Uh okay. All right. Uh we open our our county board with public comment and anybody wishing to address the county board name, address, and two minutes. Okay. Chased Saraki, 1254 West 3rd Street in Winona. I'd like to update you
on the progress of my ongoing data request issues for cast vote records. Within a few days from the last time I spoke to you, I received the cast vote records for the 2022 general election. I'm happy to finally receive the data, though unhappy it took over two years.
My next issue is with my two data requests for cast vote records from the 2024 primary and general elections. On April 25th, I received a message through the data request portal from assistant county attorney Cray regarding my request for data from the 2024 primary
election. He stated, "Winona County reviewed its files and determined that there are no responsive records to your request. I have sent a message through the portal disputing the claim that the county does not have responsive records to my request. A cast vote record is the
aggre aggregated ballot level data on ballots casted consisting of a single record for each ballot tabulated. This information was used to send our election results to the Minnesota Secretary of State and is kept in the county's elections management system. It
is required by federal law to be kept for 22 months following election per US code title 52 section 20701. And as a reminder, Minnesota statute 206.845 subdivision 3 states that cast
vote records are public record. Denying my request for cast vote records because a report of the cast vote records has not been generated by the county is akin to denying a data request for county commissioner emails because they have not been converted into a sharable PDF
format. The data is there and it is public record despite the format it currently is in. However, if it is true that there are no records, this should be very concerning to the board since it would be in violation of federal law. This prolonged and arduous process for
acquiring public data is quite frustrating. I hope the board seeks to seeks action in clarifying and streamlining the data request process. Right now, I request my data request files be reopened and fulfilled in accordance with state and federal law.
Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board? introduction. Good morning. Good morning. Todd Sadler, new HR director. Um, pleased to be here. Um, like day four, I think, but uh come
from state of Iowa, 30 years of public sector HR experience and so pleased to be here and, you know, look forward to my my venture here. So, you're welcome. All right. Is there anyone online? I don't see anybody. And last
time, anyone wishing to address the Winona County Board? Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, we'll move into our agenda. Uh, item three, approval of the county board minutes from April 22nd, 2025. I will move to approve. Second. Motion made by
Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Eling to approve the county board me meeting minutes from April 22. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Nay. Approved. Um item four, acknowledge receipt of approved
committee meeting minutes. Uh 4.1 is the board of adjustment and 4.2 is health and human service advisory. So moved. I'll second that. We have a motion by Commissioner Olsen, seconded by Commissioner Vagley to acknowledge the receipt of uh January
16th board of adjustment and April 15th Health and Human Service Advisory. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? A. Okay. Approved. Um item five con consent comments and approval of the agenda. Commissioner Vley. No, nothing
today. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Eling, I can figure out how to mute my phone. It doesn't seem to mute. You ever get into that where you hit mute, you turn the volume down and it doesn't want to go away. So I I'll give you a second. We'll come back. Commissioner Olson, nothing for me. Commissioner Meer,
nothing. Thanks. Minister Holy. Commissioner Eling. Uh I'd like to pull 62. I just want a little clarification on it. 62. Okay. Well, 62 will make it uh short clarification, you said. So we'll make that
7.0. Anything else? No. Okay. Comment at the end. Comment. Okay. Um All right. I would like to pull um for a little more clarity and on funding of 6.4. So we'll make that
um 7.01. And then I need to ask for separate votes on 65 and 66. So 65 will be 7.02 02 and six six will be
7.03. Um and uh a comment at the end. With those changes, uh we need an approval of the amended agenda. I move to approve the agenda as amended. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by
Commissioner Vagely to amend the to approve the amended agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Okay. amended agenda. Um, administrator Halty, you could read the rest, please. 6.1, approve letter of
acknowledgement of spongy moth treatment. 6.2 was pulled. 6.3 approved purchase of service and business associate agreements with Goodwill Easter Seals, Minnesota. 6.4, 6.5, and
6.6 were pulled. 6.7 approved 2024 year end feed lot program review and 2024 annual report and performance credit report and 6.8 confirm payment of dispersment. I'll move to approve the consent agenda as it was read. Second
motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsen to approve the consent agenda as read into the record. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Post nay. Okay, that is approved. Um so we will go to um item 6.2 which is on
page 27 and that was commissioner. Yeah just a couple thoughts on this. I how many employees do we have roughly in Lona County again? Approximately 300. Right. If we're looking at 300 times, you know,
if we just say times 20 is 6,000 a month time 12 72,000 plus 12,000 to get the service started, that's 84,000. For them to kind of evaluate what we're doing. Go ahead. With all due
respect, we're not looking at doing any other service other than the 12,000 to do the request for proposal for health insurance bids. Okay? We're not looking at any other services beyond that. Okay. I'm just looking at what else is coming down the road. Okay. So, with this, so
for the health insurance side of things, um, and I apologize. I could have asked some of this beforehand, but it's we're in the egg industry and right now we it was questionable whether I was even going to make it here today. Um, you know, just looking at this, what
are we for 12 grand? Are they just looking at this? You know, we look at the redundancy of a 10-year program. That's $120,000, right? So, that's a roughly a half a levy point just to do this on a 10-year program. Um, is it is it necessary? What do we really gain out of this? Are they just pointing us in
the right direction or what are we getting for 12,000? So, what they'll do is they'll work with us to obtain quotes bids from vendors on our health insurance program. Um, so they'll do all the advertising, they'll
send out all the information, they'll gather the data, they'll analyze the data, they'll work with the vendors to get um the the quotes themselves and to negotiate a lower price. So, they're they are actually negotiating.
Well, they will if we choose a vendor. Well, I was wondering I mean, it's I have health insurance. It's pretty simple. It's you have three things. You have an agent. they take care of it and they kind of come back and do all that for you, but I don't pay them anything to do that other than I'm sure they're getting a little cut out of the
backside. So, I was just trying to figure out is this something we could do internally. And then I was looking at more the ongoing cost at the time saying, "Hey, this could get very expensive to manage this year after year." So, I guess with the $12,000, I could see that. The last time we did
this though, didn't we do a a three-year contract? Then we have a three-year locked in contract with health insurance. Is that correct? No, that was two times ago. Two times ago. We could only get a year uh contract because of our utilization.
Right. Okay. Yep. So, this is something we need to do every year though. Well, not every year. We need to do it once every five years according to statute. But because we could only get a one-year plan, we need to do it again to see if we can get other vendors to bid on us.
Okay. That was the problem we had last year is we couldn't get ample anybody to do it. Yeah. Okay. And just making sure the cost doesn't escalate. So yeah, for 12,000 I guess for as big of a part of that is that's probably somewhat of a fair deal. It will it'll escalate. We
know that. Um with all that said though, are we paying $12,000 and are we going to still end up with a one-year thing and then we're going to have to do this again? We won't know until we get bids. Well, can we can we tell this North Risk partners that if they don't come back
with a three-year thing, we're not going to pay them the full $12,000, but they're not earning our money. I mean, it's a lot of money. Um, and as Josh said, you know, in the private sector, you just you make a few calls and you let people work on it. We have a new HR person. I don't know his expertise in in
health insurance, anything, put them to the test. Um, he'll be part of the process. So, I guess we'll find out what we can do. And is it um is it a flat 12,000 or is it a pr-rated? No, it's a flat 12,000. I
don't like that either. We don't know. I I just don't feel that I know that I'm getting value for my my investment. Commissioner May, thanks. How many HR staff are we down right now? At least two. Yes. Okay. And we have 10 unions, which makes it difficult more much more
difficult, let's say, than perhaps Mr. Elsing's company is. Um, and I'll also point out that several years ago, instead of a 37% increase, we had a 7% increase. And it is because we had hired these folks to do our negotiations. So
over the years, as we have had the conversations about this, I have seen that it actually we don't have staff to do it. If we want to hire more staff, maybe that be great. But that these folks have turned out to be worth their value despite the fact that yes, life insurance or health insurance is
expensive. I'm going to u move to approve item 6.2 now 7.0. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Meer, second by Commissioner Olsson to approve the recommendation of Northris Partners to complete requests for proposals.
Commissioner Hing. Yeah, I just wanted some clarity and try to understand what it was, what the long-term ramifications was. I I uh wasn't trying to simplify it as to what we have and the complexity in the county and all the different things. It's just it was me trying to understand
what are we trying to accomplish and is this a dollar well spent? Um it very well could be. So okay, any further discussion? Uh all those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Nay. Carries full one. I
would hope who I guess then who's monitoring this $12,000 contract? HR people. Okay. All right. Also us ultimately. Yes. Ultimately, right? Okay. Um then we've got 6.4
um approval amendment number one for Minnesota Department of Human Services Adult Mental Health Grant Award page 67. And I did um some clarity. Um there was a budget with that. Let me get to the page. What flexibility is that on a per
individual or is that a general? Um the the item that jumps out at me because hold on still getting to the page. Um housing. We're going to be talking about housing in a couple things and there's a um there's a line item in there like
$20,000 for housing. So is that for you know each individual we can approve housing or could we take that that $20,000 you know and do something in a bigger scale the good for everybody in housing? Do do we know what that breakdown is? And I apologize I I didn't
ask it earlier. I would need to get clarification from Karen Bonowski. Um however, my understanding that is this deals with adult mental health and the need to house individuals from time to
time and that's what that money is for. So my understanding is we can't take it and allocate it to something in the community. This is for adult mental health cases where we are required to house them. A temporary housing, excuse me, a temporary scenario. That's my
understanding, but I can get clarification. Okay. Okay. Because you know, it's a good chunk of the whole budget is a good chunk of money. I I had a feeling it was that. But there again, with everything that's going on with the state and the federal government as far as funding, I think we need to look at
every source and do we have any flexibility to use that for the greater good of of uh you know, all our taxpayers and people who do need assistance and such. So yeah, if we could get clarity from Karen as to um
and then again one of the other questions I had too is like how many people are are being served with this money? Does she have a count of uh number of clients that are being uh serviced with this grant? Commissioner Vagley, I'd like to go ahead and move um
make a motion to approve the item and then and also have that follow-up information come afterwards. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion to approve the amendment for Minnesota Department of Human Services adult mental health grant award for
2526. Um, one last thing too is is this guaranteed money. Um, it goes into 26 and that's my understanding that's not on the block to be cut. Okay. Okay. Because yeah, to plan and and know if it's for sure. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I
oppose. Nay. All right. and we'll get followup and clarity from from the department. Thank you. Um then moving on to 6.5 approve less 537 dispatchers labor agreement 2527 to approve. I'll
second. We have a motion by Commissioner Olsen, second by Commissioner Meyer. Um I will not support because again uh my stance of no performance pay for performance issue addressed. Okay. All those in favor any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Nay.
Nay. Okay. Item 6.6 approve local 49ers labor agreement 2025 2027. Approve. Second. We have a motion by commissioner vaguely. Second by commissioner Olsen. And again I won't approve it because of no pay for performance addressed issues.
Uh any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Post nay. Nay. All right. passes. Um, then we're into our regular department recommendation 7.1. Uh, receive update from Laura Patterson
regarding ARPA funds. Good morning. That's page 183. Uh, there is some information in your packet, but yes, I'm just here to provide a general overview. Uh so as outlined in the information that you were provided
approximately 98.7% of the funds have been expended with just over a little over 1% remaining. Uh there are some projects called out that are um working on spending out their funds through December 31st of
2026. Apple Blossom Drive Park, which I know you've had some other discussion with that department. Uh there is one remaining septic replacement or repair that is underway or soon to be underway. Uh continuing funds for the position
that I serve in the ARPA grant coordination position. Uh Catholic Charities community connector uh position and project and then planned humanities project. Uh there have been some additional um requests for
reimbursement since this information was um put together for your packet. Uh so we um have approximately uh $112,000 remaining as of 427 which of
this year um which was uh when our reporting was due to the feds. Uh so with uh the additional requests that have come in, there were 16 a little over $16,000 spent. Um so uh if there's any questions, I'm
happy to answer them. The majority of our projects were completed and used the majority of their funds. I did provide a brief summary of each of those projects um within the the broader report and both internal and then community-based
partner projects. Any questions? You know, I'm disappointed we didn't get any thank you notes. We handed out a lot of money from a lot of organizations. I will say that in communication to me via um requests
for reimbursement. There were appreciations um shared, you know, to the county, to the board. So, I apologize that I did not bring those in a printed format. I'd be happy to provide those. Um but I did not get any physical cards. So handwritten cards
were not provided. Well, I just, you know, it, you know, we handed out a lot of money and and uh I do appreciate the summary and everything. If there's any organization that we really like to highlight what difference they made with those dollars, you know, that would be greatly appreciated because it was it is
all taxpayer money. um and to know a and not just short-term but if you know how it affects their operations long term. That was the goal. I mean it was it was I heard a term the other day at a meeting panic spending.
We had to spend this money and we had to spend it really fast. So I you know sometimes I think it was a little bit of a panic panic spending but what was the long you know how has this impacted our community and our our organizations long term? I I I can't put my finger on it.
Commissioner Meer, I will say that as a number of the work groups that I sit on through um the criminal justice coordinating council, uh the work that Hayawa Valley mental health has done related to housing has had a big impact and a lot of people do recognize that um
people who have been helped by the services and people who are doing the helping. So it'll be totally spent down. Yes. You don't have any pocket change you want to give back? Do you want We'll take pocket today. We'll take pocket. No. Right now all of
the funds are accounted for to be spent. Yeah. Okay. And all the reporting is done. Yes. Okay. And we didn't have we shouldn't be facing any financial audits or anything that we know. Well, there is a requirement for a single audit as a recipient of these funds, but that's something the county does. So, no
additional audits at this point in time. Um and there was guidance from uh US Treasury that they will be rigorously monitoring and um looking at the following of the rules and guidance that were originally provided. But we have documentation of how each of our
projects both community-based and external I'm sorry internal projects uh meet the guidelines and the proposed um statutory components of the of the final rule of treasury. Okay. Good. Good. That's important I guess. Thank you for your work. All right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Moving 7.2, approve funding request for local housing trust fund. And that's page 190. Good morning, Buffy. Good morning. Buffy Bernick, executive director of SEMRA. And with me, I have Patrick Mitchner,
our community development administrator. He does all of our grant writing and administers our housing trust funds. Um today we are before you requesting approval of the recommendations um to fund two um awards from our housing
trust fund. I'm just going to take a couple steps back to say okay where did the money come from? You know how is it there and how is it being allocated? Um as you know we spent 2024 setting up the housing trust fund for Winona County. those funds um that are in the housing
trust fund that some administers are administered in what I'll refer to as out county, not the city of Winona. Um the funds that went in there are from the state affordable housing aid that those are state dollars that came in. They actually came to the county. The county then transferred those dollars
over into your housing trust fund which Sumptra administers. In addition, there's $45,500 available from the SMRA levy funds. Um, so we had total funding available this round of $311,270. We conducted an RFP process.
Um, we had an open RFP from January through March about 60 plus days that um that was open. We sent out um emails. We advertised on our website. We had in the newspaper. We contacted nonprofits, developers um and um we had three
applicants from that. Um two nonprofits are being recommended for approval today. Um Sumptra board um has approved these recommendations. We use the sumptra board as a sounding board approve approval kind of that pass through first and then we you have the
ultimate say on the funding. Um that is how the housing trust fund um ordinance is set up because it is your your money that we administer on your behalf. So, SER recommended uh funding Habitat for Humanity of Winona County with a
$150,000 loan for the development of two owner occupied homes in St. Charles and also funding the Lewon Housing Partnership with $161,270 in the form of a deferred forgivable loan for the rehabilitation
of 12 units of USDA 515 property in Lewon. These were the two strongest um scoring applications. Is I'll pause there. Are there questions? So on the Lewon property, is that the
complex there by the golf course? Correct. Um it's the white or is it the other one across from the golf course on the north side of the It's not Park View or Green View. It's um um that's that's off there, but it's in
that same um area. Yeah, cuz I know some of them need a lot of work. Yeah. Um so when they say it's a USDA, is that owned by the USDA or is that subsidized by the USDA? Is it private owned? It's subsidized by the USDA. These properties
can take many different financing forms. Correct. This one has a USDA loan on it. So we um um Lewis Nousing Partnership pays a lower interest on that loan and then they also provide I'll term it as projectbased rental assistance. So the
USDA actually subsidize that property. This is a high priority within the state of Minnesota within within MHFA even um to protect these properties and not lose that subsidy. So what what exactly does this $161,000 go towards? This will go to
actual rehabilitation of the building structure. Yes. They're actually going to fix it up actually. Yes. Okay. So, it's privately owned. It's being maintained and subsidized through multiple funding. Yeah. To
Interesting. Well, it's owned by um Sentra manages this 501c3 uh Lewon Housing Partnership. The partners are Multi-county Builders and Sentra managed by Sentra. Yeah.
Multi-county builders. Yeah. Which is a part of SEMRA. It's a side It's a side gate. So, it's not privately owned. Not privately owned. I wouldn't It's It's a It's a 501c3 nonprofit. Well, you can be private property. Yeah.
So, okay. Okay. Commissioner Vaguely, I apologize. Actually, do you have more to go through, Buffy? Um, I have more information I can share. I'd like to make a motion to approve item 7.2. I'll second. All right. I still did have a question. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Vagely, second
by Commissioner Meyer to approve the funding request for local housing trust fund. Commissioner Meyer. Yeah, thank you. Uh so the first uh loan for Habitat for Humanity. I know when we u the language
of the trust fund it makes it so that is a loan which presumably would be repaid and then the money would be available again. Correct. I assume that we don't know the terms and then we don't know if it would potentially be forgivable. Um, Habitat for Humanity is
not forgivable. That is repayable. It's basically gap financing for them to be able to build the the twin homes. Um, of that, I want to be really clear where this funding is coming from. The 45,500 of SMRA levy that went into that will be
repaid and then the residual of that loan will come from the SAHA dollars. You didn't ask this question. I was asked this question in front of Wabasha County Board. Buffy, um, why isn't a deferred forgivable loan just a grant? As a county, you do not want that. You
don't because multi-county builders could sell that property as market rate. You want that deferred forgivable loan on there to protect the affordability of that. And if it is sold, that is then due and payable back to the housing trust fund revolving to revolve back
through. Any other questions? So that so in that sense it protects the investment. It does. Yeah. But it is going to fix it up 100%. I can guarantee that. That was my big question because the way I read that it it looked
more like a subsidy to keep the rents low. No. Versus the actual to fix it indirectly. It does because I I believe I know. Yeah. One way or the other, but I believe I know which department that is. And it needs some help. They're getting beat up. Yeah. They're they're aging. So they need to be to keep them
attractive to keep keep them full also. People want to live in those places. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Post nay. Okay. Approve. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Buffy. Thanks, Buffy. All
right. 7.3. Approve resolution proclaiming May 14th, Winona County Law Enforcement Memorial Day. Page 192. Now, here's where it gets confusing. I think we're even confused in our verbiage here. It says, "Proclaim May 14th, Winona County Law Enforcement Memorial
Day, and have a member of the Winona County Board attend the service on May 15th." But we need to correct that. You said the service is actually on the 14th, which is tomorrow, Wednesday, at 1:00. That's where it was. I verified the invitation that I received from Ben
Klinger. Okay. So, it is tomorrow at 1:00 between the courthouse and the law enforcement. Okay. So, for flying shingles, are you able to attend? Uh, I'm planning on. Yes. Great. Okay. I'll move to approve uh item 7.3. Second. Okay. We have a motion made by
Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsson to approve Winona County Law Enforcement Memorial Day, May 14th. Um, and all those in favor say I. I. Nay. Okay. It's approved. And to read
the proclamation into the record. Whereas the 14th of May, 2025 is designated as Winona County Law Enforcement Memorial Day and is set aside as a day to honor all fallen law enforcement officers. And whereas the well-being of all citizens of Winona
County and the United States is preserved and enhanced as a direct result of the vigilance and dedication of law enforcement personnel. And whereas more than 700,000 men and women at great risk to their personal safety presently serve their fellow citizens as
guardians of peace. And whereas more than 145 peace officers across this nation were killed in the line of duty during 2024. And whereas all Winona County law enforcement agencies use this day to honor our fallen fellow officers, we
have made the supreme sacrifice for citizens of Winona County and the city of Winona. And whereas this day also serves as a reminder of the dangers faced by currently serving law enforcement officers in their day-to-day activities. And whereas our officers do not serve in a vacuum, but are assisted
in many ways by the citizens of Winona and Winona County. Therefore, now therefore, I, Commissioner Marshall Ward, do hereby call upon all citizens of Winona County to join area law enforcement agencies in honoring our fallen officers on Winona County Law
Enforcement Memorial Memorial Day. adopted in Winona, Minnesota this 13th day of May, 2025. So again, that will be tomorrow at one o'clock. And I guess we have to be thankful we haven't had any incidences in our county for some time, which is
good. We we uh appreciate their service. 7.4 receive presentation. That right? Oh, we did. We did. We voted then I read it. Yes. receive presentation approve resolution for national treatment court
month and I think Miss Haidider is here. Yeah. Um I just want to introduce um Karen Haidider who is our treatment court coordinator. Uh as the as the uh materials indicate uh treatment court is
administered if you want to call it out of my office and I have had the pleasure and honor of working with Karen Haidider for what is it now seven years. Eight years. Yeah. eight years. We like to say the Karen Karin show. Yeah. And it really is a burden. Yes. So, um Karen is
here with one of our treatment court graduates, Kevin Saltzy, who's going to be coming up also and giving you a short presentation uh also for another resolution for treatment court month. Thank you, Karen. All right. Um good morning everyone and thank you for welcoming treatment court this morning.
So, yes, May is National Treatment Court Month. This month we recognize and celebrate the achievements of treatment courts across the nation and here locally in Winona County. As a recap or if you don't know much about treatment court, our court is a postadjudicatory
program. We accept nonviolent offenders into our program who have um severe substance abuse issues and most often mental health disorders as well. Um they need to come in with a new felony offense or a violation on felony probation. Our treatment court has uh
been active since 2012. So 12 and a half years now we have been in operation. We have 11 team members. Um I am the only staff member and then we have uh 10 other individuals including Karen uh Christine Leber from the county um from
the public defenders office. Judge Stino has been leading as our judge for a year and a half now. We have two members of law enforcement, Les Ladwig and Derek Lanning. uh two members from the jail, Trish Chandler and Katie Shield. Uh our newest member is Denell Lawson. She's a
licensed alcohol and drug counselor. And then lastly, we have the Department of Corrections, Bill Mo and Renee Patterson. Um all of these individuals, I like to name them because um they give so much to our program and our participants. They have knowledge from so many different areas that I only know
so much about so many things. and they help and support our participants greatly and they have a profound impact on the lives of our participants. Also, uh treatment court is an open hearing. We would love to have you. So many of you have have joined us at treatment court and we appreciate that support so
much. Um twice a month on Thursdays at 1:00 is when we have treatment court over at the courthouse. Um next graduation, I always get asked that. We don't have it set, but we're looking at a summer for sure. We'll have another person graduating and we'll be certain to let you all know. 2024 statistics. Uh
just pulling out a handful of things that I'm sure the board would be interested in knowing. In 2024, we had the most people graduate from pro our program since its inception. We had 12 people graduate. Just a reminder, this is a 13-month minimum program, but most
often our participants are are doing probably 18 months in treatment court. That's typically because of uh the requirement of treatment upfront. Takes quite a bit of time usually to get through residential treatment, outpatient treatment and whatnot. Also because of their own personal case management goals that they would like to
achieve before graduation. Our current graduation rate is 63%. Uh we're very proud of that here in Winona County. The national average is 56% and the Minnesota average is only slightly higher than that. Um so we're
very proud of that. Um and we continue to hold strong um to that graduation rate which is very important to us. Uh we also adhere very strongly to evidence-based practices as modeled by AllRise which is our national treatment court
organization. Of the 12 participants that graduated in 2024, we had 10 uh remain free of a new offense. We have uh been struggling with some relapse issues, which is not completely uncommon with some of our graduates. Um just a
few uh but we are constantly planning and brainstorming for how to help folks get back on track if that does occur. That leads me into our best program innovation in 2024, which is our partnership with the uh Department of
Corrections Restorative Justice Program. uh the two restorative justice coordinators, Katie Kuyak and Kylie Davidson. Uh they have worked alongside myself and Bill Mo with the Department of Corrections in um beginning this collaboration just a little over one
year ago. Um, so the intention of a restorative justice circle of support is to bring in individuals from the community to come in and have a meeting, a circle where we have our participant present, um, those that are administering the circle and then it
could be family members, friends, uh, professionals within the community, their recovery support sponsor, just some examples. Um, we come together and we talk about anything that's going on uh, with that participant. could be case plan goals that they might be struggling
with, could be anything in life that they're struggling with, but it's also a time to celebrate their accomplishments as well. The biggest intention is to set our participants up with supports that will be lasting throughout their lifetime, knowing full well that treatment court, hopefully the
department of corrections hopefully is only in their life for a season. Um, so this has been going incredibly well. We have 12 circles currently in operation, meaning 12 participants and graduates currently have their own circle. These occur typically every other week,
sometimes monthly as they progress through. Our largest circle had nine supports from the community uh attending, which was great. Um so great community involvement, more than we've probably ever had before from the community. So that's just been um a really wonderful addition to the
program. We're grateful uh to the restorative justice program for all of their efforts in that. The last uh bit of information I want to discuss is our finances uh which I think you all will be pleased to hear about. Our state of Minnesota funding
level increased in 2025. In 2024, we we received $95,000. All treatment courts across the state of Minnesota received a 10% increase for 25 26 and 27. That put us at
$15,000 annually at a base level. However, there's more good news. On top of that, our third judicial district veterans court was unable to spend all of their funds. They have a federal grant as well, so they're very blessed with a lot of funds right now, which is great. Um, so that opened a door for
other courts within the third district only to request funding. Um, so I did. I requested that we had $10,000 of what was left and they granted that to our program. Uh lastly, the state of Minnesota had a cannabis prevention grant opportunity which I applied for
and we were awarded an additional $10,000. That brings us to a grand total of $125,000 for fiscal year 25 which ends at the end of June. Um this is the most funding we've been provided to date in one fiscal year. Um, with that, I'm very
happy to report that very minimally, if at all, um, we would need the support of the county board financially this fiscal year, as I just reviewed the budget recently, and we're doing very well. Um, moving into fiscal year 26, we will return to our base funding of
$15,000, which is not quite enough to cover our entire budget at this point. Um, so I hope that us being so fiscally responsible in 2025 will be considered by the board as we move into fiscal year 2026. So to conclude my presentation, I
would like to welcome Kevin and Sasha to join me and then we'll open it up for questions. Um, Kevin is a treatment court graduate of ours and he's joined by Sasha, his significant other. I asked both of them to attend because they're going to share a little bit about how treatment court has impacted not only
Kevin but their family. All right. Thank you. Um, all right. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you guys. My name is Kevin Saltzy. I'm a proud graduate of treatment court. This program didn't
just help me. It It's changed my life. Before treatment court, I was caught in addiction and I lost everything. Um, you know, but through structure, accountability, and real support, this program has helped me get on a better path. I've been clean from all drugs for
a little over three years. I'd say it's helped me reconnect with my family, my children. I got my driver's license back. I've held a great job longer than ever before. It's been almost three years also. Um and treatment court
helped me with that. Um, treatment court helps to to connect with other recovering addicts by recording uh coordinating group outings, attending group events like kickball and cookouts. Today, I'm happy. I'm healthy. I'm a productive member of this
community and I'm proud I'm truly proud of the man I've become. This program works. I'm living proof of that. And I know there are many more like me that just need the same chance. That's why I'm here. asked you guys to help support
this program. It's It's amazing. Like I say, it's changed my life. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Sasha and excuse me, I'm really nervous. Don't be nervous. Okay. Um you have the table,
you know, between we're just people, right? I am here today with as the significant other of Kevin who is a graduate graduate of Winona County Treatment Court and also someone who is and I am also who some in
recovery myself. I stand before you today deeply deeply grateful and proud supporter of the life-saving work that this program has done not just for the participants but for the entire families of the participants and the communities. I want to be completely honest with you.
Without treatment court, sorry if I get emotional. Without treatment court, I don't think or believe that we would be standing in front of you today. Um we today we have stability and um most importantly we have what matters
most to us and that's our children. Um addiction is very powerful. It isolates you and it breaks you and it breaks your trust and your hope and your connection. But through treatment court, it offers something even more powerful.
Accountability, structure, compassion, and a genuine path to recovery. It's not just a program. It's a second chance, and it is a lifeline. Through this program, Kevin has been able to rebuild himself. I've watched him learn how to be a
responsible person and to be present and to be proud of who he is becoming. It hasn't just changed him, it has changed us as a couple and as a family. Our children now see how a home is filled with love, safety, and support.
They see parents who show up for them every single day. I want you to know that the investment that you make in this program is not just about numbers or su success rates. It is about human lives. It is about children growing up with so
parents and present parents. It's about families staying sober together and about healing generations. Today we are 1,142 days sober and without treatment court that wouldn't be possible. I urge you to continue supporting and funding this
incredible pro program because it works. It's working for us and I truly believe it is one of the most effective compassionate responses to addiction to crime and any other that any other county can offer. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak to you today.
Fantastic. Yeah. Congratulations to both of you on your sobriety and thank you very much for coming here to share your story with us. Thank you. Thank you. What you guys have done is probably one of the hardest things that any human ever faces. So, thank you for sharing. Thank you. Any questions for me? Wow, that was
powerful. Well, I got a couple questions. So, you said you're very proud and and it sounds good. 63% graduation. How don't they have an option to go through it a second time? So, yes, if we have a graduate who struggles with with relapse, well, Kevin
did that. Okay. Yes. Um, I will say that um the door is open to individuals who have not experienced the program first. If we do have openings in our program, we do consider graduates on a case- by case basis. Yes. Okay. So, so does that uh the second time Well, for Kevin it
worked. Um, does that boost your graduation numbers? Yes. Yes, we've only had a handful uh go through it a second time. Um, and that has been uh a very beneficial piece of the program. Um, we're very intentional at the beginning. Um, what did we miss? What did you miss?
You know, we're not just going to have you back in the program to do the same things over again. This is going to be more intensive and uh addressing issues on a deeper level. Yeah. Yeah. because I addiction is is a very uh complex it issue. It is um
I'm curious the cannabis grant $10,000 uh what what are you going to do with that cannabis grant? So there was only very um there's specific guidelines with that. We were able to pay for all of our drug testing with it. Um so we couldn't pay for staff or anything like that. So we used it for all of our drug testing
services. Drug testing occurs at least twice a week, sometimes three times a week. Very intensive. Uh, so we go through a lot of drug testing kits and and our also our laboratory um that would um read if we had any positive test results and things like that. Okay. All right. Well, I always feel it's kind
of an oxymoron. We're legalizing another drug and yet we're throwing money to test for it and yeah, it's kind of a strange thing. Um, it will be interesting in our society, I think. Um, just listening all these uh new I think I've got it right.
GLP1s. It's the weight loss um uh diabetic medicine, but they're really finding a lot of things that deal with addiction. Now, there's just been a couple little news clips within the last week or so for alcohol and and other substance use that it really greatly
reduces. So, I would encourage you to follow follow that. I will. Uh I have a family member on it for a diabetic situation. Um and um you know it it's change greatly improved his life in that respect but they're finding a lot with the addiction phase and and they're
expanding the use of that. Now is it good or bad long term? We don't know. Sure. Um but some there's a lot of evidence showing it's also not healthy. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean it's something just something to monitor and see how that works. Okay. Uh any other question? Oh, one last thing. Um I see this a lot.
You say treatment court saves $27 for every dollar invested. Treatment court saves more than 6,000 for every individual. Do you have worksheets on that? Oh, I'm sure that we could get some of those for you. I I'm always curious how they come up with those numbers, what they figures, what they throw into there. Well, you can just Yeah, shoot.
If you got a copy of something, get more information. Yeah, sure. Commissioner, one of the questions I have is always got a nature to never be satisfied. Sure. Um did so when people don't make it through or even people that do did make
it through first or second time is there a pretty I don't want you know I don't want it to be like a homework assignment but is there a pretty extensive thing that says hey what would you change what would do different is it is it I mean we're constantly learning as to how to improve that I assume is some is there a
reoccurring theme that you're hearing on something that needs to be changed in that department. Yeah. So, a few responses to that question. Um, I want to say too that somebody that's terminated from the program, that could be for a variety of reasons. They need to wait, I believe it's two years before
they get out of jail or prison before coming back to us because we feel like it's a that's something that's totally different than somebody who's graduated. They did have success in the program. They're still on probation working with us and they had a relapse where they're still under our umbrella of supervision. So, there's that difference, too. To
your question of what's missing, mental health comes up the most often, I would say. Sure. I went and saw my therapist, but I feel like I maybe need residential treatment for mental health therapy this time around or these other things have come up in my life or um I didn't or I didn't dig deep enough. That's another
common theme too. And so, um these restorative justice circles too, the support, that's also a common theme as well. I didn't have enough support. Um and that's kind of like what we thought you did. Well, now these restorative justice circles are really really um
bringing that all together. As far as the homework assignment, quote unquote, there is an application they need to fill out that's much different than coming into treatment court the first time with some in-depth questions and responses. And if our team isn't satisfied with that, um um we wouldn't
be accepting them back in. So, it is more rigorous, I would say, than somebody's first time in treatment court. Right. But even on the outgoing side, is there something on the outgoing side that says, "Hey, what you would change?" Yeah, we do have an exit interview for our terminated individuals and our graduates. It's always really
interesting when the terminated individuals, if they would like to, almost always, I can't even actually think of a time where they didn't do an exit interview because they will say, "Although this didn't work for me, treatment court helped me in many ways." We've had very positive feedback even if they are leaving our program without a
graduation. Thank you. Thank you. I would move to approve uh the resolution that's associated with item 7.4. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion to approve the resolution for National Treatment Court Month uh made by Commissioner Meyer, second by
Commissioner Vaguely. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I post nay. Okay, we'll read that into the National Treatment Court month May 2025. Whereas according to All Rise, treatment courts are most successful justice
system intervention in our nation's history for reducing crime by addressing substance use and mental health disorders. And whereas treatment courts have an average of more than 6,000 for every individual, they um save, I'm sorry, courts save an average of more than 6,000 of every individual they
serve. And whereas treatment courts provide a range of economic benefits to a community such as reduced costs in court, prison expenditures, increased tax revenues, lowered foster care expenses, and decreased costs related to victimization. And whereas treatment court combine accountability with
evidence-based treatment, and whereas treatment court annually refers more than 1,500 people to life-saving treatment and recovery support services. Whereas, according to All RISE, treatment courts significantly improve substance use and
mental health disorder treatment outcomes and prevent fatal overdoses. And whereas treatment courts facilitate communitywide partnerships bringing together public safety and public health. And whereas there are more than 4,000 treatment courts nationwide,
whereas treatment courts demonstrate that when one person rises, we all rise. Therefore, it be resolved that the Winona County Board of Commissioners declares the treatment support month be established during the month of May 2025 in Winona County, Minnesota, adopted
this 13th day of May, 2025. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you folks for coming and sharing your story with us. Yep. We we don't we didn't bite. You can tell your you know tell your participants we didn't bite.
Okay. Thank you. Um 7.5 discuss potential ideas for use of the 2025 SAHA funds in the community. That's a page 198. Commissioners, I'm Chuck Elliot, the Winona County Finance Director.
Um, just to give you a summary that's uh from page 199 of the packet, April 22nd of this year, the board directed staff to compile potential ideas for use of 2025 state affordable housing aid or
also known as SAHA funds in the community. Um, just to give you some background, SAHA was established by the state of Minnesota in 2023 to help counties n tribe tribes in greater Minnesota local governments develop and preserve affordable housing within their
jurisdictions to keep families from losing housing and to help those experiencing experiencing homelessness find housing. Qualified projects include emergency rental assistance, financial support to
nonprofits, construction, acquisition, rehab, demolition, or removal of structures, and then other types of projects. Um, Winona County has received a total of $266,000. That's from 23 and 24
combined. And then we used it to create the local housing trust fund which we've already had a conversation about today. This year in 2025 we are told we're going to receive 57,588. I think it comes in two chunks.
One of them is in either May or June and then the second piece is in December. Um which is a big jump a drop from previous years. uh well over 50% and no telling what we'll see for 2026 if anything. Um
so the next step here is to consider possible ideas for the 2025 SAHA funding. There's a handful of them here. This is not complete. Um but uh the first one is just to continue funding the local housing trust fund with the
$57,000 that comes in this year. uh you could put it in the health and human services budget to be used in accordance with their ongoing programs that meet the requirements. Uh then there's a couple mentioned here out of home placement for children and adult mental
health. Also transitional housing there. Another option is to fund the warming center. We've heard about that a couple times uh in regards to Catholic Charities and the problems that they're experiencing there. um or funding another nonprofit specializing in
affordable housing here in the county. Um just lastly, uh at this point, we don't have a specific recommendation. Um but I think the collective preference is to invest in an opportunity that has repeatable benefit rather than single use
because the it it has dropped significantly. Yeah. Commissioner. Yeah, that's just the one thing I would again this is across the board probably anything we got to careful what we start because when the funding's lost now how do you continue to do that that's it's
always the number one issue it sounds good at first but when that funding leaves and then you're faced on putting all the burden on the local taxpayer which god knows I've got enough phone calls already lately we just need to be very careful of those types of things so all those single-use type
scenarios we also have to be very careful about long-term these scenarios that require the additional funding to keep going because we're not guaranteed these dollars. So, I would say we look at things that are maybe more pinpointed that we know we don't have to continue to fund if we lose the fund. Are we
going are we being asked to give it specific or what's the need for action today in this? We're bringing back the ideas after seeking advice from other management. Okay. And that was how I understood the direction of the board.
Sure. Okay. Commissioner Vley, so the staff doesn't have any specific recommendations. No, our recommendation as stated in the packet is going ongoing value. Yep. And I would have to advocate for, you know, our our SEMRA because they already have the infrastructure.
You know, the the amount is going down. We can see it. It'll probably dry up, but they do have the infrastructure um, you know, to handle monies like this and do um projects. And then with that second bullet there, partner with the city of Winona on an affordable housing
venture. What What did the city They They also received their own funding more than we did. Yeah. You do we know do we know those numbers, Chuck? I only know the big numbers which was like 185 when we got 132,000. Right. And so I suppose maybe proportionally it's Yeah,
you can look it up on the website. There's a state website you can look it up. Yep. It's pretty straightforward. I can. Yeah, but I mean I know SEMA has talked about um you know with the city of Winona and again if they got money um there could possibly be some type of partnership with doing that. So so I
would advocate instead of building another you know infrastructure another system to try and fund is use the existing one and hopefully it would be more uh economically um viable. Commissioner and to commissioner Ward I think you already asked this so we don't
need to decide today. No, this is just a conversation that we could continue. Um because my first thought is um first of all I'd like to wait because Catholic Charities put in a large grant to the state um to move towards an ally year
round um warming center program and it would also be a program that leverages more community volunteers and it would hope provide more connections to more services um primarily and this doesn't mean more county staff it means more
community members taking part in it But I don't yet know um no one knows yet what will what will happen in terms of which grants will be funded at what level. So, um, that's my f first thought is I think we could wait a little while. Then my f I my first out of the shoot
thought is to set aside some for the warming center because and the focus is I apologize to help. That's a sign. Students love it when I'm talking. Much tequila or not enough too much allergies. Too much tequila or not
enough tequila or the other. I haven't tried that yet. Um but um and operas with uh warming center is also not just to provide shelter but to provide shelter. I would like to ask Buffy, I'm going to
put you on the spot. Um what you're in this business. Um where do you think this is going funding wise? And I know you've gotten some updates on some other funding. I don't have a crystal ball. I wish I did. It would make managing a lot easier. Um, if I had
to bet, I don't I would, knowing where our state is financially, I would guess this funding is probably going to decrease if I, if I had to guess. Um, it's dropped in. Correct. Correct. Um,
it is a separate program that is run through MHFA. Um, so yes, um, it's there to continue through MHFA, but I don't know that they will have the funding for that long
term. Um, the money is yours. It's the counties. If you want to utilize SERA, you certainly can. If you want to give it to a designated um project, you certainly can. It's discretionary. It's It's discretionary in terms of where you
want to at this point. At this point. Yeah, Commissioner White. Yeah. In support of uh some of the things that Commissioner Vaguely has said, um the Warman Center has to move, but they're also trying to become year round. And um
we had a conversation at the jail and jail alternatives meeting of the CJCC. It was over a month ago now. Um, and we were talking about what things what things for people who are repeatedly still ending up in our jail, how can we
help them? And honestly, the you know, we were talking about doing a survey, but the the um Trish Chandler, who's the jail social worker, and Kelsey Horse, Sergeant Kelsey Horse, who's in charge of the programming, what they said is, "You don't need to do a survey. we can
tell you that lack of housing is one of the biggest barriers to people who get out of our jail. And they told two stories. So they they said, you know, a lot of times those folks have nowhere to go and they use the warming center, but once the warming center closes because
it's only open for a certain number of months, then there is nothing and so they end up living rough. or they said having to go couch surfing and end up with friends and then using again because those friends are folks who are
you know from their past of addiction, right? So their strongest recommendation was yes, keep the warming center and keep it help it to become a year-round enterprise. To the idea that this is one-time funding because this is the
year that they have to find a new location and they're trying to get these big grants. I see it as a good in investment for us just in terms of recidivism, right? So I think that's great. on here also is transitional housing, which again is the idea of some
housing for folks who get out of jail. And one of the things they talked about is even if there was one place that people could go for some limited period of time, seven days or you know or whatever, that would be extremely helpful in terms of keeping people on a
good trajectory which they're on when they get out of being in jail. So, I'm totally like there's not enough money for all the things I think we need to do and want to do. So, all of these are really excellent choices. Um, I do want
to I don't think this is the year. Honestly, I'm not sure how long when it would be the year again, but um I there is a lot of pressure. Um, a number of us are get organizations inside the city of Winona reaching out
to us. They want more lowincome housing and a partnership with the city to do that. And even if it didn't happen inside the city of Winona, if it happened in Good View, I still think that would be a great opportunity. Um,
one thing I would like for us to consider in the long run is if we are not fully using our revolving loan fund, could we take several hundred,000 and repurpose that to put towards a project for some lowincome housing? So I which
revolving loan fund? Give me the EDA. The EDA revolving loan. Okay. So I think we usually have we have like a million two and and there's a very small amount of that that actually ends up being out in loans right now. There's a couple
hundred thousand out now. But yeah, and the rest is just sitting there earning interest. And I I understand the importance of that fund. I wouldn't want to get rid of the whole fund, but I think you we've talked about that. But I think you have to get legislation changed. I think we'd have to go to deed to get that targeted. Yeah, it was a targeted amount. Bill, it's a priority
now and I, you know, I'm not saying this is the year to do it, but I'm very interested in trying to do something and uh I would not I mean I think any of the uses on here would be great. So, okay,
we're as clear as mud. So, it's an conversation. Yeah. Yep. Thank you, thanks. All right. Item 7.66. Discuss provide direction for proposed elimination of state funding for sentence to serve program page 200.
You're not finished with me yet. Um I'll again I'll take you to um page 209 209 which is sort of the executive summary of of this. Um, so on February of this year, the
state of Minnesota informed counties and probably cities, but of the governor's intention to eliminate state funding for the sentencing to service program, STS. I'll just use that acronym
going forward in the 2026 27 budget. If adopted, state funding for the program will end June 30th, 2025. So, a little over a month from now. So, what do we need to do? We need to decide on a course of action once state funding for
STS ends in 6 weeks. Uh, some background here. Uh, the program provides a way for low-risk offenders to work off a portion of their jail sentence, their fines, court costs, etc.
the Winona County are, you know, our portion of of paying for this program is $78,000, which pays for 75% of the cost of the program. But over the past two years, only about 50% of the work was actually
performed on Winona County projects. So, they do other things. They work on DNR, state uh parks, uh uh nonprofits, you know, properties and other the city of Winona projects as well. So direct benefit to Winona County government
property is about 50% of the work. Um so in other words, so there are other um the third bullet here is that if this program were to end, there are other entities within Winona County that will continue to provide an opportunity for offenders to work on projects once the
state funding ends. The average daily crew size for this program is less than one. Um and in many days there's no crew at all and it's just the crew leader doing the work. So, it's kind of a hollow sort of
program. It's I think it's well, it's I'm not gonna give my opinion, but um and I'll just take you to the next table here is a couple of options that we've sort of laid out with a a recommendation as well.
Um first option is to absorb the program completely within Winona County, fully fund it. Um and then I'll just take you through kind of what that would mean. uh the cost of the program at that point instead of 78,000 would become
160,000 and then we would need about 35,000 for startup costs have to go buy a van or whatever to transport everybody get some tools um that sort of thing. Um the pros and cons is the program would
continue but it's uh the program does have some inherent inefficiencies to it. Um because uh depending upon if you have a male and a female there's certain things that you have to do there. There are certain places you can't go with this crew to do the work. Um so it is
somewhat inefficient in that regard. Um and and because of these things, because of the additional cost, the burden, the bud the budgetary burden, we're not recommending this. Um you know, because the program already is declining in numbers and uh for a variety of reasons,
some of which judges just aren't ordering it. Uh the offenders, they choose to pay, you know, out out of pocket rather than serve. Um and then again, the additional costs related to it. Um, the second option here, uh, is
exploring a joint funding of the sentencing to service program with neighboring counties. I would just tell you that this would take a lot more work and review uh, to just see if there's anybody else out there around us that would want to participate in that sort of thing. Um, the benefit would be it
the program would continue, but it would be hard to manage. Um, and we're not recommending this one either because it because of that it would be hard to manage. um there would be more overhead involved. You'd probably require a joint powers agreement and you know that sort of thing. And if you think about it like
how would it function? You know, you get in the van and drive to Houston County and then back here and whose programs are you projects are you working on? I it would I think it would just be a lot of work to make this thing function and it would be hard to do and with one crew
member or one crew size maybe. Um so if you think it through that's kind of what we did and figured that was not one we would recommend either. Now the third one is the one we are recommending but and the program as it exists but I will tell you that that talking with uh Mr.
Kramer and Mr. Lefi uh you know we did Winona County did get about a thousand hours of work every year that they did benefit from because that work was done on our facilities our property our buildings that sort of thing. So if we end it and do nothing, you know, we're
going to lose that maintenance. Um so um for 2025, for the rest of the year, we're saying end the program as far as just let it run its course and be done the end of June. Uh we do have 78,000 in the budget. So theoretically, we're only
going to spend half of that by paying the state. the the rest of the money we could use to uh contract services if we need it, whether it's lawnmowing or painting or that sort of thing. Um so I think get through the rest of this year and then evaluate
um and if we decide, okay, hey, that's working fine. Let's, you know, we'll deal with whatever it is we think we need to do in the 2026 budget, but we've got some money in the budget now to kind of get us through the rest of the year. Um that's the one we're recommending.
Um, is it okay, Erin, for me to ask you your opinion on this because you you're the one who works probably most closely with the crews, right? Thank you, Chuck. Um, I agree with everything that Chuck said. Um, the the clients that come in
are very low, so it's usually just the crew leader that is working. Um, it is kind of hard to manage because if you bring a client in, you just can't go to any part of a building. you can't go over to the attorney's office, jail, stuff like that. So, a lot of the stuff they did was outside because it was
easier to manage. Yeah. Um, if we just did nothing, um, again, the parks and building maintenance, we don't have enough crew to keep it up. Um, so we would suffer on that part of it. That's concern about the park. Yep. So, like I said, they did
a lot of the park work. Um, just because it was easy to manage, go out there, you know, we don't have to have escorted through the building or anything like that. Um I guess what else did you question? So um with this third option we could
still I'll use a very um very practical pra pragmatic concrete example. So with this third and the program but use some of the budget for contract services. We could still get farmers park mode and things like that and yes that'll we can still get that done. Um small projects
are hard to hire out. We've tried that before. Say you have a hole in the sheetrock, you call somebody, they're like, "Yeah, we'll do it for a thousand bucks." Yeah. It should cost about 250 to do it. Yeah. But they're going to charge to make it worth their time because So to try to get small projects done,
we're going to pay more. Y and it's hard to find a contractor to do. Even we looked at got quotes to paint some of the rooms over at the courthouse, like the holding areas. They're outrageous. I'm like, I I just can't pay that much. I mean, we'll figure it out. Yeah. So,
Mr. had a question for Chuck. Um, when you come up with 160,000 ongoing cost, are you assuming that at the existing cost or would this person then
become a county employee that would run the program through the county? Yep. That I mean I asked Mr. Kramer to just come up with a a budget. You know, if we were to absorb the program 100%. We would need a crew leader. So that's the biggest chunk of the
the 160 is an additional FTE. And Karen, my question to you is what's going on and why aren't we why aren't um people using people using the program? Now I'm going to say
this with Houston County Jail. We have a large number large amount of square footage that's dedicated to this whole program that ended there. So, we have locker rooms that are sitting empty. Um, you know, a lot a big portion of that facility was dedicated to that.
They have a separate entrance, a place where the van would pull up and they would come in and go out and cameras and right doors and Yeah. I And we just did that with our jail. Well, and and there is that facility in the jail which the Huber folks use. Um, same thing. I think
when I'm thinking about this because uh Renee Patterson who's the department of correction supervisor for the area talked with her um it's kind of good news bad news our programs to reduce the jail population
and get people out earlier um in terms of you know getting them programming for uh mental health um uh control substance uh use. We have a pre-trial services program now that we put them on a um GPS monitor. So, they're out and they're um
so the need for the program because of the success we've had in the other programs has dropped. I mean, when I first started as a public defender, everybody wanted to use STS because we had a lot of jail population. This was 30 some years ago. And um the courts
would give day for day credit so that you could get out in half the time if you did STS. Um and the crews then were and and they continue to be that. But yeah, there's been a drop off obviously. I I'm um so it it doesn't make sense economically. STS makes sense from a
point of view of helping somebody learn how to do a job responsibly and do it well. So we're going to lose that. But I think the numbers don't justify right now. Numbers aren't the program. So you're absolutely right. It used to be a very robust program, but it just is
dwind people. Yep. Well, we had two crew. We had two crew leaders and then the DOC cut that. So wasn't that many years ago, right? It wasn't. So we had a great crew leader and I like option three, Commissioner V. So that's um we're also just discussing this and
providing general comments, but my first thought is also option three. this. Yeah. Yeah. Because it ends the state funding ends June 25th. That's just six weeks away and stuff. Okay. So, you got your maybe you recruit some 4 kids or
boy scouts or volunteers. I'm just going to advocate uh for the program. I I just know from my experience in Houston County that we had to add halftime FTE. Um and it has tremendously added to
our workload. uh for staffing and we're not getting as much work done and we do hire a lot more professional services to fill the and it was the same person Craig uh who's very talented very skilled um I just had a conversation with him on Friday so um but Houston
County has discontinued they discontinued the program and so that has now become a expense um through my direction of hiring more contractors to complete the work Craig because Craig is very skilled and uh
Houston County on that list, Houston County was the only neighborhood, you know, county that had anybody. Yeah. All right, we're done. Thank you. Thank you very much. Does the staff need more direction from us? Okay. Uh 7.7 discuss potential
zoning ordinance change requiring private well tests prior to property sale to 11. Commissioner Meyer, may I start us off? Yeah. So, what what is not there, but has also been a part of what I've been saying all along is this idea that if
you are renting a property in the rural part of the county that your well, you are getting your water from a private well. Part of what I'm asking for is that we um require a well test and then
providing that information to the renters. Um, this is a booklet that comes from the Minnesota Department of Health that sort of talks about and gives example ordinances. I just got it off of their website um around this
topic. So, one of the ideas is that uh folks who are renting in a rural area and have a private well do deserve some kind of protection in terms of what their drinking water is. Uh then the second idea is that private wells in the
same way that we require a septic system test when there's a property transfer that we think about adding a test for private wells for real estate that has a private well in the same way. And again when the Minnesota Department of Health talks about it they talk about how some
of us are on municipal water systems and there are certain set of guarantees about the water quality that we have because it gets tested. It is regulated. there's someone that takes care of it. So, it's to try and uh provide some sort of a assurance to a new
property owner about the quality of the well. Now, at our last discussion, you talked about the that uh believing that the majority of of banks are already requiring that kind of a test. I can't find any
evidence to that effect. Um, I'm wondering if that's a thing we can ask staff about. What the Minnesota Department of Health does say is that many um many banks do require that, but of course there's not uh any language about
consistency. So, I know that our testing that's happening now is for five things. So perhaps we'd like to consider uh even just giving advice about what the five things are if the board doesn't decide to make it a regulation. But I but I
would love us to see us um provide some support for renters. Good morning. Um most of the when I when I address that at the committee of the board meeting the that is basically staff
experience on a regular basis. um contacted by title companies, realators, um property owners, where there's where there's uh test results that uh are conflicting with the property transfer, what their options are. So, um you it's
it's fairly standard within the industry that the mortgage companies require a acceptable water test within 30 to 60 days of closing. So, that is just kind of the industry standard. Um VA requires uh a third party test.
They usually like a government entity to do that. We've stopped doing that. So we just periodically issue a letter saying we no longer do that and then they can hire a third party to plumber or home inspection company to provide that third
party test. So, um that is that's kind of what what's not getting covered would be your um cash sales, contract for deeds, uh refinances, and transfers to
trusts. Most institutions don't require any type of testing in those situations. Most of those are just moving inner party. They're not really a replication of sale contract for deed. Arguably could be Also, so question for you, Ross, in those four
or five things you mentioned, would we even have knowledge of that happening until after the fact gets recorded and tests would be too late? Yeah, it would be a time of recording that that we would the recorders office would be
aware of them. Um, it's kind of in the in the discussions. I'm trying to visualize how we would how would we capture this and how would we regulate that septic? How do we do septics? Is that at the time of reporting?
That is um Eric would be probably the best to address that one. He it is as a followup to another thing that Commissioner Meyer said for rural rental um that are in a well private well. How would
we do we put that into a or mandated action but how would we follow up? Do we know what's being? Um over 20 years ago uh environmental services had proposed consider the consideration of a rental housing
ordinance in the rural and there was not support for that because it would be it would require the addition of staff um and it was a level of regulation the board did not support. So we did propose that a couple of different times because we do receive many many
complaints that we just simply have to leave as civil matters between the landlord and the uh and and the and the renter. So okay. So in the so I know I did ordered a lot of this the city when
specific properties uh were on private wells. There are a few out there that are being had rented and I would do it during my course of inspection would order the owner to do that. Um so we can't really accomplish that the county because we don't know because
we don't have an ordinance because there's no inspection program. Um, if a tenant complained or called the county and said, you know, something's goofy with my water, can the county then for public health reasons mandate that the
owner test the well because they are now becoming an agent rather than well there there is nothing stopping the resident from doing it. Um, if if cost is the issue then does the county want to play a role in that? Does uh in providing a
access to a test kit or um under within the the realm of the public health laws, there would be no authority to to order a homeowner to do that. It's really a it's kind of a sticky
situation because you're taking private information, relinquishing it. Does the tenant even have the ability to relinquish information about a private well to a government agency? You know, there's a lot of things here that start to get sticky when you get into the regulatory aspect of what's being asked.
I just my my opinion on this is one of being in real estate is a lot of this stuff is already happening. We just might not be aware of it. Um so we're finding out that this is happening more than what you realize. Two is is I know very few people that want more government involvement in their life. I
think most people would argue that we want less government. And I fall back on what I've stated on all the waterboards that I've sat on for a decade plus is education over the word just got brought up regulation. And I feel like that is a
palatable thing with government trust in elected officials uh that hey we we don't want to be regulated but we want to be educated and you can see already that even the private institutions are taking a look at these things because in sure they are in essence ensuring what
they are giving a loan out for making sure that this is a large cost. I've even gone so far as, you know, on the septic systems that a lot of these are becoming I shouldn't say a lot of them. There's there's some of these that are becoming privately or excuse me through
through through taxpayer funded uh situations that we're fixing. So, it's kind of it's counterintuitive for me to sit here and say educate over regulate because I always say, hey, you bought a piece of property, you should be responsible for that. But I go back to the educational aspect. If people know
what they're buying, they should be responsible for it, right? And so I I I it's in my head it goes back and forth, but in reality, I don't think people want more government in their life. And also, we need to teach teach people, educate people, not do it for them, and
mandate it in the aspect that, hey, this is what has to happen. So I think it goes both sides. we need to protect the private aspect of what something is as as well as educate the public as to what the idiosyncrasies are that when purchasing a property. So I just I
really think we look at the educational aspect rather than uh more government and regulations and Eric was going to provide the septic how where does that get triggered? Well, the point of sale is when there is a certificate of real
estate value, a CRV. Um, but I think um right now we can't stop transactions. The bulk of what we're getting are after the fact that the recorder is supplying us a copy as a courtesy for us to follow
up and to, you know, look look through the records and see if something was missed. But with that being said, there's probably contract for deeds and a lot of transfers that we're not catching. Sure. But to try to do it upfront would be monumental staff time
and and a whole new to stop the recorder's office from doing their business to create a route where it's by statute somewhere. We've discussed that. You know that would have been earthshattering I think for Bob and his office when we if we would have done that with the septics as well as then
they talked about the parcel split ordinance where we could stop you know until we got really in reality we're trying to regulate something that actually the fractional bit of that happening in the country I mean we talk about what's a total number of contract for deeds per year what's the total number of land trust transfers and
usually those transfers are going in family you know I mean this is we're trying to control something that is so marginal in the actual amount of transactions that are happening. I mean, it's like I said, I think the educational piece of this really sets
into 2008, I think, is when we first started floating the septic point of sale because it was getting to that point where that was being done, you know, uh by the private sector and um you know, it's accomplishing the
same same goals as far as you know, I did talk to a contractor that provides the water tests. I said, "What's your input on this?" And he says, "You wouldn't need right now. It's being handled in the private sector." Yeah, like I said, I think we're trying to regulate about maybe 10 transactions a
year by creating all this work for it. It's so very little that's not being actually already tested. Commissioner Olson, question. So after the fact septic test um point of sale and it's fails,
how is it handled then? So they bought a house or a property that has a failed septic now we mandate that it gets corrected. Right. Yeah. And the problem is time of year with septic too because there's usually a good five to six months where they really can't even
perform soil borings to establish whether it's failing or not. So it's deferred or deferred until the next summer and then once you know it is inspected that's a notice and they're given either 10 months or two years. Most cases it's two years to to do
something. And in that case, you know, the we did a whole lot of coaching with the attorneys and real estate agents when we kicked that off. We've been doing it since 2012. We had to keep deferring it just so we got the education and the word out there and work with the partners that were
involved with these now. they have to. So ultimately we're achieving the goal of getting a septics upgraded and unfortunately it it showed that a lot of the newer systems were failed
because of the strict interpretation of soil. So all of our work staff that's been involved with replacing are you know that's the kind of the part that's dismaying is we're fixing a lot of systems that were only you know 12 15 20
years old and that's fairly new as far as a life of you know so that showed a real problem with the soil and the design. So we fix we're fixing fairly new systems. That's my my problem with with one. The other thing we see too is
there's a lot of preemptive testing knowing, hey, you follow in those winter months where you can't do much. Hey, I know I'm going to put my house up for my I'm going to do it now. It's good for a year. Here you go. If it doesn't sell, well, you might have to do it again type of a deal. So, it's hacking more
proactively just like the well testing and everything is happening. The banks are requiring it. It's like I said, there's a few transactions that might slip through, but most of those are private transactions. Yep. And you know our form to to that credit we did have a responsibility form where um you know as
I've pointed out to a lot of the calls I get on a daily basis is an exercise to figure out what the price tag is. That's purely negotiable between the buyer and seller with these transactions. And then there's an escrow. That's typically that
has been the preferred route of most of the transactions is they they set aside a number of money and we have to staff has to look at that to make sure it's reasonable and that it makes sense. And a lot of cases uh they're um abandoning the old system and hooking up to city
sewer where they're in that vicinity. And then we got battles with the township because they're put on notice that they're going to lose lose those township properties. But that we always have a half a dozen of those every year. So, Mr. Vagler, a couple questions. Uh,
first for Ross and for Eric. When the private sector does this testing, none of the information or results are shared with the county or the state. Correct. It depends on what uh what testing lab they use. if they're if they're using a private laboratory. No, it's it's not
shared with the county, but much of the testing is done through the Almstead County Public Health Lab, which provides us access to their results. Some of it is not that data is not shared. Correct. Considered private data unless it's exposed to a government. Correct. Um,
Commissioner Olsen, from your experience as being a home inspector, most lenders require home inspections, but but water is not part of that. No, we we note on our home inspection reports anytime we do a rural property um well not tested
on water not certified recommendation and we check it but we do have we do have other home inspection uh companies that do come in and regularly pull water test already have that build off of that. I think that information is public
information. No. Um, no, not necessarily. I think it should be in terms of just raw data points. In terms of us requiring um other actions, but in terms of just raw data, I don't think constitutionally you can do that. That's why the state has never mandated it. They could only voluntarily sitting on
all the water boards. You can only voluntarily disclose that information. Otherwise, the state could just go around mandate it. So, that's always been the issue. That's why we have voluntary water testing. And then you can relinquish that if you so choose to. The reason is is that it's a shared
resource, but that's those are very important points. And the last question for Commissioner Meyer, um I'm interested in this idea. What were you what were you interested in doing? Um I I so it sounds like in terms of what the rental properties, the fact that we
don't do lensure for rental properties or inspections is a stumbling block. I am interested though in a mechanism for renters to get that sort of information if they want it. Um so um this document
looks at national like other states cities inside the state and I'm wondering if you can help figure out a way to make some kind of mechanism available to rental properties to overcome those issues. Do
we I'm sorry. Do we we have no uh data of You keep talking about rural renters and I I can't picture any in my neighborhood that are rent rentals. There's very got to be very few rural rental properties in Winona. Maybe I'm wrong. My neighborhood there isn't. I
can only think of a handful. Mo most would fall in within with an incorporated Yeah. entities. But there there are some. It's it's going to it's going to be difficult to identify because they would simply be listed as non-h homestead. Uh they they they generally are not classified as like a
duplex triplex um or residential for try to make help them to achieve this sort of transparency so that they could have an understanding about the wellwater that they're drinking. Right. Commission. So there is a I mean there's a landlord tenant document from the
state that I refer people to all the time. Um and I often times they run into a brick wall because there's nobody in the rural area to do an inspection to determine if it's substandard. Um so you're kind of so but how many rural
rentals do we have? I mean, I just don't know that we have even even in uh so I do the I am the licensed building official for the city of Stockton. They have rentals in Stockton. Yeah. But that's that are not licensed by the city
of Stockton. I cannot do the rental inspections. I'm there to strictly do code enforcement out in the country. It'd mainly be single family residential houses. Yeah. Only be a few of them in the whole county, I would think. Yeah. Or a few. I I think educate versus
regulate. I think we're doing that. I think that lending institutions we could advocate we could advocate at the Minnesota Department of Health for them to do a a campaign. Um you know, they're the water people. Um and they've done a lot with the testing
in southeast Minnesota. Um so I I I think the awareness is much higher than it was, you know, a few years ago. So, back to Commissioner Begley's question. Um, I really would like to make sure that it isn't just buy or beware, that
we are proactive in whatever is the best way. Um, this is uh these sort of uh particular zoning changes are something that Minnesota Department of Health is promoting and uh Tanny Echinau who was at a who's from the MDH. Well, why
haven't any counties adopted them? So I think I'd probably like to give feedback to them in terms of into the department of health just in terms of what are reasonable expectations um and how is it that we can achieve these things given the whole set of kind of difficulties
that we're facing in terms of trying to address the topic. I think I think some of it just comes down to how do how do we get the information that that that to to quantify the issue and and what are the barriers? um with the with the free
testing and you know interest in Winona County is topping every other surrounding cop county. So we uh as well as installation of treatment devices. So the the interest is is very present. It's being well utilized. Um hopefully
that will address some of many of those concerns. But where cost of for a well replacement is the barrier that that you know that will continue to be an issue. But although that is not the only solution I mean right you can there are
less expensive options that we can do. Yeah. We can is unless the unless the well has a persistent bacteria problem then treatment becomes problematic. Right. Right. So you want to share that document and this is just an ongoing discussion. Okay. If that if you can send that out to everybody. Yep, that
would be appreciated. Okay. All right. Thank you, Ros. Thank you, All right. Uh, let's see. Committee reports and communications. Uh, Commissioner Elling. Oh, I didn't I thought you were jumping over. Oh, no. No, he had nothing. Um,
uh, yeah. I guess the only thing that I wanted to say was I've had multiple multiple multiple phone calls. um few emails, but most of them I think it's it's been very interesting to see with the I realize we had a tax
debacle here that we hope we got fixed, but just the continuence of phone calls for fixed income individuals, retired individuals, young families, people that have caught me at gas stations um for us to really control our
spending. um they were getting hit by a lot of different things in a lot of different areas outside of not only government but obviously some inflationary factors that are finally starting to come down but just the overall cost of living and I just want to bring that up and you know put it put
it on the public statement that it doesn't go on deaf ears and uh you can argue with you all you want but to me government should be run like a business or as close to a business as possible and um the ability for me to cover my tax bill that I just brought in today
and paid. Um, I wasn't able to stick my hand out and just demand more money through a vote. I have to figure out how to go earn that money to pay that. And I think with that same diligence that I have to figure out to do that, I also want to reach out to my constituents and say I understand. And then I think um as
as a elected official, we need to constantly keep that in mind because um we are not a growing community. this community is actually projected to decrease and uh so please uh let's please keep that in mind as we look at
things we spend our money on. Okay. Um I I would echo what Commissioner Elling saying. Um the egg credits and using of Tyler. Okay. Every time we buy a new software, oh it's the new shiny out of the box and it's the best thing and everything and this is not a new system.
We've had this system for a while and it's been around. So even my property had to get a new statement. Did you? Yes. Because a credits were miscalculated throughout the county, not just the Lewon school district. And it changed. So on my way in today, my
husband's at home writing out the checks. He says, "Do I look write it off the official looking one or do I write pay off the the the nonofficial looking one?" Because we did get a a new statement. So I hope we're working with Tyler and I hope we are compensated. I mean, just the idea of running new
statements, mailing them out, uh, not, you know, the community angst, um, you know, that commi, that constituent of mine is harping on me like, "What did you do?" And I didn't do anything. It's the computer software, but why it happened and what the corrective actions are being taken because it affected all
the egg properties, which is unfortunate because it mine hasn't, you know, none of the classification should have changed. So, I hope you're following up with Tyler. And I remember some they were at a AMC conference, Tyler Works. Well, Tyler didn't work. That was their logo. Actually, I think we're lucky that
it wasn't everybody's tax statement. So, we figure if you have to get number X and you're spreading it across all the properties in the county and this set is wrong, it would make everybody's wrong because different credits, but apparently it was limited to just that
category. Well, but the egg land is yeah, it's a lot of category, but still it's it's unacceptable in business. We wouldn't accept their performance. So, I think we need to hold their feet accountable and explain to our constituents that yes, we did get some
retribution from, you know, the computer software that that failed. And again, it's a public image. It did not make any of us look uh good. Um recording, pardon me, is your name on the statement? No, no, it's we changed that. It's Chelsea's I should have uh
what I should have done is made a recording and then just played the recording every time that Yeah, you tried to explain this to constituents. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And just reminder, um May everything is getting planted. Be respectful of any, you know, farm
agriculture equipment on the roads. Um there's a lot of planting done and a lot of planting yet to be done, but just be respectful of any large equipment. There's a lot of little road construction. I travel up 61. They're picking up rocks off the side of the road and they're diverting traffic and
there's a lot of mindot vehicles. So, just slow down there. People people just need to slow down a little bit on the roads. I I forgot to mention one thing. I would love to make it to the uh ceremony tomorrow, but I've got to head to South Dakota, so I will not make it for that. And yeah, reminder that law
enforcement is tomorrow at 1:00 uh between the um law enforcement center and the courthouse. and hopefully a beautiful sunshiny day to be outside. All right, any other business for the Winona County Board. Motion to adjurnn.
Second. Motion made by Commissioner Eline, second by Commissioner uh Olsson to adjourn. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppos? Nay. Okay, we are journ. We will be going into close session next door. Let's take five. Do we have to say why we're going there?
Yes. Okay, close session. Pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05, 05 subdivision 3C3 to develop or consider offers or counter offers for purchase or sale of real or personal property at 121
Huff Street. Okay, so next door in five