in the Winona, Minnesota to live. We call our meetings to order with the public comment. Anybody in the audience or online uh can address the county board. You have two minutes. We ask you to state your name and address and um tell
us what's on your mind. So, please step step to the mic. Hello, my name is Robert Wick, 25669 Cly Drive, Rushford, Minnesota. Thank you for allowing me to speak about rifle use elimination of shotgun zone in southeast Minnesota. My name is Robert Wick. Uh,
and my wife and I live in Hart Township near the Fillmore County border. We both hope that Winona County will follow the Freeborn, Homestead, Dodge counties opting out of the elimination of the shotgun zone and side with safety. In
this regard, we feel that our house, land, property will be directly, negatively, and possibly dangerously impacted by the use of rifles during deer season here in Hill Country. We live not far from state land which is overly populated with deer hunters and we have bullets flying into our property in the past with shotgun use and believe
that it will only get worse with the rifles. For the past two years, there were proposed bills in our state legislators to eliminate the shotgun zone in our area and in both years they were defeated due to safety concerns, especially here in Bluff Country. The same bill would have been defeated again
this year. So the authors lumped it into the environment omnous bill and added the option for each county to add an ordinance limiting rifle use. Some counties are primarily flat ground which some could argue is safe for rifle but we are known as bluff country here in Winona County. Different terrain,
different considerations. Shotgun zone has been in existence for 83 years and we have safely benefited from during it during that time. A shotgun is considered short- range firearm and a rifle is considered long range firearm. sniper uses a rifle, not a shotgun.
Modern day 20 gauge shotgun, such as a 20 Savage 2020, has an effective range out to 200 yards with a maximum total travel distance of 1,000 yards. Whereas a 30 odd six rifle has an effective range out to 300 to 500 yards, but a maximum travel distance of roughly 3.37
miles. In addition, if a hunter attempts a 500 yardd shot with a 30 odd rifle, they'll aim 47 in high. And if a 10 mph wind, they'd have to aim 18.5 inches against the wind. One study says that Army snipers would only be capable of
their hitting their silhouette target 50% of the time at 500 yards. Are you considered a common hunter and the hills that we live in? Think about those bullets are potentially going. Rifles are not safe. Period. Let's do the right thing here in Winona County and follow
what has been done in the neighboring counties and side with safety. All right. And I have data to support everything I pretty much said. And I've made copies for everybody if they'd like copies. If you can just uh give them the chuck there and he can uh filter them around to the rest of us. All right.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That always happens. Our our podium is too small. Apologize. My copies too. Sure. Well, they want copies of everything I to document what I just said. Just take
one of it. Here you go. Is there enough? Okay. Is there anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board? Come on up. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Uh those
online and our guest this morning, Bob Bamick, Winona County Recorder, 2024 Clinton, Winona, Minnesota. This morning, I'm here to bring greetings to the county commissioners and all others uh to attend the Winona
County Fair. 167th annual begins on Wednesday at St. Charles, we have five outstanding parties that are having a day at the fair in recognition of their lifelong efforts. And new this year, we
also have one business that's having a day at the fair. The recognition program is at 2:00 Thursday, and I sincerely invite everyone to attend that. It'll be in the tent at the fairgrounds. The fair is a special place in my heart,
my family. Um, I started uh helping at the fair when I was in junior high and um as of this year I've missed one year. So, I'm pretty proud of that and um I'd like to see all of you and we'll keep this going. All right. Um thank you and
thank you for um attending the fair. No, no, no. Uh uh century century farm orund what's the word I'm looking for here? No, thank you for asking the question. Um, we've put a lot of effort into it. We've
had news announcements. I've talked to groups about it. And for recent years, we've had fewer that have not had a sentry farm than those that have had. And we do not have a sentry farm this year. We do not have a Sesqua Centennial
farm. A year ago, we did. We had a sesco centennial and uh that uh was with the speltz family and they had a uh their own celebration following the day at the fair. Had a very very big crowd on the farm. It was very well done and I had
spent a considerable amount of time with them uh putting together the history. Their family history and interestingly enough uh they they weren't sure about their history. So it became a real learning experience for them as well as us.
I'm sure that there possibly could be a hundred-year farm, just maybe nobody applied or just got away. Absolutely. And and for some of them, this it's it's been the grandkids that brought it up and got mom and dad or more often grandpa and grandma involved.
And if all they need to do is just just give us a call or send us a note, we'll take a look at it for them. It's not uh a big time consuming project and most often once we have the information together the family knows and they can recognize it so that it it it really
brings back some memories. So we've um we're there to to partner on this and we we do want to recognize our our Century Farms and our history. And what we're doing this year is I've got lists of all of the previous parties that have been recognized with Century
Farm recognition. That'll be available and anyone attending the program that has a Century Farm is going to be recognized. Great. See you there. All right. Thank you very much. Approaching a century, but not a century. Yes. And I I understand the board chair
uh Marsh is going to be bringing a greeting from the county commissioners, and we're very pleased with that. and I'm speaking on behalf of the fair board who asked me to extend this greeting this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. All right. Is there anyone else wishing
to address the Winona County Board? Step step forward, please. Hello. I'm Tasha Young Ray. I'm from Congressman Brad Finstead's office. I had meant to be here a little bit earlier, but I got a little turned around on my way here. So, but I am a district outreach representative for the
congressman and I just wanted to introduce myself since I started in December. So, I'm a little bit newer. So, I've been going to county board meetings uh on my part of the district, which would be the eastern portion. But, I just wanted to introduce myself and give you a face and a card. So, if you
needed anything from our office, we're more than happy to help you out. I got one that I've never got an answer to. How can I park cars underneath those two bridges right out the back door? I will try to get you an answer on that one. Everybody says I can't, but they don't
say why I can't. I'll look into that. I'm real estate. You're right. And where are you based? I'm based out of the Rochester office. Rochester. Okay. You can leave your cards there with Chuck. I appreciate you coming. Thank you. Thank you for coming. He's been hard to
find lately. So, thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board? And last time, anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board?
Okay, seeing nobody, um we'll move into item three, approval of county board meeting minutes, we have 3.1, close session, June 24th, 2025. 3.2 board of equalization and pee June 2425.
and then the county board meeting of June 2425. So moved. I'll second. We have a motion by Commissioner Eline, seconded by Commissioner Meyer to approve those meeting minutes. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Those nay. Okay. Those are approved.
Item four, uh, acknowledge receipt of approved committee meeting minutes. 4.1 is the board of adjustment from April 17, 2025, and 4.2 2 is the planning commission of March 20, 2025. Move to approve items 4.1 and 4.2.
Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Vagley, second by Commissioner Olsen to acknowledge the receipt of the approved committee meeting minutes. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Approve. Thank you. Um item five, consent comments and approval of
the agenda. Uh Commissioner Vagely, uh two items at the end of the meeting, please. Commissioner Elling, a comment at the end. Commissioner Olsen, nothing for me. Commissioner Meyer, nothing, Madam Chair. Administrator Holty,
uh, just a request to swap 7.1 and 7.2, please. Right. We can reverse those. Uh, I understand the South Southern Minnesota Initiative Fund is on their way, so we will do we will reverse those because we do have the um medical examiner people
with us. Um and myself I have a comment at the end. Yes, Attorney Son. Well, thank you. Appreciate that. Um I do have a one comment.
Okay. All right. With that, we have an amended agenda. Move to approve the amend uh agenda as it was amended. Second. Okay. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsen to approve the amended agenda. Any discussion? All
those in favor say I. I. Oppos? Nay. Approved. Uh, Miss Holy, would you read that into the record, please? Absolutely. 6.1 Approval of Federal Me 220 gambling application for exempt permits Hidden Valley Fire and Rescue.
6.2 2, approve renewal for regional administrative agency cooperative agreement fraud prevention investigation program. 6.3 approve interim use permit for Society of St. Pies X. 6.4 Confirm payment of dispersements.
I'll move to approve the uh consent business as it was read. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Vale Vaguely to approve the consent business as read. Um something just a comment I want to make. Uh we're talking about uh and many people maybe doesn't don't know
this uh the fraud prevention. Now this wasn't fraud. Well, it was fraud. Okay. So, and I've heard this happen at a couple other counties. Our most recent conditional use permit uh person who we approved last time for the cannabis growing operation. Um the person uh she
called me hysterically like the following day or or two later and she said I just got a bill for over $7,000 from the county and I said we don't send out bills. I mean the conditional use permit there's a flat fee. Um but she
had a $7,000 bill and I never saw it. She just read it to me. It was very itemized like uh research verification. It had Ross Dunore's uh duties and things like that. And I said, "Oh, okay. Where are you supposed to, you know, pay
this? Supposed to wire the money to somebody." So, and I've heard this happen also. Um, a a commissioner in Wabashaw County said the same thing. So, the message is, you know, to the public is that the county doesn't ask anybody to wire money
anywhere and a conditional use permit is the flat fee unless there's some, you know, major change or anything like that. Um, but I was so glad that she called to uh, you know, ask instead of just, you know, sending off a wire, but
we would never ask anybody to wire or credit cards or gift cards or or any of those things. Um, but it really had that that applicant kind of shook up, which, you know, rightfully it should. So, there is fraud going on in um, even just that. But they look at our meeting minutes and they get I don't know, you
know, they get names at we talk about um, safety public safety. We give them names, addresses, location, pictures, absolutely everything they can, you know, would want to cause havoc with a with a person. So, I don't know how we protect that, but anyway, just so the
whole board knows that. So, I I uh we have a motion and a second to approve the consent business as read. All those in favor say I. I. Nay. Okay, we are approved. Okay, moving into uh general business. Um we will go with uh seven or 7.2. two, we're
going to receive the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office 2024 annual report. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Thanks for having me here today. I'm Dr. Ross Riker. I'm the medical examiner for Winona County and the chief
medical examiner for the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office. And I have my colleague Monica Kindle here who's in charge of our uh death investigators. So, we can just kind of go through this. And so, um, the, uh, pale blue, uh, counties are are
the ones that we provide the full medical examiner services for, um, and the, uh, sort of purple, uh, ones are the ones that we provide consult service for. So, these are ones where, uh, we do the autopsies for. So, we only the autopsy. So, we have a a whole region
that we we've covered, which is kind of nice to sort of get a sense of what's going on um, in the area. So, if we go to the next slide, um this is our our team and so we have uh four forensic pathologists now and we're adding a
fifth uh this fall actually in in the end of August. Um which is great. Um and then we have our investigators here. Um and I would just really like to highlight our Winona County investigators because they're really the the crew that keeps things going.
They're the ones in the county 24/7 365 responding to calls. I mean, they keep the wheels on the bus going. They start our investigations. They follow up. I just can't emphasize how important that those frontline staff are. Um, then we have our investigators back at our main
office in Rochester that, you know, help sort of relay that information, but you know, that Winona investigators um are excellent and can't say enough about how how important they are for the whole system to work. So if we go on to the the the next slide. So this is just a brief reminder
of what's on the death certificate. Um so obviously we have the cause and manner of death, but just as a reminder, there's lots of other public health um information uh that's gathered there that's not on the death certificate that the family receives, but it is being gathered. It's important for public
health information. You know, the families use this obviously for closure and all sorts of legal things. Um but also that information flows up to the state and then from the state to the federal uh level. And so this is when you see those numbers of whether the
drug overdose rates, motor vehicle accidents, that that's where it's coming from. And I mean it's, you know, it's a lot like local government. It starts very grassroots with investigators seeing if they're drugs at a scene and this is how it eventually connects all the way to the the federal the federal
level. Um so if we move on to the the next uh slide um and so this is really just a high level summary of the of the the number of cases that we were involved in. Um we had 328 um that were reported
to us out of 365 deaths. Um and so in one shape or form or the other uh we were involved and reviewed at least 90% or 90% of the deaths within the county. And so these are like hospice deaths and cremation permits and other things that are that are brought to our attention.
And so I think from my standpoint, we like that because it really means we have our eyes on how things are being managed and things aren't slipping through the cracks. Uh we did um 47 complete autopsies. We did nine external examinations and that's where you know
they've have documented injuries or something and we fall in our jurisdiction. We just look at the body and determine, you know, based on the medical record and such that we, you know, u and we have we're going to probably see more of these because um as the population ages, what's ending up
happening is you have individuals that are on hospice and they have a fall and there's questions about whether or not that sort of expedited their passing. And so we end up bringing them in for an external and post-mortem imaging. So they fall, they break their hip. you
know, we know that contributed to the death and or we document that. Um they may not have gotten that evaluation because they're on hospice. Um and so then that would affect the manner of death. So does does the immediate family have any say that say no we don't want this done
uh you know this invasive procedure in my well that's not invasive on that for the external examination and and most of the time they want that because it helps you know changing the manner of death can have all sorts of implications for insurance and obviously if they're in care facilities there's big
consequences. So if whether we say there isn't an injury that you know that contributed that could be really important particularly for the care in institution but can the family say no I I mean again does the they can object they can object yes so there is object that went into statute a
number of years ago um but basically the family can object and we work with the families to make to do whatever we can to sort of meet them where they are if they're you know if they need the body back on the same day we'll expedite the autopsy if we can do postmortm imaging
that would, you know, basically help support what we need to do. Um, so we work with them. If there's a compelling state interest, you know, then then we have to get into discussion about whether or not um we'll work with the county attorney and have this discussion of like, okay, this is a compelling
state interest. We're going to do this autopsy. So, just to use an example that you can go look up, I mean, you can't like poison your wife and then say, "I refuse to have an autopsy and I want a direct cremation." That would So, that's that's the roadblock that that we are
intentionally setting out there. I think I've seen that on a law and order though. Yeah. Yes. In other places, too. But, yeah. So, we but we work with the family. So, that's typically not an issue. The bigger issue for us is if they say we
don't want an autopsy and we say we're going to sign this out as heart disease, we will have them sign a form that says you didn't want this autopsy. So you can't come back to me in a week and say well what can you do now that you know the body's buried or what have you.
That's kind of that's actually a bigger issue is people in the moment obviously are upset and under stress and then subsequently say oh you know what it actually would have been good to know what happened to mom or what have you. So, but we work with all of them on a one-on-one basis. Really?
Well, there's so many more religious affiliations and they have their rules and their practices and then there's so many more different ways. It's not just, you know, casket and burial. There's, you know, cremation and all these other green burials and all this other stuff. Yes, it's definitely evolved. I mean,
cremations are way, way up, you know, and that started with like the Great Recession. Um, that's when the cremation started going up. Then I culturally across the United States there was more acceptance of cremation versus burial and then with the pandemic it continued to go up. So
Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Um so we had 245 deaths um that we released back to the primary care to sign the death certificate. Um, and so, uh, just to sort of give you a sense, so we'd much rather have someone call in
and report a death to us and we do a review and say, "Hey, this isn't doesn't fall under our jurisdiction. Thanks for letting us know. You can sign a death certificate." So, if we go to the next uh page by manner of death and so again, what you
really like to see is that large natural column which reflects people dying of their naturals disease typically as they're older. U, we had two undetermined deaths. that we can uh talk about a little bit later. Uh 42 accidents and nine suicides and no homicides. And so we'll we'll go into
each of those categories in more detail. So on the next page is uh deaths by unnatural causes. And so we've again we've taken the manner of deaths, the circumstances uh surrounding a death. The cause of death again is the underlying reason why they died. Um so
we had uh forest fixia deaths. We had um uh one burn uh no drownings, four firearms, uh 18 falls/jumps. That's really sort of the public health terminology. We'll go into the details of those um in a minute. We had uh eight
motor vehicle accidents and we had 16 u poisonings or drug overdoses. Um and so we'll dig into that a little bit more, but I wanted to point out that of those 16, 12 of those were accidents. uh two of them were suicides and two of them we couldn't determine if it was accidental
or suicide. So the number is going to look kind of big there. I mean it's still an uptick um from but we we'll we can talk about that when we get to the drug compulsion portion of the presentation. Um so the next is suicide by means. We
had one asphixxia deaths. We had one fire or four firearms uh one hanging and two drug overdoses and one sharp force injury or cuts. And so um you know suicide is usually the individual uses
what means is available to them. So uh the next is suicide by age. Um and so there is um compared to some of our other counties a little bit of a a broader range with two in the 18 to 25, three in the 26 to 40 and and four in
the older group. So it's a little bit broader um age range than some of our other counties. Um and actually I was going to ask this later, but maybe you all know this and it's probably something that we should look up. I just something that as we look at like the age of suicides and
drug overdoses, I wonder if do you all know like the average age or the age ranges of the population of Winona County? So, that's one of the things I've been thinking about whether or not we have some of these younger groups is that's a reflection of the population of
Winona being younger than some of the other uh populations of our county. So, that's something I think we're going to look into. They always tell us we're an agent society. I mean, I think there's a bulge on older people. We'll exclude Martian. So, I'm really old, but there's a bulge
college age kids because of the university. That's kind of what I was thinking and I wonder if that's kind of what has skewed that. So, you sort of have that college age and then you have maybe people that are here for a couple years after college or what have you. So, um I just didn't know if you happen to know that offh hand, but
but it's not just the college range that I think distorts maybe those two those two bulges in the demographic map. Um I'm a part of a southeast Minnesota regional uh coalition dealing with youth mental health suicide and and drug
addiction. Um, and is it corre correct if I'm recalling, is this accurate that suicide is now the second leading cause of death for like kids aged 10 to 17 and then 17 to 24? I think it's either second or third. So, it's only behind accidents and it's higher than cancer.
Is that sound rough? Um, that does sound probably roughly correct. Most people don't realize this is not this is the second leading cause. This is a serious issue for and it's not just because we have a lot of college students. So yeah, like ages 10 to 17.
And as a teacher, I'm a high school teacher. Um the second half of my career, this'll be 30 years this fall has been very different from the first half in terms of mental health, um depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts. The number of funerals I've gone to for suicide has almost all
happened in the second half of my career. But so I I didn't want people to think it's just because of Winona State. It's a nationwide problem, right? No, it's definitely an issue. That's a public health issue. you know, some questional examiners. I I just wanted to double check to make sure I had the information correct.
Okay. Um so if we go on to the the next page, which is the suicide rate per capita, um there was uh 10 then so this data is uh if the injury occurred in the county. So we on the previous ones it's the the injury and the death occurred in the county and this is if the injury
occurred. So one of them was transported. So this is why there's 10 uh deaths here. It's per capita. So it's you know by 100,000. So if you move it by a couple individuals, it can really sway those bar graphs dramatically. Could you What's the red line? I saw
Oh, that's a state. That's a state level. Yes. Yeah. Just not suicide attempts. Correct. Correct. Yeah. There's there's a huge number. It's it's staggering. I don't know the number off the top of my head, but the number of suicide attempts
per completion is it's staggering. Actually, roughly in terms of teenagers, one in nine, one in 10 teenagers will have attempted suicide their teenage years, etc. attempted, not just thought of, but attempted. Yeah, it's it's a huge number. When you
when I talk to my emergency physician colleagues, I mean, this is something that they see every single day in the emergency room, which is just, you know, heartbreaking really. Okay, so the the next page is homicides. We like to keep that clean. Uh none this
year thankfully. Uh this is the hom the next one is the homicide rate per capita. Um so again pretty low um rates in this region which is good. Um so now let's move on to the next page which is the accidental deaths u by type. Um so
we had three asphixxias. One was an accidental carbon monoxide, a tractor accident, and a choking um death. The burn was an an accidental electrical uh electrocution. Uh the falls, which we'll talk about in a little bit more detail in a minute. These are typically older
individuals that have other medical conditions, and we'll show you where those occurred. Um eight motor vehicle accidents, and then these were the 12 um overdose deaths that were accidental. was 16 before because that included the suicide and and the undetermined ones.
How how do you know that they they accidentally died from poisoner drugs? That's really based on our investigation, you know, and so, you know, some people have made the argument that if you're willing to, you know, take these potent drugs, maybe you there is like some sort of suicidal ideiation
every time because it's kind of a gamble. But we look for someone who like is intentionally trying to take their own life. And so we have other indications like whether it's a suicide note or text message um previous attempts. Maybe they have hesitation or
cut marks or other sort sorts of things that would um indicate that it was intentional versus just they got 20 bottle pills sitting on their kitchen counter. That's not considered accidental. And if and if they're all empty they're all empty. Yeah. So if you have 20 pill bottles and
they're all empty, you know that we're worried about that being a suicide. If you were supposed to have a hundred of your oxycodone left and you you have 10 left, maybe you taken more than you should and accident and combined it with alcohol or something like that. Okay.
Yeah. So that's where our in investigators are really critical. That's helping us make that determination. Um so the next page is uh by vehicle crashes. Um so we had uh three um auto and SUVs. We had uh three motorcycles.
Um and then we had one pedestrian and one um ATV um accident. Uh the next one is a map um of uh basically where the deaths occurred year-over-year. Um again um there's from
our stand and the size reflects the number in that region. We have a blow up of one of this areas that looks a little more concerning, but there's really nothing from our standpoint that's sticking out as like a particular intersection. Um, so if you go to the next page, this
is by the type of vehicle. Um, and so this is a reflection actually of what's available and what people are doing in the county. You know, if you have people that are, you know, there's bike trails, there's um snowmobile trails, there's other sorts of ATV trails, motocross,
that's really affecting this, whereas other counties have less of that. And so that's why you see a mix because that's just a reflection of what people are doing and are available. Um the next one is basically a blow up of that area where those dots were sort of on top of
each other. Um and when you zoom in, you can see that these are all in different locations. Um and so again, you know, this is something you all can obviously dig deeper into with law enforcement if you're interested. Um so the next is the motor vehicle
fatality rate per capita. And so there were uh nine injuries um that occurred in the county. Um we had eight deaths that this is kind of confusing to be honest with you. So um there's a number of injuries that occurred in the county and they were transported and died outside of the county and then you also
had um some deaths that were they injured here and they died much longer down the road. Um and so um so nine's a rough number but it's a yeah remind me again. I' I think I asked this question. If they're transported outside of the county, are they counted on here?
Yes. And that's where they reside. Correct. If they reside here, whether they take them to St. Mary's or Lacrosse, it's where the injury occurred. Yes. Yeah. So, that's what these are. The other ones are if the death occurred in the county.
So, you say motor vehicle. One of one of my big concerns lately is all these motorized bicycles. Is that That's not a motorized vehicle. That's still considered a bicycle. They're a challenge. No, we would consider them a motor. We would we would put them in a motorized vehicle. So, we
have like scooter categories and all of those types of things. So, okay. Well, it seems like they have a great disrespect for the rules of the road and I'm afraid there's going to be future accident. I'm laughing because I just about got killed by one the other day. A Jimmy
John's driver on a sidewalk going about 20 miles an hour. Like, seriously. Yeah. Or they just ride out in traffic without acknowledging. Yeah. And and you're supposed to Yeah. You're supposed to see them when you're in the car. You're supposed to know they're coming at you. Isn't their business slogan freaky fact?
Something something like that. I probably should not have used a brand name. I apologize. I apologize. I should not use a a name. Not the way you want to go though. No. Do not want to go. It'd be freaky fast. Way to go though.
Okay. Anyhow, next one. So accidental back to you would track. Yes. So if we see something happening uh in that type of category, we could Yes, we would. Yes, we we we try to have that kind of granularity, which is why you see all these different categories
there and we're because we have people that are on scooters. We have people that are on their own motorized scooters, you know, because they're handicapped. So we're we're capturing all of those. So good. Um the next one is accidental deaths. uh
or falls by age group. Um and so again, as you might imagine, this is typically in older individuals. And so just note that we've we you know, it used to just be greater than 65, now we're at 95 plus, you know, and so we just kind of keep shifting the bar graph to the right
of the population ages, which is which is good. So yeah, and so on the on next page, um and so this is by location. And so, you know, this is just something that's come up because people have sort of been you asking that question. Uh, we had this
one in other locations that was a fall in a parking lot. Uh, we didn't have anything in other residents. We did have seven in the deedants residence at their own home. Um, 11 in assisted living, two in a care facility and none in a hospital. And so, just to sort of get a sense of where they're going on, I mean,
obviously care facilities and hospitals falls as a huge huge issue. It's a challenge. Um it's just sort of a continual challenge. So um and now we know often times I mean there's a lot of video in these facilities and so we actually have video taped examples of
where they fell and so it's kind of um interesting even in some people's residents like the the kids have put up basically the baby camera kind of things to watch grandma or mom um remotely. So um anyhow so the the next one is drugs related to poisonings or death. And so
these are the ones that occurred um in the county. Uh so we had nine with illegal drugs, two mixed uh four prescription medications and that's the two that were suicides and two that were undetermined. We couldn't tell if that was accidental or suicidal.
Um if we go to the next page and so the age range isn't really in that 26 all the way up to the 75 to 84 year old category actually. Um, so this is a shift that's younger than what we are seeing in other counties. Most of our
our drug deaths in the other counties are more in that 45 to 64 age. And when we dig into those, these are typically like chronic drug users that have a history of, you know, like 10 plus years of drug use. Um, and those have often been uh fentanyl related ones where
they've, you know, move they've gotten fentanyl in instead of their heroin or other opioids. Um um so we go with overdose rate per capita and so and we this includes all of them because this is by cause of death not manner of death so that's why
it's 16 um and not 12 um and so you can see that um even at that the Winona is a little bit higher and we can sort of talk we'll talk through that in uh uh sorry we go to the next slide I should have said yeah so there's the per capita
uh rate so that's the those are all the all of the cause of deaths that were due to drug overdoses. So that includes the suicides for example. So the next uh page is pretty an interesting page. Um and so
so last year um so the numbers are definitely up in Winona uh from last year or from two years ago to last year. Um and there's eight fentil deaths uh or fentanel related deaths. And so um which is different than some of the other counties where we have seen a decrease
in fentanyl. I'm saying last year intentionally because this year is like I don't know what changed this year but like you know we had five overdoses in a week in Rochester. You know we had three that died at one scene. Wow. So the what they're taking is drugs that
are so potent that no one can give Narcan call 911. are just out like before they can even even metabolize it one sort of cycle through their body. So I don't know what the numbers are going to look like. We were optimistic that after last year's numbers things were on
the way down but this year we'll see what it holds but it's up. Um but you definitely still had fentil deaths here. Um for 11 drug overdoses it's often mixed with others. Um and meth is still kind of in the background. So
that is surprising because it's despite the availability. I think the awareness of Narcan is simply more available and more people are know how to use it. So that's that's surprising that that's still happening. Well um so the the their uh tolerance
that some of these individuals have just to give you they'll find them unresponsive. One bolus two three get them to the hospital. Well, they have to put them sometimes on Narcan drips in the hospital for a day, two days until so if they turn off the Narcan drip
because it's very short acting, then they basically go into respiratory depression again. So, so it's just the the the tolerance and the concentration of the fentel and various forms of fentinel out there is just astronomically high. So,
yeah, the drug makers have figured out how to override the things. I mean, they're stronger, right, than they are. Oh, yeah. They are. Yeah. And um and the drug users often are seeking that out. So, but yeah. Better chemists than we the medical
unfortunately. Yeah. You can there's websites out there with very detailed ways of of how to make it, how to use it, effects, etc. Um okay, so moving on to death by natural causes on the next page. Um so
heart disease, cancer um are the leading causes of death and that's consistent across the country. Uh neurologic deaths um is you know close behind and we'll probably see you know steady increase of that as the population ages. Um there
are you know eight liver deaths and really there's one where the alcoholism uh was related to heart disease. So there's really a total of nine deaths related to chronic alcoholism. Um, this is something that we've been sort of keeping an eye on because it's been sort of a late effect of the pandemic where
people increased alcohol consumption and so you're seeing liver deaths that are occurring years afterwards because it just takes that sort of time to for the liver damage um to accumulate. Um, see the next page is deaths by age
group. Um, and so this is just a good way to see in a very quick snapshot to see what's going on in a community. the further it shifted to the older population, the more likely they're dying of their natural diseases. When you see more and more blips in the the younger categories, that means they're
not dying of natural diseases. They're dying of accidents, suicides, and and homicides. Um so again, we're seeing the vast majority um in the older population, but we, as we've talked about, we do have some younger individuals um dying of non-natural causes. So,
and then the the last page is just our medical examiner activities uh year-over-year and um it's been relatively stable with 262 investigations last year. Signed 83 death certificates, went to 90 scenes, 57 postmortm examinations, and we had
328 deaths reported to us. So, relatively stable year-over-year. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions, go on to information. Thank you for coming. This is very somber and it's a serious topic. Even though I I shouldn't have made a joke
about freaky fast, but I'm very grateful that you come every year. This is very important information and thank you for the work that you do and you and your staff do every day. Thank you for that. No, really appreciate it. I have a question. Um, how does one become a medical death investigator? Are they
medical? Are they doctors? I mean, no, they're not doctors. Um, but they So, we have like a whole onboarding program. Um, and so most of the people who become death investigators have some sort of medical background. I mean, a lot of people think it's going to be like, oh, someone who's law enforcement,
which people aren't sometimes, but most of what we deal with are natural deaths. And so, what we're our perspective on the scene is like, what's their medical history? What are their prescriptions? You know, what's their family history? And so a lot of our investigators are, you know, EMTs or nurses or um, you
know, have we have a lot we have an intern pro an internship and some of our interns become death investigators. Um, so that's kind of way that we've kind of recruited people into the field. Um, I guess I'm surprised we have six in Winona County by your your chart.
Yeah. I mean, and so it is a lot, but I mean we're covering the whole, you know, 247 365. I mean they have other other jobs. They have other jobs. Absolutely. A parttime it's a part-time job and we we try to find creative ways to give them other work to do if possible. So we have a
office of deedent affairs which reports to the deaths at the hospital and so we sort of sometimes they'll drive in and you know help with that service um and such. And so, uh, we've we've really worked hard and Monica and her team have done an amazing job because, you know,
we have 35 or so death investigators, but the volume of people that we have that have had training and experience is even more than that. You know, heaven forbid if we had sort of a mass casualty or something. We have a cohort of people who are experienced, trained, interested, and engaged that could could
help us. So, I think that kind of, you know, is is reassuring to someone like me who worries about these things that we have those sort of people out there that are knowledgeable and, you know, they love the job. They would there's no way you do this job unless you want to do it. Being called out to side of a
highway at 2:00 in February, you know, yeah, I don't know. It's a job that Yeah. It's not everybody's not It's not for everybody, but you know, and important though. It is important. And we provide educational opportunities for them. So we get them trained. We have a conference every year, our forensic
science symposium that we get them to attend. Some of them will attend a conference up in the cities. Once they've had enough uh, you know, experience with going to scenes, we send them to a school in St. Louis to get trained. So yeah, we're sort of, you know, you were not paying a lot of money, but we try to provide experience
and education and other sort of meaningful things to make it an enriching, you know, job. Madam Chair, yes. I just wanted to, as I say every year, but I do mean it every year, working with Dr. Riker um and his staff um
because we do Yes. have deaths that our office has to either prosecute or investigate and the sheriff's office as well. And his staff and himself and his team are great to work with and um get a hold of them and they get a hold of us. So, I just want to thank you on behalf
of the law enforcement community and my office, too. Great. Really appreciate that. Okay. All right. Well, we'll see you next year. Thank you. Hopefully none of us are your statistics. Hopefully not. Always good to see you all. Thank you. Thank you. Yep.
Uh let's see. I saw another person come in. Are you from South Southern Minnesota Initiative Fund? Yes. Okay. We're going to have you up next. Thank you so much. Not a problem. Thank you for letting us know you were running late. Yeah, bet. We know we live on the edge of the world and it takes a while to get here.
Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks for your understanding. I uh Whoops. Here we go. Not a problem. All right. I'm just going to pass around this folder here contains a a lot of the information that I'm going to go over.
Um, thank you so much for your time. My name is Aaron. I'm the philanthropy director with Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. Um I'm just here today to give you a brief overview of the work that we've been committed to um here in Winona Winona County. Um so
thank you again. Um starting out, Southern Minnesota Initiative, for those of you who might not be as familiar, uh is a donorup supported foundation invest for economic growth in our 20 counties u of south central and southeastern Minnesota. This includes 175 communities
in one native nation. Uh the foundation's key interests include entrepreneurship, early childhood development, uh and community vitality. So far, Smith has invested over $170 million in the region since 1986.
I'm just going to go briefly through each of our categories to give you an idea of the most recent work and what we offer. Our goal here for entrepreneurship um is in our region to make sure that entrepreneurs have the resources needed to thrive. We do this
first and foremost through lending. We are a GAP lender and we work in partnership with other organizations to meet entrepreneurs needs. We can help those just starting out all the way up to equity investments. One of the great benefits of partnering with Smith on a loan package is that
even if we are a small part, we can provide one-on-one technical assistance that is tailored to that individual. We also have a program um called the Prosperity Initiative. This just serves traditional entrepreneurs um from backgrounds that might not might have some extra hurdles to overcome um racial
or ethnic minority groups, LGBTQIA+ people who identify as as women, veterans, persons with disabilities and so on. Um we provide 12 months of one-on-one coaching um tailored to that individual. Another program I want to mention is Rev, Rural Entrepreneurial
Ventures Program. program where we come into the community against the traditional model which brings people from outside of the community in to bolster entrepreneurship. We come into the community and look at who is here and what needs they can meet. Um so moving on to early childhood. Our goal
here is to make sure all children are ready to learn by age three. It is statistically shown that if they aren't, it is very difficult to catch up. So we want everyone to have a chance to be successful members of our communities. Also, we are in the middle of a nationwide child care shortage, as I'm
sure all of you know. Um, meaning that not all of our kids have a safe place or a to go or a place with quality care to go. Um, also this means that parents unfortunately need to leave the workforce. So, we are tackling this by supporting current providers. Uh, we
provide free develop approved trainings both virtually and in person. Uh, we aim to be as accessible as we can be in everything that we do. uh develop approved means that that uh they receive their needed continuing education credits by attending. And so we serve
around a thousand annually this way. And in just a moment, I'll just give you the numbers on that. Last uh right here, we have a consultant who will come into the community and work with those who want to examine their shortage needs and develop a plan. This is free of charge and can be accessed on our website. Of
course, I would be happy to uh connect you. And finally, we provide grants in this area as well. Currently, uh for example, our early care and education grant is open uh which is to support children with social, emotional support, mental and physical support as well.
Many times this translates into additional trainings for providers and professionals. And so we give out around uh 30,000 books a year also. And this is for children to keep and create their own libraries. Um and lastly, our community vitality focus. Um this is
focused on our smaller communities typically with populations under 10,000. We have for example the small town grant program which is focused on collaboration and belonging. Um also paint the town promoting community beautifification, volunteerism and
engagement. We provide the paint and the community comes together for murals, historical structures and public art um beautifying those things. And finally our affiliate fund program under which we have 147 funds. We are their 501c3
fiscal host. Um, of those funds, 34 are community foundations. Uh, we just feel that community foundations are essential elements for keeping small towns vibrant. We do this all we do all the administrative back office works, tack and tax and legal work u which allows
the community foundations to focus on the mission at hand and raising support. Um, and I would be happy to connect you with my colleagues for more information on that. Um I just wanted to give you a quick breakdown um of the most recent work here. So in
Winona County um you know you you guys have been supporters of our endowment fund for years now and we thank you so much and we just want you to know that those dollars come back into the community at a ratio of around 12 to1. So for every dollar that's donated to Smith, $12 are
being leveraged back here into this county um in amazing ways. I want to just go over so so far to date 43 loans have been issued to support entrepreneurs 399 grants to support community projects and $9.1 million has
been invested by Smith in Winona County again through grants loans and our programming. Um, yes sir. Question. You said probably 112 comes back, but we're looking up on the screen. It's Sorry, 21. I Thank you. Much better.
That's I'm so glad you said something. I don't I got those numbers backwards. Thank you so much. Um, much better. Much better. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Um, just some recent work I'm going to go over here and I I will be
brief and I really just thank you for your time. Um in the last 3 years um in our early childhood support in terms of grants a total of $48,000 has come back into the community. Um our most recent
work in this area for example um WAPS ECFE was awarded 200 English books through our early care and education early care and education grant. Um also, uh Cardinal Foundation in Lewon awarded
180 books and 30 Spanish books. Um that was just as that was again um this year. And St. Charles early learning program early awarded 200 English and 25 Spanish books. Um the grants go on and on. Um
tons of work going on here. Uh but yes, $48,000 has been leveraged back into the community in the last three years. Um, regarding our early care training programs, um, and also our technical assistance for childcare providers, a total of $10,000 has been, um, leveraged
back into the community. Uh, in the last few years of our annual trainings, which are open regionwide at no cost to those in our region, uh, Winona County had 59 attendees in 2023, 92 attendees in 2024,
um, which is just incredible. So, we hope that that impact is being felt. Uh, moving on to our grants in our entrepreneur entrepreneur support. A total of $115,000 has been leveraged back here into the community just in the last three years
as well. Um, engage Winona uh received the IEC grant, which is inclusive equitable communities grant. Um, and and so that was $16,000 there. Um, uh, the county, sorry, the the country corn crib
promise act grant in Udica. Um, so just great things going on there. Um, regarding some of our loans, um, it looks like there there isn't a whole lot of news information there. But, uh, moving down to our community support
grants, um, for example, we awarded six gallons of paint for Rolling Stone, city of Rolling Stone. Um, and that was a $240 value. Um, and just the grants continue in Rochester all the way um all
the way all throughout the county. And so a total of $438,960 has been leveraged into the community through our um community vitality and entrepreneur grants. Um, so in total in the last three years
around 1,319,461 has been leveraged here back into Winona County. Um, provide us that list you're reading off. You bet. Uh, yes, I can. I will email it to you if that's that. That would be great. I think uh, commissioners and maybe our EDA needs to
look at some of those things. That would be absolutely. Yeah, I will get that to you. Definitely. Thank you. So, I I want to just say one last thing here. I want to make you aware of upcoming opportunities here.
Got it right here. Oops. Um, so for some of our grants, and I'll include this in the email as well, our early care and education grant opens this fall. Uh, funds early care and education services for children ages
birth through five. Our economic development grant opens this fall as well, supports initiatives making communities more prosperous. Um, small town grant opens actually uh July this month and Taylor rural improvement grant will be opening this fall as well. But I
will have that information for you. Um, the last thing I want to say of course is um, you guys have supported the foundation at the $6,000 level. Um, we are asking if possible if you could do a 5% increase um to bring that up to 6,300
um dollars for the fiscal year 2026, which is what we are now in. Um, but of course, thank you so much for your support and for all you guys do. It really is a lot. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And did did you either have a party or a party's coming up for retiring Tim
Denny? So Tim Tim actually retired already. uh his retirement party was about two I think two months ago now. So yeah uh he's all retired. He is he's still very much an ambassador of the foundation and um his um
predecessor is now in her third week um as CEO and president uh which she's just fantastic. For those of you who haven't met Beya, we can't wait for you to meet her. She's incredible. But yes, Tim is still very much involved as well. So,
well, thank you very much for making the trip over and providing some information. Look forward to that list. Thank you so much. I will get that to you today. Okay. All right. And who's uh let's see. Is Ross, are you EDA? Yeah. So, if we could if we could
include Ross Dmore. Yeah. I think it would be valuable resource. I'll do that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Then moving to 7.3, acknowledge completion of county administrators performance review and
approve compensation on page 92. How do we want to proceed? Madam Chair, to open the conversation, I will move to acknowledge the performance review and accept the proposed salary with the county administrator.
I'll second. Okay, we have a motion to approve the performance review and I I guess what? Accept the compensation. Yep. Package. Yep.
Hey, any discussion? Commissioner, I stated earlier that, you know, I think some common ground was necessary on this. I've uh I'll say it again. I've said it many times that this has nothing to do with anybody personably. It's it's
not that uh our administrator isn't doing a good job. It's just one of the one of the things that I've always stressed is compensation on a yearly basis. Having been on both sides of the coin, being an employer and having been an employee for many years, you know, the biggest thing is cost of living adjustments and, you
know, competitive wages outside of an area and are they true comparisons or is it just a laddered effect of well, if you do it then I get to do it and the next person doesn't this is it truly a reflection of what any particular position should uh pay? The biggest
thing that I have is when we factor everything in and I think one of them is just a cost of living increase. It's it's a tough pill for me to swallow to give somebody that makes $200,000 a 3% increase versus somebody that's only making $50,000 the same 3% because the
loaf of bread, the gallon of gas, the taxes that they pay, etc., etc. Taxes arguably are going to change a little bit obviously, but the basic commodities to adjust what cost of living increases are supposed to be uh for the most part. Now, if you decide to buy a Gucci purse versus a Kmart purse, that's up to you
what you do with your money, but I don't want to pay for it, you know? So to me, I it's I think we've got to find some common ground on this. Otherwise, we're going to see a drastic ex, you know, escalation of of wages. You know, being in the public sector, um there's no
doubt that uh efficiency and uh Commissioner Ward has talked a lot about pay for performance, which I think would be a phenomenal thing uh that we should put into place at some point, even though I've voted with the current raises just because I believe that, you know, they've been reasonable. Um but at
the same time um I I I just don't want this thing to escalate out of control. That's that's the biggest thing. And um and that's what happens when we start comparing ourselves to other people. But if we let's let's take it to a grander scale. What's the average US senator make? 197,000. What's the president
make? 400,000. We're we're we're at levels that just local administrative leadership at some pretty high dollars here that we would see some pretty phenomenal companies getting paying their CEOs these types of salaries. So, you know, it's I it's it's it's nothing
against anybody. it's just the concept as a whole is are we are we actually paying people the fair market value of what they're worth um at every level in every position throughout the county or is it just a lattered effect that we look across the border and say well they're get it I deserve it too and
that's where we need to be careful because it's it when you have to go out and earn the money to pay versus go out and say hey I'm just going to tax you more I'm going to take it from you to compensate for something um there are two different ways because in in in we
as business people, we as community members have to figure out how to come up with a new money to continue to pay for these services. There is no I can just take it from you because I deserve it because the guy next door is getting paid the same. So to me, I think we got
to we we need good people. There's no doubt that uh our current administrator is doing a good job. This isn't subject to just this. This is a this is a broad discussion. Um, and unfortunately sometimes the unions get their way, but uh I I think I think there's a better way to be evaluated um uh rather than
just comparing to what other counties may potentially pay because that that's just a ladder game and it's it's it's a very very quick way to to to rise to the top. So, um that's just my thoughts. So, I I'd like to see some a little more fair common ground um and maybe even
some different comparisons um if we're going to go down that route to especially considering we're not a growing county. We're we're we're a stagnant county. So, just my thoughts. Anybody else? Yeah, sure. M I've been thinking about this since we
met last for the conversation and there's a few points that I wanted to make. Um, so I don't know if it was clear because it wasn't 100% clear to me, but I I had a second conversation with administrator Holty last year. We
um so I in my seventh year as a commissioner, every year we I hear some complaints from some commissioners about the comparisons. Um it's my understanding that we had to get a whole lot of people to
agree to the comparisons including the uh unions which is what makes it so difficult for us to just do something different. So it it is what it is and this is the the thing that we have been doing and do and do for all of the
elected department uh department heads. So last year, administrator Holty got a 2% increase. She did not get the average. If she had gotten the average and if she had gotten the extra 1% that we gave everyone else,
she would be making 200,569 this year rather than 183. Right? So that's a $14,600 difference that we saved in the 2025 budget.
If that was true, the raise that she'd be getting this year would really be only $7,440. So I know that it looks like a big leap, but that is because we did not give the raise last year. And so in my mind, she
as well due what she did not get and she's not even asking for a retroactive raise. The second thing is that if we add up the FTEES for vacant positions in 2024,
it's two full-time people that are dual jobs that our administrator did in addition to doing her job, which again um her performance was above average and she was managing to do multiple people's jobs. So in my mind,
having sort of thought through those extra factors, I am completely supportive of the increase. Commissioner, I I don't disagree with what's happening that I I agree that you've done a lot of work and you signed on for that knowing
that it was going to be there right at a current base salary. The issue with that particular side is that it sets the precedent that soon will be forgotten and it creates the bar that other counties will say without knowing that information. That's the lattered effect.
All of a sudden, Winona County did it. They might not know why we did it. Which leads back to Commissioner Ward's theory of pay for performance. you have a base salary, but if you're willing to take on additional things and we know that, hey, you're saving the county money, that's where the reward system comes in. And
when that no longer exists, it drops back down to a reasonable salary. What what pays for the position in this in this context, when we start filling those voids, what happens is is we incur that cost plus we incurred the cost of, hey, thank you for doing this
temporarily until we fill the voids. it it it it ends up double double negative in a small amount of time and then retroactively nobody goes back and says well the reason it was raised because it was because of this performance. So it sets a new bar not only for our county but again it continues the latter effect
all the way through. So, it's another case of I mean, I don't know how many people own businesses, but I I write payroll checks, right? Well, my secretary does. I sign them. Well, I don't even sign them anymore. I guess it's all automated, but I get to see them, right? And you know, and you've got to justify every single dollar where
it comes from. And, you know, we do bonuses. We It's why we do what we do because there has to be a reasonable compensation for that person to live based on their experience. But when they go above and beyond, hey, we want to reward them. And so again, I'm being very cautious here that we're just not artificially raising the bar for a
temporary amount of work that we're going to backfill. But now we have as as constituents of the county. We have to continue to pay for this new bar. And not only that, but what it does to the subsequent counties that are watching what we're doing without the information. So I can appreciate all the work. I really can. It's just we got to
be careful how we layer this into our labor force and that and and it does go back to Commissioner Ward's theory. Commissioner Vegley. Um I'm going to vote in favor of Commissioner Meyer's motion. Um this is a large pay raise and for someone who
outside of the county board is part of a union. I am very skeptical or about large raises for administrators. In this case, I think it's justified. Not only has Miss Holy done her work, she's done the work with others. And and I want to
also add so has almost every I think county staff member in this room. every because we're not just down a few people that Miss Holty covers for Ross, Eric, Aaron, all these people cover for multiple people. So, I want to thank each and every staff member who's had to
cover because we have very large holes in the county in terms of important positions all the way from entry- level positions up to um department heads. We're we're not this is a big jump, but we're not going to be above the average. This is to get it to the average. And
looking at today's labor market, it is we've all we have experience in this with every position that we try to hire for. There aren't a lot of applicants and we need for not only to recognize the work that this administrator has done, but thinking in terms of succession planning and transition
planning. I don't want Miss Holty to retire, but at some point she will retire. We don't we we we won't we're going to need to provide a competitive package to attract highle people. We already have that problem because we're not Rochester. we're not the Twin Cities, etc. So, I'm going to vote in
favor of the motion and I want to thank Miss Holty for the work that she's done to cover other positions. And I want to thank every staff member. I think Ross is doing 12 jobs right now. I've lost track of how many jobs that he's doing, etc. Sure, it's not 13 13 14 etc. So, all the work that all a
lot of people have done to cover um all these the many um missing positions in the county. So, thank you. Yeah, like I said, there's no doubt and thank you and we all know that in any position we're gonna have to step up for a while and step back down until
something's And I think that's just part of it. Um, in any job in any location. So, I'm my wife is currently going through that where the administrator, she's an administrator, but under the administrator. So, they've all pitched in and they they've taken over as a and guess what? Her salary didn't change,
but she gets paid a bonus because they know at some point they're going to refill it and then it goes back down. It's just so common in industry. So we can't just artificially start raising salaries because and and as appreciative as we are. It it needs to fall more into that sort of category because again we
don't realize that later on when we refill and say okay could we decrease your salary now because you're not doing as much work. That's the problem and so it creates this latter defect. So there's no doubt what everybody is doing is we're very thankful to get us through. Um everybody signed on to the
job knowing that those things had to happen. So, just as a as a steward of the taxpayer dollar, I've got to at least plead a case to say, "Hey, thank you for everything you're doing, but at the same time, we've got to be careful that we don't let this spiral out of control." Okay. So, I'd like Oh, one last thing if you
don't mind. Yes. So, I'd just like to find common ground. I'd like to find someplace in between that says, "Hey, justifiably you do deserve this." Um, but once again, I've always had a problem with this cost of living situation because that gallon of gas costs the same whether I make 50
grand, 200 grand. To me, it should be a flat fee, not a based on what you get paid. Um, there there is in my opinion, there's no question Holty has stepped up and she's done a marvelous job. But again, this is a career p a public
service career path that you know kind of the outcome. You kind of know the pay scale. you kind of know, you know, a lot of things. I am very encouraged though. I I did get a a note from uh Miss Holty saying, "I will be sending a draft pay for performance plan for the next pay
review period." Thank you. Um I don't like the system. I've never liked the system. Uh Commissioner Meyer says, "Well, we've always used this." Well, that's got to be over 20 years. And if I did business the same way I did 20 years ago, I would not be sitting here with this piece of technology. I
wouldn't be sitting here with a cell phone. I wouldn't be doing a lot of things in my personal life different. So 20 years to me is long enough. And I carry this sheet and I I need to update my sheet. You know, we use these counties for comparison. And um this was back in 2020. So I know somebody's got a
newer sheet, but it's been in my book. So just for comparison, total market value of real and personal property and uh Winona County was uh $4,730,000. The closest one on that list is uh Rice County. They're 663.
Ottertale is 98. Uh Blue Earth is 81. Goodiew is 72. Sherburn is 87. Clay is 65. And Itasa is 54. I So I'm sorry. 5'4 would be the closest one. Um I mean they're different counties. I don't know
where. And again, it was something that the union Yes. And why we can't change our union mentality to change something. My question is who who uses Winona County as a as a a sample? Why are we always comparing ourselves to these other counties? They have different budgets, different amount of employees,
different taxable values. So, I just I do not like the system and I am encouraged to see that we will consider some type of pay for performance with Commissioner Elling. I too was an employer at one time and and we did use a bonus thing because there's sometimes people step up and sometimes people just
got to do the basics and I think they need to be rewarded when they step up but we can't continually reward on that that platform because as he said it it just keeps building and it um to me isn't the way that I should be doing uh counting taxpayer dollars uh in payroll.
So I I again I know Miss Holt's uh done an outstanding job. I unfortunately we don't have the pay for performance in line right now but uh in good conscience I can't support that much of an increase. So um but we have a motion we
have a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I sorry a comment I wanted a comment before but I was just going to ask is there any is there any consideration for some middle grounds?
Anybody have any consideration for middle ground before we voted? I'm sorry. I I kind of stepped into that. I was trying to say, "Hey, doesn't look like I got anybody jumping at the gun." Okay, those opposed? Nay. Nay. Okay, that passes 32. All right. And I will look forward to that pay for
performance option. And I think, you know, we we need to do that in small steps. Maybe we start with uh administrator and department heads or something and then work work into the system because I do know counties have it and they make it somehow they make it work. So I we can find some samples and
work with those counties and um act ask your your tag counties that you compare yourself with all the other things. Do they use anything? But I know there is counties in the state of Minnesota that use it. All right. Uh committee reports and
communications. Uh Commissioner Vaguely. Um I'd like to request uh a second to what um Mr. Mr. Wick had discussed at the start of the meeting. And Mr. Wick, correct me if I'm wrong, you're also a township supervisor from Park Township.
Um, I'd like to request um a second to put this for discussion and more information on a future committee of the board. Yes. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, secondly, um, we just passed uh July
4th, important national holiday. Next year is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the of the Declaration of Independence. I don't think in the past the county has done anything for July 4ths and I wasn't here in 1976, etc. But
if anyone is interested, I'm not proposing anything specific. It's just a general fear. I just blowing a trial boom. I'd like to see if we could do something to celebrate our nation's 250th birthday. this de this this de democracy experiment. Um so I'm not sure
and I don't want the county to do all of it, but maybe working with some local partners um p public private nonprofit to see if we could do something locally and and maybe and more than just an extra big fireworks show which we all want to um but if we could do more to
celebrate and the the word was what cesquentennial I forgot what the 250th cessential Yeah, that's just a general I'm quoting a trial to see if if people might be interested. If you know of people might
start planning a year out to let me know. That's it. Thank you. Can I just add to that? Um I have in my office a painting that was done by my brother-in-law who's from Winona, Alan Sonaman. um that was done
and won the prize for the 1976 really um celebration of of the um what would have been then 100 no not 100 200 years um so the county did uh have an art contest and wow
there's also another uh really nice painting in my office of um it's a watercolor of the old boobs brew brewery so that that was and I have the brochure commissioner vote. Um, so they did
have a kids coloring contest or something. Something like that. It' be great because um we do that for the um domestic violence. Um we could use some new artwork in here. Well, those prints are so nice. Okay. Anyway. All right. So, yeah, we'll put that on
the radar. People know people in Lew Charles might also be interested. Make it more than just the city. Sure. Thank you. Okay. All right. Uh, Commissioner Elie. Yeah, it'd be kind of neat to see something. I mean, uh, a constitutional
republic is something that we live in and, uh, our system of voting is through a democratic process and I would love to educate more people about. I hear the term getting associated to the wrong system and, uh, it's republic. Um, it's
a it's it's kind of crazy. Uh, Commissioner Vagu said it right. an experiment. And how long does it how long can we keep going? And one of the interesting things you listen to our forefathers is that uh a constitutional republic can only exist within a moral
group of people. And that's the key is a moral group of people. And as we lose morals, it becomes harder and harder to uh continue to live in a republic. and it starts to go more towards a democratic system which is a system of majority rule
versus an inavable rights as an individual regardless of what people say. So, uh, yeah, I think I think we live in a very special place in the world. Arguably, probably the best. Uh, the comment I wanted to make was, uh, what I've been saying every every time was, uh, the fair. The fair is on. It's
going. It officially starts tomorrow. But there are people there. I'm a big fair supporter and 4 supporter. And in fact, I just had, uh, another young boy. He's going to show us uh, his show steer. It's a dairy steer uh, for the first time. and his mom brought him into
the office and looking for support to buy his ribbon, you know, and uh he she said, "Now, you got to look Josh in the eye." And boy, he looked right up at me and shook his, you know, shook my hand and and so we asked some questions and stuff. And so, yeah, what a what a great organization to get kids involved in and
just a fun time. So, I encourage everybody to go out multiple times, not just once. Take advantage of the breakfast, take advantage of the the fair rides and the events. It's uh uh we're we're very fortunate to have one of the top fairs in the state and I'd like to continue to see it go that way.
Um you know, I support it personally. We support it. My company supports it. And uh so yeah, we please stop out. Attorney Sonaman, did you get covered what you or is there something? Oh, I have several things if that's okay. Yeah, go ahead.
Okay, I'll try to go backwards here. So on June 5th, which is a little bit ago, but um I was asked to speak at a press conference in my capacity as the um president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association. Um and this was a press conference that we had jointly
with the Minnesota Sheriff's Association, which was a wonderful I mean to watch see all the white shirts coming up. I mean, um, but we spoke at a press conference at the state capital to
ask the legislature to support legislation that would increase bed capacity for mental health mental health beds, uh, at the Anoka Regional Treatment Center. Um, and the sheriffs were there and we were there because there were horror stories about people being in jail for two years be- because they were
mentally ill, but there was no placement for them. Um and it and when we did this together and and several of us spoke, the former head of the sheriff's association was very eloquent. He's from Renville County uh sheriff um about how
uh we cannot continue to house mentally ill people in our jails. So it was a step forward. I had asked also of our legislative leaders to support that bill, which was a Department of Human Services bill, and it passed. So, we've got $75 million additional funding um
that would add 50 beds. So, so I I've um and we were asked to do that kind of on short notice and off we went. But um and if you want to see the whole press conference, it's on KSTP. You can YouTube it too and stuff like that. But
um then on June 30th um I went up to the capitol uh or I'm sorry the judicial center also in my capacity as the county or I'm sorry the Minnesota county attorneys association president to meet with the chief justice um Natalie Hudson. I gave her brought her greetings
from Winona County. Um, and with me was the Nicollet County Attorney, U Michelle Zender Fischer, who's the former president of County Attorneys Association, and also Robert Small, who's the executive director and a former judge and former US attorney's
office, assistant attorney. Um, and so we had our opportunity to talk to the chief justice about issues that are affecting the justice system from our perspective as county attorneys. Um, and I also mentioned again the issue of mental health because it's it's huge as
you were saying both for juveniles um especially for juveniles and adults. Um so that that was and that was last Monday, not yesterday but last Monday. And finally, I would also like to say something about the county fair. Um I
was in college 4. Um I've supported the fair every year. Um, both Commissioner Ward and I always have our names on the back of the t-shirt and I don't know, Commissioner Elson, you probably joined us this year maybe. I don't know. But, um, but, uh,
supporting the kids, it's such a great leadership opportunity for those kids to do 4. And every fallish, my twin sister and I um, staff the table at the 4 building at the state fair for the
alumni. Uh, so Um, I just wanted to to mention that. And one more plug on the fair. We have a joint shared collaborative table with CJCC, the sheriff's office, the Alliance for Substance Abuse and Prevention or ASAP
and um and all of the other programs that CJCC has. So, I'll be up at the fair Thursday afternoon, too. Where' Bob go? Um, so to stop and see the century for presentation or not the the Jean Philowski presentation.
Yeah. Okay, that's it. Thank you. All right. Okay. Um on a little more somber note, unfortunately, um with the tragedy of the flooding in Texas, um the whole idea of our emergency uh med um well, emergency medical dispatchers,
emergency management people, firefighters, everybody, you know, one big appreciative of of what we have and what we um uh have the benefit of having. Um the tragedy there is uh alerting and they said something as
simple and and I don't have one I probably should living out in the country um is just the I think it's a a Noah uh radio um system and I don't know if um Ben Klinger isn't in the I don't know if we could do a you know a group
purchase and sell them at a at a you know people that should have them. They said if you would have had a simple Noah system because it happened similar to our flooding. It was late at night. People were in their campers and then their tents and in their houses sleeping and and just a simple radio system like
that because we've had some terrible storms in our area here too. We've had tornado multiple tornado alerts and everything. But everybody has to be a little more aware of what's going on around them. And so I'm I'm going to maybe make uh um Miss Holty um see what
Ben Klinger can do to bring that awareness to us at a higher level and to be more more cognizant of what what we should be doing to protect ourselves, our families. Um just a tragic a very very tragic sense of of loss. So um
that's we'll see if he can come up with something for us there at least or even some lessons learned that might apply to us. Yeah. and and even some articles, you know, on the radio, public service articles on the radio or in the newspapers. Um I see Mr. Rogers is on
the line. Maybe we can have some highlights of what people should be doing um to protect themselves and be aware. Um but then yeah, leave it on the fair, right? We have some awesome uh we have Diane Pulley, Gene Palowski, Vicky Pearson, the Kennedy family of Lewon
Monument, and Anthony Speltz all have their days at the fair, which is uh they'll get themselves up on the Hall of Fame uh board um which is pretty awesome. And again, Bob will do that program on Thursday. But uh an outstanding opportunity to see kids and
don't be afraid to walk up to kids that are sitting there with their animals and say, "Hey, can you tell me a little bit about your project?" and you'll be amazed what you can learn. And that's a a public speaking and uh like you say, the firm look in the eye and the handshake uh is good life skills that
people need to learn. So don't be afraid to ask them. Yes. Um and I I want to second what your inquiry in terms of the Texas floods. Is there any lessons that would apply to us? And is there anything that is similar or different? I don't want to overgeneralize. I just assume, but yet there are Yeah. The issue of
flash floods and creeks for sure. Um, two other things is I want to thank um, Attorney Sonoman for all that work at the state capital. Um, the sheriff's with the sheriffs to get more bed capacity. So there the inmates are not sitting in county jails. It doesn't help
it's not good for the jail staff. It's not good for the inmates as well. And this is a question for Miss Holty and the board. The idea of the bias the celebration of the 25th birthday. Should that be a future committee of the board if I start talking to people as a county commissioner? Should I ask the board?
So, could I get a second maybe to put I'll second to discuss it and just to say to see if we could start some kind of community partnership. Again, I'm not asking the county to do all of it or pay for it or whatever, but Sure. Yeah. Just just so it's efficient. Thank you. Anything else? Uh to entertain a motion
to adjurnn. So move. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Eline, second by Commissioner Begley to adjurnn. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Those nay. Okay, we're journed. Let's take five. together. Uh it's 10.1 on our schedule. Discuss provide directions for use of
American Rescue Plan funding at Apple Blossom Park. That was on page 94 and I think there's um more information that was provided in the um amended agenda. Good morning, Ross. Yeah, good morning. Yeah, unfortunately we had some last minute additions we had
to add to the the packet there. So, um, just kind of recap for you. We, uh, uh, at the April meeting when the the, uh, work on the pavilion project down at Apple Blossom Park was tabled.
Basically, um, we were kind of received kind of the guidance that, uh, how should we spend the the, uh, American Rescue Plan funds. So we met with uh Laura Person after that trying to seek clarification as far as what were the
limitations for the use of those funds. Um we after that meeting we did uh kind of develop a a fairly tight interpreted interpretation of the allowable uses for that money and I did uh kind of
summarize that in the the memo there. Um we took that back to our parks and environment committee at the beginning of June. Um and they had asked for more more time to kind of review that because it was a pretty tight turnaround. Um
because the parks and environment committee only meets every other month. There was not the ability to push this out that that far before we take action to accomplish anything. So they did convene a subcommittee and then he came
back with the proposal that I uh included in the packet here. Um we did review those aspects. Um and I've kind of listed in there whether the green shaded items are items that we would
consider op you know available options for the board to consider. Um there may be some fine details that we need to work through, but uh they would definitely be um actions that we could take. And then the conditional options
are issues are would be uh activities that may have other issues or clarifications that we need to to um gain before we could take action on those. Uh there is a proposal for some off-site work on DNR land. um
our ability to ensure that what our liability is uh would need to be kind of addressed. Um so we just kind of brought this forward and just wanted to see if you had some questions and get some u direction on what you're thinking.
So um I'm a little bit unclear. So I'm looking at the you you said the green it's tan and green. So there there is one that's tan and green because it has two different components to it. one is one would be okay um as far as you know I believe it's trail
work. So is that what we're proposing that the items is that what the group is proposing the the red figures in the cost amount yeah the the red the red numbers are what they termed as soft numbers or
estimates. So we would need to clarify what the firm more firm numbers are. Uh where you see green and yellow mixed um there like in number in priority one that they
have we have chemical on site so we would not need to purchase chemical. Um we have that on hand so that is included under the staff notes and comments. Um on
number 11, um one of the installation of the benches uh would be on county property. We see no problem with that. The other one would not be on our property. So that would be something we would need to to clarify and receive permission from the DNR.
Madam Chair, yes. Okay. Uh just that the ones that are green and say options, we could just do them. The ones that are yellow and say conditional option, there's more stuff that has to be figured out first. Yep.
Well, what was the amount available? Wasn't it 46? Okay. 46. And we're at 46. Yeah. 47. Um I want to add add some more information. Ross, correct me if I'm wrong. So, the last time we discussed at the board level, we referred it went back to the parks and environment
committee. I'm going to I'm going to repeat what you said and then add a little information to it. And then a subgroup was formed, a subcommittee, more of a not standing committee, but a subgroup to do some more service. Five people from the parks committee, and I was one of them volunteered to do some
more light work and research. We could only find a time where four of us could meet, but we went out to Apple Blossom Park. And one thing that I learned is that I thought that George How wanted a pavilion out there, but what I found out is that George How did not want a kid. Yeah.
So, that was a big um that was a big um that's important information for me. Um and um what you see before us the page this some of the new things that were added in the amended agenda were pages 105 and 106 or as long as in addition to
the maps which are also very helpful. That small subgroup brought it back to the staff and asked them to look it over. So what you see on page 105 and 106 is what the subgroup brought back to the staff and the staff looked over and
thankfully did some um um did some you know they they they analyze it to see what could be done and what couldn't be done. So this is a proposal that has like you said soft numbers. I also want to add one more thing is um that this
proposal would also save money because from the original ideas because and Morris talked with some of the prairie enthusiasts and they'd be willing to do some of the burns for invasive species for free. They would just need the the cost of the chemicals. And Ross, I think
you you added that that you would need to we need to have county staff there present for the burns for MCIT liability reasons, but we don't need to pay someone the prairie enthusiasts would do that. So, I'm excited that we could leverage community volunteers who would
help save county taxpayer dollars. So, and speaking for myself, this this has gone through a lot of there's been a lot of discussion and back and forth, and some of these many of these numbers are soft numbers that they need to be verified. Um, and I'll just mention two
of them, number 10 and number 14. They deal with the installation of a pet waste disposal station and installation of a waste disposal container. is that I like the idea of providing places for people to put their garbage, but the problem is is then we then the county
and the staff is responsible for having to take care of the garbage and pet waste. So, I like everything. The one that I'm one the two and these are small dollar amounts that I I wanted to hear what Ross and Aaron had to say. Is is there enough existing staff time with
mowing and other things to take care of waste or is that adding more county staff time to basically do waste pickup? The the the discussion with the friends of parks um that's been occurring at the parks and environment committee. The question is whether there would be a
volunteer in that area that would be able to do that collection and then possibly transport that to like the no dying shop trash disposal. It's not something that I've talked with Highway about yet, but that might be an option. Otherwise, yes, you're talking about either contracting that out with during
the summer months. Add that to like the mowing service that that we're already contracting, have them handle that. Uh or you would have to dedicate staff time down to to address those needs. In comparison, what do we do at Farmers Park? Do we collect trash down there?
Yes, we have contracted trash service down there. And that's why there is a notation under the comments about promoting dumping because we are having a fairly significant problem at Farmers Park with that. Yeah. What is the ma what what do we have in the budget for maintenance of of Apple
Blossom Park? What are we currently spending on maintenance? Um we had had an we had a number of different uh actions in the past few years. I the current proposal is bringing that down a ways, but mostly it's tree trimming, making sure that we
don't have unse unsafe trees that could be coming down on people. Um and uh just doing um routine maintenance to the picnic tables. Uh the mowing is the largest the largest annual expense.
Dwayne, you're part of the committee. That's a lot of money for a couple signs. The idea was to have signs that would be now granted this is not a state park but something like close to you know great river bluff park something that's a a smaller state park that I
think is kind of an easier comparison to in terms of like more professional level signage etc. Signage is not is not cheap if you want to do it but how about can't we do a a QR code and they they all take their phones and take and then have have an interactive map or
something? I mean I I mean I don't know signs yes they wear out they they get weathered they need replacing and that's the one increase otherwise in this proposal for the most part that's not true um but when you uh this proposal reflects rate reductions in terms of pavilions and other things
increase in was in signage more more professional level signage al at the main parking lot but also on the trails to help people realize what they're looking in the presence of otherwise it it's pretty close and these
are soft numbers to what the existing the proposal comes to 40 almost 48,000 and ARPA funds are 46 and 212 or whatever else but still no no water or no toilet no water well the the the provision
would provide a there was a discussion about placing a concrete pad for one um so that it would be available for special events or if the board eventually decides they want to site one that we would be able to put a handicap accessible toilet there. Um the parks
and environment committee has some I guess wants to discuss that further. They didn't know that they really supported that or not. There was different opinions and additional work for etc. Um, this is coming back to the county
board as it should. Um, the board could say yes to all, yes to some, no all, and then it could go back to staff in the committee or wants to make a final decision. Well, this is just kind of guidance just if we can get some clear guidance. What
What is the Does any of this seem to be what the board is is thinking or are we completely on the wrong track? So, great. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, sorry I did not get the proposed.
I think this is great. I I support it um and um would support the ones that um that the committee has approved and that are for sure options and then hear back on the others. Yeah. The the biggest concern is with
this picture here. This is this is the proposed location. It should be in your packet uh for the offsite deck. That's where there's a bunch of erosion, right? Uh there's erosion. Uh it's fairly rough trail. Um
no that's not the it's the called the Mississippi River Overlook. Um it's it if you go to the park, it's the main trail straight down and it goes off site. Um both Aaron and I have some concerns about trying to site something
there without any geotechnical. Um, while it seems like solid rocky, if we put if we put something there, what is our liability in that? And what happens if something fails? Yes. Okay. So, there is a significant erosion there. And if you don't do a
deck, is there something you can do to Well, it's we would it's not even county property, so we can't really do anything to it. Department of it. the GIS system listed as DNR, but it I think it's actually DOT.
Uh, so I don't know if there's an error there, but that's that's one of those areas where we need more investigation. Uh, do we even have permission to go on there? Um, the main concern for that part also is safety because the trail is getting greasy and it was just it wasn't a big
rain, but there was a small rain and there's just no gravel. There's no it's and it's obviously it's proceeded your own kept everyone. themselves begins to stupid. But there is there's no railings. There's no there's no and again Great River um uh Bluff Park that
that does a nice job of some basic railings. Pretty pretty basic. So again, I guess I'm So the green are things that you want to do. Green is I think staff is saying that that's we see no barriers to or limited barriers. I have an issue with number 12 there.
Installation of a pad for bike rack and bike repair station. I mean, it's out in the middle of the, you know, it's a it's a ways from civilization. I mean, I don't know that I should be spending money for people to fix their bikes. If they want to ride their bikes, they need to take responsibility. And I don't
think we want to encourage bike riding up there at this point in time. It's not a bike trail park. So, if you have bike fix it stations, the uh we already we already have the bike fix it station. So, that was purchased with
ship money. Uh, so it would just be the installation and it would be a small too and they look like that's why we want to anchor it in anchor it in uh spend spending a thousand bucks to fix a bike but you can't get a drink and you can't go to the bathroom. Our prior I guess my priority is much different for
a a park. Madam Chair, yes. As a person who does go on longer bike rides, um I totally see the point of um people take their basic stuff with them to change a tire, but if there's more of a mechanical and your cassette comes loose and has to be tightened,
it would be really cell phone and you call your neighbor. It would be really nice to have that. I don't I don't I don't know if those stations have provide that, but again, it's a thousand bucks that And again, you're talking about covered benches. You know, I can see a bench, but it
seemed like the covered one went really Did I read that? I thought this proposal did away. Did it? Okay, I read about benches. I just I just I referenced that because the original our proposal was um providing shade and shelter um for
people. So, we we we kind of left that in there as the original, but the it could also definitely interfere with the the landscape view. So, and the four of us and this is just four people. I don't want to speak for the whole committee. It was just four people. Is that they thought that the
cover mentions were not where that was that that could be that goal. Yeah. Okay. So, one proposal is is have it go back to staff and have it go back to the committee and allow staff more time to figure out what's doable and just ask within the dollar within the dollar amounts. So, there's
no new it's just meeting the existing ARPA funds. Okay. Would that be enough direction? Um Obviously, there's a lot of things you need to figure out. Yeah, we need to try to DNR because the larger ticket items are have have off-site components.
So, but that's where we did note in there that if we if we if we get down the road and we don't expend these funds, the funding um doesn't have to be refunded. It it just goes to offset other county expenses. So there was
I had no burning desire that I have to I have to spend the money and my preference would be keep it more I guess the term keep the whole park more primitive than city park. It's yeah this is definitely not a city park more minimalist. Yes it's actually and that's what this sub
subgroup did was move away from pavilion away from a lot of stuff and also greatly reduce the price tag as well. So and of course we probably have two brand new houses on the other side of the road in that neighborhood. Yep. Um and more in the way possibly. The idea is not to have a usage.
Okay. All right. So what do we decide that staff is going to refine the dollars within the budget funds. Is that okay with that? Yep. Okay. Y thank you for all your work on that. Thank you. Yeah. I got to say something to microphone.
Hopefully Heidi or Chad are listening, but can you send Sam back up? He got my email on my phone to work and now on my computer it doesn't. So we just flipped them. We'll do we'll get him up there. Thanks. Now moving into the working session. Discuss outside agency 2026.
Do we need to adjourn the committee of the board or no? No, it's just okay. We don't. One thing I wanted to bring up with the committee of the board. Did we ever get a response to the uh back in April, I think you had brought up uh the uh
public data request public? Yeah, the public data policy policy. Yeah. Did we ever there were some emails from Maria, right? Chad, I'm sorry. Josh is asking about the data request and I mentioned that you shared some some by email.
Yeah. But we were look looking at creating a policy, weren't we with that? And I know Steve Crant sent out yeah a couple very detailed. So is that considered the the policy? We never did revisit it.
We have a Yes, we do have a data request policy both for uh members of the public as well as non I guess I don't know how else to re reward that but there's two separate
policies. I can resend them out if you'd like. But yeah, why don't you and then we'll Yeah, because we never really did revisit. You brought you brought the book. Yeah, we brought it up and then and then Steve Crans provided that and I guess I have constituents that are much more knowledgeable of the process than myself
and uh yeah, send out the policies again and then we'll get some feedback. I think we should review. We haven't had a committee of the board for no several months. So yeah. Okay. Um All right. Put that back on. Um okay, the sheet that just got handed to us. What is this a budget?
Yeah, it's um so it's not in the packet, but I'll make sure that Heidi gets it into the packet before it's produced. It's just something I kind of wanted to walk you through um the calendar or the sequence of events
for the budget for the 2026 budget. Um and we're sort of I don't know a third of the way through this now calendar-wise and also steps. So started with uh budget instructions that we gave to departments and outside agencies. Did
that in April and May asking them to complete their budgets you know preliminary proposed budgets and at the same time we asked the outside agencies to submit their budgets as well. Um and so that's all been pretty much done now.
Um then uh I took the budgets that departments complete prepared these were Excel spreadsheets and put put them into IFS our financial system. So it's all loaded in
for the 2026 proposed budget. Then the next step is, and this is the one we're in the middle of right now, is um reviewing the budgets with the departments to make sure we got it all loaded properly um and that sort of thing. Just walking it through. Uh we
also asked them to submit their FTE requests and capital requests. Um and we've received all that. Um now we're sitting at the working session. So, one thing that more uh the
uh county administrator Holty and I sort of observed and maybe you did as well, we had a lot of working sessions, not a lot, but we had several working sessions and it seemed like in some cases we're plowing the same ground kind of again and again. So, we're going to take a
little bit of a different approach this time, which is to knock off some of these things and so put them to bed, not talk about him again, and just make it part of the budget. And so, um, that's kind of what we're going to do here with the, uh, outside agency request. So, I
just moving through this calendar what a little bit just to kind of give you a sense of what's coming. Um, and this, we may not follow this exactly, but maybe one working session to review um, the
preliminary budget as it stands once I get it all done, completed, and built, make sure that the numbers look right. Um and then we can talk about the FTE and capital requests by themselves. Um another working session uh something that uh administrator Holy and I have
also talked about is uh the way we approach uh maintenance for buildings and equipment is sort of um what I would say peace meal. Um, what I want to do is to get a better sense of what the mainten maintenance needs of the county
are. Is to we we spent a lot of time inventorying our stuff and I want to get a sense of what what all that is, what's the use of useful life of those things, what's the replacement value, and then start to put together a little more cohesive approach to a maintenance
budget rather than um peace meal is the way it's done now. um and then run through that with your with with the board in a working session. And then of course in uh 30 September, state
law requires us to submit preliminary levy by 30 September. So on the 23rd is when we will have an actual board meeting and talk about the preliminary levy if we remember where we were at last year with that. Um excuse me. We need to actually have them
set it prior to So it has to be set by the 15th of September. Oh, it has to be statutoily. Okay. Statutoily. All right. So, I didn't see that part in the Don't worry. So, it won't be the 23rd. It'll be the the board meeting prior to that one. So, it' be meeting in September.
Yes. Um and then uh another thing that that I want us to kind of get in the habit of doing is looking at our five-year financial situation. And I see here I added two Y's to financial and I'll make sure that I'll correct that. Um
you got two eyes on it. Southern drawer. Yes. Um and so that's really looking at you know the operating budgets uh building in some inflationary growth to them. We know we have growth to salaries and fringes. We know we have growth to
medical insurance. Big growth. Uh uh and then uh just sort of what is what are the what are the what what kind of levy do we need to to substantiate that or to to support that growth and then we can start making decisions about where we want things to be and how do we suppress
the cost so that we keep to a a levy limit or whatever that everybody agrees on. And then of course our capital needs. We've talked a lot about the LEC. I think we have maybe a little more clarity on what's going on at the state too. So maybe now is the time to talk about that and build that in whatever we
want that to be. So that'll be a working session. It's not going to be just here it is and it's going to be more like here's a draft and let's continue to work through this until we get it to a a point that we're we're satisfied with it.
And then in November, one more review of the budget prior to the final approval in December. So that's the calendar. Um, and I'll kind of take you through a few things that we are new for 2026. Um, in the past we used a software package called Open Gov to build the budget and
then we jammed it into IFS and I the feedback I got from everybody was that step using Open Gov was unnecessary and nobody ever really liked the software. They only use it once a year. Nobody ever got good at it and we really couldn't see any value to it. So I
skipped it entirely. We're using Excel this year. Excel is more powerful than you think. Oh, we used to use it all the time. People use literally a hundth of what Excel's capability is. We've been using it more and more in conjunction. We're updating
our softwares with this merger I'm doing and it's unbelievable what Excel can do. Yes. But is wasn't open gov supposed to be an avenue for the public to see what or so? Will that change? The public won't have access to as much information. Well,
there's a there's a a the all the things that we subscribe to from open gov is about 100 grand a year for the subscriptions. There's the financial transparency, which is the one you're referring to. There's the budget module. There's the integration.
Ross uses it for land management, I believe, uh permitting. And then there's a maybe a fourth one there. The one that I'm talking about, the budgeting module is about 39,000. that I'm going to but it's not the transparency one. Okay. It's not transparency. It's the one that integrate into the
other whatever right. We load it into open. What's the integration? What's IFS? I It's our financial system. Integrated financial system. I think most counties use it at least the smaller ones. I got a few people that like to keep tabs on us. So, I mean I it's important
that whatever we have for the public to view. We use that several times a year and we just need to make sure the interface maintains. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I want to uh also I mean maybe we can separately talk about that, but I'd like to look at a way if there's a way
that I can produce some stuff and put it in there for financial transparency and I can get rid of that subscription too to that module and save some more money. Um some of your I'm sorry. The nice thing about doing the Excel thing is that it's
uh easy easily transitional meaning that if you to taken any computer courses you know Excel when you get into some of these other programs you got to start from scratch. Yes. And that is if we can get into a more common place software system that
somebody leaves the next person can come in and at least have the basics of what's going on. That's also something that I've seen over the years having managed multiple things in companies that that's a benefit I think. So I mean I work for United Health Group
500 billion a year in revenue and it's driven by Excel. Yeah. Like I said it is soized but but don't don't hesitate to reach out to some other counties and see what they're using and what works for them. um you know some
yeah I mean open gov that that financial transparency thing what it comes up with is not very helpful and I do fool around every time because I want to see expenses by department and then there are times when I want to see revenue so
that I can see what is you know like how much of HHS actually came from government intergovernmental transfer that kind of thing and those things you have to kind of every time like yeah how the heck did because that isn't how it necessarily not user friendly.
No, there would be like some pre kind of calculated reports that I think would be more helpful for people and and you know I mean I haven't really probe this with the board. I mean as far as the monthly financial reporting that I've been giving to the board it's on
consent. So um but I am going to give you a midyear presentation. So where are we at through June close and maybe I can get some more feedback. But I was thinking of just taking that and putting in the financial transparency section, adding some stuff uh that's not there
now, like debts, you know, what's our debt schedules and what do they look like and and when's that all going to get paid off. Uh, you know, I can load the annual budget in there. Um, and I know that a lot of it is numbers driven that I give you because I know you're sophisticated consumers, but there may
be some other things that we can do that's a little simpler, a little easier to look at. Um, you know, and again, I'm just trying to figure out ways to reduce costs where we can and yet not hamper the quality of what people are seeing.
So, one of the things that you talk and we're always uh criticized that uh when you're looking forward is our deferred maintenance. We always get caught like right now with the LACE. Well, you didn't do the maintenance on it. I said, you know what? Nobody ever asks for us to fix the
drains in the in the floor of the garage. I mean, so we need to look at all these buildings, what we need to do to keep them maintained because we get caught with big bills because we didn't do something along the way. Absolutely. And that's that that's when
I talk about in new for 26 the create creation of a maintenance budget. And now that would imply, you know, I'm dropping a big huge cost into the budget that doesn't exist now. And that's not the goal. It but the goal is to say here's what we own and here's you know
when it all deteriorates and and here's sort of the replacement and or the maintenance or the fixing that we have to do. Um, and I know Dave Kramer does a lot of that with the highway budget, of course, but I'm talking more about our buildings and like the sheriff and all the things that he owns and has to
maintain and we see it pop up sort of randomly in in the capital budget for tasers or radios or antennas and things like that. That's the stuff I'm talking about. Okay. Those are having done many many of those plans in my life. You put it all on a
piece of paper and then you prioritize it. So yeah, it's a big number at first, but it's just like anything else. You go, okay, what needs to happen now, later, deferred, five year, 10 year, and then it works itself out, but at least we know what we have and we know what the expectation is. So, and sometimes you switch those numbers
around. Yep. Sometimes you don't do anything and you say, well, we got to keep the can down, right? So, but to have a to have a plan is where it starts. So, I like I like the concept and I think that should be through every part of the government um all the way through. So, and maybe Dave
has an outline for that that we could, you know, potentially Good idea and bring in and um but today you wanted to talk about outside agency. Yes. And I'll I'll shut up and No, it's not you. It's all of us. I'm just wondering if Yes. Y
and the last thing here is a budget book. So, uh Jesse Palbicki and my team and I were we're going to tackle this again doing it inexpensively. Use Adobe Pro. Nothing too crazy, you know, nothing, you know, more than that thick.
Um, but, uh, it's going to have, you know, some history in it. Uh, it's going to have the budget, it's going to have department profiles, um, it's going to have debt schedule, it's going to have, you know, some other things. Maybe an intro from yourself as the chair. Um,
that's what I'm thinking. And, uh, we can publish a few, but, I think primarily it would just sit on the web. on a website, but it might be something that you could have yourselves to take to meetings and stuff like that because I give presentations. Yes.
Yeah. But I I again I would encourage you to pick out handful of counties. You always like to compare us to other counties. Um and just see what they're doing. Go on their website and see what they're providing. Uh you know, some big counties, small counties, and just and then again, we don't need to reinvent
the wheel. If you got a question about something, uh, you can always run something through AMC and say, "Hey, how many counties use this and what, you know, and they'll do some basic homework. How many counties use this particular software and are they happy with it?" type of thing. Um, they're very capable of polling um, you know,
multiple and you know, you get some that respond and some that don't, but a good tool. That's kind of some of the feedback we got on OpenG was sort of like, we used to use it and then we quit because it's too hard. Yeah. So, okay. um the the this so I'm going to
just bring you to this now. Y two in orange. This is the outside agency requests. So the ones that are in orange, it's so if you go to the far right column, 26 agency requests. The two that are in orange, we have not formally received.
I've been in contact with both of them. Um and you know, I just said, "Hey, I'm using like for the Humane Society." Okay. Um I think his name is Richmond. Rich Mccclure. Yes. And uh I said I'm going to use 20,000 for now. Then I didn't hear
anything back, but I'm sure I will. But um and then I'm working with Tom Anderson on the Veterans Memorial one. That's $90 per I think there's nine of them that get flag money I think for Memorial Day. So um but isn't it Well, if we go down the
list, isn't Humane Society isn't that a contract? Isn't don't we get charged per animal or something? Isn't that more of a contract or we automatically give them 20,000? We automatically give 20. I thought we had a Isn't that Chuck? Confused. Yeah, I'm confused.
I think you're referencing the um sheriff. Yeah, there's a contract for Okay. So, we're giving them 20,000 just to be nice and then we're also getting build when Okay. And the same way um the question there then project fine 45 is
that the uh again we're under contract for um interpretive services and everything but the 45 is just because we're nice. No. Is that the contract for interpretive services? That is a contract. Yeah. It's my understanding if we actually did the hourly they get more
than that. Well, but we are build hourly for some things. For some things. Yeah. Some things we still build hourly. Isn't the sheriff's use of society included in the 20,000 or is that separate? I I don't know up top. Oh, actually
um what's the best way for us to tackle this? Did you guys have an idea? Well, I would just say given all of the uncertainty we have with the budget and the since we're at the end of the pipe uh from federal decisions and state decisions and we've got a lot of things
to figure out in that regard yet, I would say, you know, what we're looking for today is obviously not a vote, but some smoke signals or guidance on where to sit. I mean my recommendation would you to be keep these things flat um to prior year or flatter down is what
I would say. Yes. Okay. Once again this year I'm going to advocate two things for the senior advocacy services which um we are not paying the uh the share that the city would like us to. And so it ends up that
they are subsidizing services for people who don't live inside the city of Winona. Um, and I'm not saying that we should go the full 92, but I would like to increase um because I have been trying for a few years to get them up a
little higher. Um I think especially when rules are going to be changing the um that it is important for folks who need to can go there and get advice from the advocates. Um the story that I'll
share is that I I have someone who who is a a senior uh my age and who lives in my district and who uh lives on a pretty meager uh social security income and owns a house and didn't know that he
could uh apply for a property tax refund and was able to get help from the senior advocates to do that and actually get a refund. that has made his life a lot easier because his escrow payment went up. So, they help with a lot of services
in terms of filling out paperwork for folks that are related to programs, programs that the county administers, programs that the countyy's involved in. So, I'd love to see us, I don't know, put another 10,000 towards them, maybe get them up to 60, even if we aren't up
there to the full amount. Um, the other thing is that I think that our soil water conservation district is super important and I would um support giving them the amount that they've asked for. Uh, this year they're asking for 179,000 and I'd support that as
well. But we have no breakdown of these asks. You know, why why are they asking for the increases? I just have this sheet with the totals and such. So, I have a
question. Um, actually the the Southeast Minnesota Emergency Medical Services that 5,000 I don't even know if it should be on here. That should be in the sheriff's budget or emergency uh manager's budget because that, you know, it's not really
the same as some of these other things in my opinion. So, I mean, it can stay here, but it's not really an optional thing. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Well, that's the group that's uh what is it like 10 or 11 counties in southeast
Minnesota that provides uh emergency medical training for all our first responders, all the volunteer agencies in in a medical um to keep keep our ambulance and our volunteer medical services throughout this whole southeast
Minnesota um you know up to speed to be so it it's it's not just because we're nice, it's because it's a needed um medical services environment and they were low on it was primarily started way back when they did seat belt and the
funding source was seat belt tickets. Well, we've taught people well. Most everybody wears their seatelt and the the number of dollars coming in for seatelt violations is great been greatly reduced, but the the requirement because you know a volunteer emergency medical service person has to have the same
training as a highly paid professional. And so that's the group that provides the training. And so when that seat belt money kept going down, they said, "Well, every county, you know, probably should chip in some to keep their people, you know, save." And it should come out of
like, you know, I don't know. Most of the time it's a sheriff's budget. Um, it's in Ben's budget now, but or emergency. Yeah. He was the one that said he doesn't benefit from any of it. So, he he does. I mean, I don't think he understands what what
services it's providing. Okay. And that's why I was asking for clarification so we can go back to Ben. Yeah. And help him understand. I mean I I mean if we don't have all the volunteer uh probably one of the largest struggles in all the rural communities right now is
is especially not so much in the fire department but it's it's definitely in the I was a former EMT for Lewon. I went through all the national and state certifications. It's a lot of that was back in late 90s early 2000s and is an I don't know if anybody else has done it. No,
but it's an insane amount of work and to probably arguably the hardest test I've ever taken in my life and I mean it, you know, to to get people to do this is insane. And when I was a mayor of Alura, I I it got desperate. And at one of the meetings, I
had to say, "Guys, this is this is the message that needs to go on the piece of paper. your mom, your dad, your brother, your grandpa will die if we don't find volunteers. Somehow get that message on a piece of paper. Well,
that's really where where it has to go and that's where this is at. Yeah, it's a big problem. There was some legislation. I don't know if it got passed. They were trying to change the funding formula for EMS. I don't do because I don't think it but I mean they were trying to you know a big
thing is when you go out on a medical call you can't even get reimbursed for you know the band-aids and the you know heaven forbid all the stuff you use. So it's it's definitely something kind of not in the same category. Commissioner, what would you like to see? Would you be open to seeing a presentation about what the benefit of
the 5000 is? Um we're at a little bit of a transition in the leadership of that group. Don Hoggy was in had a terrible medical um and I I can check uh the person who's running it. I don't know if he's just still
interum um to tell you the truth, but yeah, we could maybe not if not a presentation, just a summary. Summary be and I've got that already. Jeff Peterson gave me something. I can circulate that. Yeah, that's okay. Um I can see this conversation taking 12
hours. Yeah. what you're looking for right now is just like first reactions. Is that fair to say? Or do you want us to do deeper dives? I'd like a, you know, maybe something slightly deeper than that. So I can just sort of plug in a number and say that's more or less done. Unless you want to make a motion later on when you
like what Chris started, just go around the table and just have people give their first reaction or we just focus on the ones where they're asking for more than last year. There's only about five of them. I just different direction. Exactly. sometime. I guess I'll get my opinion if you want. I I I think if
something goes up, something else needs to go down. Well, because 816,000 is what almost three and a half% of a levy. So, to make one happy, uh, we got to figure out who we want to discipline. Anything else? Nope. I want to go through a couple things
real quickly. So, double checking, volunteer services actually request requested a lower amount. Yeah, they did. They did. I'm not sure why. Okay. cell code. Do we have discretion over that or is that We do. There's a formula at the state, but I think we're always above it.
Yeah, we are. So, um I'm going to just give you my first reaction is speaking from myself only because of what the federal budget what the people at the federal level have done. Um even though some of it now won't go into effect until 26. Is that correct?
Right. Still coming. Yeah. Um but in the state level, which we haven't figured yet, don't know what they're going to do. I'm speaking for myself only, the buck is being passed to the local level. People are need to brace themselves for a because
people have passed the buck. Um I'm comfortable with a larger than normal increase. I wish it wasn't that way, but because of what happened in DC, the big beautiful bill for billionaires, um and what's going to happen at the state level, they'll probably also pass the bill pass the buck is. So that's that's
speaking for myself only. I'm also comfortable with supporting the increase for soil and water conservation district. Um this is not this is it's just an investment doing not doing some of these things just means you pay more money later on or down the road. Um I'm
also open to um some kind of increase for the senior citizen advocate because the goal is to keep people in their homes longer and improve the quality of life. that saves everybody money the longer people can stay in their homes. So, I would be open to some kind of
level increase for that. I I've said the Smith I've said this last year, so it's not just because he came today and presented. I'm also comfortable with that $300 increase for Smith um in terms of what they do for entrepreneurs and and other community
needs. So, I'm speaking for myself only. I'm comfortable with the soil and water conservation request. I'm comfortable with Smith some amount for senior citizen celco that's what an $8,000 increase libraries do so much more than books
that for a lot of people it's it's almost human services um I'm also comfortable with some kind of increase and I do not feel a need to decrease in other places so that's just speaking for myself why is the historical society asking for so much more. Did
I le Unless someone brings it up? Let's not even discuss it. Like I I But why are they asking for so much more? I'm bringing it up. Why? Unless someone wants to support it. Let's not even discuss it. Like I don't want to I don't want to support that request. So I guess I'm I'm confused. You're
saying hold it at the 2025. We want to discuss it. Let's just keep it at the at the Well, soil and water. I'm not sure why they're asking for more money because there's all kinds of money coming through the the uh legacy funds and all the the one watershed one plan. So I
again it's not huge but I I'm why are they asking for more um because there is a lot of opportunities to earn more money through all those other grants and and um funds and everything. Big brothers can tell us. Big brothers, big sisters. I really have
issues with some one of my constituents uh quizzed them and I think they're down to servicing six kids. Um again, do we have any report any what they're doing in Winona County? I know for a fact there's a room full of the high school every now and then. Well, I again I had a constituent check
with somebody um that I can verify that um you know, senior citizen advocacy center, you know, that that's too too significant an increase. I mean, yes and no. Um
volunteer services. Well, they built a new building, which is amazing, and they're charging more for their clothing, so maybe they're making more money. Um uh I guess the advocacy center I have some questions of what we really are doing there. Um the other ones are
small. I again this the whole philosophy that this is that philanthropic giving of taking from property taxpayers to fund somebody else's feel-good organizations rubs wrong with me. in the libraries. I would not support
any type of increase like that. I mean, I'm sorry. Um, everybody's got to tighten their belt. Taxpayers are have going to have to tighten considerably. Yes, other levels of government are are screwing us over, but I can't be part of the screw of my local, you know,
property taxpayer. There's more than Chris Meyer's one citizen that needs help out there. And, uh, property taxes aren't optional. journal. I would support some increase in the senior advocate. Um I know that we've
been underfunding that position and that does serve the rural residents who apparently um is more than Chris Meyer, one person. Um so I would support some level of increase there. Maybe the 10K that Chris
mentioned and I would support soil and water. Uh, however, I'd like to know what that particular increase is for. Everything else I would support uh holding flat. Okay.
You have your what you need? Yeah, I do. Okay. You want to go deeper than that or is that enough for now? No, that's good. All right. Everybody's got other commitments. Are we done? Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks, guys.