--------- all right good morning everybody it's 8:30 we'll call this morning's meeting of the click County Board of Commissioners to order for Tuesday March 4th and the first item of a business is the approval of the agenda so move second have a motion in a second any
further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried and just before we do our employee recognitions I just want to point out that Commissioners Mojo and karhoff this morning are on their way to
St Paul on behalf of Klay County dealing with um some legislative priority issues down there so with that we got an employee recognition this morning 25 years and this is in grateful
recognition for your 25 years congratulations all right Quinn I've got some words to say absolutely all right so for the past 5 years Kon has uh LED our adult and Behavioral Health division with a remarkable blend of
wisdom strength humor and compassion uh but before she became a supervisor she was already a trusted expert in civil commitments and adult mental health she built her career on a deep understanding of the complexities of this field always ensuring that our most vulnerable residents receive the care and support they need her leadership has
strengthened our department her expertise has helped shape policies and practices and her fantastic sense of humor makes even the most challenging days a little easier curen your hard work and commitment to Clay County Social Services have made a huge difference in countless lives I am grateful for everything that you do and
we're so lucky to have you leading the team so thank you and [Applause] congratulations 25 more 25 more that's one thing we have in uh Klay county is a longevity and some of our
good uh good leaders through Clay County and Kirsten is certainly one of them so all right we'll move on then to citizens to be heard do we have any ciens to be heard nothing online nothing Mr chair thank you all right we will then move
into the approval of bills and vouchers move for approval second we have a motion in a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried approval of minutes
from February 18th I'll make that motion second thank you we have a motion a second any further discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion
carried all right next we have um Kathy McCay oh no oh both Kathy and I oh okay on the first one okay yeah I think yeah we we we'll do the uh we'll do the program coordinator one
first here so good morning Kath good morning Mr chair and Commissioners this is a request we have position um that's going to be vacated at the end of this month and it is with our child and teen checkup
program the the challenge is as you know our Community Health Board um will be we're in the process of um um changes there so uh two of the counties will be moving on to another uh
to their own chb so we'll have two chbs two counties in our current chb instead of four so I'm not sure on some of these programs what the impact will be but we certainly need someone in place um at this
time um to replace this individual to keep the program going so she covers the four counties currently and will through the end of the year um there's a potential for internal um but I'd like the opportunity to at least um post it
and and keep that going for this year and then we'll determine what the needs are for 2026 so the structure Remains the Same for 2025 correct the four counties and then in 2026 it'll be Becker and Clay
Becker and Clay will remain in our chb Otter Tail and wilin will be doing another chb okay and you'll be able to give us a better breakdown of how that fund in mechanism may may fall in line then is that you know we're going to be
working with mdh we haven't determined be working probably through May to hopefully get a better picture on how the funding stream will be um I don't anticipate um that there will be
significant impact um as long as there are two counties in each chb we get the additional um multicounty um amount um and so and then we'll be covering only two counties so it's hard to know right now um we're going to be
meeting this week um and then we'll be meeting with mdh um in the near future as well to try to break down all of the funding sources we have and how that might look I would assume that by the time you are ready to present your 2026
budget you will have know that information that's our hope that's what all of the counties would like to know as well um where we will land um how that will look so that's our goal so we'll see how how we can attain that by
that time and Kathy you mentioned that you might be able to hire this position from within so are you looking for backfill well yep yes um Mr chair probably backfill um the other option um that I'm
exploring is um a potential for Becker County to take the lead on this position but I'm not sure where that's going to land if they have the capacity we're working with Becker County right now on that so it could be internal could be um
external or maybe that Becker County the ideal would be if the Becker County person can take the lead so I I just don't know I can't predict how that will land right now in the meantime you know maybe that Becker County can do the interim but to have all options there in
case we need to um hire out M sh yes this is kind of a moving Target right now I'm shairing the Public Health Board this year um there are some unknowns to it but we have good staff on
it uh we have a timeline that's been established so I think we'll know I think certainly by time the planned budget there there should be clarification on everything you know in absence of the possibility it's hover
hovering over everyone right now that there'll be cuts to the point that uh we're going to have to go we're gon to have to punt and figure things out of federal funds we don't know where that's going to go yet but this is I think U
this is a good plan to have one of the options that's going to emerge here in the next what month or two when these things need to get get addressed to to at least have somebody in mind that you're going to be able to move into that position so I would recommend that
we hire the program coordinator for this position and backfill make a motion we have a motion I'll second that we have Motion in the second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same
sign motion carried thank you Kathy the next thank you we have an update on the May on influenza presentation and we're going to find out why eggs are so expensive this [Laughter] morning I'm just excited to not be
asking for a declaration for a flood emergency knock on wood now Gabe right what did you say that out loud for yeah you want to start with kind of what you information you sure and then you can jump in and correct me I can fill you guys in
on thank you okay so we have the the current situation with h5n1 or sometimes just called H5 which is the bird flu um and as you may be fully aware um it's causing outbreaks in uh poultry us dairy
cows and then there's been some human cases um with those working um in that area the risk to the population um to public health risk is low so that's always a concern is this going to be
personto person spread right now you know CDC is monitoring carefully watching everything but um so far it has not um been a personto person spread if that happens that would be um another uh
pandemic so to speak speak so we're hoping that that isn't the case um so they're using their flu surveillance systems to monitor this um the activity uh this just shows how how it's spreading so wild birds to poultry to
cows and then those that have um acquired uh this influenza the humans and then and the cat thing is just you know if they're eating some carcasses or um birds that may be contaminated is potenti essentially how how it's been um
cats have been exposed um there's the exposure um cases so you can see that there's the dairy herds poultry Farms calling operations other animal exposure and exposure Source that's unknown again the public health risk is low cases in
the US 70 cases one death um at this point in time person to personto person spread um has not been the case at all um so that's where we're at um and then there's just a number of detections in
animals so um what they've detected so far and you can see the large numbers in wild birds and the poultry that's affected hence why we have an egg shortage and high priced eggs right yeah so like Kathy Cathy's information showed
there's been 70 um human um infections throughout the country none of those have been in Minnesota and I think the one death was in Louisiana yes I believe um and again that's all been either people that have been exposed by working in either a poultry barn or a um you
know dairy cattle herd but I just wanted to touch real quick on we're probably not going to answer your question as to why uh eggs are so expensive other than across the country um there's been uh large flocks of of uh laying hens that have been called due to this but in
Minnesota the approach um as far as monitoring and information sharing um there's three departments at the state level anyway that um gather information and um share information with each other and then and then put that out but uh in Minnesota it is the
uh Board of animal health really monitors um the situation with livestock and poultry and then there's uh mdh obviously that that monitors if there's any um human human infection and then the Department of Natural Resources really takes to lead on any reports of
uh cases in in wild wild birds and also wild animals there was back in uh kind of when this most recent outbreak started in 2022 there was some reports of uh Fox that tested positive um so that's really in in the states that's where I guess Kathy and I get our
information and if we have any information or if people contact us that's where we're directing them um to you know report like if you uh were to notice um you know wild birds that you may suspect or infected um there's a hotline to report that to the Department
of Natural Resources and they may send a conservation out to collect some of those animals and then have them tested um in Minnesota I just pulled up um kind of the most some of the most recent information as far as um Dairy and then
poultry um sites that have uh had uh outbreaks and uh the most recent as far as poultry in Minnesota there was one that was reported on Fe February 12th and that was a um non-commercial flock so more of a backyard flock that was in
Crowing County um the really two most recent larger ones uh were in wadina County which was a commercial uh Turkey um flock and they called 275,000 birds in that one and then the other one prior to that that was in uh towards the end
of January um and then the other one most recent was in Dakota County again turkeys and that was 79 000 so I that that's you know Minnesota is the largest turkey producing state in the country and uh back in 2022 when this most
recent um I guess epidemic occurred candyi County which is I think the largest turkey producing county in the state um was really the epicenter so that's um Minnesota um just obviously turkey prices anyway on on turkey meat and
stuff uh really really were affected by this now this most recent uh the the increase in egg prices um I didn't see anything real recent in Minnesota as far as um you know laying hens uh or flocks that were affected but I think
throughout the country um that's that has uh not been the case but uh in Clay County uh since this 2022 outbreak I so I get notified if there's something in in Clay County um the the board of animal health reaches out to me and just
lets me know that there's been either a flock or a backyard flock that's been infected they do not give me the um the address or the name of the person they will give an area they they have what's called a control zone so I will see kind of the general area it's in um and we've only had two that have been reported at
least that they've notified me of since 20232 and both of those were backyard flocks um and the first one which would have been in 2022 um uh there was 24 Birds affected
and uh and then in in 2024 there was another one with 77 birds so I know previously back and I believe it was in 2013 or so when uh H1N1 first kind of made its uh its run across the country and we did have some commercial um
flocks that were affected in Clay County but so far I haven't received a report on any in this kind of more recent um run of them um and when when I was notified by by the board of animal health they had already um depopulated
those birds I'm not sure on these smaller flocks if they actually went in or they just had the flock owner depopulate the birds um one other thing that I was asked to do for the board of animal health kind of when this more recent um infection came or this this more recent strain was making its rounds
was um collect information and provide them with information on large sources of potable water um when they do a depopulation in a large uh a large flock um they use a a large amount of water so I compiled a list basically mainly it was uh uh fire departments and then City
Municipal Water suppli so they had contact numbers or for you know if they needed something after hours weekends to get those amounts of water so that's really been kind of my role anyway in Clay County there hasn't been a lot of activity in Clay County um interestingly
enough um just again to share some numbers with you Minnesota has the second highest number out of all the states of um Birds that have been affected and Minnesota's number is 9 milon UM 120,000 the the number one
state is California with 23 million um and just to kind of show you the probably the size difference on Commercial flocks the sizes California so in Minnesota um there was 100 there's been 141 commercial flocks and 44 backyard flocks and that total number is
you know 9 million um but in California they're are 23 million but only 105 commercial flocks that just goes to show you how much big their commercial operations must be than than Minnesota but I guess that's that's what I have there is a um a uh Minnesota has a uh
Aven influenza hotline um it's kind of a one One-Stop shop so if you're reporting for wild wild birds um same number they'll they'll put you through the Department of Natural Resources or if it would be a commercial flock or a dairy herd um um same number and and uh that
is on um the us or I'm sorry on the board of animal health websites uh mdh and Minnesota DNR they would have the same number and then I guess the only other thing is uh as far as transfer into Livestock in Minnesota um there has
been some some confirmed cases in Dairy herds again none of those in um Clay County we don't have a a large Dairy um I guess a large amount of dairy farms commercial dairy farms in Clay County but the most recent Rec ones on those
have been actually most of them were in Benton County Minnesota there has been there was a herd of uh goats um that was affected in in Stevens County um but most of that most of the cases have been Benton County and then down in West Central and Southwest Minnesota candy
County Lincoln County Sibly County so that's what I have any questions for us I guess so Mr chair and Commissioners uh just to be clear and for the general public um we get questions is it safe to eat eggs if you can buy eggs is it safe to eat them um yes the USDA said um if
they're cooked appropriately so I would say for those that like the runny yolk maybe that's a little undercooked during this time but no it's safety eat eggs cook them appropriately there is no um transfer of the virus is it safety poultry that's another question um and
of course they recommend to cook it to the um to the recommended temperature of 165 um to elim elate any potential virus um so and then handling raw poultry of course all the all the things that you need to do to manage that and then milk
comes up is it safe to drink milk because of the dairy um cows that are affected and yes the pasteurization drinking raw milk may not be um advisable but um as long as that's pasteurized milk um that pasteurization
is actually um killing the virus so that is all safe commissioner ebinger y just um it was just yesterday I got warned someone who has another bird dog and I've got a bird dog um told me that her vet advised
her that if there's any dead birds that her dog will and they'll they'll head for them y uh to avoid letting them get a hold of a dead bird and that's something I think people dog owners should be aware of the other thing is if
you see a dead bird we've got the hot line right yeah yeah but they do give some advice if you go on the DNR website they they talk about you know one bir Bird versus maybe five five Birds I think the recommendation was you know if you see a couple or if they're acting strange there's again some kind of
criteria on if you see you know especially waterfalls pretty common like if if they're kind of swimming around and nonsensical and and not flying when they normally would and stuff that would maybe be a sign and she had been to her Lake place and I'm not sure where that was but there have been 10 dead Ducks
found in the area and uh they they the sheriff there put an alert out to everybody to keep your dogs off of the the water foul y thanks yeah thank you does that virus impact all species
of birds uh yes it does it's been found in all it's it's sounds like it's most common in waterfall and I don't know if that's just because of their more of a flock um flock type bird but it has been found in in other other types of birds I
was thinking of our bald eagles y Raptor no and there is reports of uh Raptors and stuff that have been um and probably you know a lot of times maybe those those birds aren't getting tested because if they die it tends to be one so you know it's not raising those alarms that maybe if you see a flock of
you know 30 dead ducks or all right any other questions thank you for your presentation thank you all right next we have our annual up Department update with the sheriff's
office thank you thanks we have the sheriff empting we have deputy chief Martin Gabe and Carrie from Corrections good morning to all of you good morning Mr chair Commissioners thanks for having
us here this morning we'll get this set up ready to go all right here we are well thanks for having us we'll get started off with our 2025 board update here um first of all we'll start off with our mission statement this is the mission statement of the Clay County
Sheriff's Office we are to enforce laws of the United States uh the state of Minnesota and all local ordinance further it's our mission to enforce the law with impartiality and courtesy and respect to the constitutional rights of all people further it's our mission to provide services to the citizens of Klay County that will enhance their quality
of life I don't know if the board's ever seen our mission statement before but I figured this would be a good time to provide that to you relatively long mission statement it should be shortened up maybe a little bit and that's something we might work on here in the future just go through some division overviews our administrative division
consists of myself um I also serve on the legislative committee for the Minnesota sheriff's Association and I was uh recently selected to be the V fourth vice president of the sheriff's Association we have Chief Deputy Chris Martin and he um overse sees all of our
administrative staff along with our community service officer Jay seil that was a new position this year and Jay has been uh absolutely great for us and we do appreciate the board support in allowing us to hire Jay he has been just a great asset for us very happy to have
him and we also have our records division with officer manager Heather crony uh overseeing our Associates uh along with the jail associate as well and last year we also started our chaplain program with chaplain John bador and David juvie um this is to
enhance our Deputy Wellness they have been uh good um good addition to our Sheriff's Office as well we're happy to have them on on board we have our Operations Division which is overseen by Lieutenant Josh schroer the Operations Division consists
of Patrol and investigations we currently have uh 12 Patrol deputies we have uh four Patrol sergeants and then two SRO we have one SRO at dgf and one in ul and hit
doall um our division here for investigations and Patrol we do stay relatively um slim sometimes on on shift and investigations um this is due to FMLA retirements and some un and unexpected
resonation um also when you factor in vacation SI time comp time and training things like that we are running at minimums quite often on the patrol side and we're running rather short sometimes in investigations for example for the remainder of this week we will be down
two investigators for FMLA and the remainder of the month we will be down um one because of FMLA and then towards the end of the month we're going to lose one for um for military deployment so out of our five investigators will be down one for the remainder uh of the
year we have our Support Services Division which is overseen by Lieutenant Chad Hagen Support Services consists of warrant and trans transports civil process and Courthouse we have three transport deputies two civil process deputies and we have three full-time uh
court security deputies along with Sergeant Nicole Reno we also have five roster court security deputies and um Lieutenant Hagen did inform me that it is getting a little harder to find some variable hour folks for that s are part-time people it's getting a little
harder to find people willing to do that for variable hour We're very fortunate that we have five right now we hope to maintain that moving forward and of course we have our Emergency Management division by it's overseen by lieutenant tweeton and then he also has an assistant emergency
manager with Sergeant niino like add to that or we're not we're not there yet okay we're coming up to that we'll fast forward uh Corrections division we have a jail administrator Carrie toon and we
also have her assistant by Cody Benson and her administrative Sergeant Jessica Knight we have four SI shift sergeants along with 45 full-time correctional officers that includes four corporals in there as well we try and work our shifts in the jail to where we have at least
one sergeant and or Corporal on WE to have that supervisor oversight within the facility so we like to have at least one uh Sergeant or Corporal on ideally having them both on would be be great but with vacation sick time and everything like that some sometimes that doesn't
happen we also have nine roster correctional officers and we will go with our Operations Division overview so we ended our year with uh 31,1 76 incidents and
that was up from 2023 uh 2023 we're at 2,186 uh this also does not include the number of calls for service that we took while covering Morehead shifts um I looked at our numbers today we are um lower uh today than we were at this time
last year by about 1,600 so I don't know why we are lower other than there's a little bit less self-initiated activity in there and it has been relatively quiet over the past few few months for calls for service I don't know if it's just kind of the winter doldrums or what have you um it's also been a slower year
for weatherwise and usually if we have a busy weather year that increases our calls for service with crashes vehicles in the ditch and things of that nature so that would uh play into why we are a little bit lower on calls for service right now um as you can see here we have our
three K9s they had two criminal apprehensions and what a criminal apprehension is is that is when the um the dog physically apprehends a flee subject we had 21 nonphysical criminal apprehensions and what that is is if the K9 Handler makes an announcement
basically saying um give yourself up or we will send the dog and you will be bit the those people then give themselves up so that is what a non-physical criminal apprehension is it's six area searches six building searches 45 vehicle searches six package sniffs 13 tracks
and eight public demonstrations so our K9 teams were relatively busy uh throughout 2024 our handlers also spend a considerable amount of time training uh their dogs they have to train a minimum of 16 hours um per month to maintain
their certification we also received as you're aware many donations in 2024 from various different organizations throughout Clay County we're very uh fortunate for their support and uh we're very honored that they continue to support us and as
you're aware we received a $40,000 Anonymous donation from someone and to this day I still don't know who that person is and I get people asking me and I still don't know who it is so we are very grateful for that donation to our canine program
and we've had four deputies assigned to our Red River Valley SWAT team uh this made up of our Tactical Team our bomb team and our crisis negotiations team the Tactical Team responded to 31 call outs in 2024 the bomb team had 54 call
outs in negotiations had 24 call outs and they do train quite a bit throughout the year they are constantly training it seems like um to hone their skills and do great work Operations Division as well removed the following illegal drugs from our
streets 108 pounds of marijuana 14 pounds of methamphetamine 837 counterfeit pills and 40 or 4.5 pounds of cocaine we took 17 Firearms off the street and seized
$152,000 in cash and then 20 total monetary value of the drug seizures to date is approximately $349,000 our Patrol ities did add an additional 12 gram of marijuana 1.1 G of
fentanyl 450 m30 pills and 23 Gams of meth and 14 Firearms all taken from the patrol deputies so it's it's good work by them along with some miscellaneous pills and pharmaceuticals we have pill drop boxes throughout Clay County we have one in
Ulan one Dilworth one in Barnesville and um also in Glendon and that was 132 pounds of pharmaceuticals that were taken from those boxes throughout the year as well also the Operations Division they investigated a total of 427 cases um
that's down a little bit from 2023 at 462 in 23 and there was just a number of cases that were included as us being primary or assisting uh throughout Minnesota North Dakota and well beyond um I know that uh our um one of our
narcotics investigators he made multiple trips to uh Arizona Iona and California investigating some of the federal cases that he was assigned to so they he is going kind of everywhere to investigate these drug cases and the cases are there as jail background serious assaults
juvenile sex assaults uh elder abuse cases and everything in between um we also um assist our other partners you know specifically Morehead with some of their larger homicide cases and things like that so we are more than willing to assist all of our partners within Clay
County and our regional area here uh the street crimes they were busy in 2024 that should say 24 not 23 um they kept uh some very violent offenders off the street we had 83 assists for other agencies 69 warrant
arrests five Firearms were seized and 20 gang arrests so they did stay busy in uh 2024 as well on January 29th 2025 we did an award ceremony for some of our staff um we recognized Sergeant Darren bredman
and Deputy Brandon desel with lifesaving awards for CPR that they um performed on an individual who claps in a bus barn just south of town um by the time they uh had the person in the ambulance the person had regained Consciousness and was talking to them uh then we
recognized Deputy Tyler Bulma Deputy Jason lean was lifes saving Awards they performed CPR and an individual that had fell off a ladder and hit his head at a uh residence in rural Glendon and um that individual um stayed um
stayed with us for another few months and then ultimately ended up passing uh family did um did come to the awards ceremony and assisted in presenting life saving Awards to to Deputy Bowman and uh and Deputy lean also the subject of uh
sergeant bredman and Sergeant or and Deputy desels incident uh did come to our life saving award and helped present the award to them as well uh we recognize Deputy Zach Johnson as well for with the life saving award
he performed CPR and a young child and was able to bring that child back U by the time ambulance arrived and this was uh at an area down by rural rural rustad and lastly we recognized Deputy Zach Johnson Deputy Brandon desel with commendable Service Awards and this is
for their work uh on September 17th with a runaway vehicle incident that had come through Clay County along County Road 20 6 uh in through hit all at 113 M hour um the two of them working with Trooper Grover um came up with a great plan and
they were able to get that car stopped successfully with no injury to anyone so that was that was some great work by them and as you can see from that picture it looks like I might be standing in a hole because everybody's a little bit taller than me we got to get the floor checked over
there I think then these are the deputies that we hired here in 2024 we had Deputy Matt Lambert C sarin ma Schultz Brandon Heidi and then our CSO J sibles all of them have been great additions to the Sheriff's Office we're all very happy to have them as part of the Sheriff's
Office Team and family our Support Services Support Services transported 545 individuals in 2024 as you can see 505 were prisoners and four commitments they logged a total of
61,2 24 miles this was slightly lower than 23 but you can see there is why it was slightly lower we have the Northwest shuttle that we work with the following counties up there with Dakota Sherburn Scott and and St Louis County so they're able to save
a lot of miles for us and we're able to do the same for them um it's a a great relationship that we have with those counties and it works very well for us and for those other counties uh we also work with C County North Dakota as they handle all of our
North Dakota transports back and then we handle all of their uh transports back in in Minnesota here so it's a good tradeoff and it's a good working relationship that we have with the c County North Dakota Sheriff's Office as well we also had three flight of
transports in 2024 we had one um from San Francisco one from San Diego and one from Georgia and with those we have to send two deputies out they fly armed they pick the individual up and then they fly back with
them court security they were busy with 5,087 inperson hearings and we were informed that we were going to go back to um the level of imperson hearings prior to coed starting I believe we started already so there we're going to have a lot of in-person hearings so this
number could go up the Civil Division they completed 1848 services in 2024 as you can see we had 586 subpoenas 385 summons 165 notices 122 RIT of recovery and completed evictions 274
hr3 ofps and 69 order to show causes a lot of papers um, 1600 I'm sorry 1,698 were completed by our civil deputies and you can see 294 were served by Patrol 32 by warrant of
Transport seven by investigations three by the emergency manager 10 by operations lieutenant and one by the chief and one by myself so we'll jump in uh and assist wherever we need to and as you can see from there anybody's going to be able to serve a paper If somebody walks in the lobby it's who's ever
available to serve that paper will'll do it we also had the Western Minnesota steam Threshers reunion we logged about 60 incidents uh ranging from Medicals to parking complaints camping complaints and lost children uh they were also very busy directing traffic into the grounds on both Saturday and Sunday in the next
uh thing I'm going to show here was this was an email that was sent from one of our uh first responder Partners um that we work with very closely out in rollog and as you can see there she replied there another great day at rollog your deputies were once again kind respectful and so very helpful there were many
times they went above and beyond to make a tough moment in someone's life a little bit better and I want you to know that does not go unnoticed like I said that's one of our first responder partners that took the time to send that to me and I very much appreciated that they wanted to share that with with you this
morning with that we also have the records division and they uh were entering civil papers processing permit to purchase and carry applications dictating reports submitting crime stats they also transcribe a lot of our uh interviews uh throughout the
year they entered 2,190 warrants 1,891 civil papers 455 protection orders and for a combined and a combined total of 589 new and renewal permit to carry
applications were processed and they spent their time with many reports and statements transcribed from the deputies prior to going on to the Emergency Management division Let There yield to any questions if there are any yes um I was executive committee
chair on this batch um at our last meeting now sheriff joner took over executive committee chair and I uh took over as the uh operations the law enforcement operations shair it's it's still ongoing um what ends up happening is if they have open shifts
they send them to Lieutenant schroer and then Lieutenant schroer will send them out to our staff um as of lately we haven't had any um any opportunities to work because there hasn't been any open shifts our last shift that we worked was th Thursday night I believe it was
worked by Deputy Cochran the last uh report that I received from Carrie we had not received any inmates yet and I don't know if that has changed that has not their numbers have been quite low compared to what they had been in the past so we haven't seen
anybody well and we will hit a little bit on Revenue in uh in in the corrections division overview um as we do house for others we've housed for belamy County and Ottertail County so any further questions if not I'll
turn it over to Lieutenant tweeton all right now it's my turn all right so 2024 did see little in the way of of uh weather related disasters um we had record low low snowfall last winter and then really no major uh summer
storms that uh caused any wind damage or anything like that but we did see two very large uh Mutual Aid events that occurred in Clay County the first one being the Holly elevator fire which uh took place on February 25th of uh
2024 and uh Emergency Management assisted with the coordination resource management and emergency uh notification so we did uh we sent out a um notification to the citizens of Holly um and then just just talking about like the the coordination of that
we had 17 fire departments on scene two EMS agencies three law enforcement agencies our drone team uh Burlington Northern Santa Fe Holly Public Works and the Salvation Army so it was a it was a really big operation and if I could add to that um
our Dispatch Center was a big part of the Communications to that and the dispatcher that was working that night was nominated by um Amanda glasow for an award through the Minnesota sheriff's Association at our upcoming peap conference uh towards the end of March
here yeah we had I believe uh fire departments from not only Clay County but Norman Becker and Ottertail so that does you know on the dispatch end of it too there's a lot of uh meshing of different radio channels and things like that that need needs to happen on the on the back side of that
um so uh kind of going on on that the the photo on the left is uh a photo from our our drone uh during the Holly fire and you can see that that building in the kind of the upper right quadrant um that's the Holly Community Center um you notice the red on there that's uh the
thermal that's the heat signature on that building and just I just wanted to show this picture because I really demonstrates how valuable the information from the Drone can be because when we see that then we can can direct uh fire you know to put water in that cool that building down um hot
Embers uh there was a really strong wind out of the South that evening early on and it was bringing uh just huge hot Embers kind of over the residential area of Holly and again that drone was was so valuable to be able to uh see rooftops and and be able to direct resources that
way so it really was just proved itself uh invaluable on that and then uh um the photo on the top is uh after afterwards we had collected information and we had a an after Action Report where we went through and uh fire departments that
were present law enforcement at that scene were all brought together and they had the opportunity to talk about what went well what didn't go well what uh what needed to happen and based off of that um I compiled a a pretty comprehensive after Action Report which was sent back out to them and um so it
gives us and those agencies the opportunity to kind of um make make some changes and also uh you know hopefully going forward work together a little better um the second the second really large um Mutual Aid event we had was the
Teran pre-cast fire and that took place on October 2nd and although it wasn't quite as large as far as the mutual Aid we still had uh fire departments from uh Becker County Clay County Norman County and I believe we maybe had Pelican Rapids up there um we did request um
from Otter Tail County as well he actually had Parker's Prairie coming yeah yeah so again really really large large response on that and we were able to put a lot of uh what we had learned from the the Holly fire uh into practice there
um and so the picture on this one here um is a image from the Drone that was at the Teran pre-cast fire and again I just wanted to just show you how important that drone and valuable that Drone footage is and we were able to see the the hole in the in the roof of the building there and then also the fire
kind of running across the the roof membrane and to be able to see that real time uh and have the the fire fire departments you know direct streams where they need to be going and they can see you know from that that hey that stream of water is making it inside the building or isn't so it's just again
very very valuable uh our drone drone team was requested 10 times in 2024 two for fires uh four for missing persons three for suspect searches and one for a crime scene in in South Morehead uh
2024 Emergency Management training and and exercise highlights um we did co-host a Regional Crisis Intervention training um which was open to um First Responders from Klay County Becker County Ottertail and wilin County um Kirsten who was here earlier for the the
employee recognition was a big part of that it was uh funded through a grant um through that group that was held at Concordia College um and we did have really good response from um not only law enforcement but other First Responders throughout the region um the Sheriff's Office sergeant
and sergeants and myself we attended a wide area search training it seems like at least once or twice a year we uh somewhere out in Ro C count and we have a a missing person be it in a cornfield or something like that so um this this training was put on by by FEMA and
really uh really did a good job of um helping us to understand maybe how to direct those searches better and use our resources more more wisely um also Cole presented with the the Morehead em and the Morhead police department and active threat exercises
at MSU and Concordia College um so we talked about I went through a tabletop exercise with both of those College on um about an active threat on their campus uh attended two cyber security exercises planned and attended a regional EOC exercise which took place
in uh manomen and uh contained EMS and First Responders uh throughout the Northwest Minnesota and then uh 2024 planning and Outreach we participated in summer and winter weather awareness weeks as we do every year um work closely with the National Weather Service uh office out of Grand Forks to
to maintain our storm ready uh certification for Clay County attended C quarterly preparedness meetings with the fire chiefs Association EMS Association uh long-term care Association which uh um syvan is from public health and myself uh
co-chair and then corporate foster care Association um active with HSM Region 3 joint Powers board um I'm two years running now the the president of the joint Powers board for Northwest Minnesota and then amm which is the association of uh Minnesota emergency
managers uh active with with that and attend their conference um and then our County EOP this last year in 2024 went through re the regional Review Committee so they bring um Representatives kind of repr presenting different disciplines so
there'll be someone that comes in from EMS uh Public Works whatnot and we sit down and we go over the County Emergency Operations plan to make sure everything is up to dat and uh it's meeting all the requirements of the state and and FMA that is what I have any
questions thank you thank you Gabe you we will move on to the corrections division uh we currently have two full-time positions to fill I believe that's up to three now correct yep we've been trying to you know be fully staff since 2021 backfill we will get there it's it's a
constant process constantly uh interviewing and hiring but we will eventually get there uh after one year of body cams these were well received by our staff uh they've been very crucial for documentation of certain legal processes
and it's also helped us train uh new staff with scenarios that do occur within our facility um these have been a very good addition within our Correctional Facility and we're very uh fortunate for the support for these and thank you for that because I believe
that uh that's eventually going to save us um in the long run you know potential millions of dollars of a lawsuit so they're they're a very very good addition here's some stats for our uh our County Jail here we booked in 25 individuals and 20 20 2500 individuals
not 25 2500 uh currently have five individuals that are going through the mental health commandment process with the courts uh five of our 5% of our jail population uh could be uh considered mentally incompetent which is down from about 10%
last year and we did have one individual in custody for 452 days that was deemed uh mentally ill and dangerous we were we waited that long for a bed for this individual we finally was were able to find him a bed and get him out of our
facility on January 21st of this year um that is not acceptable in my my opinion that is a failure on the Department of Health um they have 48 hours to find a bed for somebody that puts a lot on counties it puts a lot on our jail staff
having to deal with somebody for 452 days it puts uh a lot of liability on our County as well in the event of something were to happen within our facility um I have been working with the state in regards to trying to find a better process with
this the sheriff's Association does have uh a representative on the 48 hour priority admissions task force to try and make this to where it is a lot quicker 452 days is probably one of the longer ones I know hanban county has one
or had one that was over 900 days and uh Hanahan County and Klay County are the examples that continue to be used at the state level as far as how this is unacceptable uh some revenue generated by our jail is approximately 182,000 for 2024 for housing Med medium and maximum
classification inmates for other jurisdictions uh doc inmates and federal inmates for trial purposes um and some of the counties we're assisting with that is uh Ottertail County and Becker County uh we also have a contract in
place to house forecast County North Dakota and like we had mentioned earlier we have not done that yet um We are continuing with the dream program within the facility it encompasses all of our programming that we have available to the offenders with the support of our volun teers and once again another
special shout out to our heart of clay we would not be able to do the amount of programming without them we're very fortunate to have um that organization being willing to come into our facilities so again thank you to the heart of clay for all the work they do throughout the year for not only uh the
inmates within our facility but also our staff as well and then the River project uh they recently hired Kimberly uh bluml uh we were without um the River project for some time due to uh unexpected
resignation um within that uh within Lakeland Mental Health um but we are very happy and excited to get back on a normal routine with this uh this program so uh Kimberly's there working she is full steam ahead and she's doing a good job for us over
there and lastly just a big thank you to the Clay County Commissioners and the County Administrator for your continued support to the Sheriff's Office throughout the year it's a team effort you're part of the the team and we truly appreciate uh the support you provide to us with that I would yield for any
questions uh commissioner e here yeah not a question just an observation I think Commissioners come in with a body of expertise in various areas Finance rural parts of the county we everybody brings something to the table
unfortunately my skill set involves criminal justice and uh that could be a real conflict except all I need to use my background towards is to validate that we've got a incredibly
professional uh organization sheriff and you can take responsibility for that that and your staff I've worked with a lot of your staff over the years and we have a we have a tremendous Correctional Facility we went to the voters and asked
them to pay a sales tax to get these things built with the promise that they would meet the needs of the county and that they would be uh exemplary I go to an AMC Public Safety Committee meeting and when they talk about corrections being done
right invariably they talk about Clay County invariably when we talk about the Mental Health crisis that we have in this state that the state has let go for the most part unaddressed um we hear about the river
program and the project projects that we're trying to do here in Clay County uh you've knocked you you you continue to knock it out of the park and again all I need to use my little bit of expertise on is to validate that we are very fortunate to have your organization
here I'm grateful for it thank you commissioner be so from being from R Clay County I'd like to thank you guys for being out there and we can notice you out there driving around with that being said with 2020 6 coming with Paid
Family Leave what how are you guys going to be able to keep giving service out in rural Clay County with that coming down the pipe yeah that's uh something that we're very concerned about with the earned safe and sick time Paid Family Leave um we're going to do our best to ensure
that we have people out there in R Clay County to ensure calls for service are covered and our patrols are out there we have an excellent staff that I feel don't uh abuse sick time or anything like that and I do believe that the
staff that we do have will will come to work when they need to come to work for their scheduled shifts they we have great people in Clay County we have great deputies they're top-notch I think they're the best in the state and I believe that we will continue to provide the same service if not more in 2026 I
do feel that we may need additional staff to assist with that um as you saw that we are consistently short sometimes in patol right now just due to FMLA sick time comp time trainings vacations things like that so I do feel I will
need additional staff moving forward um but we will do everything that we can to provide the same level of service thank you and keep up the good work thank you as just based on the report tomorrow it's it's clear that you
guys are always thorough in what you do um you know your report today was excellent it gave a good indication we don't be need to be asking what you did the last five days uh I think it's I think it's pretty clear that you guys are busy all the
time and and that's great and you know I I think I can speak on behalf of this board and that that we will continue to uh provide you with the needs that you have to make sure that our communities are always safe
and we will always keep that at the top of our list so thank you for your report today and I thank you for that again I I sincerely um appreciate our working relationship that we have because I meet with other sheriffs and I know it's not like that across the state I know that
sometimes the sheriff and the boards and even the county administrators might not work very well together um but we do here and uh I I do appreciate that so thank you as well for your support very good thank you thank
you Chris you didn't say anything this morning it's the way I like it it's the way I like it all right okay our next item is the um request approval of resolution
2025-the parcel 56685 99 zero good morning good morning good morning um this came to board on I believe it was October 88th
and the City of Holly had originally requested uh to receive a parcel of lamb that's in a lowline area that's not buildable and they wanted to put a what was a like a community garden something
to that sort um they didn't have all the details uh out I guess as specific as the state would have liked it and the um State denied the request for that um wanted
them to do another type of um uh deed was a um what was it called a the it was a conditional usded and it cost $250 well the parcel of land was only originally $500 anyway so the gal I have
been dealing with for a few months at the state suggested that they probably it's on their best you know on their best uh agenda just to buy it for $500 cuz under the other use and they had to comply with all these things or give it back to the state it was a bunch
of rigma roll so um so then they they um did approve it to um if they could purchase it so being it was approved before then that's why I had to do another resolution was is this something
uh because we're approving just an outright purchase is this well because because it had gotten approved by the um board that they could take it for free and this is a tax forfeit property from 2013 so it's been sitting out there
since since then and it's not buildable so I guess I'm just wondering about the public process for for for a parcel oh anybody can come in in and actually purchase a parcel of land that's on the tax forfeit list as long
as it didn't get bought at the um County at the sale the auction sale um each December the public purpose thing doesn't apply here because they're right buying it right yep yep so all right so you're looking for a motion to replace resolution 202
24-30 with resolution 225-2599 $ and avoid any restrictions in the future I'll make that motion second we have a motion and a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same
sign motion carried all right thank you all right next we have a recognition Proclamation for social work month some important people Quinn good
morning morning Mr chair Commissioners uh yes I am here to request a motion to Proclaim March Social Work month in Clay County just have a few words to say uh before we get to the proclamation um get on my Soap Box a little bit here for supportting staff uh being a social
worker is more than a job uh it's a passion and a calling it requires empathy resilience bravery and an unwavering commitment for helping others particularly the most vulnerable in our communities whether consciously acknowledged or not those who enter this profession do so out of a deep sense of
Duty to advocate for and support individuals and families in need social workers navigate complex challenges like commissioner emping said 452 days of an individual being in a jail that doesn't belong there couldn't support that more um their impact extends far beyond
office walls inspiring hope and fostering positive change in the lives of countless individuals through their dedication they Empower people to overcome barriers access critical resources and build brighter Futures despite the immense value of their work social workers often go unrecognized
balancing the scrutiny of the community the courts and the state while serving those in crisis yet they remain steadfast in their mission proving unwavering support and advocacy or sorry providing that proclaiming March as Social Work month is an opportunity to honor and celebrate these incredible
professionals recognizing their contributions in making our community stronger safer and more compassionate for all uh with that I would request that the motion is approved and we all right well we do have a proclamation here that we
will first read and I will I'll start off whereas the social work profession is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of individuals and strengthening communities by helping people navigate challenges and meet their basic needs particularly the most vulnerable Among
Us and where social workers advocate for social justice in Empower individuals and families and work tirelessly to promote policies and practices that ensure equal rights and opportunities for all and whereas Clay County social workers provide essential compassionate
services that support individuals Children and Families helping them overcome hardships build resilience and contribute positively to our community and whereas in the past year Klay County social workers have completed over
3,595 intakes for service served over 85 children in out of home uh care conducted over 305 Child Protection assessments 175 adult protection assessments and 1,29 Minnesota men
Choice assessments assisted 921 individuals who are elderly or have disabilities and remaining in their communities licens or certified over 309 homes for day carees child foster care adult foster care and corporate foster
care screened over 144 individuals for mental health Andor chemical health civil commitments and conducted over 189 chemical health assessments now therefore in recognition of the invaluable contributions of
social workers in Clay County we the commissioners of Clay County do hereby proclaim the month of March as Social Work month we encourage all members of our community to join in celebrating and expressing appreciation for the deed dedicated professionals who provide
critical support advocacy and care to those in need their unwavering commitment strengthens our families citizens communities and our future commissioner evinger M shair I move uh I make motion to adopt and
Proclaim March 2025 as social worker month in Clay County I will second that we have a motion in to second on the proclamation any further discussion Comm I'm married to a licensed clinical social worker she's retired right now
but um for our for her entire working period that we were married I got to see the incredible contribution of social workers make to the community and since coming to Clay County Quin your people have just done nothing but demonstrated
that they are at the top of the of the uh standard for social workers we're lucky to have you this is a good prod clamation and happy social worker month thank you they do great work thank you I I'd Echo that and I just
um some of the work that they do um can be very stressful um seeing what goes on and some of these families in our communities is um it can be heartbreaking and and your staff are the ones who are the boots on the ground s
to speak that are trying to make the best of any situation that they can and and we've got a a good group of people in Clay County U I've had the opportunity to witness that over the last number of years and and I'm I'm
extremely proud of um all of the people that we have working within your department so thank you yeah all right I've got the next oh okay we didn't vote did we okay all right all in favor of the Proclamation signify by
saying I I oppose the same motion carried all right Quinn then then you got one more thing here don't you I do yes thank you right request to hire a social worker position for the adult Behavioral Health division unfortunately I have to follow that up with we're losing
one um as you can see I'm here requesting approval to hire a social worker in our adult and Behavioral Health division uh this staff works specifically with civil commitments and treatment coordination um it provides intensive case management and oversight for individuals with substance use
disorders mental health disorders and complex needs uh this position specifically also is an active participant in our drug court program also works with pregnant and using mothers regarding their treatment needs as well the need for this position is critical to ensure continuity of services for us and maintain our
Department's capacity to respond effectively to the increasing demands of substance use disorder Services civil commitments and our specialty Court programs as they evolve kind of over time um this request comes as we continue to EXP experien the loss of our highly skilled staff to the state we are
losing another one to uh dcyf here unfortunately uh this is the third employee now in a row I've had to come to who has accepted an offer from the state in recent months I do feel the need to highlight our staff's expertise and experience is really what the state
looks for and seems to be why they keep taking our good people um with that uh we would post immediately assuming that this would be uh approved Uh current wages for this position are grade 18 step 10 uh we budgeted for that in 2025
is budget we do anticipate that a new hire would start on grade 18 step one which would uh create an estimated cost Savings of $1 19,31 uh this position does generate a small amount of revenue for billable services that they provide estimated to be about
$9,700 per year uh I am looking for backfill as well if that is something that that the uh commissioner would approve but with that I would yield for any questions that you have all right any questions M shair I'd move that uh we
approve the replacement of so social worker position within the adult and Behavioral Health Division and backfill of necessary second we have a motion and a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same
motion carried thank you Quinn thank you our next item is the approval of 179d tax credit allocation letter for Klein mccarth The Architects and gerts construction services and this is in regards to the which building is this uh
withdrawal management Mr chair uh thank you Mr chair again the question before you today is there's been a request made by both construction engineers and Klein McCarthy Architects to take advantage of an energy credit uh
uh tax on our re on our withdrawal management uh facility uh it's not it's because we're a government entity it's not something that we're able to participate in uh in and so Joe's been working with with the two entities over the last few weeks uh to bring this item
before and Joe I don't know if you have anything to add to that um so the board would be requesting permission or we'd be requesting permission of the board uh to signed the document allowing them to go after the tax credit at this point we don't know exactly what that dollar
amount would be uh because they would have to go through the process with this with through the IRS uh to identify what that dollar amount could potentially be just for from a history standpoint we did do this uh for Klein McCarthy back
in 2018 at at the completion of the uh law enforcement center and the correctional facility yeah and just just to add to Steve's stuff there is uh basically they have to do a study is what they do and then this study allows
uh to prove that they've designed it and built it properly and a lot of times you'll see or sometimes you'll see um the guarantee for these tax credits in the contract when we first signed and so neither girts or um clim mcarthy had this in their contract so I worked with
both of them to give them 50% of the allocation and both of them agreed so the letter you see is a joint um joint joint sign between the two entities and they've agreed to work together with the study itself and um and um if if all goes well they would they would claim
50% each of the tax credit awarded so okay commissioner bear is this common for PE for entities like this to come back and ask for this tax credit yeah in the in the in the architectural World a lot um and some and not as much in the
contractor world but both of them do do to apply or to um qualify we actually had this incorporated into our previous contracts didn't we with the uh we we did not but they came before you to request that back in
October of October of 23 of 18 excuse me okay yeah all right we're so we're looking for approval I'll make a motion to approve 179d tax credit allocation letter for cly McCarthy architecture and girs
Construction Services second we have a motion in the second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same motion carried we were four minutes ahead so we're taking a three minute thank you dog for the Clay County Attorney's
Office Ryan I'm assuming you want to start off oh thank you Mr chair uh Commissioners I'll I'll just start off and then I'll turn over or two uh Pam fer my chief uh for the Criminal Division of the office uh but we did come before the pick uh we are looking
uh to uh obtain a facility dog to help with uh working with victims uh help working with traumatized people uh that might regularly come through our office uh they're dealing with difficult situations dealing with going through the court system and um so the the dog
that pan will be explaining and the that facility um uh dog piece is a process uh to go through and and uh um but mainly one to be able to present to you talk to you about there are several counties throughout the state that have worked to
already do this and and show the importance of it and um the legal uh legalities of it if you will have already kind of somewhat been workr of the system and and uh definitely something that I think can benefit um people within our County and people that
come through our office office so I thought uh again we have talked to the pick already um but we wanted to come before the board here and and present to the board Pam thank you Pam good morning Pam thank you for your time this morning
um like Brian said this is a a kind of an Endeavor that we've looked into about four years ago I met with Kelly Troutman in Sterns County Attorney's Office they had a facility dog um my experience in the County attorneys in
preparing trials and Witnesses and children for trials is trying to get them comfortable and not such as a courthouse so um I brought it to Brian and we've been kind of talking about it over the past few years and we've kind of decided now at this point this would be a good opportunity or a
good time for our office to seek these dogs so I've done a PowerPoint and the first part of the PowerPoint will explain to you kind of what this facility dog is and then at the end kind of what our proposal would be to get a facility dog within our
office um so what we're looking at is it's a dog that will work in a courthouse it can also work in Prosecutor's offices CH child advocacy centers family courts um they primarily
provide a calming influence for children during stressful leing legal proceedings um they are legally neutral companions so for Witnesses so they can be used not only for prosecution but if a defendant had a witness that they wanted to use the dog for they could do
that they could be available for jurors after jury service after they've gone through a a significant trial with some traumatizing they're actually available to those people as well so any emotional support that somebody needs in the court
system that's where these dogs work um in Clay County it would be a employee similar to a can9 with the sheriff's office um it would be a coworker within our office office it is not a pet um and its job would be to
provide necessary Comfort where and when it's directed by its Handler so unlike a therapy dog that is assigned to a person facility dogs are assigned to a Handler and then provide the service to wherever the Handler
directs um it's not an emotional support animal and it also would not be a distraction to office staff I mean we would put very strict rules in place of what this Dog's Purpose is it's not to run around the office for people to play
with during the day um it would have a very specific job within our office with restrictions we would T plan on using this dog mainly for pre-trial meetings with victims and Witnesses we've had um I think when Brian did his presentation
last year to the or last week to the board the amount of violent crime that we see going through our office with murders sex assaults um serious assaults has gone up quite a bit and this dog would provide service to those people
when we meet with families of murder victims we meet with Children of sexual abuse um we have to have several meetings with them and the dog would be available during that to provide support also during trial for victims or Witnesses Allowed by the court this was
an issue for Sterns County when they first got their dog because nobody had done it before um they have gone through all the litigation all the paperwork all the argument to get a dog on the witness stand with a victim it's also been affirmed by the appell at court at this point so all
that legal work has been done for us by Sterns County they've provided us with all their documentation so when we're ready to roll with the court system we have that all in our back pocket already to get going um we would also use it for contested hearings we would also use it um to
support Clay County office staff and other employees is needed social workers that you know may have a tough case with a family or attorneys that have gone through a tough trial the dog would be there for that support as
well and finally it would also as far as the county goes promote Goodwill within the county and victim support in the community as needed like I just mentioned why we're kind of looking for one is the increased number of violent crimes um there's
overwhelming research and opinions that a facility dog not only helps reduce the stress and Trauma on victims but it also helps facilitate a victim or a witness testifying and relaying information in a truthful
manner um there is four other counties in Minnesota that had used this do dogs similar to this and it's just another toolbox in our office um to help victims and for successful prosecutions of violent offenders um these are three of the four
dogs currently working in cour houses in Minnesota Nova works for Sterns County Dino works for an NOA County and Nori Works in Ramsey County Nova and Nori are actually litter mates and they come from
helping paw which is an organization that we would be looking for um to get our dog from and I'm going to play Just Nori or I'm sorry Nova actually was on Good Morning America um so I'm going to play just a clip of that and what she does to
kind of give you an idea of how these dogs are used and specifically how Sterns County uses their dogs I'm going to apologize because when I put this link in I could not get rid of the ad so there'll be a quick ad 3.5 million in
Revenue out of 6X Raz those are the numbers my business has generated since I first started working with many chat and Instagram they are my secret weapon for customer acquisition we know how hard it is to get people's attention nowadays and once
you get their attention the question becomes how do you keep their attention thanks to many chat and Instagram it has never been easier to build trust likeability we are back with a revolutionary addition to a courtroom in Minnesota meet Nova the 6-year-old golden
retriever offering emotional support to child abuse victims and Witnesses on the stand the state's first facility dog changing the justice system we have a new coworker at our office her name is Nova no offense to my
human co-workers but she is the best helping Paws is a nonprofit We started our facility dog program about 5 years ago we breed and train service dogs and facility dogs we use Golden
Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers because they are people Pleasers Janelle came to us through one of our foster home trainers and they started to work on Nova being paired with with the
court Nova began work in the Sterns County Attorney's Office in October of 2019 these are our dogs that are very specifically trained to come in and deal with persons in traumatic situations we first had her in the office interacting
with um child abuse victims to help our children explain to a group of strangers what has happened to them Kelly Troutman is novas Handler and she was the perfect person she is the one that deals with the humanity of the persons who have
been affected by crime we picked Nova for each case depending upon if the victim or witness wants her and that person can interact with Nova before and after testimony but getting Nova into the witness stand is a little different
because we have to file motions in that case which we recently did and were granted Twice noa's first case in the witness stand was a criminal sexual conduct case the individual that testified was a teen at the time of her testimony I was very
proud of this victim she was on the stand for multiple hours but with Nova's help she was able to get through that the defendant was convicted and he was sentenced to 360 months in prison once people start to see what a
dramatic impact it's making it will become much more common I think every Courthouse should have a Nova we we know that these dogs are Life Changers oh I second that everybody needs a NOA right so some of the um questions about
where the dog would stay is during the day it would be in the office in a dog bed and crate um it would be in meetings as needed in court is needed it would be with a Handler or the assistant Handler at all times so like I said earlier it's not just going to be running around the office or the courthouse um it will be
on a leash at all times nights or weekends it will live with the primary Handler and um for necessary vacations um the primary hand of the primary Handler and assistant Handler or the helping pause provides a babysitter it's not a dog that goes to a boarding
facility so um it is a process to get the dog through helping pause you have to do a letter of interest um there's an application process dogs have to be available and they have to match with the Handler so they breed a number of dogs for this
purpose and the amount of interest in facility dogs has gone up so they've taken on more dogs to breed more litters but it's it's a process um of two years of training so the dogs that are available have gone through two
years of training and have graduated from the program then they have to match with the Handler so if it could take what we were told um last told was 1 to two years to actually get a dog available
um it took Sterns County from when they started the process four years and Ramsay six years and that was from the planning to getting the dog um I think once you get to the site visit that we're going to discuss in a bit it goes a little a little
faster we would want to use helping Paws we've already sent in the letter of interest in the application um dogs are about $300 for the dog plus the equipment after two years of
training they put about $30,000 into these dogs and we get them for $300 it also includes a week of training for the primary Handler and if there's a secondary Handler in Eden Prairie with
the dog after there's a match I did kind of a breakdown of what it would cost to have a dog um this is a first year estimate of $ 33400 obviously not all these expenses are every year because a lot of
it's the setup expenses but we I think maybe not to sorry to cut it Pam off but just to point out um those costs uh would be uh absorbed through uh use of forfeiture dollars so there wouldn't be a cost to the county or to
taxpayers we have forfeiture funds that come in this is a uh authorized use and that's what we would expect to use so there wouldn't be additional cost to the county yeah so then there's also other
Counties have costs for the Handler and that's kind of what we ran into is the different counties Sterns County just they pays their Handler just as they do their K9 hennipin um they negotiate it through a Union contract an NOA simply has a
contract with the county that upon retirement the dog would go to the Handler um in Ramsey County basically they get a paid parking spot and unlimited comp time so our proposal that we would like to present to the board for
approval is to apply for a dog um out of helping pause like I said the current wait list is about one to two years um and as Brian just told you that we would pay the all the cost associated with this dog through for Fitcher funds so it
would be no cost to the county or to the taxpayers it would be purely our office um providing any expenses for the dogs that were mentioned in that previous slide as for the cost of the primary Handler um the only thing that we would
ask is that the there be a contract that the dog go to the Handler upon retirement of of the dog um very similar to the K9 dogs that I mean the dogs bond with their Handler and after working for the county for as long as the dog can work for the county
um we would like it to go to the Handler the person it knows there is also maybe a the fee of travel for the primary Handler if there's any appointments outside of work or regular hours basically travel
expenses um if necess we talked about who might be the primary Handler for the county and we have decided it would be me um I am not asking for any extra payment I'm not asking for any I don't even care if
I get the mileage for this expenses um I just think the the value of having one of these dogs in the office for the work we do um is worth it to me so so the next steps is like I said we've already sent the letter of interest in the application The Next
Step would be a site visit where they would come they would look at the courthouse the office space they would come to my home um and look to where the dog would live we'd also secure commitment from someone within our office as a secondary Handler in case
I'm not available to handle the dog for a proceeding or if I ever take a vacation um we' have several people in our office that or a couple people that have been willing to step up and say they would be the secondary Handler the next step is that helping
Paws would bring three to four dogs to the county to meet the handlers to see what the space is like to see what the match is um and then to see if we get approved for a dog then we just basically wait um
till a dog becomes available I know that they do have a graduation coming at the end of April I don't know if all those dogs are spoken for um but if not it we would just wait for a dog to become available so with that does anybody have
any questions I know in your um presentation to us at pick you had mentioned about being the primary Handler and and I didn't ask the question then but I'm assuming you've had some experience with dogs in the
family oh gosh yes okay I have I've got two dog three dogs actually they've all gone through various forms of the obedience one I do agility with the other one I do obedience with um so I've had dogs going through training probably
for 25 years very good commissioner bear how typically do these dogs stay in service well I did ask that so they come to us at two um it really depends on the amount of stress you put on the dog
because this is very stressful for a dog to provide the service like Nova in her trial experience that one trial she was on the stand for 5 hours sat there for 5 hours with someone and basically absorbing that stress um when I talk to Kelly she's hoping
that the dog makes it to 11 to do a service but it's really helping pause every year you have to report to them and they check on the dog and if they tell you this dog has is too stressed it's it's done then you have to retire
it but I mean it could go like from Two and till 11 is the Hope y it can go longer than that it just depends on the amount of work the dog does and how they handle that stress I know in I think it was in Brian's comments or or maybe it was
yours but also it was pointed out that Which counties uh currently do have them and and you know it's quite evident that they're larger counties M and I think in those larger counties is we're probably much more likely to have more of these
stressful type of cases uh compared to a you know the smaller counties even in the Northwest part of Minnesota but um as we continue to grow I know we've talked about this in pck and our PI Committee just believes this is a great
idea commissioner Eber do you want to come yeah I was just goingon to say pick has approved this to come up and uh I think it's a great idea I think we need to get in there and get in line and with that I'll make a motion that we approve
a facility dog for Klay County's attorney's office I'll second that and will that motion include then that the funding would come from forfeiture funds yes the funding would come from for forfeit your funds I meet your second yes right Brian are you good with that
language absolutely very good all right any further discussion just one question one more question allergies is there anybody allergic to dogs down there I think that uh there is you I think the discussion about that is is making sure
I I would say only first that um you know the idea is we have office space we there's it's either crate or bed or both the dog is kept you know in an office it's not just circulating and going around people nobody within my staff
currently has any kind of allergies um but even if it ever comes up with say victims there always asked if they want to have any contact with a dog whether they just don't like dogs or don't want to have any contact or if there was any allergy piece we'd be very cognizant of
that um and I think the same if we ever had somebody that we hired we would just ensure that the dog is not around that yeah make sure that person's you know not around them or the dogs going in there so yeah that's something that I mean we've talked to Sterns
County because and actually Ramsey because they've got golden retrievers and it's the dog is never presented to anyone that doesn't want to be the it's always asked before the dog's ever presented um we understand that there's a lot of cultural issues too with some people that don't like dogs or it's a
cultural thing so the dog will never just walk in the front door or be walking around the courthouse um it will come in a separate entrance with me it will be kept away if from anybody that doesn't want the dog around them and the office space I think that we're thinking
of is not within the main part of the office it's off to the back so it will be you know separated out from kind of the busyness of our office and did you mention that this would be we' list this with
mcit we have we have that conversation right that is probably the one other piece that we do need to make sure just as we have and we already have insurance that covers the canines we would just put that on there um I don't expect that so so that is really the one if you will expect I don't expect that really to be
anything to be honest because I think this type of dog is not even a dog that's uh you know at the level that you know has the ability to attack or anything else you know we're this is a a train therapy dog if you will I mean or
facility dog to help people it's you know so I don't expect that I think we've talked about that with Stud I don't think there's much extra to it other than we would put them on there that is correct all right any further questions
comments seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried all right thank you very much good luck we'll keep you updated as we hopefully hear from them in the future thank you we bring the dog up will you be able to bring that dog up
here we won't be able to give them Milk Bones and I P if during the visit they want to talk to the commission yeah yeah that we let him know we're fully in support of it all right thank you thank you all
right thank you all right so we'll move right into committee reports and I know commissioner eringer has some commitments so maybe we can get hopefully get through everybody before you have to leave but we'll start with um commissioner eringer thank
you um on uh Tuesday the 25th we had pick meeting which covered uh the facility dog we've just talked about also some of the time off from work U issues that we're looking at just
to update our our employee manual with election judges organ donors bone marrow donations all of those are state law they're going to be included in policy uh HR benefits discussion for 28 full-time employees that's kind of a
work in progress looking at uh at uh what's moving forward on that we also had a social worker vacation issue which I think is being addressed as well uh later than I'm sorry um later
that day yeah I remotely while in route to um the cities for AMC I did pull over on the side of the road and remotely attend the um trip RDC board meeting uh during which
time we approved a 10,7 $180 expense for replacement of the UPS battery uh system they have in the Dispatch Center I had a project uh update on the building coming
up and then we had a vote on uh accepting a bid from Edge River solutions for fiber optic uh feed into the dispat center as I mentioned we uh we had the a
m c legislative committee meeting last week just run over some of the highlights in General Session uh Governor walz came and spoke to us and then legislative leadership panel of uh speaker of the house uh deuth speaker of
Meritus uh bfl leader Hortman Senate Majority Leader Murphy and Senate minority leader Mark Johnson uh were at the panel and responded to questions that were provided by the AMC staff uh was very enlightening on where our legislative
issues are right now um or at least where the positions are with these people and uh gave us hopefully give us a little bit of an idea of where we're moving forward uh we also on uh our day at the
capital all of us were present we met with Senator Rob kupek Senator Mark Johnson representative Heather keler Representative Steve Gander and representative Jim Joy had some good informative positive discussions with
them on where we're where we're going to progress hopefully during this session um on the 27th I attended the AMC public safety policy committee [Music]
um we discussed some of the issues that are some of the uh subcommittees that we've got reported then we had emergency uh response systems emergency medical uh Services Community Supervision and mental health
care that gave brief reports uh we also had uh the presence of Kendall Hughes who has been part of the restorative practices with the state and he was here when restorative
practices came to do the uh Community panel for uh Clay County and looking for a grant that we're currently still waiting on aren't we uh he he addressed what these the benefits of of the uh restorative
practices are and they identified the Clay County panel and Clay County's efforts and getting this grant as pretty much exemplary of what we should be doing which was kind of nice here uh later that well on the 27th
which is when that meeting occurred came back from St Paul and got to Fargo we had the diversion Board of authority meeting later that day uh had the usual General business finance report um voucher
approval uh looked at some of the contracts and uh M us they were presented and approved I had an executive director update and general counsel update we did uh discuss a technical
dispute resolution board that was updated To Us by general counsel and as uh after the um ruling from attorney general Wrigley on the uh status of this being a
public meeting all three of the people have resigned and currently they are working at getting a new panel together for this and for the uh Financial resolution should we need it U trying to find some people that are willing to do
this as a public meeting which pretty much deviates from the way it's generally done but that is a ruling what they've got in North Dakota for us and we're going to have to live with it uh had a sales tax update and then we
had a closed executive session uh pursuant to North Dakota law for the attorney consultation um and direction of the general counsel and the executive director involving uh mediation or
continued litigation and force of terms and conditions of the separation and release agreement of the former executive director and that completes my report thank you commissioner be uh last Tuesday February 25th I had
an MRC meeting down in St Paul where we went over the legislation update given it's only it had only started 10 days at the house prior to that so there wasn't too much to uh mention on that we also
had a robin with all the other counties there discussing our issues that each County had then on the 26 we had the AMC legislation conference start
and we uh had a full day at the capital where we met all our legislatures from Clay County it was a very informative very yeah I thought very very well done first time being there very enjoyed it very much and then the next day February
27th we had the transportation in and infrastructure policy committee down there as well where we had a m. Road funding report where there's there's continually being a gap on F funds going into the mot Road fund with so we had a
report on that saying where the money's coming from where all the money comes from and where it's going out to and right now there's a gap there they're figuring out how to fix that Gap so we don't lose too many dollars so then we also had a legislation update with
priorities and bills of interest to keep an eye on and see how they're moving through the house or Senate and then we also had an update on the public land survey system which Klay county is doing where we go and Mark all our section lines in the county when
we've been doing that for the last couple years uh and that that meeting adjourned after that and that is all I have fore committee assignments reports all right very good thank you on February 25th I also attended the um Personnel issues
committee and um commissioner eringer has given a good complete report on that the items that we acted on today uh I don't have anything else to add to that on February
27th we did have um of course we were at AMC um the 26th and 27th um the meeting with the i the morning session when we started we heard
from the governor and the uh leaders of the legislature and then uh in the afternoon we did spend time with the capital as um commissioner eer mentioned we met with several of our um area legislator on the
important issues uh for Clay County and we provided them with additional material to back up what we're looking for um on Thursday uh Thursday morning we had the policy
meetings and I've now switched to General government I got in there and at the beginning they asked each policy member to uh pick one of the three items to talk about during the
conference and by the time that process was done I had to go I and I didn't I mean I had to go back to come back to town that's what I had to do just to clarify that
um and so I attended the U I had to come back to attend the diversion meeting but I I know Darren you had mentioned you were going to try to get the general government I don't know if you're able to but maybe I can if you did I can maybe ask you to talk a little bit about that okay and
then um and then so then on the the diversion meeting again uh commissioner eringer we seem to share some of the same committees and he talks before I do and takes all the wind out of my sales so
um much all right okay so and then and then uh Friday late Friday afternoon uh Jason Benson the new um diversion director had lined up a meeting with
myself as Vice chair of the diversion Authority along with their diversion Authority chair and um a couple of others to go over the Minnesota projects and what they're what they're looking for is
trying to come up with a timing sequence of when these projects um can be done versus when they need to be done and and the whole idea in mind is is they would like to see us delay as
many these projects as possible to allow time to get the funding for them from the state of Minnesota I certainly relayed the importance that uh at some point in time they're all going to have to be done and I I haven't wavered on that and that's
and I let them know that that's been the position of our County Board as well so we met and we're having a highway tracking meeting here this morning and Jason Benson's going to be coming in and and so we need there's there's several people involved
with this process there's um you know there's the Buffalo red is is spearheading a couple of the projects when it comes to Wolverton and Georgetown our Highway engineer is working on the county 2 and the road
through Comstock project uh those are uh those are Justin's projects that he's working on so we're going to try to meet and see who should be uh um deciding you know timelines for these projects how
long do we dare not dare but how long can we let them go out before uh before they would need to proceed um I also brought up the potential if we could go to uh for example the county or the road raise on
Highway 75 and Georgetown that is a um that needs to be authorized through mot but right now it still is a diversion project but one of the things that I would like to talk to
Justin about to see if if we could potentially look for any U mot dollars that could maybe go towards that project of course in the I believe in all of the other Road raises that happened on Highway 75 north of
Georgetown I can't say for sure but I believe mot was involved with those and I'm and I don't know if that funding came through DNR if it came through mot so I those questions we'll be talking about but so they
um so we'll continue to do that and and ultimately I think what's going to happen is Jason Benson will probably come to this board a week from today to kind of go over these things I and I
basically told him that I've got no Authority on my own to make these decisions and so that I think his plan will then after our discussion today uh he'll come before this board I believe next next Tuesday because some of these things
they're outlined in our partnership agreements that we have with the diversion Authority and so we we'll need to know if there's any modifications to the partnership agreements regarding timelines and what we may not may or may not be able to do
there um and then I guess that concludes my report Steve do you want to go next sure thank you Mr chair last Tuesday I participated in a meeting uh in regards to uh our agreement with the resource recovery facility in the city of Morad they've
asked for some negotiations as far as the current contract and so we're going to be setting up another meeting with City more here in the near future to talk about that gonna yeah I guess I did I did have that in on the
25th uh we did have that meeting um internally um to to go over um some of the responses that we might have to the city of Morhead and how we're going to deal with that so I just want regarding that um transfer station so I participated uh
that morning also in the pic meeting that's been well covered um that afternoon I met with the city council person Dave Sten uh he had idea about uh potential leadership training that maybe uh different governmental entities can
look at so we're going to have uh that'll be uh shared I think at our inter intergovernmental uh meeting on Thursday uh to find gaug any interest participated on the 26th at the legislative conference that's been well covered um I think I'll let Darren talk
on the policy committee then uh did also participate uh participate there on the 27th uh on the 28th uh we had a flood mitigation check-in meeting that we've been having each Friday we just note that Senator cek did drop Senate file uh
uh 2015 uh on behalf of the Clay County city moead in the Buffalo red uh river water district uh for the flood diversion money of 60.4 million currently there's no companion bill but working with our Representatives hopefully to move that
forward we also had a prtf virtual call Senator cek was present with our representatives from the county and and Steve Summers from Solutions continuing to work through that yesterday uh continuing to work through flood mitigation documents we receiv received
some additional documents from uh from our area Representatives that we did send those in in Partnership uh with the city of Morehead uh and just of note uh we did get an email during the meeting that uh last week uh we had a discussion
for this board to consider providing additional funds for the water district formation through the judicial process and P County did uh agree to provide additional dollars also so all Three Counties have now agreed with that that
concludes my report all right briyan Darren you want to give my committee report for Poli well you kind of caught me off guard there so I'm I'm struggling to remember all the government uh General government policy
committee but uh everything I uh that has been mentioned so far I have attended the uh meeting uh with the pic meeting and then the AMC legislative conference I found that extremely interesting that's the first one I had been involved with uh on Thursday I did
attend the general government policy committee they talked about well uh a lot of the when they went around the room to talk to all the counties and the Commissioners nobody was really very supportive of the cost shift that is coming through the uh through the state
down to the counties uh I don't think anybody said this is a great idea so there was a lot of discussion on that and how it was going to impact each of the counties um they did have a uh a slide that showed that even like if the
cost shifts were to um take place in Dakota County that would be a 7% Levy increase just by the cost shifts Anoka County 5% Bel tramy 9% and Ramsey County 4.7% so these are pretty significant
Levy points just for the cost shift from the state funded um programs back to the counties so there was a lot of discussion on that uh there was some discussion on the um uh
taxation um and then what was very interesting was um a lot of discussion on the the upcoming paid leave and then we had uh state representative Dave Baker who is leading the charge right now on uh delaying that one year because
there's a lot of um um belief that this program is not ready for prime time starting January 1st of 2026 um so he went over a lot of those things and some of the committe reports and some of their concerns um I've been
listening to those committee reports and at the last one they said that they right now have 60 people hired for this um new Department indeed and um they're looking to have 400 by the by January
1st when they start this program so there's a lot of uh angst on on if this is going to go off without a hitch um and then the only other thing that I had that wasn't mentioned that nobody else here was involved with was
um our continued meeting with ukg on our Pro Talent uh implementation for recruiting and and uh onboarding and that's going along very well I would say we're going to go live here in the next couple weeks so it'll be a little bit of a training process because uh all the
applications will then go straight into ukg so we'll have some training coming up for department heads and supervisors uh probably within the next couple weeks and that concludes my report thank you Darren Jackie do you have anything for us all right all right
we are Jed e e for Part: 2
e e e e e e e e e e
e e all right good morning everybody it's 8:30 we'll call this morning's meeting of the cck County Board of Commissioners to order for Tuesday March 4th and the first item of a business is the approval of the agenda so move
second have a motion in a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried and just before we do our employee recognitions I just want to point out that Commissioners Mojo and
kabinoff this morning are on their way to St Paul on behalf of Klay County dealing with um some legislative priority issues down there so with that we got an employee recognition this morning 25
years and this is in grateful recognition for your 25 years congratulations all right Quinn I've got some words to say absolutely all right so for the past five years kerson has uh LED our adult and Behavioral
Health division with a remarkable blend of wisdom strength humor and compassion uh but before she became a supervisor was already a trusted expert in civil commitments and adult mental health she built her career on a deep understanding of the complexities of this field always ensuring that our most vulnerable
residents receive the care and support they need her leadership has strengthened our department her expertise has helped shape policies and practices and her fantastic sense of humor makes even the most challenging days a little easier csen your hard work and commitment to Klay con Social Services have made a huge difference in
countless lives I am grateful for everything that you do and we're so lucky to have you leading the team thank you congratulations 25 more 25 more that's one thing we have in CLE county is uh longevity and some of our good uh good leaders through Klay County
and Kirsten is certainly one of them so all right we'll move on then to citizens to be heard do we have any ciens to be heard nothing online nothing Mr chair thank you all right we will then move into the approval of bills and vouches
move for approval second you have a motion in a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign motion carried approval of minutes from February 18th I'll make that motion
second thank you we have a motion a second any further discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion carried all right next we have
um Kathy McCay oh no oh Kathy and I are oh okay on the first one okay yeah I think yeah we we we'll do the uh we'll do the program coordinator one first here so good morning K good morning Mr chair and Commissioners this
is a request we have a position um that's going to be vacated at the end of this month and it is with our child and teen checkup program the the challenge is as you know our Community Health Board um will be
we're in the process of um um changes there so uh two of the counties will be moving on to another uh to their own chb so we'll have two chbs two counties in our current chb instead
of four so I'm not sure on some of these programs what the impact will be but we certainly need someone in place um at this time um to replace this individual to keep the program going so she covers the four counties currently and will through
the end of the year um there's a potential for internal um but I'd like the opportunity to at least um post it and keep that going for this year and then we'll determine what the needs are for 2026 so the structure Remains the Same
for 2025 correct the four counties and then in 2026 it'll be Becker and Clay Becker and Clay will remain in rchb Otter Tail and wilin will be doing another chb okay and you'll be able to
give us a better breakdown of how that funding mechanism may may fall in line then is that you know we're going to be working with mdh we haven't determined be working probably through May to hopefully get a better picture on how
the funding stream will be um I don't anticipate um that there will be significant impact um as long as there are two counties in each chb we get the additional um
multi-county um amount um and so and then we'll be covering only two counties so it's hard to know right now um we're going to be meeting this week um and then we'll be meeting with mdh um in the near future as well to try to break down all of the funding sources we have and
how that might look I would assume that by the time you are ready to present your 2026 budget you will have know that information that's our hope that's what all of the counties would like to know as well um where we will land um how
that will look so that's our goal so we'll see how how we can attain that by that time and Kathy you mentioned that you might be able to hire this position from within so are you looking for back pH well yep yes um Mr chair probably
backfill um the other option um that I'm exploring is um a potential for Becker County to take the lead on this position but I'm not sure where that's going to land if they have the capacity we're
working with Becker County right now on that so it could be internal could be um external or maybe that Becker County the ideal would be if the Becker County person can take the lead so I just don't know I can't predict how
that will land right now in the meantime you know maybe that Becker County can do the interim butd like to have all options there in case we need to um hire out M sh yes this is kind of a moving Target right now I'm shairing the Public
Health Board this year um there are some unknowns to it but we have good staff on it uh we have a timeline that's been established so I think we'll know I think certainly by time to plan budget there there should be clarification on
everything you know in absence of the possibility it's Hoover hoovering over everyone right now that there'll be cuts to the point that uh we're going to have to go we're going to have to punt and figure things out of federal funds we don't know where that's going to go go
yet but this is I think U this is a good plan to have one of the options that's going to emerge here in the next what month or two when these things need to get get addressed to to at least have somebody in mind that you're going to be
able to move into that position so I would recommend that uh we hire the program coordinator for this position and backfill make a motion we have a motion I'll second that we have a motion in the second any further
discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion carried thank you Kathy the next thank you we have an update on the May on influenza presentation and we're going to find out
why eggs are so expensive this [Laughter] morning I'm just excited to not be asking for a declaration for a flood emergency knock on wood now Gabe right what did you say that out loud
for yes you want to start with kind of what you information you sure and then you can jump in and correct yeah me I can fill you guys in on thank you okay so we have the the current situation with h5n1 or some
sometimes just called H5 which is the bird flu um and as you may be fully aware um it's causing outbreaks in uh poultry us dairy cows and then there's been some human cases um with those
working um in that area the risk to the population um to public health risk is low so that's always a concern is this going to be personto person spread right now you know CDC is monitoring carefully
watching everything but um so far it has not um been a person to person spread if that happens that would be um another uh pandemic so to speak so we're hoping that that isn't the case um so they're
using their flu surveillance systems to monitor this um the activity uh this just shows how how it's spreading so wild birds to poultry to cows and then those that have um acquired uh this
influenza the humans and then and the cat thing is just you know if they're eating some carcasses or um birds that may be contaminated is potentially how how it's been um cats have been exposed
um there's the exposure um cases so you can see that there's the dairy herds poultry Farms calling operations other animal exposure and exposure your Source that's unknown again the public health risk is low cases in the US 70 cases one
death um at this point in time person to personto person spread um has not been the case at all um so that's where we're at um and then there's just a number of detections in
animals so um what they've detected so far and you can see the large numbers in wild birds and the poultry that's affected hence why we have an egg shortage and high priced eggs right yeah so like Kathy Kathy's information showed
there's been 70 um human um infections throughout the country none of those have been in Minnesota and I think the one death was in Louisiana I believe um and again that's all been either people that have been exposed by working in either a poultry barn or a um you know
dairy cattle herd but I just wanted to touch real quick on we're probably not going to answer your question as to why eggs are so expensive other than across the country um there's been large flocks of of uh laying hens that have been called due to this but in Minnesota the
approach um as far as monitoring and information sharing um there's three departments at the state level anyway that um gather information and um share information with each other and then and then put that out but uh in Minnesota it
is is the board of animal health really monitors um the situation with livestock and poultry and then there's uh mdh obviously that that monitors if there's any um human human infection and then the Department of Natural Resources really takes the lead on any reports of
uh cases in in wild wild birds and also wild animals there was back in uh kind of when this most recent outbreak started in 2022 there was some reports of a fox that tested positive um so that's really in in the states that's where I guess Kathy and I get our
information and if we have any information or if people contact us that's where we're directing them um to you know report like if you uh were to notice um you know wild birds that you may suspect are infected um there's a hotline to report that to the Department
of Natural Resources and they may send a conservation out to collect some of those animals and then have them tested um in Minnesota I just pulled up um kind of the most some of the most recent information as far as um Dairy and then
poultry um sites that have uh had uh outbreaks and uh the most recent as far as poultry in Minnesota there was one that uh was reported on February 12th and that was a um non-commercial flock so more of a backyard flock that was in
Crowing County um the really two most recent larger ones uh were in wadina County which was a commercial uh turkey um flock and they called 275,000 birds in that one and then the other one prior to that that was in uh towards the end
of January um and then the other one most recent was in Dakota County again turkeys and that was 79,000 so I me that that's you know Minnesota is the largest turkey producing state in the country and uh back in 2022 when this most
recent um I guess epidemic occurred candyi County which is I think the largest turkey producing county in the state um was really the epicenter so that's um Minnesota um just obviously turkey prices anyway on on turkey meat and
stuff uh really really were affected by this now this most recent uh the the increase in egg prices um I didn't see anything real recent in Minnesota as far as um you know laying hands uh or flocks that were affected but I think
throughout the country um that's that has uh not been the case but uh in Clay County uh since this 2022 outbreak I so I get notified if there's something in in Clay County um the the board of animal health reaches out to me and just
lets me know that there's been either a flock or a backyard flock that's been infected they do not give me the um the address or the name of the person they will give an area they they have what's called a control zone so I will see kind of the general area it's in um and we've only had two that have been reported at
least that they've notified me of since 2020 through2 and both of those were backyard flocks um and the first one which would have been in 2022 um uh there was 24 Birds affected
and uh and then in in uh 2024 there was another one with 77 birds so I know previously back and I believe it was in uh 2013 or so when uh H1N1 first kind of made its uh its run across the country and we did have some commercial um
flocks that were affected in Clay County but so far I haven't received a report on any in this kind of more recent um run of them um and when when I was notified by by the board of animal health um they had already um depopulated those birds I'm not sure on
these smaller flocks if they actually went in or they just had the flock owner depopulate the birds um one other thing that I was asked to do for the board of animal health kind of when this more recent um infection came or this this more recent strain was making its rounds
was um collect information and provide them with information on large sources of potable water um when they do a depopulation in a large uh a large flock um they use a large amount of water so I compiled a list basically mainly it was
uh uh fire departments and then City Municipal Water Supplies so they had contact numbers or for you know if they needed something after hours weekends to get those amounts of water so that's really been kind of my role anyway in Clay County there hasn't been a lot of
activity in Clay County um interestingly enough um just again to share some numbers with you Minnesota has the second highest number out of all the states of um birds that have been affected and Minnesota's number is 9 million um 120,000 the the number one
state is California with 23 million um and just to kind of show you the probably the size difference on Commercial flocks the sizes California so in Minnesota um there was 100 there's been 141 commercial flocks and 44 backyard flocks and that total number is
you know 9 million um but in California they're 23 million but only 105 commercial flocks that just goes to show you how much bigger their commercial operations must be than than Minnesota but I guess that's that's what I have there is a um a uh Minnesota has a uh
Aven influenza hotline um it's kind of a one One-Stop shop so if you're reporting for wild wild birds um same number they'll they'll put you through the Department of Natural Resources or if it would be a commercial flock or a dairy herd um um same number and and uh that
is on um the us or I'm sorry on the board of animal health websites uh mdh and Minnesota DNR they' have the same number and then I guess the only other thing is uh as far as transfer into Livestock in Minnesota um there has been
some some confirmed cases in Dairy herds again none of those in um Clay County we don't have a a large Dairy um I guess a large amount of dairy farms commercial dairy farms in Clay County but the most recent ones on those have
been actually most of them were in Benton County Minnesota there has been there was a herd of uh goats um that was affected in in Stevens County um but most of that most of the cases have been Benton County and then down in uh West Central and Southwest Minnesota candy
County Lincoln County SI County so that's what I have any questions for us I guess so Mr chair and Commissioners uh just to be clear and for the general public um we get questions is it safe to eat eggs if you can buy eggs is it safe to eat them um yes the USDA said um if
they're cooked appropriately so I would say for those that like the runny Yol maybe that's a little undercooked during this time but no it's safety eat eggs cook them a appropriately there is no um transfer of the virus is it safety poultry that's another question um and
of course they recommend to cook it to the um to the recommended temperature of 165 um to eliminate any potential virus um so and then handling raw poultry of course all the all the things that you need to do to manage that and then milk
comes up is it safe to drink milk because of the dairy um cows that are affected and yes the pasteurization drinking raw milk may not be um advisable but um as long as that's pasteurized milk um that pasteurization
is actually um killing the virus so that is all safe commissioner evinger yeah just um it was just yesterday I got warned someone who has another bird dog and I've got a bird dog um told me that her
vet advised her that if there's any dead birds that her dog will and they'll they'll head for him yep uh to avoid letting them get a hold of a dead bird and that's something I think people dog owners should be aware of the other
thing is if you see a dead bird we've got the hotline right yeah yeah but they do give some advice if you go on the DNR website they they talk about you know one ver Bird versus maybe five five Birds I think they're recommendation was you know if you see a couple or if they're acting strange there's again
some kind of criteria on if you see you know especially waterfall is pretty common like if if they're kind of swimming around and nonsensical and and not flying when they normally would and stuff that would maybe be a sign she had been to her Lake place and I'm not sure where that was but there had been 10
dead Ducks found in the area and uh they they the sheriff there put an alert out to everybody to keep your dogs off of the the water foul y thanks yeah thank you does that virus
impact all species of birds uh yes it does it's been found in all it's it's sounds like it's most common in waterfall and I don't know if that's just because of they're more of a flock um flock type bird but it has been found in in other other types of bird I
was thinking of our bald eagles y Raptor no and there is reports of uh Raptors and stuff that have been um and probably you know a lot of times maybe those those birds aren't getting tested because if they die it tends to be one so you know it's not raising those alarms that maybe if you see a flock of
you know 30 dead ducks or all right any other questions thank you for your presentation thank you all right next we have our annual up Department update with the sheriff's office thank
you we have the sheriff empting we have deputy chief Martin Gabe and Carrie from Corrections good morning to all of you good morning Mr chair Commissioners thanks for having us here this morning we get this set up
ready to go all right here we are well thanks for having us we'll get started off with our 2025 board update here um first of all we'll start off with our mission statement this is the mission statement of the Clay County Sheriff's Office we
are to enforce laws of the United States uh the state of Minnesota and all local ordinance further it's our mission to enforce a law with impartiality and courtesy and respect to the constitutional rights of all people further it's our mission to provide services to the citizens of Clay County that will enhance their quality of life
I don't know if the board's ever seen our mission statement before but I figur this would be a good time to provide that to you relatively long mission statement it should be shortened up maybe a little bit and that's something we might work on here in the future just go through some division overviews our administrative division
consists of myself um I also serve on the legislative committee for the Minnesota sheriff's Association and I was uh recently selected to be the V fourth vice president of the sheriff's Association we have Chief Deputy Chris Martin and he um oversees all of our
administrative staff along with uh our community service officer Jay sebl that was a new position this year and Jay has been uh absolutely great for us and we do appreciate the board support in allowing us to hire Jay he has been just a a great asset for us very happy to
have him and we also have our records division with officer manager Heather crony uh overseeing our Associates uh along with the jail associate as well and last year we also started our chaplain program with the chaplain John bador and David juvie um this is to
enhance our Deputy Wellness they have been a good um good addition to our Sheriff's Office as well we're happy to have them on on board we have our Operations Division which is overseen by Lieutenant Josh schroer the Operations Division consists
of Patrol and investigations we currently have uh 12 Patrol deputies we have uh four Patrol sergeants and then two sro's we have one SRO and dgf and one in Ulan
Hall um our division here for investigations and Patrol we do stay relatively um slim sometimes on on shift and investigations um this is due to FMLA retirements and some un and unexpected
resignation um also when you factor in vacation SI time comp time and training things like that we are running at minimums quite often on the patrol side and uh we're running rather short sometimes in investigations for example for the remainder of this week we will be down two investigators for FMLA and
the remainder of the month we will be down um one because of FMLA and then towards the end of the month we're going to lose one for um for military deployment so out of our five investigators will be down one for the remainder uh of the
year we have our Support Services Division which is overseen by Lieutenant Chad Hagen Support Services consists of warrants and transports civil process and Courthouse we have three transport deputies two civil process deputies then we have three full-time uh court
security deputies along with Sergeant Nicole Reno we also have five roster court security deputies and um Lieutenant Hagen did inform me that it is getting a little harder to find some variable hour folks for that s our part-time people it's getting a little
harder to find people willing to do that for variable hour We're very fortunate that we have five right now and we hope to maintain that moving forward and of course we have our Emergency Management division by it's overseen by lieutenant tweeton and then he also has an assistant emergency
manager with Sergeant niino like add to that or we're not we're not there yet okay we're coming up to that we'll fast forward uh Corrections division we have a jail administrator Carrie
toon and we also have her assistant by Cody Benson and her administrative Sergeant Jessica Knight we have four SI shift sergeants along with 45 full-time correctional officers that includes four corporals in there as well we try and work our shifts in the jail to where we
have at least one sergeant and or Corporal on WE to have that supervisor oversight within the facility so we like to have at least one uh Sergeant or Corporal on ideally having them both on would be be great but with vacation sick time and
everything like that sometimes that doesn't happen we also have nine roster correctional officers and we will go with our Operations Division overview so we ended our year with uh 31,1 76 incidents and
that was up from 2023 uh 2023 we're at 2,186 uh this also does not include the number of calls for service that we took while covering Morehead shifts um I looked at our numbers today we are um lower uh today than we were at this time
last year by about 1,600 so I don't know why we are lower other than there's a little bit less self-initiated activity in there and it has been relatively quiet over the past few few months for for service I don't know if it's just kind of the winter doldrums or what have
you um it's also been a slower year for weatherwise and usually if we have a busy weather year that increases our calls for service with crashes vehicles in the ditch and things of that nature so that would uh play into why we are a little bit lower on calls for service right
now um as you can see here we have our three K9s they had two criminal apprehensions and what a criminal apprehension is is that is when the um the the dog physically apprehends a fleeing subject we had 21 nonphysical criminal apprehensions and what that is
is if the K9 Handler makes an announcement basically saying um give yourself up or we will send the dog and you will be bit those people then give themselves up so that is what a non-physical criminal apprehension is it's six area searches six building
searches 45 vehicle searches six package sniffs 13 tracks and eight public demonstrations so our K9 teams were Rel relatively busy uh throughout 2024 our handlers also spend a considerable amount of time training uh their dogs they have to train a minimum
of 16 hours um per month to maintain their certification we also received as you're aware many donations in 2024 from various different organizations throughout Clay County we're very uh fortunate for their support and uh we're very honored that they continue to
support us and as you're aware we receive re a $40,000 Anonymous donation from someone and to this day I still don't know who that person is and I get people asking me and I still don't know who it is so we are very grateful for that donation to our canine
program and we've had four deputies assigned to our Red River Valley SWAT team uh this made up of our Tactical Team our bomb team and our crisis negotiations team the Tactical Team responded to 31 call outs in 2024 the bomb team had 54 four call outs and
negotiations had 24 call outs and they do train quite a bit throughout the year they are constantly training it seems like um to hone their skills and do great work Operations Division as well removed the following illegal drugs from our
streets 108 PBS of marijuana 14 PBS of methamphetamine 837 counterfit pills and 40 or 4.5 lbs of cocaine it's took 17 Firearms off the street and seized
$152,000 in cash and then 20 total monetary value of the drug seizures to date is approximately $349,000 our Patrol deputies did add an additional 12 gram of marijuana 1.1 gr of fentanyl 450 m30 pills and 23 gram of
meth and 14 Firearms all taken from the patrol deputies so it's it's good work by them along with some miscellaneous pills and pharmaceuticals we have pill drop boxes throughout Klay County we have one in Ulan one Dorth one in
Barnesville and um also in Glendon and that was 132 pounds of pharmaceuticals that were taken from those boxes throughout the year as well also the Operations Division they investigated a total of 427 cases um that's down a little bit from 2023 at
462 in 23 and there was just a number of cases that were included as us being primary or assisting uh throughout Minnesota North Dakota and well beyond um I know that our um one of our narcotics investigators he made multiple
trips to uh Arizona and California investigating some of the federal cases that he was assigned to so they he is going kind of everywhere to investigate these drug cases and the cases are there as jail background serious assaults juvenile sex assaults uh elder abuse
cases and everything in between um we also um assist our other partners you know specifically Morehead with some of their larger homicide cases and things like that so we are more than willing to assist all of our partners within Clay County and our regional area
here uh the street crimes they were busy in 2024 that should say 24 not 23 um they kept uh some very violent offenders off the street we had 83 assists for other agencies 69 warrant
arrests five Firearms were seized and 20 gang arrests so they did stay busy in uh 2024 as well on January 29th 2025 we did an award ceremony for some of our staff um we recognized Sergeant Darren bredman
and Deputy Brandon desel with lifesaving awards for CPR that they um performed on an individual who collaps in a bus barn just south of town um by the time they uh had the person in the ambulance a person had regained Consciousness and was talking to them uh then we
recognized Deputy Tyler Bulma Deputy Jason lean was life saving Awards they performed CPR on an individual that had fell off a ladder and hit his head at a uh residence in rural Glendon and um that individual um stayed um stayed with
us for another few months and then ultimately ended up passing uh family did um did come to the awards ceremony and assisted in presenting pres ing life saving Awards to to Deputy Bowman and uh and Deputy lean also the subject of uh
sergeant bradman's and Sergent or and Deputy desels incident uh did come to our life saving award and helped present the award to them as well uh we recognize Deputy Zach Johnson as well for with the life saving award
he performed CPR in a young child and was able to bring that child back U by the time ambulance arrived and this was uh at an area down by rural rural rustad and lastly we recognized Deputy Zach Johnson Deputy Brandon desel with commendable Service Awards and this is
for their work uh on September 17th with a runaway vehicle incident that had come through Clay County along County Road 26 uh and through hit all at 113 miles an hour um the two of them working with Trooper Grover um came up with a great plan and they were able to get that car
stopped successfully with no injury to anyone so that was that was some great work by them and as you can see from that picture it looks like I might be standing in a hole because everybody's a little bit taller than me we got to get the floor checked over there I
think then these are the deputies that we hired here in 2024 we had Deputy Matt Lambert C sarin Matt Schultz Brandon Heidi and then our CSO J ebles all of them have been great additions to the Sheriff's Office we're all very happy to have them as part of the Sheriff's
Office Team and family our Support Services Support Services transported 545 individuals in 2024 as you can see 505 are prisoners and four commitments they logged a total of
61,2 24 miles this was slightly lower than 23 but you can see there is why it was slightly lower we have the Northwest shuttle that we work with the following counties up there with Dakota Sherburn Scott and and St Louis County so they're
able save a lot of miles for us and we're able to do the same for them um it's a a great relationship that we have with those counties and it works very well for us and for those other counties uh we also work with Cass County North Dakota as they handle all
of our North Dakota transports back and then we handle all of their uh transports back in in Minnesota here so it's a good tradeoff and it's a good working relationship that we have with the c County North Dakota Sheriff's Office as well we also had three flight of transports
in 2024 we had one um from San Francisco one from San Diego and one from Georgia and with those we have to send two deputies out they fly armed they pick the individual up and then they fly back with
them court security they were busy with 5,087 in-person hearings and we were informed that we are going to go back to um the level of inperson hearings prior to co Ed starting I believe we started already so there we're going to have a
lot of inperson hearing so this number could go up the Civil Division they completed 1848 services in 2024 as you can see we had 586 subpoenas 385 summons 165 notices 122 RIT of recovery and
completed evictions 274 hro 113 ofps and 69 order to show causes a lot of papers um 16 I'm sorry 1,698 were completed by our civil deputies and you can see 294 were
served by Patrol 32 by warrants of Transport seven by investigations three by the emergency manager 10 by operations lieutenant and one by the chief deputy and one by myself so we'll jump in uh and assist wherever we need to and as you can see from there uh anybody's going to be able to serve a
paper If somebody walks in the lobby it's who's ever available to serve that paper will do it we also had the Western Minnesota steam Threshers reunion we logged about 60 incidents uh ranging from Medicals to parking complaints camping complaints and lost children uh they were also very
busy directing traffic into the grounds on both Saturday and Sunday and the next uh thing I'm going to show here was this was an email that was sent from one of our uh first responder Partners um that we work with very closely out in rollog and as you can see there she replied
there another great day at rollog your deputies were once again kind respectful and so so very helpful there are many times they went above and beyond to make a tough moment in someone's life a little bit better and I want you to know that does not go unnoticed like I said that's one of our first responder
partners that took the time to send that to me and I very much appreciated that and I wanted to share that with with you this morning with that we also have the records division and they uh were entering civil papers processing permit to purchase and carry applications
dictating reports submitting crime stats they also transcri Des cribe a lot of our uh interviews uh throughout the year they entered 2,190 warrants 1,891 civil papers 455
protection orders and for a combined and a combined total of 589 new and renewal permit to carry applications were processed and they spent their time with many reports and statements transcribed from the deputies prior to going on to the
Emergency Management division there yield to any questions if there are any yes um I was executive committee chair on this batch um at our last meeting now sheriff joner took over executive committee chair and I uh took over as the uh operations the law
enforcement operations shair it's it's still ongoing um what ends up happening is if they have open shifts they send them to Lieutenant schroer and then Lieutenant schroer will send them out to our staff um as of lately we haven't had any um any opportunities to
work because there hasn't been any open shifts our last shift that we worked was th Thursday night I believe and it was worked by Deputy Cochran the last uh report that I received from carrye we had not received any inmates yet and I don't know if that has
changed that has not their numbers have been quite low compared to what they had been in the past so we haven't seen anybody well and we will hit a little bit on Revenue in uh in in the corrections division overview um as we
do house for others we've housed for belamy County and Ottertail County so any further questions if not I'll turn it over to Lieutenant tweeton all right now it's my turn all right so 2024 did see uh little in the
way of of uh weather related disasters um we had record low low snowfall last winter and then really no major uh summer storms that uh caused any wind damage or anything like that but we did see two very large uh Mutual Aid events
that occurred in Clay County the first one being the Holly elevator fire which uh took place on February 25th of uh 20124 and uh Emergency Management assisted with the coordination resource management and emergency uh notification
so we did uh we sent out a um notification to the citizens of Holly um and then just just talking about like the the coordination of that we had 17 fire departments on scene two EMS agencies three law enforcement agencies our drone team uh Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Holly Public Works and the Salvation Army so it was a it was a really big operation and if I could add to that um our Dispatch Center was a big part of the communications to that and the dispatcher that was working that night was nominated by um Amanda glasow for an
award through the Minnesota sheriff's Association at our upcoming peap conference uh towards the end of March here yeah we had I believe leave uh fire departments from not only Clay County but Norman Becker and Otter Tail so that does you know on the dispatch end of it
too there's a lot of uh meshing of different radio channels and things like that that need needs to happen on the on the back side of that um so uh kind of going on on that the F the photo on the left is a a photo from our our drone uh
during the Holly fire and you can see that that building in the kind of the upper right quadrant um that's the Community Center um you notice the red on there that's uh the thermal that's the heat signature on that building and just I just wanted to show this picture because it really demonstrates how
valuable the information from the Drone can be because when we see that then we can we can direct uh fire you know to put water in that cool that building down um hot Embers uh there was a really strong wind out of the South that evening early on and it was bringing uh
just huge hot Embers kind of over the residential area of Holly and again that drone was was so valuable to be able to uh see rooftops and and be able to direct resources that way so it really was just proved itself uh invaluable on
that and then uh um the photo on the top is uh after afterwards we had collected information and we had a an after Action Report where we went through and uh fire departments that were uh present law enforcement at that scene were all brought together and they had the
opportunity to talk about what went well what didn't go well what uh what needed to happen and based off of that I compiled a a pretty comprehensive after Action Report which was sent back out to them and um so it gives us and those agencies the opportunity to kind of um
make make some changes and also uh you know hopefully going forward work together a little better um the second the second really large um Mutual Aid event we had was the Teran pre-cast fire and that took place on October second
and although it wasn't quite as large as far as the mutual Aid we still had uh fire departments from uh Becker County Clay County Norman County and I believe we maybe had Pelican Rapids up there um we did a request um from Otter Tail County as well he actually had Parker's
Prairie coming yeah yeah so again really really large large response on that and we were able to put a lot of uh what we had learned from the the Holly fire uh into practice there um and so the picture on this one here
um is a image from the Drone that was at the Teran preast fire and again I just wanted to just show you how important that drone and valuable that Drone footage is and we were able to see the the hole in this in the roof of the building there and then also the fire kind of running across the the roof
membrane and to be able to see that real time uh and have the the fire fire department's you know direct streams where they need to be going and they can see you know from that that hey that stream of water is making it inside the building or isn't so it's just again very very valuable our drone drone team
was requested 10 times in 2024 two for fires uh four for missing persons three for suspect searches and one for a crime scene in in South Morehead uh 2024 uh Emergency Management training and and exercise highlights um we did
co-host a Regional Crisis Intervention training um which was open to um first responders from Klay County Becker County Ottertail and wilin County um Kirsten who was here earlier for the the employee recognition was a big part of that it was uh funded through a grant um
through that group that was held at Concordia College um and we did have a really good response from um not only law enforcement but other First Responders throughout the region um the Sheriff's Office sergeant and sergeants and myself we attended a
wide area search training it seems like at least once or twice a year we uh somewhere out in Ro Clay County we have a a missing person be it in a cornfield or something like that so um this this training was put on by by FEMA and really uh really did a good job of um
helping us to understand maybe how to direct those searches better and use our resources more W more wisely um also co- presented with the the Morehead em and the Morehead Police Department an active threat exercises at MSU in Concordia College um so we talked
about I went through a tabletop exercise with both of those College um about an active threat on their campus uh attended two cyber security exercises planned and attended a regional EOC exercise which took place in uh manomen and uh contained EMS and First
Responders uh throughout the Northwest Minnesota and then uh 2024 planning and Outreach we participated in summer and winter weather awareness weeks as we do every year um work closely with the National Weather Service uh office out of Grand Forks to to maintain our storm
ready uh certification for Clay County attended C quarterly preparedness meetings with the fire chiefs Association EMS Association uh long-term care Association which uh um syvan is from public health and myself uh co-chair and then corporate foster care
Association um active with HSM Region 3 joint Powers board um I'm two years running now the the president of the joint Powers board for Northwest Minnesota and then amm which is the association of uh Minnesota emergency manag maners active with with that and
attend their conference um and then our County EOP this last year in 2024 went through re the regional Review Committee so they bring um Representatives kind of representing different disciplines so there'll be someone that comes in from
EMS uh Public Works whatnot and we sit down and we go over the County Emergency Operations plan to make sure everything is up to dat and uh it's meeting all the requirements of the state and and FMA that is what I I have any questions thank you thank you Gabe you
we will move on to the corrections division uh we currently have two full-time positions to fill I believe that's up to three now correct yep uh we've been trying to you know be fully staff since 2021 backfill we will get there it's a it's a constant process constantly uh interviewing and hiring
but we will eventually get there uh after one year of body cams these were well received by our staff uh they've been very crucial for documentation of certain legal processes and it's also helped us train uh new staff with scenarios that do occur
within our facility um these have been a very good addition within our correctional facility and we're very uh fortunate for the support for these and thank you for that because I believe that uh that's eventually going to save us um in the long run you know potential millions of dollars of a lawsuit so
they're they're a very very good addition here's some stats for our uh our County Jail here we booked in 25 individuals and 20 20 2500 individuals not 25 2500 uh currently have five individuals that are going through the mental health
commandment process with the courts uh five of our 5% of our jail population uh could be uh considered mentally incompetent which is down from about 10% last year and we did have one individual in custody for 452 days that was deemed
uh mentally ill and dangerous we were we waited that long for a bed for this individual we finally was were able to find him a bed and get them out of our facility on January 21st of this year um that is not acceptable in my opinion
that is a failure on the Department of Health um they have 48 hours to find a bed for somebody that puts a lot on counties it puts a lot on our jail staff having to deal with somebody for 452 days it puts uh a lot of liability on our County as well in the event of
something were to happen within our facility um I have been working with the state in regards to trying to find a better process with this the sheriff's Association does have uh a representative on the 48 hour priority admissions task force to try
and make this to where it is a lot quicker uh 452 days is probably one of the longer ones I know hanban county has one or had one that was over 900 days and uh Hanahan County and Clay County are the examples that continue to be used at the state level as far as how
this is unacceptable uh some revenue generated by our jail is approximately 182,000 for 2024 for housing medium and maximum classification inmates for other jurisdictions uh docc inmates and federal inmates for trial purposes um
and some of the counties were assisting with that is uh Ottertail County and Becker County uh we also have a contract in place to house forecast County North Dakota and like we had mentioned earlier we have not done that yet um We are continuing with the dream program within
the facility it encompasses all of our programming that we have available to the offenders with the support of our volunteers and once again another special shout out to our heart of clay we would not be able to do the amount of programming without them we're very fortunate to have um that organization
being willing to come into our facilities so again thank you to the heart of clay for all the work they do throughout the year for not only uh the inmates within our facility but also our staff as well and then the River project uh they
recently hired Kimberly uh blo uh we were without um the River project for sometime due to a unexpected resignation um within that uh within Lakeland Mental Health um but we are very happy and excited to get back on a normal routine
with this uh this program so uh C is there working she is full steam ahead and she's doing a good job for us over there and lastly just a big thank you to the Clay County Commissioners and the County Administrator for your continued support to the Sheriff's Office throughout the year it's a team effort
you're part of the team and we truly appreciate uh the support you provide to us with that I would yield for any questions uh commissioner eer yeah not a question just an observation I think Commissioners come
in with a body of expertise in various areas Finance rural parts of the county we everybody bring something to the table unfortunately my skill set involves criminal justice and uh that could be a real conflict
except all I need to use my background towards is to validate that we've got a incredibly professional uh organization sheriff and you can take responsibility for that that and your staff I've worked with a
lot of your staff over the years and we have a we have a tremendous Correctional Facility we went to the voters and asked them to pay a sales tax to get these things built with the promise that they would meet the needs of the county and
that they would be uh exemplary I go to an AMC Public Safety Committee meeting and when they talk about corrections being done right invariably they talk about Clay County invariably when we talk about the Mental Health crisis we have in the state that
the state has let go for the most part unaddressed um we hear about the river program and the projects that we're trying to do here in Clay County uh you've knocked you you you continue to knock it out of the
park and again all I need to use my little bit of expertise on is to validate that we are very fortunate to have your organization here here I'm grateful for it thank you commissioner be so from being from ml Clay County I'd
like to thank you guys for being out there and we can notice you out there driving around with that being said with 2026 coming with Paid Family Leave what how are you guys going to be able to keep giving service out in Ral Clay
County with that coming down the pipe yeah that's uh something that we're very concerned about with the earned safe and sick time Paid Family Leave um we're going to do our best to ensure that we have people out there in R Clay County to ensure calls for service are
covered and our patrols are out there we have an excellent staff that I feel don't uh abuse sick time or anything like that and I do believe that the staff that we do have will will come to work when they need to come to work for their scheduled shifts they we have
great people in Clay County we have great deputies they're top-notch I think they're the best in the state and I believe that we will continue to provide the same service if not more in 2026 I do feel that we may need additional
staff to assist with that um as you saw that we are consistently short sometimes in Patrol right now just due to FMLA sick time comp time trainings vacations things like that so I do feel I will need additional staff moving forward um but we will do everything that we can to
provide the same level of service thank you and keep keep up the good work thank you as just based on the report tomorrow it's it's clear that you guys are always thorough in what you do
um you know your report today was excellent it gave a good indication we don't be need to be asking what you did the last five days uh I think it's I think it's pretty clear that you guys are busy all the time and and that's great and you know I
I think I can speak on behalf of this board and that that we will continue to uh provide you with the needs that you have to make sure that our communities are always safe and we will always keep
that at the top of our list so thank you for your report today and I thank you for that again I I sincerely um appreciate our working relationship that we have because I meet with other sheriffs and I know it's not like that across the state I know that sometimes the sheriff and the boards and even the
county administrators might not work very well together um but we do hear and uh I I do appreciate that so thank you as well for your support very good thank you thank you Chris you didn't say anything this
morning it's the way I like it it's the way I like it all right right okay our next item is the um request approval of resolution 20252 for the city of Holly to purchase
parcel 56685 n90 good morning good morning good morning um this came to board on I believe it was October 8th and the City of Holly had originally
requested uh to receive a parcel land that's in a lowline area that's not buildable and they wanted to put a oh what was a like a community garden something to that sort um they didn't have all the details
uh out I guess as specific as the state would have liked it and the um State denied the request for that um wanted them to do another type of um uh deed was a
um what was it called a the it was a conditional USD and it cost $250 well the parcel of land was only originally $500 anyway so the gal I have been dealing with for a few months at the state suggested that they probably it's
on their best you know on their best uh agenda just to buy it for $500 because under the other use and they had to comply with all these things or give it back to the state it was a bunch of rig a roll so um so then they
they um did approve it to um if they could purchase it so being it was approved before then that's why I had to do another resolution was is this something because we're approving just an outright purchase is this well
because because it had gotten approved by the um board that they could take it for free and this is a tax forfeit property from 2013 so it's been sitting out there since since then and it's not
buildable so I guess I'm just wondering about the public process for for for a parcel oh anybody can come in and actually purchase a parcel of land that's on the tax forfeit list as long
as it didn't get bought at the um County at the sale the auction sale um each December if there the public purpose thing doesn't apply here because they're right buying it right yep yep so all right so you're looking for a motion to replace resolution 202
24-30 with resolution 2025-the parcel indicated for the price of $500 and avoid any restrictions in the future I'll make that motion second we have a motion and a second any further
discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same sign motion carried all right thank you all right next we have a recognition Proclamation for social work
month some important people Quinn good morning morning Mr chair Commissioners uh yes I am here to request a motion to Proclaim March Social Work month in Clay County just have a few words to say uh
before we get to the proclamation um get on my Soap Box a little bit here for supportting staff uh being a social worker is more than a job uh it's a passion and a calling it requires empathy resilience bravery and an unwavering commitment for helping others particularly the most vulnerable in our
communities whether consciously acknowledged or not those who enter this profession do so out of a deep sense of Duty to advocate for and support individuals and families in need social workers navigate complex challenges like commissioner emping said 452 days of an
indiv idual being in a jail that doesn't belong there couldn't support that more um their impact extends far beyond office walls inspiring hope in fostering positive change in the lives of countless individuals through their dedication they Empower people to overcome barriers access critical
resources and build brighter Futures despite the immense value of their work social workers often go unrecognized balancing the scrutiny of the community the courts and the state while serving those in crisis yet they remain steadfast in their mission proving unwavering support and advocacy or sorry
providing that proclaiming March as Social Work month is an opportunity to honor and celebrate these incredible professionals recognizing their contributions and making our community stronger safer and more compassionate for all uh with that I would request that the motion is approved and we all
right well we do have a proclamation here that we will first read and I will I'll start off whereas the social work profession is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of individuals and strengthening communities by helping
people navigate challenges and meet their basic needs particularly the most vulnerable Among Us and where social workers advocate for social justice Empower individuals and families and work tirelessly to promote policies and practices that ensure equal rights and
opportunities for all and whereas Clay County social workers provide essential compassionate services that support individuals Children and Families helping them overcome hardships build resilience and contribute positively to our community and whereas in the past
year Clay County social workers have completed over 3,595 intakes for service served over 85 children in out of home uh care conducted over 305 Child Protection assessments 175 adult protection
assessments and 1,29 Minnesota men Choice ass assessments assisted 921 individuals who are elderly or have disabilities and remaining in their communities licens or certified over 309 homes for dayc carees child foster care
adult foster care and corporate foster care screened over 144 individuals for mental health Andor chemical health civil commitments and conducted over 189 chemical health assessments now therefore in recognition
of the invaluable cont contributions of social workers in Clay County we the commissioners of Clay County do hereby proclaim the month of March as Social Work month we encourage all members of our community to join in celebrating and expressing appreciation for the de
dedicated professionals who provide critical support advocacy and care to those in need their unwavering commitment strengthens our families citizens communities and our future commissioner eer M shair I move uh I
make motion to adopt and Proclaim March 2025 as social worker month in Clay County I will second that you have a motion and the second on the proclamation any further discussion Mr abinger I'm married to a licensed clinical social worker she's retired not
right now but um for our for her entire working period that we were married I got to see the incredible contribution of social workers make to the community and since coming to Klay County Quin your people have just done nothing but
demonstrated that they are at the top of the of the uh standard for social workers we're lucky to have you this is a good Proclamation and happy social worker month thank you they do great work thanks you I I'd Echo that and I
just um um some of the work that they do um can be very stressful um see what goes on in some of these families in our communities is um it can be heartbreaking and and your staff are the ones who are the boots on
the ground sort of speak that are trying to make the best of any situation that they can and and we've got a a good group of people in Clay County U I've had the opportunity to witness that over the last a number of years and and I'm
I'm extremely proud of um all of the people that we have working Within your department so thank you yeah all right I've got the next oh okay we didn't vote did we okay all right all in favor of the Proclamation signify by
saying I I oppose the same motion carried all right Quinn and then you got one more thing here don't you I do yes thank you right request to hire a social worker position for the adult Behavioral Health division unfortunately I have to follow that up with we're losing
one I'm as you as you can see I'm here requesting approval to hire a social worker in our adult and Behavioral Health division uh this staff works specifically with civil commitments and treatment coordination um it provides intensive case management and oversight for individuals with substance use
disorders mental health disorders and complex needs uh this position specifically also is an active participant in our drug court program also works with pregnant and using mothers regarding their treatment needs as well the need for this position is critical to ensure continuity of
services for us and maintain our Department's capacity to respond effectively to the increasing demands of substance use disorder Services civil commitments and our specialty Court programs as they evolve kind of over time um this request comes as we continue to experience the loss of our
highly skilled staff to the state we are losing another one to uh dcyf here unfortunately uh this is the third employee now in a row I've had to come to who has accepted an offer from the state in recent months I do feel the need to highight
our staff's expertise and experience is really what the state looks for and seems to be why they keep taking our good people um with that uh we would post immediately assuming that this would be uh approved uh current wages
for this position are grade 18 step 10 uh we budgeted for that in 2025 is budget we do anticipate that a new hire would start on grade 18 step one which would uh create an estimated cost Savings of this position does generate a small amount of revenue for billable services
that they provide estimated to be about $9,700 per year uh I am looking for backfill as well if that is something that that the uh Commissioners would approve but with that I would yield for any questions that you have all right any
questions M sure I'd move that uh we approve the replacement of so social worker position within the adult and Behavioral Health division backfill if necessary second we have a motion and a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor
signify by saying I I oppose the same motion carried thank you Quinn thank you our next item is the approval of 179d tax credit allocation letter for Klein McCarthy Architects and gerts construction services and this is in
regards to the which building is this uh withdrawal management Mr chair uh thank you Mr chair again the question before you today is there's been a request made by both construction engineers and Klein McCarthy Architects
to take advantage of an energy credit uh uh tax on our re on our withdrawal management uh facility uh it's not it's because we're a government entity it's not something that we're able to participate in uh and and so Joe's been
working with with the two entities over the last few weeks to bring this item before en jooy I don't know if you have anything to add to that um so the board would be requesting permission or we'd be requesting permission of the board uh to sign the document allowing them to go
after the tax credit at this point we don't know exactly what that dollar amount would be uh because they would have to go through the process uh with this with the through the IRS uh to identify what that dollar amount could potentially be just for from a history
standpoint we did do this uh for Klein McCarthy back in 2018 at at the completion of the law enforcement center and the correctional facility yeah and just just to add to Steve's stuff there is uh basically they have to do a study
is what they do and then this study allows uh to prove that they've designed it and built it properly and a lot of times you'll see or sometimes you'll see um the guarantee for the tax credits in the contract when we first signed and so
neither gerts or um kle McCarthy had this in their contract so I worked with both of them to give them 50% of the allocation and both of them agreed so the letter you see is a joint um joint sign between the two entities and they've agreed to work together with the
study itself and um and um if if all goes well they would they would claim 50% each of the tax credit awarded so okay Comm Mr bear is this common for PE for entities like this to come back and ask for this tax credit yeah in the
in the in the architectural World a lot um and some and not as much in the contractor world but both of them do do do apply or do um qualify we actually had this incorporated into our previous contracts
didn't we with the uh we we did not but they came before you to request that back in October of October 23 of 18 excuse me okay yeah all right we're so we're looking for
approval I'll make a motion to approve 179d tax credit allocation letter for kly McCarthy architecture and gerts Construction Services second we have a motion in the second any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same
motion carried we are four minutes ahead so we're taking a three minute thank you C e e e e e dog for the Clay County Attorney's
Office Brian I'm assuming you want to start off oh thank you Mr chair uh Commissioners I'll I'll just start off and then I'll turn over to uh Pam fer my chief uh for the Criminal Division of the office uh but we did come before the pick uh we are looking uh to uh obtain a
facility dog to help with uh working with victims uh help working with traumatized people uh that might regularly come through our office uh they're dealing with difficult situations dealing with going through the court system and um so the the dog
that pan will be explaining and the that facility uh dog uh piece is a process uh to go through and and uh um but mainly wanted to be able to present to you talk to you about there are several counties throughout the state that have worked to
already do this and and show the importance of it and um the legal uh legalities of it if you will have already kind of somewhat been worked through the system and and uh definitely something that I think can benefit um people within our County and people that
come through our office so I thought uh again we have talked to the pick already um but we wanted to come before the board here and and uh present to the board Pam than you Pam good morning Pam thank you for your time this morning
um like Brian said this is a a kind of an Endeavor that we've looked into about four years ago I met with Kelly Troutman in Sterns County Attorney's Office they had a facility dog um my experience in
the County attorneys and preparing trials and Witnesses and children for trials is tring trying to get them comfortable and not we've kind of decided now at this point this would be a good opportunity or a good time for our office to seek these dogs so I have done a PowerPoint and the
first part of the PowerPoint will explain to you kind of what this facility dog is and then at the end kind of what our proposal would be to get a facility dog within our office um so what we're looking at is it's a dog that will work in a
courthouse it can also work in Prosecutor's offices CH child advocacy centers family courts um they primarily provide a calming influence for children during stressful leing legal proceedings um they are legally neutral
companions so for Witnesses so they can be used not only for prosecution but if a defendant had a witness that they wanted to use the dog for they could do that they could be available for jurors after jury service after they've gone
through through a a significant trial with some traumatizing they're actually available to those people as well so any emotional support that somebody needs in the court system that's where these dogs work um in Clay County it would be a
employee similar to a can9 with a sheriff's office um it would be a coworker within our office it is not a pet um and its job would be to provide necessary Comfort where and when it's directed by its Handler so unlike a
therapy dog that is assigned to a person facility dogs are assigned to a Handler and then provide the service to wherever the Handler directs um it's not an emotional support animal and it also would not be a distraction to office staff I mean we
would put very strict rules in place of what this Dog's Purpose is it's not to run around the office for people to play with during the day um it would have a very specific job within our office with restrictions we would T plan on using
this dog mainly for pre-trial meetings with victims and Witnesses we've had um I think when Brian did his presentation last year to the or last week to the board the amount of violent crime that we see going through our office with murders sex assaults um serious assaults
has gone up quite a bit and this dog would provide service to those people when we meet with families of murder victims we' meet with Children of sexual abuse um we have to have several meetings with them and the dog would be available during that to provide support
also during trial for victims or Witnesses Allowed by the court this was an issue for Sterns County when they first got their dog because nobody had done it before um they have gone through all the litigation all the paperwork all the argument to get a dog on the witness
stand with the victim it's also been affirmed by the appet court at this point so all that legal work has been done for us by Sterns County they've provided us with all their documentation so when we're ready to roll with the court system we have that all in our back pocket already
to get going um we' also use it for contested hearings we would also use it um to support Clay County office staff and other employees as needed social workers that you know may have a tough case with a family or attorneys that have
gone through a tough trial the dog would be there for that support as well and finally it would also as far as the county goes promote Goodwill within the county and victim support in the community as needed like I just mentioned why we're
kind of looking for one is the increased number of violent crimes um there's overwhelming research and opinions at a facility dog not only helps reduce the stress and Trauma on victims but it also helps facilitate a victim or a witness
testifying and relaying information in a truthful manner um there is four other counties in Minnesota that had used this dog dogs similar to this and it's just another toolbox in our office um to help victims
and for successful prosecutions of violent offenders um these are three of the four dogs currently working in cour houses in Minnesota Nova works for Sterns County Dino works for an NOA County and Nori
Works in Ramsey County Nova and Nori are actually litter mates and they come from helping paw which is an organization that we would be looking for um to get our dog from and I'm going to play Just Nori or
I'm sorry Nova actually was on Good Morning America um so I'm going to play just a clip of that and what she does to kind of give you an idea of how these dogs are used and specifically how Sterns County uses their dogs I'm going to apologize because when I put this link in I could
not get rid of the ad so there'll be a quick add 3.5 million in Revenue out of 6X row ad those are the numbers my business is generated since I first started working with many chat and Instagram
they are my secret weapon for customer acquisition we know how hard it is to get people's attention nowadays and once you get their attention the question becomes how do you keep their attention thanks to many chat and Instagram it has never been easier to build trust likeability we are back with a
revolutionary Edition into a courtroom in Minnesota meet Nova the 6-year-old golden retriever offering emotional support to child abuse victims and Witnesses on the stand the state's first facility dog changing the justice
system we have a new coworker at our office her name is Nova no offense to my human co-workers but she is the best helping Paws is a nonprofit We started our fac facility dog program
about 5 years ago we breed and train service dogs and facility dogs we use Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers because they are people Pleasers Janelle came to us through one of our foster home trainers and they
started to work on Nova being paired with the court Nova began work in the Sterns County Attorney's Office in October of 2019 these are are dogs that are very specifically trained to come in and deal with persons in traumatic situations we
first had her in the office interacting with um child abuse victims to help our children explain to a group of strangers what has happened to them Kelly Troutman is novas Handler and she was the perfect person she is the one that deals with
the humanity of the persons who have been affected by crime we picked Nova for each case depending upon if the victim or witness wants her and that person can interact with Nova before and after testimony but getting Nova into
the witness stand is a little different because we have to file motions in that case which we recently did and were granted Twice noa's first case in the witness stand was a criminal sexual conduct case the individual that testified was a teen
at the time of her testimony I was very proud of this victim she was on the stand for multiple hours but with Nova's help she was able to get through that the defendant was convicted and he was sentenced to 360 months in
prison once people start to see what a dramatic impact it's making it will become much more common I think every Courthouse should have a Nova we know that these dogs are Life Changers oh I second that everybody
needs a Nova right so some of the um questions about where the dog would stay is during the day it would be in the office in a dog bed and crate um it would be in meetings as needed in court as needed it would be with a Handler or the assistant Handler
at all times so like I said earlier it's not just going to be running around the office or the courthouse um it will be on a leash at all times nights or we weekends it will live with the primary Handler and um for necessary vacations um the primary hand of the
primary Handler and assistant Handler or the helping pause provides a babysitter it's not a dog that goes to a boarding facility so um it is a process to get the dog through helping paw you have to do a letter of interest um there's an application
process dogs have to be available and they have to match with the Handler so they breed a number of dogs for this purpose and the amount of interest in facility dogs has gone up so they've taking on more dogs to breed
more litters but it's it's a process um of two years of training so the dogs that are available have gone through two years of training and have graduated from the program then they have to match with the Handler so it could take what we were told um last told was one to two
years to actually get a dog available um it took Sterns County from when they started the process four years and Ramsay six years and that was from the planning to getting the dog um I think once you get to the site visit that we're going to discuss in a bit it goes
a little a little faster we would want to use helping Paws we've already sent in the letter of interest in the application um dogs are about $300 for the dog plus the equipment
after two years of training they put about $30,000 into these dogs and we get them for $300 it also includes a week of training for the primary Handler and if there's a secondary Handler in Eden Prairie with
the dog after there's a match I did kind of a breakdown of what it would cost to have a dog um and this is a first year estimate of$ 3400 obviously not all these expenses are every year because a lot of
it's the setup expenses but we I think maybe not to sorry to cut a Pam off but just to point out um those costs uh would be uh absorbed through um use of forfeiture dollars so there wouldn't be a cost to the county or to taxpayers we have
forfeiture funds that come in this is a a authorized use and that's what we would expect to use so there wouldn't be additional cost to the county yeah so then there's also other Counties have costs for the Handler and
that's kind of what we ran into is the different counties Sterns County just they pays our Handler just as they do their K9 hennipin um they negotiate it through a Union contract a NOA simply has a contract with the county that upon
retirement the dog would go to the Handler um in Ramsey County basically they get a paid parking spot and unlimited comp time so our proposal that we would like to present to the board for approval is to apply for a dog um out of
helping paw like I said the current weight list is about 1 to two years um and as Brian just told you that we would pay the all the cost associated with this dog through forfeiture funds so it would be no cost to the county or to the
taxpayers it would be purely our office um providing any expenses for the dogs that were mentioned in that previous slide as for the cost of the primary Handler um the only thing that we would ask is that the there be a contract that
the dog go to the Handler upon retirement of the dog um very similar to the K9 dogs that I mean the dogs bond with with their Handler and after working for the county for as long as the dog can work for the county um we would like it to go to the
Handler the person it knows there is also maybe a the fee of travel for the primary Handler if there's any appointments outside of work or regular hours basically travel expenses um if necessary we talked about
who might be the primary Handler for the county and we have decided would be me um I am not asking for any extra payment I'm not asking for any I don't even care if I get the mileage for this expenses um I just think the the value of having one
of these dogs in the office for the work we do um is worth it to me so so the next steps is like I said we've already sent the letter of interest in the application The Next Step would be a site visit where they would come they would look at the
courthouse the office space they would come to my home um and look to where the dog would live we'd also secure commitment from someone within our office as a secondary Handler in case I'm not available to handle the dog for a proceeding or if I ever take a
vacation um we have several people in our office that are a couple of people that have been willing to step up and say they would be the secondary Handler the next step is that helping pause would bring three to four dogs to the county to meet the handlers to see
what this the space is like to see what the match is um and then to see if we get approved for a dog then we just basically wait um till a dog becomes available I know that they do have a graduation coming at the
end of April I don't know if all those dogs are spoken for um but if not it we would just wait for a dog to become available so with that does anybody have any questions I know when you're your um presentation to us at pick um you had
mentioned about being the primary Handler and and I didn't ask the question then but I'm assuming you've had some experience with dogs in the family oh gosh yes okay I have I've got two dog three dogs actually they've all
gone through various forms of The Obedience one I do agility with the other one I do obedience with um so I've had dogs going through training probably for 25 years very good commissioner bear
how typically do these dogs stay in service well I did ask that so they come to us at two um it really depends on the amount of stress you put on the dog because this is very stressful for a dog to provide the service like Nova in her
trial experience that one trial she was on the stand for five hours sat there for five hours with someone and basically absorbing that stress um when I talk to Kelly she's hoping that the dog makes it to 11 to do a service but it's really helping pause
every year you have to report to them and they check on the dog and if they tell you this dog has is too stressed it's it's done then you have to retire it but I mean it could go like from 2 until 11: is the
hope it can go longer than that it just depends on the amona work the dog does and how they handle that stress I know in I think it was in Brian's comments or or maybe it was yours but also it was pointed out that Which counties uh currently do have them
and and you know it's quite evident that they're larger counties M and I think in those larger counties is we're probably much more likely to have more of these stressful type of cases uh compared to a
you know the smaller counties even in the Northwest part of Minnesota but um as we continue to grow I know we've talked about this in pick and our pick Committee just believes this is a great idea commissioner abber do you want to
come yeah I was just going to say pick has approved this to come up and uh I think it's a great idea I think we need to get in there and get in line and with that I'll make a motion that we approve a facility dog for Klay County
attorney's office oh second that and will that motion include then that the funding would come from forfeiture funds yes the funding would come for for forfeiture funds i' meet your second yes right Brian are you good with that language absolutely very good all right
any further discussion just one question one more question allergies is there anybody allergic to dogs down there I think that uh there is you I think the discussion about that is is making sure I I would say only first that um you
know the idea is we have office space we there's it's either crate or bed or both the dog is kept you know in an office it's not just circulating and going around people nobody within my staff currently has any kind of allergies um
but even if it ever comes up with say victims they're always asked if they want to have any contact with a dog whether they just don't like dogs or don't want to have any contact or if they was any allergy piece we'd be very cognizant of that um and I think the same if we ever had somebody that we
hired we would just ensure that the dog is not around that yeah make sure that person is you know not around them or the dog's going in there so yeah that's something that I we've talked to Sterns County because and actually Ramsey because they've got
golden retrievers and it's the dog is never presented to anyone that doesn't want to be the it's always asked before the dog's ever presented um we understand that there's a lot of cultural issues too with some people that don't like dogs or it's a cultural thing so the dog will never just walk in
the front door or be walking around the courthouse um it will come in a separate entrance with me it will be kept away if from anybody that doesn't want the dog around them and the office space I think that we're thinking of is not within the
main part of the office it's off to the back so it will be you know separated out from kind of the busyness of our office and did you mention that this would be we' list this with mcit we have
we have that conversation right that is probably the one other piece that we do need to make sure just as we have and we already have insurance that covers the Kines we would just put that on there um I don't expect that so so that is really the one if you will expense I don't expect that really to be anything to be
honest because I think this type of dog is not even a dog that's uh you know at the level that you know has the ability to attack or anything else you know we're this is a a train uh therapy dog if you will I mean or facility dog to
help people it's you know so I don't expect that I think we've talked about that with Stud I don't think there's much extra to it other than we would put them on there that is correct all right any further questions comments seeing none all in favor
signify by saying I hi oppose the same sign motion carried all right thank you very much good luck we'll keep you updated as we hopefully hear from them in the future thank you we bring the dog up will you be able to bring that dog up here so we won't be able to give him
Milk Bones and I P if during the visit they want to talk to the commission yeah yeah that we let him now we're fully in support of it all right thank you thank you all right thank you all right so we'll move right
into committee reports and I know commissioner eringer has some commitments so maybe we can get hopefully get through everybody before you have to leave but we'll start with um commissioner evinger thank you um on uh Tuesday the 25th we had
pick uh meeting which covered uh the facility dog we've just talked about also some of the uh time off from work uh issues that we're looking at just to update our our our employee manual with election judges organ donors
bone marrow donations all of those are state law they're going to be included in policy uh HR benefits discussion for 28 full-time employees that's kind of a work in progress looking at uh at uh what's moving forward on that we also
had a social worker vacation issue which I think is being addressed as well uh later that I'm sorry um later that day yeah I remotely well in route
to um the cities for AMC I did pull over on the side of the road and remotely attend the um trip RDC board meeting uh during which time we approved a $107 180 expense for
replacement of the UPS battery uh system they have in the dispatch Center uh had a project update on the building coming up and then we had a vote on uh accepting a bid from Edge
River solutions for fiber optic uh feed into the uh Dispatch Center as I mentioned we uh we had the AMC legislative committee meeting last week just run over some of the high
highlights in General Session uh Governor Waltz came and spoke to us and then legislative leadership panel of uh speaker of the house uh deuth speaker Meritus uh bfl leader Hortman Senate
Majority Leader Murphy and Senate minority leader Mark Johnson uh were at the panel and responded to questions that were provided by the AMC staff uh was very enlightening on where our legislative issues are right now um or at least
where the positions are with these people and uh gave us hopefully give us a little bit of an idea of where we're moving forward uh we also on uh our day at the
capitl all of us were present we met with Senator Rob cek Senator Mark Johnson representative Heather keler Representative Steve Gander and represent Jim joy we had some good informative positive discussions with
them on where we're where we're going to progress hopefully during this session um on the 27th I attended the AMC public safety policy committee [Music] um we
discussed some of the issues that are some of the uh subcommittees that we've got reported then we had emergency response systems emergency medical uh Services Community Supervision and mental health care that gave brief
reports uh we also had uh the presence of Kendall Hughes who has been part of the restorative practices with the state and he was here when restorative practices came to do the uh Community
panel for uh Clay County and looking for a grant that we're currently still waiting on aren't we uh he he addressed what these the benefits of Comm of the uh restorative practices are and he identified the Clay
County panel and Clay County's efforts in getting this grant as pretty much exemplary of what we should be doing which was kind of nice to hear uh later that well on the 27th which is when that meeting occurred came
back from St Paul and got to farone we had the diversion Board of authority meeting later that day uh had the usual General business finance report um voucher approval uh looked at some of the
contracts and uh M they were presented and approved I had an executive director update and general counsel update we did uh discuss a technical dispute resolution board that was
updated To Us by general counsel and as uh after the um ruling from attorney general Wrigley on the uh status of this being a public meeting all three of the people
have resigned and currently they are working at getting a new panel together for this and for the uh Financial resolution should we need it U trying to find some people that are willing to do this as a public meeting which pretty
much deviates from the way it's generally done but that is a ruling what they've got in North Dakota for us and we're going to have to live with it uh had a sales tax update and then we had a closed executive SE session uh
pursuant to North Dakota law for the attorney consultation um and Direction The General coun and the executive director involving uh mediation or continued litigation and force the terms and
conditions of the separation and release agreement of the former executive director and that completes my report thank you commissioner bear uh last Tuesday February 25th I had an MRC meeting down in St Paul where we
went over the legislation update giving it's only it had only started 10 days at the house prior to that so there wasn't too much to uh mention on that we also had a robin with all the other counties
there discussing our issues that each County had then on the 26 we had the AMC legislation conference start and we uh had a full day at the capital
where we met all our legis L from Clay County it was a very informative very yeah I thought very very well done first time being there very enjoyed it very much and then the next day February 27th we had the transportation in and
infrastructure policy committee down there as well where we had a Mot Road funding report where there's there's continually being a gap on funds going into the mind. road fund with so we had a report on that saying where the money is coming from where all the money comes
from and where it's going out to and right now there's a gap there and they're figuring out how to fix that Gap so we don't lose too many dollars so then we also had a legislation update with priorities and bills of interest to keep an eye on and seeing how they're moving
through the house or Senate and then we also had an update on the public land survey system which Klay county is doing where we go and Mark all our ction lines in the county when we've been doing that for the last couple
years uh and that that meeting adjourned after that and that is all I have for re committee assignments reports all right very good thank you on February 25th I also attended the U Personnel issues committee and um commissioner eringer
has given a good complete report on that the items that we acted on today I don't have anything else to add to that on February 27th we did have um of course we were at
AMC um the 26th and 27th um the meeting with the i the morning session when we started we heard from the governor and the leaders of the
legislature and then uh in the afternoon we we did spend time at the capital as um commissioner eer mentioned we met with several of our um area legislatures on the important issues for Clay County
and we provided them with additional material to back up what we're looking for um on Thursday uh Thursday morning we had the policy meetings and I've now switched to
General government I got in there and at the beginning they asked each policy member to uh pick one of the three items to talk about during the
conference and by the time that process was done I had to go I and I didn't I mean I had to go back to come back to town that's what I had to do just to clarify that um
and so I attended the uh I had to come back to attend the diversion meeting but I I know Darren you had mentioned you were going to try to get the general government I don't know if you're were able to but maybe I can if you did I can maybe ask you to talk a little bit about that okay and
then um and then so then on the the diversion meeting again uh commissioner abinger he seemed to share some of the same committees and he talks before I do and takes all the window out of my sales so
[Laughter] um all right okay so and then and then uh Friday late Friday afternoon uh Jason Benson the new um diversion director uh had lined up a meeting with
myself as Vice chair of the diversion Authority along with the diversion Authority chair and um a couple of others to go over the Minnesota projects and what they're what they're looking for is trying to come up
with a timing sequence of when these projects um can be done versus when they need to be done and and the whole idea in mind is is they would like to see us delay as many of these projects as possible to
allow time to get the funding for them from the state of Minnesota um I certainly relayed the importance that uh at some point in time they're all going to have to be done and I I haven't wavered on that and that's and I let
them know that that's been the position of our County Board as well so we met and we're having a highway tracking meeting here this morning and Jason Benson's going to be coming in and and so we need to there's there's several people involved with
this process there's um you know there's the Buffalo red is is spearheading a couple of the projects when it comes to Wolverton and Georgetown our Highway engineer is working on the county 2 and the road through Comstock project uh
those are U those are Justin's projects that he's working on so we're going to try to meet and see who should be um deciding you know timelines for these projects how long do we dare not dare but how long can we let them go out
before uh before they would need to proceed um I also brought up the potential if we could go to uh for example the county or the road raise on Highway 75 and Georgetown that is a um that needs to be
authorized through menot but right now it still is a diversion project but one of the things that I would like to talk to Justin about to see if if we could potentially look for any
mot dollars that could maybe go towards that project of course in the I believe in all of the other Road raises that happened on Highway 75 north of Georgetown I can't say for sure but I believe mindat was involved with those and I'm and I don't know if that funding
came through DNR if it came through mot so I those questions we'll be talking about but so they um so we'll continue to do that and and ultimately I think what's going to happen is Jason Benson will probably
come to this board a week from today to kind of go over these things I and I basically told him that I've got no Authority on my own to make these decisions and so that I think his plan will then after our discussion today uh
he'll come before this board I believe next next Tuesday um because some of these things they're outlined in our partnership agreements that we have with the diversion Authority and so we we'll need to know
if there's any modifications to the partnership agreements regarding timelines and what we may not may or may not be able to do there um and then I guess that concludes my report
Steve do you want to go next sure thank you Mr chair uh last Tuesday I participated in a meeting uh in regards to uh our agreement with the resource recovery facility in the city of Morehead they've asked for some negotiations as far as the current contract and so we're going to be
setting up another meeting with City more here in the near future to talk about that par gonna yeah I guess I did I did have that in on the 25th uh we did have that meeting um internally um to to go
over um some of the responses that we might have to the city of Morhead and how we're going to deal with that so I just want regarding that um transfer station so I participated that morning also in the P meeting that's been well
covered um that afternoon I met with the city council person Dave Sten uh he had idea about uh potential leadership training that maybe uh different governmental entities can look at so we're going to have uh that'll be uh shared I think at our inter
intergovernmental uh meeting on Thursday uh to find gauge any interest participated on the 26th at the legislative conference that's been well covered um I think I'll let Darren talk on the policy committee then uh did also participate uh participate there on the
27th uh on the 28th we had a flood mitigation check-in meeting uh that we've been having each Friday we just uh note that senator cek did drop Senate file uh 2015 on behalf of the Clay County City Morehead and the Buffalo Red River water
district uh for the flood diversion money of 60.4 million currently there's no companion bill but working with our Representatives uh hopefully to move that forward we also had a prtf virtual call uh Senator cek was present with our
representatives from the county and uh and Steve Summers from Solutions uh continuing to work through that yesterday uh continuing to work through flood mitigation documents we received some uh additional documents from uh from our area Representatives that we
did send those in in Partnership uh with the city of Morehead uh and just of note uh we did get an email during the meeting that uh last week uh we had a discussion for this board to consider providing additional funds uh for the
water district formation through the judicial process and P County did uh agree to provide additional dollars also so all Three Counties have now agreed with that that concludes my report all right
briyan Daren you want to give my committee report for Poli well you kind of caught me off guard there so I'm I'm struggling to remember all the government uh General government policy committee but everything I uh that has
been mentioned so far I have attended the uh meeting uh with the pck meeting and then the AMC legislative conference I found that extremely interesting that's the first one I had been involved with uh on Thursday I did attend the
general government policy committee they talked about well uh a lot of the when they went around the room to talk to all the counties and the Commissioners nobody was really very supportive of the cost shift that is coming through the uh
through the state down to the counties uh I don't think anybody said this is a great idea so there was a lot of discussion on that and how it was going to impact each of the counties um they did have a uh a slide that showed that
even like if the cost shifts were to um take place in Dakota County that would be a 7% Levy increase just by the cost shifts an NOA County 5% Bel trammy 9% and Ramsey County 4.7% so these are
pretty significant Levy points just for the cost shift from the state funded um programs back to the counties so there was was a lot of discussion on that uh there was some discussion on the um uh
taxation um and then what was very interesting was um a lot of discussion on the the upcoming paid leave and then we had uh state representative Dave Baker who is leading the charge right now on uh delaying that one year because
there's a lot of um um belief that this program is not ready for prime time starting January 1st of 2026 um so he went over a lot of those things and some of the committee reports and some of their concerns um I've been
listening to those committee reports and at the last one they said that they right now have 60 people hired for this um new Department indeed and um they're looking to have 400 by the by January 1
when they start this program so there's a lot of uh angst on on if this is going to go off without a hitch um and then the only other thing that uh I had that wasn't mentioned that nobody else here was involved with was
uh our continued meeting with ukg on our Pro Talent uh implementation for recruiting and and uh onboarding and that's going along very well I would say we're going to go live here in the next couple weeks so it'll be a little bit of
a training process because uh all the applications will then go straight into ukg so we'll have some training coming up for department heads and supervisors uh probably within the next couple weeks and that concludes my report thank you Darren
Jackie do you have anything first all right all right we are Jed e e for