the ways uh right now inflation is uh the these adjustments are tied to inflation what's being proposed is just a straight 2% annual increase um which I think would help drop that 6% increase I spoke about before down a little bit um
the limiting rate exceptions and inputs so uh what's being proposed is a restriction to when rate exceptions can be made for behavioral needs transportation and staffing ratios um there's a lot of individualized decisions that are made in this process um it's really kind of restricting when
uh increased rates can happen for specific situations another is limiting day and unit based services um which is going to cap individualized home supports with training to eight hours a day um it also creates a new rate for overnight
supervision um I believe it's going to reduce what the overnight supervision rate would be for what we call sleep hours versus awake hours um there'll also be limits on residential services uh it's going to limit billing to 351 days per year which allows for a 14-day
cap on reimburseable absences every single year um as well as it restricts what's called customized living services for clients under the age of 55 um there are a lot of expenditures that can get quite spendy in customized living services uh locations
um a good descriptor of a customized living service uh provider would be assisted living care but it's flexible and it's very specific to the person's needs um it's providing the support that they need while encouraging as much independence as humanly possible so
because those decisions are made on an individual case by case basis they can be particularly expensive um although we do not fund the disability waiver rate system now as it exists um I'm a little concerned that this is going to cause a
disruption in what those services look like if you hear restricting the customized living service of folks under 55 that doesn't help answer the question what happens to those folks under 55 that need residential services um I I do anticipate that this will make it a
little bit more difficult to find adequate and appropriate placements for folks that have these um disabilities and qualify for this service um I'm a little bit concerned that families and our community is going to turn to counties with housing or respbit um or
advocacy for changes in these policies uh I do believe there'll be an increased demand and reliance on kind of the unpaid caregivers and relatives that were maybe doing this work and not being paid under the waiver rate system or by residential service providers um and in
turn it's going to have a lot of unfunded consequences to our case management our case managers that do this work are going to basically fill the gap that's left um if there are concerns that providers aren't able to keep up uh not pay their staff not hire
staff and potentially not be able to provide those services to our clients commissioner Mojo thank you this one is of particular concern for me uh you know I think for all the reasons that you outlaid but um not included as a shift
or a cut from the governor's budget this one is a substantial cut in the house proposal and so the 193 million in the first 26 27 and then 379 million in the next uh you know I I get that these are targets and we have
to figure out um how they all come together but uh a substantial substantial shift uh that is just getting too much to bear and so um you know I I know that your presentation is governor's budget only and so there's some components that are different but
this one's an enormous that clarification yes this is just the governor's budget i haven't done a full work up on House or Senate budget it's all painful unfortunately yes
um moving on um this uh Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act this is not the governor's budget but this is another element of legislation that is going to have uh pretty significant financial impacts to the county uh in your packets you should have a document that looks like this um
this is the survey to the legislative budget office that was done um that I completed and and turned in to assess the financial uh impacts of what MAFPA implementation is going to be so it's it's very very detailed in there versus the presentation is a high level
overview but again if you have questions just let me know um to kind of give you a breakdown of what MAFPA is um it applies to African-American children in child protection or a child that is identified as a race that's disproportionately represented in the
child welfare system so it's it's pretty broad as to what that means um what it's going to require is something called active efforts um in the child protection system counties have to apply reasonable efforts to avoid removing children and we have to provide
reasonable efforts to return children to homes when they've been removed um the Indian Child Welfare Act raises that requirement from reasonable efforts to active efforts which basically means doing more to prevent the out of home placement and doing more to make sure
kids can be returned home afpa takes that active efforts definition and applies it to African-American children or children represented in a disproportionate weren't you guys doing that already i like to say yes um
there's never been a situation and you all know my my purview is the child protection world um there's never been a situation in in my time in that world or my understanding ever since where a decision was made to say we're going to just do reasonable efforts if there is
some sort of active effort that could happen um we do everything that we can to not have to remove kids in the first place and we do everything we can to return children if possible the difference is is that we're not that's not a judicial decision that's
determined in these cases whereas if math applies those actions could be challenged in court so Brian's folks is going to have to do a good job of articulating that we are in fact doing active efforts to the letter of the
law um math will also require visitation a cultural connection component and uh differences to our permanency planning process it's going to expand the case review process it'll have several uh instances of data reporting that don't currently ex exist and cultural
competency training um this implementation begins January 1 2027 so I want to be clear that um budgetary impacts wouldn't happen on 2026 but looking more at 2027 for implementation of this um again this represents a significant new staffing requirement
documentation and compliance obligations um the the biggest thing to me as someone that that did this work a lot is the way that IQUA and MiffPa uh for Native American children is set up or how it applies in our child protection cases is based on tribes telling
counties yes that child is enrolled they're a member they're eligible for membership um federally recognized tribes are the I guess filter that says yes or no to when um IQA and Miffa apply to a child protection case mafpa that
standard is selfidentification a family is able to claim African-American heritage or membership in a race that is disproportionately impacted by child protection and per my understanding of the statute there's no way to dispute
that right now and there's no federally recognized entity or group that determines that it's all based on self-identification um I think that that's an important component because in in a few slides I'll talk about the per
cost increase per case cost increase um and that was based on an estimate of the amount of cases that will happen so if self-identification is truly the standard and there's no way to dispute that then hypothetically there is nothing preventing every family from
claiming selfidentification to have math applied to their case if that makes sense um specifically the staffing impact so in the legislative budget office survey um in order to essentially do this right on day one this is what
I'm projecting we need to have um it would be a 0.5 assessor front end 1.5 case managers uh a case aid to assist with the increased visits and transportation uh a social work level that it would be a training coordinator case review kind of the quality
assurance uh reporting requirements that are going to be in this legislation um and I do believe we would need to bring on an an additional supervisor um to really take on this capacity and specialize in this uh I'm going to be very very transparent with the board i have no intention whatsoever to come in
2027 and ask you for five full-time staff i do think that we need to have a smart phased implementation of what this looks like um and really assess how the work on January 1 2027 is going to impact our staff um that being said I I want to be transparent and saying this
is exactly what I believe we need in order to be successful and compliant with the MAPA legislation um this is a slide I was talking about average increased monthly cost um again being transparent it it trying to
identify how much money per case is is what was required in the survey and that's really not something that social services ever we don't think about working with families in how much money that specific family cost um so these are best guess estimates based on
average hourly uh time spent by staff on these different areas of the work that they do um so I did base this on kind of an average hourly rate of 3484 which is a snapshot in time average of our child protection staff um and then what I did
was I basically applied a standard of what are these how much time do we spend on these activities in an IQA case versus a non-IQUA case as the requirements are very similar um so that's how you get the increased monthly cost for those
different activities that we do um in our cases uh I do anticipate an estimated increase of $1,882 per month per case um so again with a kind of an average case load of a shot in the dark of how many cases I
think it's going to apply to really not knowing what that's going to look like this would translate to an annual increase of $22,584 per case would that be built into your staff in your staffing yes yeah that would be so
again that that is additional time that they're spending on requirements they're not currently doing right now so it' be taking away from other tasks and responsibilities but yes built into the staffing cost um so so to summarize MAFA's total impact um we are looking
between $460 and $473,000 if it were all implemented at once at one point in time um this includes the five new FTEES the increased super supervision um and built-in per case costs associated with
the compliance documentation cultural engagement and active efforts um to be clear this wouldn't include one-time costs like any cultural competency training um any new onboarding new data tracking infrastructure um I'm hoping comes with SSIS modernization but we
still don't know that yet either um I I do want to make it clear that that what MAFA is attempting to do is important um I I really do support the values and the intentions of what MAFA is saying um we need as a state we need to do better to make sure that these
disproportionate rates are addressed um however I do think the implementation of this has some challenges that need to be acknowledged um and I highlighted those for you here it really isn't accompanied with any funding whatsoever this is all done on the backs of counties um to
figure out how to implement such massive legisl legislative changes um these new mandates that are unfunded counties really will shoulder these costs um I am concerned as I said about the documentation uh this really is going to be very difficult logistically without
SSIS system modernization um I know the governor's budget has $10 million earmarked towards that i think that's going to be a drop in the bucket to for what's actually needed to make SSIS uh more timely increase worker efficiency to maybe help um in the documentation
burdens that come with doing the work as well um that's the green screen people talk about right maxis is the green screen ssis is slightly better than Maxis slightly slightly better that's right i think uh 1990s software versus
early 80s oh careful those were good years i loved Oregon Trail i love I love Oregon same here um I am concerned before you go back or before you go too far I just want to go back to that piece where we talk about per case increase in
costs and in a time when we are all trying to think critically about how we serve our clients and our residents in the most uh one with the most heart but also in the most effective way um to increase per case by over
$20,000 those are funds that are not being allocated appropriately and I agree with you i think having this discussion about how we more effectively serve folks and include folks in the work uh when you have different pieces that are all conflicting with each other when you have two different pieces of
technology that don't even communicate to each other uh what we're doing is we are are really setting a roadmap to fail the children that we need to serve and you know I've said that at the capital i testified on part of these pieces but um you know our staff is doing the absolute
best that they can and they're amazing but adding this whole another level is really going to take away the service that we need to uh uh include for families and so you know I know there's discussion about a phased
approach or is a metro versus greater Minnesota coupled two-year phase in but this is a classic example of forcing folks to implement things when you don't have a proper base to do it i mean there it just is really going to set counties
and employees up to fail when again like I said when you're trying to serve children uh and so it has nothing to do with um you know I appreciate the the spirit in which it came about this has nothing to do with that uh the spirit in which it came about can be effectively
done by waiting and particularly when we're going to have to mitigate historic uh cost shifts so and I appreciate your advocacy done at the capital for us will you give me the data so I can know what I'm talking about absolutely um again concerns with
not being uh aligned with federal timelines um just an example is we have to follow federal mandates such as the adoption and safe families act um particularly around permanency timelines and posttermination of parental rights uh require
requirements these questions uh by agencies haven't been answered yet by the state in terms of what that looks like um a specific example would be um right now uh MAFA and IQUA they really favor what's called a transfer of legal
custody when a parent is unsuccessful in reunifying with their child there are permanency options tp um the federal government says a TPR so legally severing the parents rights and then adopting that child into another family is the preferred permanency option where
some of our state and MA and MAF in particular looks at more family preservation um and transfers of legal custody i'm a little concerned as to how aggressively that will be pushed and applied as it it has potential to call
into question some of our federal funding around Title 4 if we're in non-compliance with that so again to say that this is enacted January 1 of 2027 when we still have legal questions that are unanswered just has me incredibly concerned and worried um I'm really concerned that we don't have really the
community infrastructure in place some of the requirements of MAPA is culturally appropriate services but we don't have a mapped statewide list of what those culturally appropriate services is um as you referenced Commissioner Bar I would argue that we already apply culturally appropriate
services it's just not something that's legally challenged in the court right now so without these infrastructure um additions to the legislation I'm just concerned about how we would even be compliant with the law that's being implemented
that's really all I have i'm sorry I threw so much at you there there's so much in each specific area but any questions well I I you know my comment I'm starting to I'm starting to wish we had levy limits again that's what I'm
starting to wish i mean when when these all these all these unfunded uh deals that they're putting down on us I I think back to my time on this board going back to the troublesome times around
2008 uh we were we were we were forced to put certain components in on waiting lists because we only you only have so many funds that you can pass on to our taxpayer i keep talking about the you
know um I always refer to the little lady that lives right behind me who's lives on social security and these types of things are driving her out of her home causing more burdens on our on our
system so at some point in time we've got you know so you know Quinn I as much as I hate to say this I you know for for us just to um sit back and just take it at some
point in time the entities who responsible should be held accountable and if if we just simply accept all of these things and just say "Okay we're going to just add it on to our property tax and make everybody pay at some point
in time we might have to say well there's limits to what we can do and there there isn't a there isn't a board member up here who doesn't you know the services that we provide aren't critical and important to us but at some
point in time you know we we have to come to some decisions about how much can we do and if we can't do it the blame shouldn't go to us and you know so there's there's there
comes a there comes a time when the people who were passing this down to us should be held accountable they have many more opportunities through their funding mechanisms at the state level to deal with these things than we do in a propment which again I'll say it over
and over and over again is the most regressive form of tax we have so I that's just just my two cents for now and I'm you know I think it's going to be important i think you know quite honestly moving forward if these
things have to happen you know I'm going to be asking okay what areas do we have the ability to say okay we're going to provide this service but there's a you know we're going to provide it to this level and once that's reached unfortunately people are going to have to wait
it's reasonable we've done it before and we may have to do it again that's that's and that's where I'm at on I'm I'm really frustrated and of course we go to the state and we ask ask for things too that are important but
but again everything that we go to the state and ask for we look at as a cost-saving measure versus alternatives so anyway that's thank you Quinn for proing this i don't anybody else wants to comment yeah can't can't
agree more with Commissioner Campbell that we're going to reach a point to where we're gonna have to say no we can't do it unfortunately it's to the citizens and not the people who put us in that position but I do want to uh thank
you the work you put into this is providing us not just with an understanding of it but in as Commissioner Mojo said an opportunity to take the facts to St paul and I won't say rub their nose in it but make them
aware of it and I'm grateful for that you did good work on this sorry I don't have better news but Well it I mean yeah you're delivering what is being proposed and that and you know that's our job to help you work through
it and figure out a solution so all right any Mr sure again just reiterate not only has he done this once he's done it about three times for for us so so so so far and really appreciate that effort because as as so has
happened a lot in the state level recently uh information or or new programs come out and plans aren't exactly clear and so Quinn's done a great job of getting that clarification uh and uh finding out that information again I did provide you guys a handout
uh an overview of of impacts and with the with the 2026 numbers uh we'd be looking at right around a 3.26% levy increase just for for these these changes uh with again about another
1.05 once once uh uh the math is is um added in 27 um I I see Kathy walked in and Quinn one of the other impacts that we haven't talked about today would be any federal federal cuts to to Medicaid and and uh different programs like that
so again something for our board to be considered the last uh rain on your parade is uh every every April Darren uh Darren starts the budget process with taking a snapshot of time of uh our employees and and what the what the impact will be on the upcoming budget uh
as we start the planning process uh next year we're also looking at paid family leave medical uh paid med paid family medical leave uh being implemented uh again we're looking at a tax right now of about 088% half of which uh we would be potentially looking to pass on to our
employees half covered by the county uh and right now without uh any overtime factored into that we'd be looking at about another $187,95 uh to implement that program outside of this outside the scope of of uh what is happening in human services
but uh just wanted with Darren doing that work I just wanted to make sure the board was had an awareness of of that that also so thank you you're going to have fun trying to keep that under 5% yep we are mr
thank you Mr chair part of the dialogue that we've had with our partners at AMC is really how do we effectively tell our story at the capital in an expedited way because it's all happening very quickly but really providing those decision
makers with the most accurate snapshot on what those cost shifts would mean to counties what would need to be cut without uh affect or you know tweaking it uh that's part of the reason I went to St paul and talked about what the percentages were and I appreciate you
got them as quickly as possible but but given the fact this is only the governor's proposed and we know what the other strings are I really think it's important that this board sends a letter uh a snapshot of what we've figured out
the cost thus far would be uh how it would affect us what our historical levy has been and what this shift would mean on our levy uh we're at a breaking point and I've said that we wanted to be part of uh the dialogue and the solution to
help fix it and I think sending a letter would really be important so I'm not sure what this board's appetite for directing Steve and Quinn and maybe Kathy to kind of work on finding what those numbers are sending it to not only
our um our local reps uh and senators but particularly those that sit on the Health and Human Services committees is that something we I agree with that are are we comfortable with the information we
have to send then uh well knowing the timeline of um the legislature knowing that we did pull it together in February so we've had some time to work through that but I know that the leaders of um you know both
house you know both caucuses are meeting with the governor frequently and so I I think if we delay I'm a little worried that it would get lost in translation okay do I need a motion on that yes
so uh Mr chair if I might I would direct staff to uh work with our other department heads to articulate what those cost shifts proposed would mean to Klay County and send a letter to the leadership that I identified and
actually I' I'd copy the the governor's office as well i'll second that all right okay we have a motion and a second so um included in that would be the um
shifts we talked about right here would that also include um family play paid yeah I think it's important that that's all the different pieces i think they see the entirety of it i mean that's what I think you know I'm I'm we're not trying to start fights
we're just supposed to be realistic about what the shifts are mr chair Commissioner Mojo I think it as was mentioned I do think it's important because there are things that as a board uh you have control over and and this is an example of a situation where you're
being handed responsibilities and cost shift that you don't have responsibility to bring forward but are having a responsibility to manage and so I think that that you're bringing a letter forward is a very good thing thank you you know and I I agree and I I I do want
to point out too when it when it comes to the um uh the 08 was it the 0.88 988 tax that's out there uh the proposal or you know one of the things that's out there is that it's 50% county 50%
employee those still have to be negotiated right Darren they need to be negotiated and we don't know how those negotiations are going so I guess when we're when we're uh putting together numbers I think we should include maybe
up to a dollar amount that's up to uh you know8 yeah up to 0.88 yeah you know because we don't know what what that outcome is going to be yet um we haven't we haven't even had that dialogue amongst our I
think Mr chair commissioners I think there's several things that uh with with health insurance with the union negotiations that we probably are going to lean in on the finance committee right away to give us some insight uh as far as those projections go initially we don't have time today not today no kind
of booked up solid today and we're running out of time as we speak so all right um Mr sheriff if I could if we're done with this conversation since we have Quinn here I just wanted I I we have a motion in a second floor so if
it's okay with you I'll vote on the motion but Okay all right any further discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I oppose the same sign motion carried all right Steve thank Thank you Mr chair sorry about that Commission uh one of the things
that the chair received a letter uh this past uh this past week uh from uh from DHS in recognition of the great work that Quinn's staff in the financial department uh uh received and a perfect performance as far as their their assessment uh through the state of North
Dakota North Dakota Minnesota and so I wanted to uh wanted to with Quinn here just thank you your for your staff and recognize them for the great work that they do appreciate that that one in particular was all Susan roll you guys yeah and she's amazing did we were we able to forward that letter to our I can
forward that yeah why don't we do that yeah and again congratulations and and I did see there was an awful lot of praise to Susan Sue so give her our thanks and congratulations i will do that thank you so much all
right Mr chair if I could interject again uh Kathy and some of Kathy's staff they're scheduled to do their update it's the last item to the day um but uh but uh some of their staff have to leave due to the good conversations that we had and being pushed into later today so
consider your willingness to provide them the opportunity to present their update before Troy all right Troy you're going to just have to kick back and relax and wait a while so uh just don't let Kathy talk the whole time
so we we required our citizens this morning we limited to them to three minutes we won't do that to you but maybe four all right so we're at our we are at our 10:20 um presentation time here so uh
Department of Health update public thank you Mr chair and commissioners now you're going to hear from your favorite depart I mean our favorite department so I'm going to um let uh before I provide um what public health is about and our
um now I need help Sarah um and our the information I'm going to let Rory just jump into health promotion because he has to leave at 11:08 okay so well
good morning commissioners uh I'm going to provide an update on the health promotion branch of uh public health um our work is other than my position is entirely funded by grants so we spend a fair amount of time trying to secure
those and uh make uh positive outcomes our longest standing grant is the statewide health improvement program uh we began in 2009 and uh we have three staff that have been with us for 15 years i think they're recognized by the state as one
of the real stalwart um groups and as it pertains to Klay County they're currently working we've got an active living planner who's uh currently working on the H Heartland Trail hoping that we can get that to the Red River um and then out to Buffalo River State Park
and in the last year we've worked with the uh Bridgepoint Community Food Pantry to help develop a local food rescue plan both technical assistance we've helped them with and and some financial assistance um another one of our big
grants positive community norms this is Jason McCoy working in the Dworth Glendon Felton schools and the highlight of that work we're in year four of five and uh they've shown a reduction in vaping percentages from 24 to 7% over
that uh over that four-year period um the suicide and substance use prevention this falls under uh if you recognize Annabelle and Karen Nitscorski who's a contractor and so they have been working with local schools Morehead Holly and
Barnesville for the last three years to help build protective factors reduce risk factors specifically implementing a a peer-led program called sources of strength to help students in those schools build strengths so when
difficult things come their way they've got some things to draw upon um maybe one of the more exciting things from the last year was we trained uh more at high school students to begin giving presentations about 988 to their peers we know that hearing from peers is more impactful than hearing from us adults
and so that's been that's been quite exciting uh the opioid work that that Annabelle leads um she spearheaded an effort to start an opioid response team to work with first responders when there's an overdose and
so now within 12 to 24 hours of an overdose um we have a local provider substance use provider that um connects with the person who experienced the overdose and uh tries to work in that key window of time to get them in for
treatment to to get help um at the same time we're uh we've got four pharmacies in uh Klay County who are uh starting to screen um those who are getting prescriptions for high risk of overdose and and substance misuse particularly
the related opioids and so Annabelle is uh is leading that work with um NDSU working with thosearmacies and then we've got some long-standing programs um child and teen checkups worked with uh
6,260 on and underinsured children to help make sure that they were getting to those necessary wellcheck visits um Sarah Dixon Hackey our community outreach liaison um continues to help us reach uh folks from uh diverse
populations she secured funding for language services for interpretation and translation um she specifically helped our public health nurses translate some of their core documents this year to Somali and Spanish and Haitian Creole um
and then the last thing on my list is um we've had a public health analyst who are now that position is open uh she left us but over the every three years there's a community health assessment that we're part of with our healthcare institutions and we're in the middle of
that period of time right now as we uh uh look to identify what we'll do with the uh assessment information that we've gathered from our county thank you thanks Rory thanks okay I'll go back to the beginning um
thank you Rory um uh healthy people and healthy communities uh is our um mission and we have our vision statement there um you see under the logo it's prevent promote and protect and that's that's just what we um public health does is preventing
um working with the or organized um community members and and people around our community individuals um health um centers to prevent disease prolong life and promote health so that's just a national um emblem of what public health is
here's our tense essential 10 essential public health services i'm sure you've all read all the details of this but it falls under assessment um policy development and assurance so um what is required of us in public health um there's a little bit more detail on our
10 essential public health services so um just monitoring health status as Rory just talked about with our community health assessment and then working on a plan and we work with the healthcare systems for that um um investigating health problems educating communicating with partners across our communities
strengthen and mobilize community partners to identify and solve health problems utilize regulatory action um equity of course is in the middle of um those that are underinsured uninsured um and other um diverse populations uh maintain a competent skilled public
health workforce which we have some of our um our supervisors and um others here improve and innovate public health function and um contribute to uh research we don't do research but we certainly um avail our ourselves to
credible research as we look at public health issues our public health requirements under Minnesota statute 145A is um these are all the requirements that we have assuring an adequate local public health infrastructure promoting healthy communities and healthy behaviors as
Rory talked about and some of the other supervisors will talk about preventing the spread of communical disease protecting against environmental health hazards preparing for and responding to emergencies and assuring health services so we're required to do all of our programs that you'll hear about
underneath um all of the statutory requirements our governance in Minnesota is um under a community health board we have partnership for health which is our community health board and as you can see that's a multicount uh joint powers community health board there's also
across the state single county um cities and county city combinations and then there's a few that are under a human services board but again our partnership for health is our mult multicounties DHB with Commissioner Evinger now as chair of that um
board here's our public health programs um that you will hear again falling under um all of our requirements adult health detox doesn't fall under a mandatory requirement but it's definitely a necessity and it and it's under public health because detox is not
correctional but it's a medical health um system for those that are under the use of subst that need substance use um help emergency preparedness environmental health family health health promotion our public health infrastructure as we talked about uh
public health clinic and infectious disease school nursing also not um a mandated um area of responsibility under our statute however we've provided school nursing we have provided it for all of the schools within um Klay County
some of those schools have hired their own school nurse we still provide school nursing um for a couple of schools and then we have our wick program so I'll go Sorry we had to switch up the slides a little bit i'll go to the finance department our finance
manager was unable to be here due to some um financial deadlines he has but he manages all of the he works with our county auditors um and but manages all of the program areas and we are heavy um with our grants so there's a lot of
management for those grants managing receipts and invoices supply orders is a great big portion of his responsibility is for partnership for health he has to work with all four counties their financial um if they have a financial person within their counties or the
public health director um because he has to get all of their invoices and then he has to ensure that they are correct and then submits all of the reports to the state so that's that's a pretty um extensive job some of
our grants are monthly reports some of them are quarterly but we have over 20 grants that come through the CHB that he has to manage so it's a pretty heavy lift um we were really this has been going on that um Klay County is the financial responsibility because the
other counties did not have um a checks and balance system we have the auditor's department that is able to provide that check and balance so we have a system that our state auditors have recognized and and um support that this is the best
system we can have for all of those grants and then he also helps with some information technology things question right there yes with partner for partnership for health members changing will that make
it easier for him in his duties there yes uh thank you Mr chair and Commissioner Bear it should um because we'll have two counties that he will be responsible for so that is a significant um yeah that that should be
significantly less we'll still have the same number of grants but um not having two counties that he has to vet all of those invoices and and work with those other two counties it certainly should alleviate some of his some of his work yeah it's worth mentioning not this year
correct not this year this year just trying to sort things out for the next operation and next I'll inter um introduce Susie she is our adult health supervisor of which none of you have probably met but
um she um oversees all of our adult health programs so I'll let Susie describe that a little bit good morning commissioners um uh so a little bit about Men Choices it's a statewide um web-based program used by case managers
to complete assessments do supportation served as Medicaid eligible clients um with disabilities or chronic health conditions we currently serve in my department about 1,200 clients in addition to community first services and
supports which is now CFSS um that is now taking the place of PCA and CSG um we don't need to do assessments or we we only do assessments for them because they're they have personal care attendants who take care of them
throughout the year um we do case management for clients on elderly waiverss alternative care and community alter and community alternative care that's the waivered programs for our managed care organizations we have Blues UKare and Medicica many of our clients
choose to reside in their homes and that's if that's their ultimate goal that's what we would like to provide for them although we do case management for clients who reside in nursing facilities as well um we do have my team is made up of 14 full-time registered nurses two
social workers three case aids two part-time registered nurses and one variable hour assistant our funding resources come our funding sources come from clients on state plans um from Medicaid and time study and the managed
care organizations comes from the contracts with blues Medicica and UK any questions 1200 oh okay thank you okay then Liz is the supervisor for family health so I will let her talk
about her program areas yes good morning commissioners um happy to share with you that our nurse home visitors are highly trained in family health um we serve prenatal and parenting families in the county um through evidence-based home visiting so they're collecting a lot of
data for the state for federal um because we do receive grants um to support those programs um but also to show um that our outcomes are good for u maternal child health and development as
well as e economic outcomes for families um we serve families that qualify for medical assistance for WIC will also see teenagers um in the home and receive um these referrals from WICK
local clinics hospitals um as well as social services um we screen for depression anxiety intimate partner violence as well as child development and then we refer families and children um as needed
to providers and agencies in the area um our nurses also um provide follow-up through our followalong program and families any family in Klay County can sign up for this program and they fill out um
developmental questionnaires and we um screen those and then communicate with families if they have any concerns and then refer them to early intervention services if needed um and answer whatever questions they might have or that might also So um we might also go
visit them in the home from from those referrals to make sure that they're on track we also have Eddie Betty which is early hearing um detection and um birth effects followup that we receive referrals from Minnesota Department of Health um and then our nurses are also
car seat technicians so they're able to um distribute car seats from medical assistance programs um so no charge for the families um to receive those seats through medical assistance um and to make sure that their children are safely secure in their um car
seats um so we have um onto infectious um disease um so through our clinic um coordinator we cover TB case management vaccines um perinatal hep refugee health
um screening program as well as our other services there in the clinic um you know drug screens lead screens and then also the car seat education um and distribution um and we have yeah one
nurse um that supports um that program area and then lastly we have um I think on the next slide um our school nurses so we have um a nurse out in our deal with elementary and middle school um a
nurse in each of those areas as well as um part-time nurse and ulan hit herd doll um and of course they're very busy with the kids each and every day um and I just recently got um an email as far as how they're referring to a mobile
dental clinic through family healthcare and they've had really good responses for children to receive services right there at the school um and they'll be looking at um also having um an IM mobile clinic too coming up soon for
that um school so that'll be really good and that's all I have to share today thank you okay um I will talk about WIC sue I'm sure is tied up with her clients so it's women infants and children nutrition
program sue is the um the manager of the WIC program they do the individualized nutrition assessment education and referrals lactation education and there are individuals that are are um lactation um consultants there and provide resources they obviously have
the wick card that's provided to participants um to obtain healthy foods lots of referrals to the community resources and then they provide recipe books to assist family in creating healthy meals she um they serve a large
number um of clients that qualify for the wick there's a qualification um based on number of children and um your financials the total staff that we have are two dietitionians why one dietetic
aid um.5 of support staff and we also have two variable hour dieticians um when we um when it was during COVID we were able to do a lot of online meeting with the clients um but again postco now
we're meeting with all of them most of them in person the funding of course is um through the federal government to the state and down to us um at this point we haven't heard anything about the wick
funding so um you know more to come on that I'm sure and next we have Sylvanas um he is our emergency preparedness coordinator and he'll just give you a
quick update so good morning honorable commissioners make sure you pull your mic close okay okay so much better now so for the public health emergency department we are busy working on a lot so
uh you know emergency is an unforeseen event it happens any time so we are working with stakeholders and other partners to prepare for any outbreak that pose uh harm to the resident of
Klay County so we are working with uh the county emergency manager the city of Mohare emergency manager to come up with plans and uh develop the hazard uh vulnerability assessment for this year
so we can identify new uh threats to Klay County and then uh even tomorrow we'll be hosting uh an EOC training for some stakeholders in the county and then uh we are working with uh diverse groups
like uh in Klay County we have people from diverse culture so we're able to establish this group of people that uh don't they are not proficient in English so we kind of like trained them about emergency preparness we even went to the
Mohare library where we kind of presented about emergency preparness as well and there were lots of people in attendance and then um we are also encouraging people to register for our vulnerable population
registry and uh we als posting it on our Facebook page and then uh kind of like just once we go to event we carry this information there encourage people people that have access and functional needs so they can register so in an
instant or emergency situation we can quickly respond to them and see how best we can be able to save our people so and then uh we are receiving uh alerts and health advisory from MDH
and distribute distributing them to our partners like hospitals clinics and schools and those health advisories are posted on bulletin boards and other precautionary measures are taken for our
community to be safe and then lastly we are continuing to prepare like we are preparing every day we are teaching our our our staff resident of Klay County to make a plan relocate and prepare for any
disaster that will occur especially public health related thank you yeah and then we also working with the long-term health healthcare group which we have maybe like every quarter and uh we kind of like doing it in a way now
that if we went to this healthc care facility they are there to host us and then uh do a tour of the facility and that has been very very encouraging with the long-term health group so we have visited even we have visited uh vacuum manners
and we have all of the other ones to visit so we just go there and they just tell us what they are doing they go through their emergency operations plan and if we have any suggestion or revision to do we just do it and try to make everybody prepared in Klay County
and Sylvanas is just the old sole person for emergency preparedness and we do have funding um that supports that program um through the state thank you thank you and we have
environmental health i don't know if Kent will come up here and present i think he might thank you good morning morning just uh some quick highlights like it what is in the pamphlet there we do have the food and beverage program for Clay Wilen and
Ottertale counties uh we have uh staff here and three in Ottertale that are overseen for inspections uh typical year depending on uh a lot of special events or not we hover around 900 to a,000 uh food licenses and I shouldn't say just
food food and establishments uh hotels campgrounds and so forth and mobile food licenses mobile food trucks are still huge and continuing to grow and just finished licensing up another one here this morning uh other than that with the septic
systems um pretty excited this year i haven't uh had another fully certified inspector since 2020 so I'm really looking forward to this year and uh being able to breathe a little bit and um have some support
there uh some of the other things uh demolition inspections we write the demolition permits for structures that are coming down um for those that may not know the Klay County Demolition Landfill is privately owned so that is not something that is a function of ours but in this position with writing the
demolition permits and doing the demolition inspections we're making sure that the correct materials are being evaded and removed from structures before they're coming down uh this year's been quite an uptick in those inspections with the Morheads uh center
mall projects the underpass Morehead High School um just got called back over to the uh Morehead Center Mall again here last week for some additional asbestous that was discovered so it's that's been taking up a good chunk of our time too uh and then in addition to
that uh with uh last addition there we do have our public health nuisances and inspections um and uh deal with those as they come up and and work with Kathy and uh try to work our way through those thank you Kent currently uh Kent is um
managing all of this he has a the variable hour um person with a septic license but we hope to get more staff for Kent so he doesn't have to uh like work 24 hours a day so
thank you thank you K um last but not least is our detox withdrawal management program good morning Mr chair and commissioners um we'll go through real quick we have
uh two licenses through uh DHS one would be for a uh detox license that's so we can basically serve uh North Dakota clients and then we also have our withdrawal management license um which
is 245F which um is for all of Minnesota clients um we also have a license through MDH for a supervised living uh license um currently we are a 32 bed
unit um we provide services 24 hours a day seven days a week uh we're staffed by RNs LPNs techs uh licensed alcohol and drug counselors and a peer purse support specialist our total staff uh right now
we have one RN supervisor two lead RNs nine RNs six LA licensed alcohol and drug counselors 16 LPNs um one peer support specialists and 29
technicians and to the right of the numbers I just gave you um we do have a lot of variable hour employees out of most of them um for instance our technicians we have eight full-time but we have 21 are variable hour um to to
help out um I'm sure you're interested in how things have been going in January we had 145 client admissions for 439 billable days february was 152 for
485 and March um spiked to 214 admissions for 538 billable days so as um the longer we're open the the more our beds are being filled uh last week we did hit 30
clients um for the day so um that was kind of exciting um all the a lot of these clients come from different areas minnesota we had um 54 clients come from them klay County we
had 142 clients we had nine clients from the VA and Southeast Human Services had 306 clients stay with us yes sorry Mr mayor southwest human services where what that is um so Southeast Human
Services is is I believe Kathy the DHS um program in North Dakota so yeah they pay they pay for all North Dakota clients who come to us for services yeah and then they have case managers and
they they work with us with is that a um that's it's higher than it's been since we've opened um I think Southeast has used us more than than Well and that's partly because of the increased
capacity correct correct so um is it normal that's probably going to be normal i would I would guess so uh we do a lot of client education um you know we're always talking to the
clients about substance use disorder the effects of alcohol and other drugs on them how it affects unborn children you know signs and symptoms of fetal alcohol we um help them get assistance for substance use disorder um HIV AIDS
hepatitis uh if somebody's interested in in quitting smoking we'll work with them there we work with the clients on opioid tolerance and overdose risks talk about a lot of Narcan and we are always talking to them about barbituates
bzzoazipines and then our LAC's see a lot of clients for individual counseling for you know um you know it might be the worst day of their life that they're there that day and they're having troubles a lot of our uh our two LAC's that are full-time can
sit down with these clients reassure them a peer support specialist can talk to them about treatment options things like that any questions yes Commissioner when it comes to the detox center you said you last week we
were at the 30 30 beds out of the 32 do we save a few beds for Klay County residents just to make sure they if they come they have a place to go we we haven't you haven't gotten to that limit yet gotten to that part yet you know our our numbers we could have 30 um this
morning and by tomorrow we could have 20 yeah okay you know it it goes up and down very very quickly so if we would need a bed for Klay County um we would look at is there somebody to discharge that we could discharge right at that
moment and accept a new client thank you all right any other questions yes one Mr chair one just additional comment um in regards to some funding um we had some um funding that
came through the community health board it was our COVID funding i did let the the chair of our CHB know about that it was um suspended that was just a month ago so no longer spending it um but then
just yesterday no uh Friday we got a um there's been a um temporary restraining order so that funding is now back available to to us the CO funds so the um we have we have CO funds that was for vaccine we had CO funds for
implementation none of which supported a position but just the work so now the restraining order restores um 11 billion back to uh um public health funding it's across the nation um but we were able to accept that now will that be for a week
or two weeks or 3 weeks again it doesn't support a position but allows us maybe even a week to buy some more um supplies that we may need um for our clinic so um we have accepted that again knowing full
well that that can be suspended again one thing I did forget to mention is is um to bring to you guys to to thank you for this facility i've had numerous numerous clients we've out of our numbers we're seeing a lot of new
clients but a lot of our regulars that have come to us are so impressed with the building and so appreciative of of the support that we've gotten from you guys to build this center and give them a a good place to go so I appreciate that that's great hopefully we can do
something for them so they don't become regular visitors we're working on it yep all right um well thank you and I I want to apologize for being having you be late it's I should have used my gut feeling when I saw this agenda come out
with uh that big item this morning that I knew was going to take longer than a half hour or so it's okay and when we have a room full of people who want to talk we we're here to listen and need to so So our apologies for that so but thank you for your update
all right you want to hire somebody like that yeah that'd be great we um we recently had one of our full-time RNs decide to go variable hour so we would be asking this board to approve uh hiring for an RN
position to replace her all right you're looking for and that obviously it's a budgeted item correct yeah i'll make the motion to advertise and hire a full-time registered nurse for the withdrawal management detox
facility second we have a motion by Commissioner Krabanov second by Commissioner Abiger any further discussion one question yes how many do you have that are supposed to be full-time budgeted for for RNs I believe
we have four full-time budgeted and this will bring you back up to four how many variable hour do you have budgeted um we have right now five on the list um of variable hour RNs I believe
and this is that one going down to variable hours still five uh it would increase that to six i believe that's where we're at for members yes that's correct we have five and increase to six and then does that
do they work less hours than if they're six compared to five that'd be correct y that's all I share yeah because the the the budget you have a variable hour line item on there and and you still go by that um approved budget dollar amount
and they they can be more flexible when they have more variable hour nurses available correct all right uh anything else oh we have Okay so um I guess we need to all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I oppose the same
motion carried very good thank Thank you thank you all right we're back to our uh committee reports uh Commissioner Motion thank you Mr chair last week I am pretty sure I had a meeting every single day
last week in regards to the flood mitigation uh capital investment request discussing conversations with Governor Walls and staff discussing strategy and how we move forward uh so we had I had that meeting on Tuesday after board i also attended
the planning commission meeting that had several uh hearings uh one for gravel IUP there's a conditional use permit and then a uh a resoning request that will come forward to this board we did discuss uh the ordinance uh memo all of
which we've discussed the land development ordinances um uh quite well and had great public input on that uh Wednesday I was not able to I had a doctor's appointment not able to attend the governor walls update uh in regards
to the flood mitigation so I appreciate uh Steve and I thank Commissioner Ebinger for attending that also had the opportunity to visit with Governor Walls Senator Coop Senator Murphy at the uh Dworth fireh hall opening had a a great
opportunity to walk through that what a vital resource to public safety that will be for Klay County so an exciting day for Dworth appreciate uh the legislative efforts in regards to bonding that allows projects like that to move forward uh and talked to the governor
about the importance of that option moving forward for all of us i then attended the town hall with uh members of the uh greater or not greater um the uh chamber of commerce and then uh reward John Reer from Even Tide
particularly to bring up the federal changes and how that will affect a lot of us going forward uh discussed the shifts uh from the proposed bodies for uh counties as well on the 17th had the
opportunity to host as I noted uh Senator Murphy Senator Coopac uh Senate staff Representative Keeler and Representative Frederick on the uh non-secure facility that I talked about earlier uh just an exciting opportunity to highlight some of the really great
work that our staff does that afternoon I also attended the uh Metrocog Policy Board meeting a very long meeting in regards to um the plans going forward how we implement the plans how we deal with public comment if
we have uh continued opportunities for public comment and then we address the items of public comment the uh North Dakota DOT and federal highway seem to uh think that we then need to have another public comment opportunity and at some point uh when you've done the
plan for almost 9 months uh when is the end and so I really appreciate staff's ability and flexibility to work with that uh that u component friday I attended the AMC board of directors meeting uh certainly
a lot to digest as we we talked about with Quinn we've talked about around all of our different tables about how the legislative work is moving forward and how it affects all of us uh talked a little bit about strategy reaching out to legislators so I appreciate your um
willingness to send a letter of support i then had a meeting check-in as I referenced earlier with the city of Morehead and the chamber really on legislative strategy um if anyone has a magic bullet option solution let me know
and we'll work to get that done uh we just had a really great uh meeting afterwards uh in regards to the PRTF non-secure plan discussion uh kind of recaped the visit how we triage moving
forward yesterday I attended the um update from AMC on all of the great work going on at the Capitol and and having all of the different policy analysts present was really helpful uh
that concludes my board meetings i just want to highlight that tonight is the pollinator pint night there's opportunities to work with University of Minnesota extension uh pollinator habitat pieces you've got the soil and water conservation district lots of great options uh and then I just want to
clarify uh last week when we had the discussion in regards to the tobacco ordinance and vaping uh in the majority of the news coverage it um referenced that I proposed the idea and I just think it's really important for clarity that um that came out of a committee uh
the committee that I did not serve on commissioners Evinger and Kravangh served with public health in that that um committee specifically and they're the ones that worked through uh the proposal and so I just uh want to make sure I give credit where credit was due i was not on that committee so uh that
concludes my reports thank you Commissioner Bear i had no committee reports last week so I'll make it quick want to move us along all right i had um on Tuesday April 15th I had the personnel issues committee the only
thing we had on there was the request from Regional Juvenile Detention for the nurse and we acted on that today um on Thursday the 11th we had the uh West Central Regional Juvenile Center
meeting and really uh we had some um basically the updates were how we are with the on the two-year trending uh Klay County right now is um trending fairly pretty much the same in terms of
the percentages so uh we don't look to have a significant change in our uh percentage of the o overall operation we did um James' numbers do show that we're
probably uh going to be when you include the previous year's revenues over expenditures carried forward we're probably looking at about $1.2 million in revenues over expenditures again which will hopefully allow us to
maintain a a stable bed rate for all of our members uh so that's a real positive thing moving forward and that gives credit to James and all of his team over there and what they're doing so um it's one of the areas where um we're we're
really maintaining a positive and uh that's all giving credit to the programming that's provided uh that on that same day then I did travel to Fergus Falls for the Lakes Country Service Cooperative uh meeting which I um there's there was
some policy amendments and personal committee recommendations based on their their years u fiscal year in July one and so they were going through their cost of living the recommendations and all those
types of things and so that's that was all done um our director there spent some time in Singapore and and in South Korea and gave us a report on that and it was very
interesting what Jeremy had to say about that and with that I believe that concludes my report steve you don't have anything do you not too much okay uh thank you Mr chair uh last week participated in the pick uh meeting that's been well addressed uh also
participated on the 16th uh uh with the the governor's meeting in regards to additional funding for flood mitigation appreciate uh the willingness of everyone to be there uh participated uh in the Dworth the fire hall ribbon
cutting again has been mentioned but an amazing uh addition to the county um great work on the all the city and elected officials there um particip met with Joe that afternoon and with at the building committee meeting tomorrow and talking about some of the agenda items
and other things happening on campus on Friday participating in the uh West Central on non-secured attention PRTF discussion uh or excuse me meeting with uh with Senator Majority Leader Aaron Murphy and and Representative Fredericks along with our local rep local local rep
and senators again a great great piece as Commissioner Mojo said if you haven't had the opportunity empty uh you know I think that if you recall last year this board pivoted several times as far as legislative asked for the PRTF uh full funding and 10 million pivoted at the
end to to look at the a million dollars for uh to remodel our non-skear or excuse our excuse me our existing um existing detox facility uh you would hardly recognize it going there u this board supported that by providing
$200,000 uh the the amount of sweat equity that's gone into that facility by the staff uh is is unbelievable as I mentioned the only hope that is is that the the guy the gentlemen that are in their or in the program never get to see the girls side because they won't be
very happy uh because it is it's a great great work a testament to this board and and the efforts of the staff um met with Corey Bang on a series of solid waste issues also met with Troy uh here at the detox detox facility uh multiple flood
mitigation check-ins as was addressed on Friday participated uh in the non-scared detention PRTF uh dis roundup discussion i met with Justin justin was at the national conference last week so filled him in on series of the discussions we
had with flood mitigation also met with Anna uh yesterday I met with Darren on uh some of the budget issues that we shot talked about today also met with Brandon Lunick and Dan Molly uh just kind of looking at different ways that we could work collaboratively uh with the legislature uh again we kind of
brought forward the IGR uh as far as uh you know that being a platform to to work forward maybe towards the next legislative session yesterday afternoon met with uh with um Matt Jacobson um and Darren and and Brian in regards to
cannabis registration and Kathy uh in looking at uh that'll be before the board next week in dealing with the registration portion responsibility of the county when it comes to cannabis and then met with Mr melton on a series of issues also lastly met with Daniel Marx
Chuck Whiting whole county administrator Steven Slick from A2S and and Lucas Faith our West Central Regional Water District Chair uh on anou uh that's going to be discussed between at the next board meeting and with that that
concludes my report ryan Durren thank you Mr chair um Tuesday the 4h15 I was also at the pick committee um had a discussion with uh Anna on some personnel issues went to the board of
adjustment and planning commission we had the three issues that went on there uh I'm sure they will be coming to the board as well a continuation on a gravel mine in Goose Prairie Township um a applicant uh seeking a permit for a
question center and an applicant petitioning for reszoning of property in Barnesville for um agricultural to commercial due to his expansion of his woodworking operations so that was kind of interesting i don't really always kind of like to sit in on those and get
educated on that stuff um on Wednesday I continued work on the 2026 payroll estimate worked on a data request from Open the Books organization which we get every year so that's not too difficult had a meeting with Kimberly referenced some suggested
adjustments to our fee schedule she'll be bringing that to the board as well um continued some work on the county code with Brian Mark and and Matt Jacobson on Thursday I had a MC meeting with our HR payroll as those are monthly meetings on
Friday I met with Anna on a personnel issue and also finished the 2026 payroll estimate on Monday um I listened in on the AMC legislation legislative update um had discussions with Steve on the
2026 budget um after that I picked up Steve off the floor we had a little CPR and I think he's back to normal now but um discussion with uh public health and uh I was in with the cannabis application uh meeting as well with Matt
Steve and and uh Brian and yesterday had a very long discussion with Anna and Brian Melton and Josh Hegum on a a kind of a delicate personal issue that we're going through right now so that was it thank you sarah do you have anything for
us all right we're good