##VIDEO ID:WUyr4u3jssA## e I call this work meeting of the Bel tramy County Board of Commissioners to order is there any new employees to be introduced seeing none uh does anyone have any future work meeting topics that they would like to bring up seeing none know I told you that it's not going to be 305 it'll be earlier uh let's have Pat and Danielle come on up and give us a jail update thank thank you yes hi good afternoon Commissioners um little update for um the group um watch oh yeah Danielle Reed with Klein McCarthy Architects hello everyone um Pat wors cers and construction all right so brief little um update for you guys um the project is currently in the bidding phase um so we will anticipate um bids being um submitted October 22nd um so the design team has issued a few clarifications as questions come in um we're able to answer via addendum so we've issued a couple of addendums um the plan review process is um going really well um the state plan review picked up the building review um last week which means they're going to take a period of time review the documents and um ask us any questions that that they may have um so I'm anticip ating that that process will take about a month or a month and a half and um we are awaiting the plumbing plan review um we received the Department of Corrections plan review this week um we have an approval from the Department of Health um and we're working with the city to answer any of their questions that they may have as well so um really brief update from my perspective I know Pat's here and we'll be able to answer any of your questions regarding the the actual bid process and um contractor questions thanks Daniel yeah um one thing for a budget update we haven't done last time presented was in July the construction budget was at um my glasses with 68,000 4242971257 for existing jail and that the overall budget but then once we get bids coming on October 22nd we'll know what the the real numbers are like Danielle mentioned the bids were due at U October 22nd at 2m and then we had the pre-bid meeting today um was there was like 12 or 13 attendees in person and like 35 people online so was a good turnout for a non-mandatory pre-bid so there's a lot of good interest on that um still anticipating to go back to our GMP middle once we get all the bids on November 19th board meeting so we're still tracking on that because I believe you did not want us to present those on the November 5th meeting because it's election day so actually we won't have a meeting on the fth we'll be yeah okay that's all I do had for construction too because now we're just kind of in that waiting pattern a little bit till get numbers back and plan review stuff so things are heading the right direction uh question for Pat or Danielle yeah Craig yeah Mr chair um so Danielle it sounded almost like things were maybe moving a little faster than anticipated with the state am I should I knock on wood or no I no to be honest I was surprised too um and the typically the state the plumbing review occurs before the building review from our perspective um so yeah I'm I was surprised are we cautiously optimistic cautiously optimistic yeah see thankk you next process though could take a few defend well that's just it answer period so they just picked it up so we see typically four to six weeks for them to review it because it has to go through their structural review mechanical electrical um code of course fire um suppression review and accessibility so there's many people that that look at it at the state level um so then once they send us back all their comments um we typically take we try to strive for one or two weeks returning and a typical process of this uh project of this size takes about two rounds of clarification so um with that said I think I'm hopeful that we'll have a permit by the end of the year anybody else have questions for yeah go ahead uh sounds like things are going really well so that's great um any minute hiccups at all any like anything minor um how's your guys' Staffing are you all staffed up y okay they're getting ambitious to get ready to get going so yeah that's sitting good great we could get held up by a tree or two from the city but other than that how is it going with the city yeah yeah so far we we got some uh requests for some additional trees so we're going to work out uh where we're going to put them yeah any other questions for Pat or Danielle all right great thanks for the update appreciate it thanks everybody yeah thank you guys take care all right let's move on to the new jail testing inspection and commissioning contracts I believe that would be Tom good afternoon Commissioners tomberry County Administrator um I have uh before you I put three different cont TRS under this agenda item title uh since they're all essentially related and required as a part of our uh construction of the new County Jail uh there's a uh essentially a mechanical and electrical inspection services uh uh requirement a building envelope requirement and a special testing and inspection requirement so I wanted to run through each of those because later in the uh regular session this afternoon uh we're making the recommend ation that you approve all three of those contracts but separately so just jump into the special testing and inspection uh Services contract you know special testing and inspections is really critical uh during building construction uh because it allows us to ensure safety and quality of the construction that's going on and of course we want that to be independent so we don't have this contract run directly through the construction manager you might recall most of the contracts that we'll be having on the construction of the jail will run directly through the construction manager at risk process um but the state doesn't allow nor is it good practice to have uh the special testing or any of these testing services and inspection services run through the contractor um or construction manager so that's why we will have an independent separate contract with these uh contract these vendors to provide these Services uh so for special testing and inspection we'll be uh looking at things like soil compaction we'll be looking at also uh things like the footings and concrete strength asphalt thicknesses and quality uh structural components welds all all sorts of things like that during construction um and so uh when we uh put this scope of services out to um out to the street off forbid we had four qualified firms that were solicited and three responses that were received uh the recommendation uh at this time is to contract with American engineering testing also known as uh AET and their proposal included an estimate their scope of services that's based on a time and materials basis so of course we don't know yet how much exactly it's going to cost but based upon the size of the project they're looking at the Scopes and that sort of stuff the estimate has come in at around 70 $71,000 uh could be a little bit more could be a little bit less but on a time and materials basis that's exactly how those are are sort of um uh evaluated or costed so that would be special testing and inspection uh it is required by the state uh the state's uh development code Minnesota state development code and uh something that we will have to enter into a contract for to provide those services to make sure the building gets constructed uh according to the standards The second contract is for uh independent building envelope inspections and of course this would include the building envelope and inspecting all the things associated with the building envelope including the roof the walls um you know doors and windows those types of things and also to comply with Energy Efficiency requirements under the state code as well so that scope of services was sent out and three qualified firms were also solicited uh Braun Intertech was being recommended after the evaluation and their proposal is also based on a time and materials uh standard so same exact sort of thing you know depending upon how many inspections how long the inspections are uh that sort of thing will dictate what the ultimate cost will end up being but the estimate based on the size of the project and and number of inspections that are anticipated has come in at about 22,000 just a little bit over that um the third contract would be for independent mechanical and electrical inspection services uh which is of course very critical to evaluate uh independently as it relates to how the systems within the building are functioning particularly related to the mechanical and electrical systems want to make sure that all of that's working it's a very complex facility we have a lot of inter uh interplay between parts and services and that's stuff with inside the building uh and so we need to make sure that all of that's that's up and running well so four qualified firms were solicited uh for that uh service and stocky commissioning and Building Solutions uh is being recommended uh their particular contracts a little bit different they're proposing a lump sum contract uh which essentially is uh not to exceed uh provided that the work and uh craft or the services remain within scope and so the lump sum for this uh mechanical and electrical inspection services is $50,500 for the project as I mentioned before each service would be separately contracted by the county uh so we would essentially be the owner with a direct contract uh to the vendor uh I wanted to let you know that the County's attorney's office has reviewed the contracts so they have gone through a vetting process we did make a couple adjustments which I appreciate the quick turnaround by by um by those involved and then uh as I mentioned because we're uh doing this as an separate contracts you'll see that it's separate um agenda items on the consent uh agenda so if you have more information that you'd like after our discussion today uh later this afternoon you can pull those and and continue the discussion if You' like or or otherwise if we get your questions answered we can leave that on the consent agenda and then have it approved accordingly uh but that's what I have for you this afternoon as it Rel to um to the services that we're going to need uh you know it seems maybe in some cases that acquiring these Services is a little bit early but actually that's not the case because some of these Services have to be or the vendor has to be identified in order for us to get permits too so uh so we do have to disclose you know who's going to be doing this as a part of our permitting process as well uh so anyway that's what I have for you but I'll stand for any questions you might have as it relates to either of these three contracts questions for Tom I don't see any Tom all right thank you very much thank you so an sorry to have to hustle you down here but we are running a little ahead so I hope that's not too too much of a problem welcome thank you Commissioners Ann linth director of Health and Human Services and I'm here today to share some success stories with the board and the public um Health and Human Services does a lot of positive and very impactful work and we serve the community in many ways and we'd like to provide some examples of that service um highlighting that service provision with two stories that we have we want you to hear about these real stories of families in Bel tramy County that are receiving Services through Health and Human Services um so that you can understand kind of the vast array of work that we do over at Health and Human Services and how it's really impacting real people of the community so um the level of detail that I'm going to share with you today with these stories is something that was authorized by the subjects um so we won't be able to answer in-depth questions about the examples um but if you have general questions at the end we certainly can answer those for you we have a plan to come to the board on a more regular basis with success stories and we want to have representation from our three separate divisions each time that we come today we do not have public health represented but um our Public Health director Amy bus is going to share a success story um excuse me at the community health board meeting when she comes October 15 so the first story that I'm going to share is on behalf of Social Services the story is a story about Sonia Sonia is a 39-year-old woman who obtained a severe traumatic brain injury resulting in complete paralysis when she was 24 years old since then she has spent most of her life in and out of hospitals and nursing facilities primarily in the Twin Cities Sonia's family including her father who has always tried to visit her at least weekly all live in Red Lake for years Sonia's father has advocated to have her moved to a placement closer to him so that he could see her more often and Advocate more effectively on her behalf in September of 2022 Bel tramy County received assessment documents from Ramsey County indicating that Sonia was in a nursing home and seeking relocation Service Coordination she was opened up to case management in Bel try County so that we could assist with that relocation in May of 2023 after numerous referrals had made by her social worker seeking placement for Sonia she was admitted to a group home in buiji that provides nursing care for high medical need residents Sonia's father was ecstatic to have his daughter living close enough for him to see regularly and for her to be in a facility where not only were her needs being met but also provided her with a comfortable homelike setting with staff who care about each of the residents and make sure that the residents are able to get out of the home home to participate in community events in the first year of living at the group home Sonia was able to attend a local powow he taken out on walks around the neighborhood attended a movie movies at the theater and other community activities after the social worker was able to get to know Sonia and her father better in hearing her father share that he believes his daughter tries to communicate with him by blinking once or twice on command the social worker referred son for a technology assessment to determine if she might be able to use an assisted device to allow her to communicate the company that works with Sonia through this journey to communicate is a company called live life Therapy Solutions that company is funded through medical assistance waiver funding which is administered by Health and Human Services through Sonia social worker the service provider has visited Sonia on three occasions from July through August of 2024 to work with both Sonia and her support people on how to utilize the communication device I'm going to read an excerpt from the service provider on Sonia's progress as of today July 29th we spent some time having Sonia interact with the device and she was able to activate a number of icons using her eyes including telling her dad I love you Dad and she smiled big it was so exciting to see her comprehending what she was saying and then reacting to it an i device can be very tiresome so we discussed using it for 15 minutes per session about every two hours for her to practice and interact with it the home support person took notes and will relay this information to the rest of the staff and her family we also spent time reviewing the organization of the language system and how to edit on the device we added some customization specific to Sonia so that she had information to share and was able to repeatedly say her name including her OJ name and her birthday it is typical that it takes a long time for an individual to learn how to use an eye gaze device and success is often dependent on our belief in the ability to communicate and note although this is a long process Sonia was able to tell her dad I love you for the first time in 15 years and has the ability to show that she understands what is going on around her this has been life-changing so that was written up by the social worker who worked very hard um to provide the supports needed for Sonia this is work that our social workers do every day and I am honored to be able to share it with the board I really want to give credit to our staff they work very hard to help and support the people of Bel tramy County so I'm happy to be here today to talk about some successes and we have Kurt Anderson who's also going to come up and provide one from economic assistance so thank you thanks good afternoon Commissioners uh NE oh wait a second I should know how to do this here we go uh thank you for the opportunity uh to share an example of how your economic assistance team and the programs that they work with positively impact our County residents every day today I'd like to highlight the story of sabr who is someone um our workers have had the privilege to support along her journey our employment services team involvement with her Sabrina began when she was referred to us by our family Income Maintenance team as a participant of the Minnesota family investment program at the time Sabrina was facing significant challenges including homelessness and unemployment she started working with our Navigator Jerica Christensen and shared her goal of becoming a pair of professional with teachers on call although she had applied before she had not been hired additionally Sabrina struggled to secure daycare for her daughter while pursuing her career goals in June of 2023 Sabrina was successfully able to find a daycare provider and the child care assistance program was able to help with payments allowing Sabrina to focus on her professional aspirations while jerich continued with cherica's continued support Sabrina was connected with our business account representative Amy Mystic who helped her improve her resume and develop her interviewing skills this preparation led to a paid work experience opportunity at the Headwater Science Center downtown Where She interviewed with the executive director Sabrina was hired in January of 2024 and during her six-month tenure at the science center she made remarkable progress she developed a variety of professional skills including effective communication punctuality teamwork customer service working with children and even even caring for Animals her dedication did not go unnoticed and Midway through her placement she was increased with her hours and a statement from the executive director from April of this year was Sabrina has become an important addition to the staff and customers at the headart science center through Bel trammy County's supported work program one of our most enduring exhibits is called Blue blocks is most inviting when it is all stacked up and ready to go first thing in the morning Sabrina has taken charge of that task blue blocks are stacked carpet is vacuumed blue blocks that require cleaning or sterilization are separated and removed and the blocks are ready to go for another day additionally Sabrina sees things and takes care of them the very definition of taking the initiative exactly what is treasured in an employee last but not least Headwater Science Center hosts a very large field trip group and sometimes s these groups exceed 100 guests Sabrina has taken on supervising the rabbit exhibit Theo and summer are domestic bunnies and they also posted on Facebook uh in April of 20 April 23rd uh Sabrina instructing some of the young guests on the proper technique for petting uh the rabbit summer so with all that the supported work program ended in July of 2024 however the Science Center was able to extend her employment uh through them for an additional uh few weeks while she secured a new job Sabrina received a glowing letter of recommendation from a colleague at the science center and by September she had been hired by teachers on call and began working as a par professional with ISD 31 so Sabrina's journey is a testament of her resilience determination and courage and it also exhibits the power of support opportunity and embracing new challenges thank you Commissioners again for this opportunity to share some of the positive impacts of your economic assistance team thanks Kurt thank you to the board for supporting Health and Human Services do you have any questions regarding our success stories questions for Ann or Kurt Richard I I don't have any questions it's just it's good to hear the success stories because sometimes on the outside we hear the negative stories and so thank you for sharing and I'm glad to hear that you're going to be continuing to do that awesome thank you thank you Commissioners appreciate it did you get a warning that we were running early I didn't get a warning but I had it on live streaming I better get down there you're Jody are you ready we're ready good afternoon everyone off there we go um I will start with I have a presentation to go through and we can hit questions um as we go along the way I started with the wanting to introduce Beltrami County's election team so our base election team we have here um we'll start with myself um as the auditor treasur I have been working for Bel tramy County since 2002 in elections so working elections for about 22 years um became the auditor treasur in 2012 so then administering elections for about the last 12 years in that 12 years most of this crew has been right there by my side so I just wanted to um introduce everyone that I could to you um we have Danielle Johnson Haley rosinski Samantha rxs and Danielle Johnson is upstairs checking in absentee voters that might be coming in while we're down here we also have an intern this year um she's a political science major through BSU that's Ed fransen and she's been very instrumental part of our team so this group this is our our base group this group is hardworking they're experienced they're dedicated and I could not do what I do without their support so I want to thank them for everything they do for trammy elections um thank you also for having me come in and speak today um this is a presentation that I've given several times throughout the community several different organizations so it kind of hits the same format um so instead of Reinventing inventing the wheel I'm just going to go through what I've gone through with other organizations and that is um we'll start with voter registration hit a little bit bit on security and process um talk about any Law changes that have happened in the last two years um talk about what coming upcoming absentee hours and locations we have and then any resources or how people can find resources for elections so there's a lot to cover as I get through each one of these categories if you have questions feel free to ask the questions or if you'd rather wait till the end we can we can go through all the questions then and I did I did tell our election crew that they don't have to stick around and leave Danielle up there all by herself helping voters so um so they they were going to take off and and help her out so we'll start out with voter registration to be eligible to vote in the US you need to be a US citizen 18 years of age on ction day and a resident of Minnesota for the last 20 days your options for registering you can use the the old school way with a paper registration application we have those applications upstairs anyone can stop in fill out an application and register to vote um the second option is with when you renew your driver's license and this also provides a um a look into one of the new laws that passed um this last I believe it was in 23 and then taking effect in 24 um when someone renews their driver's license they automatically get cued in the voter registration system so it's called automatic voter registration those the DMV system Software System speaks to the Secretary of State's voter registration system and sends that application over to the state system where it gets it P it's in a pending status for 28 days um during that 28 days that voter that driver's license applicant receives a letter in the mail saying if they choose uh to not accept the registration the voter registration they need to contact our office to decline it then after 28 days it gets put in a queue in our office and our office processes that application voters can also go online at MN votes. s.st mn. us and just register to vote online this is open until pre-registration ends which is October October 15th so at that point everyone that's registered in the pre-registration uh period their name will be on a roster um for the upcoming November election the final way to register is in the state of Minnesota election day registration is allowed so if you are not registered and you go to your poll site on Election dat with the proper identification um you can register to vote and vote that same day on Election Day at your poll sites second yes so I don't forget so what do they have to bring on Election Day to be able to Prov what what do they need to provide to prove that they're eligible to vote there's a lot of different options of what to bring but basically it boils down to they need to prove who they are with photo photo identification and prove where they live so that could be if it's a current driver's license with that address one that driver's license takes care of both those those categories who they are and where they live if they have a driver's license from cucha Ching County um but they now reside in Beltrami County they can still use that driver's license to prove who who they are but they would need some type of utility bill property tax statement some other way to prove where they live how do they prove that they're a citizen the proving of citizenship doesn't happen with voter registration the proving of citizenship happens after the registration application is put into the state system then the state goes out and certifies with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Justice they certify the citizenship at that point so then if a person's registering on voting day is their ballot um trying to think of the word provisional uh the state of Minnesota does not have provisional ballots so that person that is voting on election day with an election day registration their ballot goes in The Ballot Box just like every other ballot of someone that votes that day um when when they vote um they certify that they're eligible to vote including affirming that they are a US citizen so they're swearing to the fact that they're a US citizen if then it says under the penalty of perjury um before they can register and cast a ballot so they're they're affirming and swearing to the fact that they're a citizen if it goes through the certification process and it's found out that they are not a citizen then that comes back to the county attorney's office and the County Attorney um um processes that as a a felony and um I'll just read what the state has here Federal penalties for voting as a non-citizen are severe including fines up to $100,000 and imprisonment if they are intentionally misrepresented their citizenship status deportation if they cast a ballot and um when voting when an eligible can be permanent bar to their citizenship so that's that's what that's how the state has implemented a stop to people voting who are not citizens so so then it follows that six people could swear that their citizens vote and someone loses by five votes and then these people get prosecuted later the vote still stood that correct just wanted to clarify that thank you yep that is correct so could you elaborate on this the second option for the the registration where they're automatically registering the driver's licenses because the um illegal aliens or whatever are getting drivers licenses in Minnesota now and if they're automatically getting registered to vote then doesn't that just exacerbate that problem or how do how how do you explain that um driver's license for all does give a driver's license to everyone who is um who is in the United States asking to drive in the United States regardless of citizenship when that when that license goes into the state and it's in that pending period for um for the person to disallow that um if they decline that voter registration then it does not go on there if they accept that voter registration and then vote then they would have those same penalties sorry for the interruption no that's they're all very good questions and they're all questions I've received every time I've given this presentation thank you Mr chair yeah Jim um Jody you mentioned uh um uh residency so what if uh somebody is homeless I know that we have a uh a homeless population in the county and and and there's questions and concerns about people uh being able to vote that that can't improve their residency or citizenship and and things like that how does how was that addressed um for a person who is homeless they are allowed to register to vote usually through vouching from someone who knows where they live whether it's at the People's Church whether it's at one of the homeless shelters whether it's under a bridge um they are allowed to register to vote wherever they sleep at night and they can do that by having someone vote for them if they don't have the driver's license that has that address on it or a utility bill then they have someone vote for them that says yes I know who they are and I know this is where they sleep every night so they are allowed to register and vote that way the uh there was one law change this last over the last two years that also allowed someone to register with a description of where they live with not a physical address so that kind of goes hand inand with that person that is Homeless looking to vote okay I was going to ask you know how how somebody that that sleeps you know under a bridge how would they register that as an address thank you it's just Ed the description they they just use they describe where they are and they're registered in the precinct of where they describe any other questions thank you okay so a voter's personal information is entered into the state's voter registration system no matter what process they start with how that application gets to us that personal information gets but entered into the state's voter registration system that application then goes through a verification process which involves uh the Department of Public Safety verifying against a driver's license or an ID card Social Security Administration um again verifying against the social security number that that person would have uh once they're verified they are cued in our our portal in the state's registration system and then we process that registration if it cannot be verified they they become what is called challenged and either they come into the auditor's office at that time to clear the challenge prove who they are with their driver's license prove where they live or they take care of that at the poll site so if they if it cannot be verified then they are challenged and they have to go through extra steps to to certify their registration a person's registration remains active unless they have a name change which would either be given to us from the voter or again that can come from the Department of Motor Vehicles to the to the Secretary of State site an address change which comes from the post office those two software systems also speak to each other so anyone that moves puts in a permanent change of address with the post office it triggers a challenge in our system and they then get a postcard that says uh we've received a notification that you've moved out of the county or out of the state you need to then contact belamy County auditors office to clear up that address issue one of the issues that with that that we we come across if the post office if you put in a temporary change of address with the post office it does not affect your voter registration but the temporary change of address I believe only lasts 90 days and for someone who's a snowbird and goes for six months the post office encourages them to put in a permanent change of address and then when they come back do another permanent change of address and and it's that permanent change of address that for a lot of snowbirds triggers them getting a postcard saying that their voter registration is going to be inactivated um and they can always call our office and we can take care of that at our office a person's record if they are inactive for four years if they do not vote in an election for four years the record becomes inactive that way or if there the person the voter is deceased the state system receives death records from the Department of Health and then puts them as a deceased voter or again the family could could bring a death certificate into our office and we could um inactivate the voters record that way that is it for voter registration any other questions on voter registration yeah I've got to ask one more sure so you said on a name change what if someone changed their name for whatever reason maybe they get married or whatever reason um they're not eliminated if they don't tell you if they let's say they come in with their new identification change last name and they say I would like to register to vote even though they're already registered to vote that person could potentially vote twice correct they could vote under the old name and vote under the new name no the the new name uh supersedes the old name so when they come in to change their name their old voter record becomes inactivated or changed to the new name and the state's system does and this happens behind the scenes this does not happen in our office runs cues to check um birth dates uh for any matching voters names any names that might have a different initial or that sort of thing so they do run some checks behind the scenes at the state level at the software level so the person that so what I'm getting at is that if the person was intentionally wanting to defraud and just walked in and voted a same day voter registration um and did not declare that it was a name change they just came in with their new DOR license and they voted and then they circle around later in the day and came in and voted because they were already on the registration roles that could happen correct um obviously fony but it would be very difficult to happen because the absentee voting ends the day before the election and so every person that comes in and absente he votes we push out to the precincts who has voted so if I came in and voted as jod Tre if I was Jodie promiser which is my maiden name and that's what I was registered in Port Hope as and I came in before election day and absentee voted and changed the um changed my name to be Jody treat and voted there the the staff in my office then sends a a supplemental register of people who have voted voted absentee to Port Hope and says put absentee voted by jod promiser name Jody treat's name so it would be very difficult I'm not saying it couldn't happen because there would have to be a lapse in when we got the information to the town hall maybe they forgot to write it in the book or something like that but there are steps in place to stop that from happening and that's that would be the step is the absentee ends the day before the inperson can begin is the person that walks in at 7:30 in the morning and then circles back around at 7:30 at night because there's probably different pole workers and they come they come in purposely to defraud they come in under one name and then come back and vote on another name that's possible except for it can't happen the same day if you're going to vote absentee that has to be the day before not talking absentee no I'm talking that this person intentionally wanted to vote twice that day they could do that in person at the polling place not absentee they're intentionally wanting to Def yeah if it's not absentee if they walk there's no way to check that no wouldn't a wouldn't a photo ID to vote solve that yes thank you Mr chair so I mean it almost sounds like you know they're questioning the election workers the election judges um I guess I'm I'm aware of a situation uh maybe election or two ago uh my wife she uh votes pretty regularly uh she showed up um and somehow that there was uh her her middle name was changed uh somehow um to I think it was some some gentleman's middle name um and so she took in her IDs and everything you know and proved her her identity so I mean I I I think our election judges you know do a really great job to ensure that our elections are fair and honest I don't know how many election judges that we have in the county that alternate or switch shifts or or are these election judges is it a 13-hour shift or how how does how does that go because it sounds like people people have questions on on the Integrity of our of our elections it's not on the Integrity of the of the election judges election judges I think do a great job but they could easily be defrauded well if I seen somebody at 8 in the morning I'm sure I'd probably remember them at 8 in the evening and I will say most precincts are open from 7 a.m to 8:00 P.M most smaller precincts it's the same four people working all day the larger precincts do shifts 4our shifts 8 hour shifts so the larger precincts um they do have different people working at different hours the the election judges are hired by the townships so I'm I'm not sure how many election judges we do the training for all of the election judges in the county but I'm not sure exactly how many each Precinct has working at a at a certain Tim or throughout the day but I do know most smaller precincts It's usually the same for people all day it's the city Wards and the precincts surrounding the city or the townships surrounding the city that have the that shift work and may have 10 to 12 election judges a day so if anybody wanted to defraud you know the the election system and process they would have to go to Great Lengths to to you know defraud your your your fellow Township person or I mean to me it just doesn't seem worth it I mean they would have to be very intentional about it it's I I don't believe it could happen by mistake um it would have to be an intent of that person Mr chair y Craig yeah Jody a couple years ago U I had a constituent that brought in a mail-in ballot not a registration but an actual ballot for somebody that had been passed away for 2 years years and I think I even brought it up to your office I don't remember what you know I mean the Secretary of State's office is supposed to get rid of those based on the deceased people but obviously didn't so anybody that wanted to be you know less than honest on something like that they know the person's information already they relative they could have just mailed that in and and it probably would have slipped through the cracks obviously these people were not that way so they they wanted to bring that to attention um how do we know that the Secretary of State's actually doing their job when they obviously didn't in that case well the so in that particular if I remember right I think that particular person I could be wrong um passed away outside of Bel trammy County or outside of the state if I remember right so if a person um has health issues and they fly to Fargo or something and pass away there then there's more steps to go through um we do get or the the Department of Health goes through all of their uh death records and sends those into the Secretary of State's office um and those then are queued up for whoever are Bel tramy County voters are queued up for Bel tramy County um I'm not sure how you know if if someone were to get a ballot like that or if they're concerned about their spouse still being on the registration roles they can bring a death certificate into my office and we can in inactivate that voter registration then with that death certificate I don't remember the particulars on how that what happened in that exact situation my point is that the to commissioner Carlson's point is that it's not that difficult to defraud if they have intent to defraud you know in a situation like that if they were somebody that wanted to get another vote for their side so to speak pretty easy for them to do that and it very likely wouldn't get caught especially not until well after the election which it's too late at that point anyway it would be too late for the the counting of the votes but it wouldn't be too late for prosecution yeah thank you y any other questions we have we have a lot of time to make up right you guys were really [Laughter] early so we'll move on to security and process we work with a company out of Omaha Nebraska and they're called election system and software esns and they uh that's where we purchased our tabulation equipment our assisted voting device so anyone that's hard of hearing um and they also do our ballot designing and our programming of those jump drives the what you see pictured there is our bigger machine we have two of these These are called a ds450 these are for tabulating large amounts of ballots so we can put in an entire stack of mail ballots and it will go through and tabulate them very quickly where the DS2 200s are the machines they're the tabulators that are at a lot of the poll sites is intended for the voter to just put their ballot into the ds200 once the design and programming is complete we work with Taylor Corporation out of their they are from the man area um they do our ballot Printing and they also do our mail ballot processing so we upload to them all of our mail ballot registered voters and then they process that mailing for us that's Glen Taylor I believe it is yes that's that's his or he got his yeah that's where he got his start our process starts in May with um candidate filing and and entering of those races into the state system so all of the local Races they file at the auditor's office state and federal races are um filed at the Secretary of State's office we enter into the election reporting system which is a state system all of those open races then as candidates come in and file we enter that candidate in information onto or into the correct uh race on the state system all of that information is posted on the Secretary of State's website as filing is happening and then when when everything is complete um we had the primary election that narrowed down our candidates to two candidates in each race then between August 15th and September 13th is when they went out and grabbed um the races and the candidates from that state site and began our design and programming and then coming up we're in a period right now from September 16th through approximately October 16th where we test all of those ballots and all of that machine programming so for ballot design and programming esns goes out to the state's ERS site and pulls all that information and then they design our ballot for us they create a sample ballot that we proof and then once we give them the go-ahead on that sample ballot then they start with programming the machines the jump drives and then send us um an automated test deck and that test deck is a pack of ballots for each Precinct so we have 57 ballots for each Precinct that hits every candidate on the ballot so that they know every C candidate's race oval is being counted um once we get the jump drives once they've been programmed we can put that jump drive into a machine the ds200 feed those ballots in we get a test result with that automated test deck we can print off once those 57 ballots go through we can print off a report that says um here's what the results should be we compare that to what the results say on um on the machine tape and make sure it is complete um and then we can go on to the next one so we do that process for each of the each of the precincts so we have 67 different ballot Styles 61 precincts with six split school districts so Port Hope Township for example a portion of it is in School District 31 and a portion is in school district 32 so we have 67 different packs of ballots that we feed through those machines um once they're fed through um the results are recorded on that jump drive we compare the print out the results tapes that comes off that with our original document that says what the results should be when that is equal we take that jump drive it goes into a standalone laptop computer those results are encrypted and at that point we take that jump drive out put in a blank jump drive those encrypted results go down on that blank jump drive at that point that gets uploaded into the state's um results software that then gets pushed out to their website so when we go through that entire process for all 67 of those packets then we go back and say this is what the website says our results should be these are our print outs that we got with our test deck that say that what they should be and we compare those we prove those until we have 100% accuracy so that's what we're going through right now is that processing the second round of testing is called a public accuracy test we perform that right here in the boardroom um and I have Thursday October 11th at 10: a.m. on there it's actually Friday Friday October 11th that was a a typo on my part public is invited to view this test and we do the same process we run through the same process that we do with all of the precincts every test deck um with our extensive first round of testing we choose a few precincts we hit every race every um every school district every city Ward that sort of thing so we make sure each each race is hit once once all of that testing is complete we are ready for election day when we get absentee ballots absentee voters come in they fill out an envelope and we can start processing those tabulating those results earlier than 8:00 p.m. on election ction day all of those results get get put on a jump drive um direct balloting which starts the 18th day before the election which I believe is October 20th a person coming into to vote absentee upstairs um Can Vote direct ballot where they don't have to fill out that envelope they sign the authorization the certification just like they would in a site um they vote their ballot and they feed it directly into a ds200 that we have upstairs so when Monday before the election comes at 5:00 p.m we close the office we can pull the results off that jump drive so now we have the absentee ballots that came in with an envelope and we have the direct ballot absentees plus then on Election night um election day at 8:00 P.M when the polls close the election judges go through the same process that we go through they close down the machines they make sure the number of signatures that they have on the roster equal the number of signatures on the results tape or the number of voted ballots on the results tape equal the number of actual voted ballots so once those all equal they can close down their machines bring that all into us when they get into our office we verify their day's activity we make sure yes it does balance um once that's done then I have my third jump drive for that Precinct say it's buiji Township so I have buiji Township's election night jump drive their um absentee ballots with the envelope es and then their absentee ballots that were directly fed into the ds200 these jump drives are again um we sit in the back room they're loaded into a standalone computer the results are encrypted they're copied then onto a clean jump drive and uploaded to the state and this happens throughout the evening the first thing that we get uploaded is the the direct ballot results because at 5:00 on Monday we have a jump drive that's ready to go those ballots have been accepted those ballots have been fed into the machine and we have the results so at 8:00 at night that's the first jump drive that gets uploaded or all those direct ballot results and then we go on to the absentees because we have teams here processing these those absentees and closing that out so as soon as they close out the absentees then that gets uploaded um as the election judges come in um they meet with either Danielle or the city of bigi clerk to make sure that they everything balances then that jump drive gets uploaded so throughout the evening those results are going to change all throughout the evening as we're uploading those results the state has also allowed us for any ballots that come in after the 3 P.M cut off on Election Day until 8:00 p.m. allow us to process those separately so for any of those we could have a fourth b or a fourth jump drive uploaded to piji Township's results any questions on that kind of covers that process Greg so Jody the um the uploading of the jump drives up um I was a few years ago where we had the situation where um the people uploading those uh chose overwrite instead of add to is that correct um and that um now we've changed the process so that can't happen correct there there is no override or um add to option if a jump drive has not V uploaded it gets added too if a jump drive get they we try to put it in twice um it give us gives us an error that says that jump drive has already been uploaded okay so that that situation can't happen again correct perfect thank you Mr chair so if we're talking about election Night results and things like that um and maybe I I missed it but uh every election people ask me you know about um the results that come to you know the county and and uh often times you know uh District Four commissioner race as I reported last and and that has to do with the distance from some polling places to upload these um jump drives and and things like that and not all prings have the DS 450 or 200 correct correct so then that's a is that a different type type of process on how sure how that works yep I can go through so first I'll I'll cover the first part of that um the precincts closest to where we are right now get here first they get here the fastest some of them have 10-minute drive I have a Precinct up in benville Township that once they close the polls on Election Day at 800 p.m. they balance everything out they have a 2hour drive to bring their ballot and their jump drives or their results down to us their ballots down to us they they are a Precinct without a ds200 so they bring the ballots for tabulating here we have of our election night precincts I want to say roughly half of them have DS2 200s at the pole sites and the other half depends on the county to be their Central count we're called Central count um they're a central count Precinct so how that works is they balance out here's the number of signatures we have on the roster here's the number of ballots that we have once that b balances they pack everything up and come down here and meet with um a team of election judges that then goes through the rest of the process with them they help them fill out their summary statements of how many ballots they received how many were used how many were spoiled how many all of that information that's on that summary statement that pack of ballots is then fed into that DS2 ds450 the machine that I said we could put a stack of ballots on and it goes through very quickly so those precincts then work with the election judge team to have their ballots counted at the through the ds450 um results printed off a lot of those uh election judges precincts to take results back and post at their Town Hall so if they wish to do that we print a a results list for them that they can post at their Town Hall but we have about half of our election night precincts um use us for their tabulation of of the 61 different precincts that we had the different townships in cities about half of that are mail ballot Precinct where each registered voter gets a ballot in the mail before the election the other half are election night precincts and of the election night precincts about half are have their own machines and about half chose not to have their machines thank you I know I always get asked that question every every election cycle as like wellow why does a why do we have to stay up till 1 2:00 in the morning to see the results so uh um I'll I'll let the folks know to to watch this meeting to get a a better uh explanation than I can give thank you and I would bet panema is probably not that's Pro that's probably our second furthest away Precinct and an hour maybe more than an hour for her to get down here with her ballots yeah so go ahead when you said when you said that you tabulate the mail ends or the absentees and the people that came in and voted it's not absentee but they voted early um you said you already had results of that does that mean that someone knows what the current count is no one knows what the the results are what the current count is but we are allowed by Statute to start tabulation um after the close of business on the 19th day before the election so when we stop envelope absentee voting when we move over to direct balloting the next day we are allowed to take those envelope absentee ballots and start that processing so they get accepted or rejected they at then get ticked off against rosters and against supplemental reports and then at that point we can start opening them each of those ballots is inside a yellow secrecy ballot and then inside their envelope so when we open all of the white envelopes with their signatures on them after they've been accepted we take all of those sealed yellow envelopes and shuffle them and that point the judges start opening those sealed envelopes so they can't pinpoint oh the first one on the top was John Carlson I'm going to see how he voted so there's no way to do that we Shuffle those up at that point they are run through the ds450 and only the total of ballots is given back to the judge team so they make sure yep we had 76 ballots and the Machine counted 76 ballots we see no results that's held on that jump drive until we close out that Precinct so there's no way anyone would have a preliminary count okay no I had that question asked of me a cons by constituent that's why I wanted to make sure that that was clear yeah right no thank you any other questions before we move on to the final the final piece of security and process is um going to canvasing in our postelection review so all of the results that happen on Election Day we then the next day um start proofing those results right away we proof what the state said says we have against what the machines told us we should have and if those match we go on to the next Precinct if they don't match that's the period of time where they are corrected and after everything has been proofed then it goes to the results go to canvasing and that's what makes them official so any of the results that are out there on the state's website are not official until the county canvasing happens the canvasing board is made up of two of you two Beltrami County Commissioners myself as the auditor Treasurer um our district court administrator a representative from the city of Fiji and a qualified voter so at the canvasing and I believe all of you have been part of a canvasing we go through that same process we bring down all of the summary statements with the results attached to those summary statements so for buiji Township we're going to have here's their their results from election night voting here's their results from those envelope absentees here's their results from direct balloting and here's the fourth result of if there are any that came in late in that 3 P.M to 8:00 pm time frame so we'll go through all of those summary statements um compare that to what what is on the canvasing reports uh ask any questions the canvas board can ask any questions get any clarification and after all of that has been gone through then um the canvas board signs off on the results and certifies them as official those official results then get fedexed down to the Secretary of State's office after that and so canvasing will be November 14th after canvasing is complete we also what we also do what's commonly called in out in the public an audit of our results it's called a postelection review and what we do is we hard count or hand count every paper ballot for a Precinct and we get results for that Precinct we do it for two precincts to make sure the results that we hand count are exactly what the machines said what the machines counted um if we draw those two precincts randomly if they happen to be small precincts there's a cut off where we have to hit a certain number of the population so if there's small precincts then we are required to draw another Precinct so there could be three or four precincts that we have to um hand count those paper ballots very similar with what we did with the city of bum recount from the primary election we brought all of the ballots down in those four different categories we opened the bags of those those ballots those ballots had been sealed in ballot bags um still with the city of bumi judge's signatures on those over the seal uh we opened those sorted the ballots out by uh by the candidates and then recounted every one of those by hand and that came to the exact result that the machine had on Election night for um for that city of bumi race this is also a a process that's open to the public and public can come in and watch um I think uh in the years that I've been doing this I've had one person uh maybe twice I think twice I've had had someone come in and watch us go through the audit process and um the last person that did said she was very surprised because she was told you have to be quiet and sit and not say anything and and she said I asked my first question and we're there to provide information to the public so if you if someone in the audience asks us a question we're going to explain the process that we're going through so she was very pleased and and was excited about the process that she got to watch and got to ask her questions and understand it a little a little more so that is that is our election process in a nutshell any questions on that before I move on to new laws Law changes legislature was extremely busy for elections the last two years in 23 and 24 I will we I will hit the highlights or some of the Law changes that affect us um or might be interesting to you one of the and I do not have all of the statute numbers written on here if you have a question on one of these by all means give me a call shoot me an email and I'll get you the statute information regarding what whatever the law change happened to be so statute 211b 075 is voter intimidation so this statute allows for the protection of a voter um no bullying or harassment no deceptive practices um no interference with registration or the voting process so this is this is basically the voters rights as they go into the poll site the very next point 076 offers that same type of protection to election officials again against um bullying harassment any any deceptive practices in the poll site just gives that same type of protection to the pole workers along with that for election day Challengers there was a little bit of a change in that law any major political party so the dfl party or the GOP party in the state of Minnesota can allow authorize a challenger at a poll site or any nonpartisan candidate so at a particular poll site there can be a challenger that was authorized by one of those two ways um in the past that Challenger could challenge a voter's um ability or authority to register and vote at that particular Precinct they to have personal knowledge that the voter did not live there or reason why they shouldn't be allowed to vote there and then they would discuss that with the election judge and the voter the law that that changed that a little bit is that now that piece has to be in writing the Challenger has to put that challenge in writing and the Challenger does not speak to the voter the election judge then speaks the voter to clear that challenge the State Certified the express vote assisted voting device um I love when there's election judges in the room that used to have to Lug around it was called in Automark it was our old assisted voting device and it was about the size of this table right here and they had to pull that back and forth to the polls our new assisted voting device is its small comes in a carrying bag that you can put over your shoulder it's programmable it's interactive um it uses a ballot card you put the ballot card in it either you can either read the selections that you have to choose from or you can put on headphones and hear those selections and then it prints off your results on the ballot card and that that is tabulated with a ds200 or a s450 it it tabulated right along with the paper ballots this came in very handy our first election we used this was the special election last November and going into that special election everyone advised us we're going to see less than 20% turnout we're not going to see more than 20% turnout for a special election so I believe we ordered ballots based on 40% turnout and there are some precincts we got 48% prec or turnout so these these Express votes that were at those poll sites were then being being used for poll sites that were running out of ballots they could use this Express vote vote the same same races that are are for that Precinct it prints it off and then that goes right through the machines decided to not work um the next the next change the next new law was a notice to voter publication in the past we would have to publish a sample ballot this sample ballot that we put in the newspaper combined every race onto one ballot every city of bigi race with every Northern Township race with every school district bigi schools black deck schools Tass Lake Schools Red Lake kellier grea all of the schools were on the the same ballot it was very confusing for voters um what the law now requires is there's a print out that goes into the newspaper that we publish about two weeks before the election that gives you a website where you can go to see your particular sample ballot it talks about when when um absentee voting starts it talks about in-person election night voting when polls open for your particular Precinct talks about if you are in a mail ballot Precinct and you didn't receive your Ballot or you're not registered your poll site is in the auditor treasurer's office and you can come in here and we'll take care of you um it takes up quite a bit of the newspaper um replaces that old sample ballot that used to get published in the newspaper felon voting Restoration in the past a felon had to have completed their entire sentence including probation and have their voting rights restored by a judge before they were allowed to vote the law change now says if they are no longer incarcerated but are still serving out their their felony they are allowed to vote so for my election judges if there's if there's someone who was um who had a felony and they're standing in front of them that's allowing them to vote that means that they're out of jail and they're allowed to vote automatic voter registration go ahead technically somebody that committed fraud a felony for voting illegally they could actually go vote again if they were no longer incarcerated if they were no longer incarcerated if they were not in jail yes well they can run for office too so um automatic voter registration we talked about that a little bit um that happens when you renew your driver's license you automatically get registered to vote we do have quite a few not quite a few but we have had people decline that voter registration um there are some religions that um do not allow for political activity and there are some people that just prefer not to be a part of that political activity so we have had people decline their automatic voter registration when someone registers to vote they can um be put on a permanent absentee list so this is similar to someone who is in a mail ballot Precinct we automatically mail them a ballot when um when the absentee ballots are available and ready to go additional absentee voting hours the the law passed or the legislature passed um our office needs to be open the two Saturdays prior to the election and the Sunday prior to the election so I believe it's October 26th and then November 2nd and 3rd somewhere in there the Saturday and Sunday right before the election and the Saturday right before that um the legislature also allowed for temporary tribal locations so if there's a tribal government within a Count's um borders that government can ask the aditor treasure to open up an absentee location um for one day for absentee voting um for tribal members and anyone in the in the county can go vote there we have two tribal absentee locations set up um we have red Lake tomorrow will'll be uh an election team and an IT team are going up tomorrow morning to set up absentee voting at the Red Lake covid testing facility from 8 to 4:30 tomorrow and the second absentee location is Wednesday October 30th and that's for Leech Lake and that's at the mission Community Center same process um the voters in the the mission Community Center area are in large part in mail ballot precincts there's most of that area is mail ballot Precinct so we think we're going to be getting a lot of people that haven't registered yet or people coming and dropping off their ballots that they got in the mail um other than that the absentee voting in voting opened in our office on September 20th we're open Monday through Friday um 8 to 4:30 until the day before the election until Monday then again Saturday the 26th 9-3 Saturday November 2nd 9-3 Sunday November 3rd 9 to3 and then that uh Direct ballot so where you can vote absentee without going through the envelope um that direct ballot starts October 18th before I move on to resources any questions on Direct balloting or um absentee voting okay so on the County's website you'll see you can find out if you're registered to vote you can find out where to vote you can find out what's on your ballot see your sample ballot um get a registration application or request an absentee ballot these are all links to the state's MN votes site so it goes directly to um a poll finder so if you want to find out where you go to vote um I think I put in this building into the house number and street name and this is what you get you you um live in Ward one you vote at the American Indian Resource Center on BSU you can click to see um what the voting hours are you can get a map to the poll site you can see what districts you're in um and that's that is all I have for you any questions yeah thank you Jody uh appreciate the info um I know there was an issue with uh the printing of ballots when it came to the judges and not listing incumbent on there what's the status of that uh are we getting new ballots or what what's the update we have ballots that have incumbent printed on them and we're just waiting for the approval to use those ballots okay um any uh predictions on voter turnout this year we have been very busy um I think the first so absentee voting opened September 20th and just for the fun of it we took a little poll in the office of how many voters that we thought we would get the highest person said 40 I said 18 and we had over 80 and it's been pretty steady ever since we've had 100 people come in the next day and the next day and it's so we're seeing a pretty heavy absentee turnout yeah um do you think we have enough ballots if there's a um record turnout this year yes we have more we've ordered more than 100% of registered voters so and if for some reason that doesn't pan out or we get 20% registration in an area we do have the express vote that people can vote on without having that actual paper ballot in front of them they can go through it on the computer and then it prints out for them very good thank you um I just wanted to mention that uh you know these uh non-resident aliens that get drivers licenses now it does say right on the state ID right on the driver's license non-resident alien so if someone was trying to use that on Election Day it says right on the ID that they're you know what um not a US citizen so they'd be um wouldn't be able to use that um just thank you again appreciate the info I think you did a good job um kind of debunking the myth that widespread voter fraud is a thing in this country it's really not so um appreciate it thank you I just want to say my experience when I did the primary vote was great the people people at the Boys and Girls Club were awesome and the new fangled stuff they every time it's a little bit newer and a little bit speedier and I just it just it just seems like things flow through very quickly now and I think that's awesome so and thanks to you and your staff appreciate it thank you we appreciate it as well thanks Jo do a great job did you have something yes um I always have something uh let's see here a couple of things um people that ask me um if they vote will they be called for jury duty is is that something that I have never been asked that question before as I was told once that that's how they get their pool of I was but I don't know that that's true but I that's what I was told I I don't know the answer to that do you know that's my understanding if you're a registered voter you're in a pool for them to like them but whether you vote or not I mean it it doesn't determine you get called right I mean like I don't think they narrow it down by how many times you vote just if you're in the system yeah and another thing is uh well first thank you for the presentation I I it helps me you know U reminds me you know the the work that you and your your office go through every couple of years to to put these on um but I also want to mention that n is working to develop a report on how misinformation around elections and threats harassments have increased cost on County election offices um so Nik is working you know to develop you know some sort of tool kit to to help um election judges um because I I it's my understanding that we are seeing less and less election judges returning because of the possibility of of harassment and and things like that so I'm just kind of curious to know if if your office is experiencing anything like that so I will say I've heard those same things as well I've heard that everyone is short of election judges and get in touch with your county auditor office and volunteer to be an election judge in Bel tramy County we have more election judges than our needed we have everyone has stepped up we have new election judges cycling in and older more experienced ones cycling out and and putting that knowledge on the new um younger election judges that come in I have not heard of any like any kind of um intimidation or anything like that out in our precincts I know there was you know in 2020 when there was all of the pro um covid protocols that we had to go through it it was a little more difficult but everyone that I remember um talking to the judges felt like everyone was respectful and um so I've not heard those situations in Bel tramy County okay well that's that's good to hear yeah and uh one final thing is um I I was recent old by some some voters that live in in on the Red Lake reservation that they've received letters of potentially uh perjury or or uh was it misdemeanors of that they were voting in the wrong location so I'm just kind of curious how uh a person that's living in Red Lake or on the reservation um was told that they have to vote uh in a Precinct that it's not within the the reservation so I guess I told them to to get in contact with you know with you because I I try to avoid uh having any type of uh communication you know with you during during you know election times so I I just encourage them to to contact you or your office so but I'm kind of curious to to learn how that may have happened or or is that something that might happen again I don't know so on the Red Lake reservation there are four precincts we have panema redbe red Lake and Little Rock um also on the reservation there is not or at least from the last within the last couple of months that I've spoke with Michelle pacin there is not an official e911 Road naming system that's authorized and accepted on the Red Lake reservation um after the 2020 election I hired a um an intern again a political science major out of BSU to work with worked with Michelle who put him in touch with um someone in the engineering department I believe his name was Cade to help clear up or make sure we get the most accurate information in the voter registration system that we can get so our elections Department our G belamy County GIS department and Red Lake engineering department worked um to get as as close and as best we could um what we've had to do is when someone registers like say you register in redy and you don't and your address is maybe what the red l housing department has as an address and we're using what Red Lake engineering had and it's not in the voter registration system we're having to register those people with the house number of one and then the street name of redb Precinct redb Minnesota so it's it's a matter of of a we need to have or Red Lake needs to when they adopt when Red Lake adopts an official e911 naming system then we can get that information get it into the state's voter registration system and it will be seamless so the the people that may have voted outside of their Precinct um a lot of also a lot of those people have PO boxes in Red Lake so they register with a red Lake PO box that puts them in the one red Lake precin but their street name is actually in the state system under redbe and so then the state system thinks they should be voting in redby because that's where they live they think they should be voting in Red Lake because that's where their PO Box is so it's there's a lot of um cleaning up or cleaning up that needs to be done um but we can't start that process and tell there's there's just one set of addresses so if a person lives in a redbe but they're told they need a vot in Corman Township how how is that how how does that get cleaned up so the address in redby was um something something Highway one and something something Highway one is two miles down the road in Corman Township and so that's how that particular one happened okay okay all right so if they have any questions or concerns about a misdemeanor I I would they can call and talk to our office um anytime I believe when the when the system sends those letters out I believe our phone number is in those letters okay um I think there were eight of those letters after the primary maybe and so if anyone of those eight people received a letter and are confused on which Precinct they should be voting in they can give us a call and we can um get it figured out with them okay thank you Mr chair Richard I think it was very good uh the way you presented it took time to do it and people watching certainly got some good information but I'm I'm going to be really interested to find out the number of people that actually vote on Saturday and Sunday okay thank you we will keep track of that for you Craig Mr chair thanks so commissioner suar I believe that that the phone company Paul bunan has 911 addressing so I don't know if you could work with the the tribe to to just officially adopt what is already available um that would certainly make life a lot easier for for everybody thank you thank you Jody appreciate your hanging thank you no problem thank you and you filled up the time yeah well when when Tom came to me and said I said I have a presentation I really don't want to invent the reinvent the wheel it takes me about an hour but I could probably go through it really quickly in 40 minutes but I didn't have to since you guys we're so early well actually actually it took you an hour and seven minutes but that's okay there we go I'm seven minutes counting thank you thanks Jody Tom do you have an administrator's update I do thank you commissioner so just a few updates for you I just want to let you know we continue to struggle with the Paul B uh Paul bunion Transit uh board meeting that has been probably the toughest meeting to date I've had to schedule we are going on about our 30th um attempt here like for dates and times and such uh so I think what we're going to do is we're going to have to we're going to have to ask people for evenings and afternoons and then we're going to have to pair the group down to just the people that really need to be there so we're going to Pivot a little bit on this but we're already pushing at least um you know four to six weeks out on this so want to let you know it's not something we've forgotten about uh unfortunately it's just we can't get everybody's schedules to align so we'll continue to work on that uh I reported last time uh in last meeting that we were going to meet with the University of Minnesota extension office to talk about snaped uh the concern uh initially came up during the budget committee meetings where uh we learned that snaped was you know um R well the extension was running snaped programs which kind of knew for a while but also that we were running snap head programs and the question came up well what programs are each unit running and is there duplication and or there synergies and such so I convened a meeting with the two entities um health and human services staff were there myself and the extension office and it is true that we're serving the same customers because in snaped um once you're eligible in the snaped program um and qualified you you can receive a number of different snaped services and so the extension truly is providing a different set of services than the count is providing we're doing more Workforce impact they're doing more supplemental nutrition education those sorts of things uh healthy education so uh what we were able to do is you know confirm that there isn't to duplication of effort but more importantly uh Elevate the level of Outreach and coordinate between the two entities uh to provide uh more seamless and hopefully a better outcome uh in service level so so that's good and uh and and we've had a lot of turnover uh both at the extension recently and we've had some turnover inside the county so it's nice to get names and faces back together and kind of rebuild that relationship which I think is going to be positive uh moving on to the class comp study uh we've been progress ing steadily on that project uh there's been several components that have advanced here over the last six weeks or so since the last update uh we finalized the benchmarking of positions using the market survey uh which is really good we finished the paq process which is the position description analysis um uh process as well uh and then also the project team was evaluating you know whether to utilize the same pay plan structure that we have or to shift to a different pay plan structure meaning number of steps number of grades um so that's in discussion currently uh during this month of October we uh we expect that uh department heads are going to review uh their different departments to ensure parity and internal Equity within regard of the uh classifications uh for the staff and then also Baker Tilly is supposed to be finalizing grade assignments based on the position analysis questionnaire they'll be developing a draft report as a result of that and develop financial analysis which is really important to us to understand you know kind of what the implementation cost is going to be uh we expect for all that work to be kind of completed in mid November or so so we still have a little ways to go uh we expect also that uh we'll be updating the board hopefully in early November a bit more formally and um but depending upon maybe some um decisions or direction of the board uh may go back and and do you know rework a few things and then bring a final proposal to you hopefully mid December or excuse me mid November um if approved uh then we would bring back the the ultimate you know approval process through probably uh December early December meeting and then the staff internally would then start going through the implementation process there's a lot that's going to have to uh churn depending upon what the outcome is here it could be a whole new pay plan we've got to program all of that into our systems and uh uh and then get people in the right pay plan and the right step and all of those sorts of things so there's going to be quite a bit of work once Baker Tilly's work is done for the county to then you know process those results and and move forward ultimately the goal Still Remains that we'll be implementing um this uh this adjustment in January of next year so just a few months away uh of course timelines and stuff might shift a little bit um I I reminded of your idea from last year about how we can kind of streamline payroll HR insurance is there an opportunity to do that with this yeah it's a keep in mind if it's possible a great question uh the answer is yes if we had that system if we had integrated uh you know kind of FIS payroll hris system uh this would be a lot easier for us I there's no question about that we don't have that and the reality is we won't have it by the time we implement but it is true that that could have been a huge benefit now I know we've talked internally about this on and off um and uh you know essentially with this year's election and all the stuff that's going on I mean we've got you know primaries and and a major uh national election and stuff it was decided that we kind of put off that conversation until next year where there was a little bit more room capacity to sort of evaluate that but I I think internally we're feeling the same way that would be beneficial for the county to eventually migrate to a system that's more integrated so that when we have these types of uh adjustments they're they're um less prone to error because we have a couple systems now that we're entering information in and a lot quicker uh more productive for us to implement and upload the the uh the data so that is something to come it's on our list of things to do unfortunately we won't have it for the implementation of this but it's a great question commissioner B uh just just wanted to let you know if you haven't already gotten your emails uh for those of you who do receive benefits uh from the county open enrollment has started and it will go through um October 31st uh at 4 P or 4:30 p.m so close a business on October 31st so if you receive benefits uh unfortunately the system is such that you even if you're not changing any of your benefits you you still have to go through the Open Enrollment process and click on all the things that you have had and and uh selections and then and then you know make sure that it registers and then and then you're done so if you need any help with any of that you know let our office know um we can hook you up with a uh one of our HR technicians and and and assist you on that uh then lastly was just going to remind you that uh for important dates on October 15th that'll be a busy day for us that's our next board meeting uh but it'll start at 2 o'clock uh at least that's what we anticipate with the uh Community Health board meeting that'll run probably from 2: to 3:00 then the regular session from 3: to 5: and then the or excuse me the work session from 3:00 to 5: the regular meeting at 5:00 and then at 6 o' is a special meeting it is not a board meeting uh so we're not advertising it necessarily as a board meeting it's a community meeting on uh the opioid settlement funds uh these are our required meetings that we have to do once a year I think there's three or four of these that we uh that we end up doing uh this one will be held in this room right after our board meeting so we we want to try to uh adjust the agenda for our regular session on the on next tues or the the next meeting to allow for us to to break at six o'clock and then uh and then move into the other meeting uh it's not something that you're required to attend but you are definitely invited and encouraged to attend we love to see you there um just want to let you know that that's uh at the next board meeting October 15th so that's all I have for you let stand for any questions you might have questions no okay uh any other business M bear are there any um any items that want to be pulled from the consent agenda U that will be the time if anybody wants to do that no changes no other changes so the agenda will stand for our regular board meeting that's that's it thank you