we've been in operation with for many many many years uh in conjunction with the state. The state has decided not to continue that program and we're going to get some information. I know staff's worked really hard to gather information and put it together for us about how we
could continue that program or um give us some options. So, sure. Good morning. Um, I'll start off by saying I'm the one sharing the information with you today, but this presentation is has been a joint effort amongst several county departments um
and county staff of pulling all this together. So, there may be times if you have questions that I'll have to defer things to somebody else. Um, but we'll just we'll roll through it here. Um, I can get my clicker to work. Okay, so just a little bit of program history for
those of you who are not aware. Um, good county has contracted with the state of Minnesota for over 35 years to provide three crew leaders for this program. Um, the people in the vans, the bodies, um, came from a variety of sources. Individuals housed in the adult
detention center, court services, adults and juveniles on probation who were ordered STS. Department of Corrections probation clients ordered STS. Uh since 2013, incarcerated persons also came from the Minnesota
Correctional Facility Redwing to form a crew. Um we have had 7 day a week coverage uh since the beginning of this, which means the crew leaders uh split their um schedules. Some worked Sunday through Wednesdays. Um we also had a crew leader who worked Wednesday through
Saturday. Um just a little outline on who STS has provided work for. um good county departments including public works, facilities maintenance, the sheriff's office. Um within the legislative packet that we included was a list of projects
and tasks um annual things that are done by the crews and then also some special projects that have been done. Other groups that uh they work with Canon Valley Trail, Goodyu County and the Canon Valley Fairs, cities, townships and school districts within Goodyu
County, Prairie Island Indian Community. uh they spent some time doing things for the Minnesota DNR. They spent time um significant amount of time with severe weather and natural disaster assistance and then if time allowed uh there was some nonprofit assistance.
Um wanted to share a couple definitions with you because you've heard us recently talk about STS versus IQIC. Um so Goodyu County has had an STS crew for 35 years. Uh the STS crew were individuals who were housed in the Goodyu County Adult
Detention Center. Again, the probation clients who were ordered STS from either court services or the uh the Department of Corrections. So, Goodyu County um had a contract with the state of Minnesota for three STS crew leaders until July 1st, 2024 until last summer. And that's
when the contract switched um to two crew leaders effective July 1, 24 to June 30th of 25. And the third crew leader was u moved over to an IQIT crew leader. So the institution community work crew. Um those are 100% incarcerated persons
housed at the Minnesota Correctional Facility. Uh we currently have a contract for that crew which uh the board just renewed when we were in Kenyan. So that uh contract has been renewed through June 30th of 2027. We have 20 hours a week with one crew
leader on that. Um you might recall that when we had the STS contract in the past, Goodyu County would sell a portion of that contract to the city of Redwing. When our um contracts changed last summer, we stopped that contract with the city of Redwing and they purchased
their own 20 hours a week of that crew and that's the same crew leader that runs Redwing and Goodyu County for correct. Right. Um, just a little contract history. Um, again, uh, for over 35 years, the
original contract was a 50/50 cost split. In 2010, the state of Minnesota had a reduction in funding that changed the contract to a 7525 cost split. At that time, um, Goody County chose to implement a user fee of $200 a day for
entities with levy authority to utilize the crew. We did that back in January of 2011. So any uh city, township, school district, anybody who was looking for help, we were able to uh recoup some of the expense on that. We charged them $200 a day. Um Goodyu County sold or
contracted with the city of Redwing for 20 hours a week. That contracted ended last June. Um on May 20th, 2025, the state of Minnesota notified Goodyu County that the STS program would be terminated due to the loss of state funding effective
um the 18th tomorrow. Um just to highlight our recent crew leaders, uh crew leader Rodney Brookens's last day of work was June 13th, 2025. Rodney's here with us today. Uh crew leader Kelsey Holden accepted a position with the DNR and transferred back in May of 2025 after they received
their layoff notices. Um, this gives you an idea of how many days were ordered for a sentence to serve in 2024. So, the Goody County court services clients, it shows that 329 adult days were ordered, 81 and a half of them were
completed. Juvenile days ordered were 76 with 43 almost 44 days completed. Uh you see the Department of Corrections numbers are higher with uh 2,930 days ordered with 879 completed. Um, this
understanding these numbers was new to me, which is why I made some notes on the bottom that court typically allows up to two years for sentence to serve days to be completed, which is why the actual days um served in the year that they were ordered is lower than what
personally that I was like, why haven't why aren't these days being served? Um, but with the understanding now that we have two years for those to complete those days, makes sense as to how the days were laid out. So, so are you saying then that the
days that were ordered in 23 are not part of the 81.5? That's correct. I can and that's it. That's a question, Rhonda. Okay. Yep. Yep. Um also note on the bottom that over the past month, the crew members range from one to four
individuals from the adult detention center and probation clients. um the population changes um with who's eligible within the adult detention center and then the number of individuals who are scheduled to show up on the weekends. Um juveniles are waiting to be scheduled and have not had
a crew since April 19th. Um so some of the the next few slides came from court services which really talks about the impact of the discontinuation of the sentence to serve program. Um, it highlights that there's no structures, no structured supervised work site for
juveniles and adult accountability. Uh, there's limited community service sites for adults and zero community work service sites for youth due to liability concerns. Um, and then it's longer incarceration for those who were eligible for the program. Um, the restorative justice principle of
repairing harm through meaningful contribution to the community. Um, I think we all know that STS provides safe skill building and repairative opportunities aligned with the restorative practices. Uh, lasting consequences when we look at the adults, they're serving more jail
time. Um, removes an opportunity for community accountability and skill building. Um, and it disproportionately impacts lowincome individuals. Uh, juvenile offenders, uh, same thing. No meaning meaningful accountability options, no community service sites that
are willing to accept youth without supervision. Um alternatives are financial penalties which are rarely developmentally appropriate or effective and often inequitable or potentially potential out ofome placement. Um you know as Rhonda
walks through the rest of these we're going to see some of this on the next page as well. um out of home placement is significantly more cost costly than local restorative alternatives. Um and then lasting consequences if we if there is not a program is that
there's no space for youth or adults to make things right through work or service. They're unable to repair harm in way that way ways that fosters responsibility, connection, and personal growth. Um moves away from rehabilitation. Um it's towards punitive only responses,
most opportunity for early intervention, community connection, and long-term behavior change. We have a loss of structure, mentorship, and restorative engagement. Again, uh staff at Goodyu County has always felt that STS provides a structured, supported pathway to um
restorative. So, we've had the question. So, now we'll go into what's going to happen since we don't have the contract um with the contract ending. So, the temporary plan for the summer and fall. So, I'm going to thank uh public works and facilities maintenance for pulling all
of this information together and they've had a a tenative plan B in their back pocket since we were notified um in February that this could potentially happen. So, the IQ crew that comes out of the Minnesota Correctional Facility, we have them for 20 hours a week.
They're going to continue to focus on um all the lawn and landscape maintenance and assist with winter events for we we talk about them. They're downtown here. So, the law enforcement center, the adult detention center area, justice center, government center, health and human services. They're going to address
current, ongoing, and future requests on the project list. Um, so we would meet quarterly with the crew leaders and we'd put together a list of of projects and things that we were asking them to complete and help them prioritize at what level they needed to be done. We have some things on that list. We've
pushed everything to the back burner, but there are some things that need to take place this summer. Um, they can assist with the duties at Bilsby when available. Um, they're also seasonal. They help seasonally with the Goody County Sheriff's Office. Um, and an example of that is when buoys need to go
in, when swim ropes need to go in, when docks need to go in. Um, they're the ones out there doing that work spring and fall, bringing things in, uh, washing it up, ducking it away for the winter, bringing it back out when it's time. Uh, Goody County Public Works um
has put together a plan for how we're going to take care of all of the properties. I'll note that this is all unplanned work that's taking away from scheduled maintenance activities. Um the intent is that uh highway equipment operator along with some summer help will be taking care of the
mowing and yard work outlined uh where that is on Pioneer Road Shop, Canyon Shop, Cannonfall Shops and Roto Shop. Uh all the things that need to happen at Bilsby, the Cascade Kayak and Canoe Launch, Recycling Center, Ben Street, and the Vasa Salt Shed. Uh I think I'm missing one when I
uh the bike trail on County Road 21 maybe. Yep. Okay. Um, there's the weekend trash uh pickup at Bilsby that's routinely been done by the crew leaders. Um, the summer work will be performed by a combination of summer students and highway maintenance workers. Overtime
will be incurred on weekends. Um, the fall work will be performed by highway maintenance workers. Again, overtime will be incurred on weekends when it comes to things at the park. So, that's our temporary plan for the summer and fall. I just ask one question
with theQUIC. Um, is there better participation in the IQUIC program as far as people coming out and working? I believe the number of individuals um coming into that pro into that van is six along with the crew leader. So, is
that an is is there an a difference in the choice to go out and work and not go out and work in IQIC versus SDS? Like, who's eligible for the IQIC program out there? Is that what you're asking? Well, you can be eligible, but you can
choose not to go out. And it seems like we have plenty of hours that need to be served in STS, but we're not getting people to leave the correction facility to do it.
So, the correctional facility, the crew, um they determine how many crews are going out. I should back up and say that's one of the questions that we asked, excuse me, if there was an opportunity to to purchase an additional aquick crew or additional hours. And the answer to that question was no. They're
not building any new crews. They're not hiring any crew new crew leaders. And that our existing contract is what we have. There's also an opportunity for overtime, but the way that our contract is structured right now is we have Mondays and Tuesdays with the IQ crew and the city of Redwing has Wednesdays
and Thursdays because they work 10-hour days. So those who are eligible for those programs are on those crews. That answer your question? Well, sort of, but you know, there's
329 days assigned in STS and we're halfway through the year and we're at 81. How we'll get there. We'll get there. Okay. Yep. Give me one more slide. I mean, do do all the days get served
over the two-year time period? So those days are in reference to people who are in our jail, adult detention center, and they're also ordered um for sentence to serve that are on probation. So who may be working a regular job and they need the weekends to serve their days. They
need Saturdays and Sundays. They don't have the weekdays. Um but we'll get to how we can get those body more of those bodies into the program. Well, and you know, the question kind of was towards is there something in the court systems that are
different between if you're in the correctional facility versus in our ADC and you're telling me not. I'm sure that there is a difference between what's happening at the correctional facilities. I'm not familiar with that process. I think
we're most familiar with what our process looks like and how we can better that when it comes to being able to get those people who are ordered and bring them into the program and actually working with the crew leaders. You
um so we've outlined three options moving forward. Um number one being that Goodyu County creates an STS program to fall under the court services model. Number two, increase public works FTEES to incomp complete the necessary work. And number three, we could outsource the
work that needs to be completed. Um so option one, the court services staffing structure. Um this is where we're talking about hiring two um crew leaders who will supervise the crews seven days a week, including the
weekends, to provide flexibility options for working adults and youth who attend school. Uh the structure promotes restorative accountability while accommodating real life schedules. The other thing that we'd be asking for um within a good county program is a 1.0
FTE position which will be split between two roles. And this is where we would um ask for a 50% STS coordinator. This individual would be the one who manages referrals, tracks compliance, coordinates placements with adult and juvenile participants, serves as the
primary liaison between courts, probation and the partner agencies. I think as staff of Goodyu County, this is something that we've had in the past under the court services umbrella. There has been somebody um up until 2010 2013
somewhere in there somewhere in there who specifically that individual's job was to do all the coordinating and making the phone calls and following up with these people who were um scheduled to serve sentenced to serve and like hey let's get your day scheduled when are we going to plan to do this what works for
your schedule like really was the person following up what they're seeing happens now is that people wait till the last minute and then all of a sudden it becomes an emergency that they need to get their days in and then they end up violating their order and correct me if I'm wrong, Rhonda. Um, they violate
their order and then it goes back to the judge. They didn't serve their STS and then there becomes the next step which we would all like to be able to get those individuals who are ordered STS um into the vehicles doing the work and being a part of that program. We've also
had the conversation with the judges, all three judges in the last month. Um, we've had the conversation with them. They're continuing to order. They'd like to continue to order. They'd like to work um collaboratively with court services and with our jail staff as to
how we can continue to keep people in these programs, get more people in this program, and how can we all work together so that we the bodies show up to do the work. So the other half of that um position that court services would be asking for is a 50% case aid um which you'll hear
more about this piece of it when court services has their committee the whole at 10:00 but it's an individual who supports over 400 administrative supervision cases by handling scheduling data entry and client communication and compliance. So, we felt a halftime STS
coordinator could help us uh bring everybody into the vans, schedule the juveniles, maybe expand the program more than what we've been able to do in the past. Um I'll just note on the bottom too that we're asking for three FTEEs within this, but um this option also
provides crew members in addition to the three FTEEs. So this is out of all the options the the option that maximizes the number of individuals doing the work that needs to be done. So we have two working crew leaders and then if we have three to five individuals in the van
that increases our number. So this uh shows you a very quick snapshot of what the costing would be if we rolled into the court services model. So current in our current budgets um in our current budget and budgets in the
past we've been budgeting $155,428 for sentence to serve contract. So we're starting at the top of that saying that we're already budgeting these dollars 155,000. Um we're estimating that salary and benefits for two crew leaders is the 206
650. We're waiting for the final numbers from Tessa on this. uh she had a family emergency. So, we did the best we could. Um it also indicates what the 1.0 FTE would be for the STS coordinator case aid of 94,482.
Again, those numbers are estimated, but we feel we're pretty close. Um built in a cost for cell phones, built in a cost for fuel and maintenance when it comes to vehicles and the fuel the ve vehicles are driving. We've already budgeted for the fuel and lawnmowers. that comes out
of public works budget already. So that is not an additional expense. Um and then we just left the line blank for liability work comp and property insurance conversation with Lucas. Um we're we're already covered under our liability for to be running an STS
program. Um the other things are would be minimal by adding additional property. we would have a 2% increase for work compensation um onto the salaries of the salaries of the employees. Um so then also pointing out what we
anticipate our upfront program costs were be would be. Um if we're hiring three staff persons, it has estimated that cost to be $6,000. If we went to the state contract state contract and we purchased two brand new vehicles to be used for the program,
we're estimating $47,000 each. Um the the needs for the vans, trailers, or larger equipment. Currently, what the state of Minnesota has has offered to Good County, if we choose to start our own program, um the county would have
the opportunity to make a fair market value on all of the larger equipment. This does mean um their vans are leased. So, the van would go back. There may be an opportunity to purchase a purchased van amongst one of the other programs. If um there's something that would be
going to surplus, we could have an opportunity for that. Um so, there's the option to purchase new. There's the option to potentially purchase used. We'd be the ones making the the fair market offer to the state of Minnesota on that. Um the next item, the smaller
equipment and tools. So, if you've ever been in the shop out at public works where sentenced to serve is, you'll find that it's filled with um all kinds of tools. You have the tool trailers filled with hand tools, power tools, all of the chainsaws. Good county owns the lawnmowers. Good county owns the riding
lawnmowers, the uh weed whips, the pushers, the trailer the lawnmowers are on that go out to Bilsby, but all of the smaller equipment and tools to do the work that they do. If Goodiew County chooses to start their own program, all STS inventory of the smaller stuff will
become the property of Goodyu County. They will give that to us to move forward if we're starting our program. No charge. No charge from the state. From the state. The only thing we would need to pay for is if we were interested in any of the larger items, the van, um the trailers, and any larger equipment,
which we're not sure what that list, what the larger item equipment looks like, but we feel everything else in the shop is classified the smaller equipment. So, are you saying that the 77,000 is
is uh it could be less than that? So actually we'll go we'll go back up to the 152,203. Y that could be an impact to operating budgets budgets annually if in addition to what we already budget to run the
program. The upfront program costs are in addition the note of the $77,714 is the remainder of the budgeted contract for the 2025 contract. So last year that we budgeted $155,000.
So our contract has ended June 30th, which means that we have 50% of that contract in our operating budget for 2025. That's what that 27,000 is. I put that note on there. Um, and this would need to be a conversation with um, Scott,
Andrea, and Lucas if we could use any of those operating dollars that we had budgeted for the STS contract to help offset any upfront cost, upfront program costs. Does that make sense? Mhm. Okay. So, that's option one.
Option two is to increase the public works FTEES. Uh, we'd be looking at three public works FTEES. Um, you see the cost associated to that 270 almost $271,000. Again, we've added the 155
on there of dollars we've already budgeted. So, these these numbers um the the 120,477 would be an additional um cost to the operating budget for 2026. Um built-in fuel and maintenance there
as well. Upfront program cost. We added some computers and technology. Uh we did add um a vehicle. Um you know, we we threw in the number of $80,000, which is a range, a price range on the state contract for a one-tonon truck that
would hook onto that lawnmower trailer. Um and also take care of the things that they do. Um that's a state contract. Uh pricing with or without a dump box. uh the trailers and larger equipment. If we were interested in any of that from the
state of Minnesota, we would be offering a fair market value, fair market um offer on that. Uh same with the smaller equipment, smaller equipment and tools. So everything anything that would have been given to us during option one. Um now in option two, if we're interested
in any of that equipment, we would need to be asking to purchase that from them before it went to their surplus auction. So again noted the 77,714 is the remaining operating dollars in 2025 that could possibly help us offset
the upfront program costs. So what the state's kind of saying is we value the STS program to the point we'll give you the tools, but if you're going to take it inhouse and do it with county staff and not be
an STS program, then we want to recoup the cost. Well, then they'll send it to surplus action. I will note that there's been a number of um tools and equipment that have been donated to the STS program over the past few years. Uh the Goody County Fair, the
Canon Valley Fair, I believe the Canon Valley Trail, there's other uh entities that have donated equipment to the program in order for them to be able to do their work. Um, should Goodyu County choose not to move forward with our own program, those entities will be given the opportunity to obtain their
equipment that they've donated for the program versus it going to the state uh to go on surplus auction. Um, which brings us to option three, which would just be to flat outsource the work um to contract for the work
that needs to be done. Um, again, the 155 is what we currently have budgeted. uh reoccurring functions from May to September. The estimated cost, these were numbers that were pulled together early this spring by giving some rough. We have this many acres um some lawn
care and landscape places giving us just ballpark estimates. We'd be looking at the 215 reoccurring winter functions estimating roughly $12,000. Uh reoccurring seasonal functions the eight roughly 81,000.
Um, you know, we add into the work that need that's done in the winter with the building maintenance repair. We have an estimated cost per hour. Um, and then the brushing and shipping, which is something that the STS crews did handinhand with our highway equipment crews. We'd be adding some additional
dollars to that because those additional bodies um, in addition to county staff is what made that happen. Um, again, I noted what the the contractor construction rates are. So that option, we look at adding an add roughly an additional $247,000
to our operating budget. Again, just noting what the the remainder in the 2025 operating is at this point. So that is a very fast and hard what three different options could look like for
Good County. Um we're seeking direction as to what the county board would like us to do moving forward. The state of Minnesota is asking for a decision sooner than later on the equipment and tools so that they can uh start either transitioning that to surplus or they
can start we've already worked through all the appropriate paperwork for good county to be eligible to receive that equipment or to purchase from them. Um but they would be looking for an answer from us I believe before within the next month or so as to what good county's intent is moving forward. So, I guess at
this point I'll stand for questions or if you have questions for um anybody else in the room. Questions? Go ahead, S. I just have a couple questions on option three. That's um not including the contract work that the remaining crew will be doing. Is that correct?
That's correct. That does not include the work that they would do. Okay. And then another question I had, of course, I'm curious as to why the state made the decision, but you probably don't know the answer to that, but maybe you do. I I don't know the exact answer the state made the decision. I know I believe that
Jenny McMahon and Dana Severson are possibly online with us via Teams. I don't know if they want to uh Hi, I'm here. Good morning. um you know it wasn't laid out with us
clearly um but due to budgetary reasons within the state um and um the way it was explained to us that federal funding was cut and therefore um the state had to cut different programs. Um, we were notified in March, I
believe, that the governor was proposing that this program be cut um through our budget. Thank you. Um, go ahead. I wondered if we had any indications about what other counties were doing.
Okay. Sure. And then the the other thing I mean the numbers seem to look good for us doing this. So I don't want you to read my question other than that but I know we've had some general discussions about we can't really take over program
costs which is what we would exactly be doing with this. So I wondered about what other counties are doing and kind of the thought about taking over these program costs when there's probably lots of program costs coming up that we are going to say we can't take over. So
I think it says he has an answer. Yes, I was at a conference last week um uh macaffo conference. So it was association of county uh auditor treasurer finance officers um and on the
last day there was a round table discussing various issues including funding cuts from both the f federal and state level and how counties are reacting to that. Um, I brought up the fact that, um, we are have historically been very heavy users of the STS
program. Um, what our approach has been to date that we were going to be having this meeting today to discuss three different options moving forward. Um, and after that session, I was approached by multiple different counties who were very curious about what we were going to do and they said they were going to be
reaching out to me after this. So, there are a lot of counties that are thinking about this. They're in the same situation. Um they expressed similar concerns about how the SDS crews were doing everything for them, all their lawn work. Um one thing that wasn't highlighted on here was uh clean out of
tax forfeit houses or properties. Um that's something that we also have utilized them in the past. So um there's a lot of um things that other counties are thinking about as well. I didn't hear any determination of what they decided yet because we're still pretty early in the year and they were waiting
until what the state ultimately decided to do with their budget. Um, so that's that first piece. I also wanted just to highlight. Um, so there's three different options here. I I just wanted to point out the fact that option three, when you're just looking at the gross cost of these things, um I understand
the current u the concern of taking over programs, but the cost of option three is by far the most expensive. Um option two is when you're looking at just the gross cost, that's the least
expensive. But when you want to consider that by the number of workers that we're getting out of this, that again is the most expensive cuz we're getting three FTEEs for that cost. Option one is by far the most efficient when we're talking about cost per worker. So it' be
adding three FTEEs. I know there's a lot that comes along with that ongoing budget concerns, but if we can fill those crews with five participants on each of those days, then um you know, you you add up all those costs divided
by three workers that or 13 workers that you're getting out of it. So, it's by far the the cheapest per worker. Uh again, and then we would be able to continue providing that same service level that we have been providing in the past. if we hire three highway department individuals, that would
definitely be a cut in service. So, I just wanted to make sure that was pointed out. And then, um I think that the option one is presuming that the work will continue to happen on the Canid Valley Trail uh that whole list of places. And um I
would think in option three, we might be talking about well look maybe we have to stick to the county owned uh buildings and land and we can't I don't know. Option three is that contracting for all of that, the Canon Valley Trail and the County Fair and
that that does not include the financial impact to the Canon Valley Fair, Goody County Fair, Canon Valley Trail, any of that. I I don't think any of these include anything outside of what we would do, what the costs are for the county. That's correct. It doesn't I mean if if
they're doing work for Canon Valley Trail that's not included in these costs at all or for a township or for a city or for the fairs. That's not all this is is only talking about the parts we can
identify for the county. One other question I have when I worked with was on the township board, we had the crew come out and we paid the $200, but that probably doesn't cover the costs. No. So the township Oh, sorry.
I was moving closer. Yeah. So, so I I think one of the questions would be, and we maybe don't have to answer that now, but would we want to be subsidizing the township, which we might, or would we want to charge townships what it actually cost as county, and we don't have to decide
that now, but that that would affect the numbers, I think. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I was gonna I was going to point out that I know that the Goody County Fair and the Canon Valley Fair, I've had conversations with them early on um you know, back in February and they followed through of all of this like what are we
going to like when will we know, when will we know? Because our uh the sentence to serve crews put a significant amount of time in at start of startup of fairs, during fairs, and the cleanup of afterwards. and that past boards have chosen to um not charge
those entities in lie of because they're outside agencies that in lie of financial um you know additional financial dollars that you would have STS in lie of which was saving them the money they've had to shift this year um they've had to have a backup plan as to
what was going to happen and they have had to from what I understand they've needed to hire people or bring in different people to do the work that the crews would have done in the past. So none of those financial implications are included in the numbers. These are strictly good county numbers. We we heard that in outside agencies
meeting that the increase at the county fair was in part due to not 5,000 I think. Jenny, I have another question for you. You know, we we asked about about counties that have uh that are thinking about taking this over. Can do you have
any idea how many counties already have taken this over because I think Olmstead County does it on their own. I think Dakota County was going to do it on their own. Do you have any idea how many already are? Um I I could get that information for
you. Um I know that because of what's happened this year, um there had that many boards are having these discussions. Um as a district supervisor, I I have crews in others in
other counties. I heard have heard that I believe Nicollet and Brown County will be taking on the STS crew. Um, right now Wasika County is having conversations on whether or not they will be taking on
that crew. Um, so it's kind of others are have said no, we're not taking on the crews. Um, I will say that Good Hugh County has had kind of the largest numbers and the
largest numbers of crew leaders um and the largest numbers of work projects um these these individuals that have worked for us in this program. It's been very hard um to see this be cut by the state
as a supervisor. Um you have very skilled workers here. So, um I think that's a lot of other things that the the boards are considering is what work is really being done. Um and would it be, you know, more fiscally responsible
to outsource those? Um and I think Stacy has laid out very clearly um what what the implications would be for Good Hugh County. Um, if you'd like the numbers of other counties uh that are taking this program on, I can get those
for you. Um, I'm just I think there's a lot that are still kind of making those decisions such as good. Thank you. Go ahead, Linda. Well, I do support the STS program and think that court
services is the best place for it to fit for a variety of different reasons. um heard from the Canon Valley Trail that it there would be significant um cuts for them if they didn't have
access to STS. And as far as bringing people in and taking care of the trail, that's extremely important. I think my biggest concern might be I have heard that the STS leaders that we do have are
extremely good and that's one of the reasons why the STS program up till now in good county has worked so well and so now we have to hire the crew leaders which I guess would be an HR issue issue for finding this same
quality of people but that's probably The biggest thing that I would be concerned about is could we really find two crew me crew leaders that were as good as the ones that we had. Well, one is currently on layoff status
and the other one uh shifted back to the Minnesota DNR. There's there's a possibility that our existing crew leaders could be interested in these positions once they're posted. Very good. Thank you. I'd like to also add that you asked which other counties um provide sentence
to serve. So Olmstead County provides sentence to serve. So after we had the board workshop, we spent staff spent a significant amount of time doing our research and our homework and finding out what others are doing and what models work best. Mmstead County has their own adult program which we learned
a lot about. Um had a lot of conversations with jail staff what that looks like and honestly they said to us, "You guys do a juvenile program. We'd like to learn from you if you if this ends at the state level and you bring we want to know like we don't have a place for our juveniles to go and if good
counties has successful juvenile program we'd like to learn from you and the conversations once we landed on the point that court services was the best place for this is good county staff truly feels like we can we can expand even more than what we've been able to
do in the past by having the the different resources and the different staff and the positions that they're in um court services has the restorative justice grant um which I believe sentence to serve was tied into that for the juveniles. Um we're one of the few
counties who works with the juveniles on all of that and that's where we believe if we had somebody who could help wrangle the program the individuals who are sentenced to it that we're going to have more bodies doing the work. So Dakota County offers um they have
their workhouse, right? Second year in-house. So Dakota County runs their own program as well, but it's different and they my understanding was they wanted to do things a little different than what the state SDS program was. So
they took it over. That's what commissioners from that county have told me. and they could make it fit their county better by managing it in-house is what I understood. Uh go ahead. Question. Um other than the fairs, do we wave the
fee for any other organizations or we do charge? So, for the fairs, we we do wave the fees for setup and take down if they're asked to do a um a significant project when it comes to maybe painting some of the buildings or I know that they uh believe they put a roof on the 4
building or a ceiling in the 4 building. So, we consider those special projects. We do charge them for those days, but the setup and the tear down and the time during the help of the fair um those are days that we give to them um that they don't charge. I I think that when we look at they um
have to balance their budgets obviously too. Do they have they have to hire versus you know um use STS? I mean hopefully they would consider paying for some more. That'd be one way of helping to finance it. And I'd like to ask in the jail is this um the environment is
the attitude are they excited to get out? Are they excited for the does it does this help morale in the jail? Uh the answer is yes. I think when a inmate has in the back of their mind that some point they're going to get
sentenced and if they have the opportunity they they feel they have the opportunity to get on a program where they can get out of the facility go out and work it creates more of an environment where good behavior is a result of that.
Um, if the program would go away, I I do anticipate some behavior problems, maybe some property damage problems that wouldn't have taken place if if people had that that STS program in their back
pocket, so to speak. Um, they they would be more motivated to to to be a lot much more behaved. I did a quick science uh survey this morning. Um, if we were still working, if SDS was still going out, we would
have three three individual male detainine that would be eligible. And that number is going to fluctuate from day to day. When people finish up their sentences, when people get sentenced, typically on Wednesdays is our felony
calendar in the courthouse. That's when we're going to probably add people to the program. Um and hopefully we're starting to see a trend where the judges are sentencing more um with uh with the option of STS being being part of that
sentencing pro um sentencing order. So hopefully that kind of gives us some insight from the jail standpoint. Great. Thank you very much. Y I just have one last question. I I uh as I understand it, certainly there's benefits to the people who are
participating in these programs. Okay? So there's no question there. But I think Scott, as I understand it, yes, we'd be taking on program costs, but even if we don't do it, we'd be taking on costs. and that this may be also not only benefiting the people who
participate, but it also might be um the most cost-effective way to continue to um take care of our property. Am I correct in understanding it that way? Yeah, I think so. We had a discussion at budget committee for those last week for those that weren't there about taking on
outside program costs and the discussion there was where we had I think three different agencies that were losing federal funding and one of them I think they had a gap close to about a half a million dollars. Um and that was where the concern was about us just saying yeah okay outside agencies we're
just going to take care of all of you and take care of everybody else's cuts. Um that would be a very deep and slippery slope in this case. Yes, we're absorbing cuts to a program that we have revenue source, but uh at the end of the day, the other options are al all cost more money.
Yeah, I understand. So, this one to me is actually a pretty easy decision. And it's it's not like we're absorbing uh outside agency um loss in funding. We're we're absorbing a a cut to our budget that would cost more if we didn't do it.
Sure. Because what they do isn't really optional, right? Yeah. Go ahead. Is there a way that we could look at option one and sneak this in with just two added employees instead of the three? Um I I understand this maybe
looks much more workable and it's going to help, but that one more looks like a new hire to me where maybe we've we've gotten by before with the two. So actually I mean the actual impact to the STS program is actually 2.5 FTEES and
not three because that other.5 position when we look here the other 50% case aid that we have built into this model is actually a court services ask for their department not the program. So we I'm going to let Rhonda go into that later
um at 10:00. So the actual FTEES for the program is 2.5. Um and we've really seen without um without that coordinator um you know getting the people who are sentenced being that liaison with the judges being
the liaison with um the juveniles. We see that there could be some opportunities that this coordinator would be the individual who's starting to establish relationships with organizations within the community like hey these youth who are sentenced to community service now they have somebody
who's there to supervise them so they're able to go do this work like we really see that role I don't know I don't know where that could be a conversation that we could have I don't know where we would pull another.5 um because really the program is 2.5 we
associate that other 50% case aid within Rhonda's budget and not the STS program. Is it possible that the one crew leader can actually take a partial lead in that? So the the concern with only having if
we had so the value of two crew leaders is the fact that we have seven days a week coverage. So to accommodate um two full-time FTEEs is to have 7-day a week coverage to be able to take people from the street, take juveniles because
juveniles and adults can't work together and to also take people from the facility. The other um benefit to having two FTEEs is if somebody ends up on medical has vacation time, sick leave that then all of a sudden we don't have any time without anybody going out. So
the program, you know, it would be more more of a seamless um process. It could be conversations that we had what this program could look like by doing that. We felt that the staffing of really 2.5 was what would run the the program the
best and get the bodies back in the vans. And I think Todd, your question was whether it'd be possible to do it with those two. um you know and then they obviously would be out less but uh I think that's what your question was yeah I mean I support moving forward
with the program it does benefit the county overall we may may need to increase the amount of money that we get from other entities the cities uh the the fair should be paying the same if the cities are going to get it question mark is going or that I have so like the ADC captain just said he's only got
three individuals if we started this program July 1st or even next Are there enough individuals to fill these crews 7 days a week? We'd only have one. We don't have even if we
had two crew leaders, are there the individuals there to continue to fill these crews going forward every day? We believe that they are based on the 2024 days that are ordered. It's a matter of getting those days scheduled. Um, and like you said, you know, within
the jail, we have, you know, the numbers fluctuate based on who's in, who's being ordered. The conversation that we had with the judges was very, um, promising that they're willing to work with us and maybe they need to change some of the wording on their orders so that there's
um, STS or work release. It provides more flexibility to our jail staff to make some of those determinations as to who goes out on the crew. Isn't that something we have to get arranged? If he just identified there's only three individuals that can go on in a crew, is that seven days and then you have a juvenile if nobody's doing this? Are we not do we need to get that
established with the judges so that we know that we have I mean it's kind of pointless to have two crew leaders and we don't have and there's one person that shows up. I mean that's not that's a that's a question I'd also defer to Rhonda though too when it comes to I don't know who's scheduled and al also to Jenny McMahon who's scheduled to
come from the streets because also within the week they have the probation clients who are scheduled to come from the streets if they work right I guess that's a question I have is that if we put this in in action in July 1st we have somebody ready to go we've got a
full crew seamless takeover we can go at it that we've got it all because you will have hundreds of days for street people to do and we're not getting those street people on the crew. But somebody's got a call and that's not being done right now. Correct. And somebody's just going to magically
take that over if we decide to take this over on July 1st that the calls are going to be made ahead of time. That's what the halftime positions job is to do. Right now there's nobody from the state that's actually doing that work. We don't have that body. So cart before the horse if you let me
finish. You're going to hire a team leader July 1st and you're going to hire this case aid on July 1st and they're magically going to make the calls on Monday and they're going to show up for Tuesday. No. Okay. So, do we have a seamless plan to take this? We don't have a crew leader. We don't have this halftime support to do this. So,
so I think we don't have a seamless plan because we are unsure of what the direction is of the county board. So, how I envision it is if we have if we have some direction from the county board today that you are interested in starting your own program and would like to know uh what the process would be and at what point we think we could be up
and running like the whole um the whole HR piece of it, the whole like actually developing what our program could look like. Um that's going to take some time yet. Like I'm not it'd be unrealistic to say we'd be up and going in 30 days or even 60 days. I think if we have the
direction from the county board today that yes, we are interested in doing this and we would like to see what an implementation timeline would be. Um so that we don't I mean we have crew leaders but we don't have crew members. You're right. We need that coordinator who's um helping coordinate all of that
and wrangle everything together in order to make it a seamless process. Well, I get that, but it's unfortunate if we have the ability to put it forth and government, I understand, goes slow. But if you have a potential crew leader who could be hired, ran very shortly, and you have three potential people in the jail. I mean, this is something that we
need to need to get this up and running. Doesn't have to be full full boore the first day, but it I think you've seen the consensus of the board is we would like to see this moving forward. and you threw a bunch of costs out at us that all of a sudden we're going to spend thousands of
dollars outside people to mow lawns and all this other stuff. But when it looks I get it government moves slowly. So you're saying take baby steps and start slowly like baby steps but I think you've got a consensus among the board that said that we're fine moving forward and I don't know that the board would not approve of
saying we can hire a team leader. I don't know the whole process, but okay. It seems like we've got a consensus on the board to move ahead, at least to get a crew leader and look at that halftime to move ahead. But, well, following up on what Jason said, I don't know if we charge everyone for the
STS crew, but coming from the nonprofit world, even in the nonprofit world, if you charged a couple hundred for five people on a crew or less to do work, that's a pretty incredible opportunity. So, is that something that
it is something that we could do? I will caution the board when we talk about, you know, charging the others. The amount of work that Goodyu County used to do for the city of Cannon Falls, the city of Pine Island, all of the township, like there was a huge amount of time that was spent doing a lot of
work for them. And in past budgets, um, prior to COVID, we were recouping, um, we were recouping 20, 30, maybe $40,000 worth of revenue. um since things have shifted and actually um public works has taken a good look and all the things
that have changed out at Bsby Park the last few years we haven't been able to um let the crews go like we we manage their work orders that come come in and that good county work will always take priority over anybody else so the amount
of work that they're doing for the other entities other than the fairs and the Canon Valley Trail is pretty minimal at this point. I'm sorry I don't have that data with me, but it's, you know, yeah, it's a matter of timing and when we get back to running our own crew, I
don't know how much work they will be doing for other entities in the past other than maybe the Canon Valley Trail and the fairs because of Goodyu County's work that needs to be done. We've prioritized our own work. And I just one
comment, part of that is because we've chose as a county to use them to do more of the work in the county that used to be done, some of it used to be done by county staff. We've shifted a little bit.
And I guess I'm looking at the when you do have the slow days, there's only three that can go out. I'm assuming that the other crew leader will be doing something, right? I mean they'll like if I look at the we're hiring public works. So we would look at 7 day a week coverage. So the only day that they
would have overlap is on Wednesday. Oh, okay. The only day that we have two crew leaders working would be on Wednesday. Okay. Do we have information on how full the crews have been in the last year? Have they been mostly five or six people? We could pull that data. I think I mean
it really ranges from who's reporting from the street and who's coming from our facility. Yes. Any guess on an average? I I don't know. Maybe writing can answer that question. Do you want to come? On. Mic is on. Is it on? Good morning.
Is it Is it on? Yep. I'm Rodney Brookens County crew leader. I've been a crew leader here for two uh 24 and a half years. Before that, I was worked at Homestead County. I was a detention detention deputy there for three years. Then I became a crew
leader, a county crew leader for the Homestead County. So I was the first one in Homestead County to be a um county crew leader. I was there for 5 months and then the state picked me up. So um I have there's a lot of things I kind of
So the average people the the average number we have I'd say about last year is probably two to two and a half people. Okay. So, we have two crews working and we're a little short numbers. We we try to find projects that fit that crew size. That's where our my
job really comes into. You talk about crew sizes only one or two. Well, it depends. If I have a smaller crew, I'm doing a project, you know, needs requires that and you need a bigger project. Well, I got the weekends are always bigger, fuller typically because people from, you know, the street show up because they're not working the job.
So, then I plug in, okay, I'm going to I have four people on Saturday, so I go do a bigger project. So, it's it's my job to kind of manage everything. And we do try to call people on the on, you know, from the streets and have them, you know, come in and the probation officer sign them up, but a lot of times they just don't show up. There's certain
people just they don't show up. They're scheduled, the pee try, we try, but they just don't show up. So, that's where we need to try to fix that. People are signed up and they just sometimes don't show up. But once they get in the van and they work a day or two and they're like, "This is not that bad." They thought they really kind of dread it.
release. He's kind of nervous about coming, I think. And you asked a question about um counties that don't have it. The the program I have had one gentleman from Wabasha County. He he was sent uh spent four months in the county jail in Wabasha. They do not have a crew leader down there. And he was going stir
crazy. He comes here. He's like, I'm outside working. I'm learning a skill. I'm tired. At the day I come in, bolster uh comment on that. These guys are tired. When they're done working, they feel they go to the zero. They eat and they go right to bed. They worked hard.
They they get a sense of um fulfillment. They learn the skills. I had one gentleman say to me, "Thank you for making me a man." Before I used to came to jail, I used to sleep until noon, get up and do stuff that I shouldn't be doing. But now you I'm on a routine. I got a routine started. I would get up in the morning and I got a good work ethic
and I feel like I can accomplish something. So Rodney, what's the ideal crew size? I mean, I know you and I have had that conversation like are you is ideal to work three to five? Is it ideal to work eight people? My idea number is four. You get more
than four, you kind of lose track of them. They kind of get, you know, unless you have unless you have a really big project, but four is a good crew size number. I go on the Canon Valley Trail. I want to have two because I we're just cutting trees or pruning. Typically, you're pruning them trees overhanging or something. You're on the trail, it's pretty small. You just throw them off
the side. A lot of times I go with they'll have a tractor with me and they'll assist me in the bigger stuff. So, it's just two guys or you working. I don't I don't like guys if they're out there, we're going to be working. We're not going to be, you know, watching. We're going to be getting stuff done.
So, but yeah, I'm just I came to this meeting cuz I'm interested in take, you know, if if you guys decide to go with the program, I'd be interested in applying for the job. But if so, that's kind I'm here to support it. Any other questions?
I just have to say, you're exactly right. I've ran into them out at Billsby. I've ran into them at the trail working on stuff on the trail. And as a crew, they are the most pleasant people to stop and say hi to and talk to when they're out there working. And you can
tell it makes a difference in their life. And I think that's the piece. We're only talking about dollars here and we're really worried about dollars. What we're really missing is we are doing good for those people. We're trying to improve their lives. And
that's the piece that you can't put a you can't put even a put dollar amount on that. That is the most valuable part of this is the is the experience they get and the uh respect they get for the work they're doing and you guys do a
fantastic job with that. I really appreciate that. You know, we have we've had guys, you know, the prison guys, the crews, they're typically out longer. So, you got to develop a, you know, they get to learn some good skills and they you get to have a good, you know, fairly good relationship with them. and they have called before. They call me he's been
out for 5 years and he calls me once every 3, four months to see how we're doing and tell them the project's doing cuz he's he come he he became a very good tree cutter. So he does a lot of tree work on the side now. So and he learned it from the crew. So another
thing you I remember one question was raised about I think you asked it about versus STS. Well, the STS gets a day for day and IQ they they had up to up to $150 an hour. So, the motivation for the STS crews, I've ran both of them. So, the EQUIT
crews, they're not as motivated to do a good job and work cuz there's they they they kind of envy the STS guys. They wish they they've said before if I got a day for a day, I would work harder, too. But they don't they don't have the drive as much as your STS guys do. want it's
an huge incentive to not mess up because if they mess up they get they go back into jail. So I mean they're going to day for day shorten their sentence. So it's the STS in that aspect is is much better I think just the motivation for the work. Well thank you guys for your time.
Thank you Scott. Go ahead. Just uh wanted to mention a couple things about Jason's concern about being up and ready to go you know July 1 or whatever date we pick. Um, you know, we can have a short and a long-term plan here. I mean, long the longer term plan,
we can figure out how to get people hired and do it legally and all that stuff, but short term, I mean, there's been a number of times through history where I've hired an interim person uh just on a contract basis, and I could probably do that in the next couple days. we know somebody that's available
and wouldn't be two people, but we know there's at least one available, but we can start with an interim plan and and get and help on some of the workload like public works and stuff like that. So, um if you if you gave us direction today, we can start moving forward on some of these things and then also do
the rest of the plan legally because we can't we can't just go hire somebody without process illegal to do it. I think we can do the interim without it being illegal. So I I agree with you. What I'm saying is you can't just go hire somebody without a process.
Right. Right. Directions. I would support that avenue of doing an intermediate or interim hire as long as we know we have the bodies. If we move forward with that with the consensus that we have a plan to grow to that, we can make
arrangements with the state for the equipment. whether that has to be a separate motion, but get somebody hired on the interim basis as long as we have the bodies that the jail and the juvenile in the street are willing to let out that we can fill the crews. So, I would fully support that.
So, I support it. Do you need a motion or consensus? I don't think we can't make a motion here. You can either do it consensus in this meeting or you can give me a motion in the next meeting if you'd like. You could do it either way. I think we should put something and give clear
direction so the staff when they go ahead they don't come back and we say oh no not that let's give them some clear direction I think we can do that with a motion in the regular meeting we'll add it to the agenda and take some action
and I I agree with the you know I think everybody here would love for this to just continue on on July 1 and go we can't quite meet that but I think having interim and start working down that
path. Um I really I really believe um that the halftime person doing scheduling and and working with the judges and working with the ADC and that is critical to this program being more successful. And I think that's part of
what some counties have chosen to do is to take a more active role in in the process of getting people um to serve their their time on this. So with that, if there's no other questions, I
appreciate the work staff's done. I appreciate the work that that our crew leaders have done and will hopefully continue to do as we move forward. that it's a great program and we unfortunately are stuck in the position of having to make a decision about it.
So with that we will adjourn this and we will uh move to our regular board meeting in just a few minutes.