So, we'll we'll get started with the committee of the whole. And I just want to welcome and thank all the veterans for coming today to be here for this presentation. But go ahead when you're ready. >> There we go. Now we got the green light. First, we're going to start out with
with our report on um our performance last year. We're going to try to breeze over it a little bit because I anticipate the conversation about the program funding is going to be the majority of our conversation today. Uh but absolutely, if I breeze over something and I don't clarify it, please ask me some questions.
So, we um we started tracking our interactions with veterans on Vet Pro in 2022, roughly around September. Um, and then we've been uh trying to track our every interaction we have of a veteran. Every time we have an interaction with a veteran from then on. Um, as you can see, our phone calls uh had a pretty
drastic drop from 2023 to 2024. That was when we implemented um an app service for the ride programs. So rather than getting a phone call from the veteran for a ride, calling a driver, calling the the veteran back, um and and then any changes that might have happened, we
reduce those number of phone calls down to um one or two phone calls per ride rather than four or five phone calls per ride. So it's a big time saver. Um so that's why you see that drop in in um interactions for for phone calls. Um our inter inerson um interactions have gone
down just a little bit, not not a lot. Um but roughly speaking, we've been we've been having the same number of interactions. Um ununder uh unspecified um that's what we use to to track that we're tracking claims as they go through the process. Um so we've been tracking a lot more on the claims and how they've
been going through the process. Um I'll kind of get into why that is a little bit later. Um the VA has gotten a lot faster and with speed, with quantity comes a drop in quality. So, we're we're monitoring that quality drop um with claims. All right.
Um I think it was a year ago we stopped we we stopped tracking how we were train track we stopped tracking claims a certain way and we started tracking them another way um to be a little bit more um split out in how claims end up. Um so the numbers don't quite line up from the
from the years but um as far as claims filed um we we were at 340 claims we filed last year compared to 287 in 2024. Um in 2024 we had that transition um both an ACVSO and administrative assistant um overlapping in that time that year. So our performance wasn't as
high. Um we had 346 claims decided last year. Um 184 were awarded. Um 23 were partials. 23 partials means that some of the conditions were denied, some of the conditions were awarded. Um we had 11 denials. Um, eight continued claims. That's where the the disability doesn't
change in in in um quality or in percentage. Um, 13 canceled claims, foreclosed, one reduced, and uh one and two lost POA. That's where we um uh another group takes over the claim and um we are no longer able to see what's going on there.
Also, um as you see in this other graph, we had 90 um supplemental claims. um to address that uh that drop in quality, we're going back to the VA and reopening that claim, telling the VA, "Hey, we think you made a mistake." Um the same with those HLRs or higher level
reviews. So, I found a new website called data.va.gov, um which actually provided us with the exact number of veterans who are receiving certain benefits in our in our county. It's fantastic. Um 2022, they didn't track that year. I don't know why, um or if they named the file
differently than the rest. Um, so I couldn't find any data for 2022, but this is uh this is uh according to the VA, this is the exact number of veterans who are receiving benefits in our county. Um, so we have a total of 1,091 recipients of of VA disability benefits in the county. Um, and then the
breakdown of what what their percentages are. Um, and then their age breakdowns um, as well as their gender breakdowns. Some fantastic data. Um, one of the things that we're particularly proud of is um is the ratio of uh female uh veterans receiving disability ratings
compared to our female population of veterans um in that bottom lefth hand graph. Um that's a we feel that that's a pretty spectacular um um indication of of our female vets feeling confident in being able to come to our office. Um, one of the things I'd like to draw draw your attention to is that the number of
100% recipients as well as the 70 90 to 70 to 90% recipients um has gone up pretty highly um in the last three years. Um we're pretty proud of that um that we're getting more veterans um a higher rating than than um than a lower rating.
I is the uh bottom left is that the total number of veterans in the county or is that uh >> Yes, thank you for drawing attention to that. Um yes, that's the total number of veterans in the county. Um according to this data set, the other data set that the VA puts out has a different number.
>> Is it roughly the same or is it >> roughly the same? Yeah. Yeah. I think I think this data set is based purely on the number of veterans who are receiving um uh benefits in the county. I think the other data set is an estimate based on some other data as well um as well as medical care. So, and then I've got some
nice links in there if you want to double check it later and click on those and and take a look at that and you can um click on those and and uh follow that data. All right, the GDX report. This is where that again that veteran population is slightly different from the previous graph. Um I put a double asterisk on
there to say I think that's that's an estimated number. Um we have gone that top center uh graph is the total expenditure of on veterans in the county. Um from 2021 to 2024 the GDX report for 2025 is not available yet.
We've gone from 29 million um uh 800,000 to three uh $ 38 million spent on veterans in the county. Uh an increase of roughly about um $8 million um in an increase. Um we're really proud of that. Uh 2024 didn't track veteran population
for some reason. They in fact they changed the entire graph on how they track numbers. Um and so I tried to represent that in the the bottom graph. Um the dark blue is what was tracked before 2024. Um the light blue is what 204 2024 added as far as tracking goes.
Um so any numbers you see missing there, it's just because the VA wasn't tracking that beforehand. Um so this this graph is direct expenditures. This is money going straight into the veterans uh bank accounts. Um so we've gone from 2021 of
13 million um 261,000 to 18,800,000. Um again a very large jump and we're very very proud of that. Uh what I do also like about the the 2024 numbers is the on the bottom left hand or bottom rightand corner, excuse me, um is the DIC and survivors pension. That's benefits that are being paid directly to
veteran spouses um after the veteran passes away. So we're pretty proud of that number as well. Any questions on that slide? All right. So, here's the other part of the GDX report. This is indirect expenditures for veterans. So, this is
expenditures on medical care. So, this is um a veteran getting um their glasses done um at a local uh local provider. They're getting their hearing aids taken care of at a local provider. Um more likely than not, this is also veterans getting community care at the the local Mayo Clinic as well. Um, but there we're
we encourage our veterans to to get community care at uh at local businesses to try and um and and uh uh get those benefits a closer to home and b to try and and help out our local economy. Of course, um we have gone from um 17,754,000
to 19,192,000 um in indirect expenditures on veterans in the county. Um, and going across that, um, and memorial benefits, that would be grave markers, um, that that, uh, that we've helped veterans, um, families get for veterans
who have passed away. Um, construction, it doesn't look like we've had any, um, any construction expenditures. Um, education, VA, VR, this is for veterans who um, who are going to go back to college or um, have uh, uh, job placement, training, that kind of thing.
um or they're opening their own business and they're getting some direct support from the from from the VA while they're opening their own business. So, that's uh that's that expenditure there. I'm not sure what loan guarantee was. I didn't have a a description of what that was. Um and then we have medical care at uh at
17 uh,887,000. Um again, the VA did not provide total numbers um for veterans uh on this report. I don't know why they stopped or they stopped reporting that, but that they did. And then the SAH, SHA, and vehicle grants. These are grants for veterans who are um have a higher
disability rating um to adapt their houses um if they want to um age in their home. So, it'll widen doorways for wheelchairs. Um they'll put in lifts in the bathroom or the bed to help the veteran get in and out of bed. Um help the spouse kind of help them prevent them from going into um into a nursing
home um keep them in the home for longer um or even completely preventing them from having to. Uh and the vehicle grants is again for adapting um vehicles to veterans who may have lost a limb or something like that to help them with move the establish a left loop gas pedal or have a chair lift a wheelchair lift into the in and out of the vehicle. So
we had $17,000 of expenses there from from the VA. Any questions on that one? >> So just so I'm clear, you keep talking about millions. >> Yes. So, these are It says to me it says
19,000, but you're saying it's 19 million. >> The report reports it as um as thousands and then they tell you to add multiply everything by a thousand. >> Okay. All right. >> Got it. >> Thank you. >> Um our homeless veterans work, um we're
pretty happy with where we are right now. Currently, we have no homeless veterans that we're working with at this time. Um I did do these slides about two months ago, but that's still the case right now. Um um in the last year, we assisted four home homeless veterans. Um two as of this year earlier in the in
the year. Um but we've we've uh we've helped get them placed. Um and we're tracking 12 at risk veterans right now. Um what we find is that if we can prevent prevent homelessness with it, it it it saves us a lot more time, saves us a lot more money. Um and it um it's a easier on the veteran. you know, they're
not getting out of the home, you know, where they're they're very distressed. They're they're they don't have a home and then we are trying to get them housed again and and solve those those issues. Whereas, if we prevent them from home from from losing their home where we use MACV or other resources to help
um uh b pay back rent or something like that and then get them enrolled in VA healthcare to start addressing any of those issues that might be might be contributing to that. Um, so we're we're doing a lot more prevention work than we are doing necessarily direct work. And I think it's paying off by the fact that we we're not currently um uh working
with any homeless veterans and that that we had so few last year compared to previous years. We had a lot of a lot of homeless veterans. So I'm pretty proud of that. Um but some of the situations for for um at risk veterans are doubled up or they have a lot of financial stress or there's some some physical
mental disabilities going on. Um, I was asked because we do have that uh that that VFW or JKU um donation fund for veterans uh helping out homeless veterans. I was asked to do a um a budget report on that just for some um accountability. So, I wanted to track um
what's going what we spent on in 2025 on that. Um we had $8,820 in donations for that. Um we spent $2,739 on meals and lodging. This is not the GDX report. There's we don't multiply by,000 on this one. Um we uh we we helped a veteran out with
about $19 in some medical supplies. Um he had a unique medical condition. Um and then we carried over $6,61 um into this year. Um and then last year we used the MDVA grant from the state um to help out with meals and lodging for $4,776. All right, that was our performance from
the last year. Um again, I breezed over it very quickly. Please, if you have any questions, email them to me or ask them ask them if you want to. >> Just a comment and I don't know, I know that I think AMC was working on changes
to the vets um with regard to real estate tax. Did they get the changes through that they were trying to get through whether it was timing or dates or I
don't there was I know there was something they were working on. >> Yes. Um I am sad to report that that did not pass. >> That did not get through. >> It did not. It was actually the only legislative priority of every single veteran service organization in the
state of Minnesota. >> And it didn't get through. >> It did not get through. And it's like it's a it's a simple fix. It's just like crazy that they can't actually >> house but not the Senate.
>> Thank you. And I believe that was the homestead tax exclusion. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yep. >> Uh for clarification so everyone knows what we're talking about. Um currently if a veteran is 70% or higher rated they get $150,000 of the value of the their home removed from their property taxes. if they're 100% service connected, they
get $300,000 of the value of their home removed from their property taxes. That number was a setup in 2008 um and it has not been adjusted for income or inflation um since then. And there there's been some request that we we increase that those numbers to be in line with inflation, but they could but
they could increase the exemption on a $500 plus,000 house to a higher number, but they couldn't get this through. >> Yes. It's absolutely ridiculous. >> All right, ride program summary. Um,
this is just a a very quick overview of how this process works. We receive the ride request from the veteran. Um, they call us, they tell us where they need to go, the date, time. Um, we put it on our schedule, um, and their drivers sign up for it. Um, we have a nice app that's that's been been handy. It's had a
couple bumps this year, but it's very very nice for reducing the number of phone calls and text messages that we have to exchange. Um, and then we call the veteran back and let them know like, hey, driver so and so is going to pick you up at this time for that ride. And um, we usually do that phone call um, on the Wednesday of the week before um, to
let the veteran know when what their ride is next week. Um, the driver then picks up the veteran at that at their door. the driver pulls up to the curb and the veteran um comes down to the vehicle, gets in and the the then the driver um brings them to their appointment and brings them back home and drops them right back off at the curb. Um it's very handy for our
veterans um especially ones with mobility issues um and um and all of that. Um this is pertinent to our conversation later. The veteran may donate a $20. Um and I do emphasize with my drivers, do not pressure them to donate that $20. It is absolutely a
voluntary donation. Um, I don't want it to be it's a it's a it's a you may donate, you're gonna donate, right? No, this is very much a voluntary donation. Um, at the end of the month, our drivers turn in their driver's logs and donations, and then we um we uh then
file um uh our paperwork to the finance department um for them to be paid as well as to turn in um turn in those donations. Um the donation fund for the rides is completely separate from the Juvo donation fund. One is for for homeless veterans and the other is for rides. Um,
and then of course we receive donations from our our partners. Um, uh, some of them send us a check every month, some of us send us a check once a year. Um, and u and that helps out with the with offsetting those costs. So, Abe was fantastic and pulled
together a chart of all the rides from 2000 to now. Um, so we can kind of see what our trends were looking like. Um obviously during the pandemic our rides plummeted. Um but uh we've we seem to have recovered from that pretty handedly
in 2022. Um 2017 and 2018 we had a lot of rides. Um we're in the 650 range, but um excluding those offset those those um those outliers. Uh we're looking at about um just over 500 rides um a year
on average for the last um last 10 years, I want to say. Um which is handy. Um that we know that our rides aren't um aren't increasing or decreasing. They're staying about the same. That gives us an idea of what our budget should look like moving forward.
And then our budget history. Um so I'll go line by line. Um we're at uh 569 rides from last year, 492 in 20 uh 2024 and 58 in 2023. Um donations have uh steadily decreased
since 2023. Um I think the reason for that is that um is that the economy is becoming tighter and has been becoming tighter over the last couple of years. Um and uh I think that's why that's happening. I'm not entirely sure. Um,
it also could be that um I don't know. Um, if anyone else has any ideas, absolutely bring them up. I'm I'm happy to hear them. Um, I could uh I could probably do a little bit more um um asking for donations and that might be a factor is that my office hasn't been going to places and asking for them. Um
but uh I'm not sure where that is. Pdeium in lie of salaries. Um, so this is where we tried um switching to using a county van and paying a driver um mileage from their home to the van and then paying a pdium to take the van and then provide the veteran the ride and then mileage from the van back home. Um,
we were paying a $100 u a day per pdeium for that. Um, it was more expensive per ride um on average across the board. Um, but it reduced our liability on our end because they were driving the county van instead of a personally owned vehicle. Um, so that was that trade-off that we
had. Um, as you can see, 2024 it became pretty popular. Um, and then in 2025 it dropped off. Uh, the reason being is, um, you pay taxes on that and you don't pay taxes on mileage. Um, and a lot of our drivers went, uh, no, we'll take we'll take the mileage over over having
to pay taxes and adding that that headache at the end of the year. Um, as of right now, um, we've gone down from two county vans to one county van, and it is very rarely taken. Um, it's usually only taken in the cases of our veterans who have some pretty extreme mobility issues and they need a lower place, a lower step- in to get into the
van. Other than that, our drivers are refusing to take the van. So, um, that's that situation. Um, volunteer transportation mileage. This is what the what, um, the total cost.
I'm making sure I got my numbers right. This is how much the county is putting forward um for the ride program. Um so this is how much is coming out of the county budget um as far as the levy goes. Um I believe this is coming out of
the levy. Um please correct me if I'm wrong. Um and so we can see how much the county has been having to to put forward on that budget from 2020 to to 2023. Um that number went up by a lot. um we went from 17,000 up to 52,000, but again in
2020 and 2021 we had a much lower ride numbers. Um and then um gasoline um we just had a little a small cost in 2025 for gasoline. Um and then total offset I believe this is offsetting the uh the
donation amounts. Um this is uh this is um that uh that amount. And then I wanted to make sure that we were tracking that um I think some of these costs are going up um because the the IRS mileage rate is what we pay and the IRS mileage rate has gone up steadily um in the last uh couple of years. Looks
like it's gone up steadily for every year, but um that's a that's a factor to track. I imagine that the majority of our conversation is going to be coming back to the slide. So we'll uh we'll absolutely come back to it. Um just wanted to provide you all some
information just for for the conversation. These are the average costs of a ride to um the Minneapolis VA in the first column and to the Rochester VA clinic on the in the right column. >> Oh, I am so sorry. I will project my
voice more. >> Um the left column is the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Um ride from Canon Falls to there is $49 on average. Um I guess again this changes based on where that veteran's address is and the mileage. And then to the Rochester VA clinic is
$70. Um, as you can easily predict, um, the the the cities on the north and north east or northwest side of the county, um, it's much lower cost to go to Minneapolis VA. And then, of course, for the our cities down in the southern side
of the county, it's it's cheaper to go to the Rochester VA clinic. Um, and then Lake City is just in a in a particularly difficult situation um, for distance. I'm sorry. I just want to clarify. The Rochester VA clinic is only for primary
care, no specialty care. So, veterans can't go to Rochester for everything. >> Thank you. Um yes, uh primary care. So, um uh the Minneapolis VA can provide um opthalmology, aiology, um uh
orthopedics, physical therapy. Um whereas the Rochester VA clinic uh only provides that uh that primary care just to go see your doctor once a year kind of thing. If they have any referrals to any other specialty care um they'll go up to the Minneapolis VA Medical Center um or they'll do um community care in
their local area. Does everyone know what community care is? I brought that up a couple of times. Just to clarify, via community care is a situation where the veteran is um has to travel more than 40 minutes for uh for a primary
care appointment, more than 60 minutes for a sec uh um specialty care appointment. Um or they have to wait more than 20 days for a primary care appointment, or more than 30 days for a specialty care appointment. So, let's say my primary care doctor refers me to
um opthalmology for a new pair of glasses um and the Minneapolis VA uh medical center is 41 minutes away. I can ask then for my primary care provider to put me in for a referral for community care to get my opthalmology done closer to home um at a local clinic um or or
something like that. Um most often I see it again for glasses, hearing aids, physical therapy um and chiropractic work is is primarily where I see most of that. Um, but I've seen it also done for some dental um as well. Um,
the VA is pretty reluctant to do that kind of thing for dialysis or um um cancer treatment. They usually are pretty insistent that the veteran goes to the Minneapolis VA Medical Center for that and I'm not projecting. Again, I apologize. All right, donation sources. Again, we
have that $20 from the the veteran for each ride. Um that is that is uh optional. Um we get private donations from the community um and then donations from our veteran service organizations and our partners um uh in the community. And here's where I'd like to open up a
conversation brainstorming. How can we how can we take a little bit of that that uh that budget stress off of the county levy and maybe find other sources of funding for the ride program to then um to take that stress off the levy. Um one of the things that I was thinking of
and I I don't think is going to be very popular with our veterans at all is a 20 requiring the $20 donation. I see your luck. You know, I don't think that'll go over very well, but I would be remiss if I didn't bring it up. Um it's an option that we can we can bring
up at 500 rides a year. That would be about an extra $10,000 in funding um for the ride program with there's also the option of red increasing that to a $40 donation um or some other dollar amount. Um but multiply that by 500 and we can see how
much of the budget that would make up. Um we could ask for larger donations from the community. um uh which is uh what the primary direction that we were thinking of going today was asking for larger donations from our our VSOs and our our our community partners. Um and we uh we were uh we've been discussing
applying for grants. Um I we actually did apply for the 3M grant. We have not heard back. Um there is a high highly rural VA transportation grant. Unfortunately, we don't qualify for it. It requires less than five people per square mile. Um and we did the math. We're at roughly about 60 people per
square mile in the county. So, and then we're looking for other grants. If anyone has any ideas for grants or anything like that, we're we're more than happy to hear about them or or apply for them. So, this is where we'd like to move to a conversation um in the room. >> Um I recently went to a training event
on grant writing because that was something neither myself or Justin had ever really explored. I also received a list of potential companies that have grants to help us. One of them is Chevy
happens to have a transportation program grant that I'm going to apply for. And um this wonderfully kind grant manager from the DAB of Minnesota has offered to help me apply for these grants out of
her kindness of her heart. um to make sure that I'm not missing anything in these grant applications. Um my goal is to try to save this program with everything in me. And I understand that we're asking a lot from
you guys to fund this program. So if we can take it off of you, we would love to. >> Just so I'm correct, in 20 It was virtually 35,000 36,000. Is that what you're saying? >> Yes. Yep. That second row, I stand
corrected. Yes. The second row is was what came out of the county budget. Okay. >> Um I I'll just make a comment. I I think everybody sitting up here wants to support veterans. So I don't think there's any issue with that. Nor do we want to burden veterans. And and I I
think that what as a board what we're trying to do is not just look at veterans, but because the preliminary levy increase uh for this year and we're just going to be starting our budget meetings was so high, we're sort of looking at everything in the county. So
just for the veterans information, the preliminary levy request was uh around 20% increase, which would be a real hardship for an awful lot of people. And so we're looking at everything and it's not at all that we don't want to support
veterans, but we also don't want to overburden taxpayers. That's all. So if there's ways for us to figure out how to do this where there's less pressure on the levy, um, but still meeting the needs of the veterans, that's really the win-win. Yeah,
>> absolutely. >> Yep. If I phrased it that way, I apologize that it was >> No, you didn't. I just I just wanted to make sure the veterans heard that. And um some things people are happy to donate to and some things not so much.
So tuck pointing on the county courthouse. We're going to have a hard time getting any donations to do that. But um rides for veterans are something that people feel good about donating to. So, if we can uh you know extend our
budget a little bit by uh finding things that people feel positively about supporting, again, that's a win-win. So, >> absolutely. And I adding weight to your point um or VFW fund for our homeless veterans. Um we received a $10,000
donation from from the VFW insa to help us out with that >> because it feels good >> to especially help out with veterans. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> As it should. >> Yeah. money like >> I I was thinking now you know the
veterans can respond to this. I was thinking about the donation. Who wants to donate for something that they've been getting for for no donation? I mean that kind of goes against human nature. So the only way that I think that would work is if there was some sort of raffle where they had a chance of getting uh
some piece of the pot back. And that might not be legal, but there's got to be some kind of incentive to participate. I think >> um actually you bring up a good point. We could um we could coordinate or discuss coordinating with um with our BFWs and American Legions on doing um uh
a raffle or something like that to fund this program specifically. >> Mhm. >> What's that? >> We do a fundraiser. >> Yeah, we do a fundraiser in partnership. Yeah, that is an option. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. >> Yeah. So, so, so again, I I don't want the veterans to think it's because we
care less about you. We know that you're cared about in a way that more people are willing to donate to this than almost anything else on the on the levy almost. Yeah, >> I think I brought this up be sorry.
>> Sorry. I think I've brought this up to you before, but the Association of Minnesota Counties does have, I believe, two people now that are researching grants for counties. And if you contact them and let them know what exactly are
you looking for, they have quite a repository of grants and will help move counties along to find funding. So that's a possibility. >> Thank you.
>> You guys have two county veteran service officers that are willing to do grant work. Neither one of us. That's not our our wheelhouse, but we're willing to learn and try. Um we'll absolutely reach out. Um DAV is sending me a list also of who helps them fund their transportation
program. So, we're we have a lot of hats in the ring right now, but we we got to find a solution to keep this. >> I'm sorry, Nick. >> I want people online. >> Um, and actually DAV, I I completely
slipped my mind to throw a uh a slide in there. Um, the DAV, we were planning on transitioning to the DAV. Unfortunately, we ran into a couple of um not insurmountable, but very difficult roadblocks. One is is the DAV can't just set up a van in our county like we
thought they could. They have to ask the VA for permission and the VA has to do a study and and it could take a year to three years to get that done on its own. Um as well as the DAV just doesn't have enough drivers to cover our county. Um they are providing some some veterans in our county rides, but it's onesies. It's
not the volume that we're running. Um and our drivers uh not a single one of them wanted to switch over. So that was one of the problems we ran into. Um the DAV is very much a volunteer program. There is no compensation for that at all. So that's that's uh that's one of the roadblocks we ran into there.
>> And another small roadblock is Good Hugh County is very large mileage wise. And um one of their solutions, which I adamantly told them it was not going to work, is they wanted to centrally locate vehicles and then have meeting spots for
our veterans. I pointed out that well that could be a 35minute drive for a veteran. Maybe he already doesn't have transportation. So they haven't solved the problem. They've created a whole new one. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So it just we weren't able to meet to
meet the demand of our veterans. >> No. I first I'll just categorically say I'm not at all in favor of saying you have to pay $20 to ride. That's just out the
door with me right away. I think we'll we'll find ways, but um $35,000 is not a lot. It's Yes, it's a it's an amount. If you've if you divide it out
by the number of veterans we have, it's about $9 a veteran. And so I I have a I have a little bit of a problem with this being a problem. Um I think um
our veterans do not get the service that they should get from the feds in the state. I'll just categorically say that. I don't think they're recognized like they should be recognized. never have thought that. Um, it's part of the reason why I fought like crazy to get
two veteran service officers and an administr administrative assistant because I I seriously believe that what the state doesn't get right. As Linda said, this is where it gets real. It gets real here. There are neighbors.
They're our citizens. We need to if the state's not going to step up, the Fed's not going to step up somehow. we have to step up and I don't it's we need to look for ways but it's not an insurmountable thing for me um at
all when we talk about budget. >> Absolutely. >> Just not it's not it's not it's not that big a deal. >> So yeah, >> that's just my comment. I and I totally thank you for all being here. I really I really seriously veterans just have
never gotten a fair shake in this whole deal and I just bothers me to no end. So, thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Any any other comments or questions? >> I would I would totally agree with that.
No, there's no way we can require any donation. I would I would never vote for that >> either. And uh like like Brad said, this is a very small amount in appreciation for what uh I think our county is unique that we can still do this program. I
know DAB does a lot of the counties in the state, but uh I mean this is you know our location is unique to the cities we can get there. I mean if you're talking Houston and Filillmore, it's a whole different ballgame for them. But um so I this is a very small
part of our budget and uh yes please look for grants, look for options and and fundraisers but uh yeah I have no problem spending this money. >> Just out of curiosity, do we know the mix? People going to Rochester, people
going to Minneapolis? >> We tried getting that data together um before the meeting. We have not quite gotten it all together. Um, we finally got every ride we've provided since 2022 on a spreadsheet. Um, now we've got to start pulling the data out of that. So, I I we can absolutely get that to you um at a later point, but we haven't been
able to we didn't have time. >> My guess my guess is the majority go to Minneapolis. >> The majority do go to Minneapolis. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Because you're it the one-stop shop. >> You need it, it's there. >> Exactly. Yep. And we do have a a large
amount of veterans that are actually traveling up to Minneapolis multiple times a week for chemotherapy and other things because of presumptive conditions related to Agent Orange. We are very lucky. We have a 10% um veteran to
civilian population ratio and sadly cancer is one of those things that's caused by Agent Orange. And um the VA takes excellent care of those veterans, but it requires that veteran
to go to to Minneapolis VA probably three times a week. The one number in here that kind of caught my eye, um when you talk about gender, um the one graph shows that
uh we're about 10% female. >> Yes. And consequently, we have 10% females getting services, which that is amazing that we're we're matching when
we do that. That's really good. I'm glad we're doing that. >> Yes. Um, female veterans are weird. I will say that as a female veteran. >> Um, you get one shot with a female. We don't have time. Mhm. >> Um so for women to feel comfortable and
confident to come into our office and know that they're going to receive those services is huge. Um we've worked very hard to outreach to women specifically. Um the other thing we've done is which
Commissioner Flanders is going to love this. Um Vets Court is official. >> Really? That is wonderful. Yes, we have our first participant. >> Very, very nice. >> Um, we worked very hard with the jail
and I will tell you they have been great at letting us know when there's an incarcerated veteran so we can get those services. It's a whole new um veteran demographic that we didn't have access to before. So, our office has worked
very hard to prove to the community that that we're here to help them access these benefits. We're not gatekeepers. I do not tell a veteran, no, that's not my job. My job is to get them the benefits. >> Thank you.
>> And any other questions? The only thing I would say is I would concur with Brad and Todd that that making a $20 donation mandatory is not something I'd really >> It's not a donation if it's mandatory, is it?
>> No. >> I'd just like to reiterate how these rides are needed. For the last four or five years, I've held my brother-in-law up who's a combat wounded Vietnam vet. Multiple surgeries, Agent Orange. In
fact, this afternoon, I'm taking him up again. And some of these guys, if they ride, you know, if a van I know Wabasha County, I had a friend of mine who drove the van there. They pick them up in the morning, they may have one appointment, and these
guys are sitting in wheelchairs all day waiting for their ride back home. It's very unique in this county that we can do this. Um, I can'tate enough. You go up there and you see these guys sitting all over waiting for rides
and we're very lucky with my brother-in-law because we've got very supportive family. You know, he's in a wheelchair getting in and out. Um, and I thank you for supporting this. It's very important. I don't know if you ever get up to the VA, but to see these
guys is they paid a price. I think we owe them. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I just have a question. I I know lots of uh family members who drive their veteran themselves to the VA and I'm
assuming that they don't get reimbured unless they've applied to be a driver. Is is that correct? >> No, >> that's correct. Yeah, >> that is correct. And then you wouldn't um there wouldn't be funding if all you're doing is driving one veteran if
you're not part of the kind of pool of drivers. Is that right? So you you wouldn't be if you just said I just want to drive my father up and back and I'm looking to see if there's reimbursement for that. That's probably not reimburseable. >> No, it's not. >> All right. Just just my curiosity.
>> Absolutely. Um there is It's a can of worms. There is a veteran of a certain percentage, disability percentage, can apply for travel pay to and from a medical appointment and the VA will pay 41 and a half cents per mile.
>> Um, but part of applying for that, there's a check box that says, "Were you given a ride?" And if they check that box, they're no longer eligible for that money because they weren't the ones who who drove themselves. >> Um, I see. I see. >> And so, it's uh it's one of those things where it's it's um there's a bit of a catch 22 for the veteran. They drive themselves, they get paid for their
mileage. somebody else drives them, nobody gets money. >> Yeah. >> So, >> and I'm not trying to change it. I just wanted to clarify. Uh >> yeah. >> Having a father-in-law who went there for quite a few years, actually spent three months in the VA,
um offered to drive him several times and he's like, "No, I want to ride with Jingles and so and so and so and so." There's a bit of there's a bit of um >> therapy in the ride and who you're with
and who you're uh going there with. So, I I totally get it. This is a it's a it's a touchy subject. It's a tough subject. It's uh it's what we owe our people. It's really I'm glad we can do it and I'm glad we can make it work in
the shape we do. >> A lot of our drivers are conversationalists. Thank you. >> Any of you guys have any questions? >> No. Okay. >> All right. With that, um, we're going to start applying for some grants. Um, we're going to try to get some training
on how to apply for some grants. Um, I'll have a conversation with our partners about maybe doing some fundraisers and, u meat raffles. Um, I will shamelessly send out county emails about those. Um, I'll contact AMC about
those grants. I apologize for I I I misplaced those notes previously. Thank you for reminding me. >> Um, and that a mandatory $20 donation is a no-go. I've got that in capital letters right here. So, >> so thank you for your presentation and
thank you again for your service. >> Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you very much. Okay, are we ready for the next uh presentation? >> Uh good morning, commissioners. I'd like to briefly reintroduce myself. Uh my name is Justin Wers, and I am currently
the summer administration intern here. Um today, I'll be providing an update on my work so far, including the projects I've been focusing on and where they're headed. So, just a brief overview. I've been working on several projects so far this summer, starting with the motorpool
analysis. I created a comprehensive file containing all information on our current fleet, um, including historical data from when each vehicle was first entered into our system along with maintenance from 2022. So, some of our vehicles information is provided all the way back to 2017.
I've also developed a county branded apparel store exchange that will be available on our internal website for employees to trade apparel. Um, in addition, I've been helping update the motorpool reservation working with the IT team. Um, I will soon begin a project
for Rhonda and the court services uh team to present at the Goodyu County Fair. And then along with the Goodyu County Fair, I've been organizing and assisting with coordination efforts for the fair itself. And lastly, I've been contributing to the LEC joint building project.
So, I'll start on this slide. I want to highlight the main purpose of the motorpool analysis project. Um, what we've been working towards is creating a more complete and consistent system for monitoring how the motorpool is used. So that includes tracking mileage and
destinations, logging trip details, recording date information, and maintaining a thorough service history. By bringing all this together into one um unified monitoring system, uh monitoring system, we're able to improve the accuracy um reduce a lot of that
manual tracking um that saves a lot of employee time. If a analysis was to be created, this will save a lot of time for employees. um we're this uh this foundation sets us up for stronger planning, budgeting, and long-term data analysis um within our
motor pool and for our maintenance. So on this on this next slide, I'll dive more into what I've done within the motor pool. So the file created tracks all the data recorded from motor vehicles when they are checked out and returned. Um because of this, we can use
usage information, like I said earlier, going all the way back to 2017. Um, with this updated file that I created, information can now be analyzed in many different ways. So, the example I brought today shows the total miles driven per vehicle for the top the top
five um, visited destinations by the assessor's office in 2025. >> One quick question. Is that the total miles per trip or the total miles per year or >> so? I I I will get into that. All right. But so basically when you're looking at
this screen here, it is showing the top five destinations of the assessor's office. So per destination, it shows the cars that were traveled to that destination. Now these the blue lines and the numbers on top represents how many miles those cars drove to those
destinations and >> totally in Okay. >> Yep. Yep. So, if you were looking at it, the the miles the title is on the left. So, it's showing basically all the miles that they drove in 2025 to their top five destinations in the assessor's
office in 2025. Um, the the most improvement that is no longer needed is creating separate tables or charts. So, within this graph I created, there's departments, destination, car ID, and there's even a year breakdown. Now, if I were in the
actual file itself, I could click the filters in the drop downs and I could change the department. I could change the destination. I can change the car ID and that will automatically adjust the graph for me. So, instead of creating different data files or starting a new
log, you don't have to do that. All you have to do is change a couple filters and this will, like I said earlier, improves the amount of time employees will have to work on this. And then along with that, I created a presentation and a screen recording of how to manually enter in this data so
it's not something that gets forgotten or consistently gets confused about every year. Um, do you guys have any kind of questions about this slide at all? >> And then like I had said, Linda, >> how
who is it that puts the data in? Is that one person? Is that somebody from every department? It's every department or if you take the car. >> No. So I I will get into that. So in our motorpool reserve system, all the data is entered in there and then is it's
collected in Excel files. So what I do is I combine all those Excel files and put them into this one this one system that I created on Excel that has a log of all our data. So then therefore I'm not going into different files looking
for information. It's all on one log. And then we can continually do that over and over. So we're not looking for all these different information on different logs. It's all in one file. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The next slide that I will bring
up is what I've done with our our maintenance. So what we're looking at here is the cost per oil change from 30,000 to 60,000 60,000 mi in 2025. So what I have here on the graph is our oil changes. Now the blue lines are representing the price of the oil change
and then underneath the those blue lines it is showing the mileage that was that that oil change happened. Now underneath that is the the car. So 1814 1915 those are the car IDs that we used. And one of the main things when I was collecting
this data that I realized, well, why is, you know, car 2011, why is it higher than the rest? Well, then I was able to go look at the files that we have from the auto shop. Well, it uses different oil and it's got a bigger capacity when you refill oil. So, that gives us future
information. Maybe we we can save a little bit of money looking at different cars that don't take as much oil or the less expensive oil. And then just like that again with the previous slide I said that you can change the filter for the the reason the mileage and the car ID. So if you want
to look at other things like when we're getting new tires, when we're rotating those tires, when some of our bigger expenses with maintenance are happening, it's on there and it's easy it's easier to track and easily look at. So this sets us up, you know, for the future
when it comes to planning. What vehicles are we buying? you know, what what type of maintenance are we doing on these vehicles? Um, this is just one example of like the valuable insights that you can pull from this data file. And then as we continue to use and refine this
file, it will help us identify those trends and understand cost drivers and make more informed decisions on our fleet. So, in the end, you'll be able to take all this information and on
car 2011 determine what the cost per mile to drive it is. >> Um, yes, there will be there's a lot more information needed on it, but I can take all the all the miles driven, the
the amount of maintenance on it, and then I can break that down per mile. Obviously, the number there's a lot more factors that go into that number, but you can get a decent um number out of it >> because in the because I remember when we first did this whole deal with cars
and figuring out how long we should keep them and when we should trade them off and it all came down to what does it cost per mile to own and drive that car. And at the end, at a certain point, the cost per mile
starts to go up and that's when you want to get that car out and a new car in. So that this is great information. The way you're doing it, it's like over my head. What I want to know, what I want to know
is in the end, can we determine when's the best time to trade a car, get rid of it, and get a new car? And what's our cost per mile? That's all that matters to me when we get there. This is you're doing a ton of work. And to know that
one car costs what 10 bucks more to change oil than another car over 100,000 miles changing at every, you know, some cars are at 6,000, some cars are 9,000. That makes a difference. So, but it all
boils down to we want the most efficient cost per mile we can get to. >> Yep. And I would like to note that when I have went through the information um since co like since uh co our information has been skewed. So a lot of
this information I'm starting from 2022 and when I've done the research I don't think there's been enough information especially when all the other things are changing like the like the rates how they've and within our own departments how we're not charging.7 cents per mile. So that affects a lot of a lot of the
information. I don't think right now we can really determine some of those numbers, but we can get good information. But I think a couple years down the road, we'll be actually able to figure that out with hoping that there's a little more stable plan with it. >> I I just have one question, too. you
know, when I read through things and I play around and see what other information I can find. And the information I found suggested that if the car wasn't being used for 10,000 miles or more in the year, it's actually
cheaper to pay mileage than to own that car. Now, I don't know if that's true just because I found that, but I wondered if your research would give us some guidance on, you know, if our cars are only being driven 5,000 miles a year, then that might be a different
cost ratio than if they're being driven 12,000 a year. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know exactly how to answer answer that, but one thing that this information has helped me with and I've worked with it on Stacy is it gets us a better idea of when and how our
cars are being used. So, we're able to, you know, this department, hey, you should start using this car. So, our miles are flowing at a more even state rather than some not being used at all, >> right? >> Then this can dive into that. So when our so when our fleet um so we
buy five cars this year and in five years we want all of them to be about the same mileage. So we're going to move them around between departments so that they get the right mileage because not as Susan says not every car gets used as
much. >> Right. Right. Right. >> So but that's what we've always done is we move cars around. Sometimes they go out to public works and sometimes they come from public works and that's really we're getting way in farther than you
are. I know that. But I think it's it's it's a testament that when we started this system of really monitoring motorpool and we now keep refining it, we're getting better at all of those things.
>> Sure. The beauty of this tool is that what we're talking about, a lot of those things are things that I have in my head and they're things that I have in the know because the motorpool is something that >> so you can't quit. That's what you're saying that we're in a document. So >> yeah, >> um that's that's the beauty of it. So
some of the things we have been doing for years and but so much of it is is that it's it's in my head. I'm in the know. I have all the information. But if you don't know how to decipher the information, pull from this file, this file, this file. And what Justin has created for us is actually put all of
this information into one file that I mean, he's been able to pull data that and it matches up to what I'm saying, what I'm thinking, and stuff like that. So, it's ex expanding it further and anybody could take a look at it and make that determination.
>> No question. Um I went up to a leadership conference and uh AMC Julie Ring they had rented a car and I said why do you rent a car? She said well with the cost of your mileage reimbursement it's cheaper to rent a car for a day or two. >> Has that ever been do we have a rental
here in town? >> There is no >> uh yes there are rentals here and yes we have rented uh vehicles usually based on uh needing a specific size. >> Okay rental a van. Okay. But I was just curious if that's I mean like I say now
it's jumping up again the reimbursement rate. >> So maybe that isn't out of the line to even look at a rental. >> The other odd thing is every once you hear that Kitson County flew to something. >> Yeah. >> They do sometimes fly down to the cities because you know by the time you start
looking at staff time etc. Yeah. >> And they can be to the Twin Cities and a half. >> Right. So, I I think it'd be good to know that number of where the break even is for uh for how many miles go on a car in a year because we don't want a bunch of cars that are only being driven 2 to 5,000
miles a year. >> Um and then um the other thing would be and of course it depends on the vehicle, but it looked like, you know, when when you play around, it looks like the guidance is keeping a car to 100 to 125,000 miles. And of course, some
vehicles are lemons and some never have a problem. So I understand that's just guidance and not absolute. >> Yep. So in addition to Justin pulling all of this information together, he's actually going to come back to you on August 18th, right? August 18th with a a
fuller, bigger, more detailed presentation on the all of the data and whatnot that he's pulled together here. So this is a snapshot of one of the projects he's working on. >> Where do we keep our plane? >> Our airplane. >> Yeah. Well, where do we keep our playing
>> down at four street? >> Yeah. >> Well, I'll continue now on to the the next slide. And this is kind of just the future analysis. I've already mentioned a lot of this stuff, but uh looking ahead, the focus is on creating a fully centralized and standardized system for
all motorpool maintenance information. By having consistent records year after year, we'll able we'll be able to clearly identify trends in the vehicle use, maintenance needs, and long-term costs. Um, this level of consistency helps administration plan ahead, budget more accurately, and make better
decisions about our fleet management. Um, over time, this will this approach will create more efficient workflow and provide a reliable foundation on feature analysis and and fleet planning. And that was what I had for kind of the motorpool and the maintenance.
Now, I'll be getting on to the county branded apparel store exchange. So, I'm introducing the county store exchange, which will be a website where employees can easily exchange branded apparel, whether it's something that they don't wear anymore or it's an item
they'd like in a different size. Since employees currently receive an annual $80 apparel allowance and can't return it, once they purchase them, this exchange creates a practical solution. It gives staffs a way to reuse, trade, and repurpose apparel they already have
while also helping reduce waste and increase um access to items that fit their needs. Um, this has been asked by a few departments and has been a big hit in a couple of them. So, this next slide is explaining how it works. Um, I'm explaining how the county
store exchange process will work. Employees will fill out a simple form that includes a description of the item, any price or trade information along with the size. Once the form is submitted submitted, the entry is automatically added to a countywide file that lists all available apparel that
has been submitted and and that those items are available to staff to browse. If so, if two employees decide to trade or purchase an item, the rest of the transaction happens um directly between them. And then after that exchange is complete, the county employees have the
ability to um remove the listing so the listing stays up to date. Um this kind of setup keeps the progress organized. Um a lot of the issues have been a lot of emails that you know aren't getting sent to everybody or they're just getting lost and forgotten about. Um
this is really easy because it um is fully employee managed. employees get to control this and kind of I have a little picture here that of something that I posted. I don't currently have it, but basically I filled out a form, took a
picture of a trucker hat, put it on there, and then posted it. So employees throughout the county are now able to see this, and they can reach out by my email on there, and then we'll discuss further negotiation with price or trade if we were looking for that.
>> So you don't really have that hat? No, not that. I might have to get >> I was gonna offer I got a wore out hat I was gonna trade with you. It says Hancock on it. >> Yeah. Okay. And then so that's kind of what I have there. And now I'm going to
go into um some smaller projects I've been working on. So this is with the IT team. Um starting with the motorpool reservation updates. I've been working with the IT team to make reservation systems a smoother and more userfriendly process. We are adding features such as
reminder emails when a vehicle is due back at the end of the day, a more intuitive date and time entry, so less clicking, more just more simplistic. And then there will be better information when an employee um picks out a vehicle
there. We're hoping to figure out a way to add it to the calendar just so there's these simple reminders so people don't forget. Then I'm also moving on to the next project. I'm working on a project with Rhonda in court services. Um I'll be
presenting with her at the Goodyu County Fair. It's working with um juvenile placement and uh and a little bit of cost analysis of where that's going with our juveniles. Um next I've been in coord coordination with um goody county the presence at the
fair. So this process has involved working with departments to secure times that um employees will volunteer for the for the booth. And then I've also collaborated collaborated with HSS um connecting our booth so they're next to
each other kind of to unite our community as a as a whole rather than being two separate entities basically at the fair. So then you're not having you know community members asking well why aren't you guys together? this is a easier way to to work around that.
And then along with the fair, I've been giving um ideas and different giveaways for people. And one of the things that I worked this year with Al and GIS was um creating a a map where um community members can um pin their homestead and
it's going to be opened up outside the Giddy County as well to see if we're getting people coming to our fair outside. So for me where I live, I'm I'm coming from outside Goodu County and it'll be my first time actually at the Goodu County Fair. So I think that is
something that'll kind of bring the community together and it'll be pretty interesting and I can see that having a big being very involved. And then the final project I'll talk about today is the law enforcement center project. I've been I have been in ongoing
conversations with both the city and the county as we continue working towards a long-term solution um for the future of the le agreement. >> I see they keep you busy. >> Yes. Yep. I've been very busy. Any questions?
>> Just a comment. Um I know the county um through public health and soil and water and I think the one watershed one plans trying to identify wells around the county. Is there between soil and
water and good county? Is there some way people going through could actually do that right at the fair? I think you'd want to ask uh Megan Smith that question. >> I don't think it's Megan though.
I I think we I got a card in the mail. You could go online. >> Might not be Megan, but I know it's not Justin. >> Might be soil and water, too, right? >> Well, it's a combination between public health >> and soil and water. So, I it just it's a
question and I can ask it tomorrow. I'm in a in a one watershed, one plan meeting, but I would think it would be really easy cuz there's a lot of rural people that got wells that you could identify where on your property your
well is and we could fill that map out faster that way than having people go online and trying to do it at home. I >> I do know they're supposed to be recorded and I also know that event at one point in time you're supposed to have a permit for them. So, but to the exact answer to your question that I don't know we
>> well this is a this is a an an initiative around the state to identify all wells out in the county and some of them are not active wells but there people know there's a well there to get well sealing done where we should get
well sealing done just a thought and I can talk to soil and water about it too but good if we could do it right at the here. >> Um, any more any more questions?
>> Good work. >> No, but thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Nice job.