##VIDEO ID:VbODDFMqRI8## e e e e e e e e e e I'm normally very punctual but I thought I'd leave a little bit of room for wiggle here today seems that this was Richard's last meeting so at this time I will call the regular meeting of the Bel try County Board of Commissioners to order it's January 7th 2025 and it is 502 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 liberty and justice for all just a couple parting comments I think this will just be maybe a little bit of an echo of what I I mentioned last at our last meeting um it's been an honor and a privilege to be the chair this last year um I've learned a lot made a few mistakes and hopefully have been forgiven for those and uh I appreciate that and and if not we'll work on that um but anyway I I do appreciate we had some big projects that we worked through this last year and I think we did them pretty well so the jail project was huge um and I think we worked our way through that pretty well the wage uh wage comp study uh and getting that uh put forth for the county I think that was a huge deal um just those two things alone were some pretty big heavy lifting and so I want to thank all the Commissioners for all the work that they did this past year appreciate that and I especially want to thank Richard you know I don't know how many of you know I spent 5 hours in a car with Richard once a month last year going down to Alexandria for Prime West meetings and and I learned a lot and and I think along the way Richard might have learned a few things too you got that thing good taken care of with the IRA right okay that a boy all right so we've had we had a lot of discussions about a lot of different things and I learned a lot from Richard and I appreciate that and I just want to thank Richard for all of his service to the county and to his wife van for all that she had to put up with well Richard was a away doing all these things and so van thank you for that and Richard thank you very much for your past service Tom thank you Mr chair it's going to be hard to say goodbye but we are wanted to say a few kind words about you you don't get many kind words from that chair can see but um um it has been an honor serving with you and I'm very grateful uh for the time that you spent with the county board we're going to miss you greatly um I wanted to say a few words about commissioner Anderson uh you know he's leaving us after a long and successful career with the county uh he started his professional career sixth grade teacher in miniapolis and then it's been over a year after that uh serving in Vietnam in the 25th Infantry uh when he came back to uh Minnesota he served the bidi School District as a teacher inway and bidi middle schools then he served as a principal at Lincoln Elementary and also thei High School uh finally retiring in 2009 and I'm sure your wife encouraged you to get out of the house because it wasn't too long after that that he joined the commission uh he joined the commission as a commissioner in 2011 after the unfortunate passing of J pelt or if uh anyone was around and remember that commissioner Anderson was elected by special election that November and he was sworn in six days later at the November 15 2011 meeting of Interest not many of you may know this but commissioner Anderson's opposition in that special election was none other than commissioner elect SC Winger who will be replacing him here in just a few minutes so kind of an interesting thing to learn as well uh nevertheless commissioner Anderson served District three which represents Western belamy County Southwestern Bel County uh he was integral and serving on nearly two dozen different committees and commissions uh some ad hooc some formalized uh and of course that doesn't really count the the assignments he had that were outside of the County as well the benefit of the County uh he's always been thoughtful and considerate uh and he's represented the County's constituents with professionalism and integrity always I have very much valued the council the support and the guidance by commissioner Anderson I'm so appreciative that I had an opportunity for this many years to serve with you and appreciate so much that uh you have done for the county uh it's going to be sad to miss you he is leaving us uh he's leaving us with 13 years of service at the county and so uh with that we do kind of this ceremonial thing where we actually take his name plate and give it to him as his fin gesture here not much has uh been on your on your diets for 13 years or so we appreciate that and then we have one that's actually a little bit nicer that has your years of service and that on here that hopefully you'll remember us kindly in regards to your service with the county we're so grateful and appreciative of all that you've done for us here thank you very much congratulations thank you and now Mr chair if I could have the floor one more thing I'm just just because I knew I was going to forget this and I almost did but I want I want to make sure I make this announcement at the board meeting I made this announcement at the work session it was nice of uh two former Commissioners to join us today uh Steve booth and Keith Winger uh past County Commissioners for thanks for joining us today appreciate that you sorry go ahead go ahead it's all yours thank you Mr chair this time um because each of you were elected this year uh we'll have to swear all of you in and uh we have asked our newest judge to join us um Maddie ads and she's here to swear you in and we have no particular order here so um we always get judged for the order but uh there's no particular order so uh commissioner Carlson I do believe you are up first uh and if uh you will join us up here we'll go ahead and get you swor in yeah I think if you want to take this one and then he can have that one and you all right very good hello classes no you just have to be able to repeat after me okay raise your right hand please and repeat after me I John Carlson I John Carlson do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the con Constitution of the United States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America the constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and impartially and that I will faithfully and impartially execute and discharge the duties and execute and discharge the duties of the office of commissioner in Bel tramy County of the office of commissioner in Bel tramy County to which I have been elected according to law to which I have been elected according to law and to the best of my ability so help me God and to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations commissioner thank you I'll let you take those real Scott Winger oh you're sneaking up on me all right You' raise your right hand and repeat after me I Scott SW Scott Winger I Scott Winger do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the consti tion of the United States of America that I will support oh support the Constitution of the United States of America the constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute and discharge execute and discharge the duties of the office of commissioner the duties of the office of Commissioners in Bel tramy County in Bel tramy County to which I have been elected to which I have been elected according to law according to law to the best of my ability so help me God to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations commissioner thank you and I'll give you would raise your right hand and repeat after me I Joe G I Joe G do solemnly swear and affirm you swly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America to support the Constitution of the United States of America the constitution of the state of Minnesota constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially execute and discharge execute and discharge the duties of the office of commissioner in Beltrami County the duties of the office of the office of Commissioner of belamy County to which I have been elected to which I have been elected according to law and to the best of my ability according to law and the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations commissioner thank you judge Craig gosig am I saying that correctly yes sure excellent I Craig gosig I Craig gosig do solemnly swear and affirm you solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States for the United States of America the constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute and discharge execute and discharge the duties of the office of commissioner the duties of the office of commissioner in Bel trammy County in Bel tramy County to which I have been elected to which I have been elected to the best of my ability ility and according to law to the best of my ability ability and according to law so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you there you go and Mr sner good evening I Tim suar I Tim suar do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America the constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute and discharge execute and discharge the duties of the office the duties of the office of Commissioner of belr County of Commissioner of belamy County to which I have been elected to which I have been elected according to law and to the best of my ability according to law and the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations commissioner all right thank you very much for having me congratulations thank you you judge we'll be pausing for just a moment so we can get all of our paperwork taken care of before we move on okay so as it has been the tradition in Bel trammy County the board chair has been on a rotating basis um and uh unless there's um any uh opposition to that I would entertain a motion to a uh for the board chair to be Craig gosig and the vice chair to be commissioner Joe Gould entertain a motion for that Mr chair um I would like to respectfully decline the offer of Vice chair this year I don't mind um kicking that can down one more year happy to do it next year um but just with time management still working full-time during the day you know I'm not super flexible during normal business hours where you know if if the chair or vice chair is needed during the day um you know and that is if if somebody is willing um to take on the vice chair this year such as possibly our newest commissioner Scott Winger if he was interested I don't know if he is I haven't talked to him about it at all but if he if he was interested in being Vice chair I don't have a problem with that um I know you were Vice chair your first chair your first year as commissioner and um I know there's not you know um I know it's not super difficult you know I'm not um worried about that uh but um if uh commissioner Winger was interested that would be fine with me too so just throwing that out there so then maybe maybe if you would like to make a motion to nominate uh commissioner gig as chair and we'll just let it go at that for now and then we'll and then we'll go after the Vice chair would you like to do that sure I'll I'll make that motion so commissioner Gould uh makes the motion to nominate commissioner gsig as chair for next year is there a second to that a second uh new new commissioner uh Winger has seconded that uh for the 2025 year any discussion all those in favor say I I post all right so commissioner gsig you are the chair and I think you get to Pride over who's going to be Vice chair thank you weling commissioner Carlson I'd just like to say if you did a great job as as chair of this past year and and appreciate you being on the board and also welcome to the newly elected commissioner Winger um so at this time I'd like to entertain a motion for a vice chair and whoever that may want to be if you want to make a motion and and that to commissioner Gould since you're wanting to potentially pass that down on the road a little bit Mr chair I'll make a motion to uh have commissioner Winger be the vice chair for 2025 do I hear a second to that I'll second that we have a motion and a second uh commissioner G and Carlson further discussion Mr chair so um does that you know we have a rotation does that rotation will that continue or how will how will uh commissioner ghoul's um Vice chair this year affect that that rotation yeah I I would think that we would have to address that on a year-by-year basis I mean would it would certainly still rotate in my my thoughts but that's really up to the board there is no rule that says we have to rotate either but um there had to have been something like this in the past I think because um right now the rotation was one two one district one District Two and then it went to District 4 with you and then to District 3 and then District 5 so it was out of sync um the way it was currently anyway so um this will just make it a little more out of syn so um if uh if commissioner Winger is is okay with being the vice chair this year um you know do you have any any issues with that so you're accepting that nomination okay so any further discussion just a point that we need to give to commissioner Winger that he has to understand that he's The Keeper of the agenda so that and that's a sometimes a tough job so so we can we can coach him on on that I think so any further discussion about the nomination for vice chair being commissioner Winger hearing none I'll call for the vote all in favor of commissioner Winger being the vice chair for 2025 say I I I and imposed okay the motion carries 5- Z thank you and thank you for the the chair position for this year you do a rotate of chair positions here I'll um how how normally we just kind of Shuffle don't we so if Tim Tim goes down to the end and and um Joe moves here or whatever yeah we should have Scott nearby me though so yeah so um actually we should probably have uh Scott I don't care did you want to say any last goodbyes to your gav or my we all good great thank you commissioner Carlson all right let's uh move on to item four of the agenda of citizens addressing the board um Bel try County makes a point of providing the opportunity for citizens to address the County Board a Citizen May address the board in person or via zoom and anyone wishing to address the board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time to be recognized by me 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 writing through the county administrator's office a person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language is there anybody that would wish to come to address the board right now seeing none we will move on we look for a motion to approve the agenda as amended Mr chair I'll give Vice chair Winger a break today because he doesn't know that normally this would be your job scottt yeah um but I would move that we approve the agenda as amended by moving item 70 from the consent agenda to 12a on the regular agenda thank you commissioner Carlson do I hear a second to that second thank you commissioner Gould any further discussion hearing none all in favor of the approving the revised agenda say I I I any opposed motion carries 5 for a motion to approve the amended consent agenda Mr chair I would move that we approve the consent agenda as listed with the exception of 7e having been moved to the regular agenda thank you commissioner Carlson do I hear a second I'll second it thank you commissioner Gould any further discussion on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed motion carried on to the regular agenda up first we have a classification of tax Force fitted parcels and I'm not sure if Shane is there he is Shane if You' come up and present to us that'd be great think you got a PowerPoint yeah perfect yeah thank you Commissioners and I Am Shane Foley the director of Natural Resources management department and I just have a real quick PowerPoint here here um all of what is in this PowerPoint has already been discussed by the land Review Committee um 3 weeks ago or so and so um it's just kind of a summary of that so that there could be a little board action on it but um oh here's the clicker so we're going to talk about the classification of tax forfeited Parcels um just a quick little background um we're going to be talking specifically about Parcels that were forfeited in6 to 2023 and then two additional Parcels in Northern Township um so all tax forfeited Parcels in preparation for sale have to be classified as conservation or non-conservation land and we have a pretty strong feeling about what conservation means and this in this reference it doesn't mean anything that has special ecological value or anything like that it really is does the county feel it's more important to hold on to this parcel or it's more important to get rid of this parcel um a conservation parcel would be one that the county opts to keep non-conservation parcel would be one that the county is opting to get back on of the tax roles um so Minnesota statute 282.30 facilitate a reduction of government expenditures conserve and develop natural resources or Foster Agricultural and other Industries and this is where the committee had to look at those and say um does it meet these goals better in public hands or in private hands and so that's really what we were doing um so I'm going to run through quick the parcels if you want to have any discussion about any of them we certainly can but since it's you guys have seen them before and the land review committee saw them I'll just kind of shoot through them pretty quick but so Parcels recommended as conservation ones that the committee said are better off to be sitting in County hands for the future um there's a parcel of 12 acres in hegi Township it connects in with a bunch of state and Trust land that we already manage for forestry just to the South so seem like a no-brainer to add to our uh Forest management portfolio um nebish Township there's a 10 acre parcel um again it connects in and gives access to um a couple other belamy County Parcels right off of a main road there so this is another one that seemed like a really good fit to stay in um County hands there's a parcel in Sugar Bush Township that is 100% Cattail and River um it's surrounded by either federal land or state land and this is one that the county doesn't necessarily have um any plans for outside of that it may be better suited to do a parcel swap or something like that with either the federal government or the state government and so we opted to hold onto it and um call this one conservation land for that purpose um there's a 1 acre parcel in Roosevelt Township um that for Highway Department purposes and preservation of the road it's at an intersection with a real steep slope and it's got a a pond Basin in the bottom of it where water can kind of collect and stay off the road so the highway department really want wanted to keep this one in Summit Township there's a 1 acre parcel that's just a weird you know one of these weird lots that you wonder how it ever happened um but it's almost 100% within the road right away of that um County Road there and so um the highway department wants to hold on to this one as well just for preservation of the ditch and all of that stuff there's really no other use for it and then the final one's a city of 10 strike there's a 1 acre parcel um that's just of Gull Lake it's 100% Wetland and the reason for holding on to this one is since it's an undevelopable lot is going to kind of save the the county money which is one of the criteria by holding on to it preventing um the possibility of it being developed or try to be developed um in the future um where there really is no development possible so then moving on to the parcels that would be recommended um as non-conservation land and these ones that would the county would be interesting in divesting of um eckl's Township there's a 3 Acre um platted lot that operates as a a settling Basin a a runoff storage area um that eckl's Township wasn't interested in the past um in holding on to as at its Township level and so because of the Supreme Court settlement um process this is one that'll have to be sold and eckl's Township um I went to their meeting we talked about it um I also informed the board chair after the the land committee had made their recommendation that that was going to be the recommen recommendation coming before the board um Hornet Township is a 4 acre parcel it's just Northeast of black duck a little ways it has a house on it um clearly one that's going to be better in the tax roles um then there this is the these are the two Parcels that aren't part of the 20 2016 to 2023 grouping of properties and this is the northern Township 78 Acres um between these two Parcels that's being evaluated for uh septic treatment system for Northern Township and so in order to um provide the opportunity of for sale of this parcel and to kind of keep that moving this will have to be classified as non-conservation land and then reviewed by the DNR and so this is just kind of the step towards that process or in that process Northern Township there's a one acre parcel that's the same as the Eckles um parcel where this was platted as a sediment Basin um um northern Township wasn't interested in keeping this one um they've also been informed of the recommendation of the land committee um shotley Township there's a 1 acre parcel that provides access to Upper Red Lake and so this is one of those Parcels where this is a conservation parcel it's got Lake Shore um protection things involved but um it's not near any of our land that we manage and um probably is better off in the tax roles um and then waskish Township there's a 4 acre parcel just outside of town um that has a house on it as well that be a good one to sell so that's all I have and if there's any discussion about it like I said we can but the only action item I need from you guys um if you're willing is to approve a motion supporting the land review committee's classification recommendations for these tax Parcels that are listed below and so I have the conservation Parcels on the left side and the non-conservation parcels on the right side so that' be I have one question I got a call from somebody today that lives in Maple Ridge uh yeah they're in Maple Ridge Township said they've been working you with you on some a piece of property uh for sale Stefani oh yeah that would be that's a separate it's a parcel that's not included in this one thank you y thanks for the presentation Shane at this time I entertain a motion uh to approve the the land reviews Committee of the classification of these properties Mr chair I make that motion okay have a motion by commissioner Carlson I hear a second I'll second second by commissioner Winger any further discussion or questions for hearing none all in favor of supporting this please say I I I any opposed right thank you motion carried thank you guys all right we'll move on to item number nine 2025 commissioner committee assignments have the some lists in our packets and with some some of the suggestions that we had talked about in the past but we wanted to delay this until commissioner Winger was Seated on the board U and so at this time I don't know uh do you want to go by um one by one um by District here do we any any thoughts on how you guys want to address this I'll just go that route then I'll I'll start since mine's the first one I'll I would uh like to um give the alternate for the conon pilt um when that partially could be determined by what commissioner G wants to do with I believe you let's see no no commissioner um Carlson currently has a delegate designation for the conon pilt which I would assume that he's willing to give up I was thinking that and it was put on our thing that uh commissioner Gould might want to be the alternate for that would that be you would be accepting of being the alternate on the conon pilt so I would remove that from mine and put that in commissioner Gould as the alternate on the conon pilt committee I would uh with the background that commissioner Winger has I had said that I would uh move the County public defender committee de delegation or designation um from me to to you is is that okay okay so I would make um change my delegate um for County public defender committee to District 3 instead of mine um uh kigami Regional Library board I am currently the alternate on that I would move the alternate on that to commissioner Winger if he would accept that the that delegate would remain as commissioner G just in case he wasn't able to make it you just be the designated alternate is that okay yeah all right um the Northwest Regional radio board I would make you the delegate on that board and we talked about that so um commissioner Winger would be the delegate on that and and if uh commissioner Carlson wants to remain the alternate on that um for the um the radio board that's that's fine Mr chair just thinking that with your experience on that if you wanted to maintain Al no it's just that it competes all the time with those other that's why because a Pok County Solid Waste meets at the same time and the black deck you know Development Corporation meets the same date and time so it's I just have too many conflicts no that's fine I've done it a few times so so I thought it you know hopefully commissioner wi will be able to be there most of the time and and uh and that's but since you had a a few meetings there you would have a little little knowledge there um and then I would like to get one or both from commissioner Winger of the the negotiations committee or the or Andor the Personnel committee whichever of those or both if you well if so I would be the Delegate for negotiations and Personnel unless commissioner Carlson had a um a desire for or one of the other Commissioners had a desire for one of those that's what I would I would also be interested isn't there two for negotiations um I don't think so no oh only one yep I I have from another board that I'm on I do have uh some negotiation experience I'm actually going through right now um again so I'll I'll go ahead and take both of those then if that's all right and that's uh that's mine commissioner Gould um you had a lot of the ones that that commissioner suar had so um you want to go through and and let us know what you would be willing to right to do Association Minnesota count is Bill trammy H still byc cap greater bigi alternate whole house board still Housing Trust Fund yes jail it's kind of evolving um joint Powers board still chami land Review Committee um Law Library board MRC oh um Northwest juvenile center board that was one that um commissioner Anderson and Tim Sumer had and then I took over uh took over for Tim yeah so I wondering if you wanted to give that back to Tim or or if he wants it back I'd be interested to hang hang on to it still and unless unless he wants it back um but I think there are two commissioner spots for that one correct um maybe him and I yes there are two but commissioner Winger has the other one um right now oh and stuff so it's up you know up to you the juvenile center board and then also while we're doing that uh I was alternate for the concon are you okay with taking the alternate on the conon I think you said you were in it so if we can make a note of that yeah I'll be alternate for conon that's um I've been doing the uh Northwest uh juvenile board for the past six months or so um along with commissioner Anderson and I and I have enjoyed it and and I have toured the place and gotten to know the staff and board members and it's kind of in my wheelhouse already as a teacher you know with um um Youth and a school there um you've been able to make those even though they're during the day you've been able to make those meetings yeah yeah I can zoom into them because it works well with my uh break at school so yeah it's good timing actually that's that's up to up to you and but I'd like to know uh commissioner Winger summer Mr Winger and summer whichever one to Mr chair I just am concerned that we're skipping over and not giving commissioner suar a chance to get back and he wants to get back in and I'd sure like to see him get back in that's why that's why I brought that up that being formerly commissioner Summers and and the next one the opioid settlement used to be commissioner Summers as well and they're they're on on yours so it's up to you to discuss and and up to commissioner suar if to if he wants those back or not and whether you're willing to to convert them back to him or not yeah I I would like to see Tim and I be on there but uh you know it depends on what commissioner Winger as well so I'd like them Mr chair uh I guess uh first I want to uh say thank you guys for for uh attending the meetings you know uh in my absence of of uh of my participation in in the committee assignments and and I think one thing that I heard uh the past few months uh from a few folks uh in in my district is uh that were concerned about being represented on on some of these committees um so I I did mention you know the past few months in November December that uh it was my intention to uh retain my my committee assignments um which include uh the Northwest juvenile center board the uh pilt concon board the uh black duck ambulance board um are are a few that that I'm more interested in than uh what was on my list uh at the beginning of 2024 um so I would like to uh retain those and I know that there has been uh some interest in um in these boards uh I guess in particular the black duck ambulance I know and I I believe uh more of us are well aware that um uh the individual that was running uh for this seat um express interest in that as well and there was concern uh from my constituents up there that they weren't represented so that is why I would like to you know retain the black duck ambulance uh committee assignment um it is uh well within my district um it is part of my district so um so I guess my wish would be to uh you know retain the black de ambulance uh pil con con and uh the ditch committee um so it's prior to what I was participating in before I stepped aside temporarily last year Mr chair maybe before I go on with the rest of my list here uh um I I would like to know from commissioner suar if there any committees that he doesn't want to serve on anymore that he was serving on in the past or if there's any other committees uh that he is interested in serving on that he wasn't on before um so um well yes uh but you know I mean like I mentioned I mean if if uh I'm I'm fine with the the pill conom black to culin uh ditch mainly the ones that are really in my in my district um has my has uh my interest you know if folks want the Northwest you know that's fine although I know that the High um uh the high rate of of the American Indian juveniles in in the Northwest you is really an interest to me as well so um I know that was um brought up in and uh my community was wanting to ensure that you know there's representation you know from from our community on the on the northwest board but um I'm trying to look for my list Mr chair um so commissioner suar is it hasn't it been a scheduling problem in the past between the northwest West Minnesota foundation and the black duck ambulance Northwest juvenile center I'm sorry yeah the Northwest juen Center so that's been kind of a a sticky Point kind of like commissioner gsig had that problem with Northwest communication and a couple other Solid Waste or whatever if that would continue to be an issue I think it would be good to pick one or the other that you knew and talking with uh Molly at the black de gamulin I mean she had no issue and understood so um you I I don't see issue you know I guess uh it would be I mean uh it would it would be you know I think it worked out fine you know I mean I know that uh you know Commissioners May felt May felt that it wasn't that I was you know I should pick one or the other but you know I have a responsibility you know to represent my district um and these committees are you know in my district so yeah I just was wondering about the scheduling conflict if they're at at the same time you know and and I I heard no uh concerns or complaints you know from the black duck ambulance committee or or the manager so I I didn't know that was an issue but I think I think I think you're missed I think you might have missed my point my point is if they're both scheduled at the same time it doesn't seem fair to be the delegate to both if you have to constantly pick one or the other and then an alternate has to come in that's my point um and and maybe that scheduling conflict doesn't exist anymore but if it does I think it would be best for representation from the commission to make sure that you pick one or the other if there're still going to be because otherwise we're constantly having an alternate sit in and I don't think that's fair for representation and over the last you know time frame you know almost two-thirds of a year at least that you haven't been attending black Dr ambulance we have had a lot of things going on and um and I have been just attending both both meetings I was on one you were on the other I've been attending both it's less expensive and more efficient to just have one person do both of them since they are back to back when they do meet and then you wouldn't have the conflict if you took the juvenile center back and uh so I I would recommend that I'm um would just keep the black duck ambulance boards and you would um and you would take uh the Northwest juvenile center board you commissioner Gould if he wants to retain that since commissioner Winger is is uh okay with giving that up well let's agree to to disagree on on the black do gambling it's something that I would I would have much uh rather participate uh you can be the alternate for it uh that's in it's in my district and and it's in my district as well well black de you know I mean it's that is in my district and and you know the person that that ran you know how much he wanted that too so I mean I I I would like the same opportunity you know to uh retain that uh committee so well you're not really retaining anything because you gave up everything and so this is a as if you were a new commissioner starting over black de ambulance so what up I'm GNA stick with black ambulance well you can be the alternate for it oh so I mean it's on it's and I'm the delegate to it as for both of them right now and I've been the one that's been attending every month so I'm going to retain it the board I ask the boards and they they want to retain me as are you willing to let my constituents know that uh their commissioner is not going to be on the black the culin uh because it's something that you want I've I've been the one that's actually been carrying the water for it for the last eight months and and I will continue to if you want to take that let me take uh the Planning Commission why why is this a well I mean why why why can't I ask for something at this point you gave up everything so it's a matter of what people are willing to give it's a new year it's a new year and I mentioned you know that I will be uh participating in my committee assignment as well so let's continue on commissioner G with the finishing off yours and we'll see where the chips fall when we're done here uh so the juvenile center board you're going to retain that and commissioner Winger you are going to give that to commissioner suar if he's wanting to to accept that so let's put the move the delegate from from there to there so you'll you'll retain that delegate spot um opio opioid settlement do you want to retain that or are you going to no Tim can have that back if he wants that back okay so that would go from District three to or District Two to District 4 the delegate how about the Sha the State Community Health Services Tim what's your preference on that do you want that one back or um it's up to you I'll hang on to it I've been diving deep on those issues last six months so yeah happy to keep that going anything else that you had um questions or concerns on commissioner G no I don't believe so uh Mr chair I just was going to ask commissioner G if I know you weren't able to make the last land commission meeting and I filled in for you I'm just wondering if Land review board if or the land review board if that's a problem I mean it's I know they only meet every once in a great while I'm happy to do it if that would if if if that would help your schedule yeah that would be great actually so okay so land Review Committee would go from District Two to District 5 right for the we have two delegates there commissioner Winger and commissioner Carlson would be the delegates for the land Review Committee okay thank you Mr chair yep move on to also Mr I'm sorry Mr chair um I I noticed on the the uh Minnesota rural County one I actually probably attended more of the meetings than commissioner G did just because I'm I'm I'm more available than he is so I didn't know if that if you wanted to be alternate and I I'm okay either way but I just I I up being at a lot of them is it a is it an alternate and delegate ones which there's at least two yeah I was at three in person ones yeah yes um there was personal conflict that in that summer inperson one which normally summer is no problem I can make that um the in-person ones are difficult but the Monday mornings over Zoom are no problem um so if you want to keep being the delegate and just go to The inperson Once and that's fine I've just I just know that from my personal standpoint of having been on committees being you just not as effective on a zoom call as you are when you're in person I just know that most of those meetings are on Zoom there's just I know that some right but all the ones that were in person then then I'm the one so that just a I'm what I'm looking at is consistency of our representation we had did we have that as we only had that as delegate I think we didn't have an alternate listed did we well we should we I don't think we I don't see commissioner Carlson having that on his list right now we probably didn't do an alternate yeah so we probably should yeah so who's going to be delegate who's GNA be alternate for that one um I would like to still be the delegate I can I can make uh all but two of the meetings a year so that's fine okay so commissioner Gould will retain the delegate spot on the Minnesota Ral counties and we'll add on District 5 Minnesota Ral counties alternate for District 5 MRC alternate okay on to commissioner Wingers so um everything on the top part here commissioner Winger um are you okay can you go to the district three there we go thank you okay so are you okay or do you want to retain the you know Behavior Health bask B Cap all all those are are there any there that you don't want going down the list no I don't see anything do we did we keep yeah we kept you on the land review and we just moved the delegate uh from District 2 to District 5 there and we moved a delegate from negotiations mediation from you to me uh Northwest juvenile center board um it sounds like we're moving that from you to District 4 correct and then moving the Personnel committee from you to me for the delegate there Prime Health Board I know there's some discussion and and there's a thing on commissioner Carlson's there um do you want want to weigh in on that commissioner Carlson did you did you want to be delegate on both of those yeah prime prime West and Prime Health definitely Prime West I right now you're the alternate on that so you want to be the delegate there okay so you would be the alternate or does that's fine or does somebody else want to be the alternate oh you want to be the alternate okay and how about the Prime Health Board right now you're the delegate on that do you want to retain that or do you want to give that to might not be a bad idea to get some to get commissioner Winger in on that that's they only meet three times a year so quarterly if you would want to be that person they do meet in Alexandria three times a year that's fine you want to be the delegate there so swap basically swap the Prime Health and Prime West so you guys will swap and you'll be the Delegate for Prime Health instead of the alternate and vice versa okay you'll be the alternate still then on that for Prime Health yep y okay Solid Waste committee commissioner Anderson and I were on that um do you want to retain that or do is that something that you that's fine Tim wat you good there okay I'll keep that and I had given you the County public defender delegate and the Northwest Regional radio board and alternates position on the kigami life Library anything else that you saw for changes there commissioner ringer all right commer suar you've got the one Waters should one plan for the two areas in your District the Red Lake And The Thief River Falls um the conon pilt uh from commissioner Carlson the delegation for that the Northwest juvenile center delegation from commissioner Winger opoid settlement did you give that did he accept that yep I think so so the opioid settlement committee from commissioner Gould uh joint Powers National Resource Board um that was one that commissioner suer had before and you have it now commissioner G is that one that you wanted to retain or not I've always been the Delegate for that one okay that wasn't the way I had written it D but uh yeah it's on uh previous years commissioner uh uh former commissioner Olsen was the delegate to the uh JPB or JP uh natural resource board so okay so that keep it keep it with gold okay and then Shaq you were going to retain Shaq okay so that's that um go on to commissioner Carlson oh Mr chair I don't I don't think uh as as I mentioned you know I would uh retain the uh black duck ambulance and if uh if you aren't uh willing to to uh accept that I I would be willing to you know try to negotiate some sort of uh committee assignment you know uh to in exchange um you know I I've always been under the impression and felt that the Planning Commission should be um equally shared amongst you know the entire uh County Board as is as it does uh impact everybody um you know the board does uh review ordinances you know that affect District 4 uh district one so I mean to me it seems like a uh it's something that we should you know alternate or consider alternating um on a more regular basis um and as I mentioned your black duck ambulance is within my district you know geographically so to me it just makes sense that you know I am the um Delegate for for black duck ambulance and if you aren't willing to do that you know maybe the joint Powers board um is something that uh you would be willing to um uh give up so I can you know at least have a committee that that know is really in in my district um so um that's my proposal the way we had it be originally was that you were the black duck ambulance board member I was the joint Powers board member for black duck and uh um I don't feel that is an efficient way to do it but if uh if you want to to go back to doing it that way and just make sure that you communicate well with me if you have a conflict with the juvenile center board that I attend for you um I will be willing to do that well it sounds like a good compromise so okay all right so we will have the black duck ambulance board will be Tim suers as a delegate and I will be the Delegate for the black the Tri County ambulance board um as we used to have it okay on to commissioner Carlson I we've got the delegate to the concon me moved from yours to to to District Four anything prior to that commissioner Carlson on the list no I don't think so I have the uh Airport Authority um and I've got down to the you're you're taking the con con off right and that's yep I'm moving that to commissioner suar okay from you um I am on the County Extension committee and I'm perfectly willing to if someone else wants to Tim if you have another committee that you'd like to add to your list I would H be happy to give that to you if you want that they only meet uh once of about every is it every other month or says quarterly on here but quarterly it's not very much it's just but I that would help kind of take a little load off of me yeah I would be willing to do that as long as it doesn't uh conflict with with other typically it's Monday mornings at 9:30 that that that sounds good okay so we can okay so then extension goes to District Four yep um um land of the dancing Sky I guess maybe because I'm the oldest person on this board maybe that's probably the one I need to stay with I suppose you laugh you'll get there someday I don't mind I don't mind they only meet like quarterly or whatever but I usually try to attend those in person but if anyone wants that you're welcome and those are in Margo Morhead they move around uh sometimes they uh last one was in cookon the last one was I used to be on that at one point and and we met here we met KRON all over the place yeah it's all over it's probably appropriate I do actually deliver Meals on Wheels and that's part of what we do we issue those contracts so all right that's fine um you're the alternate for the joint Powers National Resource Board uh newsletter committee yeah if someone else and again that was something that if someone wants to be on the newsletter committee that I I'm happy to stay on it but I'm also happy to give that up if somebody wants it anybody want what time day well it varies but it's a lot of times on Mon well it just varies it it does vary um but it's during the day yeah yeah usually in the mornings yeah that's fine I'll stay on it that's okay I'm the proof reer I don't do much for Content I just proof read and we switched uh got you as the alternate on the headquarters I'm the delegate you're the alternate okay um and the alternate on the county Advisory Board and Prime Health we made those switches so your you're the alternate on that not the delegate and the prime West Health you are now the delegate and and uh commissioner Winger is the alternate and um adding your to your list of Minnesota rural counties you will be the designated alternate sure for the Minnesota rural counties did you have any other other things that you needed to change there or we good Diane you got that messy stuff all down all right and so so Mr chair I move uh that we um accept these roles of uh committee assignments as we just laid those out okay I hear a second second by commissioner G any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed all right with passes thank you AMC appointments and delegates we got a sheet in our list here with the appointments for AMC we will need to make a change on the vice chair from Joe Gould to Scott Winger any other changes as everybody else that's on here accepting of those assignments and any changes that are requested there no looking for a motion to approve the AMC appointments and delegates list with the amendment of the vice chair 2025 Vice chair for belamy County being Scott Winger so moved moved by commissioner G second second by commissioner Carlson any further discussion all in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries 5 Northern Township revised resolution of support do we have anybody speaking to that or we just U Minister Barry want you want to review anything there or do you want me to just uh I can speak to it if you'd like or if you'd prefer uh Mr chair you're welcome to as well um I think it's pretty straightforward basically they um um we we did have a resolution a couple years ago now um and uh now the plans have changed slightly and so they're just looking for updated resolution of support from the county um based on their new plans and with the property that we just uh delisted so to speak a non-conservation land east of buiji and um I did there is a typo or two on the resolution um support has an extra o in it it's support on the top there um and then uh whereas Lake bidi is an historic I don't know it seems odd I would say uh or lakei is a is a historic conspir and water body um and then down below if you got State capitalized I would assume we' capitalize Federal as well but I'm a nitpicker on stuff like that so anybody want to make a motion to approve the resolution of support for Northern Township uh Mr chair I'll make that motion commissioner Carlson makes a motion I hear a second second second by commissioner Gould any further discussion on the res the updated resolution of support hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries on to item 12a which was originally 7e from the um consent agenda it's the Health and Human Services approval of Housing Trust Fund Administration contract cont and report I believe commissioner G pulled that because he sits on that committee and would like to address that go ahead and commissioner Gould yeah certainly recommend uh reapprovals the annual approval that we need to do we're in the uh start of a five-year contract with United Way um hopefully you got a chance to review the report and and financials um discussing with uh Ann linth who also sits on the board uh you know we've uh generally been um impressed with United ways uh handling of of the contract and facilitation of the meetings and uh you know everything everything looks uh pretty kosher as far as uh the financials and and uh annual report um I just did want to share that at the last meeting we approved uh $49,500 for uh program Aid related to housing 34,500 to buap uh to support their uh Supportive Housing Programs and also 15,000 to St Vincent de Paul for their um housing program as well um so that's the update um again uh the recommendation is there to approve the contract and I did talk to an and um attorney Hansen and no issues so um there you go uh hope um hope it's a five vote so there you go commissioner Carlson thank you Mr chair I just a question for commissioner G I'm just curious that last round that were they they put out the the bid or the uh rfps how did the RFP go I just was curious yeah um it it went well we got we got a um a handful of responses three that qualify were three that we um scored um that qualified for the scoring Matrix um there was a um um application that we did not approve because um the application was incomplete and lacking required materials and stuff but they can try again and and whatnot but what but uh so uh we had a scoring Matrix everybody on the um committee or um cabinet um scored the applicants and and we were pretty much in uh there was a consensus to fund the two that I mentioned um for program Aid what I forgot to mention was that uh the RFP is out now for construction projects so um that RFP is so please uh help spread the word to uh developers um that there is uh money available to help with uh any uh construction of of house so is there a Dollar limit that they're constrained to ask for um no not necessarily I mean we have over a million dollars in the fund right now um so they could ask you know that that would be the maximum that one entity could ask for and and so it's to be determined if we'll fund one or two or or three projects um it has to be under $50,000 for the for the cabinet to approve anything uh more than that would have to come to our County board for approval and thank you commissioner G do you want to make a motion to approve then yes so moved okay do I hear a second I'll second second from commissioner Carlson any further discussion or questions of commissioner G hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed all right motion carries thank you commissioner G and now we are on to legislative and lobbying issues we'll start commissioner suar yep that or committee reports either okay commissioner Winger is new uh commissioner Carlson uh just a couple things uh I got the opportunity to attend the Poke Solid Waste committee meeting uh as the alternate um and that was an eye opener and U thankfully Brian Olsen was gracious enough to uh let me ride along with him and and we went early so I got I got a chance to take a tour of the facility um so I really got kind of a good indoctrination so hopefully I'll be a good alternate in the future but it's a it's a quite a big deal over there it's so qu you what's murf stand for murf it was a uh something something something something material recycling facility there you go that that's what he said U but anyway so that was that was nice and I want to thank Brian for for allowing me to do that um got a chance to attend the Employee Service Awards and so that was that was kind of nice it was really fun and and the popcorn idea I think went over pretty good instead of melting ice cream bars and so that was good um and great to see all the Service Awards going out and then I attended a greater bidi uh meeting but otherwise it's been a real quiet couple weeks thank you commissioner Carlson commissioner gou do you have anything to report yeah similar Qui a couple of weeks uh the Housing Trust Fund cabinet was uh kind of my main update um I did attend a pop house board meeting uh they are actively recruiting board members uh so um applicants um please uh if you're interested you can talk uh you can contact uh Hope House um let's see um Hope House board meeting last week and uh buy caps coming up later this week that's it thank you and I had uh had a couple was relatively quiet uh uh December 18th we had our Airport Authority meeting of John canor is gracious to accept another three-year appointment there which we approved and we also approved the four areas of our strategic goals for the airport for growing and and uh increasing everything in the region um maximizing our airport for the best of the community and the next day I had the black deck ambulance board meeting as well as the in the evening we had the truth and Taxation meeting uh so as it back to blackj again an evening for that um we received a grant of uh just about A4 million dollars um that that Molly our our director there uh applied for and we were very fortunate to receive that so we'll put that towards a new ambulance so that was really a nice windfall for the black duck ambulance board um and that's uh that's that for my report and everybody can look at where they're at for the next uh next meetings I'll have chat about tomorrow morning uh we're doing the after after meeting chat about starting this year so I'll be doing chat about tomorrow morning and the rest of you guys can check for management team and so on look for motion to adjourn oh got Tim um I know I was going to mention this earlier and uh you know I know how much you and H commissioner Carlson really enjoy solid way um you're talking trash but AMC is is forming a solid waste work group and I know that this is an opportunity um for for either of you to potentially uh get involved um with with the the solid waste I mean I I listening to you guys and in your in your commitment your expertise on on on the issue I think it's um it it would be beneficial you know if if either of you you know considered uh joining that because um at the uh December AMC board meeting um they gave us some results for um the the survey that was uh um given out for at our district meetings and solid waste was like one of the top issues you know among the the 10 districts within AMC so I mean this is a good opportunity to you know lby the the legislature you know and really get involved you know because it it um you know I I think this you know this opportunity would be beneficial for for AMC and the state yes so commissioner suer is is that going to be a whole new policy committee then or is it going to follow underneath one of these uh it would be a work group so the way the work groups usually um operate is they they meet um maybe bonly quarterly for a year and then come back with with the um the information that they gathered so um I I don't know how long this is going to be you Mr chair yeah um question for commissioner suar does it have to be a commissioner I'm just thinking that our our best representative for there would be Brian Olen and I and if it doesn't to be a commissioner I would recommend that we that we um authorize administrator Barry go ahead M administrator Barry thank you Mr chair I was just going to let you know that I have forwarded that information a few weeks back to Brian Olsen and he uh said he was going to apply oh perfect so I know he's interested and is intending to be on that but uh I I wouldn't presume that that would uh or should influence your desire to also be engaged on the work group as well well thanks for bringing that up Tim that's a um and Brian is actually Brian and then the repres the admin the solid waste administrator for hubard County have been the two that have of the nine counties they are the two that have done the heavy lifting on the entire plan so um that would be real good to have him involved in it and and if if possible for one or both of us to to attend uh um on occasion but having him be the lead would be would be our our best foot forward so thank you anything else to come before the commission for the night look for a motion to adourn chair yeah um after congratulating our new commissioner Scott Winger I'd like to make the motion to adjourn thank you do I hear a second chair is a motion to adjourn amendable he's texting you is that a second I'll second all right thank you all in favor say I I all right we are adjourned --------- ##VIDEO ID:s66fEDunNdM## e e e e e e e e e on Tuesday afternoon January 7th 2025 and I called this work meeting of the Bel trammy County Board of Commissioners to order and I understand we have new employees Jody you want to introduce your new employee good afternoon Commissioners Jody Tre El try County auditor treasur I am here to introduce Ed fransen who is our new election specialist she came to us as an intern she worked as a intern through VSU for this last election cycle and now she is permanently our election specialist so welcome Edie hi I'm Edie Franzen I originally came from Rogers Minnesota I attended bigi State University the past three and a half years majoring in political science and I'm excited and eager to meet all of you guys as well as um the people I meet along the way and start as an election specialist here at Beltrami County awesome we love hiring beavers welcome Edie thank you thank you any other new employees and just like that you're all going to leave then right ah see how you arez all right any commissioner have a future work meeting topic that they'd like to bring up seeing none we'll move on to our legislative platform discussion and we welcome our Representatives Matt Bliss and Bedell Durant thank you for showing up and we've got Steve on Zoom so hi Steve thanks for showing up appreciate that and then we also have Eric Simonson hi Eric welcome everyone thank you Mr chair uh and welcome representatives and uh Senator to our work session today we're really pleased that you could join us uh this afternoon we're excited to share with you our legislative platform that the County's been working on and the County Board adopted just a few weeks ago uh we have a number of items about 10 items on the list um and as we prepare for the legislative session that's going to be begin here on January 14th uh we thought it prudent to get these idea um ideas and concerns and issues before our local Representatives um in time for the session start uh with those 10 items what we're going to do today is uh spend some time uh going through the County's uh items and I'll have staff that are specialists in each of these areas make the initial presentations um we have about 45 minutes or so for the conversation so um it'll probably take us anywhere from 30 minutes or so to get through most of the legislative platform and we're hopeful that we'll have 10 to 15 minutes at the end for questions or just conversation I know that the board would also be interested in potentially learning about your views and uh and ideas uh Ard to the legislative session and how you think it might roll out this next uh this next period so uh with that I won't delay any further and I'll just kick this off uh we'll talk a little bit about the state bonding Bill uh of course that comes it's come many times and there's been many requests by many organizations including our County but um I'll have Bruce hbar and our Public Works director speak to this issue particularly as it relates to the County's uh need for um uh demolition landfill uh as a result of some regulatory changes that the state is imposing uh Statewide uh so without further Ado uh Bruce hborg and our Public Works director will start us off good afternoon everyone again Bruce hasor and Public Works director County engineer uh the state bonding bill of the county is part of a nine count Coalition that has put in a bonding request uh this would be for uh to address our demolition landfill waste uh the mpca is coming up with new rules that is going to end up closing our landfill uh you need to have a Line Landfill underneath the new rules new line demolition landfill and so we are trying to be proactive and figure out a solution for what we're going to do with our demolition waste when our landfill no longer can accept that waste again there are nine counties in the area that have come together and put together a solution to this and that is what we're calling a hub and spoke concept where we would have um line landfills at a couple of locations and then everybody else would be the spokes and have a transfer station that would collect and then move that demolition landfill waste to those uh to those landfills um we would be one of those spokes we would be one of those transfer transfer stations that would process that demolition waste um but this whole concept costs money and so our request to the state it is roughly a $67 million project uh $50 million is our request uh for bamy County ourselves is roughly $7 million that we're asking for from the state and we're going to be just over $2 million in the county share that we put towards that uh to towards those facilities um it is a big ask big request um and we are of the opinion that if if it can't be fulfilled then these rules shouldn't be changing um it is a very hard uh unfunded mandate to change the rules like like this and it's a big heavy cost to the county to be able to address that waste and so again if the the state the npca can't be helping come up with Solutions then the rules shouldn't be changing but uh that is our state bonding request that we've got thank you Bruce uh we have several other items uh Ann leth couldn't make it today I expected her to send over one of her colleagues but that didn't happen so we're gonna we're going to go through this uh together here um one of the next issues we have is the uh Behavioral Health Continuum of Care and of course Behavioral Health is a big issue that has been uh problematic for the state and certainly counties uh that are providing the services uh that the state uh requires and so uh with limited resources in regard to funding for Behavioral Health Services in addition to limited capability regarding facilities it's been very very difficult for counties particularly Bel tramy County and Rural Minnesota to offer a Continuum of Care as it relates to Behavioral Health Services and while we do have some services that are available uh and Sanford Health locally has been able to expand just a little bit in those service areas um there's still a drastic need and we're watching uh uh the needs of our community in particular in rural Minnesota uh increase as it relates to mental health uh needs uh and very little resources are are available for those needs so we're asking again that the state um you know investigate and as much as possible attempt to provide resources whether they be funding or facilities or Staffing or whatnot uh to uh continue to expand on the behavioral health Continuum of Care um and develop sufficient State operated safety net for mental health and Behavioral Health um needs and Facilities that meet the m members of our communities um uh crisis situations as well so uh facilities really are the the biggest limitation and of course that's not anything new that's been discussed or shared uh with regard to um previous uh concerns by other counties across uh rural Minnesota we just wanted to make sure that we emphasize the importance and the continuing need for those Services as we uh move forward uh in this legislative process um number three on our list has to deal with the cost chair for State Direct Care uh and treatment facilities um as you know counties are build 100% for the direct care of cost when an individual no longer meets medical criteria for hospitalization and they're housed in uh state run facilities we've had specific issues with this in the past particularly in regard to a couple of um uh citizens who met this criteria and uh were moved to a state facility and that state facility made this declaration about medical medical uh need and they were supposed to be transferred to another facility which didn't happen for 6 months uh what happened that situation is that we ended up with a bill of almost $340,000 for that one individual for six months uh we worked with the commissioner and also their staff at the Department of Health and ser Health and Human Services uh to attempt to try to reconcile this uh with with some progress Senator green was absolutely instrumental in helping the county uh do a legislative fix to this um and that legislative fix piggybacked on top of a temporary moratorium for this type of uh issue in regard to payments by Direct Care uh for counties uh that had a two-year moratorium on it uh that moratorium is set to expire here in another year and so we want to make sure that that issue isn't lost on the leg ISL and actually gets carried forward so that we can have a Continuum of Care uh that moves forward particularly for these people who are um no longer meeting medical criteria for hospitalization but they are housed in state run facilities at the full cost of the county which we have no recourse we have no way to verify audit account for uh even verify uh we just have to take the state at his word that these folks are where they are and then we get the full bill so that's a pretty concerning uh issue as it relates to uh our costs and when we have a swing like that5 $600,000 with multiple uh citizens throughout a year uh that uh we can't possibly plan for budget for it makes it very very difficult on our budgets and so we want to make sure that uh uh that that issue is alive and continues to be worked on at the state level in order to help us resolve those issues finally uh and the impacts financially for the counties moving forward um also a sub number four here for the elimination of the county share of behavior health fund substance use disorder reforms were passed during the 2017 legislative period um but the uh and substance ause disorder reform did seek to transform the service Continuum from an acute episodic model to a chronic and longitudinal model um the direct access or ru 25 process has been the method for eligible people to access publicly play paid for a substance use disorder treatments uh services in Minnesota and uh this has been pretty much the case since the late 1980s uh effective July of 2022 however comprehensive assessments replaced the Rule 25 assessments and the Rule 25 process became obsolete uh essentially those counties who meet the credentialing requirements to provide services will do so as Prov providers but we have to accept financial responsibility for the individuals um that are eligible for S treatment and Main the cost share up to about uh 23% or so so um we again this is one of those financial concerns that's uh related to County operations hard to budget for um the ru making and the uh qualification of these individuals is such that and the the requirement for County cost share is such that it has a it places a burden on the county um so essentially um the behavioral health fund uh as PA only counties are no longer in a decision-making role but we currently remain financially responsible and I think that's really the Crux of the issue on this particular one is that we have um no decision- making or again oversight or authority yet we bear the costs associated with these um uh Behavioral Health criteria and uh and services so that's a that's an issue and a concern for us going forward uh when we look at uh moving on to number five here the legislative changes with un funded fiscal impacts to counties um this is particularly uh important from a human health and human services standpoint uh as we saw lots of measures get passed or or in rule making take place in the last legislative session um there were several unfunded mandates that came out particularly in the health and ser Human Services Arena uh one of those was associated with the African-American family preservation and child welfare disproportionality act which requires that counties go through Extraordinary Measures uh to reunite and to find find I should say and reunite um me members of color community members of color with as many of the family members as we can for uh reaching out for services and reconnections and that kind of stuff which is an extraordinarily um wonderful concept and uh would be great to do but the statute requires that these Extraordinary Measures are almost endless and that places an enormous financial burden on the county to then try to go and track and find and resolve and and go through the paperwork I mean this becomes a huge historical and genealogical challenge for the county to to attempt to do uh this particular legislation didn't come with a fiscal note so there was no knowledge that the legislature had as to costs for this particular type of legislation that's particularly concerning um we have done an analysis internally to the county and we have estimated that that cost to just Bel trammy County alone is going to be north of $1.3 million that's money we did not put in our our um budget for next year and of course it doesn't go into effect next year there's two counties that are piloting this uh first and then all the other counties will have to follow suit uh so we're concerned about this uh we want to get this fixed uh the association of Minnesota counties is also very concerned about this as well and they're doing a Statewide study to evaluate the fiscal impact to all the counties across the state as much information as they can gather but right now when I went to the conference in December the estimate is that the cost to counties across the state is going to exceed possibly 35 to $40 million that's 3 to $40 million of unfunded mandates that come right back to the counties uh to attempt to implement this law so um that's that's one area that is an example of this uh unfunded mandate uh Challenge and and how we get directly impacted by that a second one is known as the age of criminality uh this is a particularly concerning uh unfunded mandate as well uh the legislature has decided that it wants to um adjust the age of criminality in such way that uh children between the age of 10 and 13 who did commit a crime used to go to a Detention Facility or a juvenile facility of of some kind and now they're raising that age of criminality to 13 which means essentially if a youngster between age 10 and age 13 commits a crime uh they're not going to the detention or the juvenile facility instead they're going to be placing Foster so we already have a hard time time placing uh youngsters particularly teenagers in foster care as it is um it's difficult to find foster parents that will take on troubled teens uh it is more difficult to find foster parents that are going to take on troubled teens who have committed crimes and some of these crimes are pretty heinous I mean they can be rape of a sister or some other child uh they can be arson they can be of course theft uh all sorts of of you know things domestic violence even as youngsters so the fact that the county now has to find a place and is fully responsible for not only finding but paying for that place uh is is an extraordinary burden and a big concern for us we don't have facilities in belamy County to take this on we have a Juvenile Detention Facility but now we're not allowed to send them to the Juvenile Detention Facility so once again this issue gets placed on the county to sort of figure out and uh and and we're not really sure what to do we just don't we just don't have the facilities and the uh funding associated with that so that's another one that's just an example of unfunded mandates that come to hit us and there's there's a number of these that roll through and I know that this is kind of a theme that's growing across the state as I talk to my colleagues in other counties uh we hear more and more about the impact of these unfunded mandates and uh the fact that a lot of times even the legislature doesn't know what the impact of these unfunded mandates is is going to be and so we end up not finding out until the legislation is passed and it's time to implement so those are those are also concerns as well um moving on to number six we want to talk a little bit about Health and Human Services systems and transformation modernization this is just a general um uh knowledge or or general sort of request in regards to helping the state modernize its Health and Human Services um information system or essentially technology so as we are a arm of the state all counties are arms of the state essentially uh we work directly hand inand with the state to uh enter information maybe it's about uh citizens who are going to receive benefits of some kind it might be medical assistance it might be income assistance it might be Services of some other kind visitation uh welfare checks uh you know all the things that Health and Human Services do we rely heavily on the interactivity and interoperability of our system infrastructure it infrastructure with that of the states and the challenge here is that the state's infrastructure continues to lag uh we still have reports that there are systems that are so archaic uh that we are entering sometimes information two and three times uh for the same case uh just to try to get the systems to run that that aren't talking to each other aren't working well together and so that that is a concern as well as it relates to our efficiency our productivity of course that goes right back to Staffing if we could be more efficient if we can optimize services and Technology utilize state-of-the-art Technologies uh we would be a lot more productive and therefore potentially uh could Impact Staffing levels from that standpoint too so no specific request there other than to see if we can't make some movement on trying to get those um uh technology improved and uh a better platform by which the counties and the state can talk to each other technologically uh next up I want to talk a little bit about child protection opioid response allocation um this is a this is an issue that came to light uh after the legislative session uh and and after our budgeting process so essentially uh what's happened here is that through some formic changes that the new Departments of uh Human Services and you might recall that the state divided up its Department of Human Services and essentially made uh I think three or four departments uh we were told there'd be no changes everything would be the same and whatnot uh essentially there was a big change that impacts Us by about20 to $250,000 and it has to do with the opioid uh response allocation for for child protection cases and essentially what this means is that due to just simply the Department's uh funding formula change we have lost funding in our County that we have historically relied on from opioid dollars to help with neonatal and and youth related opioid addiction and services uh and and so now we we don't have the funding for those Services uh I don't think the legislature was aware of this I'm I'm not even sure any counties were aware of this until it actually rolled out uh this fall uh but and and of course by then our budgets were required to be developed and approved before the September 30th uh statutory deadline so there there really was no way for us to even adjust uh a levy or or funding upwards uh to accommodate this each County was affected or impacted a little bit differently our impact is around that 200 to $250,000 allotment uh this is something that also has got AMC's attention there have been a lot of concerns and complaints uh lodged or logged I say with AMC from a number of other counties uh and it's simply it it's simply that's all there is it's just a reallocation of funding so what we lost somebody else gained somewhere in the system um so it's not necessarily an unfunded mandate per se as much as it is just a reallocation of existing funding as far as I understand so uh one of the particular concerns for us is that our County stands out as it relates to needing these Services um we have essentially almost a 10 time higher rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome than the rest of the state 10 times I mean that's incredible uh our neonatal uh statistics are sadly off the charts when compared to the state statistics or even other counties around us for that matter so this funding is really needed by our County it's it's something that has gone to helping the situation that we have uh without it um we are left uh to try to do the best we can with what we have remaining which isn't a lot so we're concerned about that and and we'd like to see uh maybe a a reallocation of that funding to at least keep the county whole or some direction to the commissioner or something and I don't know how much the legislature can do for us on that subject but um it is just a concern and it goes again to showing that you know almost at every turn there's just a continued uh funding challenge that seems to get worse for us as we go um and is much more difficult for us to overcome so uh so that takes us through the Health and Human Services on the behavioral health items I'm going to turn it back over to uh Bruce hasbargen our Public Works director uh he'll talk about transportation and solid waste and then uh I guess while I have the podium commissioner G did you want to speak to the one on housing or would you like staff to do that Mr chair uh ministrator Barry uh just uh you know if somebody could highlight it uh for a little bit I'm just I'm happy to um see that it's on there and thankful for the board that we added it uh at our meeting uh couple few weeks ago um just looking for the legislature's support on um really anything that they can do to support uh increasing um Housing Development whether that's um incentives for private devel Vel opers via tax credits or or whatever um uh the legislature did a historic amount of funding for housing last year and two years ago um just would like us to keep our eye on the ball on that front so um whatever else anyone wants to add that'd be great I might I might just add that that we are grateful to the legislature for the funding that it has provided over the series of years here I think for the county our direct impacts about 7 00 to $750,000 annually for a 5year period I think we're in the second year of that um we have decided as a county to put the majority of that funding into a Housing Trust Fund and to use that Housing Trust Fund to leverage public private Partnerships to then try to build essentially what we're referring to as as Legacy housing projects that are essentially going to build something that then multiple Generations or multiple um uh citizens and residents can can enjoy for a period of time as opposed to putting the money to say rent rental assistance as an example I mean that's kind of a oneandone use of funding whereas if we can invest in infrastructure and that infrastructure has a longer lifespan uh which has a much better impact so those types of programs um I know that we had talked a little bit also commissioner gold about regulations and the impact regulations have uh certainly on development in particularly affordable housing uh it has become increasingly more costly to develop affordable housing for um for uh private sector businesses particularly those uh who are in the housing field and so more and more we're seeing a trend not just uh you know needed in Minnesota but across the United States where these public private Partnerships are really critical in order to advance um affordable housing initiatives um across the country uh I think I read some statistic nationally that there's been almost like a 18% increase or something like that in homelessness just over this last year uh so this is a national growing Trend that's uh that's particularly concerning and don't quote me on that number but I know it was it was particularly um higher than one would expect um so thank you for that any other thoughts on housing before we turned over to Mr has bargon all right excellent I'll turn it over to him he'll talk more about uh solid waste and uh also transportation Good Start good ending kind of about the middle part there uh Transportation B tramy County uh seek support for continued uh investments in transportation a couple years ago there was a increase in transportation and that was uh in funding and that was much appreciated um however there are a few Statewide programs that are normally funded through bonding uh that did not see funding this last year and so hopefully they can be funded this year uh those bonding programs uh the county does take advantage of them when we do have projects but the different programs uh through bonding that we do take part in is the local bridge program the local Road Improvement program greater M Minnesota Transit safe routs to school active transportation and the local Road Wetland replacement program uh just this last year uh belamy County received $600,000 for a couple of bridges through the local bridge program um the local Road Improvement program uh this year we have a project that received $1.5 million um and so that was a a big benefit for that project um we also have a trail going out to our high school that was funded through the active Transportation program and then lastly the Wetland replacement program we have multiple projects that uh benefit from that uh that program uh the state uh funds that program but they go out and they create the wetlands or create the Wetland Banks or purchase those credits so when the counties come through with a road project that needs uh Wetlands to be mitigated uh those credits are already there and we can just uh utilize that state banking program otherwise if that wasn't there uh to create Wetland credits is it's a multi-year Well ahead of our project and so we each County out there would have to be creating our own Wetland Banks well in advance of these projects so we're ready to do to do our projects and so having that State Bank out there makes those projects for us go a lot smoother and so funding for that is a a big benefit to the county with all of our road projects Improvement projects that we have on the solid waste side um we again uh seek support for Solid Waste Management funds the big one there for us is there's a solid waste management tax uh where a portion of that funding right now goes to the general fund and those dollars if they could be put towards Solid Waste instead of the general fund could help the county with our recycling program through the score it's the score grant program that helps All Counties with recycling uh if not that that is a funding source that could help with our our demolition landfill Hub and spoke that nine count Coalition project that we have out there and so the solid waste management tax uh we feel should be put towards Solid Waste Management activities lastly on the solid waste side is uh an extended producer responsibility um putting more responsibility on the producer the retailer and the consumer of the different products uh that are being made and used out there um because the special waste that the county has to deal with is very expensive for us to collect process and then get rid of those Wast uh we're spending you know $1.6 million just to um process and get rid of those materials and those materials are anything from household hazardous waste to our recycling uh tires batteries E-Waste um those special waste that just don't go in a landfill somewhere and so those are an expense to us and so anything that can be done there to help reduce the the materials reduce the waste or reduce those costs to the county would be very beneficial uh for us so anything on the extended producer responsibility um would be a benefit for the so with that that's the last of our topics so at this time I would ask uh if any of our either our Representatives or Senator if you had questions for us specifically about any of these items uh Senator green did you get a copy of our blist I likely did but I don't have it with me I just kind of walked in from a from a flight um but I I have met with uh with members of your uh your County already on on a lot of these issues and I did you know drop some ideas on them and there's some things I'd like to try uh that we can talk about some other time I know that you guys are busy here but uh um there's there's so many issues and and what we've got down here seems to be uh people who have uh uh some really good ideas about what they want but don't have a clue as to how to pay for them they just think they're going to they're just going to happen and uh and they also have made I think some decisions that that I would really like to see rolled back but uh I'm going to need or we're going to need help with that from the Coalition of counties we just are and and one of those would be on the landfills you know some of the some of the things that they're they're doing to you guys are ridiculous and we shouldn't be closing down landfills uh until their their life has ended uh with the regulations that were in place when they were built and that's with a lot of other things as well but you know like I said I could talk for a long time about that but um I wish I was there in person and I think that it would be just very beneficial for counties to get together and uh and come down even with the school districts as well and um whoever else you can get is in the way of cities and whatever to say no more mandates you know if you're not going to give us the money we can't do the mandates because if if the money's not there uh it's not possible and I I know that every every every year you guys end up jumping through hoops but any ideas you have would be great I've got some bills in place uh not just for uh for some of the things we're talking about here but you mentioned housing uh transportation that uh you know some of the mitigation that's had that has to be done and the regulations that are put in place that are so erroneous uh for years there was like uh 25% increase in costs uh due to uh state and federal regulations that's going to 30% now so it's just getting harder and harder but so I I'll just be quiet there and uh you guys can uh can talk it out maybe we can meet when you come down too thank you Senator green uh representative Bliss or representative elect vdal um I know Steve and I have talked a little bit on the on the Hub and spoke thing and with the uh the landfill closing and it does Steve's proposals make perfect sense um like he said that you know we do see a lot of good ideas down there they just they throw them out there without the funding and and like we heard with with the one uh with the American uh the African-American family preservation act it's a good idea but you know there's a lot of money there associated with it they didn't put a lot of thought into it um it seems like an afterthought when they put it through so we we just got to um and and I I know you know what the budget situation down there is this year um it's tough I think uh working with Steve's Solutions rolling back some of these things allowing your landfill licenses to expire before requiring this is is a good first step um so I think that's that's what we need to focus on is relieving you with the mandates uh because right now uh increasing funding is I think that's where we should focus Matt anything Bell no I just want to highlight some things and I actually asked Tom a question are you guys looking had a deficit because of all these mandates or or what is what is the projected um budgetary outcome in the future here with all this stuff that's going on that's going to be a big thing for us to be able to go down the legislation with right we're bankrupting counties because un yeah we haven't done uh thank thank you uh commissioner or excuse me um representative elect we haven't done a fiscal analysis of all the mandates on the county we want to be able to do that and find out what that's going to be that the African-American one uh that mandate doesn't go into affect this fiscal year for us so we won't have the impact this fiscal year but next fiscal year unless something happens and it gets changed or delayed or fixed or whatever you might want to call it funded um we will have a a massive problem we we have to raise the levy uh to cover that by almost uh five or six points uh just to just to cover that one mandate so that's huge and of course that's an indefinite increase that goes you know you know until the Mandate is you know we're relieved of the Mandate or there's some change or something like that um you know that the 250,000 here in there doesn't sound like a lot you know there's there's typically some operating Reserve that we can tap for that but you know once we do that year over year over year without these things getting fixed or without making an adjustment to revenues then we do end up going into the into the red so there are big concerns related to these unfunded mandates there seem to be a a lot of those that came out over this last year or two and uh and and there needs to be some adjustment made to those going forward in order for counties to continue to operate and provide the services that are mandated from the from the state as it is let alone attempt to to to offer more what the recent increase of the levy because of Health and Human Services does that include the I think this number is correct I I sat down with an and spoke to her about this stuff already and is does that include the $148,000 you guys are losing from that opioid um allocation that you guys are getting or that it doesn't because we had developed the Budget prior to being told that we were going to be shorted that funding based on the for funding formula change so our budget doesn't yet does not yet um account for that additional reduction uh based on the funding formula change that was announced in the fall of last year so you guys have to try to come up with the extra $148,000 that the state correct go ahead Craig thank you Mr chair see one one point I want to make sure we are clear with regard to the solid waste and the demolition landfills is just kicking the can down the road and saying well well it's not Implement closing of our our landfill is licensed until the end of 2029 right now but we can't just build a landfill you know and and pay for it all in a year if they don't reup our permit we're still in the same boat that we're in we need to have a solution and not just say oh well we won't do anything and some of the some of the nine County have already closed their landfill and so um of the nine counties that are in our Hub and spoke program so it's not uh it's not the greatest solution to just say well well let's just not Implement anything um we need to get a solution started so that we can continue to have a landfill otherwise it's going to end up in our Woods and other areas you know people will get rid of it up here it it just won't be in a landfill if there's no Landfill open so that's it's not going to the problem won't go away so thank you thank you Comm goig uh I just want to reinforce that you know just uh to expand a landfill can take half a decade in some cases the the permitting processes even though you have an established landfill can take you an enormous amount of time just to just to keep the one that you have so uh because our permit's going to expire just as you said that may not be good enough solution to just pause until the permit expires because we need to have some certainty before that to begin to ramp up the development process the identification of additional lands the acquisition of those lands the development of the design for the for the um uh the landfill and and its operation and those sorts of things so I appreciated you bringing that up because that is an important aspect what's the capacity ofac I don't know the exact percentage but but it's um we're we're on track to be able to to operate for sure and through the end of 2029 with the current you know current capacity um probably could go beyond that but our permit is only good until the end of 2029 and so we really need that and we've been told that that there wouldn't be any renewal of any permits that's the problem and so even if we tried you know the mpca and they're not going to renew our permit to expand exp it even which you got to you got to do something if you're you know either you're going to let us expand our current one and rep permit us or come up with funding for us to you know we we put together the solution with eight other counties a great solution to the problem and all they got to do is funding so thanks uh at this time Eric would you like to introduce yourself uh I'm glad that you're on uh the zoom call with us I appreciate that Eric Simonson uh thank you Mr chair and Commissioners Senator green Representatives good to see you uh Eric Simonson with flarity and Hood I represent Bel tramy County and will be doing so again going into 2025 so appreciate the opportunity to kind of listen in and uh I have uh certainly reviewed your legislative priorities and met with uh administrator Barry and talked a little bit about some of the things that we can do um and we'll be sitting down with all of you uh as soon as session gets started here next week uh presuming it actually does start uh but uh certainly look forward to putting our heads together and coming up with some creative ideas um it's going to be challenging but nonetheless look forward to working with all of you again thank you Eric um any Commissioners have any other questions or thoughts or anything you want to offer oh again I just want to make sure I thank Senator green and representative Bliss and representative elect badell uh Duran and for coming and listening to our uh legislative uh needs and uh we look forward to working with you over the next year anything else Tom that you want uh no I I just want to say although we have a a long list and it's uh it's going to be a challenge it is not um we have not forgotten what the legislature in particular our local area legislators have done for us uh recently and and over the years there has been enormous gains that the county has benefited from with the leadership and guidance and direction of our local area legislators and and others around the state that either used to represent us or have been Partners to the county so I just want to extend a huge thank you for that uh we do appreciate all the good that's been done and there's been an enormous amount of good uh by the legislature and by the state and so we're very appreciative of that um we just sometimes Panic a little bit because we are one of those rural counties that doesn't have Deep Pockets and we don't have a big tax base only a third of our entire county is land is taxable so we we we don't have places to go we don't have many pillows to overturn or couch cushions to lift to look for additional funding when when these things come our way so uh but nevertheless I just want to thank you again for uh your your support and uh advice uh in and and helping us uh serve the citizens that we we serve here in the county so thank you for that all right thank you all right moving on to MRC membership uh it's that time of year where I think we've received a bill for next year's membership in MRC this year was a trial run we had not been a member of MRC for a number of years um and uh so we decided to try that for a year um and I guess we just need to have some comments from any of the Commissioners uh and from our administrator to see if it uh if we thought that was worth the uh price of admission so I'll open that up to anybody that has yeah Joe yeah thank you Mr chair um I think uh membership in the Minnesota rural counties makes sense for us uh we are a northern rural County with uh unique needs and MRC is um specifically designed to help counties that you know uh fit our um characteristics you know it's a a small $2,900 fee uh for membership uh and you know we basically get three more lobbyists out of that um MRC is part of Capitol Hill Associates lobbying firm and um you know they have they have a team of three lobbyists and and an administrative assistant and two of their lobbyists are actually uh really well versed in issues regarding Solid Waste uh specifically um I know Rob Vosk has spent years um working on um securing funding score funding and has been successful in that and you know that's one of our platform uh options or items this year I think commissioner Carlson and I have been successful in in uh um having a influence on the group um we were successful in getting language into the um legislative platform this year uh on a number of items so um I think it's been a a pretty good year uh I I think it's worth staying in involved um yes they're an affiliate of AMC but so are a lot of organizations that the count's a part of you know the the uh um County administrators Association and ANS group uh Maxa you know they're an affiliate of AMC too so and AMC doesn't specifically Lobby for individual uh counties like um MRC does um their lobbyists are accessible you know we can call or email them any time and and uh uh in addition to Eric uh you know so I'd like to see us uh stay with them um I think it's I think the money is there it's you know it's budgeted and and we have the funds so um I would recommend us staying with them so thank you Mr chair any other comments no like to hear what you you've been attending some of those I'd like to hear what you have to say about it good I always to go last's chair right um I would Echo uh some of the thoughts that Joe had um I think that the biggest concern right now that probably from Bel tramy County's perspective is The Hubb and spok system and and if we can get significant support from the MRC to help us get funding and Regulatory fixes for the Hub and spoke system um that would be money really well spent um the only I think probably the only concern I have is if there's issues that affect outstate Minnesota Greater Minnesota um and being an affiliate of AMC we can't go we can't do anything that's counter to an AMC position and then that puts MRC in sort of a little bit of a tough spot sometimes that maybe there's some things that we would like to do differently that AMC might not be comfortable with that would be my only negative that I would bring up but that being said um I would agree with commissioner Gould that for the $22,900 I think it's worth at least one more year and see how well they do for us especially in this Hub and spoke system uh with the mpca and I think that that would be money well spent this year to to see how that goes with that do we need to make a motion to approve membership in MRC or no sir um we just needed Direction on that it has been budgeted for assuming this was the direction the board was going to take uh but before we paid the bill wanted to make sure that that is truly where you intended to go since last year when this came up uh you had asked us to pursue it on a year trial basis so uh just following through and making sure that you're satisfied and uh I can take care of the paperwork uh I think based on looks like every what he's kind of got to heading on to continue membership Richard uh yes I I'd just like to weigh in I think it's it makes sense that we go ahead and keep with them they when I was uh when they first started off it was pretty small they didn't have a whole lot of effect uh but they did a real overhaul on their leadership and they have much I think they're much improved and so I would be uh very much in favor of staying with them for at least another year Craig yeah thanks Mr chair I am hesitant because I don't know if we've seen any tangible results but I um the primary focus I think their number one priority is the Hub and spoke in the solid waste area and I think that we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to get anything done with regard to that with the negative budget at the state and so I I would support one one more year anyways but I would want to revisit it again next year uh Tom looks like you have our support so thank you for bringing that up Mr chair is that something that we kind put on consent or no evidently we don't need action on it we just Tom wanted to be wanted to make sure that we were all in or we were basically supportive so that we can move forward right okay thanks jtim all right with that let's move on to administrators update thank you Mr chair uh it has been enjoyably a little quieter this last couple of weeks given the holidays and such um so not a whole lot to report on but I do have a few things for you uh last couple of weeks I've finished up a performance appraisals of the management team so the department heads uh so that's gone pretty well I've just one outstanding to complete at this point in time uh but that'll get done here I think in the next week or so so uh on schedule there uh also we onboarded commissioner elect Winger uh he spent a good portion of the day uh last week uh with the management team about three three and a half hours or so and then also another hour and a half or two uh with me so uh he should be ready to go tonight I think uh he's going to be ready for all the decisions and tough questions and all of that sort of thing he's uh he's eager and I really appreciate him uh engaging with our team and coming up to speed so quickly uh I think he's going to be a nice addition to uh looks like he cleans up pretty well too he does uh wouldn't even hardly recognize uh him from the last time we was in this room anyway um so uh one of the things that I've been working on with the chamber and and other community leaders on is preparing for beiji day at the capital uh there is a plan to uh go back again this year to uh to the state house and to talk with legislators and present our our sort of joint platform as a community and then also have an opportunity to share our individual platform uh issues and concerns as well uh the date has not yet been set for that we're about maybe the latter part of February at this point in time the initial date that was suggested I had a conflict with a major AMC legislative conference uh so I think the chamers is wanting to relook at sort of when they when they do that uh so I I don't know exactly when that'll happen but meetings are uh being planned uh currently for that uh also uh at the next work session we'll probably spend quite a bit of time talking about County Properties and projects that impact uh County Properties uh so just kind of for warning you that we'll probably have to have a closed session on that uh probably for a good I don't know maybe hour or so there's quite a few I think we've got four different properties right now that we'll want to discuss so um I'll be putting together information for that and then we'll be sharing that with you and hopefully get some direction as to how you'd like to move forward on those projects um just as a followup I was going to mention that uh the joint resolution uh for the public transit board that you might call um was approved by the city council and therefore the public transit board is officially resolved because uh it was a joint resolution and it wasn't effective until both bodies actually approved it uh you had approved it and the city council had approved it so now uh just to close that Loop if you will put a period on the sentence so to speak uh the public transit board is no more so congratulations on that uh lastly I just uh will let you know that we did get all eight of the Union U memorandums of agreement signed and delivered before the deadline Al so that's good news uh I think everyone recognized the benefit uh that the board had extended to the county staff in relation to implementation of the classification and compensation study uh and there were a lot of very good comments that were received by uh stewards and business Representatives that uh uh definitely show their appreciation for what the board has done so I'm I'm grateful to you and and your support on that and I appreciate their leadership with their teams and uh and now that uh we all implementing completely uniform across the entire County which is very very nice uh lastly I'll just remind you that the offices will be closed on Monday January the 20th for civil rights day observation there um and that's all I have for you but I'll stand for any questions you might have any questions for Tom all right see any any other business seeing none let's look at the upcoming agenda is there any changes or additions or Corrections Mr chair yes go ahead Joel uh I was just wondering if uh we could pull uh 7e just so I can provide a a quick update to the board what's going on there with some funding so move 70 from consent agenda to 12a does that sound all right okay anything else um just so I because some at this age you know sometimes you forget stuff I don't want to forget to recognize that we have two former Commissioners in the room and I want I I wanted to do that at the board meeting but I thought if I forget I don't want to forget we have Steve Boo and and U Keith Winger are here and I and maybe they're just here to honor Richard I'm thinking that that might be a good idea and if not honor Scott so anyway uh welcome to the former Commissioners thanks for being here appreciate it with that we are adjourned until 5:00