##VIDEO ID:2s03TsoF6xE## e e e it is 50:05 and I call this regular meeting of the Bel County Board of Commissioners to order it's October 15th Tuesday afternoon at 5:05 uh please stand for the pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I don't normally have General comments but I do this week um I want to publicly apologize to commissioner SAR for shutting off the lights after the last board meeting while he was still talking with the constituent it was not intended as any disrespect commissioner suar rather I do have a habit of turning out the lights as I leave because I'm usually the last commissioner out but nevertheless it was rude and I sincerely regret my actions and I hope that in time you can forgive me I apologize with that is there any citizen that would like to address the board seeing Mr Luca former commissioner I have to as you know I have to read this anyone wishing to address the County Board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time to be recognized by the board chair please state your name and address for the record comments are limited to 5 minutes a personnel complaint against an individual County employee may not be heard initially at a board meeting Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office a person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language go ahead hello board Jim lukach 13318 Wildwood Road Northeast L miji Minnesota um back to talk to the board about uh uh kind of a word that we had together regarding the redistricting issue um again I don't mean to continually uh beat that down into the path but it was very important to me I believe it was very important to our County um in general the word was when it was all settled when it was done that we agreed that you as the County Board would publish something in the County newspaper to not notify our constituents of what took place how it went down how it was resolved and what impact it has on our County and the redistricting so I'm back here to ask that um I did wait until now specifically and strategically so that it didn't have any impact on anybody running for an office I I don't mean it to be a political thing because it's a big issue in my mind I've also since uh not running for office anymore I've also made it uh a goal in my life to try to advocate for legislature that changes some pretty major laws and statutes in our state that allow plaintiffs when they bring suit against somebody to recover their damages the reason I say that is because if you really think about how these situations work if there is no consequences if there's no what ifs ANS or buts a County Board in the future can make another bad decision like I believe this County Board did and there's no there's no consequences um the plaintiffs me and 30 co-plaintiffs filed this lawsuit against Bel tramy County and if you don't think that was tough for me to do after being an elected official for 14 years to bring a lawsuit against the very board and the Very County that I worked for and served to try to move forward um you're wrong it was a very difficult decision me and my co- plff spent $50,000 which we thought was the right decision to prove and in two years it took the judge he did he agreed that he found in our behalf but we didn't get a nickel back we got nothing back we asked for expenses they denied that we did not get any of our attorney fees we got absolutely nothing um so we raised $440,000 and I personally put in $10,000 so that I put my money where my mouth is as the old saying goes and the disappointing part is in the Minnesota the statutes say that public officials and anybody that bring a suit that are brought a suit against from plaintiffs no consequences the County Board was covered by uh tax payer paid attorney I don't know how much that was it was never disclosed but the taxpayers had to pay for that bad decision that three to2 vote of redistricting that the judge ultimately found unanimously in our for our side of the of the case so what I would ask this board to do if you would is uh it the next next newspaper won't come out until after the election if you would just all agree to put an article on in the newspaper and I I think it's pretty that's a pretty substantial uh issue it should go on the front page of the newspaper and what I would suggest is that we have one of the two people that were appointed by the judge on the plaintiff's behalf one of those two I believe would be willing to write an article describing how the suit came about what the middle was how the judge decided and the outcome and I think that would be a good third party so that I'm not writing it one of you are isn't writing it who sit the Commissioners that currently sit on that board on that newspaper committee assignment um so that's what I ask today respectfully if you would do that just to notify the constituents um I would truly appreciate that last time I was here we kind of talked about that and said well we're not going to do anything until it's settled it's a the dust is all settled on that thing now it's all taken care of done over the redistricting back in place and again it wasn't to keep my butt in one of those seats up there that lawsuit was to keep our redistricting in a good situation in four more years five more years when you have to reconsider this whoever is sitting up there as a County Board it's going to be a lot easier to make that redistricting decision than had it gone the other way and stayed the other way that's my personal opinion and belief and the 14 years that I sat as a county commissioner our redistricting was simple because it had been kept very simple and not moving a lot of pieces parts around so again I appreciate some time from you um I would appreciate that gesture if you could ask one of those folks to write that article to the belamy County newspaper and just inform the constituent of Bel tramy County uh what took place um and after 14 years the definition of knowing when it's time to not be a commissioner anymore is when you call a commissioner and then send a text to say I'm your consti and I want to talk to you and the response is you idiot I'm in a county boardroom I can't talk to you right now so after 14 years you would have thought I'd have remembered the first and third Tuesday I only made up 300 15 of them I believe so anyway thanks for your time uh good to see all of you thanks Joe anyone else that would like to address the board Mr marula CT marula 4524 birchmont Drive Northeast number 10 and I actually had two items but now I have number three I uh wholly support Mr lukach in that damages should be award wed as this has nothing to do with the county but I'll keep it under five minutes Mr chairman I had to sue the city of bigi to comply with the open meeting law and they spent tons and tons and tons of City taxpayer money and in the end they lost and we our only option was to recover against the two innocent people who were sitting on the Merit hearing board and took the advice of the city officials so we chose not to pursue that Avenue not saying we even would have won but definitely there should not be immunity that's my endorsement of Mr luc's position I didn't know he was coming I do have two other things a shout out here in in your paper uh the you got an award for a Reset Program national award I just want to publicly say Kudos is fantastic great job by everyone involved and this is something that no matter what your political stripes are you can agree to make people healthy and holy keep the community safer and make them productive members so great job to everyone involved and then the second thing actually is the newspaper um I like the way you do it it it doesn't have size eight credit card print in it some of us can read it there's some white space and there's good information in here here but it doesn't it's not a worn peace novel so Kudos on the award and Kudos on the newspaper keep it keep up the good work thank you thank you Mr marula with that have a motion for the agenda yeah Mr chair i' to make a motion we approve the uh following changes to the agenda and to approve the agenda um with item 9A being the continuation of the summary of the the high intensity drug trafficking area uh designation for Bel trammy County in the surrounding area and then for item 9B to be the administrator's report uh that we were not able to get to during the work session so I'd make a motion that we approve the agenda with those additions and Corrections very good is there a second is any discussion all those in favor say I I oppos motion passes uh do we have a motion for consent agenda so commissioner Anderson moves the consent agenda as printed is there a second I'll second it any discussion all those in favor say I I oppos motion passes then let's move on to the uh can is it can we do 9A right away and let so that Joe and Dave don't have to that oh you should follow the agenda as it was adopted Sor it won't take us long yeah it shouldn't take long right so we move on to the mcit voting delegate and Alternate hello good evening um an Trader HR Director here at Bel tramy County just give you a quick overview of this agenda item um MC is our provider for risk management coverage they work as a risk risk sharing pool for over 470 public entities with um about 80 of those being Minnesota counties they provide the cost-effective solutions for our workers comp our liability and property coverage for any instances that come up and each year MC's board of directors holds an annual meeting that meeting takes place this year in December and also in this year they are um going to be voting in three members of the nine member board and with that we currently have our Delegate for MCAT U voting Authority as Richard Anderson and then our alternate is a former commissioner which would need to be updated so that's why I'm here tonight to get that update so we can send that over to mcit to have our voting Authority for Bel tramy County um one little tidbit to add I did check in to see who is allowed to be on the voting delegate or authority for our County uh it is just for um it's normally Commissioners but it could be appointed to staff members the there are a couple of those that are on there mainly if it would be a administrator or um an auditor Treasurer so with that I will take Direction on who the delegate um and alternative will be Craig go ahead Wonder Mr Anderson is is planning on going to that no I'm not I'm not planning on going so I think we should get a new slate okay so then commissioner G or Su that normally attend that stuff either of you have interest in uh no not interested is it on approved the committee list just kidding oh this is actually during the same time as the the AMC event and and as far as I know um I'm the commissioner that attend so I I really don't have no interest but I would you know make a recommendation that our administrator and or a county attorney I mean a auditor Treasurer be appointed um because I do know that there are a few others administrators and auditor Treasures that fulfill that role so um I think that's what I mean if there is no interest maybe that is our recommendation so maybe an maybe you could do you have you've been here long enough to know um can they zoom in to these meetings or what do you have to be there in person how how does all that work do you know yeah I looked into a little bit just to I did not check on that specifically but I did look back to see when they did their last one was in 2022 and it looked like all the members were there so I think Richard you were there because you were on the um in in person annual meeting right but I also think that it if there's any Department shair that goes on a regular basis I think that would suffice also for us because the amount of money that we pay for that protection is significant and it would be nice if uh rather than have to make a special trip down just to go to that meeting I think uh one of our department chairs that does go down could handle that easy well let me send that over to administrator bar to see how he feels about Administration taking on that role uh thank you Mr chair we wouldn't have any problem taking on the role the the the challenge I think would be making sure that if there is a conflict between AMC's conference and mcit Conference there could be an issue about trying to be in both places at the same time it it commissioner some suggesting they're at the same time they are at the same time but there is usually no conflict okay that was my understanding as well is that that they do it at that time scheduled a little bit differently TimeWise but so that people are already there so they don't have to make a separate yeah so for example I'm on the uh uh tribal relations Forum we meet Sunday just prior to the annual conference but because we're we're already going to be there that's how they try to schedule so it could be prior to uh the conference um or somewhere in between where there really isn't uh a conflict in in scheduling okay very good and I and I've been on the committee as you you mentioned and it's usually they must scrutinize it pretty carefully because I've not had a conflict with health and human services so they do it at a at a different time so if if you're agreeable I think I I agree with commissioner suar I think maybe that's it would be a great idea if either you or jod would want to fill that role I mean we could always have a commissioner as an alternate but and in fact I'm actually have an interest in this area just because of my background but I I wasn't planning on attending so well I think at least for this year uh I don't know where the um County auditor treasure will be on this uh so I I can't speak as to whether or not you'd want to have her as an alternate I think we'd want to get her input before we before we asked but I'm I'm happy to serve as the primary or the alternate um either of your choice and uh and then we probably want to get whatever the primary or the alternate vacancy uh filled in addition to that and it would be preferable to do probably this evening since this item before you for consideration well then um I would be willing to be the alternate I do have an interest in the mcit I just don't normally go down to AMC conferences but if you'd be willing to be the delegate I think that's a great suggestion okay you want to make that motion to yeah I'll make the motion that uh we um assign the mcit voting delegate as uh Mr Tom and the alterate as commissioner John Carson I'll second that okay any further discussion all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries thank you an thanks Tom for stepping up to that I appreciate that were you planning on going anyway I am now okay that was a good suggestion Tim um all right at this time we'll have Joe and Dave come back up and thank you guys for hanging in there with us I the government at because I really didn't want to catch up I really wanted to see the whole presentation you guys put a lot of work into it and it's great so thank you to the board for the for the extra time here to to discuss it uh for the sake of brevity we'll kind of get through it a little bit quicker but I mean obviously I think we got our point across you know regarding the amount of drugs that are being seized um in Bel trammy County and the work that being done to combat drug trafficking more Small Talk well we found out Dave was really good at small talk so you know it's like that that was that was a great time filler you know you know if you're in the if you're the radio business you don't want dead airspace right yeah gift a gab we actually met with um MPR last week um and did a a briefing on this um so that'll be coming up on NPR as well and then um I went with the sheriff and did the the chat about um last week as well just to you know kind of push out the community let the community know uh what was going on with this and obviously inform them so than that's f briefly on my chat about thing today's deal too yep Mr chair um I wrote down a maybe a question or two but um you mentioned that this this won't be to conduct uh routine traffic stuff so this is this will be kind of a targeted uh I guess investigation or how does that how does that work yes so this will not be used to um it can't be used to fund additional positions it can't be used to um circumvent existing funding streams that we have for for um you know our our drug traff or drug uh task force um but it'll be used to um for initiatives that we develop so one of the things that we're going to talk about in the slide is uh what our next steps are and what that's going to look like so um what that will be is we're going to form a committee um made up of You Know Myself Joe um from the Sheriff's Office a representative from the bingi police department uh Black Duck Police Department Leech Lake travel police department and Red Lake travel Police Department well we'll meet together in discuss initiatives that we want to um seek additional funding for to um improve our ability to combat drug trafficking so it'll be an all all hands teams approach like Joe said this isn't you know Bel tramy County Sheriff's Office designation this is a Bel tramy County designation um and a lot of the the majority of the work is going to fall back on the drug task force as far as reporting um and some of those things but we don't want it to be all about the Public Drug Task Force or the Sheriff's Office this needs to be um an all hands on deck thing where're we're on the same page and working together so because one one of the concerns I heard was you know they're they're hoping that this doesn't uh increase you know the [Music] um the the law enforcement traffic you know up and down 89 you know where there's a high volume of of uh you know the reservation residents you know going back and forth you know um providing you know um you know resources to to the local economy you know that's one of the concerns that uh um folks had so I just want to make yeah absolutely and I better understand um I can tell you today that this is not none of this funding or that that is not the objective um of heida and none of these funds will be used to increase um the amount of traffic stop especially random um traffic stops on 89 or 15 or or any of those so yeah um you know part part of this initiative if we're if we're stopping cars under the paan drug task force or a heida initiative it's going to be because we have probable cause that um a load of drugs are in that vehicle headed up to Red Lake and we're trying to prevent those drugs from getting up to Red Lake so as with most things related to narcotics investigations it'll be very unseen uh it'll be covert operations that are uh nobody if nobody knows we're there it's even better you know um because that's what we're aimed for touch so um to get through this Joe will touch on question question three um specifically a lot of things that you know we saw when looking at our overdose rates so question three is probably the most kind of jaw-dropping you know does the drug problem have a significant impact uh on our community and the answer is absolutely and the re several things we looked at number one being overdose rates which one pushes it got um so these are and I've I I've presented these basic numbers before but fatal overdoses from 2000 to 2019 we averaged 1.85 some years it was Zero some years it was as much as five but it was under five that whole um about 20 years 2020 we had 15 fatal overdoses uh between the Sheriff's Office office in the police department 2021 that number was 24 and by this point in time we're really you know we're we're standing on assault box every chance we can and then the collaboration with red Lake really set in and we started tracking numbers to together in 2022 that number was 32 32 people died of fentanyl or heroin overdoses in Bel trammy County including Red Lake hold on don't go through them all um and I'm just going to touch on some numbers fatal OD rates per 100,000 the CDC released and this is the most recent was 2020 the US United States had a rate of 30.9 people died per year per 100,000 people um relatively low Minnesota hit it Dave I'm just GNA go through so Minnesota had a number 17.6 lower than the national average in 2021 the Minnesota Department of Health released some uh literature that said Native Americans had a rate of 80.7 80.7 is almost five times as high as the Minnesota rate so when we looked at bami's numbers Bel tram's numbers rather what we found and that was looking at law enforcement numbers data that we had collected as the task force Bel tram's rate combined was 6925 per 100,000 I mean you know three two times over two times the rate of the United States uh three and a half times the rate of the state of Minnesota but the really bad number is the next one we took Census Data how many people lived in Bel tramy County what percentage of them were Native American and then we looked at the real data that we knew of the people who actually passed away the rate for Native Americans in Beltrami County in 2022 which was the data we had used for this petition we submitted it was 261 per 100,000 people that rate I mean compared to any other rate even Minnesota's Native American uh rate for Native Americans was 80.7 and here we are um you know over three times that in Bel trammy County and the numbers didn't just stop with overdoses Del tramy county has I mean we had we had data that we could show and I truly think it was the data that we could show between statistics overdose rates incarceration rates that got us this designation when we talk oh you can go on this one um so there's statistics out there and I touched a little bit um about this last week when I was doing some radio um interviews is uh two-thirds of all crimes can be connected to drug drug crimes um many of the the homicides that we've had specifically over the last three years have been tied directly to drug crimes whether it's someone trying to rob somebody um for drugs that they have uh somebody that's in a drug debt to somebody or you know um people involved in a signifant significant relationship fighting over drugs are just not in their right state of mind because of the drug use um then obviously we have the property crimes this is a search warrant that we did did um just this last summer here um in the city of buiji and this is a fencing operation everything inside this garage is stolen um we went through this suspect's phone later and he's basically telling people taking pictures as he goes as he goes through Home Depot Menards what have you of what he wants then those people go steal it for him they bring it to him and then he gives them drugs for the stolen items that he brings that they bring in this neighborhood after we did a warrant the city of omidi literally had to bring a rolloff dump trailer to load up all this stolen property um we had Neighbors coming over saying hey I had a generator that got stolen last week oh you know there it is can I get it back um so that's some of the rewarding work um of doing this and just showing uh you know showing the the board what goes on um around drug crimes and then obviously there's guns um drugs and guns go hand inand um and we've taken a lot of a lot of guns off the street since 2018 as you can see 538 guns um and these aren't your average shotguns or or hunting rifles these are Mac 10s these are 203s with grenade launchers um and so forth so that picture of young Dave and another agent uh was in I think a 2020 case that search warrant alone we got a pound of methamphetamine and 101 Firearms um I'm a second amendment person these guns are in the hands of the wrong people though and they need to be taken out the street and just like the property that I was taking about these guns get used as currency as well um a lot of times stolen from burglaries that we have in Bel trammy County get traded for drugs just like the property that I was speaking about um question four obviously how you know the increase in federal resources will help us in our area um again just touch on we already had the the Partnerships we feel um that was setting us up in the in the best position possible um whether that's our federal partners with the FBI the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal apprehension we work very closely and um to include the Red Lake drug task force um up there there and obviously the PA Bunning drug task force um so like I said our next step is we're going to develop this committee um we're going to identify you know where we can allocate these additional resources um as a county law enforcement agencies as a whole this isn't going to be you know a decision of the p and Drug Task Force or belami County Sheriff's Office so we're going to work on these initiatives together um to develop where we're going to uh use these resources just to touch on you know when it talks about the funding available we've had people I had a guy come into the Sheriff's Office the other day and he's like I'm sure you guys are going to get millions of dollars for this it's not millions of dollars uh I wish it was um we're probably looking at somewhere uh shy of $100,000 annually um and then one-time funding sources if we were to identify a piece of equipment or initiative that we needed that otherwise couldn't be attainable uh we can write for uh we can write an initiative to try to get a a one-time amount of money on a yearly basis um so that's the funding I know people have asked how much it is it's not a ton of money but anything helps at this point in time yeah you know just to give you I guess an idea the the budget of the PA drug task force is about 650,000 um for a two-year Grant cycle so that covers my wage I have an administrative assistant um that covers obviously our program expenses Insurance um rent you know at the law enforcement center things like that um then obviously our controlled buy funds things like that um that we need to conduct you know investigations at at higher levels so as far as the goals go we want to increase our networking we want to increase our analytical um support drug investigations have become so technologically savvy um it's all data driven um and being able to dig through those mazes can sometimes be overwhelming um we want to increase funding to to supplement the efforts that we currently have because we have some good efforts going forward um and I truly think and this might not be the most popular thing when we got this designation there's a lot of question questions like you know what is it what's it used for and Dave and I were high-fiving because this is something that we put a lot of work into but it's equally saddening because it really shows that yes there's a problem the White House Washington DC has said Beltrami County needs more help um when I look at the Paul buan drug task force and what Bel trammy county has been doing uh great work it's the the city of bidi and beltram County are leading the task force on a yearly basis we're the busiest two agencies we've had one person in there since 1988 um and you know anything we can do to get that person more resources to be able to do their job because as the numbers have shown I mean some of the numbers that we put out uh 12 a half th% increase in methamphetamine seizures uh in the last 10 11 years 28 a half th% increase and opioid seizures in the last 10 or 11 years I mean huge amounts of work is being done but one of the things that I'm really hoping that this brings light to is that anybody that's writing a grant looking for alternative funding sources anybody that's trying to get funding from the state or anywhere else is able to say look it the Washington DC has said our area has a problem and I've already met with some peer support people um the face it together group downtown uh I I went in there and I talked to the other day and I said let me know if you need stats I mean let me know if you need verbiage for any Grant you guys are writing because this speaks highly there's only seven well now there's nine counties in the State uh and I think that designation as saddening as it is to say that it's affirming that we have a problem can really bring more money to everybody not just law enforcement right and as cliche as it sounds I mean Joel said it a million times I've said it a million times we can't arrest our way out of this epidemic this has to be Community um Community approach whether it's peer support uh diversion programs the more that those programs are successful with taking users away the less problem that we're going to have the less demand that we have in our community the less we're going to see individuals coming up here trying to sell it because the demand's not there um so when those programs are successful we're going to be successful and vice versa that's all we have for our presentation questions for um does the uh Regional Zone that we're in for this with Wisconsin does that was there any like bureaucratic hurdles like if you need to deal with Fargo um on a case or not really no and the heida is just us and Wisconsin as far as that's the funding stream um as far as the task force uh being on the state task force these guys the agents have jurisdiction throughout the State through this statute that's set up for these violent crime enforcement teams but also most of the people are partnered with the FBI so when a case goes to Fargo when a case crosses a jurisdictional line it's it's seamless yeah and even the state agencies you know ours being the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal criminal apprehension then you know North Dakota is being the BCI I mean they work great together too I've personally been over in North Dakota several times um doing operations over there for our cases from Minnesota you know drug trafficking organizations from uh Minneapolis St Paul you know that are affecting our region up here too are also affecting you know areas of North Dakota and reservations over there um plus we like doing things over in North Dakota because you know technically they have you know their us attorney's office a little bit more aggressive up there so um you know that's kind of some of the things that we have to think about during during those cases but thank you thank Mr so um a couple different things I I was wondering how much funding was was available and I think you've answered that so this is a an annual thing for how many years or is it once we received the designation were designated and maybe we could have been a little bit in hindsight a little bit more uh specific on that so right now we've got the designation so we're designated as a heida we have to come up with an initi initiatives of funding so whether that initiative would be funding the PA bunan drug task force and those are uh re-up every year and So currently it would be submitted we would say hey we would like x amount of money for this initiative that would be approved by the Minnesota Council of heida uh in which is made up of the cleos of those nine jurisdictions and then from there it would be sent to Milwaukee who would say yes we're going to fund that so it's indefinite is that we're heida um but the funding is on a year-to-year basis okay so I was going to ask how long does this heida um resignation you last so that's one of my questions and uh there was mentioned of uh guns you know seizure of you know Firearms uh kind of curious what what what happens to to the Firearms how how are they disposed of uh um a lot of times we submit them for forfeiture under Minnesota's uh forfeiture laws and we'll sell them to um someone with a um you know federal firearms license some of them some of them not all of them um those 101 guns is a prime example there were a lot of high-end hunting rifles on there so what we do is we submit uh uh a request for people to put in a bid for them on an auction site not an auction site auction style and it's sold to an FFL uh Saturday night specials assault rifles things like that they're brought to the BCA and they're destroyed okay I was just wondering you know if we could you know create some sort of funding stream to kind of help offset some some cost for you know for the the sheriff's office or or make a a donation to you know some charitable organization um and we and we do that commissioner um so we have a program income account through the py drug task force where all the forfeitures that are made under the task force come into and that you know gets used to help supplement um equipment and other things that we need um on the task force okay thank you and uh my final question Mr chair is uh you mentioned in uh your question three uh um the effects or uh something to the effect of the user and uh you know I I do appreciate you know the job you guys are doing you know because I'm I'm in uh full support of of getting you know these drugs off the street because they're affecting a lot of people and uh but those are the ones that are affected I'm I'm bit concerned about is like well what happens you know if if their supply chain is is you know interrupted or stopped you know uh are they going to you know look for other ways to or other drugs um how how are they affected and is is there help uh you are offering to kind of help them all I mean I'm I'm just thinking you know if the supply chain is cut off you know people are you know what are what are the effects I guess yeah so with that you know hopefully one of the things that we had to do within the last couple years with a legislative change is make sure like if we're working with people or people are trying to help us that are users themselves that we're making sure that they're aware of the resources that are out there to help them that's something that we have to do um for the violent crime commission Council that oversees task forces now that's a rule that they came up with but hopefully I guess my hope and I'm not going to speak for Joe but you know really cutting into the supply chain hopefully we're pushing people toward towards treatment towards methodone programs towards suboxin programs and and those resources that are that are out there for them that they may not be ready for yet because they still have drugs readily available you know hopefully if they don't have those read readily available then it's going to say hey I think it's time maybe I get into some of these programs okay thank you thank you Mr chair question thank you very much for indulging us with having to hold you over everything else but I really appreciate the uh presentation thank you for time thank you uh with that we'll move on to the administrator's report thank you Mr chair uh just a couple updates for you this evening uh as you know I sit on the airport Affairs Council now and uh want to just brief you on the work that the uh council is doing uh we're undertaking airport visioning exercise currently uh to help the airport develop Mission and revised mission and vision statements and also uh identify various f areas uh to help ident identify resources and efforts in promoting the uh attainment of both the vision and the mission uh this work is involving the board uh the board will get this uh latest update at its next meeting uh and then provide guidance and feedback uh to the committee and we'll go back and uh and take it from there but essentially want to let you know that work is is going to be ongoing it's going to take some time to get through you know sort of the the work of of putting this document together and uh really we're just kind of getting started so be a lot more uh to brief you on and uh information I'm sure you'll get from um the members of the board that uh serve on that um the airport Authority uh additionally uh the legislative platform is uh soon to be developed for the county and I'll be working on that over the next uh several weeks or so I just want to let you know if you had any items or concerns or issues that you'd like to see included on that list uh just go ahead and forward those to me uh at your earliest convenience make sure I'll get those written down um I'll be working with the staff as well and uh probably in November uh we'll be able to share with you maybe our first draft and uh have you have a look at that and give us additional feedback but in the interim if you have anything that we should be looking at or paying particular attention to appreciate that heads up uh also want to let you know that we'll want to be talking about whether or not you would like to keep the lobbyist that we've used the last couple of years uh retain them uh I talk with them and uh they'll honor the same contract terms uh length and dollar figures that uh we have uh been able to enjoy the last couple years so I appreciate their uh assistance there but uh we don't need an answer this evening but uh would be something that we'll want to be prepared for discussion uh maybe uh at the next meeting or so when we bring up the legislative platform I'll just let you know now that that has been budgeted for and is included in the budget for next year uh so if you choose not to move forward with it uh we can pull that out of the budget but uh right now it's currently included uh also want to let you know still uh contining to work on leases for the county uh this is sort of never- ending work uh we have lots of leases with various uh agencies and organizations and such uh currently right now um working uh to try to seek an equitable adjustment and Lease Amendment with the GSA office that's the federal agency uh this process is very long and it's uncertain uh but essentially it involves um the occupation of some space in our lobby that's actually not included in the lease uh for security equipment so we want to get that sort of tidied up um and addressed and then also uh denied access to janitorial closet that's included within the space as well so uh what we're trying to do here is just make sure that our leases do represent actual lease space and that we're getting all of the rent that's due to the county based upon the use that the tenant is uh uh is occupying so uh I don't know can't really tell you how long that process is going to take I've been informed many many months uh and I can't tell you with any certainty at all how it's going to go but uh fortunately it's a small amount but we do want to keep the leases uh reflective of what's actually happening on the ground uh in some good news we are just about ready to bring forward a lease to you for the uh Minnesota Indian Affairs Council who we believe if things go well we be occupying the new uh well not new but the old Northwoods caregivers location in the community services Center uh so uh that's right across from the Veterans office uh that you might recall about a th square feet there or so so it be nice to get that space at least that space that I was a little concerned about because it uh is in an interior you know space uh really no windows uh a little bit harder to lease but it seems like it might fit very well for the uh for the potential tenant um just a couple reminders I mentioned to you last time we met that open enrollment is underway if you haven't yet taken care of that uh and you get benefits from the county you'll want to make sure you do that before the end of the month so there's still sufficient time for that uh also one other an uh reminder I'll be covering the next chatabout on November the 12th um that was the schedule we worked out I think a month or so ago uh so just a reminder about that and then two important dates uh the first is uh this afternoon at 6:00 there's going to be an opioid settlement community meeting update uh in this room it is optional for attendance it's not a board meeting uh but if you're interested that'll start at 6 and then um just another reminder that the next board meeting is going to be a few weeks off actually uh typically uh we do this every other week but of course we have five uh Tuesdays in this month and so that's going to add an traditional week and then the start of next month the first Tuesday is the election and so uh that had already been set in our schedule to push that meeting off to the following so that'll tee us up for a November 12th and then a November 19th meeting so backtack weeks uh so it'll be a quick turnaround but I just want to remind you of that so we won't have our next board meeting until November the 12th um cross our fingers we don't need to do anything urgent between now and then have to schedule a special meeting but uh I think we should be okay that's all I have for you but I'll stand for any questions you might have questions for Tom no okay thank you thanks Tom uh let's combine any legislative lobbying and Commissioners report all inone Joe anything um just a couple meetings recently byc cap board of directors and committee meetings uh the main takeaway there is uh we're going to be starting a thrift store to kind of uh create some additional revenue for the organization that'll be in the uh um Walker building um and then uh Amy mentioned Shaq we were um down there in St Cloud um for two days last week and uh the main thing there was uh the plug that we got for the Reset Program from the mdh commissioner so that was really good awesome great Craig no nothing report this time Richard um the only thing is Tom mentioned that he's coming up with chat about I've got two chat abouts back to back if anyone would like to take one of those that would be good what are the dates uh that would be your the nth uh 19th and and December 3rd yeah either the 19th or the December 3rd you know I'm thinking that with you not running again that the public really probably would like to hear from you a couple times on your way out the door I tell you what I I'll I'll keep it but if I run into an obstacle I'll let you it'll give you a chance to see your farewell for the community on chat about right that's what I'm trying to avoid anything else Tim well speaking of Chad about I think in the past when when Commissioners were were retiring uh that was about the last the last show of the year so maybe you might have what three three in a row so guys are maybe Tim that's a good suggestion maybe what Richard and I should do is swap so he doesn't have back to back get the last one I I'll swap with you so I'll take the one on the de uh yeah I'll take December 3rd and then you take December 17th how's that perfect good idea thank you nothing our part tonight um I've had a number of meetings nothing Earth shaking Prime West with Richard I did attend the MRC annual meeting in Alexandria on October um and we went over uh basic Al was pretty much looking at the um legislative agendas um and uh it was a good it was a good meeting um went the entire time um we had the Craig and I were at the Bel tramy buiji Bel tramy County Transit board meeting um uh I was at the airport Affairs Council that Tom was talking about that was that was some really excellent work that it was a a committee of that committee that's working on vision and mission statements they're doing some great work um and then Richard and I were at a we had a zoom meeting with prime West regarding the methodone non-emergency medical transportation issue that's that's in town and that's we're still trying to figure out some ways to resolve that and I guess just stay tuned uh also went to the Turtle River Watershed meeting um and had some constituents meeting about the birchmont Beach Road Project so with that uh um anybody else have anything and I'll just remind everybody again just a reminder from what Tom just said that our next meeting is not until November 12th um and that Tom does have the chat about on 12 Richard Knight will do that swap on the chat about right okay otherwise anybody want to make a motion to adjourn is there a second all in favor I opposed we're adjourned --------- ##VIDEO ID:Eeb_psWhzqo## e e and I call this meeting work meeting of the Bel tramy County Board of Commissioners to order do we have any new employees to [Music] introduce seeing none uh any ideas for future work meeting topics seeing none let's move on to our community center update Dave hangle welcome Dave I think Diane is throwing up a PowerPoint quickly uh and thanks for having me uh it's been a while since I've been in front of the County Board happy to be here good to see everyone um I want to take a few minutes just to give you a little background on the YMC ultimately the uh reason I'm here is I want to introduce somebody today uh we're sending around taking around town and introducing him to folks and I just definitely wanted to have him introduced to you as as the County board but uh you know I I look back we really haven't talked about this project very much at the County Board level so I want to just take a few minutes real quickly to just give you a sense of where the project came from and where it's headed and how it's changed before I introduce Steve uh to give a little bit of information about the project thank you for this danan by the way so uh take yourself back about three or four years ago was approached or 2019 by uh Sanford Health and they asked the question if you had $10 million Dave what would you do with it and at the time I said I talked about the Hingle Children's Fund or the you know grandchildren's fund and none of those are resonating and we started talking about a wellness center and and we have multiple durations on making this happen and and at at the time in 1819 it ended up getting shoved and so there was a change of leadership at Samford and and Susan Jarvis took over for many of you remember Susan and in about 2021 she came to me and said Dave we want to re-engage and we want to start it up again will you help us and I remember at the time we talked a little bit about well I will uh one I wanted to be are you open to this being private L and private driven uh as she said she was and then secondly we talked about are you committed to that location and at the Sanford Health or will you be cons considering would would you be open to a different location and she was and the reason I did that is really what we're looking at here on the screen is is the rail Corridor I knew how important this rail Corridor is to our community uh it was uh has been talked about for I believe 15 years at the city level as a critical issue and an opportunity really 26 Acres um contaminated property in the heart of our community uh in the bmid area and what if we could do something that question we had in our mind was is it possible to do something that would clean up the rail quarter increase private sector development increase a tax space bring a Wellness Center to our community and so on and so forth and is it possible and at the time we're going along real nicely because everything turned out to be yes I mean it looked like it was possible first all we found out the site was suitable uh that it is possible with cleanup and and infrastructure to do it on that site secondly uh the community clearly needed it uh sford did an enormous amount of public input and the and the input showed that there was a desire in this community for for some kind of a Wellness Center uh if you will greater bmi's uh work at that time was commitment was to raise $15 million locally and we were able to raise 9 million with just our pay Setter campaign an indication of the desire of people for this facility and some kind of facility so that was going great and we were able to also recruit cross Anderson development not construction but development to look at building mixed use development on property in fact upwards of 90 million dollar and and at the time the council very much supported the vision and so all of the things are going over real nicely until about a year ago now uh Sanford came to us and said oh let's hold on uh and while their commitment of their $10 million gift was still there their interest in owning and operating a well Center was not and they wanted us to look for other options because of that cruss Anderson development said well we don't know what you're building now so we're not sure we in so it became this as much as it was built up it started being dominoes the other direction and thankfully our board and commissioner Carlson's a member of it took the lead and said we're going to figure this out and it really has been a massive effort for us truly to figure it out and what I think what we've learned over the last year is that issue that stford brought to the table about not wanting to own and operate was a barrier but wasn't the wall uh that there was another solution and first and formost the solution was who's going to run and own this thing right uh as you can imagine with the Sanford Center and other things this is on people's minds in our community appropriately and so we had to find someone who might be willing to do that and thankfully this is uh when I met Steve uh from the YMCA and Fargo and we'll talk about Steve in a minute but uh their willingness to step up and own and operate this facility in bidi is enormous and by having that happen uh it freed us up to get going on the other things that we were start building up again right to get to a project that worked um so in a minute Steve will kind of introduce himself and what the YMCA does uh and but let me give you a sense of what we're talking about in this Wellness Center um roughly a 38 $35 million facility roughly meaning we're capped it at $35 million we we know there's a capacity in buuji and I think it's $35 million and I'm sure Steve will talk about that as well it's roughly 60 actually 60 65,000 square feet of space choices had to be made right everybody in the community had an idea what they wanted and choices had to be made but you're going to see a facility um that is typical of a YMCA and a Wellness Center things like a large Aquatics or multiport uh Fieldhouse cardio workout space weights indoor playground uh group fitness uh running and walking Track and drop in care uh really the the if you picture yourself a YMCA it's really a YMCA right then when you think about a Wellness Center so that went together very nicely the second thing we've been doing and this has been big work over the last six months is trying to figure out how to how to clean up and provide infrastructure to reasonable cost to our community and so that's where we're at today we've what we've been able to do is maximize the amount of development space that's possible on the site uh right now uh we have three development pads in addition to the YMCA that we can have private development on in increase the tax base in our community and in fact we're moving in that direction already we also were able to minimize the amount of cleanup costs by utilizing some of the contamin materials onsite underneath the YMCA and other places and we we're able to make it fit downtown those are really priorities for us right uh and so we're able to do that right now we've uh uh submitted one application to the state of Minnesota that was approved uh called the deed Redevelopment Grant oops uh the de Redevelopment grant for $590,000 it was an announced today um in the paper the uh that's more than we asked for uh that's never happened to me in 37 years years of my career with deed and so it gives an indication of their what they care about in addition we'll be submitting another one called the contamination cleanup Grant on November 1st that will be about $1.4 million more of State funds to help us clean up that site ultimately the power here is we're getting rid of a clean uh contaminated site in our heart of our town with no infrastructure and putting in infrastructure so we have development sites and a cleaned up site and a YMCA go with it so it's really been really kind of a cool powerful thing this uh little map gives you a bit of an idea uh where the where the the uh YMC is proposed to be located if you look on the left the the bridge of Urban Avenue Bridge is essentially against the back left side of the building so it really tucks up against the bridge right next to downtown Meats piji Brewing uh that area by doing that uh we saved a ton of money once but secondly it freed up a development site right on Second Street in Minnesota Avenue of which a developer has already submitted a letter of interest to do a mixed juice development right there so what we had thought was possible and was going to happen is already starting to happen just with the anticipation of the of the um of the YMCA coming so last thing uh people ask about um timelines and I want to share this with you and then again like I said I want Steve to take the most time to introduce the Y to us but uh timeline wise so again the the Redevelopment application was submitted and approved we'll submit in November again we will hear in January or February whether that's been approved I'm fairly confident this has been a project on the Deeds uh pipeline of funding since 2013 so they want to fund it and so we're feeling pretty good about that if those get approved you will see some cleanups started in infrastructure uh started next uh spring summer and by the end of summer and fall we hope to have that all done and potentially breaking ground on a new facility uh and at about what 16 to 18 month period of construction for the YMCA so you have a feel uh for when this is happening we've had this um in our community uh conversation about Wellness Center for so long uh this we've never gotten this far and we're in a place now where I believe this despite all the projects that we've proposed over the years all of which by the way I was a part of and I'm getting kind of tired um this one's a this one just feels better right it feels like a better fit for our community it feels like exactly what our community needs right now so one I think this ownership is pretty straightforward of the way I'm see this is not going to be publicly owned this is not going to be publicly operated this is going to be operated in owned by the YMCA fairly simple so I've had questions in the public and of course this is sford Center related but truly is it going to be another Sanford center it's not this is not publicly funded this is not publicly operated uh we bringing in a financially strong partner uh and Steve can talk a little bit about that um we have a much better site plan than we had previously uh no matter which iteration you're talking about and finally the broad Community Support is pretty substantial right now I'm hearing from people uh people I don't know are approaching me and saying how nice it is that the YMCA is stepping up and coming to our community and what that means for them and their families is really kind of it's heartwarming uh to be a part of that and so with that I do want to introduce Steve uh that's why we're here today you hear from me enough um let me give you an idea though why greater buuji picked uh the YMCA and Fargo what's now the YMCA of the northern sky um we did an RFP and we got responses so we had options right and there are three things that stuck out with Steve and his team that I think mattered the most and why we chose them the first is they're strong financially strong right they have three wellness centers in Fargo they have a wellness center in Fergus Falls they have operations and uh all over in they done very well in that regard secondly they have an experience with sford health not and not always easy experience there's been this partnership that they had to form with Sanford Health which they're able to bring to our um situation here in buiji and what that might look like uh another one is is Steve's organization at the YMCA and Fargo is the largest daycare provider in all North Dakota uh he has 2,000 daycare slots he's responsible for every year or every day and so the ability and the interest his genuine interest in opening a significantly large Center here in buuji is a nice add-on uh to what we're talking about here so it's really a nice fit from that regard and finally for me uh was when I got to got to know Steve and his team uh it's really Mission focused organization this is a group Steve did not have to say yes to this I mean that's he could have said good luck find somebody else do that but I I could tell this is about for him uh it's about serving people and serving a community that needs help and so that's why I'm really excited to introduce to you Steve Smith and let him talk a little bit about what you do thank you thanks for having me today uh you know I'll start with the end of the story we said yes but we said no uh originally um when uh Dave approached us uh and we were in the middle of a a merger with the Fergus Falls YMCA and uh they already had a why and they were struggling with senior leadership and some challenges and we were in the middle of that when Dave first approached me and I was like yeah we're okay we've got enough on our plate and here's the reasons why there's enough on our plate um and he kept being persistent and kept showing up in my office sometimes invited um and uh we ended up with a yes uh to him and uh providing the uh RFP response and then thankfully my board in July of this year uh said yes and uh are all in so we're we're really thankful for that um the YMCA so the Y is a worldwide organization that has been around since the 1840s and started in London England uh C comes to the US In 1855 our Y and Fargo is called a railroad YMCA we've been on YMCA since 1886 and basically all you see is the YMCA popping up along the rail Corridor all the way out to Seattle and YMCA basically they're following as they're helping young men at that time um live a uh more wholesome Lifestyle the reason the why started it was started in the industrial revolution as a way to get young men off the street to stop them doing uh they' work 14 15 16 hour days and then they would carouse at night and so the ymsa started as a way to help stop that from happening and live a more wholesome lifestyle um and that has continued through our time today and so uh we've been around since 1886 we own also a resident Camp uh down near the Detroit Lakes area uh called Camp carrant it's been around since 1903 um and one of the earliest YMCA camps in the country um we are blessed to serve that's why we are here that's the reason why we are involved and why we ended up ultimately saying yes uh to the call from uh greater buiji to come on end this project um when you look at a YMCA we are here uh to do a mission of uh that I won't get into today with all of you if you want to have that sit down with me i' love to share that story with you but I will say that if you only remember one set of words from us is a is a equilateral triangle with the word Spirit mind and body on the sides of it and that equilateral triangle is balanced on its point and the conceptual idea of our mission statement is that when a person is living their most and strongest life their Spirit mind and body are in synchronicity and holding on that point anytime one of those pieces gets out of the way we we all have those moments right where we fall and so everything that we do in our work is scheduled to to be focused on that um so when you look at our buildings you know we do not look at our buildings as the end all be all to who we are they're just Tools in our tool belt to do the work that we're called to do and the example that I give is a swimming one because I've been working for the wi nearly for 40 years now and the idea of a swimming lesson is how I started and the first time you or a child of yours or a grandchild of yours swim across the deep end of a swimming pool and you get to the other side right and the you sit up on the side and I can guarantee you the following things in That Body Mind and Spirit story right was the body worked absolutely how do we know well the child is tired right because they've had it swim a long way they probably have forgotten to breathe um and they're probably swallowing half the water as they go because their head is too high and their feet are too low and they're pushing all that water across the pool but they make it right it's a big deal the mind was worked how well we want to get our arms out of the water we got to remember to Breathe Right we've got to do all those types of things and by the way we teach water safety and we teach drowning prevention and we teach all those things that's actually why I started working for the Y all those years ago I had a friend who passed away from a drowning and was the spirit worked absolutely that swim instructor swims over to that child as they sit up on the side and there's this celebration moment with this child right hey great job you didn't believe you could do it I told you you could and you did it Well Done way to go high five celebration right and that child turns around looks for Mom and Dad on the pool deck has a thumbs up moment with them they might stop at the Dairy Queen or wherever to get their ice cream to celebr celebrate this life-changing moment that the child has and unfortunately in our communities not every child gets that opportunity right because there's different reasons and we preach about this to our staff that our job is not to judge that's not why we're here we're just here to provide every child that opportunity to have that celebration moment even if Mom and Dad aren't able to provide it for them themselves and that's why we do what we do so um we have uh followed that mission statement around spirit mind and body making sure that kids get that opportunity adults get it as well through every group uh group exercise class everything that we do we we use that as the Crux of our our work so if we come to town once we get the rest of the fundraising uh figured out here when we come to town we'll put it that way when we come to town you know we're looking forward to obviously bringing this fitness facility and all of those types of things but we're looking for other things as well um we're a major food provider uh for kids um we this last year did about 550,000 meals for children um we just started a non- congregant food program uh the summer uh that went for about six weeks um where we were transporting food to rural communities around uh uh North Dakota and Minnesota um and just in five six weeks that was about 30,000 meals um to to kids and so that's a huge deal and we're looking forward to bringing that here and helping out um in that area um we will look at Child Care at some point we haven't quite figured that out in this facility uh outlay at this particular moment um to kind of give you an idea 30 to 35% of the children that are in our Child Care Program and those 2,000 kids that we serve daily are on some sort of financial assistance to to participate um and that means that parents are at work um and even if they are not at work we know the child is in a good spot because they're with us and those Spirit mind and body situations are are being um addressed um we camp uh about 30% of our thousand kids that go to camp and do Resident Camp over night uh are on free um uh usage of our camp um most of those children are foster children um because we believe that every child should have the right to have an outdoor experience and we find that many of these kids show up with nothing except the clothes um and silently and quietly we put out uh sleeping bags and we put out swimsuits and we put out these things and nobody knows the difference the child is the child and the child gets this opportunity to grow on their site um so the work that we do is important and we're you know as I have said throughout today through various meetings uh your county um and bidi as a whole deserves a y um we believe that it's a community that is uh is right to be active we believe that it's an opportunity to really change the the trajectory of Health in this community and it comes through many many different versions of the type of work that we do and we're just scratching the surface by talking about a building today so again thank you so much for having me thank you Steve um I think it was a great it was a great followup to Amy in in our community health Improvement program this is abely good part of that that's absolutely I'm looking forward to this conversation by the way we haven't had a chance to talk but we will talk enjoy that conversation I'll just close with real quickly the next key steps for our community uh the the uh what I'm excited about is it's really in our hands now and so uh we were targeting raising and in addition to samford's 10 10 million an additional $15 million we've raised nine in our Bay Setter campaign uh which means we have six left and so we'll be launching that fundraising campaign to the community to the general Community I'm excited uh because there's a whole lot interest out there and so I'm excited to see our community step up with that and the second one tonight will be in front of the city council talking a little bit about you know sources and uses of that cleanup and that infrastructure that's a big deal but if we want to have developable property that's cleaned up adjacent to our downtown having this vibrant Center um this is a project we need to get them uh and they've been very supportive by the way this the council and the staff have been great and so uh those are the next big steps here uh but I think like I said earlier we've come a long way and to a point where this is feeling feeling really good about where it's headed happy to answer questions any questions for Dave or Steve Craig thanks Mr chair um Dave Steve thank you so much for being willing to bring the YMCA to the bidi community and a greater belamy County Community um wondering about making sure that the plans include room for expansion for child care for other other things that um we hopefully don't don't know today what you need today right I mean obviously uh we go into facil the Y is a phenomenal organization about making the best use of space that we have available to us and figuring out how to add on to it so we will we we don't quite have a final plan as to what this is exactly going to look like we're relatively close um but we do know that we have some expansion opportunity out to the sides of the facility space but not a ton because the land is a little landlocked and we're going to be backed up towards the bridge on the back side of the building but we're pros at this thing and we'll figure that out secondarily we'll look for other land um in the community so we might not necessarily put child care right on site with us but find a different place that the the the the child care could be and then work with other partners on that um you know one of the things that we hear a lot is okay here comes another nonprofit which means we're going to do fundraising we're going to do all these other things which are important things we you know um we consider this you know we'll employ probably 100 to 125 staff here locally um most of that part-time um but a typical operation we'll have about that that staff level 10ish 12ish will be full-time um and some of those will be doing fundraising work and all of those things but one of the things that we're a big proponent of is when when somebody gets a gift that we don't get we don't look at that and go we didn't get that gift all we look at is that's probably floating the boat higher for all of us and so um we'll be doing some work around that and trying to find those partners that can join us on a piece of property that we don't necessarily have to own but that we're just part in parcel of with them great thank you st Jim uh Mr chair uh I remember a few years ago when when it was first presented to the County Board as a the an addition to the Sanford Center and I wasn't sold on that idea but I think today after today's presentation you know is you know I'm leaning towards you know the the acceptance of a community center because it sounds like there's so many great things that that uh with with Endless Possibilities you know uh following up with uh Amy there with you know seeing that there's a need for a community health center you know a need for for child care you know so I I think things work you know in mysterious ways and maybe maybe uh it didn't work out you know a few years ago because uh the need just wasn't there you know at the time but now we see the need and and I'm excited to see you know what develops and and how um I can be a partner you know in this thank you I can I just like to address something so when I say I'm excited about the con ation that I need to have um the reason is is that uh my background is around I I was the chair for the healthiest manak County committee uh in manak Wisconsin um before I moved here seven eight years ago and um so I am all about Community Health and I am all about the markers around Community Health that change with the work that the Y does along with other Health Partners right whether it's health Apartments whether it's the Sanford or somebody else there's a lot of ways to get this work done now one of the things that we know is that the why is the least uh like think about it if you go and work out at a health at a at a at a hospital you kind of probably are that might actually give you more indigestion than you walked in with that day right um and might not be the most comfortable place to be engaged but the why is like hey if you walk in the front door and all you can do is walk to the back door touch the door and walk back out and believe me we've I've got stories around that if you want to ever talk about it um that's great and we're going to help you but each one of those touches leads to a better County Health ranking and you know just floats that boat again and so we are here to make that difference commissioner to to your point about timing I've been doing this a long time and I think 37 years and I am truly believe that it there's a right time right for projects and this just does feel like the right time not that I wasn't a big proponent previously of course I was uh but this one had does feel differently and in part because of what Steve brings to the table I think is really powerful today just so you give an idea about the the amount of commitment he has he came in yesterday and met with the school board or I'm sorry that super was supposed to be with the schools uh today we started in the morning um where do we start Steve Boys and Girls Club then we went to the Northwest Indian CDC then we went to the day Center uh then we went to Samford Health uh then we went to the senior center and then we came here and then we got city council tonight uh that's just one day what I the reason I bring this up is there's a lot of Community Partners out there that there's some opportunity for significant partnership Boys and Girls Club is a great example bidi State University's Fieldhouse is a great example Steve Spen to half a day with him last time he was here the school district's a great example Community ad's a great example all of these and and tomorrow we're meet with the city staff particularly the parks and rec staff all of these are great opportunities for Steve to to partner up uh to really exponentially make a difference uh in our community any other questions for Dave or Steve I'll just close by saying I got a chance to meet Steve a couple of different times and a couple different occasions that and he's actually as genuine as he appears to be so thank you for your commitment thank you thanks Steve thank you thanks for being here all right next on the agenda the public transit board update um Tom did you want to take that or well commissioner uh I was going to rely on you to do it since you shared the meeting but I can do it if you rather I can if you want okay why don't you all right so this all came up when we were doing committee assignments and everybody's kind of digging in and trying to figure out what their committees are and what they're for um Craig and I looked at each other and said I guess we're on the transit board um so I asked Craig because he'd been here before Oh so when do you meet and he goes well we haven't met so that sort of started a whole bunch of questions about well what does this board do um we started diving in there was a misconception at at least early on on my part I B Craig but I thought we were the board for Paul bunan Transit we're not it has nothing to we have nothing to do with Paul bunan Transit um Paul bunan Transit is a a nonprofit business that was organized in February of 1999 and in June of 1999 the city and the county went together and formed the joint Powers agreement the reason for that is at the time each had their own Transit the county had a bus the city had one or two buses whatever they had um and it seemed to be inefficient and there seemed to be some dollars that were available at the state that were being left on the table and so by forming this joint Powers we were able to take Advanced advantage of some grant money um some program money to make a better uh transportation system in the buiji area um and so that board was formed what we find out through a bunch of Investigation we had a lot of help from Katie noting the City attorney she did a great job and doing a bunch of Investigation um and then Leslie guber from PA onion Transit had been there from the very beginning and so she was able to provide some helpful insight um and so it was about 2003 when um the funding sources changed and now the ponan transit was able to get the money directly from the state and it really didn't need this joint Powers anymore and so the joint powers in instead of meeting monthly started meeting quarterly and then instead of meeting quarterly they started meeting semiannually and then it went to annually and then it went to why the hell are we meeting because we didn't really have anything to do with it um and so we looked at what are our what's our next step then um and so we consulted with Katie uh the City attorney um and uh We've looked at the Joint Powers agreement uh one of the things that one party the two Pary a city in the county one thing you could do is uh uh put a 180-day notice in that you're going to withdraw from The Joint Powers agreement or you could just if you if both entities said you know we don't need this anymore we can just dissolve it with a joint resolution and so after a lot of discussion about an hour's worth of discussion about is there anything that we really need to do as this joint Powers board and and let's just keep in mind that we all still felt like transportation is an important issue that wasn't the issue the issue was did we need this joint Powers board and and so the consensus was um that and we we voted and and the consensus was that we really should just pursue a joint um uh joint resolution to dissolve uh and so that will be that's what we're what's one we want to talk about the city's going to talk about it and again I'll just remind remind everybody that it's not about Transportation it's about does this is this the right vehicle to do it um and so uh Paul bunan Transit I think has been you know obviously Co hit it hard um they're recovering from that but they're recovering nicely I think from from all things I can tell unless somebody knows differently Paul bunan trans has been doing a great job um and this board hasn't been meeting anyway and so it's just sort of like it's one of those things sitting on the books that really Joy just doesn't need to be there so that's kind of where we're at with that did I miss anything Craig or Tom Mr chair you say miss anything I don't think but um we also had hrdc at our meeting and there are some things that the community I think Leslie um is they're going to come up with a report um at some point and give us more information uh explaining why they can't do fixed routes because the the B bu Transit is um regulated and their their money coming from the state they have rules they have to to apply you know or comply with I should say and you know that's why they can't do a fixed route is because of the the rules that they're under however hrdc has the rtcc the regional transportation coordinating Council that has more flexibility with the money that they have and so they're going to communicate and work with public and transit to try to fill in some of those gaps and and make a better um the city and the county are both committed to improving the the transit in our County and in the city of course and so um nothing is negative about us um having this resolution to dissolve this board is actually a positive because the way that it's structured at this point the the public or the not P pointing but the public transit board would actually essentially if we kept it as it is today it would be in competition with the PN in transit which we don't want and we want to um do what we can to get reports from pan Transit assist them as while as hrdc in order to make the the transit as good as we can make it in belamy County thanks appreciate that Tom anything else to add uh no sir I think those summaries are very good thank you uh questions from other Commissioners about that so I think what we'll be doing Katie is has been charged with drafting the joint resolution of dissolution and at some point whenever she gets that done it'll probably appear in our packets and then we can act on it Jim yeah Mr chair before before it's uh submitted for for Action can the County Attorney review it uh and and give give his Blessing you know I mean I I get you know the city wants to do what the City attorney wants to do I I feel more comfortable doing you know uh if the County Attorney reviewed it as well da said he would do thank you thank you all right that moving on sorry to make you guys wait Joe and Dave but here we are nevertheless we're at uh the high-intensity drug trafficking area designation and we have Captain Joe kic and Sergeant Dave Hart with us today welcome guys thank you for we get to see Joe quite often we never get to see Dave hey D that's on purpose um I have a PowerPoint that was last minute that e Dave your soul Supply small talk while we're waiting talk about the Beavers or not after this week our whole department half of it it's today is we're doing our evening Firearms so and it's supposed to be inclement weather and it's just gorgeous outside we to leave that early so while we're waiting for the PowerPoint did you guys actually like drive out to the White House to get this petition signed or did you was that no they should us known for that we wish we were persistent though which is uh this is the second time we petitioned um the office of National Drug control policy for this designation and uh we were getting a lot of support um both from the the heida director from North Central heida um and the US attorney's office uh to get this designation so so you know maybe uh Joe we get get to see you often we understand your position with the sheriff's department but Dave we don't get to see you very often could you just maybe explain to the people that are listening into the Commissioners with your dra the task force like you said I'm a sergeant with the belchy County Sheriff's Office and I am the current commander of the paan drug task force uh which is a multi- agency multi-jurisdictional drug and violent crime task force um set up for Minnesota statue as a violent crime enforcement team currently there's about 21 uh they call B throughout the state of Minnesota so ourv set Services coching belamy Cass hubard and Moman counties the city of buiji Park Rapids and the reservations of white Earth and Leech Lake so each U member Agency on the paling drug task force um designates one or two individuals uh to work as agents on the drug task force um that I supervised during those uh investigations on top of um obviously doing drug and violent crime investigations throughout the task force area our agents are commonly tasked it's kind of forc multipliers for other agencies when they have serious events or serious investigations come up we can designate our resources equipment and so forth um to help our members member agencies out in those investigations um do we get does the Publican task force get funding from state or federal government well so um both state and federal it's kind of mixed funds through the office of Justice programs um you know there there's a bag of money and and we have to it's a two-year Grant cycle um so we do our RFP you know every two years um request for funds we've gotten the same amount over the last couple years and then next year there's going to be another a new task force assigned to the state so that funding might decrease a little bit so you know with this height of designation that we'll talk about that'll be um definitely a good thing for us so how long have you been on the task force a long time so I started in 2016 um as an agent after being on the task force for a couple years I was moved up to a team leader position on the task force uh worked until 2022 when Captain kic was promoted I took over as the as the commander so it's been approximately just under two years now does that uh leading the task force is that rotate at all or is I mean so with all the counties involved is it always a Bel tramy County it doesn't have to be but it it has historically been yes for for many years and you know the big part of that is Beltrami County is our Fiscal Agent as well so it it works well in that means if you know somebody else was you know had applied for the commander position from one of our member agencies and was appointed as a commander by the board um our Fiscal Agent probably would have moved with with that agent at their member agency or their County I should say so unlike a a Township officer um where they have to drag you in and say you will do this you you actually you you volunteered to do this yes okay and un and unlike them they they either have to move or die in order to get off that how does that fit for you I I I I seriously enjoy you know this line of work um one of the from my experience you know becoming a law enforcement officer one of the things that's kind of a hindrance is you know you you're kind of struck to you're you're stuck in these Geographic boundaries right whether you're a city officer or your County Deputy fortunately we have a big County and we're able to to get around our deputies are able to get around and work um quite a bit but you know these criminals especially organized drug trafficking organizations that we're going to talk about don't adhere to boundaries and if we're going to be successful in combating um these organizations we have to be able to move and flow you know throughout the state and throughout the country as as we need to and work with you know other state local and Federal Federal uh Partners to uh to kind of dismantle these drug trafficking organ organizations I think that'd be a great future work topic work session topic if you wouldn't mind at some point going to um come in and just talk to us about the Paul bunion drug Force task force anytime yeah thanks Dave so we were asked uh by Sheriff rigs to come in and talk about this heighted designation um and kind of what it was and how we got here and what it consists of and what to expect we've had several questions asked of us and what heida is it's a it was created through the United States office of National Drug control policy in 1988 uh under the anti-drug Abuse Act and it provides Federal resources to counties and when we say counties this is not Bel tramy County as an entity this is a geographical location of Bel tramy County that's just the way heida works so this petition we did Bel trammy County was the applicant uh I had originally drafted the first petition Dave did most of it the second time we worked together on it uh seeking support uh with all the law enforcement throughout um Bel tramy County including Leech Lake Red Lake the city of buiji black duck to touch on the support we got it was actually really great we got uh was a when we were first asked to apply through heida they said we think this would be good for Beltrami Cony and I said' okay great what do we got to do I'm good at writing grants I'll try and they said 'well normally the petitions are 25 to 50 pages and I'm like ah you know maybe we don't need to do that this year that sounds like a heavy lift and it was about 25 pages of of a narrative but the the amount of letters of support was a big thing and Tina Smith Amy kashar Tim walls' office um and and we didn't just look at local resources or law enforcement but the Boys and Girls Club the school districts uh are partnering law enforcement agencies United Way the United Way face it together um uh local uh treatment facilities peer support diversion programs everybody uh supported this so it was really great uh height is are located in all the 50 states as well as Puerto Rico um and the District of Columbia in the Virgin Islands and it's money set aside or provided to go after people who are coming here to poison our community this is not monies for patrol officers to conduct additional uh enforcement efforts on you know drug users these are people who are coming here trafficking drugs to poison our community um this is the map of all the heida counties in the United States um the different different heidas the 33 heidas are different colors so so with that um we're going to be assigned to the north central heida that includes both the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin with the head headquarters being over in Milwaukee um eight counties in Wisconsin there was seven counties in Minnesota um so with the addition of us and both Sterns County got the designation uh this year as well so this is obviously a current map of what uh North Central heida will look like or does look like so this 27 55 page petition that I talked about it basically boiled down to four questions that we had to answer and this is how it's written up but do we have a drug trafficking problem in our area are we using resources to combat that problem already um is this problem a significant problem to our community and would an increase in money help us uh to combat that problem so there's four questions and we'll go through each one of them here I'll take number one um does the area have a significant is it a significant Center of illegal drug production manufacturing importation and distribution this bid is a Hub City for drugs as it's a Hub City for economics and medical and education people come here to get Controlled Substances it's a destination for traffickers and I'm G to I'm going to show another slide here shortly on that uh and we're able to show some upward Trends and seizures and arrests uh to show that the drug problem has been growing over the years and I'm going to touch on a case of Omar Beasley these are just some pictures we had uh the upper left hand picture that was a four over a four pound cocaine seizure we had two years ago that's two kilos those are kilos like you would see in the movie bricks of cocaine uh that were sent up here and we got them in the city of amiji the lower right that's about 19 pounds of methamphetamine that were seized coming up here uh the the cocaine came from California um the methamphetamine was coming out of Illinois uh the lower leftand corner is five pounds of heroin that we seized uh several years ago actually it's been uh and that was again coming from Chicago area so we are seeing large seizures in this area large people are coming up here with large amounts and if they're coming up here with that much they're obviously selling that much in our community that one um so with this hide of designation and with some other I've done some other uh speaking engagements recently one being opioid Community Forum down in Walker um I kind of wanted to to show and reflect just kind of where we where we were at what you know where we've come and where we're at now obviously so just pulling the numbers going back to 2018 which a lot of these were numbers that we touched on as well in the petition but it's pretty substantial you know to show since 2018 that we seized almost 20 pounds of opioids which includes both synthetic uh opioids such as Fentanyl and heroin um and then transition from the prescription pills to the fanol crisis we see today and showing you know breaking that down with with the street value um of those drugs is is pretty alarming so with the opioids you know it's about 1.4 million methamphetamine is always going to be we call it King methamphetamine is always going to be king no matter what um we see we sees way more methamphetamine than anything else um but since 2018 again almost 130 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value just under $4 million I mean that that's significant um and we've had a pretty good Trend you know in recent years and we'll touch a little bit more on this but the additional support we've gotten from the US attorney's office um you know over the last three you know three years for sure has been great um Minnesota Department of Corrections uh has definitely is moving away from a punitive justice system to a rehabilitative system so just with an Act passed last year in 2023 you know inmates you know sentenced to docc are seing 50% good time um so they're only serving 50% of their time incarcerated you know the rest of time they can serve out on probation um but with that you know there hasn't been additional resources for additional probation officers and and more supervision um on that point so from a personal point of view I just feel like um you know several things that are happening that's kind of setting the system up for failure um on top of that you know there's programs in docc called challenge incarceration programs like boot camp a lot of people have heard about uh back in the day when I first started people if we sent someone to prison on a first degree drug crime which is the highest um if they got the chance to do a boot camp program and get out early um they could do that but they got that one opportunity if we busted them again after they got out they weren't eligible again for boot camp um now we're seeing individuals able to do boot camp program several times and we're kind of you know I call banging our head on the table because we're investig ating the same people over and over and over and sending them back to prison and tying up a lot of our resources that 4 pound cocaine seizure that was his third time that our task force had dealt with him on a first degree or higher sale we had done him in 2019 he had about 100 grams of heroin that he had brought up from California and then a couple of years prior to that he had been caught with a bunch of uh oxy coone pills that he came up so the third time he was just recently sentenced to 10 years in federal prison so I'm going to touch on a Case here Omar Beasley and it kind of sets up the opioid pandemic epidemic in uh in belamy County Omar Beasley was a guy from Michigan who came up here and he was selling heroin in 2014 2015 uh and it was a it was a large case it was a large conspiracy case they indicted 41 people including Omar Omar was sentenced to 300 months in prison for trafficking the drugs up here the unique thing about this case was not only that there was 41 people indicted but the link that it has created to this neighborhood in Detroit um I've been I got on the task force right after the wrap up of this case and it was still going through the court case and since then I can think of at least probably 8 to 10 groups from the same neighborhood tied to Omar Beasley who have came up here and Target Ed our community they come to Bel tramy County they come to buiji they come to Red Lake they come to Leech Lake they come to White Earth to to pray on our community because the money is there it's a lucrative business there's a lot of people that suffer from addiction uh and it was interesting while we were looking over you know creating this petition hit it in the next one I found a book that Beasley wrote uh and he he says in the book he says and he kind of talks about him he goes back from first person to third person and he says in this book right here shows my deep apologies to the Native Americans for selling poison in their communities as my eyes water and the tears flow down I'd never want to see the youth in trouble those are words from the guy who was here poisoning it and that's what these people do is they come up here and this is the kind of guy that heida is created to take down you can run this one so question two obviously you know heida wants to know the the amount of resources that we've and efforts we've done to try and you know address the problem already um which is important so with the panine drug task force most of the stat you know for statistical reasons the stats used for this petion um were stats generated by the ponan drug task force um like I said we cover a 10,000 square mile area which is a huge area geographically um but it's also important like Joe mentioned how belamy County and the City of amiji is a hub both for economics and other purposes but it's become a hub for uh Controlled Substances where you know controlled substances are coming here and then going outward from here to other areas of our of our communities um that where I going with this that it's become a hub so most of the statistics that we're used are the statistics that uh the PA Budan drug task force receives a lot of those seizures are are tied to Bel tramy County in the city of bidi um there's great work obviously going on everywhere but the majority of the larger seizures are happening right here in belamy County um another purpose of Haida is to strengthen relationships at you know the local state and Federal level um we've been very fortunate here in Bel tramy County we have an FBI task force here in buiji uh the FBI Headwater safe TRS task force uh most of my agents including myself are federally cross deputized with the FBI um which gives us the resources that we need to to do these Federal investigations and and refer cases federally um but with that we'll have some additional resources um to kind of strengthen some of those relationships one being that all these heidas have in investigative support centers um and we'll have obviously direct access to that investigative support center with our closest one being in Minneapolis that we're going to be able to share and receive pretty realtime information um with other heidas all over the country regarding stuff that we're that we're seeing or if we have investigations that are tied to other areas in the country uh one of my first in 2016 one of my first my first federal investigation um included a couple individuals um from Red Lake uh this is a time where you know the Red Lake reservation didn't have their own drug task force set up yet um they were kind of in the infancy stage of learning kind of how these investigations needed to work um and again through the partnership with belamy count County Sheriff's Office the Paul bunny drug task force um and FBI task force um we assisted in that investigation um it was someone that again we continued to investigate we continue to investigate some of these people until we did get some federal indictments so um these are just some pictures uh one of the areas where we're doing some controlled buys um on that investigation 2006 was the redbe dumps um on the reservation funny story is two of the FBI agents thought it' be fun to dress up in ghillie suits and go into the woods and take pictures uh while the controlled buy was taking place place not realizing the amount and I'm sure commissioner suar can contest this but the amount of bears that are at you know some of these sites um I would have been a little bit nervous if I was them in the woods and i' had bears looking at me from the dumpsters but um yes sorry I we're we're running really long sure and we're supposed to be on at 5 o'cl for the board meeting and I didn't know you guys just want to go right into questions well I I I didn't want to interrupt because I think this is really good stuff and I I wonder if we could have you guys come back um to do to finish this up I because I I I want to see this I think we all want to see it um it's a great presentation but I unfortunately we're running short of time more than happy to you guys want would that Tom could you get that on the schedule yeah Mr chair there's a couple options you have you could uh you could add this to your regular meeting if you'd like um do that or we can uh stop here take a break and then have them come back at the next meeting which will be in about three weeks um four weeks s almost four weeks easier just do they're here I I think it'd be great if we just added it to the regular session okay would that be okay guys hang in there give it give us a quick break and then we'll come back and start the regular meeting be all right yeah okay thank you I appreciate that sorry I had to interupt but okay um then we'll um work session will be adjourned and we'll come back