Good morning and welcome to the Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025 meeting of the Candy Ohio County Board of Commissioners. Please stand for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Want to welcome everybody who's in the uh board chambers this morning as well as those folks uh uh joining us on YouTube. Uh before we go to the approval
of the agenda, we have uh one uh resolution to add uh to this and this is in regard to a uh victim services grant uh that uh uh the county attorney will uh uh tell us about. This is something
that happens every uh every year. It's an annual grant and uh we're going to uh with uh uh with the approval of the board uh add that after the ORAC uh grant update. Uh does anyone uh uh with
that addition does anyone wish to uh move approval of the agenda? So move Mr. Chair. Commissioner Mcke moves. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Bergs. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you.
And then we would move to the consent agenda consisting today of three items. Approval of the August 19th, 2025 county board legal minutes, the approval of the auditor's warrants and claims, paying the bills, and approval of a liquor license application.
Does anyone wish to pull any items from the consent agenda? Mr. Chair, I see a what's a a minor error on the application, but I don't know if that is says the nearest lo municipality on sale license is Wilmer.
It would be New London, I think. And so are you are you requesting to pull this? Well, I don't know if we can approve it as it is or or if we have to have a correction and then Well, let's defer to Shane. Why don't we pull Why don't we pull it
off and put it at the very end? Then we'll give him a chance to take a look at it. All right. Uh so uh uh so there uh Commissioner Mdeck is pulling the liquor license
application and we will take that immediately after the victim services grant. All right then uh let's uh get approval of the remaining items on the consent agenda. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the
consent agenda as uh as amended. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. And uh do we need a motion to approve the amended
uh agenda then? Or are we already passed that? All right. Very good then. So we will add that at the very end. Um that's an ad. All right. At this time then uh we will have a uh
uh presentation uh uh from uh our new uh insurance broker uh USI broker introduction and John please come up to the microphone and uh tell us who you are and who you're with and uh uh let us begin. Good morning. Thanks for having me in
today. My name is Jonathan Sitch. I'm a benefits consultant with USI insurance services and today I'll be giving a presentation about uh our tools and resources that we'll be making available to the county. I'll also be answering
any questions that you have. There we go. Okay. So, uh, real briefly, uh, overall about our company, uh, we have offices in just about every major city in the United States. Myself and my team work
out of Bloomington, Minnesota. And the majority of services that the county will be receiving are originated out of Bloomington, Minnesota. Uh so uh we have all the local expertise and the relationships with all the insurance
carriers that do business in this marketplace, but we're also able to harvest data from around the country. uh that is important because there will be uh quite a few uh uh public sector
business within our book of business and if the county is ever facing an issue rather than uh us saying hey let's try this or or let's look at this idea I can actually go into our system uh and find
other counties cities school districts anybody that has a similar dynamic and do research about any of the issues that we're having and and finding a solution. Uh so there's a lot of data that we use in our consulting practices uh to the
cons to the county moving forward. We're a fullervice agency. Uh that means that uh we provide all services that have to do with underwriting and an analytics compliance, population health,
HR services uh and then we branch into some other areas where it's more on an allocart basis. It's totally up to your team uh if they're going to use us at the in these full capacities or not. but retirement plan consulting, ancillary
benefits, uh pharmacy consulting, and care intervention. I'll be talking a little bit more about that today. Uh the number one tool that we'll be deploying for the county has to do with underwriting and analytics. So, we
believe strongly that having a independent opinion about underwriting is important uh because we want to make sure that your health insurance carrier is treating you fair. Uh there's a lot of a lot that goes on behind the scenes
in determining what you actually pay for a rate and that all trickles down to uh keeping your plan designs viable, keeping your payroll deductions as low as possible, keeping the aggregate cost down. So having an independent
underwriting opinion is your best tool in negotiating with insurance companies. And we've actually hired underwriters uh that used to work at insurance carriers and they work with us on our teams uh and we basically form that underwriting
opinion and then we're able to negotiate with your insurance companies and uh come up with uh what we would all agree is is fair. But we do more than just negotiations. There's also renewal projections that we give. So, we have a
system where we download all your claims data. Of course, it's HIPPA protected. Uh, but we're able to underwrite and project what your renewals are going to come in at, meaning we're giving your finance team advanced notice uh for
budget planning. We can also do claims cost and risk assessments, trend mitigation, uh plan design and contribution analysis. And this is very important. Uh as you know there's different plan designs that you can offer your employees uh and different
contributions that need to be made into the health plan itself. Making sure that those plan designs are funded correctly and you got the right contribution make sure that your plan does not build a
deficit. A deficit is what causes larger or more steep increases in the future. Uh, and then we can also do predictive modeling. So if we're ever looking at making any changes, we have the capability to tell you if you made that
change a year ago, this what would have happened. So it feels maybe a little bit like Monday morning quarterback, but that can be a really useful tool to know if it's the right step moving forward or not.
We have the ability uh to look at different types of funding for your health plan. So, uh there's many ways to fund a health plan depending on the risk level that you want to take on. This could be uh self-insurance. Uh this
could be a term called level funded. This could be fully insured. There's a number of different risk models or funding platforms that you can take on. Rather than going to an insurance company and saying, "Hey, give us a quote on this." We can actually do that
underwriting and that a funding analysis for you before reaching out to an insurance company and asking them to make an offer. Comprehensive underwriting review. Uh we know that uh in a plan design uh such as
what the county has there's a number of levers within a renewal calculation that they give you at the end of the year which we may think could be fair or unfair. we have the ability to unbundle those calculations and underwrite it
ourselves and uh make sure that the underwriting is uh appropriate or what we agree with. Uh underwriting calculations can change each year uh as does your risk profile. So once again, having an independent opinion of what
that calculation is and negotiating with an underwriter based on that independent opinion is more scientific. It's more logic. Uh and it's quite often how to get the best results rather than going back and threatening to leave bitter
quote, go out to market, etc. uh this type of conversation and negotiation bears more fruit if we were ever to uh go self-insured. Uh which by the way uh many groups in Minnesota are migrating to that type of
platform. It's becoming uh more and more prevalent. Uh we also have the ability to do stop-loss benchmarking and this is basically another underwriting calculation that gives us the ability uh to say how much risk are you going to take on per
claimant. So, we have all the data necessary to make sure that if the county was ever to go in a direction uh and and take on a different risk or go self-insured, we would set that ceiling of risk correctly so that we would not
be taking on any unanticipated or unnecessary risk. By the way, going self-insured uh quite often can produce uh more efficiencies with your health plans where you're
paying less taxes. Uh and then on the months where you're performing better, you reap the benefit of that. So, uh we haven't gone into the level of detail of our relationship yet where this analysis has been completed. We're we're new
together. uh but this will be some of the items that we'll be performing over the next couple months. We also do quarterly claims review. So we schedule quarterly meetings uh with your staff and we review the claims. Uh
this is critical in our opinion because uh your claims coming in are always a fluid type of situation and there's a lot of ways that we can impact claims. Uh but in order to understand what your cost drivers are, we first need to know
what's going on with your claims and and what's moving the needle there. So we have a proprietary software system called 3D where we get direct feed uh claims right down to the ISD10 codes uh
with your group. Once again, all this data is protected for privacy, but with that direct feed, we're able to model your claims and know exactly what's going on uh with your risk profile
without having the software. Uh groups can feel like they're somewhat handcuffed uh because they only receive claims data from the insurance carrier. uh insurance carriers uh although are trying to be as transparent as possible the claims data
that comes from them is usually uh insufficient or doesn't tell the right story. So we just want the whole story. We want as much transparency as possible. This 3D system will be a very valuable tool for the county uh when
monitoring their health plan and making decisions about the health plan moving forward. plan design modeling. We have the capability to look at your plan designs and tell you how they're performing. Uh
we understand that there's uh collective bargaining agreements in place and a lot of efforts that the county has to recruit and retain the best employees. But we also want to make sure that the plan designs are adhering uh to those collective bargaining agreements but
also contributing to recruiting and retaining efforts. uh a plan design left unchecked can become inefficient and uh can grow plumatic over time. So we want to make
sure that plan designs are meeting the needs of our families uh as well as performing financially. Uh but we're as you can see by the actuarial value calculator at the bottom of that slide there uh we can uh gauge
the performance of each one of your plan designs and making sure that they're following your intent. We have a number of HR services. So we we like to think of oursel as an extension of your HR office. So we have
dedicated account management. We produce a service calendar. I'll go in a little bit more detail about that. We help our clients vet various HR technologies. Uh but if you look at the piraphph there, uh when it comes to education,
um negotiation of technology credits, finding new technologies, claims advocacy, we want to support your HR department to the fullest. So, there's a number of services that my uh agency will um offer
to your HR department just to make sure that uh they're uh uh hitting on all cylinders, so to speak. And you got a great HR department here, staff with great people. So, we're looking forward to that.
We benchmark your benefit plans. So uh we get our benchmarking data directly from our system. It doesn't come from surveys. We don't buy it from third parties. Uh we have a very very large book of business and all the data comes
directly from that system and we're able to tell you if your plan designs, your payroll deductions, your overall value of benefits is hitting the mark. Uh, and what I mean by that is that over time,
left unchecked, plan designs and employee benefits can become uh undesirable or maybe they're not contributing to your recruiting and retaining efforts. Uh, it's very difficult for a organization to measure
where they should be with payroll deductions, plan designs, etc. to make sure that indeed they're meeting their recruiting and retaining efforts. Uh so every year we'll produce a benchmarking report and we'll be able to tell you
what percentile that you fall into. Uh and it and it also depends on what your philosophy is. You may want to be a market leader and offer the best benefits. Uh you may inform us that we have the best compensation, so we want
our benefits to be middle of the pack. It just depends on what your philosophy is, but benchmarking will be ultimately how you keep your benefit structure, your payroll deductions and whatnot. Uh, in line once again with what your intent
and philosophy is. Uh, all the employees here will have access to what's called a benefit uh, resource center. And this is a service that we provide because navigating the world of health insurance and health
care is difficult today. Uh there's a number of aspects of of the system quote unquote that are are difficult for people to navigate uh when when they have a health issue. So, our benefit resource center will ensure that if an
employee has any type of situation, uh it could be very simple, it could be very complicated where they can reach out to us and we're going to help them through the issue so they don't have to contact multiple insurance companies. A simple example of that would be one an
employee comes and says, "Oh, um I just found out I'm uh pregnant. Do I have short-term disability? Do I have maternity leave? Uh how do I find an in network doctor? You know, maybe they have five or six questions regarding
this uh upcoming event. If they contact our benefit resource center, they can do it by email or phone call. They'll just get one person that will help them through that event from start to finish and they'll give them all the answers pertaining to their employee benefits.
But we also handle much more complicated situations. Uh just recently we were contacted by another client of mine that had an employee that was denied a drug. It was an injection and it's timesensitive and they went to the HR
department and they said, you know, I think this is discrimination and I don't think this is fair and I'm very upset about it. Uh after contacting our benefit resource center, the benefit resource center worked with the doctor and the insurance company to make sure
that the paperwork was filled out correctly and submitted correctly to the insurance company, the drug was approved, and the employee was quite happy with the results. So sometimes it's just a matter of getting folks to communicate or fill out paperwork correctly.
Uh by the way uh each year we also deliver a report saying uh how many people contacted the benefit resource center and for what reason and we'll deliver that report to you and that will help you keep your finger on the pulse of of what's going on. If you
have an uptick in calls regarding uh leave or some other type of issue, we can report that to you. your HR department will know that that's going on and they may tailor some of their communications or policies uh regarding those inquiries.
We also provide uh a vast array of different employee benefits communication and education to employees. Uh this could be something as simple as benefit guides. Uh but we also do uh open enrollment memos, email templates,
we do presentations. Uh that's probably the most popular thing that I'm doing right now. It's called a brain shark. It's a presentation with a voice over. And this is very valuable to get spouses involved. Quite often spouses are the decision maker in the household when it comes to employee benefits. And they may
not come to an actual meeting. They may not look through the uh benefit guide, but they love these presentations because they're able to go right to the slide that has the important subject for them. Uh and they can view it as many times as they want at their leisure. We
also provide what's called flip videos. These are two or three minute videos that help people understand the basic of their employee benefits. An example would be what is a health savings account? How does it work? you know, who's eligible uh to be on it. It's uh
quick and easy information. Uh but we can also customize things and work with your HR department to make sure that you have indeed a benefits communication strategy uh and not just
something that we we're obligated to do during open enrollment period. Not to say that that's what you're doing, but uh we would have a meeting with your HR department to tailor your communication strategy, your education strategy uh to
employees. And as a result of that communication strategy, we find that employees are more satisfied with benefits and they utilize them to the fullest of their capability, which is our intent. we'll uh put together an annual service
calendar uh with your HR team and this is how they know what is going to happen throughout the year. So the different items that go on the service calendar might be related to compliance. It might be related to population health. It could be related to uh when we do open
enrollment. It's a working document that can change throughout the year, but at the beginning of the year, uh, we complete this document. Uh, it helps us all be on the same page and proactive if there's a law change that's coming up.
Uh, there's a big one here in Minnesota. uh PFML as you know. Uh so that would be an example of what would go on a service calendar so that everybody can prepare for it and make sure that the processes and policies are put into place by the
time that that law uh takes effect. Uh but we have we have law changes on a regular basis uh impacting employee benefits uh including the big beautiful bill recently that had three provisions in there regarding employee benefits. Uh
so this document is uh a very important component of our planning structure. Uh one thing that was uh uh important uh about uh bonding our relationship was our capabilities uh about population health management. So we have a team of
locally based nationallyworked wellness consultants uh that your team is going to have access to. Uh they also have data uh and and uh our wellness consultants are also data experts that
will comb through your data and pinpoint what you want to address. So uh common conditions uh or sometimes folks not using their benefits uh to get diagnosed early would
be examples of of how they can help. So, it's developed quite a bit over my career. When I first started my career about 20 years ago, uh, population health had a lot to do with, you know, moving, getting your body moving and and doing things that were healthy and it
was done for good culture and um, it was it was wellreceived by employees. Uh, but it was very difficult to measure return of investment or know what type of impact you were having to employees health or your claims. uh which
ultimately impact your uh overall cost. Population health has evolved nowadays into something that's very strategic and datadriven. So that's something that we'll be bringing to your group. We'll be able to tell you, you know, what to
expect over the next five years. And we're going to bring a data set not only specific to your group, but once again, we can use nationwide data or statewide data to let you know what the trends are for various cancers, diabetes,
uh the uh various diagnose uh future diagnosis that we should be addressing. And you know, this might be putting the cart before the horse just a little bit, but I wanted to give you an example of uh population health management and
something that I speculate uh would be suggested in here uh one form or another, but a lot of a lot of employers want to know what they can do to control costs in the future. And uh your costs are driven by your claims. Your claims
are driven by the health of your employees. And when we pull data on groups like the county here, uh we often find that a very large percentage of your population is not using the doctor at all. So your
uh employee benefits have coverage for various cancer screenings depending on your age and gender. Uh, and there's also uh other benefits to get a free physical, but we're going to we're going to find out that uh a big block of people are just not using that at all.
Uh, and we want people to use those benefits. We want them to get the full value of their benefits. And we also know that when uh somebody is diagnosed with like prostate uh breast cancer, um colon cancer, skin cancer, those uh
frequent diagnosis that we see that if they're diagnosed at stage one, there's a 95% chance of survival. But if you're diagnosed at stage 4, that can drop below 50%. There's also a financial impact to that. An example would be
prostate cancer caught in stage one uh could be a couple hundred thousand dollar in stage four it it can be significantly higher than that. So the purpose of a program like this uh is long-term thinking about employee uh
health as well as keeping our overall cost down. We'll also use population health for targeted disease management. uh we can get much more specific than the physician engagement that I just mentioned. Uh and once we go through your data um we can look at type two
diabetes uh other conditions like that that we know are uh a big influence of the rising uh cost of health insurance nowadays uh which is at a steeper clip than in years past. And that has to do with our aging society, the health of
our society, the types of diseases that we have etc. Um and so getting back to our predictive modeling uh with our data uh so we use that 3D data analytic system uh to draft up a health risk score and key future
cost drivers and then we create targeted wellness programs and incentives. Uh the reason I say wanted to mention incentives is because uh the most proven way to change behavior uh is for there
to be an incentive. So, not only are we going to diagnose what your cost drivers are, but we're going to have uh data that is going to tell you what incentives that you want to offer employees to enroll in the programs or take advantage of disease management or
or just uh get involved overall. uh various incentives will induce different utilization rates and the success of our program is solely based on utilization rates. It's the it's the
lynch pin of success. So we want to make sure that we have the right incent incentives to our employees to participate in these programs. I mentioned uh type two diabetes already. Um the other thing that we offer uh is
compliance management. So we have a staff of compliance attorneys uh at USI and your your HR department and other departments will have full access to those attorneys for any of their
compliance needs. So, they'll be able to email or talk with them directly or go through me and get involved in various projects uh to make sure that we're uh complying with everything that we need to do as it pertains to health
insurance carriers, state law, federal law, etc. We also do a compliance checklist review. So, this is a very deep dive into all aspects of your employee benefits. This is performed by an
attorney. No organization is 100% perfect. Uh but at a good start of our relationship is to go through this checklist and just make sure that everything is is being addressed. If we find anything that we need to address,
we usually have a philosophy of got to do it right now or we got to do it upon the renewal or this is something longterm that we're we're going to need to address. Uh but there's a lot of different uh laws. Uh affordable care act was the big
one in 2010 that govern what we can do uh with employee benefits. So compliance is uh more and more important. Uh I mentioned this before, but anytime that there is a new law or regulation that we need to conform to, we will
reach out to you. So uh besides our compliance attorneys, we also have employment law attorneys on staff. We monitor all laws that impact our clients and we will reach out to your staff with any laws that will impact anything that
needs to be done in the HR or employee benefits realm. And then we also have uh the ability to do care intervention or bringing other resources to your employees uh depending on what those needs are. So, I've
brought uh direct primary care, uh network navigation tools, and other various tools and resources to my clients to make sure that their employees have the best experience when they're using health care, but at the
same time, uh maximize efficiency. Uh and sometimes this means finding the best practicing doctor for whatever condition that that you have. We also do pharmacy consulting. Uh the
pharmacy is in the news quite a bit nowadays. Um we know that pharmacy is very very complicated for the average citizen to navigate. Uh so we provide a lot of tools and resources that will uh
take some of that responsibility off of their hands and give them more turnkey solutions. but also for our clients understanding what you're actually spending on drugs and whether or not uh you know what you're spending because in
the health insurance world there's embedded contracts that uh don't do a really good job of being transparent uh so that you know that indeed you're getting the best deal on the drug market. So we we provide all the
analytics to help you understand uh where an insurance company's profit is coming from pertaining to drugs. And uh we have a pharmacist on staff. His name is Keith Weaver. He looks through the various prescriptions that
are prescribed to our employees and their families. And we also go through and look at your contracts. Uh and if we find anything about your contract that is an opportunity or something that we can suggest to reduce the cost of drugs
or health insurance with our clients, we'll do that. It's common practice for us to um do a pharmacy contract analysis uh for all of our clients. So that will be something we'll perform in the near future.
All right. Thank you. I know I went through that with pretty uh swift cadence. Uh any questions that I can answer? Uh John, first of all, thank you and uh uh we wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to go through uh uh all
of this. First of all, welcome. We appreciate the uh uh uh having you uh on board to help us. If we were to summarize what you said, uh basically this is you're offering uh uh strategic data driven and high engagement uh uh
services that are hopefully going to uh uh mitigate our costs. That is correct. Be fair. All right. Are there any questions for John? Commissioner Mck. Thank actually I have two. Um you mentioned benefits v versus pay for
recruits. uh in your experience uh new recruits, especially the younger ones, do they respond more to the pay or do they respond more to the benefits? Great question. Uh, I think my personal opinion and and based on the feedback
that I get from a lot of my clients, uh, folks that are in those younger age brackets, uh, put more attention on compensation than they do benefits, uh, as they, uh, start families and get
a little bit older, uh, more value is placed on benefits at that time. Not surprised by that answer to be honest. And then the other question is uh does the benefit resource center and I'm using myself as a bad example. Uh is that reduce staff time because I usually
go into our HR or benefits administrator and say just give me the best plan that you've got. So is does this put it on the client? Yeah, first of all there's nothing wrong with that type of question for HR because our HR people give excellent guidance. But you're absolutely right.
the benefit resource center will take uh uh hopefully a lot of work off the shoulders of your staff. Um because quite often some of these situations are so complicated that uh your staff could u take a half a day or a couple weeks to
get an answer if it's complicated. Having somebody work on that behind the scenes and then deliver you an answer uh can be very valuable with time management. Any other question? Commissioner, Mr. Chair, thank you. Um, just a quick
question. How many other counties uh in Minnesota do you work with? Yeah. Um, I'll have to shoot from the hip on this one. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I uh in Minnesota I I would say
15, maybe more. Um I know that when we first were going through the vetting process I might have produced but I forget the number exact number but just too much you got experience in dealing with government and so forth. Certainly sounds like you
do and certainly sound like an expanded services what we've been used to. So thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for John today? I just got one. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson.
So, you talked about uh self-insuring, you know, counties going that route. Uh we're kind of at kind of a tipping point is what I was told. And so, if we did go that way, what would be a disadvantage? I mean, sometimes you get a large claim
and that would scare me, you know, because you got a little uncertainty there. But, uh do you have any more thoughts about self-insuring or Yeah. So, uh, more of my clients have moved self-insured in the last couple
years than, uh, the previous 10. And it's because self- insurance gives you more ability to customize your benefits and it also lends to transparency, which contributes to better decisions. It's
kind of a a chain effect there. But uh if you can't get the right protection or stop loss uh and your claims are not conducive to the success of a self-insured program.
Uh we'll be able to perform the analytics and and tell you that uh but we'll also be able to tell you if indeed you should be looking in that direction and here's how you design a program. Uh quite often I've been contacted
uh by other employers that will tell me, "Hey, we went through a a process to see if we should go self-insured or not." Um, and I'll dig into it. And they were delivered a a spreadsheet with a quote on it. And in my opinion, that's not
best practices for establishing whether you should go self-insured or not. uh you you should actually uh dig into your claims, do the stop-loss benchmarking reports, uh negotiate fixed rates, negotiate that pharmacy contract, which
is a a very large piece of the pie uh when determining your self-insured risk. You should go through that analysis first and then uh look to see if your partner carriers, networks, etc. can can
accommodate uh that structure. So it's I believe uh peeling apart everything and establish and designing the right program uh and then going through the process of vetting who's the appropriate third party administrator network etc. uh is
is the best p practices for establishing that. Um I plan on doing that for you. um it's not always predictable that the results will come back better than the incumbent situation. And what will
happen though is we'll be able to establish whether the pool that you're in right now is subsidizing you or if you're subsidizing others. And that will be a big determining factor of whether self- insurance is right. If a pool is
willing to subsidize us when we're having our our rougher years, our high claim years, and we're still getting a fair overall rate or cost for doing that, my advice would be to to stay in that situation as as long as it's
meeting our needs. But, uh, looking at self insurance will be a review that we probably do every two years, uh, depending on what happens with your risk profile. So, you probably I'm looking at it now, you kind of use
it as a form of leverage when you're negotiating with insurance companies possibly because you can kind of doublech checkck their math in a way. I I think that's accurate statement because knowledge is power and and uh the more information you have, the better your
negotiations go. Uh negotiating insurance is uh not like a playing poker. It's more like an open book like, "Hey, here's material facts and here's what's really going on." Um, unfortunately the the members or clients don't always
get a lot of great information and the insurance company has all the information. So, we feel from that position, it's not always the fairest negotiation. Like with me, when I when someone talks to me about insurance, my eyes glaze over really quick and it's like just get
over with this, right? Yeah. not the funnest subject in the world, but going through these various analytics uh like I believe you're stating ex exposes a lot of details and we'll find the details that uh are in our favor uh
and see if we can find solutions because of the new information we're getting. Thank you. Y Commissioner Berg, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a comment. Yes, it's a very complicated process and maybe I think it's uh very interesting to look at that and explore that
possibility. It's so that we look at every way we can save some dollars and and provide the best care. But, you know, going back to being self-insured, too. And I know there's always a concern about the big big uh uh bills we could possibly get. But you get risk insurance
and that's where you would come in to help us with that that you know at a certain threshold then we have to pay for this insurance that that would protect us for that. Except that can get very spendy and that's where we would need your need your help for to see how this all would fit together.
Right. So, uh, with our independent underwriting, we would in, uh, advise you on how to budget for your rates and we would also put together that stop-loss insurance that would stop loss. That's the word I was looking for. Thank you. Yeah. And that gives you you your
maximum liability. So, that would be a scenario very similar to kind of what you have today. It's your you have a similar situation like that today and you're budgeting at the max already. Um, but you're right, self- insurance will
you have the ability to cap your risk at at various levels and we advise our clients on where that where that good spot is. Yeah. All right. Any last questions for John?
Uh, John, thank you for being here today. I did also want to uh uh thank Administrator Baker and uh uh and our HR and benefits team for uh uh for going through this process and uh clearly uh
your firm has uh considerable bandwidth uh uh and a lot more to bring to the table that uh we're looking forward to finding out where this takes us. So me too. Thank you. Thank you so much. At this time, we'll ask uh
Oops. Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking one too far ahead. Uh at this time, we'll consider approving uh the appointments for the new auditor treasurer. Administrator Baker will present. And this in regards to two resolutions,
2025-28 and 2025-29. Kelsey Baker, Kandandy County Administrator. Before you today, as the chair stated, I have two resolutions to appoint uh Lisa Whis, our new auditor treasurer for the deputy registar for uh
Department of Motor Vehicles. And then for all of the signatory duties, previously the board passed a resolution for signatory duties for our chief financial officer, Karen Anderson, and myself. And so now we will just be adding to that list. So the first
resolution before you today is 2025-28 and this is for um the deputy registar and that we have to have this submitted but it will be effective as stated in the resolution for September 15 2025. Um we have we can only have two names. Our
current name is our licensing supervisor Vanessa Grth and so this would be adding Lisa as our second um uh deputy registar for Kandy County. Mr. Chair, I move on resolution 2025-28.
We have a motion to move on the resolution. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. Discussion. Hearing none. All in favor say I. All opposed. Motion passes. And one more. Yep. So, this is resolution 2025-29.
Like I stated before, this is to add Lisa Whis um to all of our signatory duties, authorizing her to do so. Um, we will still effective September 15th as her official start date. Like I said earlier, we still have uh Karen Anderson
and myself on there. Um, we will leave that on there for a while and I'm just looking into that if we need to remove that. We would probably have to bring another resolution forward, but for right now, we'll still add Lisa on there um or we'll add her on there and leave Karen and I as well for right now and
for the time being. We have resolution 2025-29. Would anyone like to move the resolution? I'll make a motion, Mr. Chair, to uh pass resolution 2025-29. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it.
Commissioner Dale Anderson seconds. Discussion. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And now we have public works director Mel Odin's. And this is a final payment
and acceptance request. Mr. Chair, members of the board, um relatively simple uh resolution, final payment request for you. We every year we do crack filling. This year we did 54 miles of crack filling, 46,000 linear
feet. Um it is a it is a maintenance road item that we do. Every year we do crack filling and seal coating. Um this is our first uh final for the year. So we feel good about that. So Northwest Asphalt and Maintenance of Thief River Falls did a a
very good job for us. And so it's my recommendation to accept a project and authorize final payment in the amount of $21,315 and no cents. And that represents the final retainage that we do on any contract. You've heard the uh uh request of the
director. Is there a motion? So move, Mr. Chair. Second, Mr. Chair. Uh we have a motion and a second to approve the request. Uh all those in favor uh discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I.
I. All opposed. Motion passes. And we will take a 10-minute recess. The Candio High County Board of Commissioners is back in uh from recess and at this time uh we will have
aformational item in regards to a slownow wakeake ordinance update. Uh uh administrator Baker. Good morning. Kelsey Baker, Candy County Administrator. Before you today, as the chair stated, was uh the slow no wake
ordinance update. This has been a major discussion this summer with all of the rain that we've received in Candyoy County. And so um I recruited Austin Hillbrands, our drainage inspector, to help me with this ordinance and get the numbers. And so kind of what we're going
to present today is in draft form. Nothing is set in stone. I we want to hear your feedback. The public hearing isn't set in stone for October 7th. That was just for Austin and I kind of planning ahead on if this were to be okay, good to go, had nods, then we
would do the posting in the public or do the public notices and then come back with the public comment and the public hearing. After talking with some commissioners, we're not there yet, and that's okay. We have time. Um, we're kind of nearing the end of the lake season now and so we want to get this in
place prior to 2026 lake season, but we also want to make sure that we're listening to the constituents and reviewing this document to the best of our ability. Um, but part of this is to provide public safety, protect our property and our landshore, and to
ensure the enjoyment um, and continuation of that with all of our lakes in Kyua County. Um, so we've had high water in Candyoy County and we in past have never had an ordinance around this and it's always been a little bit of a gray area on who
issues something like this, who doesn't. And so in talking with the county attorney, the county sheriff, um we all feel that it would be in the best of Candyoy County's ability to create an ordinance like this moving forward so that we do know where the levels are at.
We know the numbers um and so that it's not um we're we're meeting the needs of our constituents and ensuring uh property and shoreline um safety within all our lakes.
Sorry, I just closed this. And so how we came up with this, we are um there are other counties that have a no wake ordinance in place. And so what we kind of did was we started researching a lot of the counties that have that in place. What's the language in their ordinance? What does it entail?
Does it entail all the lakes? Just the lakes? Um some county ordinances only include the channels. if they if there are a lot of lakes and there's a lot of channels in between lakes, some counties just in in include the channels. We kind of went back and forth. We started with
the county parks after hearing some of the concerns. We would probably include more lakes if not maybe all of the incorporated listed lakes. That's something that we can look into. Currently, we the designated lakes within the ordinance are Big Candy,
Ohio, Diamond Lake, Games Lake, which include Norway and West Norway, and then Green Lake. Some of the comments that I've heard since issuing this would be, would we include Lake Andrew? How about Lake Florida? And so th those are two lakes that we can include. You know, the biggest question then is, do we include
Elhorn? Things like that. And so, it's, you know, hearing from you and listening to your constituents on do we want to include all incorporated listed lakes? what what are you what's the feedback that you're hearing? And so that's something that Austin and I can go into a little bit further and uh talk about
some of those things. Um we would also like to maybe share with the lake associations on what's your feedback. Is this something that meets these needs? Um that would be something that we can explore. This also this also is a step
process with the Minnesota DNR. So, prior to leading up to this, I did have a call with the DNR rep as well, and the DNR also needs to sign off on the ordinance along with the county board. So, there's a little bit of a step process with this as well that it's um
they also have to review and approve. There also is um I'll go into uh the um the elevation and the 150 ft from shore in a little bit, but prior I just want to review kind of the enforcement. And
this allows under section 7. Um it states the primary responsibility for enforcement of this ordinance shall rest with Candyoy County Sheriff's Office, other licensed peace officers, including conservation officers, Minnesota uh Department of Natural Resources, and not authorized to enforce the provisions of
this ordinance. And I think that um meets kind of what the county sheriff's concerns were is the enforcement level of this. And so by having some of that language in there follows the statutory language and provides some reassurance for our staff and shows guidance for the
the taxpayers as well as what would be listed within this ordinance. Going back up to uh the designated lakes um we did 150 ft from shoreline uh during the high water events. This is
something that also could be changed. You know, we could look at 150, we could look at 300, we could look at 500 or 600 would be more of the common uh the numbers that would be used. I put in 150 ft. That's what our resolution stated earlier this summer. Uh some of the
conversations I've had just previously is maybe we should update to 300 ft based off the boats that are being used on the lakes in this time. So, that's also I've made that note. That's something that I can change when I bring back the draft. And um coming up with the water levels, I'm going to hand it
over to Austin here in just a little bit. But coming up with these water levels, we do get this information off the DNR website. Based off the these charts, and a like I said, Austin will go over some of this stuff, but based off these charts, Austin and I sat down, I am kind of a lake girl in Kandy
County. I've been on quite a few lakes, you know, and so kind of gauging like um where that high water level is and if we feel that um that elevation is still too high, let's lower that number. Um and so we Austin and I kind of figured out
where these elevation numbers are. And so if that's a concern for you and you want to be more involved in that, we can absolutely do so. Um but that is how we got to those numbers. So I'll pass it over to Austin so he can explain a little bit more of that. Morning, Mr. Chair, board members,
Austin Hill, drainage manager. So, yeah, I helped Kelsey with these graphs. These graphs that are in your packet are actually the county elevation shots of the lake levels. Um, I got the the orange line is your outlet elevation. So, that's what the lake should go down
to, you know, during low water. Um, got that from the DNR. Like Kelsey was saying, we we we selected these levels that the that we set for these weight restrictions, but they're also kind of based on um we got the ordinary high water level marks from
the DNR. So that's going to be the uh the water level that shows on the landscape, you know, like tree trees that that the lake consistently goes to according to the DNR. And then you know that public water that's that's that level is where you can't do work in the
public water basin um without getting a permit and all that. But anyway, those ordinary high water levels though we found that the lake consistently went above that. Um and so based on that based on that that's where we ended up setting these wake restriction levels.
So if you want I can go through each one or Yeah. Why don't you take a couple minutes and do that? Okay. Okay, be great. Okay, so for like Big Candy High Lake, you know, the ordinary high water level set by the DNR is 11:03.2 and we set the wake restriction level at
11:04 just because the lake consistently goes above that, you know, and we base it on the high water levels that we had this year. Um, so that that's where we ended up setting it. Like like Kelsey said, you know,
these numbers aren't set in stone. We can move these, but we we we want we want to make sure that, you know, that we protect property, but still out recreation out on the lake. So, um, the next one we can go to be like Diamond Lake. The, uh, we set the lake
restriction level at 1173.5. The ordinary high water level is 1172.90. So again the if you look at the graph that lake consistently goes above that. Um we set the wake restriction above that to you know to make to make sure
that recreation can still happen but make sure during really high waters especially this year you know that we protect personal property. If you go to games in Norway Lake, um the wake restriction level is set at 1198.0.
The ordinary high water level from the DNR is 1197.7. So we set that a little bit higher because again the lake consistently goes to that level and the DNR also referenced that when I got these level you know got the ordinary high water levels you know she the hydraologist the
area hydraologist did point out that even in her hydrographs or these graphs that I have for you in the ones that the DNR does they consistently go to that level you know and so that ordinary high water might be too restrictive on some of these lakes. Green Lake though we set
the wake restriction level at 1157.5. The ordinary high water level is 1158.2. So we had really high water out in Green Lake this year. Um and the the ordinary high water level is actually
um about 610 lower than the or above the ordinary high water is 610 lower than the highest we've recorded out there this year. So I I feel like that ordinary high water level was was too high to use as the wake restriction. So we backed it down
to, you know, 1175.5. Again, we we we shot for either whole numbers or.5, I guess. But you mean 1157.5? 1157.5. Yep. Excuse me. Sorry. All right.
Uh are you open for questions? Yes. All righty. Any questions for uh Austin? Commissioner Berg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, how does you're going to get into the mechanics of it later then? You know, how does this work? So, we get different
rainfalls in different parts of the county. So, we each let's say it's Green Lake area again or whatever, then it' be just specific for Green Lake. And then who monitors that and reports that to the county or or what person from the county monitors that and
say, "Hey, it's at this level." And then does it does it automatically kick in then? It won't take any board action long as we accept this. Correct. Correct. And having an ordinance and this was kind of early discussions with the county sheriff that I really appreciated. You know, having an ordinance like this doesn't it does it
spurs then just to go into effect. It doesn't have to go back to county board for approval because the ordinance is already approved by the county board. Then it just automatically goes into effect. the DNR is constantly monitoring those levels and so we would go off that
and you know in coordination with us and probably notify me and maybe go check and then we would may probably do some sort of notification to the public through social media things like lake associations things like that and so that was probably our that's where we
feel this ordinance is the best uh path forward to make sure that this is a seamless process and like I said counties that have this ordinance they it's a very smooth process process, things like that. And like you were saying too, Commissioner Berg, so if it we get more water on the south end of
the county, um if Big Candy is at 11.04 and Green Lake, Norway, all of those water levels aren't to that elevation level, it still goes into effect for Big Candy. Not maybe the others. Thank you.
Because they are still listed as the designated lakes in the ordinance. So that's where I brought up earlier if we want to bring in Lake Andrew, Lake Florida, Elcorn, you know, how do we decipher some of that? Do you feel a certain way on any of that and so we could work on getting some of those
numbers as well? Yes, Mr. Chair. Uh, go ahead. Just quickly follow up and you mentioned you'd like to hear from the lake associations and I would like that too. You know, I think of Eagle Lake, but you know, even Foot Lake or Wilmer Lake, too. I know there's not that much skiing, but uh there's some
low properties there and a lot of boating, a lot of fishing and some of that. So, it' be interesting to hear back from the associations how they feel. Sounds good. We can do that. Commissioner Mdeck, thank you. Um,
so it doesn't appear like you could use a percent over ordinary high water mark, does it? which would be nice if you it applied to all the lakes so no you wouldn't have to monitor yeah it all you know it depends on the elevation of the area you know some
lakes you're two feet above and you're you're flooding cabins already you know what I mean other lakes it's it's a little bit different you know each one's different so I unfortunately we'd have to probably keep each one separate wi-i which creates a lot more kind of a
lot more work to the point of uh commissioner Berg and where the rainfall is happening But I'm looking at the Green Lake one and um so there is what the ordinary water mark is 1157 or the wake restriction level would be set at
1157.5 which is I think I heard you say it is the ordinary high water mark. No the ordinary high water mark for Green Lake is 1158.2 1158.2. Okay. And so the highs this year,
so there's kind of a lot of difference between if if you move the line up to 1158, you'd eliminate a lot of restrictions. Sure. Yeah. And that is the most highly recreational lake. Sure. In the county. Yep. Um and you also could have an
opportunity there to mitigate that with distance from shore, which I think is way way too uh close. Sure. Given the size of the watercraft that that are on that lake. Sure. Okay. Yeah, that would be one we could
look into, you know, raising that weight restriction level up closer to the ordinary eyewalk level. Anyone else with any questions for Austin, for Kelsey? Commissioner Dale Anderson. I I think that it's great that you guys are looking into this and and trying to
figure it out, but I do feel it maybe is important to do it for all the lakes. I have had a couple calls on on Lake Florida and and and people are concerned about all the lakes I guess but um the other thing is is you know it's not only the boats that cause these problems. So
I mean if we have a big wind event we're causing problems too. So I think it's to find that happy medium and and yet have respect for for land owners and respect for people trying to use them is a big thing. So thanks for the hard work because I know this isn't going to be
simple. Uh, Commissioner Dwayne Anderson and then Commissioner Indeck. Um, so my question would be uh if if we don't add in other lakes now uh and then we pass the ordinance, if we want to put in lakes later after the ordinance is
passed, do we have to go through this process again or do we Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My understanding is that Okay. So, we're better to add a few right now. Right. we're probably better off to add all of them now so that we don't have to open the ordinance and issue the public
comment, public hearing and all of that. And so that's where I maybe to be honest I probably jumped the gun on like okay but I think Austin and I were getting our schedules in line and so this would be the public hearing and but you know thinking about it no now more when it's
in draft form we are in no rush and so I wanted to communicate and let you guys know that we're we're not in a rush and we'd rather take our time and get through this um listen to the constituents get all of the lakes listed if needed in there and get those water
levels and um assure that we have a solid ordinance for the county board to approve. Yeah. But this is more of our first public look at it anyway. So we Right. Yep. Very preliminary. Yep. Commissioner Mck. Thank you. And whoever in the room can
answer this question. Uh how many named lakes do we have in Kenya County? We got about 320, but they're not all named. Yeah, unfortunately I can't answer that. Um, we can get you that number for sure, but I mean that you could blanket it with an allnamed lakes, right,
kind of a thing. The other qu the other comment is I don't know if we can um I don't think we can do that. The distance from shore uh there's a huge impact on the size of the boat that is a distance from shore. So, uh
150 horse pontoon uh 150 ft from shore is going to have way more impact than a 30 horse, you know, tiller run boat. Uh, so could we create a zone that says of a certain size it has to be this distance versus or is that too complex?
I I think that would, you know, as far as changing sizes for boats and I think that would get too complicated. But there's a big difference. I've sat on the lake and saw some of these craft go through at even 20 miles an hour and it was really um tossing the
sure the the docks. to answer two of your comments. I don't believe we can just put in uh like an encompassing all incorporated named lakes. I think they do have to be listed out within the ordinance from what I recall from the
conversation I had with the DNR. And also, um I don't know if we're able to put in those zones. I think it has to be based off 150, 300, 600 feet, um for all types of boats. I don't know if we can classify that language. I'm looking at the sheriff and he's shaking his head.
No. So, I I I don't think we can. Um, but that is something that we can double check and look into as well. And just a follow-up comment, I agree 100% with Commissioner Berg and I think the administrator and I have talked about it before is that clearly would like the
feedback of lake associations, but understanding that we have to rec we have to balance lake associations desires with with the second biggest economy in the uh in the in our second biggest industry in Canyu County and tourisms and the impact visitors have to
our economy in Canyu County. Absolutely. Commissioner Ber is okay if the county sheriff can come up and he can probably clarify Commissioner Inv's question a little bit. Well, he's on his way up there. Just a quick comment. I was just going to say that we should probably name the lakes.
There's so many lakes. Yes. And we don't want to be monitoring all those. Yep. You're right. Do that. Commissioners, good morning. Eric Tolson, Can County Sheriff. just to clarify some of commissioner's index uh
uh comments. So, yeah, when it comes to you can uh pass ordinances that regulate horsepower on lakes, but then it's just strictly to the horsepower that's allowed to operate. This ordinance is just strictly to creating the wake. So,
it's, you know, whether or not it's a a small fishing boat or a large wake setter, a wake is a wake. And so, when that restriction is on, the wake can't be created. So, I guess if that helps. But yeah, you can limit horsepower size because a lot of our northern lakes like
up in Cook County have like a 25 horsepower limit on the lake, but that has nothing to do with weight. Has to do with horsepower. So, anyway, buy a boat with 25 horsepower anymore. I know, but the uh the DNR is pretty specific as to how this ordinance has to
be drafted. The model that they have in place has has to be adhered to. Um, you can deviate or be specific. You can have different distances from shores for each lake, but the distances that they want you to use
are 150, 300, or 600 ft. So, I mean, in some cases, you may have a lake that's like, take North Long Lake for instance, it's pretty narrow in a lot of spots. I mean, if you do a 600t from shore ordinance, you might not be able to, you know, it it cover the hole from one
shore to the next, right? So you can get specific as to each lake, what distance from shore you want to be. So but anyway, Sheriff Thompson, thank you. Uh any further questions for our presenters?
I appreciate that uh everybody involved wants to eliminate the gray areas of responsibility and uh uh I think this is a great first step towards uh uh putting uh putting a system in place uh for uh
what are probably sadly going to be more and more frequent uh uh rain and high water events uh as we move through the uh uh first half of this century. So, all right. Anybody with anything else?
All right. Then, uh, that item is for information only. And, and I was going to say, Mr. Chair, if you want to take the ORAC grant presentation prior to the budget when they're all here and ready to go, if that's okay, if you would want to move that around if they're ready. Let's uh let's let's do that. That's a
that's a great suggestion. Thank you. At this time, we'll go to the uh nominally scheduled uh 10:05 a.m. the ORIC grant update. And uh we'll have that team present, please uh uh uh introduce
yourself and who you're with. And uh for the record and welcome. Hello. I want to thank you guys for this time. My name is Irvin Miller and my name is Jared O'Neal. We're part of the AIS unit that was
founded under the ORAK grant. The ORC stands for opioid epidemic response advisory council. This was approved in 2023. The goals of this is to enhance staff capacity in two areas to curb and reform justice involvement for Cany Ohio
residents impacted by opioid use. The purpose is to provide a trauma-informed early engagement model for opioid use disorder, mental health and justice involvement. Overall vision is a safer healthier Kenny Ohio through coordinated response
efforts and ARIS I haven't mentioned stands for alternative response intervention specialist. Part of ARIS is we aim to provide a response um geared towards individuals with
opioid use um disorder, mental health and substance use disorder. Our mission is to provide evidence-based multi-d disciplinary response to individuals experiencing mental health and substance abuse crisis with a focus on early
intervention, community integration, and justice system diversion. We aim to reduce recidivism, increase public safety by embedding behavioral health expertise within probation, social services,
and the public safety system. Uh our vision is to enhance rural justice coordination and community response to opioid misuse, mental health issues. Um, we aim to develop a community where individuals living with mental health
and substance use disorders are met with support, where the public systems work together to promote recovery, equity, and safety. Um, and where incarceration is not the only option left for um, members of our county.
Our goals is to reduce recidivism incarceration rates of justice involved individuals with chemical dependency and mental health needs. Delivery culturally responsive department corrections approved evidence-based cognitive interventions
to individuals during incarceration or while under supervision. Provide for early engagement with persons struggling with substance use and mental health needs who are having frequent contacts with law enforcement. social services intake and community corrections
to gain and maintain a well functioning community-based system of responses for substance use and mental health needs. Short-term goals include center around coordinated efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and
mental health related issues across sectors in KUI County including law enforcement, community corrections and the judicial system. also h health and human services. The project is designed to provide
effective support for individuals affected by these challenges. Long-term goals projects to aim to reduce the overall impact of substance use and mental health related issues on the county and improve the community's response practices. Through implementing these
activities and goals, we seek to produce key recommendations for system systems improvements that address substance abuse use and mental health related challenges and promote the well-being of the community in Canyu County.
The REC grant funding laid a crucial foundation by supporting localized research and identifying specific community needs while also drawing on promising models established across Minnesota. This investment created two dedicated AIS positions in the development of a
multidisciplinary disciplinary framework to better serve individuals at risk. Despite these progress, significant service gaps remain, particularly across our rural landscape. Individuals and families impacted by
OUD, opioid use disorder, and behavioral health crisis often continue to face fragmented, delayed, or inadequate care. These challenges are especially acute for those with frequent contact with law enforcement or involvement in the community legal system. Through an
expanding staffing, continued systems alignment, and a deepening commitment to early and coordinated intervention, Canoi County is working to ensure more equitable, responsive, and effective care for its most vulnerable residents. Yeah. Our goal is to reduce, provide,
and promote. Um, as alternative response inter intervention specialist, my colleague and I serve different roles. Uh, be Urban through community corrections and myself through the health and health and human services
department. Um while Urban is focused on implementing evidence-based treatment programs for substance abuse, mental health disorders within community corrections, it's also identifying individuals with chemical dependency, mental health, and criminogenic needs
through screening assessments during their intake process. Um he assesses and develops a care plan to address the criminogenic needs of participants and provide programming across multiple areas with justice
involved individuals. Um he also provides comprehensive discharge planning and ensures uh continuity of care and support after release. also uh is working to establish post postrelease
follow-up programs to monitor progress and provide support in the community for justice involved individuals. Um with my role on the health and human services side, um we're looking to uh collaborate
with law enforcement agency, social services, and community corrections to identify individuals with frequent contacts related to substance use. uh implement a community- based outreach programs, engage and connect
uh with these individuals. Uh develop teams to respond to individual crisis and divert them to appropriate services. Uh conduct needs assessments and gap to identify the gaps and make improvements in our current community-based
system. We also look to develop and implement coordinated and integrated system of care for individuals with substance abuse and mental health. And we are establishing communication and a referral protocols with various
service providers to ensure seamless transitions and a continuity of care. Um as Aerys team members um the proposed next phase of our project centers around the continued staffing and coordination
of the our two positions. Um we view these uh positions as the back co backbone of Kioai Countyy's early engagement model which prioritizes individuals at high risk of incarceration,
crisis escalation or repeated emergency service use. The AIS team proactively identifies individuals in need and through coordinated referrals through law enforcement, probation and social
services. Um we deliver uh personalized case planning, trauma-informed engagement and linkage to critical supports including substance abuse treatment and mental health services, housing, employment and crisis stabilization.
Um this project goal is to interrupt cycles of harm and promote stability through early individualized and coordinated care. So the method for us to obtain this, we have a two-prong approach. We gather information from various sources,
internal sources, external community referrals, and ICRs. ICRs are incident uh reports that we gather on a daily basis. What we do is we search the the logs. We try to identify any any ones that are labeled
mental health or substance use. We then obtain those names. We sort through whether there justice involved or not. If there justice involved, then I'll take over. If it's not justice involved, it'll go to Jared. How do we determine that justice involved simply that people
who have been incarcerated on supervision or had prior contacts? Why we do this is kind of a safety issue. And I have some familiarity with the criminal justice system. Um the non-law enforcement or just informed is uh
pretty much just that. It's people that never been in contact with law enforcement or been um on calls. I say we'll we'll reach out to community members whether they're in crisis or they're suffering with addiction. Um
under under my prong, it's a voluntary basis. So I work to develop relationships, establish rapport, and build on that trust with individuals to help them engage in in in services. Um
yeah now the foundation early impact of this grant um obviously we established two AIS roles we developed a multid-disciplinary response framework program we did this by researching other
um similar plans throughout the state outcomes to date data suggest that we have over 350 individuals served a 40% reduction in repeated 911 phone calls for program participants and 25% increase in treatment engagement.
Our active operations include staffing for early engagement, key referral sources like law enforcement, probation, social services, mobile crisis and emergency services. Our core functions is early engagement and outreach, weekly
multi-system coordination from crisis teams, health and human services, community corrections, law enforcement. We've established a jail cognitive behavior uh therapy group in within the jail. It's weekly on Wednesdays. is
voluntary and we go over criminogenic behaviors and we try to um walk through them and have them have self-awareness. We also have treatment court consultation through ARS and over the past year we've
been uh working diligently to strengthen uh our relationships with community uh partners and agencies. Um we've uh established working relationships um within within the confines of AIS
with um you United uh community action part partnerships the mobile crisis team through woodland centers. Um in addition to that we um part participate weekly in multi-disciplinary
inter agency meetings. Uh twice a week we will screen with our our crisis provider to ensure that we are being being diligent and we're looking for uh individuals that are not currently
engaged in services and our goal is not to uh duplicate those services if those individuals are already um receiving services. Um on a monthly basis we um draw community
partners to the table and for our mental health partners meeting where we have experts in their fields come from centric care um woodland centers um different agencies throughout the county.
Um and one of our latest endeavors um through Urban's department um we they've established a coffee connection that aims to provide support to individuals
in recovery and uh Urban will facilitate um this connection and and bring community members to the table um to help help build that that that wraparound approach for individuals
struggling with uh substance use. Um we are entering the phases of uh measuring our success. Um uh where we're entering into evaluation process with uh Dr. Patricia Griffin,
who has extensive experience in co-responder models, cross-system evaluation among law enforcement, human services, public health, and probation and correctional agencies. And uh Dr. Griffin and her colleague are
collecting the data um that we've gathered since starting in this role and um um putting that data together to see um the evidence-based practices, the best practices and the um and the impact
we're having on the greater um communities of KUI County. Um, one thing that we um brought brought to share is this was secured through our grant uh our grant funding um and it's a
survival backpack with um food narcan blankets um crank radio and in collaboration with our mobile crisis um our UKAP
uh street outreach and Lutheran social services. We aim to get these uh banks to our transient population. Um Urban and I have had a lot of unique experience in in um encountering
individuals um in many different circumstances. Um whether they're dealing with a mental health crisis, um they're impoverished and homeless. Um we're identifying those needs of that gap population within our county and um
we're excited to get those individuals that are struggling with some additional resources and partnering with other agencies in the in the county. Uh is there any questions? Um just a couple of uh questions that
I'm going to lead off with and then I'm sure there will be others. Um, so where does this program primarily uh reside? Is it primarily a uh correction/law enforcementbased uh program? Uh are you
seeing uh a prepoundonderance of the number of clients uh from that side of that two-pronged approach? from the few months that we've had to look back on. Um I mean we work as 50/50
as far as the numbers um I don't have him with me but I know personally my engagement I've had over about 110. So it sounds like he may have more contact with individuals but um as far
as the justice involved uh maybe they have a little bit more. And I think we're we're dealing with two different po populations and and one is an identified population within our already within our legal system and the other is the community
members that may not may be struggling with as we mentioned substance use or mental health disorders but aren't familiar with our area services or aren't at that point where they're reaching out for that help. Um so my
engagement has like always been um since since January over a hundred 100 individuals as well. Um so I think it works nicely for both departments is with um it's not sitting in one
particular department right now. We have our two-pronged approach and sometimes it will bounce from one to the other. It'll start off as nonjustice and we'll try to intervene and try to um curb that, get them back to a baseline,
but sometimes they'll get arrested and then they become in my realm. So, it's that coordination because even when they get released, um once they get out of jail, we've seen kind of a pattern where the services aren't there. So, we need to kind of help them along. Either they
don't have it or they don't know where to go. So that's where I go to him for the expertise with human services. Yeah. And the reason I'm asking the question is that I I I I want to make sure that we aren't losing uh sight of the uh needs out in the non-justice
involved uh areas of the uh of the community. Uh that's potentially even a larger uh uh population than what you have with the uh with the justice involved. So, uh I I love the B backpack
idea. Uh absolutely, uh uh tremendous because there are so many folks right now that are falling through the cracks today due to uh SUD or mental illness and uh uh I really appreciate uh that uh early work. Uh and my understanding is
that your positions are funded by the ORAC grant and so there's no direct uh levy impact. Correct. Yes. Outstanding. Uh start with Commissioner Burke. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, sound like a great program and you and you are
making progress with it sounds makes making a difference and it's one more way to fill some gaps we have in all these mental health services and uh chemical dependency services needed out there. And I just want to add it. Some of the clients I'm sure are even dual
diagnosis that you're dealing with. Um, and the coordination am I just trying to get a better picture of it. Generally speaking, when on the human service side, uh, the human services probably wouldn't have a case open. These people
could be familiar or not. Depends. And you could maybe in some situations end up uh, hooking in there with their case management services as well, right? And my other question is is uh it sound like that's where you get your different
referrals from. You've gone into that, but how do you uh where do you say uh uh graduate somebody or or discharge them from your services? are from my end, you're you're
absolutely right, Commissioner Berg, as far as the um I'm looking at a population that isn't engaged or may not meet the criteria of specific services that are already in place for individuals, whether that be um within
um Health and Humans as adult mental health or they may not be well at a point ready to engage in um in substance use treatment um where I don't have have to meet a
criteria. I can engage them on a voluntary level, build that relationship. And as far as um the the timelines, we're um we're in the process of we're
um establishing more definitive time frames. What we are seeing is that uh our goal is stabilization within that moment of that individual's um uh crisis
period. um as as humans there is no definitive that may be um a month for somebody that may be four or five months for somebody else. Um there's individuals within our county where we're I've been engaged with for for a a
number of months close to a year. Um but I will be that continual support walk by their side. Um, I may I may step out for a period of time, but they have that additional support and that resource to come back to and then we pick up where
we left off and we address the the new crisis that they're dealing with. They just follow the I I kind of expected that and you mentioned coffee group or something uh and I think people need some of the support like that
ongoing. So, some people will be around for a long time. But I I like the idea of group work. I think that's really a great thing and it's kind of hard to accomplish nowadays with HIPPA and all that, but those type of connections are really good and support for the people
out there. Good job. Thanks. Uh, Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. So my question would be, if somebody's out there that needs help or thinks they need help, who do they contact? Do they go to their doctor or do they who do
they call? So, we're we're in the process of develop um developing different lines where we can get our information and who we are out to. Um we've had um our local law enforcement,
sheriff's department, and police department um when this grant first started has our community outreach door hangers through Aerys um to provide them with urban and noise contact information. We frequently bring this
these with when we're out. Um and um getting we're as far as the communication on the and the we're working on that marketing of expanding who we are um to the appropriate people
to refer that the rest of the community can get that information. Okay. And so they can call somebody without I I I think some people would be afraid to call maybe because they don't want to get the
justice involved part you know I mean they you know they probably realize they need help but they don't want to you know maybe end up you know in the justice side of it. Um so and is there is there a concern for them that you know if they call that that it
won't end up on that end or I mean I I think when we we work collaboratively in situations there you know it's um for any not the smallest individual and you
know any any presence of a stranger can be um intimidating and it's really about that that that approach um and building that rapport with um and establishing
trust and we um we're very open to lead that this the services are voluntary at any time you can just say I'm done with this um and um there there is that
concern but we uh we work to navigate around that just to establish who we are. We're outside of these other systems. Yeah, we've had discussions with couples that come up and ask, you know, what's going on? So, we try to explain that it's community outreach. Um, no
different than the cops program and law enforcement. Um, no different than, you know, police officer going to a scene. Um, policy requires me to wear a vest. But, um, again, we try to reiterate that we're just there for community outreach,
but I could see your concern. Commissioner Mdeck and then Administrator Baker. Thank you. Um and you started this was it around the first of the year. So I was hired late January. Um we got really I think really going in March.
Okay. So from that short amount of time, um it it started slowly, but now we're getting to a point where I think the other week we had 16 in one week that we have to research and dig deeper and find out is there substance abuse, is there mental health um to establish that. So
yeah, things are picking up. And the other question was um included substance abuse, but I didn't hear you say alcohol. I think you would have way too many clients if you included. Is it is alcohol not included in this? It's included. Yeah, it's any substance
abuse disorder. Um we try to help everyone that's in need. So our emphasis is on opioid. Yeah. Um and um as that opioid use now
harder things in and we're we've looked at u in collaboration with um having a opioid spike response through um that we were working on with within our department of public health to help
identify that population as well. Administrator Baker, maybe some comments that you can explain further into your experience. You talked a little bit about that we're not duplicating services and that is not our intent. Um, and so you are handinhand
with woodland centers and uh mobile crisis. And so I I I just really want to make sure that the board and the public and our other partner agencies understand we're not here to take over your services. we're here to provide another umbrella or another angle from
already what is provided and another approach to it kind of what you talked about. So, if you want to explain a little bit of that and then the other point I thought that would be just good for the board to hear and the public is, you know, what's an impact story or walk me through the relationship that you have with law enforcement or, you know,
can you talk about a situation that you both have worked together to provide uh better services for this individual and how you worked with law enforcement and um kind of give that whole picture. Um
we I am a firm believer in in our mission to not duplicate services from the standpoint of um not only can it exhaust uh system resources but it al also confusing for the individuals that we're engaged with. if they have
multiple different people showing up and engaging with them, um that leads to um sometimes a stigma and a lack of trust that I'm having an issue here. All these people are around me now. So, we we try
to vet and work with um as I mentioned, our mobile crisis unit. If law enforcement is dispatching them to a crisis or they're engaged with individuals, we're not going to duplicate that service and and follow
follow up with them. Um we're going to make sure um they haven't and then we collaborate. Maybe we'll we'll take our approach to this. um sometimes they've had previous experience, but it's it's
starting to develop into a really good working relationship. Um we're um can't thank law enforcement enough for that that relationship and and looking at alternative ways to um respond when law
enforcement as first responders are running into the substance use and the mental health and um allowing the the opportunity to engage with those individuals and and try different approaches. Um
as far as an example, um we had a male subject uh through ICRs. Uh we identified at first started through human services. Um we made contact several times to try to um talk him to getting services, but it was strictly
voluntary at that time. So, um I think about on a weekly basis, we just check on uh we got him food uh once I believe. And um our goal again was to let him know that look, you know, there's somebody here that cares about you. You can reach
out to us if you need it. And the goal was hopefully for him stop calling 911 because he kept thinking someone was entering into his home. He's a dual diagnosis. So instead of contacting 911, he started to contact Jared. So, that's kind of goal number one, right? Reducing
that that load to law enforcement. Unfortunately, he did get arrested. Um, but I I made contact with him and maintain contact under um that pre-trial supervision. And he just recently last week called and and visited me here and
thanked me for everything like that. So, it's kind of the it's the rapport that we're building and that trust because in this community, the trust is everything. they have a lot of shame due to their substance abuse and a lot of family members have turned away from them. So, it's it's it's going to be a gradual
kind of um I guess play out if that answers your question. Just going back to my comment before, if I may, Mr. Chair. Yes. Is that you're filling a gap of need of services. We're trying. Yeah. And and naturally in certain
situations, it's really good if there's a slight overlap, you know, in this whole process. And there that's going to happen. That's how it works. So, no, it sounds like a good program. Commissioner MD. Yeah. And I'd just like to thank you too for the work, but uh also a little clarification for those wondering what
these Oric dollars are. They're basically a parallel um resource to the opiate settlement and kind of targeted to those counties that um for whatever reason fell a little short in the opiate settlement uh equity. And so uh it's but
it came as a result of the opiate settlement. That is correct. All right. Any any last questions, gentlemen? Thank you so much and uh look forward to having you back in the future and uh uh hearing more about uh about
the success of this program. Thank you for your time. We'll take a fivem minute recess. The board of commissioners is back from recess and at this time we will uh have a 2026 budget update uh from administrator Baker. Kelsey, go ahead.
Yep. Kelsey Baker again, Candy County Administrator. Uh, as the chair stated, uh, we will just be reviewing the 2026 budget. Um, since our previous meeting for the budget work session, uh, Karen Anderson, our chief financial officer, and myself reviewed the budget again,
reviewed the departments, um, and where they're coming in at and made some slight adjustments. As you can see, the two budget changes is that we did increase the uh, the software licensing and the technology. um after the work session and some of
the feedback and then we are utilizing the jail revenue reserves uh a little bit more to help offset. And so by doing that, we came up with a 7 uh 1% um levy. We're not utilizing more of our
landfill reserves, which we typically do in the past, but we're we did just use the reserves to purchase part of that property. And so we wanted to ensure that we're not over spending in that area. The number one thing I think we need to um I would like the board to
keep in mind when coming in at the 7.1% and not overutilizing our reserves is that we do receive interest income off the amount of reserves that we do have. With our 2023 audited numbers, we had eight and a half months of coverage. Um
we used reserves in 2024 and so we're waiting um our audit is work getting finalized and you'll be hearing the final audit numbers this fall. Um but we don't have those months unodudited months of coverage numbers yet for 2024. So even though we have healthy reserves
we want to kind of find that balance and our our philosophy on how we want to work the reserves in. The other thing I think we need to keep in mind is the future building projects. If we um the board has been exposed to looking at some of those projects, what does that look like? We did a space
analysis. We've created a building committee and and what do those projects look like moving forward? And that also plays into our bond ratings. We have very healthy reserves now. And that helps with our bond ratings that we get. Um utilizing our reserves. Like I said,
we don't want to use all of them. And then we do get to a point where we're sitting with three and a half months of coverage. That happens really quickly. That happen that can happen overnight. And so by utilizing a small amount each year to help offset the overall budget
is the healthy way to do things. We just don't want to go from zero to 100. So with the reserves that we have, we still want to be aware of how much we're using each year. And then preparing for unforeseen changes. We can't prevent or predict
what the federal or state government is going to do, but if we can keep the cadence um moving at a at a comfortable pace for us with the reserves being used um helps the finance and myself team uh feel a little bit more easier about when
our audits come along and if we do have a big gap or a jump in funding that we have those reserves to make us through. prime example is the landfill property. We have healthy landfill reserves that gave us that that tool to purchase that
property for the landfill um and to be able to keep moving that cadence and our services forward. Um also included so a couple things today was the quasi government numbers. Those are the numbers that are inputed
in the budget. Um, and like I said, those are the boards that you sit on. And so these are the numbers that are going to, unless I hear back, I haven't heard from anyone since the budget work session. And so if those quasi government requests are
appropriate and you feel comfortable, those will go into the 2026 budget as well. Uh, the cash balance and investments is in there as of June 30th, 2025. And then the net comparisons for each department. And mainly the biggest driver for the net comparisons are is
the payroll um that make those changes cola um uh step increases, things like that. And so I really wanted to see and gauge the board on where they're coming in at um or where you're coming in at regarding
the 7.1% preliminary levy and the uh previous 8% that was uh addressed at the budget work session in August. Like I said, our next step is that we will have our if we need to do if I need to do an update on the 16th, I will do so. We
will be missing two commissioners. But then we uh the board approved the special board meeting for Tuesday, September 23rd at 9:00 a.m. Um and that will be specifically a special meeting to discuss and approve the 2026 preliminary levy. So any other questions
on the 7.1? What are your thoughts coming in it? Do you feel comfort? I feel comfortable at the 7.1. Um, however, if the board felt more strongly towards the 8 for preliminary, um, we can adjust those numbers as well. Um,
but I do feel that a 7.1 coming in for a preliminary is doable. Um Kelsey uh kind of to that point because I think we have a reasonable handle on what uh range that 2026 is
going to come into. The real issue here is the outy years 27 28 2930. uh there's no way that we can measure fully uh any of the state or federal uh potential impacts that are uh uh some
still on the table and some probably haven't even been thought of yet. And so I was personally uh fine with coming in for now at the 8% uh and then we make that determination
in December when we finalize the uh uh finalize the levy. Uh I have every confidence that we're going to come in at that 71 or potentially even lower. But, uh, I would like us to give
ourselves that little bit of wiggle room, uh, between now and, uh, finalizing the levy in December. Uh, and that's just my two cents worth. Anyone else? Commissioner Berg. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, first off, thank you. I know you've been working on this a lot and and we put you
in a tough spot. You're trying to make things work with the with the management team. you know, trying to make things work with the board and and and the taxpayer and it's it's a real struggle. I know we talked last time and I I appreciate what you looked at so far.
You know, I'm you know, I I was supporting do what you can get to get it down to 5%. Because we don't know what's coming forward and what concerns me is, you know, when you have a cushion, that sounds good, but we're creating a cushion with a levy and that cushion is there for the rest of the time. I never
remember that we ever lowered the levy. So yes, we need a cushion now and that's what's happening and we have to be really careful going forward and there's a little bit more to get into on this whole thing too even next year, you
know, as we talk about um uh as we talk about negotiations with the with the unions and the staff and cost living increases and so forth. Uh that that's I think that's going to be really tough. you know, we are just coming and that's and that's we when you talk about
cushion, you know, we just gave a three point or gave a 3% raise for three years to to staff and that's good. I'm glad we we can help them out, but that goes on forever and it's been two years since we started and we're at the 9% additional
of levy that we put on there. So, we have to really look at our our salaries and how we fit in uh and we go forward. So, it just really kind of lays some groundwork that it's going to be, I think, tougher negotiations uh coming up on that and then I think staff will
understand all the things we're having to deal with as well. Uh other than that, uh you know, I I think I'll still try to meet with you and we still got a a major meeting and so we can make those adjustments if we have to make some more. So, appreciate what you're doing.
I hope you can put another set of eyes on this and uh and I know you will between now and then if we can get it down further. That's my personal opinion, but I just think we just can't keep this levy high. I I've been hearing from people paying the taxes that that's
that's you're doing good work though. Keep going. If I may, Mr. Chair, I totally understand where you're coming from. However though, that's a two-fold concern because then if we do continue if something does happen and we can't
predict the future and we have to prepare for what is right now. Um, and looking into the mandated versus non-mandated services isn't just, oh, I'm going to go online and get a list. That is an extensive list. I know DHS is working on that right now. Um, Caroline
and her team are working on that right now. There's a it's not just a quick list you can pull together. Um and we you know it's it's say yeah you want to keep our roads but like just the presentation we had today we need to fill al there's also a need for filling
those gap services but if we cushion too much and something does happen in 27 and 28 and 29 like we saw in the 2006 7 8 9 era then and we and and we have been depleting those
reserves that doesn't do us any good either and so it's a little bit of a twofold and So, I'm I am trying to find that balancing and I am um trying to work to the best of my ability with departments. Um there are some FTEEs
that were removed. There are some that are uh maybe in question right now if we are going to follow through with that plan. um specifically in health and human services and you know we looked at environmental services FTE we looked at
community corrections and so um it is a balancing act and it's it's finding that balance moving forward to be able to continue our services we might have to work differently and that's what I always say to everybody that's county government all department heads we're working we have to be during this time
and I think that is something important that we want to I as the administrator want to try fulfill bill is that we all have to be working in times like this because we all have to look at our jobs differently and we at the end of the day we have to continue those services and that is our main job um as public
servants and so I think to answer your question sorry in a roundabout way I am looking at that I am taking in your concern um wholeheartedly it's just navigating that with um Karen Anderson and how we how we navigate that moving
forward Yeah. And just to clarify, when you're talking about cutting FTEEs, these are not uh uh employees that have been cut from the roster, these are uh uh FTEEs that have been previously authorized for those
departments, but are currently unfilled positions and those are simply not being budgeted for uh this time around. Correct. Correct. Commissioner Dale Anderson. Well, Kelsey, thanks for the hard work you guys have done on this. I mean, it's a lot of work and I probably didn't
understand it for the first couple of years. So, it's the more you get into it, the more you kind of understand it. But I guess if you want our personal opinion, I I I would agree with Steve to a certain degree that we should just, you know, maybe stay with that 8% for right now. We can always put it down to
wherever we want to at December, but I really have concerns with the legislature, what they're going to do and what our federal parts are going to come back at. So, I just don't want to get caught with us getting into November and then we finding out there's some big cuts coming in. We can't we can't handle
that because we've already set the the the cap on it. So, that's really why I go I'm hoping that we can get it down in December and make it lower. But if if we get ourselves caught where we get some big thing coming from the legislature,
then we're going to be in trouble. But I I guess my other two cents on this is I I'm really concerned and really would like to not go too low on this because I think we do have some really big needs in buildings and and we really need to
look at that. And I'm guess I'm hoping we can do the same thing we did with that landfill land. Maybe use them reserves up for that kind of a project if we do get to that point whenever that is. Um, but if we get too low on them now, then we have nothing to have that
for them kind of big purchases that we might have coming in the future. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. Um, yeah, thanks. So, my my question is about the reserves. Um, we're at eight and a half months now, and you've probably answered this before. I just can't remember. How how has that changed
over say like the last four or five years? Is it gone from six months to eight and a half? Are we growing it every year or is it declining? Nope. I don't have that chart in front of me. It is in our audit book on how our months of coverage have increased.
But over the last four to five years, um would be probably since 2019, our months of coverage have increased due to getting some federal dollars to help offset some of our normal budget costs, levy costs. And so our reserves have
increased um slightly, but I can't tell you what they were probably 5 years ago. Um, and I would say we were at that 8 and a half months for the 2023 audit of numbers. We're probably a little bit lower in that u for 2024, but I would say we're not lower than seven and a
half months. Okay, Commissioner Mck. Thank you. Yeah, I think we have a a really good start. Uh, the administrator and I had a nice visit be brief but nice visit before the uh meeting about
um that it is a good start to to see that we went from eight down to 7.6. that I I would like to see us uh go another close to 1% uh more in terms of lowering it. Uh as far as the unknowns
are concerned, I only see one thing that is going to kick in before the end of 2026. Remember, this is a 2026 budget, not a 2027 budget. Um and that would be like in December of 2026. So, as far as the unknowns, I say we cross that bridge
when we get to it because uh and we we'll make the adjustments then. I was visiting with a farmer client last week who or on the weekend who said the uh first of all, soybean guys, corn guys are not making any money. Cattle guys
are doing great. The sugar beat guys found out that they're going to get a huge cut in the amount of their payment. and some of them are getting crappy crops this year. Just to be blunt. Um I think this is a a good year to and those of us in business, we don't know how the
tariffs are going to be affecting us and and paid family leave and which is in 2026 and earn sick and save time. So I think this is a time to be cautious rather than a little aggressive in terms of um our our budget incre.
Uh the big re the big unknown for me is what that reserve balance is. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson says we tend to be trending upwards. Even if all we do is tread water for the next couple of years, that would be a savings in our levy. And so I think at 8 and 1/2
months, if we maintain it 8 and a half months, um we're going to be better off than most counties in the state of Minnesota. are um and I so I have some concerns uh not only in in what we're going to add but also some of the areas
in which we're cutting uh but again I want to wait until I get some answers that um will help me out help me make a decision. Commissioner Ber thank you Mr. chair. Um, just to go back to visit the eight and a half or seven uh seven and a half
years of of reserve that's really good and and that's where our cushion should be and that is our cushion. I don't think we should levy for a cushion. Uh we got a reserves for that and also I'm not saying we should be using up our reserves to keep the levy down. I think we have to look at, you know, what other
revenue besides this can we uh look at and or what what spending can we cut back or how can we stagger uh new hires? How can we, you know, positions? How do we deal with those? How uh is there some uh uh say in the in the courthouse, do
we need to remodel a bathroom this year? And if that's on the levy, that type of thing. And just dig even in deeper. There's so many other options. I think we can keep tweaking it a little bit more. And I uh I don't want us to use up reserves per se, but that's what they're
there for, too. And uh and if it's it should be on the levy, it should be on the levy. So, we have an you know, a salary increase has got to be on the levy, the type of thing. And I uh to answer your question too, Commissioner Berg, we we do that creatively all the time. No, you do
with and that's kind of you know that unwritten tool that we use and that's true. I'm saying and that might be sometimes that oh maybe if we're having some of these budget discussions Andy and I will say or building discussions uh Andy Thorson our facilities director and I will say
well let's we can hold on that. Um there might be a position though that does need to be refilled immediately and we need to get moving on it because of the vacancy levels. I think the PFML that is a big discussion. And I just sent Katie an email this morning that I I would like her to prepare a
presentation to come to the board and explain that because um you know when you have staff that could be out 20 weeks and say you have two in CP as social workers that hits differently um or if you have two within any department
that will hit differently and so some of those concerns coming up are able um we will be able to mitigate um but I think the reserve question is that big discussion and I think um hearing all of your feedback. I appreciate that and I I
will always take another look at it and kind of go through some of the options of what we have um and see how we can tweak it a little bit more before the 23rd. And absolutely, if you do have any more questions or would like some more followup, please email um call, stop in
and we can discuss some of that and I'll have everything ready to um have the preliminary levy approved at the 23rd meeting. Yeah. And I uh uh I I I just want to reiterate uh uh between now and that meeting uh make sure that you get in
there and get your questions asked and answered ahead of time so that we uh uh uh can have uh as productive a discussion uh as possible uh when we have to actually decide on that preliminary number. So, uh, I know it's
a great help to you to hear, uh, everybody here today. And, uh, if you have other, uh, concerns, make sure that you get time with Kelsey between, uh, now and 3 weeks from now. Mr. Commissioner MDC, it it's helpful for me to hear your
guys' questions, too. So, that's the downside to going in one-on-one and having these conversations is we don't your question or comment may trigger a question or comment for me. So, I prefer the work session. Yeah. No, and uh and and completely
understandable and I uh uh uh your point your point is well met. Uh I'm just saying if you have very specific things uh that's probably a more granular conversation to be had with the administrator and her team and the thank you.
And just to remind the board, the 23rd is classified as a special meeting. So we can have a discussion and then but there does need to be then that you know the action item and also that there cannot be anything else discussed other than the 2026 budget on that agenda. Um,
and so that will be the only item that we'll have. And so I can like what you just said, I can kind of tee that up that we can have more of a robust discussion. Um, and then have the action item towards at the end. And this is was a really good discussion today. Uh, and we could keep going, I
think, if if we wanted to. But, um, thank you for this discussion and and it's good to hear what other commissioners are thinking and that we can have a discussion back and forth about that as well. and it helps you going forward, too. So, thank you. And and uh uh as you get it down near 5%,
that'll be really wonderful. I got the last word in. Maybe I'm I'm going to say that you just did. So, let's uh unless somebody has something else is really burning on this topic, let's move to the uh uh next item. Uh this was added, the
victim services uh grant resolution 2025- uh 30. Uh, County Attorney Shane Baker is presenting. Shane. Oh, nice segue coming off a budget discussion as I'm up here to ask you to accept a grant of $7,000.
Um, that's been incorporated into the my office and the county's budget for this coming year. Um, this is through a federal grant, so it's based on a fiscal October 1st through September 30th timeline. It's resolution 2025-30. I'm
asking approval of it has two parts. One is to accept the grant. Second part is to authorize me to enter and sign the agreements and any amendments to the grant. And Shane, this is a annual uh grant that we've had for a number of years now. Yes.
Yes. Starting since October 1st of 2017. And it's been this about the same amount every year, too. 70,000 per year. All right. Is there a motion to move the resolution? So moved. And is there a second?
I'll second it. Discussion, questions. Pretty straightforward. Uh on uh resolution 2025-30. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Shane. Thank
you. And we have the one item that we pulled from the u uh consent agenda. This is the approval of the liquor license application. And Commissioner Berg, you had a specific question on this. Yes. And I do have the answer for that. Oh, you do have an answer. So, it's not the place of business. It's
the place that it was signed. So, it was signed in Wilmer, the liquor license. And so, that's why it would be I'm sorry, Roger. No, it's Roger's question. And it went to have an impact on Right. And I would move on the application for the oatmeal orchard and tasting room
liquor license. I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Thank you. There's a motion and a second to approve the liquor license application. Discussion hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. And we
are now down to administrative updates, appointments, calendar, and committee reports. I think unless somebody has something uh absolutely burning uh in terms of committee reports, we'll dispense with that today. Uh Administrator Baker, we just have
several meetings coming up. Yes. Mhm. So, the uh Association Minnesota Counties fall policy conference and we're all scheduled to be there September 10 through 12 at Arowwood. Uh and again, as uh the administrator
noted, our special board of commissioners meeting on Tuesday the 23rd. Since uh Commissioner MDC and I will be out of town the previous week, you'll still have that meeting to uh keep the lights on. and uh health and human services work session coming up in
uh first after the first meeting in October. So uh does anyone have anything that they wish to uh bring up? Commissioner, just quick question is popped in my mind. We we all got an email about the 20 uh highway 23 coalition uh meeting
coming up. Do you have that on their calendar? Anybody have that? And who is it who's going to it if anybody commissioner? Well, our place of business is a minor sponsor, so I'll be going on behalf of the business, but um it was a little confusing because again,
I didn't see on the budget, at least the latest rendition, that we budgeted for it, but for some reason, Highway 23 hasn't um invoiced us. So, technically, I don't know if we're members, but we did get the invitation, and I think three three people from the county are
entitled to go. Um and it was a little confusing, too. It seemed like we had to pay even if we were members, but I don't think you need to pay uh the $25, right? Members, uh like Commissioner Inbbeck said, I haven't received the invoice for Highway 23. It was It's a 3,000 um
appropriation, but I I don't doubt I was talking with uh Mel Odin about this. I don't doubt that the board would still pay that. And so, um, I've left it blank, but I the intent is that the board would approve the payment or I would put it into the budget when it's
only 3,000. Um, and then like the invite, um, I believe Mel Odin is going. I did not plan on going, but I think it would be nice to have some board members available, um, to also be in attendance. I'm not on that committee. I have been
to that before, so I'd just be interested if there was space. So, well, and I'm going to use my slot from the store rather than the county slot. So, that would leave two people in addition to mail. And remind me what day is this? October 3rd.
Sounds right. I think it's Friday, October 3rd. Okay. Yes. At Roscoll, so it's not very far away. And is that morning or afternoon? Uh, lunch hour, I believe, like 11 to 1:30. 11:30 to 1:30 or something like
that. I will be in Marshall that morning uh for finance meeting for supporting hands. I could Yeah, I maybe could go. Yeah. Okay. Yep. You guys uh you guys take a
peek at that and uh be then. Go ahead. It' be S3 then if you're Well, he's he's going for the business. So, okay. You two and Mel would be three. Yep. Got it. Okay. Got it. Yep. Gotcha. All right. Did anybody have anything burning that
they wanted to report on today? I know everybody's been incredibly busy, but I I I need to tell you uh having uh Friday through Monday to just shut off all my electronics and spend some
time at home and out on the golf course was was finally refreshing. This has been a busy busy summer for uh for the work that we do. So I'd echo that and and actually I had a couple other days before that that was pretty free on my calendar. So I had a
nice stretch and feel free. All right. Does anybody have anything uh else for the good of the order? Otherwise then we will adjourn the meeting of the Kandy County Board of Commissioners. Everybody have a great week.
Okay. All right.