everyone I'll call the croing county regular board meeting for February 25th 2025 to order if you'll please stand for the pledge and a moment of silence I Alle to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good morning everyone I'll call the cro County regular board meeting for February 25th 2025 to order if you'll please stand for the Ed and a moment of silence I think we have an echo in
here I'm wondering I think it's Paul you were I think that might have been Paul with the feedback if he was on but let me just is it over there yeah I don't think so I was just seeing if it
was no I didn't have the microphone pH on when I said the pledge okay it should be good now all right will you call a roll call please uh yes commissioner coring here commissioner ly here commissioner barrows here commissioner
franzine here commissioner Lee here all members are present thank you at this time open Forum I see Mr olssen you would like to speak if you'll give us your name and address please and then there remind you that there's three minutes to speak so thank you got it uh
Mark Olson 12336 Thompson Road I got a lot to say but I know I get only 3 minutes Proverbs 24:12 says if you say but we didn't know about this won't he who weighs the hearts considerate won't
he who protect your life know won't he repay a person according to his work I want to read that first because uh I wouldn't be able to read it at the end okay it's crazy what's going on in the
feds right all this stuff fraud uh abuse going on there millions and millions of dollars um being found not millions billions and it's not just at the FED level it's at the state level also uh we
had an $18.6 billion Surplus two years ago what did we do we blew it uh walls said he was going to give it out to the taxpayers Didn't Do It um he spent 30 to 40% growing the government last week or
two weeks ago you had a vote three to2 I get both sides and it was on the HRA um approving a $225,000 uh request to the state now two people Jim Lee and Paul coring voted
against it and I believe they voted against it on principle now I get the other side well it's not costing us taxpayers money yes it is we pay Minnesota taxes we have to as local people also uh
cut down uh HRA is a decent organization but they were formed to do what read section 469 if you haven't that's a statutes of for of HRA they were formed
for lowincome house housing in blight areas not to give a million dollars to a project out in Baxter and Supply $2 $300,000 houses in the area that's not
what HRA is for they also have uh two nonprofit groups working for them uh getting taxpayer funded now the nonprofits I would think would be helping HRA not receiving money so I think as uh you're looking at this a few
years ago I was talking about this also and they were requesting 700,000 on their trust fund you guys were smart enough to reduce it or keep it at 450 I think it was 480 but I don't believe they need a trust fund you need
to take a look at that and I think you also need to take a look at HRA as a whole because different cities has HRA why does the County need an H they may need one but I'm not so sure I think you
need to really take a hard look at uh giving HRA for sure trust fund money now I know your 26 budget is coming up and I would say take a good hard look at that thanks for listening thank you very much
Mr Olsen appreciate it with that we'll move on to number three which is review and approve the minutes from February 11th 2025 motion to approve motion by commissioner franzine second by ly second by
ly any discussion hearing none would you call the roll call please commissioner coring I commissioner franzine I commissioner ly I commissioner Lee I commissioner barels I that motion passes
number four is review and approve today's agenda no changes no changes motion to approve motion by commissioner franzine I'll second it seconded by commissioner Lee any discussion hearing none roll call please
commissioner franzine I commissioner Ley I commissioner Lee I commissioner coring I commissioner barrows I that motion passes move on to number five which is our consent agenda motion to approve motion by
commissioner franzine to approve second by ly commissioner ly gives a second any discussion roll call please commissioner luy I commissioner Lee I commissioner coring I commissioner franzine hi
commissioner barrels I that motion passes we're on to number six veteran service officer Eric flowers morning Mr chair Commissioners thank you for having me today it's another another year gone by um here to do my uh 2024 uh
yearly review um of of our office so sorry all right gives me time to breathe so this year um you know looking back at the other years with with uh setting up
the office I've been here it's amazing that it's been already been 5 years this is my 5-year review um there's been a lot of work that's been in the process and kind of strategic placement first of all you got to build a good base for an office when you come into a new place
and I believe that uh We've in a really good position to have um that big Bas with the staff that we have in our office and uh the policies and some um strategic planning that we've done as
well um and so this year has kind of been a different year for myself as a director in in uh veteran services and how we're kind of building things up and uh we'll go over that but I wanted to kind of share with you kind of a mission
statement um for our office next slide our mission is to set the standard of Excellence in serving our veterans by fostering meaningful relationships engaging in proactive Outreach providing highquality claims assistance and delivering comprehensive education of VA
benefits to our veterans we are committed to honoring the service and sacrifice of our veterans through unwavering support advocacy and dedication to their well-being um I think the big thing right there in that is that we want to
set the standard in the State uh for County Veteran service officers to to operate and and go through so um that that was a big thing in in the mission statement that we wanted to put in there our Co core
values uh Integrity acting with honesty transparency and accountability Excellence setting high standards and every aspect of service and delivery compassion serving with empathy respect and understanding advocacy championing
the needs and rights of veterans and their families and collaboration building strong Partnerships within the community and Beyond so this year I wanted to focus on some of the priorities uh obviously for
2024 um and that number one strengthening relationships with veterans and Community Partners um we really continue to focus on out reaches to our veterans uh a lot who are underserved uh based on location health
and transportation to our office we provided 68 outreaches to veterans in Rural and or unable to make it uh due to Transportation barriers or health uh barriers or issues and this has really helped us as
an office to be able to meet them at at their place uh and see if there's you know observe if there's any other needs other than just veterans benefits is there any County benefits that they that we could identify that they could um uh
benefit from um also local organizations and stuff so those outreaches are are really helpful in identifying those underserved veterans and the needs that they have to be able to really expand uh and and get the maximum benefits that we
can help them out with and improve their quality of life um we've teamed up with Community Services even expanding with VA Healthcare uh and Home healthc Care is some of those additional resources that we've been able to help out that they
had not been provided before that they are able to now I attended 16 uh well our office attended 16 veteran uh events reaching out to more than 500 veterans at these events uh attending Community partner
Partners meetings to introduce and educate veterans benefits and our role in assisting veterans and their families in the community and how it can impact their organizations so getting Community Partners veteran organizations involved understanding educating them as well so
they can provide the uh enough information to listen to the veterans that they come in contact with and know that we can we can help them out in certain areas or many different areas so that's really helped out with uh veterans coming to our office being um
recommended to come to our office off from them daily interactions with our veterans and providing excellent customer service and claim development we had 14 new veterans in our office in 2024 who were recommended specifically
by other veterans that have told us that um to contact our office um and work with us um several there's been a few from out outside of the county that have reached out from our veterans that said you need to if you're not getting help
helped out at least contact uh crowan County veteran services and and see what they can help out with and so that's that's um probably one of the most uh impactful in in mind that other veterans are recognizing the work that we're
doing and they're reaching out to other veterans to help get get help reaching those who we can't reach uh on a daily basis so very good uh number two is the delivering high quality claims assistance with efficiency and accuracy so I think
number one for this that we were FOC that I've focused on in our office is Staff Development and education on VA benefits we continue to send them to National and state training conferences and classes um we do client case reviews and and feedback so as we are working with
individual veterans we will discuss those cases with them especially if we find one that's a difficult claim name we will come together and we'll kind of do like a a case review and U brainstorm back and forth and kind of um guide each
other through uh those those claims on the best action to take and and what we need the veteran to be able to complete and what we can do ourselves uh we learn from each other and and uh that's really excelled um our our assistance in in processing these
claims review of all cases of of all benefits and eligibility so when a when a veteran walks into our office often times they're asking for one thing and it's our practice that we will obviously take that into consideration but we won't just stop
there we will take the blinders off and look at their whole case File and we'll look for anything that they may not have even considered or thought about um sometimes that might take 5 minutes sometimes that could take an hour or two to to Really review their claims especially if they've had Deni in the
past like claims that have been denied um when we do these deep dives into these claims we find a lot of errors that the VA has made when they were processing their claims and so often times all it would have taken is
just to gather one little piece of evidence or point out the the error that the VA made in their decision and it and it gets granted right away sometimes unfortunately when a veteran gets a denial as I'm going through these past
denials um from previous years all it would have taken was uh that change and they would have been receiving the benefits right away instead they miss out on 5 10 15 sometimes 20 years of benefits that they could have been receiving just because of that error
that the VA makes so we don't just track what we do in our office we're tracking what the VA is doing we follow every claim as it goes through we have that responsibility I feel in our office to make sure that if we're assisting a
veteran with those that we um we follow it and track it and and provide feedback in in that uh advocacy for that veteran um mentorship and continuous focus on our mission and mission statement um we are constantly reminded
about setting the standard in our office for the state and other vsso offices we are constantly um looking and reminding each other about um and assisting each other with with that advocacy for our
veterans um talked about the researching the case files and old denials um see provide accuracy analysis of their claims and benefits assisting veterans with blueprint and guide of what they need for high quality claims so um you
know when I first started a couple years ago and and sometimes we get it we'll get a veteran that comes in this is what they want to do and we'll quick do a review and say you don't have enough evidence at this point right now let's do an intent to file we'll lock in this
date for the date let us review your whole file to make sure that we are uh providing and the VA with everything that they need for a positive Grant or the most likelihood of it being granted and then we also like look for other things I don't want to have a veteran go
through their whole life fighting for VA benefits I want to try to do it in as little steps as possible for for that veteran so then they can focus on working and living their lives with family and not not worried about how frustrated they are with the VA and
often times it is just by providing a good blueprint and guide of what they need to do and what they need to prove and the evidence that needs to come forward to submit uh it with that claim to get that Grant
and we just submit the best claims that we can I our office has a standard that we when we are working with a veteran we're processing and we're putting that putting that claim together as if we're working on our own
claim kind of makes it take home like what do I need to do what what uh if I were to file this what needs to be done and we have the veteran go and do that and there's a lot of good feedback from veterans with that they they understand the the care that we put into our claims
that we're not just paper pushers and filling out forms and seeing what happens we're in it for their best interest we track claims as I was saying before and review the va's development and decisions that they they make to ensure that the VA was correct in their
decision um so while while veterans and other maybe other offices look at stop once they once the decision's made and they see a denial I want to know why why was that Deni denial made and is there any way that we can get that turned
around or what evidence needs to be uh gathered to be able to to help them out with that we follow up with veterans throughout the process uh claims process as needed um reviewing all decisions so
really the big thing is the feedback in in that custom customer service to our veterans we're not going to forget about your claim as long as it's being um as long as it's still being open with the
VA we're going to provide that that feedback we check every single claim at least once every week to two weeks and we have several claims that we are tracking at a time but I just feel like um that's setting the standard that I
don't know if any other veteran service office does in in our area that they actually follow those claims through the process and provide that feedback a lot of times it's what I've heard from other veterans and other vso offices is oh we
just tell the veterans that once you receive something in the in the mail from the VA give us a call and we'll we'll look over it with you um yeah I don't I I don't think that that's a good standard in our office that I that I would want to hold myself
to um number three Mr chair go ahead commissioner so uh Eric so you the thing that you just said that you review these files every on a about two we basis is
that something that somebody told you to do or is you required to do that or did you think as the veteran service officer that would be a good idea to do that it was a decision that I made because
that's how I would want my claims to be um processed if I was going to somebody um so there's no standard there's no that was your decision then correct yep it's the way that I would want my claim to be processed and and and uh managed by
somebody that I that I went to to help out with my claims so it almost seems like you're going above and beyond you know like other veteran service officers would do you know and this is this is what I really like to hear Eric when
you're going above and beyond for these veterans which they deserve that uh I just want to say thank you for that that's that's really great that's good news thank you commissioner number three empowering
veterans through comprehensive education and resources so community events coordinating and partnering with other Community Resources organizations to provide Education Connection collaboration to reach veterans education of benefits
provides a spark for conversation and questions this leads to empowering veterans understanding what is available out there for them and we can lead them to connect with programs and how to navigate the system uh for education
benefits healthc care Etc so it's not that we want to do everything for our veterans we do highly recommend a review and and uh processing but if it's if they come to our office and they have a need or questions about things and they're able to complete
something their their themselves like reaching out for their education benefits or something like that and they're able to navigate that and we can educate them on that it empowers our veterans to take action themselves to be able to um access those benefits themselves as
well um we do highly recommend especially with the claims process and and compensation or disability compensation stuff that they do reach out to us we are seeing a lot of um veterans claims coming back um that we
are able to track that were filed by themselves and there's the success rate for Grants are much lower and the uh ratings that they receive are much lower
than what they would if they go through our office and most of it's just because this is what we do on a daily basis and we have a very high understanding of how the claims process works we understand the trends in the VA and what the development is and what to look for to
be able to and we have access to to the claims to track them so um we we recommend that but also just educating them like what's available out there and what are you eligible for so
examples this year was the Camp Ripley retirement conference in the spring and the fall um we met up with uh and teamed up with Morrison County Veteran service office and provided a a conference out there for our military retirees and
educating them on the new changes and benefits and assisting them with with questions and had a bunch of speakers out there to to um help help give them information Community Services meetings and collaboration with mutual
clients veterans organization meetings County Fair Booth uh presentations at Lakes area Habitat for Humanity and Kanas Club VA Town Hall meetings at the brainer VA clinic and then obviously our presence on the radio and social media
is always there too number four uh priority was also staff development and cultivating excellence and Leadership uh high quality training through the state and National levels there's constant changes in the VA
updates are are happening often being able to network uh at these trainings are pivotal and making professional connections and getting new perspective on veteran benefits uh we do out uh also encouraging staff to and having them do
outreaches and projects assigning Outreach opportunities to staff uh for veteran Community engagement tackling projects that are on that are veteran oriented and mentorship and case uh deep Dives like I was talking about before
guiding them through each specific one uh claims doing uh in-depth exploration of complex situations problem solving strategies and critical decision-making processes with them in those claims and
just very mission mission oriented our mission drives our daily action and communication our core values Integrity Excellence compassion and advocacy and collaboration is what builds trust and confidence with our veterans and our office strives for excellence for our
veterans um we'll go on to some of the assistance and and statistics that we've provided so far uh this in 2024 uh so financial assistance uh ssap grants those that that is a state level
um funding grants uh ssap stands for State Soldier assistance program so our office uh processed and brought in about $67,000 for CN County veterans for ssap Grants between 31 local veterans
approximately 70% of those were dental and Optical vouchers 20% were special needs grants uh assisting with housing and utilities and 10% were subsistence they had a medical leave they had to uh weren't able to go back
to work uh and they didn't have an income while they were healing that's what sub the subsistence is helps provide that Gap fill in there our office brought in the sixth most out of the out of all of Minnesota counties for
ssap grant money this this last year macv uh Minnesota I'm going to get this wrong macv it's a a housing assistance program Minnesota Council uh for veterans um assisted
assessed and assisted 16 veterans with macv applications who received approximately $37,500 with direct housing assistance and Utility payments this was funded um that this was funding that
assisted for paying past due uh rental or mortgage um deposits for getting homeless veterans into a new apartment that they were able to sustain themselves they just needed that extra little help to
get into the extra cost that is to get into a a rental and to keep them from being homeless our local veterans organizations the American Legion VFW DAV Minnesota homeless and Wounded Warriors
uh just a few of them uh gas cards we were able to assist veterans who did not uh have gasing or fuel uh to go to like appointments uh VA appointments um about $1,075 worth of gas cards given out to
them food cards $1,450 worth of grocery cards given given out and again these These are funds provided by these local veteran organizations assisting uh with with that immediate financial assistance paid to
vendors uh so car repairs about $37,000 for car repairs utility shut off notices and home repairs some of those things that they're not able to get qualify or they're not able to get the state or uh benefits or the grants or they need
immediate assistance now such as the utility shut off notices we reach out to our local uh veteran organizations to get assistance with that um our office organized and coordinated with the help of other agencies that
were and was able to get help to donate a vehicle to a veteran who lived in a rural Crowing County with no means of transportation family friends or even a phone our communication was uh by
written letters and Outreach opportunities our office was assisting other agencies for transportation to um medical appointments and they were having issues getting him groceries and we identified the need for a vehicle for
this veteran and with the partnership of Minnesota homeless and wounded warriors uh barriers were removed and the car was donated to this veteran he has this has now freed up time and resources from our office as well as other agencies assist
him with those needs so that was a a a big plus for for us uh the veteran and other agencies that were were helping them out um our claim stats so compensation claims for disability we process 341
claims in 2024 it's about the same as as it was in 2023 supplemental claims or responses of denied uh claims that we're submitting new evidence or pointing out issues um
with that to get that overturned about 104 claims in 2024 which was up a little bit from 2023 DIC claims or uh dependent indentity compensation claims so those are surviving spouses their their uh the
veteran passed away and it was deemed uh service connected uh cause a death uh we had 23 DIC claims processed in 2024 right around the same as 2023 16 applications for 100% property
tax exemption um or property tax exemption for 100% percenters uh this is uh for veterans and DIC recipients 18 applications for 70% uh service connected property tax exemption and
then we had 149 VA Healthcare applications uh for Veterans as well which is up about 20 from 200 23 some of those veterans that that uh applied for that we were able to get health care applications for didn't have
any other means of of Health Care um and so that that healthc care has really helped them out or given them additional uh health care options as well other than just through their private and their insurance that they have um client visits we had 17 124
office visits which is about 7.25 visits a day about 18 phone calls each day um 608 outreaches like I was saying um we had 233 new veterans get
added into our our office um that have never been to our office before so it's quite a few other highlights and not notes for 2024 develop systems within our office to streamline and make managing office
activities and responsibilities more efficient areas include phone interviews appointments and processes for managing cases um appointments have been uh pivotal for our office you know when when clients say oh we need an
appointment it it's kind of we usually when you go to a tire place you want to get your tires changed right away but when you ever you hear there's an appointment that needs to be made it it kind of kind of takes the window of the sales but in this case it's it's been really this is where we're getting
the traction for veterans and their claims is having these appointments um we highly we definitely want veterans to do a walk-in but we'll usually do what's called an intent to file again just to save it so we can do a deeper dive into
their claims to make sure that we can um do that but appointments have been really big in our office for managing um managing our office and and in the workflow and we continue to receive great feedback from veterans and family
members uh we work with our office is gaining reputation in the state of Minnesota for our service to our veterans and I have um mentored a few County Veteran service offices in our area discussing cases in office operations and managements as well um and then I believe this is the
last one I can talk for quite a while but I wanted to point out one thing that our office did Natalie uh Peterson in particular one of our acsos without going through this whole thing in in essence Natalie came uh
veteran came to our office he was denied uh compensation I think 9 years ago something like that uh for several different conditions the VA had made a mistake or an error in that processing and it wasn't
caught and 9 years later he comes yeah 2012 is when it happen so actually it's been more than that it's been uh 13 years came to our office and Natalie did that deep dig into his file looking at everything that she could and she
noticed that they call it a q claim or a clear and unmistakable error she filed for that as a supplemental claim pointing that out and it was they were all granted and they were granted back to the date of the original denial
resulting in about $114,000 worth of back pay um had she not pointed out that Quee and just reapplied for that those conditions with the right evidence it would have been based on the date of when that was filed
not going all the way back to the Retro date so it's just pain and uh attention to the details of these things and sometimes claims cases will take take a long time depending on how much information we have to go through and sometimes they go really fast but this
is just an example of how our office not does not just submit claims uh a veteran wants to file for we receive the entire claims file for a veteran look at the decisions made make sure they are correct look at anything else that may have been overlooked and ADV and advise
our veterans it's a testament that when a claim comes back whether it's granted or denied that it's important to review the evidence and the reason for a decision four other offices had missed this eror that he had worked with in the past from a couple
different states and even in Minnesota and because of this ER being caught the veteran will also be awarded a higher monthly amount improved healthc care benefits and is eligible for property tax exemption for him and last but not least um just a
little update we are continuing to to see issues with claims management from the VA uh once claims have been filed in in their development um this has been causing a lot of issues uh making the correct decisions and uh even with the right
evidence that we submit everything's right there perfectly packaged for this veteran and the VA doesn't process it correctly it's frustrating but I'm glad that our
veterans have an office like ours with the staff that we have to be able to make sure that we track these things and be able to point those out so they don't go a decade without having it reviewed and looked at again we've reached out to VA employees
through teams and and secure messaging to try to get this back on track before a decision is made which has been successful in a few times um and uh we're just dedicated to exceptional service to our veteran community and maximizing the benefits
that they have earned and are eligible for any questions concerns or comments questions Comm Lee not a question just a comment you made um a statement that said that you said want to set the standard for the state I
think that is outstanding it's uh uh veterans are very close to my heart and I'm very appreciative of what you're doing for all of our guys so thank you and gals thank you and gals yes thank you um you know when I first got this
role I had a call from a veteran who' called and said he wasn't well taken care of wasn't properly handled or whatever and I released it to you and you had already you'd gone through and said you know he wasn't qualified for some of these things you know I mean so
you do have ones that you do have to say no you do not qualify for this but at least you've done all the homework and that's what makes me feel good you've done the detail you've been the pnic getting all the detail out so when you say it's no it is no but the ones that
are yes I've also had those calls where somebody called me up and says just want to let you know that you know I didn't think I was going to get this and and that guy down there he took care of that I just want to let you know as a commissioner because you report to us you don't report to anybody else at the county you report to us so I I think
that is a really good thing and I was just down at the capital the other day and I seen a veterans a person wearing a veteran thing advocating for for these same programs down at the state because I know with the cuts at the state and the cuts at the federal I think some of those Grant programs are are getting
close to being on a chopping block so I'm glad there's Advocates down there at the state advocating for the veterans in the area so just wanted thank you for that comment I even um even if a veteran isn't isn't eligible for benefits at this time when we may have meet I always
encourage them to come back in you know a couple years always check in with us because the laws and the regulations are always changing and we've seen that with blue water Navy we've seen that with the mission act we've seen that with the pacted act and
so if I've said no I've done my research CU I want to give that veteran uh uh the benefits that I can that I can find for them but if they're not there at that point they may be come they may be eligible down the road okay thank
you anyone else don't hear any more questions Eric but thank you very much for you and and for your staff that do a wonderful job over there so thank you thank you Mr chair appreciate thank you Commissioners thank you all right we'll move on to number
seven County sheriff sheriff good morning Commissioners morning um let's see do we have anything specifically on no nothing so uh Hey welcome good morning welcome uh it's good to be here this
week uh you'll be getting a link uh an email uh from our office uh with our year-end report from 2024 I encourage you to look that over take a look at it see um if you uh if you have any questions or anything like that please
reach out to me or any of our staff uh there's a couple acronyms in there we tried to spell everything out but maybe missed maybe one or two things uh government loves the alphabet so um please uh feel free to reach out um I really uh this is the first time that
we've done the year-end report um and with our current records management system it's um it's really kind of clunky to try to gather all that information I wanted to give you some previous markers from like the last five years or even the last 3 years so you
could see uh some Trends um unfortunately um I was not we were not able to do that because it was just taking too much time uh on our staff to gather this information to put in there what we have in there so um as we go forward though
and well beyond me um there will be an expectation that for you guys to be able to see that yearend report and at least get a little snapshot of what uh what it is that we do uh at the sheriff's office with that um any questions
CH go go ahead commissioner Cory yeah the only thing is Sheriff you know good job your you guys are doing a great job the only just I don't know that this is really a criticism uh did get an email from uh um oh good lord I'm forgot his name
kenberg am I pronouncing that correctly Craig yes Craig Craig CRA oh Craig kenberg our guy y yes yep got an email from him about uh the $36,000 to put up some license plate
readers now I'm not opposed to that the only thing is is he said in the email that that you guys had put that in your budget I wish you'd let us know that ahead of time so we can have a conversation about it I think it's a good idea to catch you know somebody
that snatches a a kid or something like that to have these license PL readers it's a it's probably a great tool but I guess you'd I just wish you'd have a little more communication and tell us if you're putting something new in your budget we have a long budget process
so for one yeah commissioner um I think we're we're we're going to be bringing that to you on March 11th um I believe uh to the cow meeting and we're going to fill you in and we're actually bringing a rep just in case you have questions
that you want to ask uh what this flock camera system is all about uh we have no intentions on doing anything until after you guys have had an opportunity to vet it out so I I didn't see that email yet so I'm not really sure the whole context of it but uh no the the the only thing
is is I I'm not opposed to this it's no problem it's just that when you put different things in your budget like if you put this in your budget now we're just hearing about it you already have it in your budget probably should have heard it about it
before does that make sense yeah um we've been talking about this thing for like 14 months so I it's uh I can't remember all the previous conversations this is the first time I've heard about it until I got the
email okay uh duly noted duy noted not not criticizing anything I actually I think it's a great idea just I wish we'd if somebody's going to put something in their budget I wish you'd just let us know ahead of time sure absolutely that more than fair
yep um so you talk about the future that's about that new um system that we're going to have in place yeah so yeah that new records management system that we when we get up and operational uh within the next 18 17 months um that is going to really change it be a game
Cher for us as far as being able to gather that data really quickly and it's going to be it'll be easy uh so it's not going to difficult for us at all to grab uh grab that information not only that we're going to have we'll have a daily dashboard well we'll be able to see
immediately exactly what trends or anything that's happening um that's on the rise right at our fingertips as soon as we log on should be good any other questions concerns thank you very much appreciate
it County attorney good morning everyone I don't have anything for you this morning but I'm certainly happy to answer any questions any questions for the attorney Mr chair go ahead commissioner yeah Don I just wanted to let you know that I uh I was going to
try to Bone up on my legal experience on Sunday with the new suuts La so I I watched uh about a half an hour of it and it was too much drama and I don't do drama so uh
so you're going to have a leg up on me uh don on legal stuff but I'll still keep doing the politics I look forward to the discussions when you're back in minota commissioner hey thank you all right if there's nothing else
thank you Don thank you have a good day everyone administrator Ericson Mr chair members I have one item for you today is senior management team report we did meet yesterday and we had a lot of good conversation around a few different topics namely around the fact if you
recall one of the challenges I have for the organization for this next year is a longrange financial plan inclusive of a five-year budget and in addition to the budget and the CIP plan the discussion that we had yesterday is what other
components are going to be valuable information for you to have in that longrange financial plan so we did some conversations around pieces that we feel is important not just from Staffing level levels but what do we see with technology some of the things that we know are going to be impacting us we
talked about some of the items from the Transportation plan with the highway department with the comp plan from Land Services we want to make sure that this is a comprehensive package that you will be looking at when we get that long- range financial plan in front of you so Nancy was in our finance director was
with the team kind of doing some brainstorming with all of us to come up with ideas that we want to see included to that point if there is anything in particular that you all would like to make sure that is included in that financial plan please feel free to let me know that so we can make sure that
that gets included as well we also talked about our it and Facilities teams who are going to start doing quarterly meetings with each of our departments to talk about operational initiatives and some of the other protential project initiatives
that they have coming we had been previously just kind of meeting during budget time what do you have on the horizon what's coming up before your team now they're going to expand those to have them be quarterly meetings to make sure that the whole organization is on board with the information that's
being shared so that they all are aware of what's coming next as well and then we also talked a little bit about our performance review templates as we've finished our performance review season here now at the end of February as we're looking forward into 2025 there's been
some conversation on some cosmetic changes that we could make to that Performance Tool that gives a little bit of an easier Viewpoint for our employees specifies the information that they should be looking at and is an easier to follow easier to read piece so we did
some some conversation around what are some of the different options that could be looked at and while not every it's not a one-size fits-all tool every department needs a little bit different feel for what their uh review information looks like and this is just
a way that we could give some options for departments to look at some level of standardization there as well so if you have that's all I have for you today but if you have any questions of me I'd be happy to answer any that you have any
questions yeah Mr chair um Deb on there our emails that were coming to us as Commissioners there was some stuff in there in regards of the VPN or it and the VPN we were being I don't want if if you want to use word attack it it is the word attacked is a good oh is that the
prop yeah you all got the the countywide emails that talk about the the work that we had to do with our VPN our virtual private Network what we saw last week was there was an attack that was happening in fact just under 3,000 hits on our VPN that all generated from a
source that was identified in Russia it was not successful however one of the things that it did do was we put a lot of focus into cyber security we put a lot of focus into into security as a whole in our organization and so the team did take the initiative to take
that VPN down it really did not impact anybody's ability to do their job and in most cases nobody even noticed that it was that it was down for the most part but what it did require was it did make the staff the IT staff did move
a little faster with the roll out of a newer security product that we were looking at for this VPN as an option that was going to be coming out this spring and instead of taking a planful 2 three Monon Approach at it we took a two-day critical need uh there was a lot
of Ingenuity that was done with the IT team looking at options of ways that they could typically they would have to touch every PC every laptop that is utilizing that VPN instead they came up with a solution that they could remotely do that as long as the computer was
plugged in was online and connected to the internet they could push that new service out and we accomplished in the matter of less than 24 hours which I shared with the team last week how impressive that was that they not only identified the attack immediately kept
us from getting any concerns or issues but also deployed a much more secure solution in a period of about 48 hours and I understand that was not just our County that was across the state was there were a lot of different areas that did get a that did get the same attacks in fact the state of Minnesota the
minute Department was also dealing with their own attacks that were happening there as well yeah so something that's got to be ever watching because they're out there they sure are okay thank you any other questions for the
administrator if none we'll move on to additional business Mr chair go ahead commissioner Cory yeah Mr chair I just want to make the County Board aware uh uh continue continually aware of what I'm working on
if you remember when we met with our area legislators which I think was a very productive meeting I talked about one uh issue that I really want to work aggressively on in my district is uh this the removal and replacement of a
bridge that is on the town line of St Matias and Fort Ripley Township um I'm I'm I guess you could say I'm throwing mud at the wall to see what will stick so with the help of uh Tim Bray helping to put together a
package I really appreciate that from the county engineer and Debbie Ericson helping me I dictate a letter and of course she cleaned it up and it looks really good I'm going to be presenting that this Friday to United States
Congressman Pete stabber United States congresswoman Michelle fishbach and Brad finstead at the Minnesota breakfast down here in Florida um uh asking for their assistance uh if if and possible some
funding for that um and then I it's my understanding that three of you are going to be going down to the legislature and and our County Administrator is going to present that also to the legislators down there so I really appreciate it I'm really passionate about this I posted this on
Facebook a lot of my constituents uh are really happy to see that I'm working on this I almost wish I would have thought of it years ago when I was in the legislature I think I could have got something done
but I'm certainly going to I've got four years obviously in this term so I'm going to aggressively see if I can get this accomplished I think it would be a great thing for the community down here so I hope I can have the support of the
County board thank you thank you commissioner if no one has anything else I have three quick things March 3rd is national anthem day let's not forget that March 7th is National Employee Appreciation Day so thank you very much
to all of you we won't meet before then and March 8th is Daylight Savings Time finally if somebody could just get their act together and reduce it to one time zone for the entire year I would certainly appreciate that all the pets and the
children especially so with that I I would look for a motion to go into close session under MS13 d05 subdivision 3A so move
second motion by commissioner coring seconded by commissioner franzine roll call please can I just confirm that you're going into the performance review for veteran service officer Eric flowers and
after that for the County Administrator Deborah Erikson you're going to do one close session for both right and then will you just do your adjournment then also so I can shut everything down or do you want to come back and do the adjournment I think you should come back and we'll do the adjournment
okay commissioner Lee here you're voting here I commissioner coring I commissioner franzine hi commissioner hi commissioner barrows hi so we'll take
about a your choice I'm happy to encourage that maybe I have to unclick closed zo okay okay I'll make the motion to go back to open session motion by commissioner franzine second by commissioner coring to go back into Open
Session okay roll call commissioner Lee I here Corin I commissioner franzine I commissioner Ley I commissioner barrows I and that motion passes Mr chair commissioner coring
motion to adjourn second motion by commissioner coring to adjourn second by commissioner franzine roll call okay commissioner Corin I commissioner franzine hi commissioner lekeith hi commissioner Lee
I commissioner baros um I there were four out of the five of us already that motion passes we are adjourned