the whole meeting for July 15, 2025 to order on the docket. Eric is you first with the HR H update. Yeah, I'm in the right alphabet. Let's just
let's just admit that. I understood what you were saying. Sure. Did I get this thing to work? All right, perfect. Uh, yes. Good morning, commissioners and county staff. thanks for giving me an opportunity just to
touch base with you guys. Kind of a midyear review. Uh obviously we'll chat again prior to to levy requests and things like that, but wanted to get a chance to highlight some of the work that we're doing throughout the year. Uh and just have a open dialogue if you guys have questions for us and what
we're doing. Uh we always like to start off kind of every presentation just reminding you guys what our mission is. Uh at the H uh again, Housing Redevelopment Authority. Our mission is to support the creation of affordable housing, economic development and redevelopment projects toward a more vibrant Crowing County. We are your
county HR. We are your redevelopment arm. All of those good things. So, we take that certainly very seriously and try to affect housing in the community throughout the county throughout your larger population centers and and try to find some of that, you know, workforce
housing, some affordability into there, too. Just kind of jumping in this project. we've been working on since 2016. Actually, it's Brainer Oaks, Serene Pines, Delmare Estates. You've certainly heard of this before. Uh to to those
that are new on the the the board, just a real quick recap. Uh these are all three developments that were tax forfeited and we're just sitting there. They got tax forfeited in, you know, right after the recession in 2008, sometime in there. Sat for about 10 years and were reinvigorated. We were
able to convey these lots to us about 112 in total and we were able to convey those to the H work with a developer to put together a redevelopment agreement for building single family homes in all of these neighborhoods and it has been successful. Uh we are certainly proud of what uh the work has been done there.
We're very very uh happy with the um developer that's working with us now level contracting and we think they're doing a great job out there in all of them. Uh the cool thing is they're almost done. We've got three lot three lots left to sell. Uh that doesn't mean they're all built yet because there are
a number that are in construction as we speak. Uh we do expect the developer to purchase the rest of those by year end. Um and we'll get to the next slide a little bit. We are going to continue on uh and actually add a couple of parcels of land to that redevelopment agreement
so we can get even more houses built uh in that neighborhood. Um, some of the quick uh kind of stats that I always like to bring to your attention because it does uh impact all of our county residents. When we started this back in 2016, the EMV estimated market value of
all of those lots was just over a million bucks, about a million65,000. U again, about 112 lots just sitting there, not generating any tax revenue for the county, for the city, uh, or the school districts. So, as we built that
out, the and I just looked at this last week through Crowing County Records, estimated market value now of all the units that have been built is just over 30,500,000. So, that is a a huge impact uh not only to the city of Briner, but to the county
residents, right? That builds that tax base up and that's generating about $270,000 worth of taxes in those three developments. Um, interestingly enough, a year ago when I was in front of you guys at budget, uh, the estimated market
value was just shy about 20 in in 28 million. So, we raised about 1.7 million in additional construction throughout the year. But the cool thing is those taxes that are generated by all of those houses actually went down. You might look at that and kind of quiz yourself like why would that be a good thing,
right? the piece of the pie, as our former administrator used to always talk about when we're talking about building tax base, that piece of the pie gets smaller as your pie gets bigger, right? And so, as we build out more houses, not just in these developments, but throughout the county, your share of the pie does go down. So, that is why, you
know, really, as you look at a snapshot like this, that those taxes for those homes, the more that they're built, they're actually going to be generating a little bit less tax um revenue for the county. Again, that is in part with your body doing what you can do to keep those
taxes relatively uh flat as you can, right? But kind of a cool data point. I do like to always bring that up. Uh and then as you can see, you know, some of the pictures there, those are pictures out in Brainer Oaks and Serene Pines and Delmare Estates. It's nice to see the the product that actually is being put
out there. Uh these are are truly workforce level housing homes and uh you know again very very close to being done there. Talked a little bit about this uh for just a moment. Uh this is two outlots that we actually have um in the
Brainer HR. You can see the the two green parcels there. One's an outlot that's rather large. One's a looks like a you know residential kind of lot that we would have built on. Brainer HR is working with Crowing County HR and the city of Brainard uh to actually convey
these lots to the Crowing County HRA for the developer level contracting to actually build on these. They're going to be building on that larger parcel. That smaller parcel is going to act as a an inroad to build a roadway in there to get some infrastructure in there. And we're going to end up with another 18 units. They're going to be building nine
duplexes out there. Um, as you can see on this, this is going to be a mockup of what those duplexes are going to look like. Uh, we are excited about this, uh, to get a little bit more density into that neighborhood. As you can look to the west there, there is some multif
family in there already. As we move east to that outlot that we're going to be building on, those will be duplexes and then we'll naturally progress into those single family homes. Um, really cool pro project that we've been working on. We've actually at the H own owned that outlot, that large one uh really since
the kind of 2003 2004 time frame and didn't know what we were going to do with it. Uh we had purchased it from the church that is just to the north there. um originally had intended to create a park out of this, but the city of Brainard and their parks and and recreation department were not looking
to pick up any more green space in the city and thus it would have just been a wasted um unbuildable lot if we had not been able to also acquire that that roadway um easement to get in there. And uh so we're excited about that. We'll be working on that towards the end of this
year with hopefully breaking ground uh towards the end of the year. Uh we also did work with the city to request a grant for infrastructure funding through Minnesota housing. Those grants don't come along very often. It's really hard to to uh get grant funding for the infrastructure, the water, sewer, curb,
gutter, and so there are some dollars limited available for outstate Minnesota. We're hopeful that we can generate uh the ask was about 170,000 of that. Infrastructure to get in there is about 450,000. So that is just another impediment to our developers that we're
trying to work through. So joint project between Brainer and Crowing County HAS, the city of Brainard, and we're really uh excited about that and proud of of hopefully pushing that forward. Again, we think it'll be a good product. Same developer that is doing the other uh buildouts in Brainer Oak, so it'll be a
similar project or product. Uh it'll look very similar, so you'll have uh good consistency throughout that neighborhood. Eric, do you have a a a preliminary plat for that area at all? How those houses would be laid out? I see there's wet land in the south end of that lot.
Yeah, we do. So, it would be in the north portion of it, knowing that, you know, they still have to to do all of the swift permitting uh with with Minnesota to to get that done. Um, Monty's been working with his architecture firm and they do have those
plans specked out and it does not appear that there would be any issues on the the city of Brainard side of things at this point. And I wasn't really around much when the Brainer Oaks was all going through. Are those all pretty much single family homes? They are. They're all single family homes. So, this will be, you know, our
first foray into a a more higher density with the duplex, but obviously they're still single family units in there. Uh, just shared walls. we get a little bit better bang for our buck out there as far as the um the cost per door. So, it comes down a little bit by doing those duplexes.
And there are multiplexes to the west of that. Correct. Yeah. Again, you can kind of see just to the blue outline there's some some multif family just to the west there. So, it does offer a good transition uh into that single family residence.
And will all those people access just through that road that you have there, that lot there, or there won't be any access over to So that roadway will be a a turnaround and will be large enough to get fire and safety equipment in there.
So that was u previous iterations. I think he was thinking eight of the duplexes, but he was able to squeeze a ninth in uh with the roadway that he's been uh platted out and kind of look at. But that'll be the the only way in and
out of that neighborhood. Any other questions? No. Okay. Housing trust fund. We always like to give you guys an update throughout the year on what we're doing there. To date, we've funded uh just shy of 1.7 million in loans through the trust fund. We are
closing one or actually we closed one yesterday. So that does actually boost that number up uh just over 1.7 million. Uh that would be 22 funded loans throughout the program. Uh as you see on the screen there, it shows that two were
um uh or one was approved for funding. That's that one owner occupied rehab that did uh close yesterday for just over 20,000. Uh but the breakdown of the loans that we've done so far, 13 owner occupied rehab loans. We know that rehab
is very instrumental and and integral to keeping our housing stock uh vibrant and for that next generation. So that is an emphasis that we have certainly uh we've had eight down payment assistance loans that just helps you know get that homeowner into the the home that they
might have lacked uh ability to do that without a down payment. Uh and then we've done two new construction or development financing loans. Um the one that we financed this year and closed was for my neighbor to love coalition. U if you're not aware of of what they do,
they are uh located in kind of northwest Brainard over by the civic center. They u are creating homes and really with the idea to get people out of homelessness. Uh they're able to to have some very very affordable rents over there. Um and it's a community that's being built out
uh through that new nonprofit. uh they've built out now 20 units but or sorry 16 units. They are building another 12 that has just started. Uh and we're certainly excited about that um that those housing developments there.
Um do have some applications that are on hold and in review. That just means that we're either waiting for funding or or we're waiting for paperwork. um similar to with my neighbor to love, they had actually applied in 2023 and we just now this year had the funding come available. Uh so we were able to
actually process that. So you know sometimes these projects are going to wait for a while and that's okay. People are willing to stay on the waiting list for available funding. Uh but we obviously have to wait um to to make sure that we've got the funding available to do those loans. Uh but it
doesn't mean that people aren't trying and and sometimes waiting a couple years to get uh get their opportunity for that. Uh also kind of a fun data point, we we funded our first loan, I want to say it was in 22 and we've had three of them paid off. You know, we've certainly
had some discussion about our length on our loan terms. Um we've had two owner occupied rehab loans pay off and one down payment assistance loan paid off for about $65,000 in total that's been paid back out to us. and then we'll get back into uh production for new
projects. So, it is working so far and we're we're pleased with uh getting some paybacks early. Uh again, if you're going to sell your house on those rehab loans, then you have to pay us back. Those are kind of the the terms, right? You either have it out to term on a 20-year uh loan or there are some
triggering factors. If you move move or if you're no longer living there as your primary residence. So those are uh some of those safeguards there that we get our funds back um early in those cases. Got a question for you. Yes. So
the um this is the housing this this slide you have this is the housing trust fund. Correct. And then total loans funded to date 1.6 million. Is that including the 1 million for the lofts on the botney? It then so then
694,000. Okay. Yep. And then for example, like if it's um the rehab, somebody like this picture of this house. Yeah. Somebody would come and put an application in, say, "Hey, I
need to rehab my house." Right. If they're approved, they get the money. How long is it for? And what's the interest rate? Yep. So, for our owner occupied rehab, which is that one on the screen, I believe that one is over in Garrison.
Um, that one or all of our rehab loans, you know, they're typically a 20-year repayment. Uh, there's no payment requirement monthly. It is truly a a balloon payment. um the owner all of our rehab loans still with our board have been
authorized at 0% for those knowing that again the individuals that are likely getting these rehab loans are either on fixed income. So social security individuals that may own their house outright but can't afford an extra payment on there um that's why they haven't done that
deferred maintenance. We know that you know if they come to term on that they you know they likely will either be moving on from that home or or hopefully able to refinance it if they needed to at 20 years.
So on the title or or I uh somewhere is there like a lean file? Yes, we file a mortgage when 15 years down the road if it's going to be for sale that has to be paid off first. Correct. So we you know we never know if we're going to be in first position,
second position on some of those homes. The ideal for these rehab homes is we're likely going to be in first position if they've already paid off their homes. But first or second lean doesn't matter. We're still going to be a lean holder. We file all of our documentation with the county. So 15 years down the road, if I'm not here, we know what the terms
were. Sure. So then the lofts on Noatne that if if the these loans are 20 years and you don't have to make a payment until it's a bloom payment, is it the same for that million dollars? It was. Yes. So,
so they could so they don't their their bill isn't due for 20 years. Correct. Okay. At no interest. Yep. Yep. And and certainly that was by design to offer the ability to lease up, make sure that they are stabilized in
their rents, and you know, they can certainly refinance if they do refinance or they change ownership. You know, that is pretty typical within a a 20-year period on a commercial building. uh we would be repaid at that point. Uh that wouldn't
I assume there's kind of an uh like for example this picture here there's kind of an income uh criteria. Correct. There is. Okay. Yep. Yep. And we model that after you know we work with on rehab loans with Minnesota housing uh and with deed
actually on two different uh rehab programs that you know have even smaller income limitations. uh knowing that there's a little bit of a um you know blind spot or you know missing middle is what they call it. Uh we go all the way up to 115% of the area median income as
far as a qualification. Um whereas the Minnesota housing is really geared to that 50% AMI and deed goes from about 50 to 80%. We always try to utilize those other dollars first prior to to utilizing the trust fund if we're available. So then that back to that
lofts on Noatne they had they I would I think you told me that they have to set aside a certain amount of apartments the rents the rent is like can you just explain
that? Yeah. So there's a percentage and so the 40% of their rents have to be affordable rents at 115% of the area median income and that is a number that's given to us by HUD every year and so that has to get updated by the management uh group every year. They
have to look at those. The next 20% have to be affordable at 80% of AMI or lower. So we're building in about 60% or building in 60% of those rents to be affordable at 115 or less. Uh, and then the last 40% of those units can be at at
market rate if they're not already. We are typically seeing that that those rents aren't exceeding much more than that 115% on the market side. Uh, but that's the idea is to if we're going to be a a partner in these programs or in these projects that we are going to
reserve um, you know, a 60% stake in those rents to make sure that they're affordable. 115%. How how much rent would that like? You know, it's around 1,300 at this point. Yeah.
Oh, wow. You and I may not believe that that that's necessarily affordable. Unfortunately, what HUD tells us is that that that's the threshold at 115. Um, you know, and those numbers again, we we have to base it off of at least a target
number, right? Um, but that's where where we're at. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Um, Mr. Chair, one more thing. Um on these do you you show on the other one we know how much came in on the on the brain and stuff you're showing how much
tax revenue extra's coming in and stuff. Do you have any way on this slide here to say that how much tax revenue is coming in because we improved that rehab home because how much is tax coming in you know even though we we question sometimes the amount or the uh the
interest rate on the lots of natney. I know that's come up before but how much tax is that bringing in? there's no it's, you know, and so even though we might not be getting it back in a payment at this time, we're still the county and the and the city or whatever is still receiving all the tax revenue
from those properties. Yeah, I know. Good question. Um, for new development, that's a lot easier to to kind of put a thumb on. Uh, you know, I believe Lost Noatney was somewhere around 84,000 in in tax revenue that was going to be out there basically after year two because there's always that lag
with taxes on new developments. So that would bring that that that property out there is bringing in about your estimate. I mean I'm not going to hold you to it. Yeah. That that was the approximate amount when I spoke a year. Yeah. With the county uh last year when they were kind of in the build that was What do they have that valued at?
Uh I don't off top of my head. I don't know. I would be happy to provide that next month when I'm back in front of you guys. I'd be happy to do that. Yeah. So I just I mean you know that seems like a heck of a chunk of change on the other rehab ones. Again, that's a little bit of a difficulty in in the fact that, you know, your appraiser
assessor isn't necessarily going to go out right as soon as that loan is done because they wouldn't have reason to know that there are improvements being made. Um, you know, probably going to need a probably more like a a 5-year check on that to to start to see if those improvements are in there, but that
might not even be associated with the improvements because we're seeing the the real estate just increase whether or not you improve your property or not. uh we know that that's out there. U you know the big impact on those maybe not necessarily on the tax implication side
is is making sure that those homes are available for that next generation and that that deferred maintenance is actually happening. So if you know the individual does sell or do they do pass away that person coming in it doesn't have to be a demo it can be a you know a work in progress.
Thank you. Yeah the uh 1.694 694 that you're talking about to date. What uh what's that date? Is that 2022 from when we started doing some loans? Yeah. Our first loans were done in 2022.
Okay. And the the ones that you said have repaid, were those because of the sale of the property? Yeah. Um one of them was a down payment assistance that they've sold their property since then. Uh and two of them were rehab loans that they have also sold. Um one was maybe refinanced
completely. who they still had to pay us back and the other one was a sale. So, a little bit of a mix. Certainly what we expect. Um, you know, I back when I was in banking, uh, the the mortgage when when an individual would take out a mortgage, I think the average lifespan of that mortgage was about 7 to 10
years. So, even though we've got, you know, these down payment assistance loans, we certainly believe that they will recycle prior to that that terming out because that's a typical life cycle. Now, I might be in the the strange one cuz I've been in my house 13 years. Um,
so I I exceed that average, but but typically if you look at those averages across the country, u those are recycling a lot quicker than that. So, we expect to see those funds back before the term. Okay. Um, also the the funds that are
promised to the 605 Laurel project is that that comes out of the trust fund too, correct? Yep. 805. And so, there are funds that are reserved at this point for that. Yep. Yep. Do you have any updates on that? We do. You know, the the developers still very committed to the project. Uh we were looking to to have them access
some funding for the workforce housing development program last year through the state when they had record funding. Didn't get that which was, you know, not what was anticipated. Uh I spoke with the developers three weeks ago just to make sure that I understood where they're at.
uh we are going to, you know, jointly try to um look at there's a uh housing tax credit that is available through the state of Minnesota that started last year or two years ago, sorry, and they've sold out already this year. They sold out within the first 75 days of the
year. Uh our plan is to try to to get to business owners to generate some interest in purchasing tax credits. Uh the cool thing about that is, you know, a lot of us uh or you hear a lot of chatter that that maybe we don't want our tax dollars going to St. Paul because we sometimes don't believe that
they uh appropriate that correctly, but these housing tax credits, you actually get to say, I'm going to buy X amount of dollars that of my state tax liability and I want it to go to project X. And you get to actually see those dollars at work in your community with that. So,
that's hoping to be the draw to try to get some some local interest in buying some of those housing tax credits. Um, still a pretty big gap, not going to lie about that. Uh, they have invested a lot of money into that property though, and as you've hopefully you've all driven
downtown, you've seen that that building was taken down. Um, so they are they're still continuing to invest money in there. They are committed to it. don't have a a construction date. Uh but we are we are eagerly trying to help them get to the start
line. Uh it's a a large project for the city of Brainard. It's a large project for both the Crowang and the Brainer Has. Thank you. Yep. Other questions on trust fund.
We'll wrap up here. Uh just couple items of note as far as what we're working on as well outside of those initiatives. Uh good news, we've got some development interest in four more tax forfeited properties over in Baxter. Uh they have started that process uh within the last
3 weeks with us and with the city of Baxter. Uh we are still allowed uh even with the legislative changes for tax forfeited properties. Uh there are some different timelines. These are all prior to um 2018 as far as forfeiture. So we can kind of utilize the same process
that we had been to uh convey lots into uh hopefully convey our lots with your permission into our um our purview and then we can get those into the developer hands for a pretty nominal cost to get those developed. Um, you know, a lot of
these lots that are tax forfeited throughout the county, uh, especially if they're in those, um, city municipalities, they've got aging infrastructure there. So, that really is a blighted property. So, we'd like to get some tax revenue tax base built back on those. So, when those uh, facilities
need to be improved upon again that there's some tax base to support that. So, still working on that. We're excited that we've got uh, some movement. um noted that we've got some Oh, actually, I know I was in front of you guys probably 3 months ago talking about some housing trust fund funding that we were
interested in applying for. Uh we it turned out that that the state and Minnesota housing allowed us to do it directly. So, we did do that. Uh we were successful in securing 150,000 to come into our housing trust fund. That wasn't the max amount that we were uh
potentially allowed to get. So, that is a little bit of a disappointment. Um little bit of a consolation, there were 54 applicants for those funds around the state. Um 36 of us were granted funding. Um of that 30 of those 36 were approved
at 150,000. So we're with a lot of our neighbors. Three were approved for the max funding uh throughout the state. And then there were three uh recipients that were less than that. So we're right in that sweet spot. Uh this is money that again would have gone outside of the Crowing County area had we not applied
for it. So we're excited to get that. We're still working on the grant agreement with Minnesota Housing, but that'll be coming hopefully soon. Uh we did apply for infrastructure funding for that outlot uh project in Brainer Oaks. So we will find out about that uh along with the city of Briner in uh hopefully
September so we can get that project moving. Uh, and then I don't know if you have received any information, but there is a housing summit that's going to be put on by Dolly Matten over at Glar uh on August 6th, and I know she's intending to invite all of the commissioners, all all of the kind of uh
city council members, EDAs, things like that, just to talk about housing. Uh, I will be one of the speakers there. Uh, we've got Ben Winchester from the University of Minnesota. If you've ever heard him speak, he's a really engaging speaker. Talks about the rural kind of housing market and very, very knowledgeable. So, we're excited to do
that. Uh and then obviously we're in the middle of of our budget season two. So we're we're looking forward to to having those discussions along with you guys. Um don't want to take up too much more of your time. If you have any further questions, please let me know. I have another question. So,
um, I've been kind of I've always been kind of an advocate that we need to the county needs to get rid of as many tax forfeit properties that are not in our timber management program specifically.
Like there used to be a lot of lots like in Brainer, like just lots that were sitting there and trying to get rid of those. I had a call from one of my constituents on the other side of Mill Avenue and there's a lot right next to him. It's
only 40 feet wide. Sure. And I I can't remember the number. I called in Gary to to Gary and talked to him about it and I'm just going to say it was around 10 I think we had maybe 10 or 12,000 on it or something. Sure. But the assessments for the city of
Brainer was like eight or $9,000. So, my question is, do you ever um Well, I guess we could probably give you that lot and then you could sell it a lot cheaper. Mhm. Okay. But do you ever try to negotiate
with the city of Brainer to say if you don't take these assessments off of there, we're never going to we're never going to be able to get this back on the tax. Great question. Um proof is in the Brainer Oak serines Delmare Estates
redevelopment project that we did there. through putting that together and it was certainly my predecessor that put that together. Uh but they were able to work with the city of Briner to not um reassess those properties but then took a little bit of a discount. So the
developer had offered a certain amount of dollars for all of those properties. built into that was some funding to Crowing County, some funding well actually uh the the Crowing County HA gets funding to to convey those lots and and basically get the legal side of it
pushed through and then the rest of the funds went to the city of Briner to offset. So it wasn't a onetoone that that the city of Brainard was able to receive off of that looking at doing something similar in Baxter as well. And they have worked with uh some developers namely Habitat for Humanity to try to
offset their assessments as well because that is an impediment to a lot of that development. Uh it it's probably not a situation where we would ever go and say you should wave all of your funds city of X because they certainly invested those funds in their infrastructure at
that point. But if there's a happy medium and it's, you know, not too hard of a self from us to say, "Hey, you know, if you can ease off on some of these assessments, we're able to get some development going and get some tax base there." So, it's something we're always looking at. Uh, and as we
continue to to try to go through that tax forfeit list as well, uh, we work with those municipalities always to to ask those questions on behalf of the developer. That's good to hear. Thanks, Eric. Yep. Eric, you also worked quite a bit with
uh back in the day with Breezy Point had a lot of those same types of situations where they had they had a lot of assessments because they'd run some infrastructure through there and they had a bunch of lots that were sitting out there tax forfeite at a high rate and I don't know if you worked with any
of them or they wor they worked those through but it was they did and we haven't had as much impact up in Breezy yet. There's still a handful of them out there and we continue to try to to find some some development partners up there. But, you know, same same reasoning is how we
would go up into that and try to to get some, you know, concessions if possible, knowing full well that they've already used their tax dollars to to likely put that infrastructure in. It's, you know, it's, you hate to say it's a win-win when you get that because you've already spent the money to to put that
infrastructure in. Um, but it's kind of that but for clause that if you don't do this but for it's not going to happen, right? And so we just try to we try to lessen the burden but also get some things uh moving as far the development side.
Thank you. If there's no other questions, I'll let you guys get back to your games. Eric, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Appreciate the time. With that, we'll have uh Mr. Danielson show up.
Good morning, Jory. Good morning, Mr. Chair and commissioners. Jory Daniels at Administrative Services. I want to thank you for the time today that we get to get in front of you and give you a a quick update of where we're at uh halfway through the year with administrative services. Uh Nancy is
going to lead off the presentation with a financial update. Good morning everyone. Just a few slides for you this morning on finance and where we're at so far in 2025. Some things that we've been notified about. So as you know we're in the midst of our budget process. So here is our budget
timeline graph that we have here before you. We are at the point in the purple there. We're in August. Uh we're starting to work on or have worked on our preliminary CIP which you have all received. And then our operating budgets, we're working on those as well. So, this is just kind of that overview
again of what our timeline is for our budget schedule. I know you've seen this before. Um, some mid-year highlights for you. Uh, we were recently notified by the GFOA in 2025 that we received the GFOA certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for
fiscal year 2023. The county also received the GFOA award for outstanding achievement in popular annual financial reporting again for fiscal year 2023. and the county was notified that we received the GFO distinguished budget presentation award for fiscal year 2025.
We recently submitted our AFER and our PAFER for fiscal year 2024 now that our audit is wrapped up. So, good news there, Nancy. Yes. Maybe just for well, for my benefit and for everybody else that maybe watches
this, GFO AA, Government Finance Officers Association. And then I think you said another acronym too. HAFER is the popular annual financial report maybe is what I noted. Anac's the annual comprehensive
financial report. I remembered I'm It is uh also our as I said our 2024 financial audit has been completed. I'm happy to report that our audit findings were reduced. Uh we had 13 audit findings and
for fiscal year 2023 those were reduced to four audit findings for fiscal year 2024. So we're trending in the right direction. So I'm happy to report that to you as well. And then as you know uh we have implemented a five-year budget plan that
is um starting this year for years 2026 to 2030. We have also expanded from a 5-year capital improvement plan to a seven-year capital improvement plan this year. Our goal is to transition to a 10-year capital improvement plan. Hoping to transition to that next year. Hope
I'm hoping you'll see a 10-year plan next year. So that's for 2026 to 2032. I have been talking about a long-term financial plan. We will start drafting that this fall. So, um I we just need a little bit of a reprieve from the budget
process. I need to get that behind me a little bit further before we can start drafting that plan. But that is my plan for that. That'll be a team approach for sure. And then last but not least, uh, one initiative that we're doing in finance is to look at cross trainining. Making sure there's a backup for some of
the, you know, very important tasks that we have to do so that if people need to be away from the office or they win the lottery and decide to leave the county that we have backups in place for people to step in and cover for them so they don't always feel that they have to be connected all the time when they're trying to take some personal time away
from the office. waiting for that for quite so we're working on that um as well. That is all I have for finance. Do you have any questions for me? No question. But I I'm going to tell you that I think you guys do a great job up
there. It's amazing how you keep all those numbers flowing from all the different departments and and still get all these awards. So, thank you very much. I know it's time consuming. It is very timeconuming. Thank you. Yes. How many staff do you have?
Total staff in finance. Let me count. So, we have Britney, Kathy, uh, Matthew, Corey, and Amy, and myself and Jory. And then we have Amy Mickelson in elections as well. So, yeah, they're phenomenal.
It's been uh been several years in a row that you've won that award. Correct. Yeah, we're over 10 years in a row for those awards. That's pretty impressive. So, yeah, the county has done phenomenal. Very good. Thank you very much. Oops. I think I went too far. Here you
are, sir. All right. Thank you. Good morning, uh, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Jason McCoyak, the IT manager. We get to talk a little bit about it, which really excites me. So, if I talk too long, you can always tell me to be quiet. So, excites me, too, when it doesn't work.
When it doesn't work. Exactly. Yep. So, um, so I'm just going to start out with, uh, just some some stats of how many PCs we have. We have 252 desktop computers on campus. um 710 laptops, um 580
phones, um the soft phones is kind of a new um trend that we're going with. Instead of having a physical desk phone, you can have a phone on your computer. So that way if you're working from home or um if we want to start to cut some costs, we can install a soft phone so you don't have to have that physical
phone in your desk. Um there's mixed reviews on that. Some people love it, some people hate it because it's it's different, but um it works really really well in in a lot of situations. Um we have um 210 printers and scanners
throughout the campus. Um 443 tablets and iPhones, 60 squad cars, and then we provide um IT support to 11 city agencies for um their LEG and squad car access
throughout the campus. We also have digital signage. Um that is something where we can um from each department has um a a group that manages their own signage for their departments. They can change it on a computer and it automatically updates on the TVs you see
out in the lobbies or in the throughout other hallways. Um in our data center, this is where it gets pretty impressive. Um we have um 15 physical servers. Those 15 physical servers host over 135 virtual servers. So everything that we
do requires 135 servers in the county. We haveund or we have two main firewalls through the state and then 159 switches. Um switches are like a 24 or 48 port device in network closets throughout every building. Each building can have
15 or 20 of them. But all of our cameras, our HVAC, our printers, our PCs, the wireless access points, they all need to communicate and that's how they all all communicate is through those switches. So, it's pretty I'd hate to like look through in like an X-ray
and see all the cords in the walls of the buildings on the campus. Um, go back to that other page. I had a question. What is what does it mean like 710 plus 184? What does that what does that mean? That's how many um computers
have been added or changed in the last year. And so before we used to have a lot more desktop computers, but as things have progressed, we've switched more to laptops. So instead of having so many desktops, we our desktop number before would have been a lot higher. And
now the desktop number is lower and the laptop number has increased. But why I believe we're right at about a 550 employees. Why would it be 710? is why would somebody have two laptops? Um, back in the day, we used to actually
if they in order for the systems to work correctly, they they could not remote in without they had to actually remote into a PC. Like sheriff's office attorneys, they all have to have two if they want to work remotely because of the sieges requirements. You have to be you can't
bring that device home and access that that criminal justice network data. Um, same with squad cars. We have a lot of squad cars. Those all have mobile laptops in them as well. So that's where are these um iPad things that we the county board has. Is that considered a
laptop? No, that's a tablet. That that's part of the um 443 tablets and iPhones. Okay. Lot of devices. Lot of lot of devices. Lot of devices. Jason, the the laptop number would include laptops that are in squads for
city facilities as well. No, that would just be the support that you're providing. The support we're providing. Correct. Yep. Here's a slide of our work orders over the last from 2014 to 2025. You can see uh increase in work order numbers. Uh
for the year of 2025, we're actually ahead of pace what we were in 2024. In the next slide, we'll kind of break down by month as far as, you know, the highest percentage. Our highest percentage was
um May at 18% of uh completed work orders. At any given time, we hover around 350 to 405 open work orders. So that's stuff that's waiting to be worked on. So when you say a work order, does
somebody actually have to go on the com go on somewhere and they have to submit some type of a work order? Correct. Yes. So when Commissioner Lubkkey calls you with trouble, that's is that considered a work order? Because I I think half of those are
more of a nuisance, I would think. So we encourage all our users to put work orders in. And so like prime example, if I walk through a building, I'll have five people stop me and say, "Oh, what about this? What about this?" And so it's one of those things where I'm like always like, "Oh, I've got a short memory. I'm getting older. Can you
put put a work order in so I remember to get get that taken care of." But the staff is really good about putting um work orders in um for when like Commissioner Lupkey calls up or anybody else stops in the door. We have a lot of people a lot of walk-ins. So yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Any questions on the number of IT work orders? Here's our um top five ticket subject types from 23 to 24. Um fish er those are those fishing scams. So fish, not
not the ones that uh uh we send out as a test, but legitimate emails that come in that people are questioning that when they hit that report fish, it generates a ticket for us so we can investigate those tickets. So
So if it's not an in if these fishing emails come in, do they have that yellow bar that that it says it's not an internal email? if if it's an ex any external email that comes in from outside the county. So if I got an email
from Debbie Ericson and it had the yellow bar, that's my first alert that that's not legit because she's not outside the organization automatically. If it's not coming from inside, it's got don't have the it'll have the yellow bar. Yellow bar. Correct. And we're actually in the middle of implementing a new system now that will also start tagging
them as promotional spam um like high risk. like you don't often receive emails from this person. Are you sure you want to open this email? So, we're getting more and more vigilant of trying to think ahead of these guys. So, or put information in front of all the users to
be like, let let's think twice before we click so we don't click a bad link. So, you think the testing, by the way, I'm current on my testing and I passed it. Thank you very much. Does you think that helps? Yes, it actually we have graphs over the years. I didn't bring any of those
numbers today, unfortunately, but our numbers have been our percentage has been going down. We started I want to say when we first started doing it, our click rate was over like 6%. And I believe we're down in the in the 2% rate range right now. So, so it definitely
definitely does help, but we need to, you know, you can't do the same thing over and over again. You got to, you know, and that's where our our software right now does real world events. So if there's something happening in the real world that that company we work with, they'll automatically start generating the tickets to try to match that. So all
a sudden if you see stuff about Ukraine coming into your email, it's because it's matching off the real world events that are going on. Another question. So when I I think you were talking I think maybe I don't know if it was at personnel or was somewhere and you were talking about the the
cloud. Yes. And how a lot of this stuff was going to go in the cloud. Well, what happens if all of our stuff is in the cloud and this company or whoever's managing that for us, let's say they have a big screw up and all of our stuff is up there,
then then we're kind of screwed over, aren't we? Or Yes, that's definitely a risk you have to take. Um, a lot of these companies, that's why you have to really vet them very well to make sure they have redundant data centers. Um, for example, the the company we're looking at for our our new law enforcement software, they've got five data centers throughout
the United States. So that way if one data center goes down, it automatically migrates to another one. The other big caveat to look at with these these cloud providers is being able to make sure that data stays yours and that if something happens and you decide to move away from there that you can take your
data back. Where some of these these companies say once you upload it, it becomes their data. I'm like uh that's that's my data or that's the county's data. So, we got to make sure that as we're vetting these vendors that they've got redundant data servers, that they got cyber security teams and and you
know, good good backups to keep everything. I think another thing would be good just for if the chair would um indulge me to I think it'd be good for the public to know as we're working through the budget process and they wonder, geez, where's all my tax dollars going? Well, a lot of
this technology that we have is getting to the point where these companies are kind of almost holding you hostage and they and the licensing fees. Can you just talk about how that's getting to really go up and cost a lot of money for
Yep. Uh back, you know, 5 years ago, a lot of software companies I'd go out and go to Adobe and buy a license and then it was my license. I could keep that software forever. Now companies are switching to what's called a SAS software as a service and that's a
monthly subscription. So then here every year they're like you got your software if you don't renew it you lose access to your software. And I don't want to say it's kind of like a nickel and dime type of theory but it kind of is because all of a sudden you're like oh I've got this
software. I'm paying $5 a month for it but I want this extra feature. Oh it's another $2 a month to get that extra feature. And then it just compounds on top of that. Compounds. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like at at home if when you have Netflix and Amazon Prime and all this stuff and then
all of a sudden you if you ever sit down and figure out that you probably got a you probably got a truck payment of $3 400 a month, right? You know, and I think I mentioned this at um budget meeting that it's it's just like your home stuff where if you download an app from the eye store or
the the Apple store, the app's free now where it used to be $1.99 to download an app or whatever. But now once you install that app, you open it up, it says, "Oh, it's going to be $7.99 a month or $4.99 a month. It's everything's a sub a subscription nowadays." So, and it's no different in
in the government world too where um our financial software, the company that we use right now, they're trying to move their clients to the cloud by 2030, they're have gone as far as saying if you want XYZ feature, we're not going to offer that on premise anymore. You got
to move to the cloud in order to get those features. So, it's unfortunate, but it's the world we're living in. The two big things I want to talk about is we got two new um upcoming IT policies we're going to be introducing. The first one is our AI policy, which is
artificial intelligence. Um we haven't had an AI policy at the county ever because AI is new. When we sat down, we have a a committee that kind of is going through the the policy of building this. and we started asking ourselves, you
know, do we want to ban chat GPT or do we want to ban or block XYZ um AI platform? There's so many of them out there. There's so many that are popping up every day of of AI platforms. We really needed to circle back and look at
what's the data that's being put in these AI platforms. We need to make sure that no private data is going in there, no um personal information is going in there, no credit cards, no no HIPPA data. So that's kind of where we circle back to is we're going to create a policy that talks about what type of
data can be put into the AI platforms. Every department, every meeting that anybody's going to, all they're talking about is how can you do more with AI? Cuz everybody knows, you know, we're trying to, you know, leverage our hours and our days and AI can really do that, but how do you do it effectively and
safely? The second um policy that we're going to work on doing is a um social media policy on PC devices. So, what this means is if your job does not require you to use social media,
you'll no longer be able to access it on a laptop or PC computer. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, that is fine. That is not as vulnerable as what a PC is. With a lot of these social media platforms out there right now, they're very vulnerable. There's a lot of ads that
pop up. There's a lot of clickbait where people click on things and it overtakes their computers or overtakes their screens or overtakes their accounts. There are several areas in the county that they do need to use social media for their job. Um, for example, Darcy Dwire or or Brian out at highway or
sheriff's office or probations. We're not going to say no, you can't use social media. We're just going to try to change how social media is used on what devices you're using it on because using it on those devices opens a portal to getting into our system. Correct.
Wherever our system is, right? Correct. And so, yeah, if we if we can do it off a mobile device, that keeps us 10 times safer than doing it off our our county owned computer. So, so just another this is kind of a crystal ball um in your crystal ball.
You know, this will probably be gone. All of us will be gone, but I'd say down the road, do you think that the county will I I think about like the McDonald's app. Okay, I have the McDonald's, I order my food, and then I just pull in there and
I say G47 and I pull up. Do you think it'll ever get to the point where we at the county somebody comes in for a birth certificate or whatever have you and and it's more they just put in What do you think, Deb? Because I know I went to a
doctor's office down in Florida and there's nobody there to check in. I had to check in myself. Yeah. one person the doctor here they have kos or selfch checkck in but I mean I wonder if we I wonder if we
at the county will ever get to that point where it's more AI in certain areas we will and there's Jason and his team are currently working on some opportunities for how we can leverage some of those things there are certain things where we won't be able to get to that point you know you talk
about a birth certificate you're never going to be able to order a birth certificate through the app pull up to the parking place and somebody come out and give give it to you, you have to verify information with some of that stuff. So, most likely that isn't going to be the
case, but there may be a pre check-in opportunity where here's the services I need from Crowing County today. I fill out all of that on my app and by the time I come there, those services are ready for me and and eliminate some of that wait time, right? And so much of it comes down to
all the different systems we tie into. A lot of our systems that we use at the county are are legacy systems that are run by the state that are still years and years behind where we're at today. So in order to get to there, you have to have those tie-ins and have those those systems updated. So but eventually,
yeah, there's going to be more and more with AI. It's exploded in the in the last two years. So part of the reason why the SSTS funding was so import SSIS funding was so sorry wrong department um was so important at the legislature this year is the
modernization that needs to occur in the community services realm and the social services realm with those systems modernizations to be able to support the needs of both the clients and the administration side of providing that service. the the ability to automate any
of that is dependent on the systems that we're required to use. And if those systems are as antiquated as SSIS is, we can't do anything about that. Correct. Watched an excuse me, an interview with the CEO of Nvidia the other day. Oh yes.
And he was saying that the new chips that they're developing have the ability to reason, which they've never had before, which means I'll be out of a job. They will be electing a robot to sit up here instead of me with better
reasoning, by the way. So that's the future of where they're going with this. Well, and you talk about AI, the sheriff's office with the the robot dog, the bomb squad dog who can get access to places that are safer for the robot dog to be able to go than a deputy to be
have to go into those places. There is some reasoning that takes place with that particular robot as well. There are some things that you've witnessed in that. I believe the sheriff's office will have that displayed at the county fair. Oh, for sure. They like to show the toys are always on display at the county
fair. So if if folks haven't had a chance to see how that operates, it's another operation on there either. This sheriff down in Florida, he's got his name stamped on everything which is and I literally literally I mean every squad
car, everything. Um before we go on to this next stuff, one of the things you mentioned the fact that you know we're not getting as many hits coming in. You know, our percentage is going down. you know, where you said it went from six to two, the the challenge there is you're using a percentage. How many times are we being
hit that has gone way up, right? Correct. And so, even even with that number going down, it still is a large percentage of of stuff that you're going to have to look at. And and everybody talks about the cloud and and I'm trying to picture this cloud. It's really data centers. Yeah. It's it's somebody else's
computer. It's somebody else's computer. It's a box sitting somewhere in a big building with a bunch of power going to it. That is where the cloud is. That is correct. Yep. It's Yep. It's all it is is somebody else's computer and they they claim you the cloud it's unlimited resources. No, there there's
still there's still limitations on resources on memory and RAM and hard drive space and everything else. It's it's not unlimited. It's it's just somebody else's computer that's managing it. So, and so the third thing is when did that come when did it come to this time where
it is no longer support and strategic? When did that happen? because we're already there, right? Exactly. And it was, you know, when everything blew up, probably back in 2008, you know, there wasn't a lot of prog, you know, progression as far as it went and then all a sudden it just it
blew up overnight, you know, a couple years later where it's wanting that remote access and that's where the the benefit of the cloud is really prevalent is the remote access that you can access it from anywhere. That's the one of the big selling features of the cloud is it's in the cloud. You can access it
from anywhere. You don't have to be sitting at your desk in order to access that data. So, but but when we look at budgeting, this is no just nice nice boxes we have to play with. This is strategic to us doing our job. Correct. Yes. Very strategic. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. Any questions on the AI or social media policies before we go to the next slide? All right. Jump over to GIS. GIS is our mapping system. Um, I think you've all used the maps at some point or another.
Uh, then you got Nate in our GIS department. He's building maps upon maps upon maps for different departments or different resources. It It's amazing how useful all those maps are throughout the county and how beneficial they are.
[Music] our BI support. Um, that's business intelligence. All that data that we are capturing throughout the county, you have to be able to do something to that data to make it relevant. I always say it's Zach and Abby are the ones that can
take all that data and make a picture that you can you can visually see. So otherwise, that data just sits there and isn't useful for anything. But it's like if we're capturing all that data, we need to be able to utilize that data and plan better.
The data that community services uses a lot is, you know, the out of home placements. They can look at the trends, they can look at the months, and so any type of information, as long as we got those numbers, Zach and Abby can make make those reports and pull any type of
data that you need. So, if you ever if you ever want any detailed reports, let us know and we'll we'll get you guys whatever you need. Did Abby and Zach agree to that, too? Uh, no. But but they they are they love data. They you know we're IT people and
so they call us kind of nerdy. I don't know why but when they talk it makes us go what are you even saying? They they love their numbers and they love their data. So the website um this is always an in really interesting graphic to look at.
It shows I've got the information is a little bit older, but to see that there's 3.8,000 hits come to our website coming from Australia. No idea why, but you can see that it hits from all
over all over the globe. What What does that mean? Just like emails or No, it it's physically they've went to our website at some point or some link. So, it very well could be a link in a Google search that, you know, when somebody just randomly clicks on it and
it, you know, if they're typing something in Google, they might not look that it says crowing.gov, they just click on it and it links you in. So, it could be something relevant that they're googling to their something in their country or whatever. Looking at the jail website, maybe they're looking at the jail website. Yep. Yep. Who's who's in there
today? Yeah. So, here are some fun facts. Um, in the last year there's been 336 Active Directory account changes. What Active Directory is is that that's what's used to manage all of our users. So that's either name
changes, um, employee terminations, new employees, promotions, um, supervisor changes. So there's a lot lot of moving pieces that go on inside Active Directory every year. We blocked over 2,940 viruses in
CrowdStrike last year. And that's our virus protection software. Uh we had over 1.1 million telephone calls come in and out of the county through the landlines or the soft phone on the computers last year.
When we do our backups, it's 888 terabytes of data. I would like to equate that. I I know Joey talks about, you know, how much, you know, cooling fluid will fill up a water tower. I don't know how much 8.8 and 8 terabytes which will up in the water tower but it's that's
a lot of lot of terabytes yeah in one drive our our cloud storage we've just started we've just started using one drive utilizing one drive in the last two years we're already at 4.8 8
terabytes of storage in one drive. We maintain over 180 pages on our SharePoint site um with over 167,000 files stored inside SharePoint. We have 562 email boxes that have
crowing.gov email addresses and that use that is now 100% in the cloud. That's using 2.2 terabytes of storage on top of the 4.8 8 terabytes of one drive in Microsoft Teams. Teams was not a thing in before 2020.
We've in the last 180 days we've shared our screen for over 5,138 hours. That's an average of 30 hours a week. Microsoft Teams in the last 180 days we've sent over 582,000 messages back and forth between
departments, employees, groups. So that's that's a lot a lot of messages. Wow. That's the end of my IT stuff. I can talk all day if you want, but I I think you guys have other things on your agenda. So, so, but any questions, let
me know. Um, otherwise, feel free to always swing on down and and chat. So, very impressive. Thank you very much. Yes. All right. You have how many employees? Uh, we have 13. 13? Yep. You'll need them with those numbers.
Yep. 13 employees. And you know, it's a even though you know, our sports Monday through Friday to 4:30, it's a it's 24/7 operation with just being um a uh vigilant and then also on top of keeping our jail and our sheriff's office and police departments running. So,
well, I know how responsive they are when we have an issue and and certainly do appreciate that. Yes, definitely. Yep. They all take their job very very seriously. So, they do. So, great group of people. Thank you guys. Joey, how are you?
Hey, how are you guys? Well, we are good until Jason got on there and now we've lost a half hour. Well, I'll try to keep it a little shorter here. Good morning, chair and members of the board. Um, really my midyear updates focus is on CIP
projects. Um, so not so much on the operating side, just the CIP. So, we're running 29 CIP projects currently. Um, these range in the scale of dollar amounts and sizes of the projects. Um, really today what I brought is is the large projects that we're running, the
construction related projects. So, the first one that I got that we completed here in February, this project started actually back in 24. Um, and we completed in February of 25 would be our our basement of land services. It was really the intent of that was a
consolidation of all of our record files. So those are open to the public to come in and view some of those and they were scattered throughout the facility. Um so primarily the ones that the public um used were in the middle level of land services but for land services operation there was also some
on first floor, there was some in the middle level in different areas. Um so they were just kind of scattered throughout that whole building. So trying to consolidate them to get them at all one location um for both the public and for our staff. Um as part of that there was a a break room that was
added um down in the basement as well and you know remodeling restrooms. There was a mother's room added as well that we actually partner with Crowing Energize um to help fund that mother's room too. So I would just say that I got to get a little tour down there and I
will say it really really turned out nice. It's nice for people to go and look for records and stuff. So, really good job down there. Yeah. And I'll also add to that. I mean, the space before that had um it it was vacant office space is what it was. Um
it was all really original to the building. There was a couple remodels done several years ago. Um but you know, there was asbestous doors down there. Um it just really was unutilized space. So, we're able to to turn that into something that is now usable. So,
next one, kind of a spin-off, but still talking land services would be the air handler replacement. Um, this is up and coming. The contract is currently awarded to the Heating and Roofing. Um, and I expect that work will be happening in the fall. Units are are currently on order, but I thought it'd be interesting
to to show some pictures of that air handler as well, which you can see up on the screen. Um, this air handler is original to the facility. It's approximately 50 years old currently. So, Um Joey, that replacement is the one that's going to require the crane to lift it
over the top of the building through the side, right? Yeah. So, we'll go through I don't know that I actually have to go through the or over the top of the building, but we will crane it from the parking lot here um behind historic courthouse or on the east side of land services down that
hill and into the building. So, they don't drop it right on top of it. Yeah. So, it's a little it's a little involved more so than what a typical open the door, take out the old unit, put in the new unit is. Yep. Where where is this at? Is this in the
basement by by that new? Yep. Yeah, there's two units both down in the basement. There's actually three total. Um when we expanded in '05, there was one unit added, but there's the the scope of the project is the two 50-year-old units that are all in the
basement. So, yeah. And then there is um the picture on the right is the control system that runs that air handler. And so this particular system is zoned. And so um there's each actuator that you see in the middle screen um controls one area of that
building. And so it takes a whole control system to really determine and try to satisfy what the space is. So one space might need heating, one space may need cooling. And so the the building automation system makes those decisions and then we'll modulate those dampers that you see in that middle picture
accordingly. And they do that via the control system. Um and the hardware is physically in the picture on the right. So and the software all goes through Jason system, right? It does. Yep. Can see it all remotely. Um make temperature set point changes from anywhere on campus or off campus.
So yeah, pretty impressive system. Moving on from that is the judicial center and community services remodel. Um I'm happy to say that construction is is um substantially complete. So um
construction is done in those spaces and uh and they're both currently occupied. Um we are still working through some operation things. You know just some last you know I wouldn't say last minute but some different things just that the operations need. Um but yeah, that space is currently occupied. And looking
through the pictures really from left to right. Um that would be the second floor lobby of community services looking at the community correction space. Next picture would be the reception area. Um the next one would be their work room where their printer and things are at. Um the last picture on the top and the
right is the IT area that's in there. and then working again the bottom left to right would be meeting space and then interview rooms for them tried to cap picture capture pictures of the cubicles and things like that but they didn't show very well of what
really what the space was so and the funding through all that uh the judicial center was a lot that we had to do for the courts right but this this community service remodel that came through just our regular CPI so both community services and judicial
center remodels that second floor. Um that was all the same project and was funded by fund 43 or capital improvement funds. Okay. Um next one I'll talk about that's a current project is the is the parking lot replacement. This was broken down
into three phases just trying to help some of the logistics of this. Um this project has been logistically challenging both for the public and then also for our staff as well. So, I'm happy to say that we're currently on phase three. Um, weather dependent, phase three is supposed to be completed
at the end of this week. Um, looking at the forecast, it may or may not happen. So, might get it pushed into next week. There is a considerable amount of rain in the forecast yet this week. So, I do want to highlight though that the highway engineering team worked with us
from really start to finish on this project and I I have to give kudos to them. um you know as a facilities manager I can't be experts in I can't be an expert in absolutely everything so when we have talents like our highway folks let's utilize them and and they had the capacity to help us with this
project and that did save us a considerable amount of engineering money and really the ownership piece you know they know how to handle these projects it's county property and so let's make sure that we do it right so that was a huge asset on this project of having our highway on it highway team
can I ask a question on that So, I know when when highway department's doing a job, they they take samples of the material to make sure they're getting the quality stuff. Did Did they do the same thing on this? They did. Yep. Yeah, they took two samples in two
different areas. One was like just a a parking area and then one was actually in the main drive lanes, you know, so making sure that they met their compaction requirements. Okay. So um the next project that I got is the jail roof replacement. So this will be
um again work happening here in the fall. Contract is currently awarded to the heating and roofing for this. Um there was some alternates that we're moving forward with on this that we've talked about previously and that's the insulation addition. So it's additional
3 in of insulation throughout that roof. um doing some calculations and that return on investment for that is um about 8 and a half years. This is a 20-year roof that we put on there. So, we will be there will be some cost savings there. And then we'll also be
addressing a safety concern by putting a roof over that dumpster area. Um there uh there gets to be considerable amount of ice built up in there and and just addressing that safety concern. So, just just what is the cost of that roof
offhand? What do Yeah. So, the roof, the contract that we have with the alternates is $568,300. Okay. And this is one where the bids came in favorable for favorable from what we had estimated in the Yeah, I thought it was going to be a
lot more than that. It's a lot of roof. Yeah, it is. Yeah. The bids came in really from, you know, this approximate 550,000 all the way up to 1.1 million. So, and we had a lot of interest both locally, you know, local contractors and then also contractors from outside the area on
this project. So, it was good to see so many contractors. Just a curiosity question. How do people like Thelen or Herzog or whoever it is, how do they know how do they know it's that we're looking for bids? We don't reach out to them.
No, we post it publicly. So, it gets posted in the Brainer Dispatch um that that we're looking for bids on those projects and they they go, "Oh, oh, oh, I got to bid on this." Yeah. It gives instructions in that post of, you know, where to go find the the
plan sets and there's bid documents and then they can review it and and then we set up a pre-construction or pre-bid meeting where we open the doors to them to come in and ask any questions with uh with the engineering firm as well. Um the last thing that I have that I
don't have a slide for is just really that um security enhancement across campus. We're really looking at at that heavily as you guys know and I I'm currently in the process of having internal discussions with different departments and uh we're we're implementing the small changes you know
the and we'll be bringing back to you guys in close session you know the more in depth bigger findings. So very good. Thank you, Joey. Yeah, that any other questions. I want to add to that as I always invite you for a behind-the-scenes tour at any
point. So if you're interested in that, reach out. Thank you. Thank you guys. All right, just wrapping up uh what's taken place so far this year. uh wanted to highlight our our busy election season in our non-election year. Uh we
had both uh school district uh two different school district referendums uh starting off with Pine River and then in Peekquat Lakes uh that took place in March and early April. Uh we then had the uh April Minnesota Senate District 6
special election where we saw uh 50 a little over 5,900 voters uh turn out for the primary and over 15,000 uh for the general election. Uh this special election did cost uh between $110,000
and $115,000 for us to administer uh just in Crowing County alone. So it was uh elections are are pretty substantial uh investments in in time and also resources. Jory a question on that now Jory
uh on the on the school elections uh like when we do that are do they pay for those elections? They pay for those. Yes, Mr. sharer. Uh yes, with uh Pine River being the house
housed in Cass County, we provide them uh with our registered voters in Crowing County. So that went to the Cass County and then just a few weeks later they returned the favor and sent us uh Pekquat Lakes District voters in Cass
County uh to Amy in our elections area uh so we could make sure that we had the voter registrations uh and could facilitate that. Uh so that was all we had in Pine River was just giving them our voting uh folks that were eligible
to vote. And then uh the Peekquat School District uh did uh pay us back for our time and uh effort that we had in being their absentee polling place uh and helping administer their election. But in the state when the one we had to do for the state, there is no
reimbursement for that. That's just unfunded mandate because it's a special election. Correct. Yes. Okay. Dory, just a question on on like Okay. So, if the school has a
uh wants to have a um um ref special election or a referendum, does the school board decide how many polling locations there are or or is it all the polling locations are open or or can they decide to to bring the number
of polling locations down? Yeah, Mr. Chair and Commissioner Coring, a little of both. So they have to decide what polling places they will have and they have to more or less register with the state. So with the Peekquat school district election, they didn't have all
precincts open. They used uh the precinct at the Cole Memorial building in Pekquat Lakes and the Cross Lake City Hall as the polling precincts for that uh special or their school referendum election. So they didn't have like the breezy city hall was not uh open uh and
mission or lake Edward town hall uh was not a polling place. That just seemed like it just kind of disenfranchised that's the great word that everybody uses disenfranchise people when they go let's say they go to Breezy Point and they're going to they want to vote on it and then they go
there and they go my polling place is closed. they don't maybe even haven't done their homework and don't know where to go and they they just get poed and just go home. Uh Mr. Chair and Commissioner Corin, it it is dictated by statute. So they they
are following Minnesota state statute on where they set up their polling places and and those places have to be um basically secured by the end of the year and if there's a polling place change. So they a couple years ago when they had a referendum they designated the Cross
Lake City Hall and Nicole Memorial Building as their precincts for uh special elections. Since there was no change, they didn't want make any change. They kept those two precincts. But they do have the ability to open up any or all of their precincts. They just have to submit that to the our office
and then uh to the Secretary of State's office. That's their decision. The school board has to pass a referendum by December 31st of the year prior to any elections that might occur. So any elections that would occur, as Jory said, set by statute after the end of that year, they had to make those
changes by December 31st of 2024 for any elections that would occur in 2025. And schools and cities have the ability to do what they call combined polling places if the only thing that's on the
ballot is that office or that question. Yeah. uh learning. I'm just learning. The next thing I want to highlight is just our continuous improvement team here at Crowing County. It's not so much admin services, but it's uh uh very
valuable work. Uh and I I don't know how often uh we get an opportunity to present to you. Uh so, uh it's made up or our continuous improvement team is made up of 40 uh members from all departments across Crowing County. And we're really looking uh to improve
governmental services and find efficiencies and solve problems uh meeting our mission of serving well, delivering value uh and driving results. We use a number of different tools. One is uh 5S where we will uh come in and and look at possibly a room with
inventory in it and we'll sort it uh kind of set an order, clean things up a little bit, standardize and then make sure that we're sustaining that model. We also use lean uh where we look at processes and make sure we're we're giving the customer exactly what they want, no more, no less. Uh we also have
recently started a plan, do check, act and that's really just a a method of planning your work uh and following through looking for some of those efficiencies. Uh it's a a little bit uh higher level than than a lean. So it it's a little quicker uh just for a
quick anal to analyze an issue that may be going on. We also use top facilitation where uh our continuous improvement me members are trained in facilitation to help ask the right questions to stimulate um dialogue and to really root get to the root of the
problem that could be taking place. We are also using resultsbased action. That's where we start with an end goal and work our way backwards on the steps that it's going to take to get to that end goal. And then our six sigma process uh which is really kind of housed in manufacturing but we've implemented it
here where as Jason was Jason was talking about all that data that we have that we can use our business intelligence analysts and our software uh to help determine solutions and also uh see what's trending to make more uh a
better informed decisions. So we currently have 17 projects in the pipeline uh that members are working on uh wide ranging across uh most of our departments in Crowing County. Uh since we implemented this process in 2016,
we've completed over 100 continuous improvement projects across the county uh looking for efficiencies. Also wanted to just quickly highlight um the uh extension office and uh some of the
going things that have been taking place in in that office already this year that they have administered 246 uh applicator pesticide applicator licensing tests. Uh that's uh whether they're commercial, non-commercial uh
residential farms uh or building maintenance. Uh Tracy and the team in extension have been uh busy proctoring those tests for people that are looking to become certified. Uh the 4 fair entries stands at 2129
uh from the 13 chapters across Crowing County. Uh that will be taking place the end of the month here or just in a few weeks. The master gardener program has uh distributed 214 patio gardens um that are starting to produce already. And
then as uh we found out late last week in the budget committee that the SNAP education program uh that's housed here in Crowing County will be ending at the end of August. So with that, uh I do just want to uh
thank you. I've been in this position for a year now and I uh again thank you for the privilege of of working with this team. Uh Joey, Nancy, and and Jason and all the their team members have been absolutely tremendous to work with. as you see the results that they are u
producing uh makes it extremely fun and rewarding uh to work with all of them in this environment. Uh just a couple things is that we're looking at for the future is the long range financial plan that Nancy highlighted. Uh we hope that this will be beneficial in making
decisions uh for the future and taking more of uh a larger look at uh what could be coming down especially financially but also uh just organizationally I think it's going to uh be a benefit for all of you and making the decisions as Jason said the
AI enhancement uh we do currently have a small little sliver of AI and that's what babe our chatbot so if you go or anybody goes to the county website uh they'll see a blue ox icon in the bottom and it you can click on it and ask it uh any questions and it'll generate
responses. So it's where do I get my birth certificate? Who's my commissioner? Uh it's really AI generating those. So that's our first step in the AI world. Uh with that again Joe and his team and the continued maintenance and the beautifification of
our campus. uh when Secretary Simon was here uh this spring, he was commenting on how beautiful the building was, how much he loves uh this historic courthouse. So, it's it's good to hear uh from someone that gets to visit all 87 that uh this courthouse is one of his
favorites. And then uh just continue to work in analyzing um the the mandated services, the support services that we provide uh for those mandates and also services uh that we provide. We're going to try to get you a report by the end of
the year uh to better uh inform uh decisions you might have to make or give you a little bit more um of the deeper dive uh of those mandated services. So with that, that's all I have unless you have questions. Go ahead.
Uh how I haven't heard for a long time how our contract or collaboration with the city of Brainard is going. I think we're I believe we're still helping them air conditioning, snow plowing, sidewalks, and everything. Can you just
tell how how that's going? Obviously, it must be going good. I have we haven't heard anything. Yeah. Yeah. So, we got a shared service agreement with both the city of Brainard and then also one that we started last um last year with the city of Cross Lake as well for that joint works building. So, we have really two shared service
agreements. Um, we do continually ask both entities for feedback and all the feedback that is currently coming in is positive. So, um, yeah, we really treat whether it's City of Brainard or Across Lake is really their their buildings. You know, we take care of them. We try
to take the ownership just like we would our buildings as well. So, anything else? That's just like I, you know, we've talked about the airport before. That's why I I just wonder sometime if if we're out there I don't know you can comment
it on Mr. Chairman but I I I know that they do an excellent job of monitoring all that stuff. I don't know who monitors all the AC units and as much as we do here out there but um right now it's just the ARF group. It's the four guys that work out there as
firefighters. Um is it Jim or James? not James, but Jim does most of it out there and and has given us some good advice, but we have some boilers that have to be changed out out there. They're crashing on us. So,
um, as I noted at our budget meeting, it's going to be interesting to hear what Mr. Planser has discovered in the budget that we have and how we're going to get those replacements in place. So, all right. Thank you very much, Jory and
team. Thank you. Wonderful report. We appreciate it. Is there anything else? This is terrific because I have a three-way call I have to take at 10:30. So, perfect timing. So, thank you. with
that. Have a good