Uh good afternoon. Uh welcome to the North County Commissioners uh Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 uh meeting in Denim. Uh our chairman uh Joe Sha is uh out of town on county business and um I'll be um the acting chairman for today. Uh
pursuant to the executive order on remote participation on March 28, 2025, Governor Healey signed into law, House Bill 62, an act relative to extending certain CO 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency, which includes a 2-year extension of the option for public bodies to hold remote meetings by
suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. Master Law Chapter 38, sections 18 through 25. That action was effective immediately, extending the current option for remote meetings through June 30th, 2027. Uh votes may be taken on any of the
content listed in our packet. Uh so uh call to order. Uh roll call. Commissioner Sty, are you present? >> I am present, sir. >> I am also present. So we have a quorum. And uh at this time, we'll um rise to say the pledge of allegiance. Yep.
I pledge to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all. >> Okay. Um item that was u we already did items one and two. Item three, executive
session. I don't believe there is an executive session today. >> Likely next week. >> Okay. Um, next item is four minutes of the open session meeting for January 28th, 2026. Do I hear a motion? >> I move approval. >> All right. I presented. >> Yep. I second that motion. All in favor
say I. >> I. >> I. U. Oppose. Unanimous. Okay. Next. >> Sam, you're up. Okay. >> So quickly. I think it >> commissioners. What a pleasure as always. I apologize for my masked state.
>> Just to keep you healthy. So, for those who don't know Sam, uh Sam Evans is our uh North County Chief Information Office. He runs the IT department. >> Yes, I do. So, I I think you've got a copy of the presentation in your packet.
Um nobody make you a copy. >> No, no, Mr. >> Yes. Thank you, sir. >> So, um what I'm presenting to you today is an update on the major projects that the IT department is working on. It is a um the first page here is a modification
of the project update sheet that I usually present to director Cronin when we meet. It's something I usually give to him quarterly, sometimes give to him monthly. So, we're going to go into details on all of these. So, I just wanted to show this to you really so you can see what he sees on a regular basis
to keep him in the loop on everything that we're showing. So, you can see the three statuses completed, planning, on track. If something is off track, meaning that we need attention, that's also called out. So, instead again, instead of going through all these, we're just going to flip to the next
one. So, our major projects begin with the work that we've been doing over at the golf course, the Walston Recreational Facility. These are highlights, so please jump in at any point if you have any questions about what's going on. Um, each of these will start with a target date at the top.
These are calendar year, not our fiscal year. So, when it says first quarter 2026, that would be we want to get this done by the end of March of 2026. Their status is green, which means that everything is on track. Um, we are
moving Carl and Amy over to the county email system. Prior to now, they've been using email that they get via Comcast that's tied to their email. Um, uh, that's ti uh, presidentsgc.com.
See, the fabulous Mr. Buckley has put the slides up on the screen so everybody can see them. We're on the next one, Bill. All right, there we go. Um, and we're also moving their website off of presidentsgc.com to presidentsgc.org.
And this happened because the old website uh was set up and handled by Arty's Unknown. Uh, we don't know if was set up by Dana, although Dana says it wasn't. We talked to Carl. Said, "Carl, you've been here for 200 years. Do you
know who set it up?" He said, "I don't know. Maybe it was these guys. Maybe it was those guys." We tried to get in touch with those folks um for purposes of security which makes total sense. The people who do handle all of these things called the domain which is presidentsgc.com.
They will not let you switch control unless you can prove who you are and uh and that you know the people who are on the record of that domain. We could not do this and Dana wasn't able to help us with this for whatever reasons. So, we're switching off of presidentsgc.com
and at the request of Sue and Amy and um Carl are moving into presidentsgc.org, which makes sense since we're northforcount.org. We're in the process of doing that. But now, but the upshot is also that Carl and Amy uh Sue already had
norforcount.org email is that everybody will be on county email. We'll be able to protect them better and it removes Comcast, which is a good company, but it's not us. It allows us to control everything. So, it's a nice secure solution. And um what we're doing is we're going to have we don't know when
presidentsgc.com is going to go away, but for as long as we can, we'll point presidentsgc.com. We'll have something that says, "Hey, our new website is presidentsgc.org. Go check it out." So, that'll be happening very soon, hopefully. if not this week, then next week. But it's an ongoing thing that we've been working on
all over the place to get them more secure, to add more security over there and allow us to take over more technical stuff. Mark has been doing a lot of work over there. He's the point person as he's been for many, many years to help them with their technology. You look as though you have a question,
Commissioner. >> No, the current system we have is theorg, >> right? like our emails are emailing Commissioner Stadia or Collins wouldbe.org. So that's just going to be consistent what we're doing anyways, right? Yeah. >> Something different, >> right? Well, they just had their their
email was all tied into their website which was presidentsgc.com. >> Okay. >> So now we're moving them to what Sue has cuz Sue when Sue started we put her on norcount.org. >> Now Amy and Carl will also have norcount.org. Okay. >> So it's consistency and more secure.
>> All right. Good. Thank you. >> Of course. Uh, go to the next slide. Okay, here's some pictures for you. As you know, we moved the disaster recovery room from the first floor here over to a
room at the Aggie. We will be having a meeting in a couple of weeks, Wednesday, February 18th, which is during the Aggie school vacation. So, there won't be any interference with the students. The rooms are ready to go. uh the registry room which is the one to the left there.
Uh we did a connectivity test uh a couple months ago. There is one small test that remains to be done which is a transaction test. We just need to coordinate that with registry senior management. And the room to your right, which doesn't look like that anymore,
but pretty close, is where you'll be having your meeting. There's a few minor follow-up items to be there, but that is ready to go for the meeting. We just have to um set up something underneath that little TV there for the laptop and do a couple more tests, but things are ready to go there.
>> Mr. Chairman, a quick question. Sure. I missed something. What did you say you have to do with the registry again? >> There's there's a So, what happens for the registry? >> Y >> in the case of a disaster recovery is that they connect to backup data that's that's housed at the Brown Techch location. Okay. On their ser on their
servers. >> On their server. So we have we have tested the connection to that brown tech servers. >> So the connectivity is there. What we have to do is a transaction test where we talk to Brown tech and they switch over their systems and then a
transaction is conducted from that room on the left >> to make sure that everything is working. >> Okay. >> So the connectivity is the is one of the big things and then we just check test the transaction. >> Is the registar aware of this? >> Uh you believe so? Because I've been talking to Margarite about it. >> All right. Did you do that in writing
for us? So we have just make sure that that's communication is really established and we have proof that we are communicating in terms of that test. >> We've Margarita and I have been going back have emails about when we're going to do that test. >> That's fine. That's sufficient. All right. Thank you.
>> So again the the remaining things that need to be done there are all small. They uh all the signs have been done. Patrick in engineering did a tremendous amount of work to make sure that the handicap accessibility was all set and the Walpole building inspector was satisfied with everything. There was a
dedicated handicap space outside and everything else. So, a few more things to take care of, but it's all set for your meeting. Should be all set otherwise. Next slide. We've been working for a while on Tyler,
which is the I think you've known it for many names. Budget Sense, Infinite Visions, Tyler. It's now officially called School ERP Pro, whatever. It is the software that handles here the HR, the payroll, the purchasing, all kinds
of stuff. Uh, and it handles the budget, which I'm sure will be taking up all your time for many weeks now. It has this thing that's a front end that allows employees to see things like paychecks and to request time off. So, we've been working on getting this in place for a while. It has now been in
pilot stage for five weeks with u Bill Buckley's regional services group and with it. Again, the primary thing that we're testing is if people want to take a day off instead of filling out a paper form and giving it to their bosses, they can do it through this thing. Uh, we had to
do a bunch of work with Tyler to make sure that all the things worked and we updated the user manual that they supplied so it was actually readable and out you can go out there and get your tax documentation and look at what HR has on file for you and all sorts of other things. Um, we're going to roll
this out uh to the rest of excuse me the people in this building in the next couple weeks and then to uh engineering and maintenance across the street. and that this is only for non-union folks because um to roll it
out to union folks is a little more complex. So that's been going well. Took us a long while to get there, but it's been going well. You can see a little picture of it there. Um and then on the next page, which is called Tyler Daily Time, this is another product from
Tyler. This is electronic time sheets and this only works when you have the employee access portal. So, we had to get the employee access portal in place before we could do this. Right now, when you do your time, uh, again, this is non-union. When a non-union person does
their time, they basically their supervisor says, "Yeah, I know the my employee worked there 37 and a half hours or whatever it is this week, goes on a time sheet that the manager submits to HR with a signature." the this will instead of being on a piece of paper,
this can be done via the employee access portal and allows the employees to submit their time to their supervisor who then pushes it through. So, it's another modernization of workflow that allows us to put the stuff in to Tyler directly. We're working with Tyler
experts right now to figure out how it's going to work in the employee access portal, but it gets us more in line with workflows that um have been in place in most companies, including the state for 15 plus years. Um we're working up a rollout plan, but it will probably f
follow the same pilot and roll out plans that we did with the Tyler employee access portal. Uh the only reason it's yellow status here is that I just started talking to the Tyler project manager last week and
uh he I'm waiting to hear back from him on where the documentation for this is. I think he responded to me this morning. I just didn't look at it yet. >> What's the target date? So it's 20 2026. >> That's 2Q second quarter 2026. Okay. Thank you. >> So we will have this in place ready to
go before the end of our fiscal year. >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> The next one. So part of my goal for the one of my goals for the year is to help other department heads get some more technology in their lives, much to their
chagrin. So some of the bullet points here is I'm working with uh Mr. Buckley to get uh as you two know better than most the county does a lot of stuff for all the towns in the county and some of
that is numerically approvable. So Mr. Buckley has a lot of this stuff a lot of this data and we want to make this more accessible to the counties. We've been talking about I'm sorry to the towns we want to make this uh easily accessible for them. We've been working on this for
a while. So, we've been talking to the company that helps us with the county website, which is called Revise, about ways we can do this. So, three weeks ago, I think or more, well, yeah, we started talking to them, what's the easiest way to do it, and we believe
that we know how to do it now. We're going to start speaking with them about specifics and how to roll it out. So, you'll see that I've been working with Phil prior to budget because now unfortunately 200% of Phil's time goes to budget stuff, but there's some things
that we can do to help improve Phil's workflow. And then there's some stuff I can do to help Patrick and Carl with tracking their all the millions of contracts that they have just to make it more easily access for them. So, little things like that, but everything's uh
going fine with that as well. Uh the next slide is something that you may not have heard about. The federal government uh decided some time ago that all websites have to conform with the Americans with
Disabilities Act. It's called the Title 2 ruling and they have to have this in place by April 24th. There's a whole new set of rules that anybody who comes to your website with disabilities has to be able to read a certain sets of content
easily. So if you have visual disabilities and you use something called the website reader, you have to be able to move around a website easily. So our website, the county website and the registers, two websites are in pretty good shape. There's um there's
not a we don't have applications. You're not doing a tremendous amount of transactions via either of our websites. In fact, nothing on our website and the registers, front-end websites. Norffor deeds have don't really have a lot of that stuff. It's primarily about documents. Um, and what we did was we
talked to Revise, who helps us with our website, and Getfused, who helps the register with his front-end website, and said, "How are people going about this?" So, we are engaging with Revise for the county website. They're going to scan the websites and check things out and
then tell us how what kind of stuff we need to do in order to get accessible by April 24th. Um the register's big website where people go in and start whipping around and checking documents and all that stuff. The uh Getfused had
some suggestions on how to approach it. Uh we Margarite and I had a discussion with the head of getfused and that information was passed to the register who then had a discussion with um the head of getfused and they'll figure out what to do from there. Um I can't I
don't know the specifics of that discussion but um the information was passed along the >> revis uh public or a private entity? >> I believe it's a private company. >> Is there any uh obviously there's a fee associated with this?
>> Yes. Yep. >> Just give me a second. So, that's going to be something we have to budget in, correct? >> And is there any opportunity since the federal government's mandating it for any kind of federal relief via direct payment or even a grant or other things
like that out there? >> Not in list world commissioner. They they're not offering anything like that. >> Not in the IT room. >> So, they mandate it, but there's no funding for it. >> Yes, this happens quite frequently. >> Just absolutely. >> Yeah. No, it's a great idea. >> I want to ask the question
my mind's always thinking, you know, but luckily for us, >> but it's a private entity. >> Yeah, it's not they they helped Revise helped set up the current website. Bill Buckley deals with them on a regular basis. Um, they're also the ones helping us set up that interface so that towns
can see what the county's done for them. >> So, it's not a I don't want to say it's not a lot of work because it will be some work, but again, we we don't have an overly complex website. what what a lot of the stuff on our website is is some documents and we'll they'll point
out to us well you should think about this and once they show us the stuff that we need to fix and it's really maintenance moving forward so that you don't fall out of compliance >> and to make this clear it's not like on April 24th thank you will be having that
on April 24th the government's combing through websites to find everybody it won't be like that it'll be more like if someone comes to the website on May 16th of 2026 and says, "I can't read this stuff." And they could file a complaint
against us, >> but as far as I know, no one has complained so far. >> There are plenty of people who use the registers websites and has never complained because they're in very good shape. >> Um, and they do you know what the penalty is for? >> No, I don't off this there's plenty of information out
there about how to address and what the most common complaints are. >> All right. But if we were a website like you know you want to go out and order a chicken sandwich. If you can't hand if you can't do those transactions as someone with disabilities on the website
that's the kind of stuff that has to get addressed and people need to be able to use the services on your website. >> Okay. >> So uh it's it's not as though April 24th comes around and we're expecting a $10,000 fine from the from the fence, but we're going to be working towards
eliminating any possibilities. >> All right. Cool. >> With the help of approx. >> Sounds good. >> Um, right. Next one is an IBM upgrades console. So, we
before I was here, when Jim Lindy was running the IT department, the IBM server, which is the backbone of the registry operations, was upgraded. Um, it's about time for us to do it
again. So, we did some research. Um, I and Dan helping me, working with a couple of very trusted companies, some places that we've worked with before, did some research on what we think it will cost and why we should be doing it.
Um, I sent the information to the register with uh a side piece on recommending upgrading the PCs that sit out in the public areas. So a couple of years ago we uh made a recommendation to upgrade those PCs but which the register
accepted but we didn't do it at that time thinking that if we could hold out longer the PCs that we bought would be in better shape but so we put that PC recommendation on top of the IBM recommendation. Uh the other bullets that are here,
the IBM hardware that we're recommending to upgrade to the operating system that the IBM runs on will also be upgraded, but we're not actually going to upgrade the operating system on the current hardware that we have and that will ease
the transition to the new hardware. The problem, however, is that we got to figure out where the money for this upgrade comes from. It'll be about$190 $200,000. So, that's the situation and that's why we're in a yellow uh yellow
circle there. The next slide is a a nice one. We did our 2025 cyber security training for the county employees. This is fully sponsored by the state. It is they pay for access to this program called No
Before. It's a very famous cyber security training platform. Uh this is the third year I think we've done it. Um, and maybe we did one the year before, but it gets better every year. The state does a much nicer job giving us, excuse me, access to the platform
and all kinds of lessons therein. We're getting better at it every year. This year, as you can see in some of these bullet points, we had a 97% completion rate for all of our employees. And our risk score uh is very low according to the platform >> and trended down every time over the
final six months that they were there. we were accepted into the 2026 program which uh we don't have too much information on yet but um what we did this past year prior to uh different from previous years is I think not last
not 2025 but in 2024 we followed the state's recommendations which were yeah give everybody these um three lessons and I think each lesson was 20 25 minutes and and last year they said you can do whatever you want so we gave everybody six lessons lesons, spread
them all out through the year, but each lesson was only 10, 12 minutes. And we were able to really chunk them up into different lesson plans and give people the chance to do things. And there were little larger tests, but not like tests you had to pass, but just to check how much you were learning all through the
year. And again, it went very well. So, we'll probably follow that same model, unless the state has different recommendations this year. If you folks would like to do it as well, we can sign you up. It's not it's not hard. We got extra um I asked for extra licenses. I don't know if we've been awarded them
yet. And this No Before platform, the registry side has access themselves to it because they were using no before to do a once a year training on cyber security. So they're very busy and they don't each have a computer with internet
access over there. So this sort of model that we use for county employees wasn't applicable to them um just because they can't uh sit around that often to take the things. But I did ask for extra licenses just in case uh the register or
margarite would like to have the senior registry management do these things. But since I'm I'm hopefully going to get senior uh extra licenses, if you would like to experience any of this, you can let me know. We'll see how that goes. But great program. We're going to do it again. >> Good. Um, and then I think we're getting
to the end. Yep. All part. Uh, the next slide is, uh, our new guy, Scott Machado, has been getting up to speed faster than anticipated is tremendous. So, this is allowing Dan to move back towards looking at, uh, many of the cyber security measures that we've been
putting in place. We've been for many years taking advantage of the federal government's SIZA scanning. This is the center for internet security. Um, we had them look at our networks and some other things twice a month. I'm sorry, once a month, but two different reports, but we
haven't been able to spend too much time on them. So, given how fast Scott's been coming up and taking some stuff off Dan's plate, uh, Dan's been able to start looking back at these things. And this allow this looks intrusion scanning a little bit, but looking at all of our different networks, how they look from
the outside. So, Dan's starting to look at that again with Scott. That's great. And uh we try and talk to um the Aggie folks whenever we can. As you know, Mark is retiring, so it's kind of tapered off a little bit until they figure out
Mark's Mark's replacement, but we'll continue that with whomever they bring in. So, if we see >> I get um two or three different alerts from SIZA. Hey, there's a new vulnerability here. I get them from all over the place. So, anytime we see anything that may have some effect on uh
the Aggie, we let them know. I got Mark Coette to sign up the Aggies this past year for that same cyber security training class that the state offers. I don't know how it went, but I know he signed up them for it. So, we'll continue that handinhand cyber security alert.
>> It help us as a county that could help us as a county perhaps before we hire a new person at the Aggie that maybe you or someone reach out to Jeremy, our superintendent, and say, "Could you be on the screening committee or something like that?" Would that be
appropriate? What do you think? >> So, I think that the that director Cronin did offer uh Jeremy the opportunity for us to chime in as necessary. >> Okay, great. Okay, I can follow up then. All right. So, you'd be okay with that, right? >> Yeah, sure. >> Okay. All right. >> And Mark knows to So, we talked to Mark
when we heard that he was retiring. Yeah. >> Hey, >> if we can assist up that way, you know, and I think that when Dan was talking to Mark said, "So, he didn't want to seem overbearing, but you if you don't have a bunch of stuff documented, you should do
this so that whoever takes over for you, >> right? >> We'll see this stuff." And that kind of stuff is important. >> What's he leaving? Do you know what the last day is? >> March sometime. In March, I thought sometime in March. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And the last thing is we've got some infrastructure projects that we're looking at. Um, you know, the
phone system here works great and we just had a a talk with the company that put it in for us. It's old, but they tell us there's no problem. There's plenty of companies using it. So, you know, it doesn't have the newest bells and whistles, but we don't need that and it's healthy. And so, we got support
handled for the next three years. Our alarm, we have a camera, one camera system across the street and a different camera system here. So ideally it'd be nice to have a newer canvas system that is the same in both places. There are considerations though that the register
as you know has a shooter detection system across the street which integrates into that. So we can't just you know buy anything off the street like a new Amazon camera system because it has to have this integration. Um when we were talking about with the director the director was like it would be nice
also for us to not just think about these two buildings. We have courts all across the state and this part of the county I should say that we have to think about. So every little thing has some other things. >> How about a golf course? >> Yeah. Well, the golf course has one too, but absolutely right. So it would be
better instead of having three, four different camera systems to have an integrated one which helps us economically but also to keep up with the software. So we're looking at that kind of stuff. >> Uh and so it's the cost and then as we get into something bigger, we also have
to bid it out. So, I believe that's it. I know I read a lot of information by you. Happy to take any questions for you. Richie, any questions? >> No, you answered them as we went along. I I appreciate you. >> Of course. >> Nice presentation as always. Great job.
Just get better. Get better. >> I had a few I had a few. That's okay. So one of the pages that you talked about um upgrade to the IBM operating system u will happen on current platform via brown check wasn't I I know that at one
point we were looking that brown tech might be outdated is how's that coming along >> so I browntech is I wouldn't say it's outdated so brown is extremely finely tuned for what it does it handles
all the transactions It's excellent at reporting. Um Ed Wheeler I talked to him I think my second year here and I said so how does it compare to what you were using in Middle Sex? He's like it is it really is much more um can't remember the exact word accurate whatever nothing
like that than what they were using. So it's an excellent system. uh what one of the things Ripples was talking about it doesn't have this it doesn't have that but it's not it it that kind of stuff's not needed for what their registry does especially at the volume that the registry does. >> Okay.
>> So what we what we were doing instead was looking at there's some stuff that we can do to make uh Brown Tech work a little better for the users. So we you know put a couple things in place but it's good. Um the other things that uh
that Brown Tech needs is you know can what happens if um Cliff retires? But we had a long talk with Cliff about that and he had great answers for that and uh so we're not worried about that. Um the other thing we wanted to know is what is the state you know what what about this
mythical thing the state had that the state was going to find some great program that everyone was going to be able to use and that never went anywhere. we haven't been able to get any information about them. So, the alternatives that are out there might be great at one thing or this other thing, but it doesn't do all the things that
Brown Tech does. So, we weren't able to find anything uh even just looking around a little bit that would do what Brown Tech does. >> Okay, that sounds great. So, well, it sounds like you have the right the right um service in for >> Yeah, I mean it's it's a tremendous system.
>> Okay, so um Richie, go ahead. >> Yeah, good. That's a good catch. I thought about that and I I wanted to go back to that. I remember the uh Abraham report >> Yeah. >> cited that. I thought they had said that we should at least look at that and maybe phase it out. I'm not being contrary. No,
>> I'm just remembering that report. Somehow it came back to me. But so how are we doing in terms of even again following the consult that we paid money for? How does this fit in? And how does I'd like to ask you that maybe next time you're around because I know they said something about the Browns. So
>> I think Commissioner O'Donnell uh sorry register >> register was very adamant about it did serve the needs of what they wanted. So >> so Ripples I can't remember all the Abraham stuff because I spent a long time with the ripples it there's the especially ripples was talking technology well we need to look at the
cloud stuff and we need to >> we need to look at a platform that's on a more modern front end but the >> this the cloud thing is not necessarily appropriate for where we are. You can get more into costs and problems like
that. But Brown Techch is on the IBM system uh which is the primary system for documents especially at the volume that the registry has to use here. It's uh the brand system is optimized for using the IBM and if we needed to get to
a cloud system IBM can easily move up into the cloud. if we were in multiple locations. Sure. Um there were some things that I would, you know, we'd like to have that Ripple's pointed out like, you
know, hey, uh the the advantage of going to a larger company is that you have more people who can answer your questions. Um if there's tech support, there's other companies feeding back in with with um needs for improvements and all that stuff, which we talked about
resetting a Brown Techch user group. I've talked to other registries that are using Brown Tech and so there's ways to get around that but I the Ripples's um the Ripple's emphasis was on cloud and technology things and in the three years that I've been here there haven't been any any pointing to that
>> very good >> so but we watch we we watch to make sure and I some of the examp alternative programs that Ripples have called out we look at those to make sure that >> uh there's no major advancements in there But they did Ripples did
tremendous amounts of work talking to the state land court and all these different things and they're still from what I can see and again I'm no expert on what needs to be done in the system. the the Brown Techch system, which has been really optimized for the way that the registry does its work, to have to
bring something else in, would be a major undertaking because parts of any new system would have to be really reworked to handle the way things are working now, the way they've made Brown Tech change for it. So, >> all right. In there, Ricky.
>> Yeah. I mean, it's unless there's some new thing that the state comes up with in the next two or three years, you know, I need you to redo this massive thing or we're changing the way the land court works or something like that. The way that the register and his assistants have made the thing work is it's
working. So, >> and the technology back if it wasn't on IBM, I'd be worried, but it the IBM system is fantastic. So um so for those people that are on um the call today u they might not know so
um we have one IT system for the whole county and uh CM runs the IT system his office is located in the registry and um so I was kind of curious so you talked about the golf course and I know you're working so the Eggy has their own
IT people but you you helped support that too. So overall roughly what what percentage of your work involves a registry is registry work? Any idea? >> So the the day-to-day support work that we do. Um I know Dan gets in at 8 and I
think the a lot of his first hour is done making sure that everything is running okay and answering any questions that happened at the beginning of uh of the day if there's any problems or whatever. Um, so
the department's work, um, I'm just trying to think like I just was doing my budget work, so it's a good good question to ask at this time. Um, I'm trying, you know, my initial thought is 50/50, but uh, because we got to think about
how to support all of the stuff that's in there. We're spending a lot of time thinking about the IBM recently. Um, we do try and stay on top of all of the Brown Techch stuff. So anyway, I don't I'm trying to think if 50/50 is just a glib answer or not, but
we do spend a tremendous amount of time trying to make sure that everything in the registry is working correctly. >> And and you uh you talked about working with Margarite uh at the registry on on different IT concerns. So do you interact um with the registry on on a
daily basis about what's going on over there and what you need and what they need >> with the registry? >> Yeah. No, with the with the registry. Yeah. Uh yeah, I mean I I we talk with Margarite a lot, with Anna, with other
supervisory folks. The um we don't it's harder for me because Dan and increasingly Scott are the ones who are out working with folks a lot, but on the higher level things, I deal with Margarite frequently. >> Okay. And do you get much interaction and guidance from the registry as to what their goals are?
Um um I mean we we when I first started we were meeting more frequently that's kind of tapered off. So I mean and that could be because the registry just operates. I don't we haven't sat around and talked
about where to go recently but when there's when there are when there are things that need to be addressed um I get included in the loop. Okay. Um, see oh now when there are new developments in it that you have to
alert the registry to are the responses to that. Um, I'm trying to think of an example. So if there's uh so I'll give you this one. So Microsoft is making a big push with
its AI uh stuff inside of Microsoft Office. So, even here, there's not that many people here who need to use it. So, Moren sent out something in the latest HR uh email that said, "Hey, there's Microsoft Copilot." But several months
ago, I was thinking who in the registry, senior management, might benefit from Microsoft Copilot. So, I uh went to talk to Jonathan Thomas, who I know does a lot of marketing stuff because he's putting stuff out on the website. And I said, "Hey, I'm thinking that you might
be the first guy who might be able to use some of this. Is that if that's interesting to you, let me know and and we can see if we can swing you a a license to play with." And he thought about it for a while and got back to me later and said, "No, I don't think we need it yet." >> So, there hasn't been anything
overarching yet. Um, oh, I think I mentioned it when we were we knew about this um ADA website compliance. So I thought about who we should speak to and I let Margarite know that I thought we should speak to Getfused who were the people who had built their
websites and so we got right on that. >> Okay. >> Um thank you and thank you for um so I'm not a big IT person so thank you for that explanation. You dumbed it down for me. I appreciate it. >> Not at all. All right. And anytime you guys need to know anything, please let us know.
Sorry. Good trouble. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Thank you, S. Okay. So, um the next item is number six, public comment. So, every week uh at this time
in the meeting, uh we ask the people who are on the call if they have uh any public comment. We ask those who wish to make a public comment to please limit their remarks to three minutes. And uh so now we invite people to make public comment if they wish to do so.
Okay. hearing a big nothing. Uh John, have you had any uh requests for public comment? >> No this past week. >> Okay. Um last call for public comment. Okay. Moving on to number seven, old business. John, any old business? >> Not this week.
>> Okay. Um next item is personnel matters for consideration. Commissioner stating. >> Yes. Uh Mr. Chairman, I'll move the following. This has to do with the North County Agricultural High School. First, I move approval of a notice for address
change for Jane Engel as the 180 183 day instructor. Uh the address change effective 12826. So moved. >> Second. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Oppose. Unanimous. Next. >> All right. And an important one. uh pleased to make a motion to appoint uh
Jenna Leco as a super assistant superintendent for business and uh with the rate of pay stated effective 2526. So moved. >> I'll second that. All in favor say I. >> I welcome Jenner will be bringing her
talents to our our Aggie school. >> Great. John, >> just a point of reference, uh, as commissioners, you're also trustees and I presume you'll be making similar vote when you sit seat as trustees this coming week, I think. >> No, next week. Next week. >> Yeah, next week. Just your vote has to follow up. That's all,
>> right? Of course. Y >> that's all I had. >> Okay, great. Okay. Um, next is payroll and expense warrants for approval. Richard. >> Yeah, Mr. Chairman, this is a warrant list for 2426. Move the following. There's several. Uh number one, I move approval of 26-31 payroll to account in
sum141,856.39. So moved. >> Second. All those in favor say I. I. >> Oppos. Unanimous. >> Second. I move approval of 26 3116 payroll to school the sum 400,74.76. So moved. >> Second. All those in favor say I.
>> I. I. Oppose. Unanimous. >> Third. I move approval of 020126 expense of the county $64,378.99. So moved. >> Uh second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Oppose. Unanimous. >> Interesting. Four.
Approve 26-32 opa Brooklyn $270. Can't wait to hear about that. So moved. >> Take them out. >> Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Unanimous. >> And the last one. Uh approval of 26-5
US Bank. uh the NFA county code the NCS loan the sum $21,800 so moved >> second all those in favor say I oppose you >> that concludes the warrant list Mr. challenge. Thank you. Okay, next item. Uh item 10 is report for the procure
procurement department bid openings and contract awards. Um what do we have today? >> Well, um I will begin speaking and Moren can come in afterwards, but I'm pleased to uh present our CPO if you want to come on up Moren. Okay.
>> Um today we're asking the commissioners to approve a um a temporary staff position in the RSVP program. Um, as you know, the RSVP program has been in a bit of a limbo while we wait um, federal funding for the grant. Um, I'll give you
a brief update that of that matter under county director's updates. But meanwhile, um, Orin has helped put together a temporary staff appointment today. um Lucille Cassiss is with you as well as the incumbent um Monnique Alman who I think would like to come up and
meet the commissioners and talk a little bit about what the role will entail over the next several months through June 30th. But um this is a staff excuse me a temporary position until the staffing visav the new grant process is solidified. So if you want to just talk a little bit about the grant uh the
contract and then we'll >> Sure. Sure. We posted and advertised for this position with the help of Lucille. We put together a posting and she had one applicant and that is Mon'nique and she interviewed and seems happy. So, we
put together this contract contingent upon the funding being there and um uh not to exceed $15,000. >> You have one applicant, you get the perfect one, >> right? >> You scared everybody away.
Now, are we allowed to ask questions? >> Sure. Back yourself up. >> Can you get through the chair? Of course. Can you tell us a little about your background before accepting this position here? >> Um, yes. >> You qualify. It's a little little PR for us, you know.
>> Yes. Um, nice to be here. Thank you everybody. And, um, I've been working since I was 20 years old. So, that's many decades. and most recently held a national >> held a national position running um a national sales team for an organization
that does workforce development and works primarily in healthcare. Um so if they are needing a CEO CFO um highle executive placements and also um listening to Sam um technology solutions
for organizations again around workforce and making their organizations more efficient. Uh prior to that I've held positions I've owned my own restaurant. Um, I worked as a vice president at Katus Good Samaritan Medical Center,
which became Steward Healthcare and helped with the acquisition and the roll out of the new brand and the transition from a nonprofit entity to a for-profit entity. Um, I could go back longer, but I I've been in the workforce for many
decades and delighted to um have the opportunity to join Lucille and learn about the important work that the RISE program in particular does to help veterans get to their doctor's appointments and know that there's an
opportunity with the renewal of the grant to help expand and grow not just the volunteer base to help deliver the services, but also the people served. So, I'm very excited um to help out in the time that we have together and do what I can in those areas and also I'm
eager to learn what other needs there might be so I can um >> help out when I'm here. >> Excellent. What's the length of the contract? Till the end of the fiscal year expended >> until Okay. Okay. Okay. So, we can tell All right.
So Lucille, watch my Yeah. >> Later than June. >> What's that? >> Not later than June. >> No, that's all I was looking for. Not trying to get rid of you. >> No. You're great addition, but I was wondering what the >> I will be very efficient. >> I'm sure you will. >> All right. >> Any questions?
>> The qualifications are great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Very well qualified. >> Yeah. I'm excited to do something that really gives back and >> Yeah. >> has a different level of meaning and mission. Excellent. Welcome to our county. Okay. I look forward to good things. >> Thank you. Thank you very much.
>> Uh Mr. Chairman, if you want, I'd be happy to move the approval uh of uh the appointment of Monnique uh as the North County RSVP. Uh the position
>> is it in it? Is it volunteer coordinator? >> Look up the thing there. All right. at the rate stated uh and at the terms of the contract prepared by a CPO uh as outlined in this this contract here today. The sum not to exceed $15,000. Okay,
>> I'll second the motion. All in favor? I >> I >> I oppose unanimous. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Um next. >> Thank you. >> Brooklyn ARPA award correction.
>> What's up with that? Wow. Brooklyn. All right. Through you, uh, Mr. Vice Chum, the, um, Larson Auditors as a function of their oversight monitoring, uh, flagged the award ARPA 1344 that was delivered to the town of
Brooklyn in December of 2024. Um, effectively, it was a transposition error. the amount awarded was $270 less than the amount that was um requested and approved within the portal at that
time. Um so as you want to examine the facts of it um let's see um the original award was what the exact number I just >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to go back to
the award if you just permit me one second for the record. Oh, here it is. Um, the actual award should have been $220,968.11, but what was keyed in and put before you for approval on that date was $220,69811.
You can see the transposition. So, I've sent an email off to the town manager in Brooklyn telling him to be alert on this. it was a reimbursement project um cost for healthcare projects. So, I'm sure he'll just pause it into his account and expend it on his general ledger and we'll clear this anomaly up
for um our reporting to Washington. So, thank you for your vote today. I thought I'd give you a brief explanation on that. >> Sure. >> How's B doing for the rest of their money? >> Um they were on um I believe the early list that I looked at from May of last year. Um still expending some of the
money. I I have not looked at the more recent report. Um when Clifton Larson was before you uh about a month ago, they explained that there were only a handful of communities that were left unspending their money. So I'll have to double check, Peter, to see if Brooklyn was on it. I cannot recall, but they
were on that list about 6 months ago. They also had one of the largest awards in the county. So I'll double check for you if you don't mind. Okay, great. Thank you. >> Welcome. Thank you. >> All right. uh report of the county director item 12. >> All right. Thank you. Um
the um the county received some good news. Earlier you approved the temporary employment contract for Mon'nique. Um as we wait we waited out the status of the continuing resolution andor funding of the program. As you probably know, over the last year or so, um, with the new
administration, we were monitoring the the scrutiny that the, um, Americanore program was getting, and there were signs that, uh, through Doge and other, um, government cutting efforts, it might be a casualty. Um, today's vote to
support the temporary hire was a measure to keep the program going um, following Chris Goldsmith's retirement. We didn't want to invest in the back fill of Chris until we knew what was happening. Um Mon, excuse me, um Lucille has um notified us that um as a result of the
recent continu continuing reg continuing resolution that governor that President Trump signed yesterday that the program appears to be funded now and will be open shortly for solicitation of grants um along the lines of what we've experienced so far as a three-year grant
period. So signs are very encouraging that um the government is now allowing us to apply and we look forward to doing that. Um I believe the solicitation is open shortly if not uh imminently um and we expect to submit our application
without delay. So uh once that is approved we'll convert this position into the full-time role and get back into uh the role that we had prior to the uh government questioning of the program. So that was that. Uh this past week, uh Mr. Buckley and I had a meeting
with uh Superintendent Jeremy Gay as we have from time to time. It was a great meeting. We touched on a host of issues. Um we spent a fair amount of time talking about the budget and budget related items for the schools. Um you may hear, I don't want to steal his thunder, but I'll I'll uh I'll tease you
that he appears to have secured another grant uh for the schools uh which is um potentially very exciting as it has to do with some facility work. Um we spoke about his um hire of the new business manager uh which you appointed today and I know the trustees will appoint next
week. Um Miss Leco was in this office yesterday doing her on boarding work. I had a chance to talk to her for about 15 minutes. Um I was very impressed. Uh very energetic background. Um I informed her here's your guideline for the FY27 budget process. I need a budget from you
soon. Uh gave her a copy of the 26 budget. I have no hesitations based on our brief conversation as well as Jeremy's explanation of her background as a business manager at a larger system up north that she'll be able to accomplish the task. I introduced her to Phil and told her, you know, we have resources. We'll be happy to work with
you to achieve the deadline of getting the school's budget off the ground um according to the guideline plan, which I think has them March 4th, I think, seems to come to mind. >> They're early. I thought they were later. Okay, >> they're on the back end. But nevertheless, we'll work with them. um I know what they're up against. So, it was
a pleasure meeting with her and Jeremy seems to have found a very capable uh skilled individual to carry on those duties. So, thank you to him. Um let's see. I just want to alert you that next week um it's kind of a down week is before we get into the budget season um
with full ver fervor. Um all budgets were due yesterday. I believe we have all but one. Um so over the next several days we'll be assembling uh a consolidated budget based on the submittal requests against the available revenue as stated in FY26. We'll prepare
a quote unquote public facing budget which is required for posting. It'll be immediately out of budget because it hasn't been balanced yet. Um and then you'll begin seeing um departments I believe two weeks from today. Um so that meeting will be held at the Aggie
disaster recovery room which sh Sam just showed you. Um that room is ready. It was operational back in July. Um but it is now ready for public meetings and uh we're looking forward to hearing I think three budgets that day and then we'll follow over the next two weeks after
that to wrap up the submitts to you before I uh go to the task of balancing for you. So overall we're in great shape. Um people seem to understand the exercise. The cover memos look good. Um I think when the department heads meet with you, you're going to hear some creative things. Um the uh the departments clearly understand the
nature of submitting balanced budgets while submitting cover letters that ask for things that might you know find the commissioner's attention. Um so um that'll all be forthcoming. Um see and
I think that was all I have for you at this time. Thank you sir. Richard any questions? >> Uh yeah if sure Mr. number one, uh, do you think it might be appropriate or a good idea in light of
the RSVP appointment and some optimism to maybe notify again, Congressman Lynch, our congressional delegation, and or even thank them perhaps indirectly if they did anything for it or to keep them appraised, at least appraised of what's going on and that we do want them to
continue their help. Would that be something appropriate? >> Yeah, it sounds like a great idea. >> Just I mean, we're making movement. We might be nice and say, "Hey, we're going to put someone on and this is a great thing and we can appreciate your input," you know. >> Yeah. >> Thank you for all you've done for us. Yeah. >> Yeah. Something like that. Thought >> we can do that.
>> Uh the other thing Thank you. The other thing I just wanted to mention that we all attended the North the State Association of Counties uh serenated our acting chair for his birthday, which I got to keep reminding about. Uh but it was a wonderful day and a good time to
meet other people. the first time ever I believe at least for me that all the county were represented all the county Duke County was there uh we had the the vignett we everybody was there it was amazing in fact it was there I'm saying um it was a very good meeting very
productive meeting and uh those things you always pick up something that others are doing or have questions on but by lives the focus was on wrapping up opera and then uh as I think it was Treasure O'Brien had said maybe Where do we pivot now? How do we pivot and keep making the
county maps, you know, where what's our next task going to be? And we're going to look at some opportunities, you know, for further regionalization and assistance for the cities and towns. So, it was a good meeting. I just thought it was well done. A little kudos to u uh Plymouth County for hosting it. We didn't set a date though or a time for
any kind of future meeting. I know that sometimes >> there was some discussion about September. >> Okay. Oh, okay. Oh, we're going to wait that long. That's usually think three months, but >> that was their preference. >> Okay. That's fine. That's I like the idea. That's why that's me the location was a good suggestion. All right. And
that was all I had. >> I know the managers of the uh of each of the counties they they meet monthly, right? >> Um more as needed. Um we do have some work to do. Um I was speaking electronically with the gentleman from
Barnstable. Um so we'll be working on a side project together, but it's as needed. >> Okay. >> Y All right. Um any emergency items, topics that the chair did not reasonably anticipate would be discussed. Um hearing nothing. Okay. Uh Richard, do you want to make a motion to adjurnn?
>> Uh Mr. Chairman, just check on the time. I would move that we uh adjourn the meeting at 15. >> 158. >> Okay. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Unanimous. The meeting is over. Thank you everyone for attending. Thank you very much. You.