##VIDEO ID:7dpQfCDQ6dw## Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay before we get started um it's tradition that the chairperson give a statement at the beginning of the year and since I skipped our initial meeting of the year it's going to Happ to happen today so bear with me there are approximately 164,384 people living in Olstead County today 122,123 2,090 live in one of our smaller communities such as Stewartville Byron Pine Island Yota or in okal Chatfield and Dover or one of our 18 townships 139 are currently in our adult detention center in addition there are approximately 2739 people arriving in county today alone to seek medical treatment at Mayo Clinic and most of them have brought along at least one family member for support over 42,000 people are in OMS County today because they work for Mayo Clinic the next largest employers in OMS County are Rochester Public Schools with 2872 employees IBM with 279 4 andate County with 1,371 employees 42283 of our H State County residents do not own their own home 28,6 72 or 65 years or or older 3,485 are people of color there are more than 704 there are 74 more women than men living in omate County 8,240 of our adult residents have not graduated high school 13,182 of our residents live below the poverty line the median household income in omet county is 9,452 5,382 of our households earn less than $20,000 annually 9,170 earn more than 200,000 10,546 of our residents under the age of 65 have a physical disability 6,756 of our residents under the age of 65 do not have health insurance 24388 of our residents speak a language other than English in their home 18785 of our residents were not born in this country 8,997 of our residents are in need of treatment for substance abuse 46634 of our residents dealt with anxiety or depression in the past year on any given day there are approximately 200 adults experiencing homelessness within olate County and rasher Public Schools as identified about 570 students who are without permanent housing there are seven Oma County residents who have been elected to respond to the various needs of all the people outlined above I believe there is one common denominator that all om County residents have in common they want today to be better than yesterday and they want tomorrow to be better than today in a community that is comparatively prosperous Forward Thinking and pois for growth I think that's a reasonable expectation I can attest that the 1371 H County employees and seven County Commissioners go to work every day with a goal of making sure that every one of our residents and visitors has a better chance to thrive today than they did yesterday omate county is a great Community to work live and grow in truly Second To None I am proud to represent olate County and vow to work with my colleagues to make sure that olate County continues to lead and our residents truly have a chance to thrive I am optimistic that 2025 is going to be a great year and look forward to putting into work necessary to ensure that happens thank you that's the most talking I've done in a long time all right now we're on to consent agenda a approve the January 7th 2025 omate County Board minutes B approve the annual liquor license for Oak suit Golf Course C approve the annual reporting of drug court donations D annual delegation of electronics funds transfer Authority e approve the Rochester Post Bolton as the official newspaper for County publication s f approval to accept the 2023 Emergency Management performance Grant and G revision of the 2025 County board meeting schedule can I get a motion move to approve the consent agenda can I get a second second okay we have a motion to Second all in favor say I hi opposed passes all right next up informational items Rochester Community warming Center update good afternoon Mr chair members of the board Dave dun Olstead County Housing and planning director and just wanted to come up here to introduce our partners with Catholic Charities of southern Minnesota uh they've been doing great work with us since 2019 to provide overnight emergency shelter services and so tonight they'll be coming up here to give you an update on on the work that they are doing uh they are one of many partners as part of our any paath home initiative although tonight's presentation is really focused on the work they are doing with overnight emergency shelter I just wanted to highlight that ongoing initiative that we have to end homelessness in Homestead county so I will turn it over to them thank you welcome thank you um and who's my clicker on the slide thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to speak to you all this evening um we're just going to talk a little bit about the services that we offer and kind of answer any questions that you might have as well we have one one new member could maybe you could introduce yourselves sure so my name is John Myers I'm the executive director of Catholic charties of southern Minnesota my name is Rudy n I'm the director of Housing and the uh hope banked out um the shelter program the warming Center yes there we go yeah so I just want to start out with the fact that Catholic Charities has been working in southern Minnesota since 1947 we serviced the bottom two Southern um set of counties in the state um and our services include everything from our child and Family Service program which helps new and expecting families uh we do adoption we do adult advocacy helping with Guardian conservers ship uh we have our active aging which works with people that are 55 and over helping them to stay active um in volunteering them and through exercise classes and then we have our Refugee resettlement program which works to resettle refugees to Southern Minnesota specifically in thead County area and then finally is our housing program which is like I said I'm I'm grateful for the opportunity to have this to share with you guys tonight about our program and so I'm going to turn over to Rudy who is our director at the program to talk more about some of the things all right so yeah um so thank you for this opportunity it's uh I'm excited I've been part of the warming Center since it um initially opened um I think I'm the only one that's still there uh and it started off that I was going to be just a volunteer and the next day I was offered position as a night shift manager and five years later here I am so I truly believe that it was meant to be and I couldn't be more excited for the opportunity that I have to help our friends that are currently experiencing homelessness it's been an amazing experience um you know what started off as something that was going to be um a seasonal shelter to what it is today is just amazing and personally I'm just grateful for all that the county has done um it's been an amazing partnership and um we've really just really learned to just appreciate all the work that the county has done to help us help our folks that are experiencing homelessness so we opened up in 20 the December of 2019 um and then like I said it was intended to be just a seasonal shelter and then covid hit and then that's when the shelter in place went into effect I remember the week that we moved in the Civic Center we had done just a big major move to Bear Creek so like we did these two major moves within like three days and spent uh most of 2020 at the Civic Center um we were there until June of no end of so July of 2020 and that's when we were allowed to go back to the warming Center that's when the 105 and the Francis um became or not the Francis the 105 in the creek became part of our program and we provide um Staffing at those buildings um and then November of 2020 is when when the expansion happened we were able to more than double our space which was great because um we literally had a small little section where 30 people um we had bunk beds stacked on top each other uh we had lockers it was just really a tight space for 30 folks uh this the expansion in November of 2020 allowed us to you know more than double our space and then what I think is really important is that it allowed us to have a space just for our female guests that are experiencing homelessness so they had their own own sleep area their own bathrooms their own showers um and when you think of some reasons why a female may be experiencing homelessness domestic violence having them in the same room with people that they don't know especially males was really hard and so over that first year we started to really see our numbers in the women's side really grow um and to this day that's probably our biggest growth is just in our females we're you know where we first started we maybe had two or three now we're having anywhere from like 15 to 19 females um so it's been it's been nice to have that area and I know that there are a lot of females that are um very apprecia of having their own space we don't allow men to go on that side unless that staff so um and then last year we started the Overflow space we were realizing that we just were not being able to accommodate everybody at the warming Center um so we partnered with Salvation Army they allowed us to use their Social Services building in the night time and so we were able to um shelter another 20 another 30 up to 30 people there and from pretty much the beginning the first month was kind of slow but then once our um folks on the street noticed that we were open they started to utilize it and we were becoming very full we were seeing people that would normally not come to the warming Center just because that many people in a small space even though with the expansion um it was a lot of just lot of commotion and a lot of our folks sometimes with anxiety just don't do well in the warming Center um space so um yeah so where we first started we were seeing 30 folks a night now we're anywhere from 75 to 80 we've had some nights that we're closer to 90 um just because sometimes people will check in and maybe they sleep for a few hours maybe they stay the whole night but you know if they leave a few hours sleep for a few hours we've pretty much um they've used us what we intended for just for them to get some rest and then works out great because then other folks will come in later in the night so um let's see the work we do so you know I mean we provide laundry facilities we have a meal we provide showers um just a place for people just to you know feel like a person again to shower to wash their clothes um we offer uh fellowship if somebody just wants to talk hang out play games they're able to do that with our staff John if I'm forgetting anything about me okay I'll jump in on you um so from when we first opened as you can see the numbers here we've had a significant increase just in the last couple of years um I think a lot of that is we're seeing we've been seeing a lot more of females coming to the center um but I also think that there are just a lot of folks that are just I'm tired of being on the streets and they we're we've proven that we can be a place where they can come feel safe have a place to sleep um we don't we try not to have a lot of rules we have just some basic rules that we ask that they follow but um you know we pretty much give them the option they can come and go as they want they're not forced to stay so I think that really has helped but I also think that uh you know we've made a place where people do feel safe and so we're starting to see more people and we have been seeing quite a few more um and this is just a Gra showing the men and women increases over the last two seasons yeah and as I'm going along if you guys have any questions please feel free to to ask is there anything else on this one J nope that's just so this is just demographics and then you can see the next slide will show just the percentage that we have um in 2023 we had 27.3 females and 72.4 males and 0.03 um non-binary and then you can see in 2024 the number shift a little bit but still staying fairly consistent to what it was in 2023 um so as I talked about earlier some the changes so on average we're seeing anywhere from like 35 to 40% increase in just the folks that have been since we uh just even from a couple years ago um i' we're seeing a an increase in older guest females with a lot um with mobility issues or medical issues the warming Center still utilizes bunk BS so it makes it difficult um you know if we can't have somebody crawling into a top bunk that you know mo mob Mobility wise is not able to um so that becomes a little bit of a you know a concern and just trying to make sure that we have um safe beds for few folks um I think something that I've noticed a lot this year just talking with some of our guests and you know haven't been there since the beginning I've gotten to know a lot of our guests and some of them are just come to that age where they're just they can't handle another winter I've had people come to my office and just you know like Rudy I can't do this anymore um you know they're just really frustrated and and happy to say that we've gotten some of them housed um but you know I think they're just kind of Aging out and they're just not able to do the winters especially a winter like we've had so far it's been really rough so um I think one of the other changes that we're seeing that we're really impacting the center is just you know we're running out of space we are getting to that point where when we were at the original warming Center when it was just that one section we were having a lot of issues with people fighting just temper we're getting to that point now so we use the warming Center as the intake but we use that for intake for the Overflow as well so everybody comes there that's where you know they'll sign up get something to eat and then depending on you know if they go to the Overflow then they will um walk over to the Salvation Army but anywhere from like 8:30 on we can have 60 to S people coming and going and it's such a tight space you know our dining area Can Only Hold like we've got three tables and chairs for about 12 to 15 people at the most and so there's just not enough space for people to maneuver through the shelter um without literally being on top of somebody the Overflow site as I said is at the Salvation Army and they're open from 10:00 until 7 a.m. um we're seeing 25:30 um like it's been a great partnership with the Salvation Army Steve has done a lot of great things and we communicate a lot about just the different things we've also helped them out if their U maintenance person isn't there will help out so it's just been a great partnership we're able to kind of just also help them keep an eye on their lot sometimes at night as well so um and again you know just kind of going back to why they would come to the Overflow versus the warming Center um when you have 45 50 people in the warming Center It's just sometimes it's just too much for people especially if you're dealing if you have issues with anxiety um if you're if loud songs trigger you or if you're paranoid it's just not a very comfortable place so when they go to the Salvation Army they have a little bit of more space they're not so next to each other and it's a lot less even and it should be noted that prior to the Overflow space those individuals would not be there would not be space at the warming Center so unfortunately they'd have to be turned away so thankfully now we are not having to turn folks away but um prior to the Overflow that was happening on a regular basis yeah that's been one of the greatest things about the Overflow is that we have not had to turn people away people that aren't able to come as if they're on a trespass um or for Behavior but we've really worked hard with those folks to give them a second chance um just because you know there isn't really anywhere for them to go um the other part of the Salvation Army overflow spaces that we're seeing as um just that group of people that are not they service resistant that don't use the landing or don't come to the warming Center um we're starting to see folks there um so I have our lead Advocate who works the Overflow site is a recovery peer specialist so she's been able to have some conversations with some of the guests or just is able to talk to them you know if they're um experienced some kind of Crisis if they're under the influence which has been really helpful I know that our lead Advocate is actually helped get one person into treatment so I think that's definitely a bonus and it's a plus and so I'd really like to explore that more to see since these folks are sometimes the hardest to find because they don't use our services could we somehow you know utilize that better to provide you know a spot where maybe social workers case managers can come meet with them early in the morning before they leave a Salvation RV um I think one of the greatest things that I've been blessed to be a part of is just in the time that I've been there is to really see the value of having the Mormon Center to know that people actually appreciate being there so so the uh the one thank you card holiday card just happened this year this particular individual um came to our woman Center almost two years ago due to a unhealthy relationship she found herself homeless um never been homeless before ended up in our warming Center we quickly identified she be a great fit for the creek which is a transitional housing program that works with homestad County and zumbro Valley um we were able to work with her find her um a more permanent home and like this person has sent me notes and letters this one is particularly guess to me because it's been almost two years later and it's still is something that she thinks highly enough to just send out a carard to say thank you and I think the very last line I'll never forget the care I felt there really stands out and I shared that with the county staff um in Zumo Valley and it's things like that just that makes me realize that we are doing something important um there's another I think the the other one thank you for giving our son back his dignity um it's a little bit of a sadder story unfortunately there was this person passed away but the family reached out to us and um basically just said how much the Mormon Center meant to their son who was struggling with um a lot of stuff in his life and so to get an email like that from the family that said thank you for just being there for him and helping them feel valued and appreciated that's all I ever want for anybody that walks into our Center I tell my team all the time that every single person that comes in to that door is somebody's son daughter brother sister they have loved ones you know imagine if your person that you love the most is on the other side of the world in a homeless shelter how would you want them to be treated um and I am very blessed to lead a very exciting happy team like just they're willing to do whatever to make people feel valued and appreciated um ah so some of the challenges that we're facing so the warming Center um Catholic chars we operate a seasonal warming Center in wona the warming Center here in Rochester and then a day Center in wona um the funding though is through a state grant that we receive and that Grant covers those three however it does not cover the full cost of running a warming Center and so basically we rely heavily on donations to cover the other portion of the warming Center um this year if we the donations we need raises around 170,000 to cover those two warming centers in the day Center um so that is a significant um funding challenge but that's not why I'm here today I'm just here to to let you know how the program runs um the one thing I will say that is of concern however so we are committed to the warming Center the what is of concern is the Overflow Center um this was something that we took on a year and a half ago um seeing that there was a need realizing that people were being turned away um and we worked with some Partners we worked with the county we worked with the city to get some funding to keep it going however we are finding that we are exhausting our funding soon and so if that happens we will probably have to let the Overflow Center overflow site go and so that is a concern um because that means those 30 to 20 to 30 individuals each night will not have a place to go once we've reached our capacity um so I share that with you as well and the other thing that Rudy had mentioned was about space itself that ideally what we'd love to do is bring not have an overflow site not have it but have it in one place so that that we don't have to have duplicate staff and we could actually cut down on some costs by having it in one place um I will just say though that our goal is not to build a big place our goal is not to have a big shelter and sometimes people ask me what is the role of you know Emergency Shelters in this housing program and I often think about since we're in a medical town I think of the ER that you need an ER that any medical system you need a place that people can go for an emergency but to think that the solution is to keep building a bigger and bigger e R is not the right approach there are other ways that we can mitigate against the emergency and there are ways that we can get people treated and out of the ER faster excuse me um and that's the way I look at the emergency Health our goal is not to build it bigger we just want to be able to cover the capacity that Rochester needs so that they can find other options um and any path home is a great example of how we're trying to do that with working with Partners to get individuals on this namebase database to get them connected with case workers and move them to permit in transition know permanent housing so like I said we're just one small piece we're that emergency room when there is an emergency but we would love to see um other Solutions as well so thank you very much for your time again on a cold night like tonight it's a good reminder of what the warming Center is for a many many people so um with that I want to just open up for questions for Rudy or I are there questions I believeth home stud indicated that at any given time people are homeless within yeah Y what happens to so there's still you know there's still that some that are outside they're um camping and you know still throughout this weather there's a lot that would rather deal with the cold and come into a shelter um and I would say that even the numbers we showing it's there are every night it's not this all the same so it's not a 100 every night the exact same individuals um individuals might have friends once in a while they might just stay stay on their couch um they might pull some money together for one or two nights to to stay in a a cheap motel or something um but yeah so it's a 300 is what they've captured but at one given night 100 are entering our shelter um one other question um do County social workers staff no no no Cathy charity staff so we're Mak sense so then how do we get referrals for people to find housing so um the echo Center which was uh part of the housing stability team opened up an office next to the warming Center so it was just a way for us to introduce them to um social workers for the county and so workers for the county work out of that office yes that Co Center yeah and you found that partnership is working well I it really is great because when you get somebody that comes in let's say late at night who's never been who's been homeless for the very first time doesn't know what's going on doesn't know what the resources available we can tell them that hey you know tomorrow morning we're going to get you up get some coffee and then we're going to walk you next door to the EO Center um I know that that's going to change a bit but like we've always had a connection with the housing stability team where even before they moved in I could call somebody and say hey is there a way that one of you could stop by or I tell them about somebody um and then they would come and meet them but having the echo center right next to the warming Center was is been huge it's a great way to connect somebody and sometimes it may be just a matter of like maybe we just need to get them they came here for the male clinic thinking that they were going to be able to get um seen right away and then realize that it's takes a process to get seen by a male clinic and sometimes maybe it's just them getting a ticket back to wherever they um from where their natural support system is so that that's happened a few times as well um finally based on your report today we've seen a significant increase over time of those taking advantage of the services that you provide do you anticipate that continuing to increase well so one of the reasons why we think part of is just being here long enough as built a reputation that more these 300 individuals more are coming in using the service as they trust it I think we could I think there is a point though we as Catholic charity say we will hit our capacity and say that is as many as we can take um so whether there are other Solutions out there but we will we will reach a capacity um I have no desire to keep building a larger expanded um Center as such um so there will be a point I don't know what number that is but the need will increase well I believe if we really do this well this Center can be seen as an emergency place where their stay is brief and hopefully non-recurring that it's a point in their in their Journey but that transitional long-term housing would be the ultimate goal for for those individuals um so no I don't I are you there yet no we're not what's the time frame for that well I can't speak to the any paath home as a as a full committee um our part really is the emergency side of it um so there's a whole bunch of other partners which I hope they get a chance to share as well with you all their component in helping to solve um homelessness thank you yeah Mr chair yes go ahead B um Mr Myers and Mr null just thank you so much for your commitment to serving the most vulnerable Among Us I mean I could just burst into tears out of out of gratitude and awe for your commitment to people who um so often fall through the cracks and I think it is just important to recognize that part of the work of counties part of the work of Olstead county is to care for our most vulnerable individuals um and that's the that's the work that you're so committed to and um really I'm I'm I'm just uh chiming in here to thank you thank you thank you appreciate that okay chair yeah Dave uh thank you so much and thank you yeah also for what you do uh you want to Second uh my commissioner's comments uh just noticing the $200,000 uh I see projector toward need to cover uh how are you dealing with it short for is it through Catholic Charities yeah through donations and in our own operating budgets yeah okay uh my next question is uh on a night like tonight last night I don't know about the future nights but uh is there anybody that we would not have an availability a bed for during these cold times uh do we turn people away or do we have to turn people away so we haven't had to turn anybody away um I I think the only folks that we might have had to turn away is somebody that's been trespassed but we've been working really hard this season to work with them about giving them a second chance okay um but we haven't had to turn anybody away because we were so full that we just didn't have room for them um if somebody has you know done something that got them trespassed then you know they have to spend some time out but like um even this last couple of nights we've kind of understanding that the weather has been really really cold we'll let them in with understanding that hey we were going to give you some Grace tonight and show you that we want to give you that you're safe but you know that trespass still or give them a chance to fill out a trespass uh form where they basically just acknowledge why they were trespassed or their behavior and what they can do to change it so that's the first this is the first time that we've ever done that this season and it's been working really well so great we're giving people that extra that second chance out understanding and then just lastly when when this all started uh uh there were there were opportunities for volunteers to kind of do an overnight and uh it was a good experience maybe maybe we even helped a little bit I'm not sure but we were there uh does the volunteer program still work or so we do have a volunteer program we would like to get that back to where it was okay um you know because back when we first opened we had the four staff members and it was all volunteers and we never and we always opened um and so that's volunteers coming at two o'clock in the morning which is pretty impressive so we are working on trying to um engage those volunteers again we've shortened up our volunteer time so I think there's a lot that we can do to help get them um overflow might be a little different because we're going to need them to be there overnight but we're working on it we've got a volunteer engagement coordinator that's working with all of our programs at Catholic Charities and one of them is the housing program okay right and we are seriously looking at that especially for shortfall and costs if we can use volunteers as well that would really um stretch our dollars to be able to serve serve longer so yeah absolutely volunteering is a big part of I I just took it as a good life experience because it's pretty easy to live in this town and not see yeah kind of the other side of the coin and it's important that we do yeah great a question go ahead lur uh in your experience just approximately what percent of your guests are gainfully employed um currently right now there's quite a few that are um employed out of the I would say out of the 50 regulars that come to the warming Center there's probably four or five right now that are working and so um we do Reserve so normally our policy is that we don't Reserve beds for anybody but if somebody is working we do work with them they just show us their schedule and then we'll record that and then we'll save them a bed um just to help them support them in their efforts to get back on their feet yeah so we do have quite a few that are working um there's still some that are looking for work and you know every once in a while somebody will pick up an odd job like shoveling snow and then we'll get a little note saying that they're going to be helping out with that so we try to accommodate them and reserve them a bit to help them out as much as possible I think um that it's it's good to understand that um some homeless uh some people who experience homelessness um are working they have jobs and it can defy some of the stereotyp types that that people have about U folks experiencing homelessness for sure I think there's a lot that would rather be working but when you don't have an address to put on an application or if you don't have a driver's license or a social security card to do your paperwork all those things could be very difficult even if you're in the state of Minnesota like if your birth certificate is in another state getting a copy of that just to get an ID is difficult so um you know I think that's one of the reasons why but I think if given an opportunity a lot of them would rather be working okay well thank you guys I appreciate the report and all your work appr okay next up uh laws policies and practices related to immigration I know who's starting this off good evening Commissioners Mark OS County attorney and the sheriff's going to join me up here um Kevin T I'm going to uh just there's we're not intending to make any sort of a presentation or anything like that this is really intended to be a question and answer type uh session uh County Administrator Grancy uh contacted us said you know there's an awful lot of rhetoric right now now there's awful lot of concern in the community based on the the change in administration at the federal level and there's a lot of questions and and we understand that you as as Commissioners are Fielding some of those questions and so thought maybe it'd be a good opportunity for the two of us to be here really kind of do a Q&A with you if you'd like um I'll make a couple of uh opening comments this is a conversation that uh has been kind of ongoing uh with us and the Community for a number of years uh I will go back to at least 2017 probably even before that when some concerns were raised in our community with uh I'm going to say call them the undocumented Community some of our migrant Community some of those folks more of the transi transient communities and there was concerns about safety uh Mr Wheeler was up here earlier and during the comment period and and commented about concerns for vulnerability of of some of those f folks and challenges that they may have in reporting uh Public Safety events or other events uh where they they really do need the services of either Public Safety or other uh departments uh within the government and a reluctance because of some of the uh that larger conversation that's hand going on in our communities a reluctance to actually come forward and and ask for help or report some of their concerns this conversation as I said really was going on way back into 2017 and before um we had some real concerns with a particular community at that point uh really not willing to report some pretty serious Public Safety events so we talked about we had uh a lot of conversations and part of uh what I think the sheriff and I did is we we um kind of put together a little bit of information about some of the wise there's a lot of misinformation out there as well as to how uh specifically the sheriff and the adult detention center May respond to various people as they come into the facility and I I'll let the sheriff speak to that the foundation for a lot of of the work that we do and some of the questions that we will try to answer if you have any uh really go back into the 40s and into the 60s when uh a number of treaties were signed amongst the number of nations I think there's about 170 or so that were part of those those treaties uh the Vienna it was called the Vienna convention on Consular relations and it was dated actually in 1963 and that really sets the foundation for some of the work specifically that the sheriff probably does uh as we uh encounter various people of different nationalities um the foundation for that really is that within all of those 170 Nations that if somebody comes into custody in a particular country that they have a right to speak to their counselor about their detention and and that applies in all 170 of those countries including the United States and so you obviously the concern that everybody has right now seems to be you know what happens when uh somebody from another uh Nation another origin comes into custody in the United States what do we do and we have they have an absolute right to speak to their Consular and it's up to to the sheriff when when somebody comes into his custody to uh to help them you know facilitate that that right and the sheriff has developed various policies but it's it's critical that we make that opportunity available to them so there in lies probably the the concern that people have is that if if somebody comes into custody and they they don't have documentation with them uh what happens and are they going to be held forever that type of thing uh there's a lot of concern that um that there's some secret secret agreements or something with between the sheriff and Ice to that will always hold people you know that that might not be documented and some of these things are just simply not true um I had an opportunity to have a conversation with commissioner Hopkins earlier today one of the things I requested of him is to do a ride along we talked about rideal alongs in fact I've talked to all of you about rideal alongs and rideal alongs are not just hopping in a in a deputy's car and going out on the street but a ridealong is actually go down into the adult detention center for example and take a tour uh walk into the booking area the detention center and ask them you know exactly what do you do down here uh you know maybe you going to come up to my office and see what we do go over to the medical examiner's office these are are ride alongs that can really help shape uh some of the decisions you're making and and for purposes of this conversation I would encourage you if you've not been in the adult detention center to take a tour because it's pretty fascinating actually he runs a pretty good shop um but it's a great opportunity to to walk into the booking area and and you know what are the questions you ask and I think they're asked where were you born place of birth place of birth and if you say something other than the United States that's when this duty to notify your counselor uh is is invoked so if I walked in I'm Norwegian I wasn't born born in Norway but if I was a Norwegian I was born in Bergen I would tell the sheriff that and they'd get on the phone and they'd find out you know who should Mark call that's the point um but that's there's no other secret agreements um so really that's the biggest part that I wanted to share with you is that the sheriff has this obligation it is is borne out of these treaties that go way back to 1963 and even Beyond and it's super important not only that the we comply with those but it's my hope I don't like to travel internationally but if I did and I came into custody I want would want somebody to be calling my counselor in the United States and so that's why we abide by these um it's probably a good time for me to stop talking and let turn it over to the sheriff a little bit but it's really an opportunity to you know do a little Q&A if you'd like uh but just kind of uh just kind of set that Foundation out there so when you're getting these phone calls uh either you're better equipped to answer those or you're going to direct those calls hopefully to this guy yeah there you go I'm going to just clarify one thing we don't get on the phone right away it's not instantaneously when someone says they're from they're born somewhere else um what happens when again the first thing is we don't accept anyone unless they've been charged criminally or there's a court order there's no other way to get into the facility uh unless we let you in to take a tour basically um so what happens as a part of that booking process again I I really would say like Mark said take a little time and go down there and just watch your booking process um probably there's really no time to say that when's the best time I can't ever really say that because I we just don't know but if you get the opportunity to see a booking process part of the booking process is asking all the questions that Mark was explaining the second part of it or another portion is photographs and fingerprints the fingerprints now are the most inst instantaneous portion of of all of this um they're computerized and the soon as they get printed they go right into the system they go right to the BCA and the BCA throws that the FBI the FBI then runs their thing and again I don't know the timing of all this how quickly it happens whether it happens at the same Pace uh Monday through Friday and then on weekends or nights um I haven't sat there and timed that out and try to sort that through um but that's where it ends up the FBI is the National Database for fingerprints it's been that way since I was doing them in Inc back in the 1980s uh and it took a lot more time so they go through the computer system they go through the FBI looks at it of course the FBI is at the federal level they share that with their Partners at the Federal Federal level and and then that is disseminated out so when ice gets it um because they're a federal partner then they have the opportunity to give us a call and say hey uh you booked in so and so last night or this morning or yesterday afternoon whatever it is and here we go um this is what we would like you to do one of those is hey would you uh put us in touch with that person and we don't um Force anyone to speak to anybody if they say don't want to talk to their Uncle uh they don't have to talk to their uncle they don't want to talk to ice they don't have to talk to ice we don't force that upon them um when they're in there we let them know hey there's an individual who's representing the Customs Enforcement folks and they would like to speak with you the tany says no I don't want to talk to him uh so be it um that's that's that um so that's how the communication piece starts ice then if they do want to have someone um to talk to at another time and say hey we're going to come down there and visit with them uh they're another law enforcement agency it's no different than say Blue Earth County wanted to talk to one of our people that was in custody and for whatever various reason maybe they're working on a case that involves somebody uh we would let them come and visit with the detain as well if they don't want to talk to them again that's their choice they can say I don't want to talk to them um but we still allow that access to them um and I know people have questioned that in the past um I had another thought and it escaped me could I just go ahead can you help me see so I can understand you get arrested on the street and then you pull into the back garage here and and you do booking I guess and Y booking is sort of like signing in at a hotel I suppose a little bit more a little bit more involved we don't ask for your credit card but then the word charged I didn't you don't deputies don't charge you charge we have to have probable they're they brought into the facility on a probable what does charge mean I mean and you do it that's it's it's probably a real generic term so my office formally charges people we send those charges up to the court and the court signs off and that makes it official uh but law enforcement brings somebody into the entity into the uh facility on probable cause that they've committed that felony level fense almost always a felony or a um a designated misdemeanor um but that's probable cause so they're in on probable cause and so as the sheriff said they're not making all these phone calls right then the booking process has to start when they're walking in the door uh but some of the rest of these you know making sure they have these calls and stuff happens after the formal charging process is occurring so that could even be the next day or whatever well it depends on the individual um if it's a let's say it is a a DUI okay fing level DUI so they've had wi in the past or something like that um that has to take place first to get the you know to do the blood test or to do the uh the breath test or whatever that has to take place first okay and then the booking process takes place if the individual is is either uh too intoxicated to be booked in or isn't able to answer questions that time then yeah it could could wait until the next morning um but generally the staff is going to do everything they can to try to get that individual booked and fingerprinted as quickly as possible and just it seemed to me somebody said that you can't call the conselor until you're charged I I don't know if I heard that right and but then what if you call the conselor what what what's that conversation about and what do a counselor what can that counselor do to either help or guide this person really that's a million-dollar question and I've never called because I don't know um but but really it's all about protecting their right and obviously that's what we're all about is protecting their rights and under this under these treaties they have a right to have access to their Consul a right to have their Comm their Community their country aware that they're in custody and that's what it's all about I I would guess that a vast majority probably just don't need to or don't want to talk to the counselor but we still have to uh um afford them that opportunity thank you y the whole charging process it's all it's all complicated but you know we got to get charged people charged within 36 hours of when they come into the facility so um you know some of this stuff happens fairly quickly but it's all a very fluid process and again it kind of speaks to why it would be really interesting for you to go down and actually maybe go through it you know blow into the to the I don't think I call a breathalyzer anymore but uh blow into those machines and just see how this process works uh you know see what the pink room looks like yeah I I I would say one other piece to it that has been a pretty frequently asked question that's what's what's it look like when they get released and as Market I think stated early on um we're not allowed to detain them any further than they should be and that's the truth there used to be a a process that uh was I can't remember again that was probably around that 2017 2018 period where there was such a thing as called an ice detainer uh detainer was was simply a um member of the enforcement Organization for Customs Enforcement they would call us and say hey we want to put a detainer down or we'll fax your detainer on so and so um and sheriffs around the country were honoring that um and without any real understanding of what that all meant um and then there was some court cases and some things that bounced around and was determined that no that's we can't be doing that because it is not a court order it's a officer of the of ice who is just saying hey I I want you to hold this guy we're going to come down tomorrow or in two days and hold on to this person um that's that's wrong we can't do that and so the current practice we haven't honored those ice detainers I should say that for many many many years now I don't even remember exactly when that happened but we don't and we won't um and again as I stated before the only way someone can be um processed into our facility is if it's a court order that says they a judge has said a court has said they have to be held in custody or there is probable cause that a criminal event has has occurred and that process has to begin and that is all before Mark's office gets the actual charging process in place and and so there's there's all that now let's say that the individual gets arrested and it's Friday night um there's no court on Saturday um Sunday and maybe even a holiday like we had this week there was no court yesterday so now it's Tuesday morning and everyone who has been arrested since Friday afternoon through Monday night and even till Tuesday morning is still in the facility for the most part there's some other ways people can get out but I'm not going to get into all the weeds on that um but for the most part those folks are in there so they go to court today um during what we call we call First first arraignments or first appearances and that's simply to uh have them face the court face the judge the judge says this is what you're charged with it's real simple back and forth and the judge then at that point makes a determination on whether that person should be detained further now that's a court order and the court order the judge can say Sheriff keep this person here's the bail or no there's no bail or whatever those conditions are set and and it's met but if they get out here's the conditions on what they can do if they get out so there's a lot of stuff that plays around with all of that so let's say the P the judge says now this person can go we can wait on the charging we're going to let this person out on their own recognizance generally there might be some conditions to it but they're going to be a allowed to go free then that individual is in court they're up there with our detention deputies they're making notes feverishly to make sure they have all that information correct they process that person upstairs after Court's over and then once they get the groups and it depends on how many people are out there at the time they will come down back to the Detention Center they will be put back into their unit as all the rest of the stuff is going on on during the day with the other courts and everything else and then booking again will now process them first thing is to be sure that their Court notes from the detention Deputy that was taking the notes feverishly in court got them right so they'll double check with courts to make sure everything is correct and this person is allowed to go free um so that gets done that's approved by a sergeant and then the process can begin and it just takes time generally it's and I hate saying times generally it's no more than two hours it depends again how busy it is Tuesday morning after a three-day holiday weekend can be a lot longer in releasing people than than not so if ice has called us in that time frame and has said hey when this person is eligible to be released we will come and get them we want to come and get them and quite of often I shouldn't say often but now and again they'll still ask hey can you hold them we're going to be there at this time no we can't staff is very dedicated in in doing that and then we'll we'll uh they'll leave a note in that person's file and that file then will be opened to begin the release process and at some point in there usually the sergeant has a hold of that they will then call ICE back and says okay this individual is to be released the same thing would be in place if was again like Blue Earth County if Blue Earth County said hey we've got a warrant on this person or we've got we need to talk to this person let us know we would do the exact same thing to them we would call them back up and say hey they're getting out we're getting we're beginning the releasing process um you wanted to come and get them or you wanted to to see them um if come on over that's how it would work and it' be about it again when is an hour and 30 minutes hour 45 minutes in blue County Mano so the same kind of process that's what's done if they get here and the individual is still here in custody then ice is allowed to again they another law enforcement agency they feel they have the reason to to take custody of this person that's their issue that's their federal court that's what they have to prove to their Court not to our court and not to us they can with the proper for credentials and and information they can uh then uh pick that person up Mr chair I know probably said a lot of stuff there so now you have more questions apologies for interrupting I just that's fine the end about the moment that you're describing do you um sheriff sheriff have any discretion about receiving that call from ice or making a call to Ice do you have a a dis a discretionary role or is there a uh is there a um a protocol that you adhere to every time same as if it was be blor County they've called they've said it's in the file it says Hey when this person is eligible to release let us know the same thing then the sergeant calls them the booking Corporal will call them someone will make that phone call when that time when they have the time to do it when they're able to to make that happen there's no specific time frame or any kind of um yeah we're going to wait a little bit longer or you know whatever no it's when they get there they get the file if there's notes in there like that to notify this one or that one it could even be a Rochester police officer who wants to talk to somebody before they go uh because they've got this case that you know happened and maybe they couldn't talk to them the night they brought them in they're not working the next couple days and hey now they want to come in so it's it's really not any different than any other law enforce individual or agency that we would talk to um wouldn't handle it any differently I don't quite understand the difference between the practice that you said once was that no longer happens and like yeah the detain years years years I don't quite see the difference between the the detain the function of the detainer and the defunction they wanted us to hold them for three four days the detainer was an actual order to hold them and we we don't honor that anymore and so really what the sheriff is saying is every person that's in the ADC as they're being released is released the same way doesn't matter where they come from who they want to see if ice or Blue Earth County or RPD wants to visit with somebody before they're released they got to get here before they're released uh we don't hold anybody delay that we don't hold anybody for anybody that's really what it comes down to we don't hold anybody for ice longer than we would to hold them for any other reason they we open up the door we let them go and I know that there's people have questioned you know well you could release this person first and that person and there's 15 to release well it all takes time and I don't believe staff tries to sparse that out put somebody on the bottom of the pile supposed to be on the top um they just do the releases as they're able to get them done and again it's not it's not rocket science but there is a process because on the other side of it and that's why I said the sergeants and corporals view these releases and the documents from court is we don't want to release the wrong person either and that can be a major issue and and I know that's happened thank goodness it hasn't happened here um it has but it hasn't in a long time um but I do recall just recently there was an agency uh forget where it was whatever state but it wasn't that long ago around Christmas time someone had been released and they weren't supposed to and that was a feling level was a pretty dangerous individual so um that's why we're they're very meticulous and we don't just let any of our detention staff be a booking Deputy uh they have to earn it and it's very specific work that they have to do and they have to understand the court system they have to understand all of these things before they even get a chance and then they're overseen by other deputies while they learn that process so it's not an easy process um and we just don't let any body do it it's specific people that that's all they do they do all the bookings they do all the releases as long as they want to thank you yep Sher can I just go don't want to get too far into the weeds but if the example is the person in Blue Earth County uh be it undocumented or documented doesn't matter to my question at least how how would Blue Earth County or any other County know that a certain person was in Omid county is it based on the fingerprints and and what they might get back it could be a lot of different things no that probably not that it could be that uh their cousin let them know could be that somebody put it on social media could be a lot of different sources out there as to how they found out those bookings are public information and I I will share it was I think in it was in 2018 we actually solved the murder because uh I think it was either brother or cousin of our suspect was in the Blue Earth County jail and RPD went over and talked to that guy and we got a kind of got a confession so it's all you know these law enforcement a agencies uh share a lot of information but it's it's really it's all public information as well two things on that list I'm just gonna suggest that when you get a chance to talk to Matt Peabody ask him what's the most uh clicked on uh page in all of hestad County our website just I'm not going to give you the answer I think you don't but do ask him that at one point and then on on that same note and this is a kind of further off the weeds but it's a I think it's very pointed for this conversation and that is I had a school counselor many years ago telling me uh when I became sheriff that I was down there visiting and I'd been involved with some things down there and we were just cleaning some stuff up and and uh the counselor came over to me and said Kevin don't you ever take the who's in custody page off your website uh it wasn't even part of the conversation and I said why and he said because I look at it every morning to see which of my kids parents might have got arrested last night because we are going to contact them and and help them support them through the dayto day because they probably had a tough night so um the answer to the question was the who's in jail uh who's in custody is the most most watch page so that's how they find out there's a lot of different ways um could be Word of Mouth could be social media could be a phone call hey somebody's this or that um I don't know but just is there somebody in Cass County that gets arrested tonight and that that person's important toon County you you just don't kind of automatically find out it off the computer or something like that right or or could you no no there's not like when we enter that name it goes shoots off to Cass County no not that no it's not like that we're not that connected um but if it's a warrant if there is a warrant on it of some kind warrant might be that definitely signals it and we do make that phone call as well um but actually dispatch does that before the person is even brought into custody because we want to make sure on the street that that person is um the right person at that point in time okay thank you yep so the closing comment I guess I would make I would reiterate again Mr Wheeler when he was up here earlier talked about the vulnerability of this population we are very aware of that and very concerned about that and some of the things we experienced a number of years back uh you know some of these folks would just simply refuse to carry any form of identification because they thought that would help them get caught it doesn't it makes it worse um the the not reporting uh Public Safety events things like that we're very aware of that we're very concerned with that vulnerability um and so you know it's one of those things that plus you we that we all would like to continue to try and help uh dispel some of these rumors and dispel some of these uh concerns because we want our community to be safe we want everybody that lives in this community to be safe uh we just heard a a great presentation about the warming shelter and and the work that they do for the homeless some of these these folks are in a big sense homeless and uh you know we're concerned for all those people so that's the whole point of being here is to try and dispel some of that stuff but but to keep uh Forefront this concern about this National rhetoric that is creating all these uh larger concerns and causing a lot of people to just unfortunately kind of uh kind of go underground in a sense and that doesn't make any of us uh any safer so we really we truly really do want uh what's best for our community and the best thing is you know uh please don't don't hide from things like that yeah and please have mask but there is one more thing and you just reminded me just as you were talking um we don't ask the question of origin of birth at traffic stops either that's or at it in taking a report so if someone does call someone's been assaulted a domestic violence or whatever it may be that's not a question that the average Deputy or officer on the street ever asks it's just not part of it we don't do that we're not concerned with that out there the concern is about the victim and getting help to the victim and support for the victim at that point and making sure the individual that caused the the problem um is taken care of uh in the way that they need to be taken care of so that's another rumor that's been going around for years and years is that you know we go up and and uh you know that's one of the questions we don't do that the other question that comes up too that is again a a rumor in in in some places and that is if if there only identification is a green card or some other form of identification from some other place uh we accept it on the on the right on the street it we'll take that information down give it back to them and it's done it's not something where our people would then you know secretly go back to the squad and make a phone call to Ice they don't do that that's not our job that's not our place so our staff are not doing that and I Know Chief Frankin and I have had this conversation as well and we've talked about it in front of groups before that it's just not something we do and and that's kind of feeds into this fear that people have that we're out there to you know to look in every nook and cranny that's not our job uh that's somebody else's job they happen to work for the federal government and we don't help with that the only thing we're required to do is like what Mark described with the uh the treaties is we are required to gather that information which is what we do it goes through and the process takes place from there and that's out of our hands so I just I want to ask you hypothetical you know because president Trump has vowed to deport tens of thousands of people so let's say that somehow he he uh finds a way to do that what what role do you foresee local law enforcements would have in that nothing okay that's what I wanted to hear we're going to get out of their way okay so that's not our job the only the only thing where we could or would get involved is if uh there's agents here and they do come here there's no question about them should Phil and others would say that they they are here or they come here they don't have an office here they're not you know in our building anywhere um but uh if they were down here and they were you know trying to find somebody and say they found them and it got to be an event where it became dangerous uh weapons involved or whatever uh they we would respond to help keep that peace and help with the public safety aspect of that that's the only way we would get involved would they come to us and say hey can you send us your warrant guys and go out with us no the answer is no we don't do it we won't do it um they may tell us where they're going okay fine um but we're not going to be there and we're not going to sit down the block we're not going to hide around behind the trees we're not going to do that okay well I think that's an important message to get out there there are a couple detention C centers in the state that have a contract with the feds to hold people olate county is not one no and we're not Sherburn is one I think Freeborn used to County does not have a contract to hold for ice so they're not going to bring all those people to our adult detention center and hold we're not going that was a question I had today actually um what if um they came and they were able to as they this is not my words this the words that was Po in the question what if they rounded up 10 and it was 6:30 or 7:00 at night and they didn't want to drive all the way up to Sherburn County Al River um would you take them no why because they don't have warrants or court orders that says they can be held in custody only Sherburn or freeorn is where they would go we wouldn't take them even if it was an overnight not happening that to be a warrant or a probable caused criminal event that happened in olon county for them to get in here Mr can I just wouldn't I mean I'm just wouldn't the Federal Medical Center as a prison be a holding site I don't know probably not I don't know I don't know their details over there but I doubt it because those are sentence individuals it's kind of like uh you know we're not going to sure I mean it's not our call but I just was curious same as if if we had a a state run prison here we would they wouldn't all in there either because it's not the same process I just want I reiterate when you pull somebody over and they're they're not from here and they give you an ID you're not checking to see whether they're here legally or illegally you're just use that ID to if it's an ID is it real and we'll run them on the name and date of birth like we would um and see if they have a license that's what we're worried about or a warrant and yeah and if there's warrants from somewhere else yeah then we go from there okay y all right are there any more questions no thank you guys appreciate very informative very helpful bit okay we're nearing the end um this year instead of doing board and committee reports I'm just going to give you an opportunity to if you got a board report or if you got a shout out to somebody you can do basically anything except uh introduce a board action or uh or uh say something detrimental about a colleague or County employee so is there anybody would like to make a statement or board report quiet on this side I have something to there we go Laurel thank you I have something to report um commissioner Rosman and I sit on the first homes board and we got um a kind of overview of activity at our most recent meeting and uh for for um any of you um not in the know about first homes they're a Community Land Trust agency uh and they um started 25 years ago with just a handful of homes and they now have three 00 homes um and they're doing very well um they're in a a strong financial position they're growing the red hog homes with which we're uh closely associated are selling well and quickly um and uh uh um did I anything else that you would add Michelle um about that first meeting that jumped out to you no I think that was a good overview okay all right that's my report maybe uh just uh a little bit I'm I'm I'm I'm a new member of the three of Rivers Community Action Program uh we met in zambro I believe it was last Wednesday and U just a couple interesting things one of the things I hesitate to even share it with you but they they have compiled some demographic data of our region in including our County specifically it it's it's very volumous but it's voluminous I guess is but it's it it's good data and I I'm I'm hesitant to whether to have it all printed and share it with you or not but but if if you want to see some good data if you're a data driven way I I'm happy to make copies of it for you uh if not it'd be a waste of paper but so just ask me uh the other thing uh specifically that program that one of the interesting things that are doing with the rice county is uh a program a couple $100,000 to renovate uh mobile homes they they found a with respect to uh you know the lower income uh housing need at least in in that county and I'm sure it's all over that that mobile homes play a pretty pretty Co role in in in this and uh and some of these homes aren't all that maybe they should be in many ways and so they're they're going about Rice County and and and putting some money into working home by home so to speak speak and and renovating those then the other thing that we talked about and I'll share this one with you uh is that three rers Community Action Program is becoming a a member if you will of of any path home and in accordance or at least in the process of of discussing that membership we did have an opportunity to see the charter document of any path home and I think it since we not this body but the HRA does is is really the the funding Agency for any path home it it'd be wise if I you know shared that with you and it's only it's only a couple pages so you'll probably get an email from me on that okay well I'm going to end like Sheila escade I'm going to end with her quote so today's quote is from uh an unlikey Source uh Norman schwarzkoff he said leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character character but if you must be without one be without the strategy all right can I get a motion to adjourn second all right