##VIDEO ID:IBj3gQQ65ws## good morning it's 8:30 and I'm going to call the uh August 20th 2024 Clay County Board of Commissioners meeting to order first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda move approval second have motion have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor the motion say I I I oppose same sign uh we also have the sheriff here with us we've had a very generous donation to our uh Klay County Office can9 program Sheriff would you like to recognize our generous donors yes I just like to thank the Morhead American Legion Post 21 for their generous donation of $122,800 to the Sheriff's Office canine program um this stemmed from a raffle that uh they had done and assisted us with and raffle was very suc sucessful the funds will be used towards um just anything related to the program whether it would be any type of equipment um uh any type of training that they they need to do any type of um sometimes there's some technology that we have to buy for that stuff or maybe even a replacement dog as well so there's several things that that's going to be used for and uh we couldn't be happier of the uh of the partnership that we had with the American Legion thanks Sheriff the the legion has always been generous and with the the K9 programs for years and and other needs and they're a good partner for law enforcement in our community so we're grateful for that thank you thank you Sheriff uh next we have citizens to be heard are there any citizens here that want to speak to an issue that's not on the agenda Steve we got anybody online I we do not Mr chair okay next approval of payment of bills and vouchers move to approved second have motion to Second any discussion if not all in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes next we have a request for approval to fill a vacant assistant County attorney position County attorney Brian Melton's with us morning Brian morning Mr chair morning Commissioners uh yes as I think most of you uh already know Mike leer within uh my office uh is the most current or was appointed as the next uh judge here in Clay County and will fill that vacant position so we're obviously very happy for him uh but it is a big loss for our office and for the county um and so uh we want to congratulate him and and I know he'll do great things moving forward but we are asking to fill that vacant position it is already budgeted any questions for Mr Melton move approval I'll second the motion the comment motion and a second um we are going to miss Mike but he's he's gone to some place where he can serve the greater good really it's good to see competent people like him get on the bench and it just makes the system work so our our best wishes to him and all in favor of the mo oh go ahead sorry thank you I also want to Echo the sentiment U my has been really helpful to the Planning Commission as well um certainly we've had a lot of hearings and it's always great to have presence for your office at those meetings so I appreciate you um allowing that to happen but also really excited for a fellow Spud and and a product of the community it's really exciting for him um so wish him the best thank you right any other comments if not all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Brian okay next up request approval for to uh allocate remaining Public Safety funds to 2025 proposed budget good morning commissioners before you this morning is just a a brief update on page two uh you can see the the culmination of the actions this board has taken if you recall last year the legislature legislature provided $300 million in public safety funds uh Clay County received $942,000 9 uh there is a Public Safety Committee uh that uh that met and heard recommendations from our departments uh and then brought them forward to to this board and so before you this morning is just an update of reminder of what those things were uh the projected costs and the and the dollars that were actually spend uh for those uh for each of those projects uh uh a couple of the different positions a couple of different things that were provided were two positions in the sheriff's uh department and one position in the restorative justice uh so obviously there's still funding available with those positions through the remainder of this year uh there's also uh three uh three hiring bonuses totally $9,000 uh that uh that should those deputies remain here they would be eligible for the those funding dollars here in September and then in March of next year uh when we when our committee got together again reviewed all this information uh and projected what that spending would be in those in those three positions and and the uh bonuses uh we we projected that we'd have $ 32,44 uh remaining again depending on overtime uh but the request before the commission would be to take any remaining dollar whatever that dollar amount would be uh and to apply that towards the sheriff's department uh budget uh in for 2025 to offset offset any potential Levy increases with that I'd yield for any questions questions for Steve Mr Campbell yeah the well excuse me the Public Safety Committee did meet and um Steve just expressed what our wishes were and recommendation were was to use that for that purpose so I would uh I would move to approve the request I'll second the motion M commissioner M thank you I um one I want to First applaud the staff and the department heads and the Commissioners that took part in this conversation I think it um really was an opportunity to get creative and look at what the local need was for these funds so one I'm grateful for the legislative appropriation certainly um the teamor to figure out where the best fit was is important but I will say in the last week I've had conversations with um residents um applauding us for utilizing These funds in such a way and if you look through how we've um delegated this from the attorney's office and the restorative justice um component to the Sheriff's Office and the K9 there's so many different areas where the citizens have recognized that need and particularly um you know when you hear about departments in struggling times you I think we're trying to do our best to make sure that we give our employees the tools they need to be the most successful in the community and um really grateful for the opportunity to have these um funds particularly so um thanks for the work that you all did to make sure it was allocated in this way and certainly support the request commissioner Campbell and I worked with staff and the sheriff on this and um again staff came up with great recommendations to where we can not only impact the needs of Public Safety here in the in the county but we can also address some issues with our Levy to bring down some of the some of the cost on taxpayers so it was a pleasure to work with commissioner Campbell and the the staff on this and the sheriff uh we have motion and oh go ahead yeah I I I don't I don't think we should I don't think you meant to intentionally but U Brian Melton was also a key component to this and and when it comes to the aid that also went to um the law office or the you know the county attorney's office as well as restorative justice I think those were key components that Brian also um felt strongly about so sorry Brian indeed and and I'm I've got restored OB Justice in my portfolio if they ever need a commissioner but uh that's an essential program and we get feedback on that singing the Praises of the the guy we've got in in that spot so another good expenditure of these funds very much so I mean I I think we've said it many times before but I will say it again it is very much appreciated and it is very much a a a terrific program and and that money is I think gone you know it it's its purposes has really reached a a great deal by by funding that and keeping that going so it's been appreciated okay any other comments if not we have motion second on the floor all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks Steve say can I U Mr chair can I go back to a previous item here uh when we um when we went when Brian asked us to fill the assist in County position County attorney position um were we looking at backfill I didn't ask for backfill I don't expect it'll be any it okay the the work that he's doing we've kind of already absorbed and we're going to look to fill really just inter okay basically just wanted to make sure that we thank you all right thank you okay next up Darren Brooks our HR director uh um we've got the discussion of recommendation on implementation of the market study findings all right big day the Blazers on I think everybody's been waiting for this um and I'll be glad when it's over um thanks for having me today this is a a briefing on the uh findings of the compensation study I think you have the a copy of the slides in your packets as well and then we have it up on the boards for the public and the employees to see as well um first off just a little bit of of history on this um as you know in 2019 and 2020 we did a market study as well uh with David drown Associates and at that time they recommended a 5.42% increase on top of the 2% Cola that had h already been uh negotiated with the the unions which was given us a 7.42% increase um as you also probably recall the market study was implemented about three months before covid hit and so there was a much different Workforce uh prior to covid than there is right now and so the board had uh said that we were going to do these Market studies every four or five years and I think that is a wise decision especially in this atmosphere spere um back in 2020 we had 22 positions that were deemed below market value and those grades were increased accordingly and as you know the union contracts that we have recently signed they go from 2023 to 2025 so we still have one more year on the union contracts and that's all of all nine of them um but during those negotiations we decided that uh you you promised the market study would be done during that time and this is the result of that uh a little bit of uh background on David drown um well first off the colas that we've had for the last three years is 4% 3% and 3% uh for next year um a little bit of background on David drown we had Tessa Melvin did our Market study she did our last one as well so she was very familiar with our organization and our um positions um she's worked for DDA for quite a few years and and worked for nearly 13 years um in County government and city government um she has a classification and compensation uh service area and ear earned her doctorate in public administration at Hamlin University with the emphasis on City development and planning so um she's very versed in doing these uh Market studies as well and I'm let me get to the next slide so as as of this date we've had numerous phone calls with David drown uh Associates and Tessa regarding the study um before the study started we had all of the department heads update their pdq's which they did which was very helpful as well and since the start of the market study we've had three closed sessions to discuss the results and also to receive board guidance on on where you wanted to go with this uh the market analysis for 2024 shows that our current grid was calibrated at 5% under Market average minimum rates and 2% under Market average maximum rates and 5% under Market actual uh actual rates um I will show in the a later slide that there have been several comparable counties that are doing Market studies this year and so the results of this Market study are a snapshot in time and I can't stress that enough because the market is is very flexible and and um moving a lot right now and I'll show you on a a slide going forward uh how many counties and cities are doing Market studies this year so um some of the things that we have to consider are other counties pay philosophies uh where they are in the market difficult positions to fill um retention issues tax base all of that goes into how a county determines what their Market study is going to be and and how much they're going to give um also taking into effect their counties and how they decide their Market studies um some some Implement them all at once uh some Implement them over the course of a year and if uh some counties are way below market then they may they may take a couple years to get backup to Market so um and I and I put that out there because there's a lot of ways to do a market study and and a lot of things to look at um so from our 2020 Market study as you can see the board has pretty much done what it wanted to do and keep up and kept up with the market as we were going forward based on the colas that uh you were given out for the past couple years so with any Market study we have benchmarks um Benchmark counties um some of them are cities that are uh location wise close to us and so this is a list of the benchmarks that we used uh for our study the list contains 19 counties and cities and these are uh the same cities and counties that we used last time uh this time we did add Sterns County which is a a bigger County than ours but we fought that that um it more closely represents where we are in relation to Fargo as well so it kind of takes that into consideration as well um some of these counties are bigger than Clay County some are smaller um but everything with a double asteris as you can see on there which is uh there's 10 of them those counties are actually doing Market studies this year as well so like I said this is a shot in time uh for when our Market study uh d came back um some of the things that we looked at are uh the entities that surround us what are they giving for colas and everything where their Market study is um indicators include tax capacity population revenues expenditures all of that goes into determining what kind of a a benchmark County and city that we we're going to um compare ourselves to these were the uh Ben Mark positions that we looked at there's 48 of them in in total um and we picked those because these are the positions that are very closely resembles other counties so for instance a deputy in Clay County is very much resembles a deputy in otter taale or or some of the other counties these are positions that most other Counties have so we want to get the best data from as many other counties and cities as possible so these these uh positions were determined and approved by the board when we first started the market study that these would be our Benchmark uh positions there are a few positions that um not All Counties have uh for instance are detox positions and our Juvenile Detention positions County not All Counties have those two organizations and so uh they had to go outside to um private sector to look at some of those uh positions as well and and they did do that uh when David drown does their comparisons they have they like to have at least five comparables to make a good representation of where the market is for those each each of those positions um not every position is looked at in the county we have over 163 positions uh job titles in the county and so I think um the the public and the employees have to know know that not all 163 were were compared to all County positions in all Benchmark counties um so that's why we had the 48 that most closely resembles all the other counties um and please stop me if you have any questions um at all um this is just a a representation of our 2024 grid this is where everybody is right now now um this includes the 3% Cola that was given uh this year uh from from last year's grid um just as a as a note for this Market study we did have uh 11 positions that were graded uh differently and those were dealt with a couple weeks ago uh with the board to move those positions right away um for those that did move most likely they moved up and then back a step and so a lot of people um when that happens whether we have a market study or a grade increase or position increase or whatever um their years of service is not always going to line up after that so I just kind of want to throw that out there just so if people say well I've been here six years but now I'm on grade 11 Step five or four it's because when you change positions and you go to a different grade your years of service is probably not going to line up exactly so I just wanted to put that out there for every Everybody also in our um Personnel policy um it does say that if you go up one grade that you would get at least a 1% increase and two grades 2% so we applied that that logic as well according to the Personnel policy right right now we have uh 687 employees we have a lot of employees we've grown tremendously in the last uh couple several years um and 96 of those employees are already at step 12 or Step 13 uh just as a reminder Step 13 is for the deputies the deputy first class pay that we give uh that was negotiated several contracts back um we also have 122 of those employees currently at step one um like I said before we're 5% under Market minimum rate at this point and 2% under Market ma maximum rate by um making those switch for those 11 positions we helped out the grid so we weren't quite as low as what we were had we not done that um adjustment as well um let's see here those ones that uh those positions that were increased they were increased as of August 3rd so they'll see that increase on this coming Friday's um pay pay stuff um as we were going through this uh Market study we also realized um that we had two other positions that were below 93% and that would be the correctional sergeants and the HR coordinator and so I'd also like to have a motion to move those two positions uh one grade as at the end of this as well um and they would be moved according to the the grid and the Personnel policy and then uh make that effective August 3rd as well so that we can do that at the at the end uh as part of a motion um so getting to the actual two options that were given to us uh option one is very similar to what we did last time um option one was to add 3% to the cola which would make it uh 6% total and that would be applied to the entire grid um the cost of that is approximately 1,747 it would give all the employees the same increase um the negative is it is a a big tab to pay all all all at once starting on January 1st and uh but it does immediately impact the grid and and assist with uh new people coming in and and attracting new talent to Clay County um if we were to do this as we did the last 2020 um mark Market study we would be at the Benchmark average and we would be 3% above the market Benchmark Benchmark maximum average so if you go back and remember we have 10 other counties and cities that are doing Market studies I think that's would certainly help us keep ahead of ahead of that to some extent um we did have a uh this was the option one we did have an other option too um but during some of the the meetings that we had we kind of deemed that option two was not going to be beneficial for the um employees what that was is to add 3% per step and uh as we go forward just making it standard 3% after we did the calculations and everything actually some of the employees would be losing money and so we kind of threw that option out at this point um our third option was to add one step uh to the end of the grid and then um uh or cut One Step At the beginning of the grade and add one step to step 12 so our our step one would become our our step two would become our step one um there's an immediate cost to this but it's not all equal this mostly impacts the new employees at step one and the long-term employees at step 12 um the implementation to the grid for this option would be 46 approximately $465,500 missed anything here I don't think so so um questions and discussion yeah thank you um thank you Darren for that uh I I want to start off going back to the uh benchmarks and the locations that we used and I uh I know that commissioner Mojo was the one who suggested we should include Sterns County not necessarily because it it matches up with Fargo but it gets us to looking towards the metro area correct because when we start looking at uh wanting to have you know save our employees and have retention here we need to pay attention to what's going on to the east of us right so including that I think that was that was kind of a a goal of having Sterns in there and I'm sure that probably brought yeah numbers up a bit yep and I and I I remember that conversation with uh commissioner Mojo that you know that's along that 94 Corridor where you know where we draw our people from could certainly be in the Sterns County uh area as well and then I I have a couple more things then um just on going to the employees when you say 687 does that include our variable hour room yes it does and how many of those do we have um I don't have an exact count but we usually run about 150 and a lot of those it's in our Juvenile Detention and yep most of them are in juvenile detention a large portion of them are in juvenile detention uh I think Corrections might have some detox uses them those are those are the three departments that use the variable hours the most and then going to U getting into um the couple of options that are here and I said it I said it earlier in some of our meetings uh between option one and option three I think I think option three would be putting a Band-Aid on something that um um probably would not work in the long term um I think option one is is um the way to go I when you know we talk about um we made a commitment to the whole team the all all employees of the county that we would do this wage study and for us to do that wage study and then just to put a banding on it would not be right and you know so I think option one is certainly the way we should go I do have a I just have a question on your presentation so you know because because we have a 3% Cola already planned for 2025 right correct and then and then this one would be the the wage study action would be to add 3% to the to across the board to the grid correct but they would be two separate actions it wouldn't be one 6% it'd be a 3% for um The Wade study adjustment right and then the 3% Co which which order does that go in um well I don't know I don't know if it makes I I don't know if it really makes Mr chair commissioner Campbell in this case because they're both 3% it wouldn't it wouldn't matter yeah okay all right so I I didn't know if we had to specify in any what motion we would make because it's not six it's three and three right it's three and three can be slightly different and from what I've been seeing uh through my HR channels 3% is becoming pretty common that other counties are given uh both for this year and next year so I think we're still going to be in line with what other counties are given I mean I'm not seeing fives and six and sevens out there at least the the input that I'm getting from other HRS um but 3% and then the 3% Market study so when you see a county that says they gave 8% but they had a market study that might not be 8% as part of the market study it could be like we are 3% and then three but the action we would do today or what presumably that we we would be doing would be to deal with the market study 3% yes effective January 1 correct because the the um because Cola isn't decided until is correct Cola would be decided at the final meeting that which is already in some contracts correct and and that those all the contracts have 3% for next year um that is correct so thank you that's any other comments commissioner CR well just briefly I uh toally Echo commissioner Campbell's comments uh especially in that that piece about the option one and being the right way to go and the other again I strongly agree it's just a Band-Aid and a bad road to go down so right fully support that option one was what was initiated last time and that basically put us in a good position this time around to to meet the the promises we made our employees and still responsibly uh bring the salaries up to where we were competitive in the market too so I think option one is a wise choice commissioner moso thank you I just want to Echo the comments that the board has had this certainly has been a process and Darren and the team thanks for the work uh the long work it's taken to get here um to fulfill a promises that was made during negotiations certainly um you know I it's been an interesting few years in the HR World in regards to hiring and advertising for employment employees and and I think we avoided the the quick knee-jerk reaction by not doing a market study a year after the pandemic to wait it out a little bit to kind of have some of those hiccups work out and and there certainly still are challenges in regards to what the private sector can offer versus what um the public sector does but I'm hoping that this closes that Gap I'm certainly hopeful that because we did in include Sterns County some of the Metro counties now that are um 100% virtual to where people don't necessarily have to live in a highly populated area they can work from anywhere in an area um helped us align a little bit with with maybe that market pool um uh and agreed I you know budgets are tricky and it's a tricky year certainly there is a lot of challenge Alles in regards to the economy and how much it costs um a family to go get um one meal at a grocery store certainly has gone up and so while we recognize that our employees are facing those challenges as well it's it's also important for us in this position to be cognizant of what the taxpayer burden is as well so I don't want to um um leverage and make that that equal on the backs of our employees which is why I support option one but as we move into uh the next month to cognizantly look at um the budget I think is important as well so um thanks for your work to get us to this point and um hopeful that this will be help and I think U some of the things that the board has done has truly helped you know with with the public safety funds was helpful with the the uh remote work we have a lot of people that come in now and say do you offer remote work so that's a selling point as well um for for our recruiting efforts um the the recruitment bonuses and stuff I mean that all of that added all together has really helped in Recruitment and retaining employees Mr Campbell read so um the two positions that we we had 11 and there were two more that we found that needed some adjustment what were those two position uh it was correct sergeants and HR coordinator it's Mr Mr I I would move that we um and what what we what are we moving them to Darren to um the HR coordinator is goes to 19 and the correctional sergeants go to 17 I'll I think it's 17 I'll double check that okay okay but so they I guess what I want to do is I want to do the same for the we want to do the same for those two what we did for the other 11 and make that effective August 1st a so whatever that you know so my motion would be whatever that reflect the action you know whatever that uh where it goes on the grid yep it matches um yeah we would we we would apply the same mentality of so so I guess my first motion would be to do that one or those two position positions to move them up effective August 1 similar to the other 11 positions we did earlier it it would be August 3rd that would be the okay whatever August 3rd August 3rd okay that's my motion that you're going to have keep it separate from the yep okay I'll second that motion have motion to Second any further discussion on the movement of the correctional sergeants and HR coordinator if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes then Mr Mr chair based on the um weight study that we've done um I would move that we move forward with the option one proposal which would give an additional uh 3% Market adjustment effective January 1 um but it's easier to say the first payroll of 20 okay okay first payroll of 2025 thank you a second that have motion a second further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Darren Steve thank you we have Dale Arnold District supervisor uh with probation and he has his budget presentation welcome Dale i' had seen some other departments put together a presentation and they had a PowerPoint with theirs so I figured I would step up my game a little bit and put something together for you guys perfect um I wanted to start out um today talking a little bit about the state funding formula which is something that is new uh to the state of Minnesota um in the last year or two uh I don't want to get too much in the Weeds on this but I wanted to give just a brief overview of kind of how it works um so that we can kind of make it make sense so to speak so the purpose of the community supervision funding formulas to reimburse expenditures tied to Community Supervision and Community Based programming and services for persons involved in the justice system so what that means um is that for the purpose of uh refunding the counties um they had to put together a formula um so that it was done equitably and so the way that they have done this is they take the number of clients that are on supervision um in each County uh times this capitated rate and this capitated rate um is put together it is the average salary of all of uh the corrections employees um in the state times the number of uh probationers on Supervision in the state and then times three then times 365 and they get like this average number um and then and then they take take and then plugging that back into the state funding formula you take that times 365 and then the county is responsible essentially for 50% of that number um and this state funding formula is put together by anually and so they they come up with this capitated rate every two years and then they update the numbers um for each each County and so in 2022 uh we had 202 misdemeanor cases and 76 juvenile cases um for a total of 278 in the county uh the numbers today reflect a little bit higher numbers for both misdemeanor and juvenile cases um so you could probably anticipate U that in 2024 when they redo the state funding formula that the number uh would slightly increase um and so the return funding for each one of the counties is now done in monthly installments um and when you plug in the numbers specifically from Clay County um you'll find that uh the total ends up being like 520,000 and then so the county is build back those or paid back in monthly installments to equate that 261,000 administration pay uh some HR pay uh and that's also included what which we'll we'll I'll show you here in just a minute uh the state also funds some IT services some agency events and they offset some Transportation costs that are not included in that formula as well uh and you can see I kind of put together some data there for felony supervision as well which is um not associated with the county um and so in 2022 uh there were 537 on felony supervision and then 117 on supervisor release or parole um so 654 and so that's our Revenue we get the 261 348 based on that funding formula and then we also on average generate about 6,000 supervision fees which I'll I'll I'll discuss kind of where those supervision fees go here on the next slide uh so there were some changes in the department um in 2023 and 2024 um we had one agent in the department uh retire uh and that um resulted in some changes and we also had uh one juvenile agent uh move over to a state funded position and that has uh really adjust usted some of the numbers here uh that I'll talk about and so the salaries uh from for the budget for 2025 proposing a 5.6% increase um that's mostly due to Cola and the insurance increases um the STS program hasn't changed uh and that's contracted with the do at 75% as well health insurance uh there's a significant decrease and that's due to one of two of the employees one being moved over to the state uh funding source and then one employee retiring and you'll see that kind of aligned with perah Social Security and then for some reason which I cannot explain that Medicare has increase uh slightly um even though those two employees have moved rent uh for the contracted employees and the building is included on there and then there's the juvenile offender restitution program jorp and that's where this the 6,000 in supervision fees that we receive in Revenue um has been rolled up and kind of given back and what that allows us to do is if there's a juvenile who's placed on probation and and owes any amount of restitution to a victim um we use some of those some of that Revenue uh so that the juvenile May complete uh community service and then we use that Revenue to pay back the restitution to the victim and so that's been a a very big benefit so 600 for drug testing um travel Auto Repair conference registration and training has slightly increased uh to $200 telephone translator uh decrease I think technology is kind of driving the decrease for the need for a translator and then obviously the telephone system office supply small large equipment repair um you'll see small decrease there um and then this is that last part of the state funding formula the administration uh OAS senior support staff and the management for administration uh and there's a 10 and a 10 and a quarter increase there uh in the proposal and the reason for that is because the cost of living uh increase for 2024 uh was not added uh as well as uh Insurance increases for 2024 and so we're including both 202 4 and 2025 uh cost of living increase and um Insurance increase as well any questions about that commissioner Kraven off yeah just one uh just hear us on the two employees you talked about um so one going State the other retired are you looking to replace those not at the moment um the one the the one employee that moved over to the state was supervising a small juvenile case FL he had uh picked up some overflow the juvenile numbers are creeping up on supervision um you know we're probably in like that yellow stage you know kind of preparing if it ever crosses into the point where we can't manage it and maybe we'll have to try to figure something out but at the current moment um there has been no discussion about that thank you any other questions Dale and when we went through your through the through the budget one of the areas that we touched on was the decrease in health insurance um pretty significant there your your family contribution your individual contributions are significantly different is that is that where we attribute or is it just the two positions that I haven't been read I believe it's the two positions um and then you know any degree I don't really know exactly what theyed um in terms of what their coverage was um off hand but I would assume you're probably right any other questions D we appreciate the presentation oh I still got some more oh okay we'll see the total revenue for 2024 sorry apologize no problem um and then the total budget expenses from 2024 1.27 uh and so you subtract the revenue from budget expenses we get 760 2025 uh requesting 4 and a half% decrease um and that's kind of because of those positions moving and whatnot uh I do want to talk a little bit about what's upcoming this year um there's a we have applied for a DWI Court position uh to be implemented in the county uh that'll be no cost at the moment to the county don't anticipate there being a cost cuz it's a grant funded position uh and so that that is exciting um and then we are also going to potentially continue to work on moving uh the felony office uh into into the county building here which I think as well uh would be a benefit to the county as well if we if we can make that work the state funding formula is relatively new and uh I think over the course of the next five to 10 years you're going to see this number this state funding formula kind of go up and down and then eventually balance out uh there's also some potential legislative stuff going through is my understanding anyway that will uh also affect uh how certain counties are maybe potentially doing supervision and then overall kind of affecting how that that'll play out and so I I Envision that in the years to come um hopefully uh we'll see we'll see some increase in the state funding formula for the that is it well decrease is always nice uh certainly I know that the legislature uh or legislative work on this is about four years into it we're finally getting a little motion uh I I hope I'm not hearing that there's going to be surprises coming up in next couple legislative sessions but that's always a possibility with this fairly um novel process we have here in Minnesota it can be redefined with stroke of a pen so wish us all luck and thank you for your presentation oh commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair uh Dale I just want to speak a little bit to the DWI specialty Court I know that that is something that judge Rosenfeld has been really um wanting to Champion here and I know that there's been a lot of work with your office and others and just want to thank you for um whatever component of help you've provided to that uh this board really sees a high value with the specialty courts um the the transformative changes that can happen to the individuals that um that it works with so we're hopeful that that can become a model for the state so thank you for your work thank you anything else well thank you appreciate the presentation let's see on to committee reports and we're going to start with commissioner kravinoff thank you Mr chair so going back to last Tuesday afternoon we had our board work group uh in the afternoon we all attended that um having a discussion with uh HRA in their housing uh program um I thought they gave a good review I I was happy to see them kind of give a breakdown to their certain projects and knowing where their challenges lie and certainly as being a Lon to that group I I um see what they're trying to build on and the fact that how the time of the uh P pandemic affected them so much when there was a rental uh moratorium and they just had a large uh group of people that weren't paying rent and then went it came back on continuing to not pay rent so there are higher evictions than normal and um and they're recovering from that as well as unfortunately when people leave places sometimes and many times uh they uh somewhat uh destroy the property as they leave so there's been a lot of work um done to rehab those as they get re rented but uh again they um those things are all taken sh so I uh fully expect that their revenues will Contin to increase over the next year or two uh they came forward with a potential request to of Levy uh to be approved by us of around 350,000 um I'm going to just Segway so I don't have to talk about it twice then two days later uh I had I was uh delay is on then at their board meeting there was deeper discussion about um what was presented that day and Steve I think you may have received it maybe not but they passed the resolution um okay uh it'll be uh be coming then um that Levy amount that they were talking about uh finding uh funds um that were on a state grant that came through first part to April and looking at other savings um or other ways of reallocating and working with their project so that re uh that budget Levy request that was 350 dropped to 300 so um I think and that was passed huh oh okay all right very good so that that handles that that group uh the next morning I went to the wild rice Watershed District they did their budget lby and um there's a slight increase there but uh not too bad I don't have the exact percentage but it was um so again they'll be doing a levy up in that direction and Fay County is about uh 16% yeah 16% of their uh of their L um of our of our drainage that goes into the wild R Watershed also they uh made approvals on 17 projects uh uh 11 which were drain tile is uh the weat is uh harvested the ground gets open they get ready to start putting their drain tile in so that was significant and then the rest was structures uh the after um that afternoon I had a um historical and Cultural Society Retreat uh the main purpose of that Retreat we had brought in a facilitator um Marine Johnson who's been there for many many years is going to be retiring in July of 2025 and so the uh the whole Purp purpose of that um uh uh event which was about 5 hours long um uh was about transition planning looking at their successes and maybe a little um rep repositioning of some positions and then and and in particular marinees job you know uh discussion around um her uh that uh executive um director position how that might vary a little bit with the next higher so that at this point moves on to our transition group uh which I'm not part of but our executive committee and a couple others are on that and we uh will'll then start uh looking to get the new uh higher in place so that when um um Marine um retires in July of the next year that were uh up and running um uh on the 15th Thursday uh I as a visitor I or a guest I should say I listened in on the Metro Cog meeting U commissioner Mojo was at that uh I'll let her give more detail Insight on that and then uh also on Thursday um I had a um the suicide and substance prevention monthly meeting uh excellent uh meeting I was very happy to be part of that or listening in on that we had a presentation by our new uh community resource Navigator hired by the mo PD her name is Megan lunberg I think she's been working now maybe four months right in that ballpark anyway the uh and her purpose of a job is when uh calls come in to uh dispatch they're triaged over to her when it involves um uh uh assistance for mental health um and it just takes a little um uh White Off the uh PD for handling those type of calls uh she's documented um uh 18 calls uh of service that she's attended to and since her working with these uh people in their distress uh uh six of those 18 have not called again and uh four others have only called a couple other times so much fewer than before that so that job is um doing what was intended to do for the mor PD she ALS also helped uh supervision and and um uh involvement with the summer youth program that the PD had uh later in the meeting um uh through uh with the county uh Roy Beal Jason McCoy and Kristen leard there was mention of a grant that is in place now for resource es and um it's a four-year Grant uh that came in from uh Department of Health 500 Grand and and it's working with 14 Youth groups outside schools through sources of strength and other programs um uh to empower uh kids and and keep them hopefully away from uh making bad choices and then and more importantly uh in a way of life that can potentially lead toward um greater mental health distress leading to Suicide so anyway uh commissioner eer was part of that so that's my report thank you Comm commissioner Mojo thank you last week I also attended the HR meeting that was well covered thus far I attended the board canvasing um election cany rather with commissioner Campbell as to certify the election results in this room I attended the um metrocog uh meeting as um identified by commissioner karabanov we approved a GIS specialist employment offer a attorney engagement letter and talked about the North Dakota Mo um for the AAC approval but also approved the um BNSF study which has been a long time coming to get that to where it is and then yesterday sorry commissioner Campbell and I attended the withdrawal management detox facility openhouse planning um meeting we did talk about a ribbon cutting for our both the DMV and the detox facility were anticipating that being October 1st um so you can all Mark that on your calendars at 1:00 will'll be hosting tours for the chamber and the Morehead Business Association after but also providing the public uh the ability to see the new facilities so a lot of work and coordination between all of the different departments um that were at that meeting certainly grateful for their help to lift that but even more grateful for the opportunity um to have those facilities up and running for the public um there'll be you know a lot of Public Communication that will come from Jackie on on coordinating when the DMV at the center mall is no longer and when that move will happen um but that's what we covered at that meeting and that concludes my reports thank you commissioner Campbell thank you on August 13th uh I attended a a diversion Highway tracking coordination meeting regarding uh issues related to reach four um in on the Minnesota side for the diversion project several issues are still outstanding there and reach for um that that part of the project has been awarded by the core of engineers uh to be constructed but with that there are still a couple of components in there that are kind of a critical timeline and and one is um a small closure of a road in Holy Cross Township uh that needs to be done and and there hasn't been an agreement on that yet and um ultimately you know Klay County may be asked to um step in and assist with with those needs because that there's a very small section that will be permanently closed and that's the area that we're we're talking about here that needs to be resolved uh rather quickly um I know um Brian Milton was able to be at that meeting and and I think he's going to be reaching out on behalf of the county to um with with Holy Cross or their representatives to have that that discussion uh then on the 15th we had the Public Safety Committee meeting uh commissioner eringi and basically the review as to what do we do with the unallocated Public Safety dollars and we acted on that this morning based on that committee's recommendation and then yesterday I also attended the uh open openhouse planning for the withdrawal management and the DMB facility and commissioner Mojo also report on that and I just want to um go back to today a little bit for the actions that we took um I just want to comment to you know we've been for the last few months now we've been looking at every Department's budget requests and um you know I I I think the action that we took today in regards to the Wade study and our intentions on Cola is this you know that's going to be a significant U cost to the to the county and I that can't go unrecognized in addition to what we're anticipating is the based on our third year of agreement with blue cross a 9% increase in health insurance so you know so when you look at those two numbers it's significant um uh but I I just want to point that out that over and above this there are still a lot of uh demands that are coming before the county and um I think what we did today is we prioritized uh where the money has to go first and that's taking care of the people who are providing these services for the residents of Clay County and it that's where we need to start uh I'm not so sure that all of the other um proposals that we've had are uh going to be um probably as as um able to to do I know we can't be looking at 10 and 12% increases as being sustainable uh to our the taxpayers of Klay County so I'm just pointing that out that I I think we took a step in the right direction to take care of the most important part of this and that's our employees and uh with that I'm finished thank you on uh Tuesday the 13th I attended the county the meeting with our County HRA which has already been covered um on the 15th Thursday uh I attended uh remotely the suicide and substance abuse committee meeting which has been reported on by commissioner kravinoff uh one one thing I want point out Annabelle uh gave a a uh presentation on a four-year grant for subance abuse and uh suicidal uh issues from the Minnesota Department of Health that is being worked on I don't believe it's been the grants come through yet but she gave an update on the report on that um later no I'm sorry on the 17th I attended uh the uh L Agy Regional Library uh executive committee meeting and finance commit committee meeting we reviewed a salary survey that's been done and we set up negotiations with asme the attor the uh uh Labor uh unit uh for the library out there and I will be serving on the the negotiation committee for that um one of the things the study did show is that the lake agasse employees are way under rate and we're going have to look at uh at trying to close that Gap so that that is issues to deal with here in the future uh Friday I went to Detroit Lakes we had our uh partnership for Community Health board meeting quarterly meeting there uh agreed on food pool and lodging program fees uh for the most part the the big issues there are with Otter Tail County it has a huge number of vacation home rentals that they have that's where some very big fees are attached and we are just kind of following the the identified needs of them in setting the the costs on that um had a couple of presentations and update on Finance in Staffing and nothing really just kind of gener eneral business after that and that completes my report Steve thank you Mr chair uh last week participated in the HRA uh that's been well covered with the comments of commissioner kravinoff and receiving the special benefit tax that their their Board of Commissioners signed I believe they're under the same timeline from a budget standpoint so I can look to have them come in here and coming weeks uh on the 14th we had Clay County management again we T talked about 2025 budget of the market study that was addressed here this morning uh strive 2025 and what an intergovernmental Retreat may look like uh next year um the 14th I met on commissioner Campbell commissioner mojo on the solid waste budget uh the 14th also met with the representatives from the diversion Authority that has been addressed uh the 15th participated in the public safety funding uh also MCC jpa prep meeting uh we have a meeting this coming Thursday uh there's a number of items uh that will be addressed uh there from uh rips uh rimp excuse me um also some additional uh additional uh water excuse me purchases of property uh that will be addressed uh and also some leases um we uh on the 15th met in the afternoon with with representatives from the Minnesota DNR Greg strowman strowman uh from the Clay County Trail Alliance uh we were fortunate enough to be selected as with as a fiscal review uh with the DNR as their sponsor uh and so uh the the Greg and and the trail Alliance has have done a great job with the documentation working with the county uh and so just a few minor different things that that will that were mentioned but overall it was a it was a good meeting uh again along with the six other or five other staff right now that had various uh Naco leadership academy uh meetings throughout last week met with Sheriff empting uh on talked about some hiring challenges and also or hiring I guess not challenges being full staff and also then uh vehicle issues that he's continuing to have uh both with existing and then also in trying to acquire some of his 202 five vehicles yesterday I participated or planned some department head evaluation prep we have a meeting scheduled this afternoon with representative Keeler and Senator kupek uh in regards to the ptrf uh plan moving forward uh so had some prep there uh participated in the open house meetings for the DMV uh and the the withdrawal management if you see up at the site now there already are some signs hanging on the on the fences about the opening date uh and then yesterday afternoon I met with Lori Johnson auditor Treasurer in additional discussions about the budget and with that that concludes my report thank you m mton anything for us thank Aon Jackie everybody's quiet Kevin Mr I just I just follow up from Darren regarding the question I asked regarding variable hour we have Juvenile Detention secure and nonse secure has 77 of the 150 uh Corrections has seven and detox has 23 and then the rest are scattered throughout the department so so there's roughly about 150 thank you Darren right anything else we're adjourned e