WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=mr9WYdAqW_w

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: mr9WYdAqW_w):
- 00:00:05: Meeting Called to Order, Agenda Approval, Disclosures
- 00:02:03: Department Official Reports: Revenue, Expenses, Fund Balances
- 00:11:06: Clarification on Transfers and Property Tax Dates
- 00:12:14: Law Library Funds and Compensated Absences Questions
- 00:16:15: Accrued Sick Time Payouts Discussion Continued
- 00:17:09: Investment Report, Interest Rates, and Debt Strategy
- 00:21:11: Clarification on General Funds vs Total County Cash
- 00:21:45: Shorter Versus Longer Term Investments Discussed
- 00:24:50: Recognition of Election Manager and Project Status Report
- 00:27:47: Committee Reports: Extension Committee and Detention Deputies
- 00:29:15: Paying the Bills and Five Minute Break


Part: 1

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All right, we'll call the meeting to order and start with the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for

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all. Next on the agenda is disclosures of interests. Are there any none? We go to the previous board minutes. >> Approval have presented Anderson second.

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>> There's a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Next is to review the agenda. Are there any additions or correction?

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>> Changes. >> Move to approve planners. >> Second, Anderson. >> There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> Motion carries.

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Next is the consent agenda. There's two items. the approver approve the water tower lease agreement idols and approve the CPA firm letter to the state audent agenda as presented >> second

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>> uh there's a motion and a second all those in favor say I >> I motion carries uh reports from department officials Good morning, commissioners. You're okay. Is that >> Yes. >> Um, so if you have the report up in

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front of you, otherwise unless you uh we can get that up on the screen screen, then that would maybe help be helpful as well as we go through these numbers. Uh so as we go through the revenues, I just wanted to point out that uh as you

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all know, obviously our property taxes are due on May 15. And then uh so we haven't uh we've only got about 3% of our budgeted taxes for the year so far. And that's going to be primarily made up of our local option sales tax. It's not actually profit tax revenue. Uh but

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that's consistent. That's that's the same uh that's essentially where we should be year-over-year on in any year. Um then going down the various categories, licenses and permits, intergovernmental charges for services. You can see at the completion of uh the first quarter, we're right in line where

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we should be uh in the the mid 20% of the budgeted revenue collection. Um I do want to point out under gifts and contributions, uh you can see we're over 300% over our budgeted contributions. So, that's primarily made up of a

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$10,000 donation made by the Subroto VFW uh to the Veterans Office for a specific purpose. And then, um one other thing I wanted to point out on here um when we're looking at the budget versus actual is the transfers in. Um and we'll talk about

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that in the year-over-year comparison as well. Um but the transfers in, you'll see we're at 88% of the budgeted transfers in so far. So, just as a reminder, transfers in uh that's essentially just transferring funds from or money from one fund into another fund. So, it's not necessarily a real

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revenue of outside money coming in. It's moving money from one fund into another fund. And so, the majority of that uh right there, the $1.2 million is made up of three different transfers that were in the budget. Um the first one uh was

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moving 530,000 from the general fund into the capital plan to help pay for some facilities assessments repairs. Uh there was 300,000 that was moved from the public works fund into the capital plan to uh to work on some facilities assessments specific for the public works fund. And then there was about

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265,000 that was transferred from the waste management fund into the capital plan to fund their purchases their equipment for the year. Um then when we go down to the year-over-year comparison for the first quarter um again you'll see under taxes and

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penalties that line item we're right in line with where we have been um in 2025 under intergovernment I want to point out you can see there's a large increase there of $1.2 million that's mainly made up of about $675,000

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of DNR grants related to the Can Valley Trail. In that case, we're just a pass through entity. Money comes to us through the from the DNR, then we pass it on to the Canon Valley Trail. So, there's going to be um another increase in the expenses that you'll see. So,

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it's just an in and out. It goes through us. It's not actually for us. Um then, um let's see, moving along. Um then the other thing I really wanted to point out here is again related to the transfers

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in as you can see in 2025 we as of quarter one we had about $53,000 transfers that recorded and this year we moved those forward we did that earlier in the year those transfers I already discussed that way the money is available in the capital plan fund so we can actually make those repairs to the

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buildings and and buy that equipment so we just push those earlier into the year. um feel free to interrupt if there's any questions that you may have as we go through this. But then as we move over to the expense side, um again, you'll see under public

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assistance, personnel services, um services, charges, supplies, materials, those were all essentially right in line in the in the 20% through the year. Um capital outlay is um we're pretty low

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compared to budget, but those purchases uh those can just depend based off of the timing of when we're actually ordering and receiving and then paying for those large items. Um debt service, we're right in line with where we should be uh in February. Um that's when our

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our principal and first interest payments are due every year. So those are always hit right in the first quarter. Um, and then another thing I wanted to point out on this one is it's not noted with that C

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on there, the other expenses that um that larger portion of the um expense there compared to what's budgeted. That's where the expense side of that grant going out to the Canon Valley Trail is. So there's uh that's inflated by say $675,000

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compared to where it would be normally. Um then if we go down to the year-over-year comparison, I wanted to point out in the services and charges plant line item is essentially it's everything that we're paying other

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people to do for services rather than our own staff. So a lot of that would be like construction projects, that kind of thing. So, when we look over that, there's a decrease year-over-year of 608,000. And the majority of that decrease is due to the timing on when construction public works construction contracts were

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paid in 2025. Um, at this point in the year, um, we had already paid about 770,000 more than where we are year to date on on some construction projects. And again, that's just due to the timing of when those projects were completed and when we paid

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for them. Um, again, I mentioned that uh we're a little bit slower as far as the capital outlay paying for those uh for those large projects year-over-year. So, you can see there's a large decrease when

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we're we're looking at those comparing year-over-year. And then um the other thing I wanted to point out is as you see uh on the budget to actual for where we are at the completion of

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the first quarter, we spent about 21% of what we budgeted for the entire year. So we're right on track for where we should be when we're looking at actual spend. Then just as a general reminder, um obviously the vast majority of our revenue that we bring in is from

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property taxes. The due date for those is May 1st. So we actually get that revenue in Q2 and Q4 is when it gets recorded into our books. We spend the money evenly throughout the year for the most part, but our big revenue orders are going to be your Q2

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and your Q4. Then on the next page, we've got the general fund fund balance report. Just for the benefit of everybody's here, you can see that we had uh as of March 31st about $32.8 million in there. 3.3 of

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which is restricted. Those restricted funds in there. We're limited on what we can use based on what uh either statute, federal or state statute or other outside sources have limited use on. So, so we may have that money in our bank account, but it doesn't mean that we can

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spend it on whatever we want. Uh we're limited, it's limited to those specific line items, what that money can be spent on. Commitments, we're at about $3.5 million there. And just as a reminder, those are funds that are set aside and those are committed by the board for

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those specific uses. So when we're spending money down for those specific uses, first it comes out of commitments, and then once that would be fully spent down, that would come out of unassigned funds. The only way to reduce those balances is either to spend those uh money down for those specific purposes

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or if the board were to remove those commitments through a majority vote. Then assignments were at 3.7 million. Uh those are similar to commitments. Um but management can also assign those funds as well. So it's similar to a commitment

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but less formal I guess I would say. So after those restricted items, we're at about $22.3 million in the general fund as of March 31st. The next page is a summary of our capital plan fund. And the only thing I

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really wanted to point out on here is at the bottom of the page, you can see there's a reconciliation of where we started in that fund balance of $3.5 million. And then you can see a transfers in of $1.1 million. That correlates to those transfers that I

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previously talked about in the revenue and expense section of the quarterly report. So that shows the money coming in to the capital fund. And then you can see on the chart on the bottom right where we are the fund balance higher now and that's really due to the timing of

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the transfers in and those were all budgeted for. >> So that when you talk about that transfer in is that inclusive of the valley trail money is that coming through capital or does

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that go through general fund? >> That comes in through the general fund. >> It goes through general. Yeah. Yeah. This would be there was 530,000 that was transferred in from a general fund. Those were the such that leftover HARPA money that um was budgeted to get transferred to the capital fund. There's

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300 from public works fund for their buildings and then the 265 waste management fund to pay for the waste management equipment this year. >> Yes. Um, just clarification. You say that property taxes are May 1st or May >> 15th.

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>> Yeah. Oh, it doesn't mote there. >> Were you nervous? >> Should be >> same day every year maybe. >> Do you do you want questions as we go or do you want >> Feel free if you have questions. >> Okay. I have two questions. Um, I think

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the law library has been sitting at over 400,000 since I've been a commissioner. Is there any plan for that one? I'm looking at Steve O'Keefe because I thought he might be more apt to know the answer to that question. >> I don't have an answer for that. We have a law library committee that's uh

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includes judges court staff. >> Yeah. >> Like >> and it's not that I'm complaining about it, but it just sat there for so long. I wondered if that really was the intent or if there's some intent. I think Stacy Lance has met with the judges on that. Why don't you go to a microphone?

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All right. So, just so everybody can hear me, the last time we met with the judges is when we were doing some of the county attorney's office remodel down there. And I know that we use some of the dollars within that project to adjust different things that were happening within um court administration, some of the furniture

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that was needed, and also um some of the some of the actual modifications. There were been a while since we have met, but there were um talks at that time of using some of those dollars for additional um some court booths, some

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electronic um got rid of a lot of the books, some more electronic stuff in there, too. We haven't followed up recently. >> Where does the revenue come? Is it what? It's >> generated by a fee that the judges assess to each fine. I see

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>> it's $10. by 13. >> I I am on that committee and I think in my six years now, we've met um two times and everyone was totally shocked that first meeting I got to and they have

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$400,000 in the balance. They never they said, "What are we going to do with it?" So, I think like Stacy said, we did put some down for the remodel downstairs. >> So, lot for more things in the law library to support things that the committee feels is appropriate.

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I >> mean, it's still directed at the law library, but I don't know what else can actually be done down there. >> Yeah. >> And so, could that committee decide to use those funds? >> Yeah. Statuto. I'm not familiar with

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that right. I could tell you right now, but I can certainly look it up. Yeah. And it's not that I'm objective to it. It just sat there a long time and I wondered about that. My my other question was are the compensated absences this that or uncomp whatever 739,000

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is that largely the payouts of uh uh approved sum or is that something else? That's for um say when we have employees, longtime employees or any employees that retire and they have uh vacation time left on the books or if they have sick time and they leave um

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their favorable favorable terms that can get paid out at 60% of their sick time balance as well. So it's it's those payouts of those benefits that they've earned over time. >> Understand that does that payout of the sick time is that a cash payout or is that a payout into a a healthy savings

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account? So this is when people are leaving employment with the county. So so different than if people are still employed and taking their sick time. So when people are leaving employment >> um they it's just like any other paycheck where they can where they want that money to go so they can take it as

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a net check to them. They can max out their 457 if they wanted. They could potentially add more to their HSA if our HR team allows that. I guess I don't know that one specifically. that um they can contribute to a retirement account if

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they like. >> Thank you. >> It's a comment around that. If you look in the audit book, I think it shows an amount that is acred that if we closed it's

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like 4 million where this would be that amount. But if we closed it would be we'd owe about four and a half. >> Yeah. That's if everybody had to get paid all the time.

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>> Yeah. All at once. But this is just as they leave. And there was a time when that was getting extremely close to zero. We had to how much we put in there so that we would

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run out. Part of that was we had some long-term employees that left and there were bigger amounts of they >> anybody else have questions. >> Then on the last page, this is a recap

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of our investments as of the end of first quarter. Um, so going through these, you can see up at the top it breaks it out by the different uh types of accounts that we have and you'll see on there countywide cash

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balance on there is 79 million. I will say that not all of that is actually good county owned money. About $2 million of that is money that we hold uh as a fiduciary for other things. So the balance at quarter end, we had about

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$1.3 million in our settlement fund. That means that those people essentially paid their property taxes early. So that revenue will be recognized next quarter. Uh there's about 400,000 u that's in there. U that's the family uh the family

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service collaborative and that's a restricted balance that must be used only for for that specific purpose. And then there's uh 260,000 or so that's made up in our other agency fund. And this is those are essentially fees that we're collecting. There's a

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tax imposed by the state of Minnesota. We're collecting that money and then a month later we have to remmit it to the state. So um it says on here 79 really of that 77 is ours to keep or use. Um,

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if you look on the on the right side there, you'll see the weighted yield or the investment earnings that we're getting is about 3.1 or 3.516%. Um, that's what we're earning. And I'll say that we invest all of our money as

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best that we can to earn as much that we can so that every dollar that we earn through our investments, it reduces the levy that we need to impose on our citizens. So, we work very hard to earn as much as we can. Um, I will also know a question that I've received multiple

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times in the past is does it just make sense to pay off our bonds that we have outstanding? Um, we're actually in a very fortunate position right now. Uh, the timing of when we took out that debt, interest rates were quite a bit lower. The weighted uh interest rate that we're paying right now is about

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3.07%. So, by maintaining those debt levels and holding on to that cash and investing it, we're actually earning more um than if we would just pay off our debt right now. Uh granted, on the other hand, if we went out and we bonded right now, we'd probably get an interest rate

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that's closer to 5% that we'd be paying. So, those rates fluctuate with time. Um I will note that at this uh the top of the chart here, the yields you'll see by these different types. um those are broken out there you can see but a lot of these investments are done at different times of the year. So

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when we really want to look at the uh investment earnings or the I I think it's best to look at that fixed income investments per year on the that scroll down that that uh table and line chart by by the year. Then that shows a that's

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a little bit better reflective of as those um investments mature. That's what the year represents. And then you can see the the dollar amount on there, how much matures um and then the the interest rate on those investments as

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usual. So um 2020 interest rates drop down to zero. We try and invest out five years at least for quite a bit um of our money and do a rolling ladder. So the investments that are coming due uh in 26

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27 those are going to have a lower rate than those years after that as interest rates then increased over time. Um one other thing I'll point out you can see there's a there's a large peak in investments in 2027

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that was uh a very large targeted investment I think was in a it's in a US treasury that matures. So once that comes through, then we'll be able to either spread that out amongst other years or spend it down as we have large expenses coming through. So that's a little bit unusual. It's not something

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we normally do, but there was a time that we >> Well, I have one question that's pretty basic. the general fund versus 32 million cash on hand. That is not including the uh total of

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79 million. That's a separate deal. >> So that $32 million is included in 79. >> Okay. >> Um to get to the 79, we need to add in the road bridge fund, uh the HHS fund, the waste management fund, all those different funds that we have in the

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capital fund. So, so this 79 million is the accumulation of all of those funds funds together. >> Thank you. >> Just a kind of a question. What are you seeing with interest rates? Is is it

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more advantageous to go shorter terms or longer term at this time? Not that it's not that that means anything come December 31st because could all flip-flop but right now are they pretty stable if you go out three

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years versus 9 months. Um I'll say it it forunately it depends on where we're going out for investments. Um you know if we're talking about a smaller bank then they're going to be less likely to even offer a fiveyear term at this point. So,

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um, we we actually do quite a bit of work with some brokerages. And you'll see that on here, MBS, that's multi-bank securities, and RBC where we buy marketable securities, and those are generally with much larger banks. With those ones, we can generally get better rates than with the local banks, and

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they'll offer um slightly better terms. But, um at this point, the rates on a money market fund are probably going to be better than a really long-term one, but those rates

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also do fluctuate. Um they have come back up um within the the past handful of months just through the complex throughout the world. Um but we we generally like to roll into a five-year term to lock in that those earnings at

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least on you know a majority or half of the funds that we have that way something's constantly every month something is coming uh coming to you but it's frequently spending and I ask that because some of the other

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organizations that I'm involved with for the county are also investing dollars and there's been it's been a little bit um in the past the shorter term were better longer term

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weren't and then now it's kind of shifted from what I hear that it's kind of more even if you go out three years it's probably pretty close to the same as today but it is it has shifted around the last

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few years. >> Yeah. and and that's something that you you never can um predict 100% long term what those rates are going to be into the future. So, it's really best just to have an established policy. This is what

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we're going to do and that way if rates go up or if rates go down, at least we're going to be earning a a consistent reasonable return over the long term. >> Thank you. That was it for the the quarter one report.

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>> We get the uh graduate. That's a good thing. >> Yes. And so I have with me Mickey. Um she's our uh property tax and elections

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manager here at Good County. Um, and I'll just read off the report here. I'm proud to announce that Mickey Otto has received the statewide excellence and elections award from the Office of Secretary of State. She personally received this recognition from Steve

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Simon, Minnesota Secretary of State at the recent county election administration training conference. This award honors election workers for their outstanding service to the state of Minnesota. Awardees must meet the following criteria. Election workers who demonstrate strong leadership,

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partnership across different departments or jurisdictions, dedication to the field and helping election workers thrive, innovation and building programs or resources or other achievements of note. Recipients of the award are nominated by their peers. This is only

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the second year in which the awards have been given out, which highlights the prestigiousness of this honor. Mickey is Mission. She coordinates and provides elections training, hires temporary election workers, ensures tabulators, pull pads, and omni ballots are maintained and up to date with their

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software. During the election season, she stays late in completing election tasks even when she hasn't been able to complete her non-election duties that her job entails. She resolves elections issues in a professional manner and creates all of our required county election documents.

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She interprets, plans, and implements statutory and regulatory changes, which often includes coordination with the county attorney, sheriff, emergency management, facilities maintenance, human resources, and information technology teams on the county side, as well as with the various city and

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township clerks and head judges throughout the county. While elections are a team effort utilizing an all hands- on deck approach, Mickey goes the extra mile to ensure that Goodyu Countyy's elections are administered in a safe, impartial, and efficient manner. Congratulations,

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Mickey. I think we're all happy that uh our election security is handled well in county and we're grateful for that and I hope that the public uh gets some knowledge of what a good job we're

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doing. So, thank you. >> Next, next up is for your information, the project status report. and new and old business. >> No, none today. >> No. >> Okay.

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Any committee reports? >> No. I got two things I wanted to call out. I don't know if any of you caught it, but Chuck Schuardo, who is our chair of our extension committee, uh is getting an award in the North Central

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Region of the National Association of County Egg Agents. He's getting inducted into the Hall of Fame for that. He's done a fantastic job. We're just lucky to have him on our extension committee. Brings a wealth of knowledge to that. And the other thing I

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want to point out and it's national uh detention deputy recognition week this week and we are very lucky to have an very well talented detention staff in Good County who

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really um do a good job with detention detent detaines we have. God, big word. Um, but early on when I was a commissioner, I got to go through the jail with some of the

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our detention leaders who passed away. But the care they give to the detainees and the empathy and the education and the training they want them to come out being

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participatory citizens. It's really amazing. And so I hats off to them. Congratulations. >> Any other committee reports? >> None. We'll move on to claims. >> Move to pay the bills.

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>> Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Motion carries. Now, we want to thank all you students for coming and we're going to take a five minute break here during this part of the meeting and hopefully give you guys some

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information. >> Thanks. Yeah, the meeting. >> All right. Is there a motion to motion to second? All those in favor? All right.