And uh first item would be approval of the meeting minutes from March 25th. I'll second. You can have it. Um approval of meeting minutes. Motion made by Commissioner Olsen, second by Commissioner Vagely. All those in favor
say I. I. Nay. Okay. Meeting minutes approved. Uh chairperson's report. Um nothing actually to report. Thank you Dr. a dean for attending. I You got any I always love your You used to give us tips of the day.
Um put you on the spot. You got any tip of the day? I thought it was interesting water. Yeah. Well, that's right. But it it's it's a pri remember private well. Um I thought it was interesting your take on
um at a national level. I've heard little clips today are red dyes leaving some of our food. Yeah. Yeah. I I think that uh I don't know that if doing the things let's see
Dr. Dean I for the public to hear you I have to have ask you to come to the P and I I apologize putting you on the spot but I know you can handle that. You showed up. I got to ask you a question. Thank you for coming. I want people to hear this wisdom. Well, yeah, there's certainly data out there about the
various dyes and that we've been using and a lot of them been used for a long time without I think an awful lot of testing, there's been more testing done. Uh, and to the degree that they're cancer causing or not,
um, I think that perhaps just sort of it sounds like a good idea to clean up our food and do a better job with our food. I doubt that it's going to change all of the chronic illnesses that we see. And it's this is this one panacea that fits
takes care of every possible thing. And I think that's being a little oversold. But yeah, I I do have to on a personal note though, I know one of my daughters uh small children and she gets multivitamins and she actually gets them from Canada because there's much more
natural ingredients in them than if you compared it to, you know, a product here in the United States. And she just she's feeling better that she's buying a more natural multivitamin and stuff. So just a little personal banned just about every other country. Yeah. Uh-huh. But,
you know, it's we got to make our food look pretty. Um, if you ever followed the art of food photography, I mean, um, my husband always used to say, "I want a hamburger that looks exactly like the one in the ad." It does not when you go into the store. It does not look like
the one in the ad on the TV. Anyway, um, other than that, um, I don't know. Uh, Emily, any um, I I keep hearing about little measel outbreaks across the nation. Are we good in that category? It's one that hits the news. So, I'll
ask any We would just really encourage everyone to get their measles vaccination to prevent risk for those who cannot. Yeah. But we haven't had any. No, we don't have any currently. Okay. Great. Okay. All right. Then moving on to or does anybody have any
else have anything? Okay. Uh item 4.1, approved contract for the Alliance for Abuse Prevention for Cannabis and Substance Use Prevention Work. That was on page 57. Yes. So this you've heard this uh budget item previously with our
cannabis and substance use prevention grant dollars. Uh we were awarded $109,000 to do uh cannabis prevention and education work uh for this year. And um in that initial budget that was approved on March 11th was uh $61,000 to
contract with the Winona County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention to do education and prevention work for us. And this is the contract for that work that we are seeking approval for. I'll move to approve item 4.1. I'll second a motion made to approve 4.1 by
Commissioner Vaguely, seconded by Commissioner Meyer. I think it's a real oxymoron. Um, here we are providing something to our public and now we got to talk about the the abuse and the later on we're going to approve it and
now we're trying to prevent it. Yeah. Yeah. Uhhuh. Dr. Adine, uh, I didn't partake of any of that stuff back in the 60s. Oh, come on now. Uh, no. I was an Eagle Scout. I was a Boy Scout. I was a straight arrow. And uh um if you
did that then and you were going to be a physician, why it wasn't a good thing for the board that uh proved you. So it never happened to me. Uh my comment is that the stuff that's being sold now is seven to 10 times more potent than what
we was seeing back Woodstock wherever way back when. And uh I I just uh I find it ironic that we are approving something that is so much the people that are proving it are a bunch of old folks that think, "Oh boy, the good old
days." But I I I think that we're approving something that's a great deal more um problematic than they think. Uh my own experience is not great in that area in terms of patience. Uh, I have been impressed with the number of people
that I see that have mental illnesses that are using cannabis in ever increasing doses. Now, I quit practicing, at least getting paid to practice three years ago, and I don't know that it's worse or better than it
was then, but I definitely when we were dealing at the clinic with uh people that had been placed on too many narcotics and we were seeing all the issues with that. We were also seeing people that had mental illness problems and were
using cannabis and boy, it doesn't help them one bit. schizophrenics particularly with the really potent stuff that we have now, it can make their schizophrenia become very violent and I know the Minnesota Medical Association was very very much against
all the liberalization and the the wonderful things that we did but and as society now we will deal with that. Okay, so we have so naturally we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Post nay. Okay, motion carried.
Um 5.1 approved contract with SEAL strate what that's right seal y strategic innovations to provide organizational evaluation to health and human service department. Okay. So we are looking at our foundational public
health responsibilities grant dollars. Um for 2024 we were awarded uh just over $24,000 um of these grant dollars of which we've spent approximately 27,000. Um, these funds need to be expended by the end of June of this year or they
will be redistributed to other counties that have already spent all of their dollars um to spend more dollars. Um, so that leaves us about $177,000 in our um grant uh that must be spent by June of this year. Um, and then just for context, you did also approve
our budget for the $225, which was an additional $200,000. Um, that will be focused on the same priorities. Yes. Um, do you think you'll get it all spent by the end of June? I'm trying my darnest. If you if you say yes to this,
it will certainly help me spend it. Um I heard from uh Ben Klinger, e our emergency management coordinator earlier today that the brick grant for our emergency preparedness had been cancelled by the federal government. Is there can we use any of this for emergency like tobacco fill? Um we could
potentially um if we get approval from the state. The state is very hesitant to use these dollars versus some of the public health emergency preparedness dollars um for those purposes. So, I would probably look at a different grant um to backfill that. The dollars that
we're using currently are 2023 dollars that have not been pulled back. Um but if they go back in time to 2023, then potentially we could be short dollars to uh complete that work. Okay. Thanks. Yes. Um I have quite a bit of professional skepticism about these kind
of contracts with quote consultants. So, what do you and I know uh Miss Holty did provide and I was trying to get in touch with a Houston County um commissioner to see what what they felt and I think it was also Chair Guabasha is using this thing. What do we really think we're going to get out of this consultant from
California? Well, uh Precious is with us today. Um so she would be happy to speak to that once I um kind of get through our information. Um so I gave you a little bit of a synopsis of where we are fiscally with our grant dollars. Um just to review what the foundational public health responsibilities uh duties are.
These dollars must be used um to be focused on the ability to grow capacity within our existing programs in order to meet these foundational public health duties. This includes things like increasing capacity uh within our public health department, doing assessments,
surveillance, planning, evaluation, policy re review and development. uh growing community partnerships, working through leadership in government strategies, workforce development and uh financial and contract management. All of which should support then the
guidance of our public health work within our jurisdiction. So the evaluation um and the support that we are proposing uh to contract with seal strategic innovations would focus on doing a health and human services organizational evaluation
making recommendations and then follow-up strategic planning around those recommendations. Uh we would be looking at organizational structure identifying where uh resources may be either over or underallocated looking at gaps that exist to meeting community needs.
uh looking at how we might improve utilization of funding sources to meet uh those areas that might have gaps associated with them and then the strategic planning uh to support making um those strategic uh interventions to address those needs along with 12 months
of follow-up support from the the consulting agency. Uh you are correct that SEAL is working both with Wabasha and Houston counties currently. Um they've also worked with the city of Bloomington here in Minnesota. Those have been the three um areas uh serving public health in the
state of Minnesota that Steel has previously worked with or is currently working with. Um and certainly if you have questions specifically about um the organization or the background, Precious would be happy to answer any questions, but if you have more general questions, I'd be happy to take those. She's got
about $8,000 worth of travel here. So, I mean, I guess I know you got to travel, but do I have to spend $8,000 of Minnesota money to get you back and forth here to create a plan? And and I, you know, I can I can
figure out some of this. Yeah, we need more people, but to hire people, it's difficult. um with the right skill set and the knowledge and everything and just the the the job requirements and then the pay and everything. So I guess like I say I have a lot of professional
skepticism of doing these. We we have uh vetted several agencies. Um SEAL strategic innovations seems to align uh most most with the foundational public health responsibilities duties uh with their training and experience. Uh which is where we landed here and speaking
with both Houston and Wabasha counties about their experience has have been um they've been very positive in the work that they've done thus far uh which spoke to our interest in engaging with them. Process question. So it's on the um it's
it appears twice on our different agendas, right? So this is health board and then it also appears a 9.1. So I'm not saying that we should stop the conversation, but we can also continue the conversation later on, right? We can Okay. I just I just want to make sure I
understand that it's it's twice. So I don't want us to rush and make a decision in four six minutes. And if you do have specific questions for Precious, she will be here until six o'clock because she's working in Wabasha County tomorrow morning. So if if there are specific things that you'd like to inquire of her, now may be the best time
to do so. Well, maybe she can tell me. What are you going to do for us? What What give me some give me something concrete other than hire five more people to do the job in Winona County for public health? Yeah, that can't afford. Yes. Well, thank you for having me here. Um, as uh Emily was saying, I'm
here uh for the next two days. And so this kind of aligned with my travels and doing the strategic planning, which is part two of the scope of work for um what you know for the proposal that I proposed strategic planning and really identifying strategic direction. My
background is in public health from California. Um and so what I will be doing is really assess doing strategic workforce assessment just trying to see where the resources are currently and then how do we then um you know not just
hire people but really look at process and systems that are embedded in the public health department. A lot of times people will say I'm at capacity but what does capacity look like? Doesn't mean you need to hire four or five more people. maybe it's already embedded in your structure and we need to look at that structure and look at some of your
process and systems and maybe enhance it or redefine it. And so my job as a consultant is really do a really deep dive of that department and say here are some of the recommendations that I'd like to make. Um and also it's not a
one-sizefits-all. So Wabashi County, Houston County, the city of Bloomington are all different and they function different and they have different demographics. And so what is your community needs and how do I as a consultant you know help you implement those and really bane sustainability
around your infrastructure. Um you know things will change right funding will come and go but is your department going to be standing forth through those challenges and what are the tools that you need as a department or as an organization to withstand all these
challenges that might be coming. Um and so really that's what I do. I take a deep dive. I do a strategic assessment and then figure out what is the strategic direction of this department and then how do we then identify deliverables and goals for each of the people that are working within this
department. So that way everyone is on the same plane uh platform. Um so that is kind of what my consulting uh process is. Um I do travel here two or three times. Um, part of the my consulting services is uh I do continue to work
with the organization for a year and I do a three-month, a six-month and a nine a 9month and a year follow-up just to see how things are going and if things aren't going well I you know my team and I provide the technical support. So again sustainability is really key for
CL. Um I have had experiences within my own professional uh just being in public health knowing that consultants come and then they don't show up again. That is not my forte. My forte is I want to follow you through this experience and
also figure out where where can I as a consultant um help you um within the year, you know. So that's where the funding is coming from. And and you're right, I am from California and I do travel um um and it is expensive to
travel to Minnesota and you know does provide my accommodation but I you will you know I do provide really good services and you can um um speak to uh people in Houston County, city of
Bloomington and of course Wabasha not necessarily a question for yourself but we have it tagged as to provide organizational evaluation to health and human service department. So is this just going to be a look at the health or is it the health and human service and
then we have a new person in a leadership role. Uh have they bought into all of this? I again I don't know a lot of moving pieces. Um so the funding through foundational public health um dollars has been approved for the entirety of the health and human services department. So it would be the
entire department not just um public health. So, which is that's a monumental task. I think this needs to go speak to the governor and the commissioner of health and human services because that's where the problem lies. It what we can
do on a local level is pretty limiting. Um because and you know the funding is getting shifted, canled, changed. I just and largely this is about looking at where our community's needs are, figuring out if we're meeting them, and if not, how can we use the resources we
have strategically to meet those needs. Um, it may or may not, you know, require more human beings. Um, it might be contracted work. Um, and and that's I don't want us to paint ourselves into any box when it comes to that. And we might find that we have an adequate amount of resources. They're just in the
wrong places. Um, as I read this and I tried to compare it to the report that I had come from Houston County. Yes. Which was really just about their workforce and I'm not hearing. Sorry, can't hear you. I tried to compare this to the report
that we had from Houston County. It looked like that was really not the same focus that that focus was more on just the workforce and they did do a workforce evaluation focused specifically on public health. So much smaller scope. Yeah. So, some of the things that I liked in here is that the
u the scope of what you're talking about first of all talks about the cost and capacity study that was done by the state and our responses to that. Also looks at the community health assessment and then the community health improvement plan that came out of that.
And so it really did look to me like it is going to build upon the sort of research that we have done as a community to try and figure out what the gaps are and then build upon that. Yes, we don't want to start from square one. We don't want to recreate the wheel. Uh we want to build on what we have um and
then really get into the actionables about how can we maybe create structural change that will better meet the needs of our community members. And I also liked it that there's a focus also on there on the funding. And I know that um administrator Holty has done a lot for us in terms of understanding
um better ways to recoup the reimbursements that we're supposed to be getting from the state for the work that we do. And so I appreciate that that is also a component that you're going to be looking at. So, it seems pretty prudent to me given the current environment um
that that this has the potential to help us do what we do better and be more mindful about it. So, I'm going to move to approve item 5.1 second process question. Do we It's 601. Do we need to approve it now before or can it just be approved at the regular? Well,
is it under G? Wait, was it under the general? I I don't mean to squash. I just it says approve conduct. It is 91 in which we do have approved at the community health board and then it's on the the regular board for final approval
as county board. We have to do it twice. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So we have a motion made by Kenneth Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsen to approve the contracted seal. Further discussion Dr. about your question. Um I my understanding what happened in
Texas may have started in the Menanite community and then it spread to the people who was worried about autism and their kids and so we aren't going to get the MMR vaccine and so on. Um I look upon it as as what's what's the past history? I was a history major so look
what's what's our past history of doing things and how is that going to inform us? And um I think if we have I can think of a few underserved probably underserved communities. I don't know how well we're serving the Amish
community and bringing all their immunizations up to date. Uh I know I got very deeply involved when they had the menitis outbreak there. I don't know if you are all familiar with that, but that was the scariest weekend for a long time when that was happening and we had
a death out there. Um, so I think that I don't know to what degree we are our public health nurses are penetrating into the Amish community with immunizations and MMR particularly. Um,
I don't know. I know there's some Afghan people that have come to this community. I don't have any idea if where they're getting their medical care and and if people are really looking at all their immunizations. Um certainly there's people from a lot of places, the immigrants that have come into this
country and I think that's a just an easy way to slip and slide through something and and not doing it. So I I think that measles is a sentinel event in Texas and we shouldn't think it is going to happen here because just because we're so Minnesota nice and we are so good in public health and we do
everything wonderfully. So I think that's something that we should be looking at what our penetration is into those those communities and not just say thank you. Haven't seen anything. Yeah. Yeah. Good. You bring up some very valid points why we need a separate public
health advisory committee. Thank you. All right. We have a motion and a second. Um all those in favor say I. I. I. Post. Nay. I I'm going to give you a a like I say I have a very I'm very pessimistic about your kind of business and what you're
going to bring for us. So knowing that I hope you yeah do do bring some very concrete things with the current condition of the state and the federal funding mechanisms. I think that's critical. That's my hope is that it
brings validity to what we're doing and that we streamline the process and don't just look for new job positions to fill voids that we figure out how to manage what we're doing even better. And that's my hope out of this after reading
everything is that we just become better with what we're doing. All right. Uh I guess uh we adjourn the public health board. Okay. We will call to order the Winona County Board. Please join in
the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Good evening. Good evening. Beautiful, beautiful day in southeast Minnesota and Winona County. Um we always start our meetings as um with a public comment period. So anybody can address the Winona County Board. They have a two-minute slot. Uh and as you join uh
us at the podium, we need your name and address. And um we'll start with that. Good morning or good evening. No, it's not morning, it's evening. Good evening. Uh my name is David Bear, 45 South Benson Drive, Lewon, Minnesota. And I'm here today uh not only as a farmer from
Lewon, but as a member of the Lucur School Board. As you might or might not know, there was a huge problem with property taxes this year. 2,600 egg property parcels were
calculated incorrectly in the Lewon ultra school district because of the changes from our bond referendum passed passing. Uh the 70% egg exemption was not calculated on there. Uh this morning I'm
on the finance committee. We had a uh call with Chelsea Wilbright and she told us what happened and uh explained the fix that's going to happen to correct this problem. What I would like to ask the
board is that you put measures in place that this doesn't happen again. uh 2,600 parcels and we had we had people that had their property tax bill go up 104%. It is not fun to open up that
property tax bill and see that. So, uh, we know that you had new software and things like that, but we would really like you guys to put measures in place that prevent this from happening again because uh, if there's a new bond
referendum or operating levy that gets passed anywhere in the county, you can uh, catch the problem before it happens. Well, unfortunately, you know more about it than I do. I know there's a problem, but we haven't had any followup from staff. So, I think we definitely will be reviewing what
happened. Yeah. And and so the problem is being resolved. Uh and I just wanted to come down here as a representative of the school board to to talk to the county board of commissioners. And uh if there's anybody here from Lewon that was also going to talk, I'd be happy to
speak with you in the hallway and uh explain what happened and talk about the way forward. All right. Thank you very much. definitely received my share of panicked phone calls that we had to put the fires out was unfortunate very unfortunate and thank you for your
service on the school board is everyone getting a notice the 26 parcels we're working on okay all right is there anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board is there anyone else wishing to address the county board I would like to
if you can I don't know if you can't raise your hand on Zoom, but uh Corey Johnson from Lacrescent, Minnesota, assuming you can hear me. Yes. Yes, we can. Okay, great. Um yeah, I just want to raise the issue of some of the public record requests I put in to Winona County regarding some of the election
data. Um I put several in over many years, but I think the two good examples I can give is I put requests in on August 30th, 2023 to get some of the cast vote records for the August 8th election. Um that request was
unfulfilled and until April 12th of this year, so well over a year and some months um before I got a reply back. And that reply came back with we don't have that data. Um I'm not sure how they don't have that data because you can't
run the elections without having the election management systems with that data. So I'm not sure if that was just a misunderstanding of generating the report I wanted. I did reerequest that, but I haven't heard back. Um, my other concern is after the May election
special election in uh May of 2023, I put a request in for the detailed voting information from that election. If you remember, that election was actually a tie for the second and third place and I actually spent the time to obtain the official Secretary of State's data and
run the numbers and there was a delta of two different uh of two votes in that. So the posted data from Winona County and the voting history audit log from the Secretary of State showed two more people had voted in that election than was officially posted. Now that could be
explained by over and under votes. However, that data is not posted anywhere. Um that is part of the data audit log for what would be the cast vote records and you can provide those images for the fillin of those fields. um that request that I have is still
unfulfilled. Um so that's going on almost two years here. So my ask to the board is um I don't feel that's acceptable that it's taking this long to get such public data records and actually these are public data records. So maybe the board can stress that
election data can be posted online automatically without having to go through this cycle to even request it. That's it unless you have any questions. Um, not at this time. Thank you for bringing that up.
Okay, last time. Is there anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board? And if you're online, we don't have that little screen anymore. I don't think there is anybody else. Does anybody see anything? Okay. All right. Thank you for
those comments. We'll move on into our agenda. Item five, approval of the county board meeting minutes. We have 5.1, county board, April 8th, 2025, and 5.2, the close session of April 8th, 2025. I'll second that. We have a motion
made by Commissioner Elling, seconded by Commissioner Vagely to approve those meeting minutes. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Carried. All right. Uh item six, acknowledge receipt of approved committee meeting minutes from 6.1 is
the parks and environment advisory committee. I'll move. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Vagley, second by Commissioner Olsen to acknowledge the receipt of the approved committee meeting minutes from the park and environment advisory. Any
discussion? All those in favor say I. Those nay. Okay. Approved. Um consent, comments, and approval of the agenda. Uh, Commissioner Vaguely, I would like to pull item 8.9. It doesn't need to be I think we have people coming to visit, so it can
be later on in the agenda. 8.9. 8.9 regarding Apple Blossom Park. We can discuss that even at the end of the meeting. Okay. Make it 9.7. Sure. Okay. 8.9 now becomes 9.7. And then two two comments, two quick comments if you want. Thank you.
Two comments. Commissioner Eling, I'd like to pull 87 for some clarity and comment at the end, please. 87. Um, do you want to make that like 9.8 approve budgeted differing cost? Do you have just a comment or do you want
more discussion? Yeah, I believe that discussion. I printed it off here. Want to make sure I got the right one. No, never mind. No, leave that one go. Sorry. Just a comment at the end. Okay. All right. All right. We got that answered. Commissioner Olsen, nothing
for me. Commissioner Meyer. Nothing. Miss Holty, nothing. Okay. All right. Um, I do have u comment and board action. Okay. All
right. Okay. With that, uh, we have an amended agenda. I'll move to approve the I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. Is there a motion to I'll move to approve the amended agenda? Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Vley, second by Commissioner Elling to approve the amended agenda. Any
discussion? All those in favor to say I. Nay. Okay. Approve. Miss Holy, would you read the the uh consent items, please? Absolutely. Thank you. 8.1 Approved 2025 strategic plan. 8.2
Approve recommendation for Integrity Employee Benefits LLC to complete request for proposals. 8.3 Approve renewal of purchase of service and business associate agreements with Family and Children's Center for Supervised Visitation Services. 8.4
Four, approve contract with Alliance for Abuse Prevention for Cannabis and Substance Use Prevention Work. 8.5 Approve agreement 1055747 and resolution for state local bridge replacement program grant for
CASA 25 bridge. 8.6 Award bid for annual supply of gasoline and diesel fuel for consolidated energy company. 8.7 approved purchase of purchase of budgeted equipment of differing
costs. 8.8 approved contract with Caitlyn Lang for weld decommissioning. 8.9 was pulled. 8.10 Approve resolution for donations received January 1, 2025 through March
31st, 2025. 8.11 Acknowledge receipt of monthly finance and budget update for March 2025. and 8.12 confirm payment of dispersements. I'll move to approve the consent business as it was read.
Motion made by Commissioner Meyer, seconded by Commissioner Olsson to approve the consent business as read. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Okay. Approved. All right. Moving into general business. 9.1 approved contract with SEAL
strategic innovations to provide organizational evaluation to health and human services department and we did have quite a discussion at the public health. I'll move to approve this item. I'll second that to get it up on the table for discussion. Okay, we have a
motion by Commissioner Meer, seconded by Commissioner Vaguely to approve the contract. Commissioner Vaguely, do you have No, just want to get on the table for discussion. Okay. Uh does anybody have any discussion? Well, I do. I
just like I said in the public health part, I do have some uh reservations um about hiring consultants to do these kind of projects. Um not knowing what we're going to get. uh with all the angst in
our our federal and our state government uh I hear grants are getting cut, funding is getting cut, shifts and everything. So again, what's the platform? What platform are we working off of? Are we getting grants and funding or are we going to be doing this, you know, with very limited
dollars? Are our priorities going to be changed from from this year to next year? Well, I think all of all of the above is is very practical. So, I I just really have some angst about somebody from from California coming to tell me how to do my health public health business. Now, I know they're doing some
things in our neighbors, but uh I haven't had a chance to touch base with the neighbors to see if they're really happy with the money they spent. Commissioner Elling, but the way I read this is we have an aotment of money that needs to be spent by GM. Correct. So, we're using some of this to try to deter
something or to figure something out. I get that it'll go back. Obviously, it's not going to go into the general fund. Obviously, they're not going to give it back to us or put it towards our deficit or tax us some more at the state level. So, it is what it is. The the question I
have is and this is the caution that we have is that oftentimes and this is nothing against Precious is gone I guess um it's nothing against anybody but it's the caution we have that I believe commissioner Ward is talking about is
that oftentimes having dealt with many consultants paid consultants and other companies I've worked for obscene amounts of money six figure type money is that they have to do something something has to be generated because if not they don't have any value
and least what we tend to see in the situation and I'm just being very open is that if they can't find I'm going to say for the lack of better terms fault within the system or efficiency within the system it leads to I have to have an
outcome because if they walk away and say everything's rosy guess what they weren't worth their money so what it defaults to is generating more people. That's my fear because I walked down this 20some years being in business and
sat on some pretty big boards before that at end result the answer becomes that because they can't find anything else to generate and so they have to be of their value when they go to the next people and say call Winona County because that's the game and I get that
and I understand that. So my biggest fear is that the outcome becomes something that we now create a new burden because this strategic person comes in and has to have some sort of positive generation of facts of finding
and and that's what it often times defaults to. This is why I get skeptical because I've been down this road enough times in business to see this happen and so it can fall into a multitude of different classes as to why that is. So
my fear is that this is going to default to that scenario to say hey to to better provide people or better provide services this is the answer and it's more people it's more programs it's more this it's more that rather than really
looking inside and saying how can we be more efficient with what we already have and um so that that's that's my genuine fear and I I would say this about any department anytime you hire anybody been there done it seen it how many times. So
that is my skepticism to hiring somebody um in in in this fashion. Any other discussion? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Those uh in favor of the approving the contract say I opposed. Nay. Okay. Did
you vote in Did you vote? I I I'm reluctantly voting in favor. Okay. All right. Well, we we expect results. I'm hoping that the results that there's a positive look at
efficiency. Well, I think there there are so many things happening right now that I don't know that yeah, what we'll get. We'll see. I'm not optimistic, but anyway. Uh moving on. 9.2 received board report from
MCIT. Good evening. No, I'm not giving the report. Greetings. And it's it's great having a a board member here to uh present to. Um but we'll get to it. Yeah. I'm Jim Carroll. I'm uh from MCIT uh for your insurance group. And I'll notice I
didn't say insurance carrier. Um I have a handout. Do I need to hand it out or do you follow along? Hand it out. Okay, sounds good. Please. Or just pass. We'll pass them down. We're good at sharing. Sometimes they'll come around, Jim.
Don't worry about it. It was provided. We did see a preview in our board package also. Perfect. Okay. Again, I'm Jim Carroll. I'm a riskmanagement consultant from MCIT. Um I have a a cohort and and we
split the counties that are in MCIT. Um, just so you know, we have MCIT provides insurance to 81 of the 87 Minnesota counties and uh, so I have approximately 40 or 41 of them and uh, Winona County
is one of uh, that's my purview. So that's why I'm here today. Um, I uh, in my time aotted I'm just going to kind of briefly talk about MCIT, talk about the year ahead. Um, I am going to go through this uh, handout not verbatim. I'm just
going to touch on each section and highlight something from it. So, um, so again, the the front page lefth hand side gives you a little background on on MCIT. Again, you know, uh, most Walk a Day World, we call ourselves the your
insurance company. We're really your insurance pool and there's a big difference there. Um, we are, uh, formed in 1979 from the counties for the counties. So, um the only the only folks that we provide insurance to are counties or uh
county affiliated. So, we do uh provide insurance to your egg society, to your historical society, things of that nature, uh some SWCDs, but predominantly it's the 81 counties that we mainly work with. Um so, and we provide all the main
lines of uh insurance in the portfolio. Um, but the the great part about being uh formed uh from you for you is we're aligned with you. We're aligned with your needs. Um, as you'll see all the costs, we're not forprofit, so all the
uh premiums or contributions we take in um minus everything we pay out on claims for the county's behalf and the services we provide and then our admin expenses. Whatever's left over, we get back. So, um, you know, we're unique in that fashion where I don't operate on
commission. We're not beholden to stockholders. Um, we're just basically set up for you here for you. So, um, it's important to reminder. Um, so we're a lot different than any other, uh, commercial insurance carrier from that aspect. So,
um, if you take a look then on the on the right again, uh, talks about how commissioners can make a difference. And um it's fun because I also have a lack of parl and I was down uh visiting them and and Todd is on the board. So my slant is a little different here. I I
usually talk about how um we operate and we are overseeing my board and on our board are commissioners made up from around the county. Um and so and of course uh Marshall Ward's on that uh board. We're fortunate to have her um on on our board. So she is part of our
board that oversees MCIT. Um and so um but what what this really uh delves into is just a reminder that um you know I have a primary contact here at Winona. Uh Marine is one of them. And so um just a reminder that to to stay a breast of
um especially uh claims activities, large claims that are going on in your county. Um maybe if there's some MCIT initiatives that commissioners can get behind, we'd really appreciate it. Um, but you know, the last part talks about how uh staff and members do their part.
It's interacting with your staff, building a relationship with your staff to see uh what are your needs, how can we help you, ensure them, how can we help you cover them, if you're unfortunate enough to have a claim, how can we work through that claim for you? That's our our main goals, you know. So,
if you look at the next page, uh now is when we get into some of the unfortunate information. um our costs are rising and I can cut to the chase on all lines of insurance as to why the costs are rising and it's
inflation. Um insurance is not immune from the effects of inflation. As a matter of fact, it's deeply impacted by inflation. So um we can talk about why or how we're touched by inflation. Um the upper left hand corner talks about
how we have uh what's called reinsurance. So MCIT, let's say you have a claim, let's say it's uh a large claim. Well, MCIT uh we cover the first 850,000 of that claim and then above that we have
reinsurance that sits on top of us. So um that reinsurance is comes from a global market and that global market is is being rocked and their their premiums are are triple in our case double. Um and so that affects our rates. So um
just as a side note, what we did in 2025 is we essentially did up our deductible. So we're going going from $850,000 to a million. So we're going to cover the first $1 million of a claim. Uh and that was in order to bring some of those reinsurance rates down with the hope
that you know we don't impact going to that above 850,000 enough to that 1 million where it offsets um where we we found the cost savings to bring the reinsurance rates down. Um and um we're confident we can do that but it's going
to take work from all of us. Um so that was a cost driver. The main cost drivers though um we'll get into if you take a look at the bottom of this page it talks about property insurance. So property values it gives you a glimpse of from
2021 in the pool uh the 881 counties uh consisted of $6.6 billion worth of property. So in 2021 we insured $6.6 billion worth of property and in 2025 that's now 9.2 billion. Um that's almost
a 40% increase. Um and while some of that is from new construction, um some counties have built a $10 million jail or a $5 million bill. So there's there's parts and parcels of that, but the bulk of it is inflation. Um I mean, I'm sure you know, if you've seen in your
personal uh property, how it's it's gone up in value, which is a good thing in a way. I mean, it's better than the alternative, but the problem with us is we have to insure it. So as those values rise, we have to ensure those values
that rise and um in a sense it costs more. Um so that's a big cost driver. Um if you take a look at the next page, you'll see uh 2025 the the property and liability rates um and your workers
compensation rates. Again, you know, when I say it was impacted by inflation, uh what exactly does that mean? So, if you take a look at again the property, um let's say there's a a big building loss. Well, those building materials
have gone up due to inflation. Uh the labor to put that building back together or to construct it again has gone up and those are the inflation drivers um essentially. And then with work comp, work comp is based on your uh employee
losses, your employee injuries, but also with your uh the county payroll. Um and so combined the the payroll um has gone up to to for people's wages and and you know, rightfully so to meet inflation, but that also drives the work comp rates. So
um the positive, if you look to the right, you'll see uh Winona County's dividend. that was your dividend in 2024, that number there. So, um, and that's that's a good thing, you know, it it shows that, um, you know, the money that was spent that we
forecasted was left over and then divvied up and given back to you. Um, one interesting thing I want to mention here, while it's good to see dividends and uh, a lot of counties want to see high dividends, I know this is going to sound funny to say, but our
goal is not necessarily to deliver high dividends. It's almost to deliver a zero dividend. And what do I mean by that? It means we we forecasted upfront the right amount to charge you cost for insurance. We forecasted the claims correctly. So,
we almost ended up with a net zero. Um, but much rather have, you know, it's kind of like the same philosophy with a tax return. It's like, oh, I really want a tax return, but that also might mean you just paid in more all year long that you didn't have to. It's kind of the same rationale. But with that said,
again, uh we're we're happy to um uh to be to um um deliver dividends because that means there's money left over, of course. So uh if you look at the last the bottom part here um cyber cyber used to be a
small part of our pro portfolio. It's now a massive part of our offering our portfolio and it's mainly because cyber is here to stay. It's only getting more complicated. Um so we are bolstering that area um because we have to meet
where we're seeing the risks and the hazards out there. Um, counties are being hacked. Counties are being targeted. So, it's important for us to make sure we're on top of that and have that for you. I mean, interesting enough, if you look at 2023, we received
$1.7 million worth of cyber claims. And we thought, wow, is this the new norm? You know, and then in 2024, it was 567,000. A good drop. Um and and we know why that dropped and it's because
counties from 2023 to 2024 ramped up their uh training, ramped up their IT um um uh prohibitive uh you know preventative measures. Um they ramped up uh your your county employee training
not to click on malicious links, not to open. That's how they're mainly still getting in actually. So, um, we saw a a large, uh, effort in that area and it and it dropped claims by a million dollars. So, with that said, it's still relatively new. We're, you know,
obviously have to keep monitoring it and see, you know, what is the trend, what is the norm, and hopefully, you know, obviously it goes down and not up. But, so that was good. That was that was great to see. Um if you look at the last page, this
talks uh uh upper leftand corner mainly focuses on the uh your portfolio of workers compensation insurance. So we have your work comp for your uh employees for the for the county. Um this premium gets calculated uh for
starters with a with a actuarial formula, mathematical formula and it gives you what's called a mod rate. Um, and the mod rate is essentially um will give you a county your size
um with like hazards and it'll make a mod rate of of 1.0. So if you have a a mod rate of a 1.0, you you that's your average comparable to a county your size with your hazards. Um your mod rate, as you can see, is a 681. I don't know if
I've seen one lower. Um so I'll just say that's awesome. Um don't jinx us. Yeah, exactly. No kidding. So, what really what that means is you're 32% better than average. And um you know, I've seen moderates as high as 2.0. What that would mean is they're
they're 100% worse than average. They're double that of of an average county. So again, and and your moderate does take into uh to consideration your last uh five years. And so you do have a a 2021 year that's going to drop. And so, um,
if you have a good year in 2025, like we always hope you do, um, for your sake and your employee sake, um, there's an opportunity for it to even go lower. So, but, um, I can put in this pitch later, but just a reminder, um, again, I do risk management consulting. We do have a
loss control consultant from MCIT that comes out and helps. Um, Althia Sheridan is your loss control. They perform on-site safety, uh, help, uh, reduce work comp claims. um accidents and injuries in a workplace, OSHA compliance. So, they're here to help you
as well and in to help with any of this area for work comp or employee safety related. Um, if you take a look to the right there, uh, it it takes a look not just Winona County, but it looks at all of
MCIT's claims, um, and who are the sort of the heavy hitters, we'll call them, the the most frequent claims, and then the, uh, cost ratio for the highest claim, um, dollar per claim. And it's not a secret that sheriffs and jails
would would be at the top. um mainly because they're a 24/7 department and they have uh interfaced with a lot of unique risks. So um and so that and same thing with your highway department really um can be a 247 operation with
unique risks. Um and so that's that's what we see in the MCIT pool overall. Does Winona have a county uh medical facility or nursing home? Nope. Sounds good. So if you did, they're they're third. They're the third highest on the list and then it falls off dramatically
from there. But um if I had to guess, I would guess for Winona County, your departments that you incur the most work comp costs are sheriff's, jail, and highway. Um and and it just it goes with uh what what we see. And so, like I said, going back to making concerted effort, you know, maybe uh developing
safety plans um safety goals would be would be nice. Um and because we we always want to see them go home safely after they're shipped in in any in one of these departments. So um if you take a look then if uh property and liability that also gives you a line of coverage
and claims per year and cost per claim. Um autos is continuously number one and and that's really a a numbers thing. um MCIT we cover 35,000 autos and so there's just with 35,000 units of
anything you have a higher greater calculation of them being in an accident. So, um they are the most accident caused and um per claim. Um so, if you take a look, um you know,
just moving through the the B midway and the bottom um you know, we want to make sure we we continue to bring you advice, resources, programs. Um we're bolstering our website. Uh we really want our website to be a true good source of information for folks to you can always
call me. Um but if we want to make sure if you go on the website you can find um ideas on how to get information you're looking for trainings resources um on HR topics, safety, risk management topics,
um you know things that that pertain to your county that you'd be interested in. Um so just a couple of the programs and services I want to highlight that you have access to. Typically, when you when you have a an employee assistance program, it generally comes from uh a
group's uh medical coverage, medical benefits coverage. Well, here with MCIT, um we have it baked into our our offerings as well. So, um as part of uh being an MCIT member, you do have access to employee assistance. Um the the
overall state average utilization there is uh 3.75% and in 2023 it was 2% for Winona County and 4% in 2024. And that's neither good or bad. It just shows that let's say 4% of your population did
utilize the EAP. And to me that's a good thing um because it's there to be utilized. It's important. Um if somebody feels a need to utilize EAP, by all means use it because um it's remarkable uh the gains that are gathered from the
consultants that are delivering to employees and their families in this area and it's it the successes are are awesome. Someday we should it' be nice to share those stories because it's it's really it's a great thing. So again, um anything you can do to actually help promote that some employees don't even
know um uh from other counties that I've ran into. So, um maybe um work to promote, we can help you with that. Um another good offering you do part your sheriff's department does participate in patrol. Uh patrol is set up for the
sheriff's department um strictly um for um law enforcement information and trainings um designed for them and and given to them to utilize and to help them in their everyday um activities. So again, they've seen a lot of successes
and your participation is is greatly encouraged there and and I know a lot of sheriffs really do enjoy it and get a lot out of it. So we're happy to to have that be part of the offering there, too. So again, um you know, we had actually a decent year in 2024 if it wasn't for
inflation. I'm hoping for a good year again in 2025. And if any of you have an idea on how to bring down inflation, I'd appreciate it. But um one way we can help with cost is claims. So, we just always ask for vigilance and and helping with in the area of claims. But, um, you
know, if we can do that and and uh bring down inflation mail, I'd be happy for the the 2026 renewals when they get here. So, um, with that, I'll stand for any questions. Dwayne, um, first of all, thank you for coming down to an auto county. No, I appreciate it. It's great to have this presentation. Um, I also
want to thank Commissioner Ward for serving on the MCIT board. Um, uh, that's that's a big that's a big and important job. Um, I want to also thank um all the staff for luring, am I saying it correctly, the mod factor. Yes, it's
awesome. It really is. And do we know why it had because it's starting in 2021 to today it it's almost it's every year it dropped. Do we know why it dropped? Because whatever is it commissioner ward serving on the like it's a three-year rolling thing and we had an very
expensive claim in one year got kind of it affected several years after that. Okay. know why it's going down. Okay. So, what yeah, whatever we're doing, do more of that, but it's it's that new jail and all the new safety features built into it, which factor is it is a factor because we do
see a lot of claims with jails. Sure. Yeah. It's challenging, you know. Exactly. And and that's totally not unique, but whatever you're doing, you're doing well. Um because even small claims will can add up to a lot if if you get nicked a lot and you're not. So,
so you're not experiencing a lot of of employee accidents and injuries and that also leads to hopefully uh on the other side of the coin uh u an increase in employee satisfaction with their job with uh coming to work every day. So, congratulations, you know, and like you
said, knock on wood. I mean, I do have to say the one thing um and we've ch at the board, we've changed it a little bit, the um the workplace injury hotline. Yeah. If somebody gets, say they slip and fall and they wonder should they be going to emergency or what should they do? They can call and
they get a nurse practitioner that will say well you know how you explain go home and you know ice and and then and then wait and see. But I don't know if if we promote that enough and I'm looking at Miss Holy if all the employees are are quizzed or given that information. I think they should be and
you're nodding they are. Um, but that does help considerably instead of having higher, you know, medical claims. It does. You know, some people think, do, you know, every time I put in a work comp claim, but I don't go to the doctor, does that count against us? It does not. So, what what you're
explaining on the front end is if if you um if for that nurse practitioner may say, hopefully, take two Tylenol and sleep on it. You know, that'd be great or whatever. Um but it only impacts the the employees if they're like I really need to go in and get treated then then that has a adverse um um effect on your
work comp rates but but just you know simply filing the claim doesn't it's only if you have to be treated or or if you're off work of course and and receiving compensation. So, and that uh the employee assistance program too. A lot of people don't realize that that's el uh family members are eligible if
they're struggling with something. And again, we up that used to be three sessions, I think. Now, you can get six sessions. It's both uh family members. It you can do f if you got problems with finances, they got financial people or if it's emotional, you know, mental
health things. Um it you can talk to some and they're very you know most counselors uh it takes days to get in these people are very quick to um get get you hooked up with somebody stuff. So a lot of good things but it's coming
with a higher higher price tag unfortunately because of reinsurance and inflation Jim said all right any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Enjoy your drive back. Daylight hours. Thank you. Watch out. We
have a lot of deer in southeast Minnesota. Don't we don't want to claim. No claimage. Thank you. All right. Moving on. 9.3 Approve updates to the fee schedule and I think most of those were in they were redlined which was appreciated. Um I think most of it was
um the cannabis things and I think uh one or two other ones I saw there. Just one other one. Yeah. Wasn't it something about recordings or motion? International processing and handling. Okay. All right. There any discussion or
questions? Motion to approve uh item 9.3. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Eline, second by Commissioner Vagley to approve the updated fee schedules. Any other discussion? And I think I've always said this, if we see
something problematic throughout the year, we can amend and change it as as needed to be. Okay. All those in favor say I. Post nay. Okay. Approved. All right. Uh 9.4 discuss approve resolution to increase 2025 expense budget. And
that's page 151. Madam chair, commissioners, I'm Chuck Elliot. I'm here to uh present this particular RFBA to you. So, um I'll kind of start out by saying I think this is a
new step in our budgeting process. Uh it's something that I've done previously with the city of Minneapolis and um it was it's just uh intended to uh uh change the following year budget
for projects or spend that was in previous budgets that didn't get finished for one reason or another. Um and I, you know, spent quite a bit of time reviewing what was uh what was what this was needed for. And as you can see,
the list is pretty small and limited to some big dollar items. Um, so obviously if a department forgot to order an office chair and wanted to roll forward 200 bucks, it's not happening. This is really only for things where orders have already been placed for equipment. Uh,
and you know, for instance, like say the the highway department, some of these things are really rolled forwards from problems that that probably stem and started in 2021, 2022. Um, and I'll kind of walk you through the things that are on this list
and just sort of explain what why each one of them is on here. And um, and I will say that the offset to this to the spend is going to be fudge fund bal fund balance reserve is what's going to cover this. It's not going to change the levy or anything else like that. It's just um
unreserved undesated fund balance in some cases. In other cases, it's fund balance that's reserved specifically for a particular thing. And I'll touch on that as I move through the list. And so this is on page 152, I believe, in the packet. Yes. So starting at the top, the
first line is uh in the capital projects fund uh 330,000 for uh plow trucks. And this is one that I mentioned from these are from orders that were placed in previous years, 2024 for instance, and really just sort of working through the
shortages that popped up going back two or three years. Um, and you know, speaking with Mr. Kramer, you know, some of it is related to, well, we got the chassis, but we didn't get the plow or vice versa. And so, a lot of these are things that are just coming in now, but
we budgeted them for that year. Yes. So, then did it did that amount show as went back into reserves then if it didn't get spent that year? Yes. So, it's not really totally new money? No. Other than maybe inflationary costs and stuff like that. Commissioner Elseie. So, this
keeps us on target though with our plow truck a year scenario. It does to stay ahead. Correct. It does. This is a catchup to that. Is that what I understand? Basically, it's some unforeseen expenses to get there or ordered but we couldn't get them. I
think is what it's a vendor issue. Yeah. Yes. But this keeps us on schedule. Yes. Um the next one uh various park projects and also this is in the 01 fund the revenue fund. Um and again these are
things that are already in place or you know projects that are already up and running and but were unspent from prior year. Some of these are funded by grants in that area. So you know we've already received the money or we're going to get reimbursed from it at some point. Um and
then just to finish those up. The next one is the feed lock program. And yep, Russ is still here. So if I start uh if I'm on the ropes, I'll just turn around and have him finish the question. But um in the feed lot program, the state pays for a good chunk
of it. And if we're not keeping up uh with our side of the the the the agreement, if you will, in terms of how much money we spend and people we have supporting the program, then we end up having to give the money back. So yep, I got a nod. So that pretty much
explains it. So this is a carryover for money that we did not spend in 2024 that we intend to spend in 2025. Again, I question on that. So So is it designated, we just spended money to spend money or is it designated towards
a boots on the ground project? I mean, I'm just kind of because this number could be bigger next year or something. Uh the um police control agency funds um the feed lot program. Yeah. And what happened is due to staff vacancies
uh and um an increase in state funding for this two current two-year period with 2025 being in the end. Um we we run a pretty lean program. Uh but we receive the money in advance. So, we choose to
either fully utilize the money um with potential purchasing of equipment um or at the end of 2025 we do have to return that to the state. That's what I was wondering. What are we doing with the money? Are you purchasing something or
is we're working on those right now? Coming trying coming up with scenarios and they will be brought back to the board before we do anything. Perfect. Thank you. I'm just curious what it's going towards. And the next one is the uh probation
program within the Department of Corrections, also in the 01 general fund. Uh this is mainly related to timing where we get the bills from the state uh the state of Minnesota. Um but it's
the billing cycle is a little weird. So uh in some cases, we'll get an invoice, a big one. In this case, 362,000 that we paid in 2025 for 2024 expenses. So if you look at the 2024 budget, we underspent and now we're, you know,
we're paying the bill in 2025. So if we don't increase the budget in 2025, it'll look like we overspent 2025. So it's really a timing issue. Did we not foresee that coming? Well, we did. We did everything we could to get the bill
called bugged them. rough idea, didn't we? We did. We knew what it was and we knew how much it was going to be, but my best efforts were not enough to kind of get the invoice in December. Was that for the full year? No. No, only partial. Yes. But we couldn't have like put a
forecast budget into our approved budget to say, "Hey, we anticipate a 360, you know, even if it was $300,000 bill." So we just so we don't have the surprise. Is that you see where I'm going with that? Yeah. there you know because we do cash basis accounting
around here that you don't really acrue for things so you know in full ac cruel accounting I would acrew the expense in 24 and paid it in 25 policy if we don't get the bill within 30 days of services delivered we don't pay there we go that's the policy we need to have I just
I was just saying under the under the pretense of hey because what happens is is we get a budget we see what the budget is we don't know that that's a point and a half on the levy you know, and then we say, "Oh, we got to make that up somewhere." And we're
making decisions like setting $750,000 aside and different things like that, not realizing 50% of that, you know what I mean? Could come in on another bill. So, I realized the cash basis, acral basis, we do something similar also, but we still know that, hey, we got expenses coming up. We can't go buy X amount new
vehicles because we got this big bill coming. It just really helped us to understand some bigger things like this, I think. Yeah. And if we were let, you know, at the time, I mean, we based the I I wasn't here when we set the budget for 24, but I mean, we we set it for 25 assuming that we're going to get build
for all these things on a timely basis. And but that wasn't in there, correct? No. Right. I did not add, you know, a half a years of 24 to the budget. No. Yeah. Being optimistic, I thought I was going to get it that, you know, all the indications we got were that it would come in.
I'm just trying to avoid the big surprise. Yes. Yep. Um, the next one was a surprise. Well, to a point. Uh, it was not in the budget in 2025 at all. It's the Tyler technology software, the uh, infamous software that we just talked
about with the property tax calculations and the recorder uses it and I believe the assessor uses it and it's and but it it cuts across a lot of these over-thec counter things that we have here. And uh, there's a a subscription
uh what they call a SAS over-the-counter subscription that you pay every year for the privilege of using their software. Um and that was not in the budget for 2025. So we got the invoice, we just paid it. Um but it's big enough that if
you know we don't put it into the budget, it's going to look pretty bad at the end of the year like we blew the budget. Either way, we have to pay it. We're just adjusting the budget to match. Blow the contract not knowing that we had to pay this $17,000 for a product that I'm hearing is not working.
I'm not real happy. I mean, I think they somewhere along the line they advertised Tyler Works and I don't think Tyler's working. I mean, I don't know all the details, but I think it was a main contributor to the problem with the Lewon School District. So, did did we not know that we do we have this ongoing
17,000 a year? Yep. That's every year. And I did I was able to I went back to them and I said, "You're charging a subscription for software that we haven't implemented yet. So, will you reduce the invoice?" And they agreed to do it. So, they knocked 14,000 off the invoice. So, actually what we're going
to pay is about 103. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for doing that because well, but but if it's not working and it's not what we anticipated, I appreciate that. All right. Thank you. And then the next uh five one Yep. is all related to the sheriff's department
and one-time public safety aid that they we got in December of 2023 was about 800,000 and uh about 600 and some thousand of it we put into the 2024
budget capital and uh they managed to spend probably 60% of it in 2024. But what you're looking at here is the residue from what they did not spend in 2024. And this stuff is, you know, has strings attached. In other words, this
funding can only be used for public safety, law enforcement type activities. So some of these vehicles, wasn't there supposed to be some major? Was this the true cost or this just what the grants covered? Because I thought they were doing some pretty aggressive fundraising for some of these trucks and
transport vehicles. What I do know, and I'm not deeply knowledgeable on this, like the armor radio system, the 149 that that's already been paid. That that and I think they're finished now with that program, if you will. Um the equipment for the diver. Sorry, Chuck.
Armor is never finished. It's ongoing. Every year going to have to buy new equipment, new radius. So because it wears out, it breaks. Yes. You have to change that. The the the terminology. You're right. Yeah, evolving. But the other vehicles and
things like that, I thought, weren't they doing some major? But but you don't know if that was the cost of something or just the portion of the grant that we allocated to. Well, if you look at the sore the equipment for the sore truck. So, they bought the truck last year and there was 30,000 in the budget for that and ended up being
38 and they did they they had private fundraising to cover the difference. Okay. All right. The rest of this I'm not not too sure about. Okay. Right. But it was one time and yeah, back in 2023. Yes. Right.
So that covers it. So you're taking 1,1 11750 out of reserves to cover these things 2025. But yes. All right. Any other questions? Commissioner
Bley, I'll move to approve the resolution. I will second that. Madam Chair motion and second it commissioner vaguely. Commissioner Meyer. Yes. Um Mr. Elliot, I want to thank you um for
your attention to detail and for bringing all of this forward. I mean I know you got grilled, right? But in past years this stuff would happen and I we would never hear about it. So um I'm grateful to your attention to all this sort of stuff and trying to be trans more transparent.
Thanks. One thing I would like um so to know then what the balance of these reserve accounts are. If you took a million one out of it, what is it after you do that just as a tracking? We'll do that. Thank
you. Well, I mean, I feel like it's we're saved in some part because probably half a million of it is really, you know, maybe it's more like 350,000 of it is that onetime money that the for
public safety. So, right, but reserves are very critical to our Yeah, but that couldn't be spent for anything else anyway. So, okay. All right. So, we have a motion to approve. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I nay. Thank you, Mr. Elliot, appreciate
that. Okay. 9.5. Review approved draft cannabis business registration ordinance in page 155. And I think we need more red ribbons or whatever in the printers. Would it be easier if I went up there? I
think either way is fine. Um, before we get started, um, did we hear back from any of the townships? I mean, they were pretty alarmed by some things a couple weeks ago, but I I really maybe Oh, looks like Eric maybe. Yeah, if I can
just update that real quick. I put one more push out there for everybody that we didn't get responses back and we did get a delegation back to the county from the city of Minasca. That was the only that was the last city. And then there was
three outstanding townships, Dresbach, New Hartford, and Pleasant Hill. We heard informally Dresback will be delegating to the county. We heard also that New Hartford did um Pleasant Hill is the only hold out where we're not any
response. So we have heard pretty much uh from from our constituent constituents across the board. So Okay. Okay. Good. Good. Because they were concerned and we told them if they wanted to take action they needed to let us know. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank
you. It's been relatively quiet. Yeah. Yeah. Um before I start, I just wanted to acknowledge I I think uh County Attorney Simon, who couldn't be here tonight, wanted to introduce you to Brian Thomas, who is
our in one of our interns over at the county attorney's office. Um he did some work on this back in February to help us try to sort it out. and he's a I'm I'm I'm a big fan of uh competent people doing public service and and he fits that category in the job that he does
now uh as an intern and uh helps uh uh do some of the behindthe-scenes work that allows us attorneys to be more productive. So, how long do we have his capabilities and his time? Right. A few
more weeks. Few more weeks. Yeah. All right. So, and maybe if you indulge me with one example right now, uh, one of the things that I do is and is when a harassment restraining order is issued by a judge, I look at those to determine
whether the person is prohibited from carrying a gun and would have their their uh gun permit revoke suspended. And it's kind of complicated because they actually get disqualified under federal law and then it intersects with uh uh uh state law, but it's an
intersection of of that combined with the exact language and the order and the history of the of the people involved. And so those those take time because you sort of have to go through them starting from scratch each one. And one of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is come up with a systematic approach of
of fact patterns and and ways I could review these more quickly so that so that these could be processed more quickly. I could be more responsive to the sheriff and and and these things would be dealt with. So what he what he was able to do was go
through and and uh uh uh uh pull all the forms that are used in in a in a a in a harassment restraining order proceeding and lay out the flow of procedure of how that goes and at what point uh certain things happen so that we know if due
process uh uh uh was was uh uh provided or not and all that kind of like background work that that I don't have time to do to keep up with my regular, you know, my regular workload. And so something like that really helps, you
know, me in the future to be more productive in what I do and more responsive. And so, so people like Brian are really important. Well, he doesn't have to answer the phones. You do. Yes. H unrupt. Thank you though. Sounds like good work.
Doing the traditional dropping something. Okay. So this was uh last time we had this before uh at the last meeting you asked for a redline version of uh from the uh model ordinance and um so what
what you have here today the the ordinance the model ordinance actually fits into three different areas of our ordinance. So it's not all uh uh you can't just do a comparison in red line because you have to pull different
parts of our ordinance. But so what you what you have before you is uh the model ordinance with the uh red lines of substantive changes that we made uh uh to the proposed ordinance. And I I could
I could go through and explain quickly the changes and why for you or if you have specific questions, whatever whatever you prefer. I guess my question staff uh I'm looking at Eric because you're kind of Mr. Cannabis got you a name tag. Yeah. Does
it meet uh your expectations? I need some resident advisor. Yeah. Mr. Cannabis expectations on just what will happen. Yeah. I mean is this workable? I mean Oh yeah, very much. all the zoning and planning and you have the most
experience uh you know departmentalizing worked with this stuff. It just depends on the volume and the number and the locations. Um we've gone through one trial run with a cannabis proposal that predates registration and the state
issuing licenses. Um that was Yep. Each each one brings a set of dynamic concerns and issues of the neighborhood. um how many we get, you know, where they're located. Um if they're located within city limits, maybe they'll take
some of the burden off of the uninorporated parts, but we're kind of working with the rest of the smaller cities, too. I think that's going to be a factor. Um you know, I guess best way to answer that is we don't know, but time will tell. And we
can modify and change as the state modifies and changes. that those were my concerns. I mean, hearing from the townships, hearing from the small municipalities, we have a do you feel we have a sound enough but potentially
fluid enough scenario here that we can start? How do we know what we don't know? I say that almost on a daily basis. Um, and I feel like that's where we're at. So, I'm really turning to you to say, do you feel this is sound to get started? Yeah, I think we got the base
bones and I I mean we incorporated most of the template the state minimum requirements and Steve has done a wonderful job going through that. Um you know the numbers with these densities I think that's why staff went along with
that five and we're not sure exactly how those numbers are. One exercise I did was look at at all the demographics just to see how that that falls and depends on how you interpret that. That could be one or two or, you know, depending on
where they are, you know, we're settling on five. But I think we set it low enough that if we are overrun with applications, uh, it'll be enough for our decision makers to pause and to whether or not we, you know, need to revisit some of
the regulations we have. Good. Commissioner Vley, uh, question to both Eric and to Steve. do feel like we're now ready to pass this and to Commissioner Elin's point, we're at a good enough place where it's a solid starting point, but yet there's room to monitor and adjust to be flexible. I
think so, too. Um, you know, our partners in this are law enforcement, the sheriff's office, the um auditor treasurer, whether or not you know, like the volume is going to be the number that we get is going to be the telling
tale. Okay. Any other questions? Legal. Uh, well, two two things in particular I guess I'll point out is the language about uh limiting the number of uh uh uh
cannabis retail businesses in the county. Uh and that is set up uh in the way we discussed last time which is uh it's limited to uh uh no fewer than one for every 12,500 people as required by
the statute. And uh if we reach that limit and there are not five in the in the rural areas, the areas that the county has has jurisdiction over, the county can issue
five additional uh registrations up to five. Yes. Um and not uh uh not required to do uh that and as long as we meet the minimum. Um and then the other thing that uh we added that isn't in the uh uh
in the model ordinance is a um if someone gets a registration is awarded registration and doesn't act on it uh yes and so basically basically what we this is on
page 169 of your agenda packet or seven. Yeah. So, and again trying to be as flexible as possible because it's hard to predict how this will play out. But what we we they need to renew annually their registration every year. So, if
they haven't opened for retail business by uh the uh their one-year renewal, uh the county could ask them to show that they have a plan and a timeline for for getting open. and the board could vote to resend uh their registration if uh if
if they don't uh aren't able to show that. Uh so giving the board some flexibility. Also bringing them before the board temporary event permits for approval and uh also uh the final step
for someone being registered is to come before the board and have it have it approved before Chelsea issues that registration. That brings the question with the Dresback. When did they I mean not much has happened at that location. Are they still with it? But they're just a
conditional use permit of the lower or well from now I mean Yeah. So I mean have they met the year? Are we approaching the year? No, that was actually 2023 that they received the conditional use permit but they were unaware of their license status. There's
been no registration initiated. So I'll wait to see. Yeah. The year there. Okay. Okay. And then go ahead. I'm sorry. Oh, and then one as far as the one issue that's out there with uh limiting the number of registration is
the townships and uh uh uh whether they're able to prevent a uh retail cannabis business from from being in their township. Uh and the way it works is that if
they've uh not delegated their registration to us to the county, they are required to register at least one. If someone uh goes to register, but if the county reaches its limit overall of 12,51 for
12,500 people, they don't have to register anyone. Now, I don't know how the timing of that works. is a little bit of a conflict because we have an obligation to register for a certain amount of people and and and they have an obligation to act in a certain amount
of time under the statute. Uh so it's uh uh it's one of it's one of those unknowns that it may not know exactly how that works out and and ideally it won't be an issue. Uh but uh but wanted to bring that to your attention. Shel,
so just just to be clear, thank you for that. That answers another question I have. So, but I just want to make sure I have this quick. Currently, if the county designates that to or excuse me, if the township designates it to the county, unless the township says
specifically, we don't want it, hey, as long as the five are filled, they don't need to do it. Now, if a township has its own planning and zoning or its own authority, um, such as Wilson or if anybody else
decides to do that, um, then they would have to meet the county, they would have to meet their requirements to say yes or no. Um, and that cannot supersede what the county says. Let's say if we don't have our five, they would be forced to do it regardless, right? Come to us and we
would say, "No, we're sorry. you have to allow is that the procedural aspect to that? So, and uh the big answer to the question is the townships are put in an awkward position about this. That's why I'm stuck on here a little bit trying to figure out Yeah. because they have uh uh
if they don't delegate and they do their own registrations, they could control it and they could limit it, but they have the requirement to do one if someone applies. But if if one through for 12,500 people is throughout the whole county, including the city and and
cities and all that, is there a township that has 12,500 people in it? Well, it's it's a it's a minimum. So, if you have one person, it has to be one. Um, oh, yeah, and we do have the Eric did put together the population numbers. If we
take all the townships, all cumulative, it's 11,095 people. That's all the townships. That's counting Wilson and Homer and Rolling Stone. All the biggest ones. That's a no incorporated areas. That's
just un That's just townships. If we take all the cities, that's [Music] 38,576. The 2020 US census data for the entire county, that's all the townships,
all the cities, is 49,671. So, and there is that issue too of having to it to be uh and Ross provided me some very good information about commercially zoned property. There's very little of that scattered around the county. I mean, it has to be in a
commercially zoned. That's a huge factor. Yeah. Yeah. Fro did a real good job about picking all those up for me. Yeah. And I and I think I mean the the the hope or the expectation is it won't be an issue because of that.
Um and I know there there are differences of viewpoint on how this works. Uh but I did check today just to confirm that uh the office of cannabis management's guidance is that if a city or township has delegated registration
authority to the county, can the city or township still enforce its own registration or caps? And the answer is only the local government unit that issues a cannabis retailer registration can do that. So they can't and they could do zoning if they're doing zoning,
but they can't zone it to limit the number. Uh if the legal staff and if the planning staff feel like we're now at a place where we can do this, I'll make a motion to um approve. Are we ready to do this?
the draft um to to approve the current cannabis registration ordinance. Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Vagley. Do we second? Commissioner Olsen. Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Vegley. Second by Commissioner Olsson to approve the draft cannabis business
registration ordinance. And you better put a big uh April 22 2025 on the document so we know that when it needs to be changed. Yeah. We're all working off the same one. Yeah. And and I know I've said this before, but I really encourage the board to revisit this
ordinance. Absolutely. After once this gets going to make sure uh it's it's meeting the needs of the county. All right. I mean, uh whenever Eric or whoever feels like if it's six months from now or nine months from now or a year from now, you tell us when you feel like we should come back to it. Absolutely. There's a process to get on
our board agenda. And and there there is a provision in there that's not in the mild ordinance that I forgot about too, which is just that the county will periodically review the impact on the health, safety, and welfare of the community. The county board will no required timeline to do
that, but just that that will be done periodically uh to to assess whether changes are needed. You better check Governor Walls's schedule, see if he is available on that date when we do that, please. All right. All those in favor of passing the ordinance say I oppose nay.
Okay. Approve. All right. Thank you for all the work on that. I regret that we having to do that type of thing. So the vote was 5, correct? Yes. Okay. Um 9.6 discuss ask staff for
recommendations lobbying efforts regarding health and human services. That was on page 174. I mean, I think we get emails every day and news articles about what the state legislature and the federal government
is doing with funding and such. So, I'm not sure if we want to tie it to funding sources or what the what the intent would be. That's really my goal with this is to better understand what is being funded through grants from the federal government, what is being funded
from grants from the state. Um and so that we are in a informed position um and potentially can lobby both our state and federal delegation uh as to
what the consequences to the county and the county's budget and the community will be um based on cuts. Um, I see in the Micah legislative update, and this rel is relative to the state, not to the federal government, but that Ottertale
County and Carver County um are both saying doubledigit levy increases as a result of the cost transfers for the um primarily it's disability services,
but also the sex offender program. And well, and we had to do a um Miss Holty, did AMC and Micah were both trying to get a county specific document and you had to fill out some type of survey. Y do we know where we don't have an answer
from them yet. The results haven't come out. Yeah. Okay. So, as soon as we get that, that's the tool that I know they both those organizations were working on to try and get and Emily, you indicated some funding already that you knew of got has been cut. Okay. Yep. We lost our Americanore
person for emergency management as well. Y Okay. So, I I don't know what other Do you want anything other specific? I I I think that AMC Micah survey will be very
telling. Miss Holty, do you need any more direction than that? No, I believe we understand what is being asked. Your crystal ball is as clear as mine. very foggy and very cloudy and very much but we'll do our best to we can I'm guessing
off the MCI I'm sorry um after off the Micah document they probably have counties that have more staff they're able to probably crunch those numbers but we need we need to wait have somebody else help us with that that would be true of Carvertale but Ottertale probably didn't um well they've got they've got more
staff yeah they do but and I know Dakota County already said you know yeah they're they're analyzing and we all do the same thing only on different level, you know, different levels. Exactly. We can And they also testified that was that that note was from them testifying.
Correct. Right. Okay. We got the orders on that. So, let's see. Uh it was 8.9 now 9.7 uh was reject bids for Apple Blossom Park Pavilion project and decline M DR Minnesota DNR outdoor recreation grant O
R24-009. Mr. vaguely. I think that takes us down to page is that 94? 98. No, 94. Well, finish tomorrow. You're absolutely. Okay. Well, we did at at a committee we
indicated to take this action. Uh what's changed? Can I start? Yeah. Go ahead. Um and Ross, would you mind coming to the podium? I'm going to talk for a little while and then ask you a question. So what we have before us on page 98 sorry
I was wrong you are correct it was 98. So the recommendation is to do two things is to reject the bids and to decline the DNR recreation grant. The first question I have is do we have to do both? Can we reject the bids but
still for now um not decline the DNR outdoor recreation grant? And there there's a reason why I'm going to explain in a second. Uh yes we could. Okay. Reason is is because the city of Lret, correct me if I'm wrong, the city of Lac Crescent
actually, even though I think two or three of you mentioned the city of L Crescent, you know, many years ago they were Yeah. the driving force of that whole Yep. park. And they reached out to, correct me if I'm wrong, us Winona County to L to Lou overhog to Lou
Overhog. And then then Marine became involved. And these conversations haven't really gone anywhere. It's just like can we meet meet to discuss this idea. Is that correct? We're we're we're researching the potential opportunity because we don't know the legalities of
that yet because what the city of Lacrescent asked was the city of Lacrescent asked what the possibility many options but I mean we could discuss many options but they asked a specific question about could the city of Lacrescent annex that that park and then make it part of theirs
etc. The question is, is that even allowable? Because that's not township. That's a count. That's not a township piece of property. Correct. Yes, it is. It's it's Stressbach Township, but it's owned by the correct. Right. Sorry. So, yeah, that's what I'm asking is I don't
want to speak in on behalf of Dresbach. But so, the reason I what I would like to do if the board is okay with it is to we can reject the bid the two bids. The deadline was April 24th to do that. Correct. but to maybe table the action
on declaing declining the uh DNR grant to wait to see the other conversations play out the city of Lacrescent because those conversations are just beginning and I don't even know I'm guessing you can't transfer from a county to did you for sure I I verified that with the DNR
they did get back to me today so you couldn't transfer it it's not transferable they are not an applicant so it's not an option could we do something with that grandpa or is it only tied to the two bids could we do could we take care of part of the project and the city could take care of
the rest. We um with the grant. No, we're tied we're tied to what we represented to the DNR. Thank you. So there's no flexibility and no no reason to wait on double checking
tripleeing. Yeah. I mean essentially um in the original email that that u Mr. Obahog did did receive the the city specifically stated that they would that uh if the if the county board looked
favorably on it they would apply again themselves in the future. They were not specific. They never made any representation about trying to assume assume the current grant. With all that said and done, I have been asked in an email, if I was a private
citizen that owned that property, with it being in the Bluff Land Protection area and everything, could I build on it? The we pulled the 1995 original um DNR grant that was used to purchase the property, and I have that with with Mr.
Crayons right now. Um there is language in there um because state bond money was used uh to finance the purchase. Um we need an opinion to what I'm reading is we would have to reimburse
the state if we wanted to sell it. Um now transferring it to the if I owned it and I wanted to build a h you know with our protective bluff land and everything. Could I build a house there? I mean you wanted to build pavilions. Could I build a house on that property?
But that's I think I know where you're going. I asked that question of a Lacrescent city council member. I said, um, I think it's very important that we know that it won't be turned into a housing subdivision. Oh, the the person that asked me is, you know, do we make special rules for ourselves? We don't
follow the zoning ordinance like anybody else would. Well, that's your question. My question is is it's good for the goose. It got to be good for the gander. If the idea is unsightly things then this is this an unsightly thing no different than a house
barn barn whatever it might be that we're not following our own rules that if our rule is if the idea is that we can see the corner of a roof flying two months out of the year whether it's that person's our persons collectively all persons if the idea is to protect the
bluff why are we out I got the same email I'm sure everybody did and that does point and again It it does it it it it's it's almost hypocritical to not at least look at it and say, "Yeah, I mean, if this is the case, if that's what we're going by and that's the rules we
put on other people, we should be putting them on all people because even if it's even though it's for all it, it the rule is for all people. So, it it does justify a point and I do get that and just I want to acknowledge that publicly." When we did receive the
grant, I did discuss that with Lou and Eric and their agreement was that it did not, but maybe Eric could address that. Well, we're not we're not building today. So, again, I guess I I think it's more of a moral like a moral thing. You
know, this is a moral situation like, hey, we've you know, this has been denied to multiple other people. We've watched neighbors have to fight. We've done this, we've done that, and now here we are saying, hey, let's put up a pavilion that burned the whole world to see. Right. Which which is why I did inquire because
we were going to go through the process if that was the case. Sure. Um so I'm going to make my So I I'll try to limit how much I say is that I I am very interested. I'm concerned that if we don't continue some kind of work, this is going to fall by the wayside and this
won't ever happen. And I you build parks not for you. You build it for your great grandkids and your great and kids you'll never meet. And parks are always built in stages. No one ever starts off with Yusede or Yellowstone. You build it in stages. So I was kind of viewing this as the first stage. It also honors the life
and work of George How. And I'm afraid that if we let this go, it will it'll just fall by the wayside. But it sounds like we have no option with the DNR grant and the city of Bresening could have could and you're sure about that? that I I had reached uh our grant
coordinator this this morning and was able to have a conversation and she said ab yeah absolutely not because it is it is hard one last thing it's just hard to uh possibly agree to re rejecting bids for park on Earth Day and literally today is Earth Day so the timing of this
is a little bit ironic etc but as long as the conversations can continue and those can continue okay you you keep bringing up George how and I don't remember George and everything, tragedy and everything. Did he leave any legacy money to continue his great work? Uh, he
had raised I don't know how much money he helped raise, but I mean there wasn't any trust or anything for the park or anything that that we could tap into. Not that I know of. No. Okay, Commissioner Meyer. Thanks. I do have a couple questions. Um, so if we uh don't
reject the grant, when does it have to be spent on? June 30th, 2026. we would have a full year to make some other choice if we don't do it. Um, and we said as a part
of what we talked about when we talked about this at the committee board that we would spend the ARPA money because it's already been committed. Um, so if we chose to reject the bids but not reject the grant, send the
grant back. Um, do we still want to spend the ARPA funds? I think it's important we still spend the ARPA funds. Um, so there is some maintenance that goes on. So, can that be dedicated to you? They said they do whatever they could. That's what we were looking at.
We didn't meet with Laura Patterson to make sure that uh we understood what what it could and couldn't be spent on it. At this point, it can't re be re allocated to anywhere else. So, it is limited to work at Apple Blossom Drive, but it could be maintenance work,
ongoing maintenance work. And so, how long did it take us to ask for and get the bids? Is that a six-month process? We Yeah, we uh the original deliverable uh for the design documents was supposed to be the end of July and we didn't
receive them till the end of February 2025, a year. It was we were after them all the time. So, and I don't fault the staff at all, but this has been before the parks and the light committee for two years, Ross. Two years. Actually, I will say I just let me wrap
up. I I I will say this. I don't I I don't think it's a bad idea to potentially allow Lacrescent to take it over because I think they'd probably be willing to invest more money in it than we have been. And I appreciate that. It's right there. It's a beautiful park
and they would use it. they would use it for their festivals and their events. So, in some ways, I feel like they would be in better hands maybe than it's been in the hands of Winona County. So, um I thought perhaps you were saying we should sell it and build a development
and then I was like, no, I'd rather say it see the top dollar for it because a few new houses went on up across the road. Um I guess I'm unaware of Lac Crescent's activity or anything. So there's a lot of going on here that I I
no idea what they're proposing or thinking and stuff. So and and and the request was whether we would be interested in beginning discussions. So we wanted to first understand the legalities, then bring that forward to you. If there's an interest in us
engaging in those discussions, we would then start engaging in those discussions and then again bring that back and well, so we would be cancelling all the funding here now though. we would we would reject the bids and decline it. It
I mean that's we when I at the last committee of the board meeting I I did I I did bring you a couple of options if you want us to try to redesign something. There's potentially there's time we could uh otherwise we can we you said no
once. Why is everybody trying to get us to change our mind? I mean new information the city. Well, I could we still could reject and and decline and and do those conversations. Just wait. How long do the conversations take? The the grant itself limits us with what we
can change. Now, if we want to let the grant go and still use the county contribution and the ARPA money, then we could look at doing something different. But to utilize the state funding, we I kind of gave you the we can reduce the size of the of the pavilion. we cannot
pave the parking lot. Beyond that, we're we're not meeting our deliverable uh under the terms that we applied for. We discussed all that reducing the size that the fact that it took so long to get bids back is just a sign that somebody just doesn't want to do it. You
know, if you're if you're looking for more, you're going to get them back. I mean, let's just read through lines here. The fact that the bids came back for the amount that they came back for, which were quite elevated, especially one of them, is another sign of that. Three, we've got an issue here with I
think we got a moral issue. The the building something on a bluff for everybody to see that when we passed ordinances that say you can't build anything on the bluff for everybody to see. So I think we got a couple issues even if we were to get the city involved
for you know for uh um Lac Crescent we would still have some issues here discussing the moral impact and doing do as they say not as we do. um situation. So, there's a there's a lot of factors here I think that are being brought up
that I go back to the original situation of right now. I just don't think this is the right time to do this. Mine Commissioner Begley, how long did you want to table it for? The outdoor recreation grant you said we
have until June of 2026. Correct. We're not under We're not It's not It's not urgent. And I realize the chances are very slimmer or none that we could use it for anything else. But the the uh engineering firm did recont
us yesterday. The said that the contractor thought we could save some potentially save some money if we changed the uh the rough structure that we you know we had designed it one way but they al and then in the same email it's like well there would be some
additional engineering cost to make sure that it was viable. So I it was not consistent with the direction we received. So I you know I just we just need uh direction. It's uh to to meet the terms
of the grant. We we are fairly limited. Make I'll make a motion u and we'll see where it goes. I will make a motion to it there'll be a three-part motion to reject the bids rapid law park to table the request to decline the DNR grant
let's say 6 months and revisit it and the third part is were you saying Ross that you want or marine do you want us to wait until you come can we just can we say that yes we would like you to have these conversations with the city of Lacresen we don't know where it's
going to go you can say that and we can go that direction. She wouldn't like that. Right. We just need to gather more information. Right. What can or can we not do before we even have a conversation? Right. But do you have the capacity to do that at this time or do
we need to put this off? I mean, you're going into budgeting in a very precarious time of funding. I mean, seriously, do you have time to sit down and chitchat with the city of L Crescent right now? And you can be honest, I don't think you do. doesn't have time for I think it would be a a low
priority. I I would hope it would be a low priority. I mean in the workload that you would have many fish to fry. I know. I know. And so I mean I just trying to put something more like this. Again parks aren't bad but again life is all about timing. I think we got higher priorities right now. So but that's your
motion. three-part motion to reject the bids to table the DNR grant for six months and to give the staff um I guess permission direction to continue conversations as they see fit under the timeline that they think is most
reasonable. I'll second it. We have a three-part motion. I'm not going to try and repeat it, but reject bid reject bid table the DNR and talk with the city of Lacress. Yep. Okay, everybody clear on the motion? All those in favor say I. I.
I post nay. Nay. Okay. 32. I would like to see the city of Lac Crescent's letters because I I don't know what they're proposing at all. Well, there hasn't been anything proposed. No, there's nothing started yet. Oh, okay. I thought they said there was a letter or something. Just an email inquiring. All
right, moving on. Uh, Commissioner Baker, you had a couple comments and Yep. Uh, two quick comments. Um, I want to um express my condolences for the passing of the Pope. um the the leader of the world's largest religion, 1.3 1.4
billion people. Um he was a person who was a champion for the poor, for the marginalized, for refugees and immigrants. So um I want to express my condolences to the pope, all members of the Catholic faith. I also want to wish everyone a happy Earth. Um April 22nd,
not an official holiday, but um a good day to remind us some very important things in our beautiful Winona County. That's it. Commissioner Elen, can you jump over me for a second? Okay. All right. Um Okay. Uh let's see. I had a couple couple things. Uh we've been
talking um dollars and cents and everything. Win just I want people to understand Winona County could also face double digit property tax hikes in 2026. Um just let alone right now there's a like a a figure, you know, and you can't believe these figures. The governor
potentially increase our cost share, you know, by a minimum of 8% just in what he's proposing currently. But then again, it's the governor's budget and the house and the senate haven't come up with theirs. Um, but there's additional costs for essential services. But unfortunately, the county has no
authority to influence the program criteria, eligibility, or the cost structures. And that's that's the issue I have. If they're going to make us pay, we should have some say and and it's not going to be easy, but they don't want to make the decision. So, they're passing it down to us. So, with the additional
rising baseline expenses, but in in just our everyday operations, our union contracts, our heating bills, our gas, electricity, everything. Um, but these proposed cost shifts are are going to result in huge financial strain to local taxpayers. The city of the Lewon school
district got a shock with us miscalculating be all citizens of Winona County should be prepared for a shock for next year. We all got our statements. First half's due in May, so get ready. But um Minnesota operates under a lot of people don't realize Minnesota operates under a supervised
county model for human services, but they're primarily federal and state dollars and they're shifting these costs to us um because we administer it. We're one of the few state handful of states that do this and it's going to be very problematic. So I just want people I
think we need to keep telling that message. Unfortunately, it's not a good message, but it is the message we need to tell people. And we're not in and and we're not in control of our our our own fate. We're not in control of our own fate for the biggest part of it. So, and then as far as a board action, we've
heard it from a couple people now. Uh there's a public records um process and I know um attorney France is working on. I think we should have a discussion about our public u data request process so we understand it and our citizens understand it. So, I need a second to
move that. That's actually what I was going to bring up, but I was typing up an email for a constituent answer quick. So, I wanted to bring the same thing up. Just having that conversation about that and and seeing if there's something we can have a clear and more transparent answer. So, people aren't in the dark
when they're requesting this type of information. And my thought process is is we have more software. We have more streamlining. We just saw we pay $17,000. Our county hasn't grown. There's no more people. nothing nothing's changed. So, what's going on
and why can't we make those things happen? So, we should be more efficient than ever, I would think. So, yeah, I would I would definitely second that. Okay. All right. Anything else? Yeah. Oh, no. That was the one thing I wanted to bring up. So, right.
Okay. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, move. Second. Motion made by Commissioner Olsen, seconded by Commissioner Eling. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I post. Thank you. I'll do the other way around.