##VIDEO ID:hW-NCWL0628## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening it's 5 p.m and I'm calling the Clay County Board of Commissioners meeting for November 26th the order the first order of business is the approval of the agenda Mo approval have motion to Second all in favor say I I I post same sign next we have citizens to be heard do we have any citizens here that wish to address the commission on any item that's not on tonight's agenda Steve do we have anybody online we do not Mr chair righty next approval of payment of bills and vouchers offer approval to pay the bills and vouchers second motion to Second all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign and approval of the minutes from November 12th 2024 move to approve thank have motion to Second all in favor say i i o same sign motion passes all right next we have legislative updates from our entire group here but we'd like to just invite all three of you up front at the same time we have representative Heather Keeler Senator Rob kupek and representative Jim Joy it's an honor to have you guys here tonight thank you for coming we'll just let you uh in order of preference just step into it and and give us whatever briefing you want and then we'll open it up for questions I'll go first than you're on the agenda first so it's perfect yeah this is what I'm going to to my seniority right okay so um one hello um just want to say thank you for all the work that we've been able to do together for the updates I'm going to provide you um the things I'm going to talk about are definitely not mine and mine alone um the number one priority that I have for going into this session is our psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility this is something that we've talked about in the community and pretty robustly for the last two years years as many of you may be remember as our first ask was going to be strictly just a bonding ask what we learned from that is um in a short amount of time we had 23 counties five tribal Nations really lean into the fact that this was a regional need um and then in the interim we I don't know if you remember but a year ago we brought some of the committee out here and had a really robust conversation to realize that this was a Statewide need um we've done a lot of work with the agencies behind the scenes both Department of Health Department of Human Services and now Department of Corrections to really make sure that this is a top priority for them um understanding that the need that we could um serve is not only for us but a border-to-border approach and so I want to say thank you for all the work you have all done um to go to cities to get resolutions counties and different organizations um working with higher education institutions as well to make sure that this can be sustainable and so um we have all talked pretty extensively about that knowing that this is going to be um an extremely bipartisan effort what we continue to say is addressing mental health um we have to put our parties aside and do what's right for our next Generations in our um region and I'm really proud of our team for being able to commit to that going in um the second priority that I have is um last year we had legislation to create a legislative attendance and study group um treny study group uh which we know happens it's a unique blend of the education system and then partnering in with the county because once you're Trent um it gets sent over for CPS um and then potentially child removal if they feel like it's a neglect and so um have been working in a very bipartisan way with representative bakeberg he's a principal um somewhere in down in the city's area um but to really make sure that we're also addressing attendance um and working close with your treny team um as our school district was given one of the 13 Pilots program funding sites um and so the school district should be working pretty close with you all um on how to make sure our kids are in school the last priority I have um should come at no surprise but it's to address homelessness as you know we've um been able to provide uh County homeless Aid that comes to you all for you to use what is seen fit within your county um for the needs and so just continuing to lean into that so that you all can be um one of the main leaders and how we really address homelessness as a holistic support um you know moving forward in this community so those are my top three priorities looking forward to working with you all over the next two years to address those thank you thank you Senor CC sure thank you uh uh I will also Echo uh representative keeler's marks on the psychiatric Regional treatment facility and and also commend you uh for the work that you've done on that um it's really we we're going to lead in the state I think on this issue on that uh so I will have the chair of the Senate Human Services committee will be coming up here on the 16th for a visit and uh I think uh hopefully we'll get Senator uty uh also our neighbor to the east who also sits on that committee uh to also be along he's kind of in town but working on something so hopefully he can break away and join us on that and I think that'll be a the money for that will on the Senate side anyway will come out of his committee so I think that'll be uh important uh other things that I'll be uh kind of working on uh this session uh sustainable aviation fuel obviously with the uh plant that's been proposed here in Morehead um there's a few things regulatory wise at the state level plus there's a tax uh break that we put in two years ago that'll need to be renewed so those will be kind of uh crucial things to make sure that we can uh get that to to happen here uh County Emergency managers uh the the association of County Emergency managers has approached me about carrying a bill uh to have some funding for County Emergency managers they do a lot of work um we only see them sometimes in a time when there's a disaster but behind the scenes as you all know they're doing a lot of work and the state asks a lot of them but we don't really give them any money uh for a lot of the things that we're asking so I'll be uh carrying that and I will probably bring back with a in the similar vein I had a bill for some money for County weed agents I will probably also bring uh that back don't know what we're going to have to work with for money uh we'll have a budget forecast out here in a couple of weeks uh that'll probably give us a little bit better uh as representative keelers mentioned too housing homelessness obviously uh with what's been happening here locally with Churches United is a huge concern here so that'll be high on our agenda uh I will also and I've talked probably endlessly about my electronics recycling bill um but we will do that we did a great tour uh with commissioner Campbell over at the uh facility there in perum uh and it is uh we can pull more of that electronic waste out of that stream that is going to burn at a much more efficient rate uh it makes their life a lot easier and it will also uh the counties across the state incur costs for recycling these electronics and so we want to be able to capture more and also make you whole uh with the cost that you have on that so that'll be it uh obviously hop brings Eternal for a bonding Bill uh um which I think uh you know for many of us will be uh a priority which obviously will have flood mitigation money uh will be uh in that as well uh Child Care will continue uh it's always one of the top issues I worked on uh we are also looking at trying to get the uh police uh skills training center located uh either here in Morehead I know the post board may be having some uh changes coming on that I'm not sure how U that's going to be their changes are going to be received um but whatever happens we need to get some kind of skills Training Center here uh it will only help us in uh recruiting and with our competition to our neighbors to the East and getting and retaining law enforcement here in our area and then uh last thing um I've been on the rural EMS task force and we all allocated some money towards that last year it was just kind of a little drop and I think if there's money to be had or a funding source we're going to have to look at that and we're really talking about um really EMS has not been has been kind of neglected it is not handled the same way we handle fire and police and it is an essential service and the state needs to be putting some money towards that essential service very good thank you and representative Joy thanks for having me I uh Echo what representative keer said on the psychiat facility and I appreciate all your work on that and I think that's something we could do in Champion for this District Right Way um some of the other things I'm going to be working on is uh 911 fees is a big thing for me I still have very little answers on that I uh have just sent more emails out to discover that I think we got to continue to put in a permanent funding for First Responders EMS fire police and we have to do that on a permanent basis and I think it's something that can come out of 911 fees it uh still been silent on that haven't heard a lot about where all their money goes I'd like to know more on that breakdown the other thing I think we're going to have to fix is Paid Family Leave paid family leave is coming forward to us it's hitting the township officials I mean this is hitting elected Township officials this is going to hit us in our district all around I think this is something I think we got to repeal or look at it's affects our schools too I also think uh meeting with our uh Klay coner superintendent they're going into deficit spending and that's something we got to do is look at these mandates they said if we remove some of these mandates their deficit it would change their budgets I think this is reality this is something we're going to have to look at this year so those are some things I of course sit on taxes so I would like to see reduced taxes but uh we'll see how the session goes but I just think there's a lot to be looked at as we move forward and what our actually our budget's going to look like you know um sales tax has been down the last two quarters over about it was $66 million and $46 million in just sales tax we got to figure out why sales tax is dropping what's going on so I think it's reality and uh I hope I I you know all of our bills comeing forward are going to have to be bipartisan we got a split government this year which I think is good and I think we can work together and do that I think we can work on uh line item bills smaller bills we don't need a lot of bills rush through but we can get what we need to get done and I hope for a small bonding Bill coming through this year too so thank you thank you questions I don't have any questions but I do have a comment okay commission M thank you to the three of you for showing up today I think for the public it's important to note that there have been times in which this body has met with our elected leaders in St Paul and and we would provide an update to you on things that are priorities or needs and I can honestly say the feedback and the dialogue that we have had with all three of you over the last session and the offseason if you will uh is is is really important because we've been able to show you what's going on we've been able to collaborate we've been able to think critically on how we can address the needs of all of Clay County in your district and it's no surprise today the the um priorities that you all have really reflect the priorities and the needs in which we're seen uh Klay County really operates as an extension of the state and so I think it's important for us to continue to have really good dialogues with all of you uh but I'm really excited about the Partnerships that you've helped us build with your colleagues in St Paul that we're continuing to build with so many people here locally that are taking such an active stance in lobbying if you will for the needs of our residents um there are some painful painful issues that we're seeing with uh young children in our community and so we are just really uh encouraged to hear from all three of you that that prtf is a large priority going forward because um I said yesterday at the city council meeting to have 26 counties offering letters of support five tribal Nations higher ed K through2 Ed and then most of the large cities in Clay County that's that's a huge collaboration that we don't often see and um however we can help you to continue to spread the need on that specific issue we're um definitely making ourselves available to do that on the other issues uh we certainly have had dialogues and you've showed up in meetings and Township meetings and you've heard from the Barnesville and the Hol of the world that uh EMS is a challenge and it's really really hard uh with volunteer uh with volunteer groups to make ends me no um no transports all the work that you're doing on that piece because as someone who lives in rural Clay County and um someone who had a sister die because there was not uh ambulance that could off uh transport in time I'm very aware that there are pockets of our of our County that do not have adequate service for that so thank you for your continued work on that commission Campbell yeah I want to comment first thank you for your work on the prtf that's I think we've we've taken a a lot of time here in Klay County and we've really designed something that will really be good not only for this region but for the state and to show the flexibility that we have as we've been in the design phase we recently heard from DHS that they were they were wondering about potentially converting a part portion of that to being a locked facility there's none in the state and working with the conversations with Solutions who we intend would plan to run that facility they have agreed that that would be good and so it's just that's another deal that strengthens our argument for why it should be here because there isn't any in the state and unfortunately we don't like to see any kids locked up but there are some that it's for the safety of all that that's what has to be done um I I I I want to touch a little bit on the homeless issue because that is really it's really hit the news here recently um and I'm glad to see that there's a lot of community discussion uh every quarter we have a a regional AMC regional meeting District meeting meeting and at one of our most recent ones one of the questions was do you have a homeless issue in your in your county and what do you do about it and the interesting thing was from the smaller counties on up some of the smaller counties we don't have a homeless issue and then that it seemed like the higher populated county that was the more significant that issue became and you know so to me that might be saying well these people are trying to get where they can have services you know and so and obviously we're we're the biggest area in Northwest Minnesota the the one thing that I and I caution this board and I I'm always curi careful about this is that I don't think these types of situations should be funded from a property tax standpoint I you know I think this the state has uh a lot better opportunity and I'm thankful for what we get that goes through the social service department but any way that we could have increase and you're I know um Senator koic you talked about that and maybe working to see those funds increased but to me that is a a better solution to help solve the problem as I remind all of our colleagues on here I I look at that property tax as a very regressive tax and and I and we shouldn't be using regressive forms of tax to help those in need so so any way any any way that you can help out in that regard uh I'm sure Quinn Quinn's sitting back there the head of our social service department I'm sure he'd love it if he could send out an RFP on being able to use even more to even having more money to help solve that problem so that's I guess that's that's kind of my deal on the homelessness but I I I really hope that you can help find support for that issue because it's not going to go away I guess I would just comment on the fact that most of the issues have been covered already you know but you know when this new gener I mean not new generation when you guys came out and took over for Ken Paul and for Ben and we said boy they got some big shoes to fill I think you were the right size though you guys doing a great you did a great job and I appreciate your help that you're given us thank you yeah uh thank you all and uh congratulation on your reelection of course um I guess I'm being in the last it'd be a little bit of a repeat but I sincerely say this um it's nice to get you to know you as friends it's nice to get to know you as uh working partners with us and and um I want to thank you for the ease of accessibility and I look forward to the work we do in St Paul together um not only is it trying to bring something forward but you know to you but you help us with the other people down there and and having that um uh for me anyway when you mentioned go talk to such and such that means somewhere there's been a conversation that breaks the ice so we can walk in there with some confidence and be carrying a message as one you know for the whole state so I just appreciate the back and forth that we all have going so thanks and I'll just wrap it up so all five of us have something to say it's been a pleasure we are coming into a very interesting time in politics and in this state we have a it's right down the middle with you guys and I'm sure that's going to put a lot of pressure on you but yeah I I I actually had regular contact with fellow named David PRI who was a Senator first a governor and then a senator from Arkansas and he and I had an opportunity to discuss things a number of occasions and he said something to me that really stuck and he said the key to good legislation is everybody needs to leave the room a little bit unhappy he says if you have everybody walk out of the room a little unhappy you got good legislation and you know I think that would make us happy we operate here uh this a nonpartisan position is really a great place to be because we don't answer to anybody but ourselves and our constituents and I hope you guys feel the same way because you're not there because your party you're there because of who you are in these communities and what you've got to contribute and we're very grateful for what you brought to the table and I want you to know you were spoken of well with this group and we we are happy with with who represents us and we will support you any way we can thank you can I add one thing I I know that you're coming Steve's going to be coming down I think every other week right or or something like that something like that yeah okay we'll be seeing you more often yes um but also I think it's really important for the people in the room and who's listening that um your stories also matter um adding written testimony you know to the the things that we've talked about being our um priorities really helps we know that the geographic spread is hard to get down to the capital to testify with us for three minutes but um if you all in the community want to share your story on why this matters um written testimony is just so powerful as well and so just making sure we all know that um our community voice is really what helps us get things across the Finish Line um it's been fun to have you all come down and sit at the tables with us to testify but that community voice um really makes a difference for us all to be able to do our work as well thank you Mr chair I might add too when it comes to Steve I you know I think our board has kind of Enlisted the help of Paul and and Jenny to on a Call's notice to be down there to help you in any type of committee discussions that you might have too so um I think they've kind of taken the pledge to make a quick trip if needed to we have a rapid rapid Response Unit there yeah yeah we have there two Commissioners and a rapid response for legisl taking the plunge thank you you guys have a good Thanksgiving briefly quickly I know that we've talked about this so it's no surprise but our third priority obviously is the flood mitigation funding and we've had lots of conversations with that but didn't want uh the meeting to go off without us mentioning that we'll continue to be advocating for that need thank you thank you thank you when you're up I don't know why I always have the toughest acts to follow I guess uh good evening Mr chair Commissioners I am here unfortunately again to request to replace a social worker in our child protection services division um this is a resignation in the case management unit so it's a little bit different than the previous two that I came for uh the case load activities for this social work position are ongoing Child Protection Services aot of Home placement activities uh a lot of Court work filing petitions filing Court reports uh case planning with families working with Community providers and stakeholders um it's responsible for meeting our DHS DCF mandates for Child Protection Services once it hits the ongoing case management side of the work um this position is unique in that it does generate some child welfare targeted case management Revenue which is not the same for the assessment investigator positions um it's difficult to predict what that is because it's dependent on eligibility of the families that the case manager is working with um but on average it does generate some Revenue this is a budgeted position in the 20125 budget uh I've included the wage calculation uh would anticipate an approximately Savings of about $5,700 uh as I would anticipate uh this position starts at step one and the current occupant is at step three and I would yield for any questions that you may have commissioner Campbell good afternoon Quinn um yeah this this child protection one seems to show up a lot it's tough yes and I I guess what I so do you do exit interviews or does Darren do exit interviews or how does Darren maybe want to pipe in uh we do do we do send out exit interviews um some people return them some people do not okay um are are these are these position when these positions are they leaving the county or are they maybe taking other positions within the county is it it does vary uh we see a little bit of both um we see a lot of lateral movement when positions and other divisions open up um this particular person is leaving the County um whether it's a formal exit interview or not we try to collect that information as much as possible in my previous role obviously I dealt with this quite a bit yeah I I guess I guess when you when you start to see a a a lot of revolving door in a certain area you have to start asking questions how how what could we do different yeah you know and I you know sometimes there it's difficult and maybe there maybe there is nothing you can do but at least it should be looked at I this this you're being new in your position now maybe it'd be a time to absolutely yeah yeah if if I had a great answer for it I would have told Ronda to do it six years ago but but that being the case I mean the reality is is that sometimes um the job just gets at you um I know it's a difficult job yeah yeah this person in particular is as sad as I am to see them go um they were pretty transparent with me about why they were leaving and them taking care of themsel is always going to be kind of our priority so as sad as I am I'm also thankful that they were brave enough to make that decision and realize that it was having some negative impacts on them that probably shouldn't be happening and that's the emotional toll that can come with doing the work and Child Protection but I couldn't agree more constantly looking at how can we improve things how can we um increase that retention is something I think about quite often I make a most to proof you backfill too I I would request backfill I don't anticipate it but I would request it just in case with backfill second okay have motion second any further questions not we'll move to a vote all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks Quinn thank you Justin Shor our County engineer did you bring us supper or what you're hanging with a rough crowd there yeah um good evening so the item I have today is a resolution for the DNR so this resolution just is the way that we get funds back for maintaining the Art Trail which runs from UL to the north county line This is an annual thing that we have to do every year and just make sure that we can get back the funds that we put into it Mr chair I'll offer a motion to approve resolution 2024 d34 on second I have motion a second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you J okay next Rory Schmidt Rory technology Serv director good evening uh just here today to uh ask for a replacement to our electronic storage system here at the County uh current one we have is about 5 years old and nearing the end of life and we'd like to replace it with uh lowest lowest cost option out of the three quotes we received which was uh Pure Storage brand through Marco Inc for $999,000 $34. 33 uh the other two were uh one from B speed which is is $15,995 and the other one for $16,198.73 I'll second with a question uh did you look over these bits why there's a 50,000 567,000 difference yeah these are the three cheapest ones they get it in over 200,000 as well so um but yeah they uh they offer they range each brand is a little bit different but the uh the swing in prices quite a bit you feel the offer what you need I I second is U is there a warranty that comes with this yep a fiveyear that's un for all these all any other questions not all in favor the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Rory why don't we since we're running a little bit ahead do some verom reports believe we're going to start with commissioner moso tonight commissioner Mojo might not be ready oh you're always ready okay um last week we're going back to the 19th correct uh yes I believe so yep all right so that evening on the 19th I attended the Klay County Planning Commission meeting we had um just barely made a quorum so I appreciate those that were able to attend we did have uh an up discussion on chapters 1 through four of the development ordinance update and then we sorry we had a number of hearings on the agenda we had an iup from a um in regards to a second dwelling actually the first two were second dwellings um those were approved they fit within the parameters and the need and then we had uh interim used permit for a dog kennel facility in southern Clay County that also was approved and then a iup uh for [Music] wholesome so that one did take a little bit of discussion but um did go ahead and permit that part of what Clay County Planning has tried to do as we have a lot of gravel and some of them are are um needing to have additional hearings we're trying to align the time of operation as closely as possible with all of those and so that's what the sub you know the substantial discussion came through on that uh the township did have their requirements and wanted it a specific way so we did make a recommendation I do know they needed to have additional conversations with the township sorry you really caught me off guys hard there not usually uh Wednesday the 20th I attended the joint Powers board meeting at the Red River Basin commission we had really great updates on some um uh reporting software we had great updates and discussion from all of the member entities so I appreciated the opportunity to sit at that table uh the next day I attended the November swack committee meeting uh good updates from commissioner Campbell on the Prairie Lakes piece we had a dialogue on the success of the take Jack back the community is really rallied around that and then at the end we uh were informed that the city of Morehead has supplied a a one-year notice on their intent to uh separate at the resource recovery facility that is certainly disappoint pointing as we jointly went to the legislature to ask for the funds to build that facility to see enormous savings um I I know that there are components uh both for the city of Morehead and Clay County that um there were some cost some mutual benefit because of that collocating the city had identified snow removal and law uh lawn care as part of the issue the other issue is that they have had a 20% increase in Material Handling um based on the discussions that we've had at Solid Waste over the last year uh the amount of trash that is generated from all of our citizens has not gone down if anything I think it's gone up and so as we have dialogue with the city and on what I guess my hope is that we can figure out some way to mutually agree that this is beneficial I know that there is a about $1,000 a day savings on trucking uh from the city of morehead's perspective so I that that does there are some benefits there so uh if it seems like I'm even more prepared for the answer on this one that I am about my committees that was certainly a shock as uh we went to the legislature um as partners on that that afternoon I attended the MCC jpa board meeting um we did have property acquisition reports and litigation action updates we approved a relocation reimbursement we uh did make an amendment to one of the solar garden release agreements and then approved uh Farmland lease rates for properties affected and then we did highlight that Klay County will continue to go forward for the additional um the additional flooding flood mitigation dollars from the state that evening I attended the Metro Cog policy board meeting we had um adjusted it to um not conflict with the diversion Authority so we were able to get the business done we did have uh approval of the 2025 um Health Vision dental insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota for staff we approved a Matt Bus appointment to to the policy board and approved a human resources Consulting Services agreement which is General business that we've done before and approved the 2025 through 2028 tip amendments and metr profile final report the comprehensive Safety Action Plan report and the EV Readiness study final report lots of really great reports uh and stud studies that are um being finished up at metrocog so I encourage the uh citizens to go on metr cogs website to read those if they are into that and that evening I attended the Metro Cog open house that they had in Dilworth on the 15th Avenue study it was really interesting to hear feedback from the community on on potential alignments or projects and future collaboration potential with the Heartland Trail Friday I attended the um uh teams meeting with Matt Jacobson of our Planning Commission or planning and zoning department you've heard me talk a little bit about a proposed solar project that's um proposed to go through in uh Southern Clay County East of Barnesville a substantial amount of Acres there's been a lot of confusion throughout the community um we've had I've had several land owners in the city of Barnesville reach out just to see if we knew much more so um I believe Steve jumped on that as well we had a long dialogue with them on their project it's called the Buffalo Ridge project the amount of time that needs to go through because it's so large it's uh permited at a different level um and I think the intent of that was to really gain information so that we can adequately exp when they reach out to us what that project looks like after that I attended the Lakeland Mental Health Center finance committee report we did um jump in depth on that budget for proposed for 2025 pretty intensely I had previously attended the Klay County budget proposal with Klay County social services staff and so there really wasn't anything new on that there was some dialogue from other Commissioners that wanted maybe some of our um Capital Investments reported in a different [Music] way and I think that concludes that day yeserday um sorry I'm going to have to come come back because I I'm a little l unorganized right now that concludes my reports for right now I might have you talked about last night what ahead oh I'm sorry um okay yesterday I as part of our prtf committee requested to be on the agenda at the city of Morehead to Garner a resolution of support from the city council on our prtf uh commissioner kraban and I attended that we were able to um uh plead our case if you will to provide all of the vast support as I alluded to earlier and it was exciting to hear that uh the city of Morehead will be offering their support during actually just about 10 minutes ago we received the letter of support from the city and then we will be um getting a resolution of support from The City the second week in December uh also that yesterday I couldn't attend in person but I did listen to the Dorth city council um and they also uh were very appreciative of so many people taking a step forward to address this critical need and they also signed a resolution of support for the project was had a meeting this morning if you want to talk about that one what on he owned land oh I'm so sorry I just just to help you out I know you're getting a little bit older yeah okay um we all get older sorry I've been what did you say what did you say we all get older yeah I've been home with a sick daughter for two days so I'm just a little yeah I apologize so this morning oh my gosh this morning I attended the smooth what rank's pretty smooth I can't even hear it this morning I attended the Clay County on did have a follow-up dialogue this board has um been reported to that there's a Riverton Pro Township property that we've identified as a potential for seeking uh RFP for a lease for a single track motorbike operation there's some a group in town that was really excited about that um sometime in between the last meeting and the meeting this morning the there has been um the sheriff's office has put up some K9 training boxes out there the sheriff's department has some concerns with uh sharing that property that belongs to the solid waste um department on that so we did have a pretty dis pretty long discussion on that so that concludes my report thank you commissioner Campbell go for it just see if has any and keep in mind commissioner gross is watching yeah yeah all right on um last Wednesday I I attended the Prairie Lakes Solid Waste meeting and you know the finan this year the um the reserves is the same the cash the cash balance is about 500,000 lower than the prior year but within that during the current budget they paid for some long-term U projects so they didn't have to go into the internal service fund so there we're still in the plus and hopefully by the end that even even get better the other issue that came up and we've talked about the the uh Ash and we're looking at trying to create a new use for the Ash and Road beds uh there's a lot of work being done in that and I've talked about about how the Ottertail County Ash landfill is meeting its capacity and they just recently uh went to an adjoining land owner and the land owner had agreed in principle to uh sell the land sell a portion of the land that that could be used by the county and the only stipulation was they wanted to have it done by December 31st of course that's a decision that'll need to be made by the Ottertail County board but um Ottertail County wanted some sort of assurance from um Prairie Lake solid waste that that we could enter into in a negotiation to use that land of which we will need to do anyway so what we agreed to is an agreement and principle um that that we would we would enter into a negotiated agreement on the operation side of if they purchase that land and that's the best we could do at this point in time but there will be more information coming on that I believe the dollar number for the land purchase was somewhere around $100,000 so uh then I the next day I attended this um Solid Waste advisory committee meeting um Corey introduced Darren is uh Darren's kind of taking over that portfolio a little bit he's going to be at those meetings in place of Steve um and then we also heard from Corey about some demolition landfill increase costs uh they were going from U our current charges that we have are ,550 and Corey proposed that we go to 1940 and the curent and another one there're two different fees the other one was 20 to 25 and so the board authorized um or recommended to this board so Cory will be coming to this board with potentially increasing those those fees and of course we what I suggested is we try to keep those fees as close to what our costs are as possible because the more we and any of you guys that have live in the townships know that the more fees cost the more you find things in ditches and so we we need to we need to find that happy medium and that's why a lot of times in the case of of televisions we subsidize that we don't charge people to drop those off because otherwise we're finding them in ditches throughout the county and and having to have that cost to collect them and do something with them so and then of course we did um talk a little bit about the letter that was received that commissioner Mojo talked about um I've asked I've asked that we meet with the U group that's been through the Cooperative agreement that we have there's a committee that's supposed to meet so I've asked that that meeting happen soon to go over those issues and um try to resolve I I I don't I don't know there's a lot a it it was a frustrating letter to to say to say the least and and they you know they talk about the financial things that they said well we weren't aware of these things well they they were in the agreement you know so it's um maybe they maybe they were surprised at how significant the prices were um and one of their big issues was commissioner moo mentioned that there's 20 % more garbage being processed well within the city there's even more but on top of that now that facility has to allow rural residents to come in there uh what's interesting is they don't operate any more hours in the day so I don't know how their expenses could be any higher they're their people are there anyway working so we have we have to have some discussions on that it was um and and again I and council member Hendrick and he did say that you know according to the contract they had to provide that letter according to the agreement in the event that we couldn't come up with some sort of you know resolution to the problem so worst case scenario is they'll be done in a year then we'll have to see how we charge them so uh then uh then that same day I did attend the more County Joint Powers board meeting uh commissioner Mo I don't have anything to add based on commissioner Mo's report to that and then at 3:30 we had a diversion oh the MCC MCC jpa yeah yeah then um that afternoon I had the diversion Board of authority meeting uh no new there was um nothing really new to add there uh commissioner Sherling and commissioner um um Peterson it was there last meeting they were they were in C County they were termed out so so they're so they had an opportunity to speak about their time on there and it was um nice to hear their thoughts and we wish them wish them well moving forward yesterday I attended the um West Central Regional water meeting in Hallstead it was um pretty interesting meeting uh we did hear we had a a presentation on the FI Financial policy presentation and then we got into the Weeds on a little bit of uh a little bit of stuff and one of the things that we that they asked us to consider is um how how the cost distribution how you how we're going to Bo go about a cost distribution and there's they refer to it as three three options there's a segregated cost there's a option two which a postage stamp and a third one which was a tiered approach and in in the postage stamp option it was it was more evenly you know the costs were more evenly split amongst all the users and they were kind of looking for a a recommendation on where to go and so we we kind of well we did a we did a a move to go with that option um I'm it's hard to get too far in the weeds talking about it but there's a lot to it um and we got our our another a little bit and we did have some conversation uh there still is the issue for those of you I think we reported on the court proceeding and in the court proceeding one of the only negative there was a lot of individuals who were looking forward to having real water but they um they're um there was one entity who had some concerns about the boundaries that P County had established and so there's a lot of discussion on that and and we basically said P County and Marshall pulk is the other water district need to figure out that boundary and that's where that's at so and then um of the 300,000 that we jointly had put in the three count 211,000 of that has been spent obviously we're going to not get to where we need to be uh between that 211 and 300,000 uh but we are looking for alternative sources to help with the planning and that's including West Central initiative and some other sources that we're going to to help try to get additional funds in for that planning process so that concludes my report Mr chair thank you yes I do now part it's hard to report on your committees when you look at November 2025 in your calendar that's why nothing is written down so the only uh meetings that I did forget there I did have a meeting uh in regards to the prtf and um figuring that out moving forward I had a meeting with uh Ryan Erdman from extension on planning for uh the next year's meetings and then yesterday I did attend the meeting at Lakeland Mental Health Center's annual or monthly meeting so thank you okay thank you I'm going to uh call a break right now we've got a truth and Taxation in about 10 minutes so we'll take a short break e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we're reconvening okay it's 601 and we have a truth and Taxation scheduled for six o'clock and we're going to proceed with Steve thank you thank you Mr chair good evening on behalf of the the county Clay County Board of Commissioners I'd like to welcome those attending truth and Taxation both in person and watching online uh budget packets are available uh in the chambers here for those interested wanting to go through the packet with us uh if also tonight if those of you are here that plan to speak to make sure that you sign in on the clipboard uh and also when you come up uh uh to uh to speak make sure that you say first last name and Township uh residents for the record just a reminder uh that tonight is about providing comment for the proposed 2025 budget uh if you have an issue with your property valuations or taxes unfortunately the time to address uh address those concerns was to take place back in April and June through our board of appeals and Equalization uh this evening we're holding public comment on the on the proposed 2025 budget as a whole Jill Murray from our assessor's office uh is available this evening with her staff to answer any questions that you may have and certainly citizens are willing are are welcome to stay through through the truth and Taxation or they can leave now and go across the hall into uh the other courtroom across the way and talk with Jill and her staff all right good evening Mr chair members of the commission uh as you're aware uh our our budget process uh started this past May with our department heads preparing and presenting their propos proposed budgets initially to the County Administrator and County auditor uh and then the full full board this board has provided guidance directives and numerous adjustments were made over several months based on that guidance uh the col of that work uh came forward in resolution 202 24-27 on September 17th when this Levy uh at 4.62% allowing Miss Johnson uh to comply with Minnesota state statutes and establishing the levy uh the at truth and Taxation this evening I I will be presenting uh the proposed budget information packet based on that certified preliminary Levy Commissioners I'll take a pause from time to time but if you have immediate questions or comments please feel free to jump in as I mentioned earlier we will also allow for time at the end of the presentations for citizens to ask questions Andor provide comments and so with that I would yield and ask if there's any questions from the commission before I start questions for Steve you proceed uh thank you Mr chair uh page one of your packet uh should look fairly familiar we've gone over this document several times it it establishes the framework of how we got to our net Levy uh request today uh I'm not going to go through it specifically here but we throughout this presentation but again just wanted to to show how we how we got to that 4.26% uh with uh with the additional requests uh utilizing fund balance and also uh use uh utilizing the the county program aid from the state of Minnesota uh the next page uh IT addresses our County Levy uh that we would be proposing through through this budget uh this is the maximum dollar amount that we would be asking our citizens of Clay County to contribute in in the 2025 tax year uh that Levy this year is 44 m936 746 uh this Levy is broken down into five separate but distinct Revenue categories we have General Reserve funds which has comprised of 26,1 186,50 or 58.27% of of the levy Social Services which is 13,21 14, 65 or 29.41% of the levy rad and Bridge um which is 4, 82628 or 10.74% debt retirement of 665,000 uh the next slide that we're going to cover is our projected expenditures in 2025 we are projecting expenditures of $23,995 uh this document here breaks down uh those into our 11 categories again a majority of what you're seeing here in or a significant portion I should say of this is are goes to our fixed costs of our employees uh they are the backbone of what we do here at the County uh we have roughly 680 employees at this time and so again they're one of our largest fixed costs through this process the general Reserve fund uh is$ 36,9 31,900 $810,000 bridge is $1,846 875 or 16.02% public health uh is 12,1 15,32 or 99.7% Juvenile Detention is 9,479 77 or 7.65% solid waste is 5,613 or 4.59% uh the debt rate retirement is 4,582 325 or 3.7% internal Service uh saw an increase of 2.8% to 3,464 652 the family service center expenses of 1,939 or 1.54% major improvements uh is 150,000 or 1.12% and building improvements is 500 50,000 or .4% it's important to note uh for our citizens that the Solid Waste Department the family service center and the juvenile center secure portion are considered Enterprise funds what that means is these programs are considered to be self-supporting from the fees that they charge for their services and for their operations and their budgets are not taken into consideration when establishing the annual Levy uh as you can see through these these two slides there there is a significant difference between the total expenditures and revenues collected through the levy process the information that our Citizens need to be aware of that as a county we act as a funding pass through for the state of Minnesota and federal the federal government state and federal government uh has many required mandates uh that they have asked the county to carry out and provide funding for the services uh these uh funds are used to make up the difference in the balance and balance revenues and expenses are there any questions in regards to the budgeted expenses would you explain the Deb retirement I mean I look at one spot under tax levy it's 1.48 or 665,000 then it's 4 million in the other one so so the de the other the other one is the payments that we make on our bonds yeah uh and so the debt retirement has to do with the remaining of of the projects that we have that we have done the remaining dollars that we have for that for that debt retirement on the projects so the the the payment portion is what we pay what we the other P pieces is a debt retirement for what we we still owe oh we still owe okay I was going to say that 665 looked real good there that's just what we're paying each year any other questions years I'm FR learning other questions all right the the next slide that we have is uh has to do with our our Clay County Levy history uh for the last uh from 2017 to 2 proposed to 25 again the first line that I'd like to focus on is the the spread Levy the fourth line uh again the spread Levy is is uh one of the the combined areas or proposed spread Levy for for this year is 5.77% as you see over the last nine years we have of between 4.77 in 2021 uh to 7.9 in 2020 uh if you recall you'll see two asterisks on the on the net con the net new construction line uh and would note that in 20 in 20 in 2020 and 2025 uh this board approved and implemented a market study uh in order to make make sure that we were able to recruit and retain our quality staff uh and so the average spread Levy over the last nine nine years has been 5.55% and if you were to remove uh the 2020 and the 2025 we're at 5.3% it's important for our citizens understand that that all the spread Levy percentages listed are prior to taking into consideration new construction growth Clay County has been fortunate to experience new construction production growth between 1.15 and 1.25% over the past few budget Cycles with this year's percentage being 1.15 in addition to new construction growth the Clay County Board of Commissioners Also may look to utilize onetime use of Revenue funds to offset levies while careful consideration needs to go into this decision These funds may be used may become available due to higher than expected revenues lower than anticipated expenditures or both our commission has been clear that if the county has asked for funds from its citizens that were not utilized in the fiscal years uh in the previous fiscal years the county needs to look at utilizing those funds in the future budgets the Klay County Board of Commissioners had made the has made the recommendation this year to utilize $1.83 five million in fund balance $1 million from our general fund a half a million dollars from public health and $350,000 from social services this year's budget also includes the utilization of the remaining arpa dollars uh that we received and also some Public Safety uh doll Public Safety funds provided by the Minnesota Legislature with the board's actions this year the proposed tax levy increase is uh 4.62 which you see in the far right column lastly uh an important note of recognition for our citizens is the consistent y of of the board's actions as as they've taken it to the approach with Levy increases being consistent in setting the levies uh we do not see spikes that can have both short and long-term consequences uh this board this goes to the board's foresight of being good stewards of your tax dollars if you take a look of our average uh net uh with new construction uh we average 4.24% or 3.96% on the years that there were not Market increases at the end of this presentation I plan to present a document from the Minnesota state auditor that captures the outcomes and the benefits of the consistency in setting levies uh and this uh this is just another example of showing uh showing that Levy amount uh also a levy history from 2024 uh to 2025 in our key categories uh and and the next item here is H is a Clay County budget uh history uh again when we look at it's not only our taxes that we ask our citizens but we also receive additional funding as we mentioned through state and federal government through intergovernmental transfers charges for services again what we charge our citizens to to do the work that we do uh and again I think that uh as we when we we this will come up again later at the at our last document to show uh again our board feels like these charges for services are uh additional fees or attack that are on citizens and and you'll see that uh we uh as a as a county are one of the lowest uh charges of of in the count in the state of Minnesota Mr chair commissioner thank you Mr chair Steve can you remind me again why the licenses licenses and permits for 25 is about a half a million dollars behind all of the other years oh that is having that dialogue yeah that's a great question um I mean we've not anticipated a substantial decrease in Revenue in any of the dialogues we've had I I would have to ask the the auditor Treasurer on that that's fine I just think for some clarification that might be helpful uh again that gives us to our total total budget revenues of 119 th 9,857 570 uh when we look at our expenditures uh again uh We've covered several of these areas already but to to show that um our total budget expenditures again are 123 million $952 um when we look at the when we look at this situation uh our revenues uh are fall below what the expenditures are I think it's important for our citizens to understand that we do not we're not budgeting a deficit uh here in Clay County we utilize internal service for projects and large purchases we we uh put aside a smaller dollar amount rather than than to purchase them all at one time uh for the fun and thus uh we utilize we may save the money now and we and we spend it in a different year and so uh I think that that practice by the board has uh has put the county in a good position again to be able to keep our levies uh our levy on a more steady uh steady track um summary summary of expenditures as we go through our our different updates uh from the from uh our budgets each year we go through this uh uh where where we're at from an expenditure standpoint uh and one of the things that I'm not going to go through each of these but I'm going to provide the highlighted uh highlighted yellow areas with an explanation if there's other areas that you'd like further explanation I can certainly try to answer those also uh the County Board of Commissioners saw a 12.38% increase uh that has to do with if you recall the board put aside $25,000 uh for for the Red River uh Red River Communications Grant uh and so uh at the time of the preliminary Levy we were we had not found it if we' received that Grant yet uh we did not receive that Grant unfortunately or they did not receive that Grant uh through the the border to border Grant uh and so in our final budget uh that will be that $225,000 will be removed from the Board of Commissioners area and then put towards uh towards the overall budget as as you guys have taken that board action already the auditor treasur is highlighted 9.99% again our much like our projects the a treasure uh Pro saves fun saves or plans for elections in even in non-election years uh so we're we're able to to save uh save uh each year and and not have a spike during the elections uh the the assessor's office is in their within their budget they ask for aerial pictometry uh that would help uh both the auditor treasur well several departments auditor Treasurer's Office uh the the the assessor uh actually Soil and Water Highway uh just to name a few uh I think we've in our discussions uh since this has come out we've talked about the utilization of U of repair and Aid would be a use of this and so with the board's action uh we would be able to remove remove that and that percentage would would see a decrease uh Information Services uh 30 36.8% um this is where if you recall last year uh the communications uh shifted from from the administrator's uh budget uh to to Information Services uh Information Services also has a a halftime position that within its within its uh budget as requested to make that a full-time position and that's where those two two items came but the but the the majority of that was just sh a shift from the from the county administrator's budget uh to uh to Information Services as victim witness Advocate uh as you recall uh this the board approved a new position uh in the victim witness and for the last two years we've paid uh for that position uh through with arpa funds and this is the first year that it will show up uh within the actual Levy budget uh ground and maintenance just want to point out that they saw a decrease we've had some retirements Joe continues to to look at ways to uh become more efficient uh we'll be taking on he looked at some contracts this year that they'll be taking on and saving the county some money there law enforcement uh the sheriff's department increased 11.8% again as you recall what the P public uh this board approved uh the sheriff to hire two additional deputies uh and so uh we're seeing a part of that we are utilizing some of the the public safety dollars uh to to pay for those positions are part of those positions this year uh but we did see a 11.8% increase there uh dispatch uh as this board is aware uh we we partner with city of Morehead Fargo West Fargo and Cass County with a joint dispatch facility uh the operations of of that budget are are established by uh elected officials uh in and all of those governmental entities uh and through that process we have a have a we follow the metrov formula uh and as they their facility as we're building a new facility in that process uh and the and the increase of costs we our portion uh saw a 13.16% increase there extension uh We've uh had multiple conversations throughout the year uh the Minnesota extension did a did a uh mark Mark study for all of their positions and made some fairly significant adjustments to their positions uh for uh and therefore uh we will see a 16.31% increase with the extension contract Metro uh Metro Council uh I think that uh you you'll see a 15% or 45% decrease uh just from a board's reminder uh we pay uh under the metog formula for operations and overhead uh uh and this is primarily done through the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration and there's a 20% local match that we're required to to to cover with our with our regional partners and so and then there's also contracted planning Services these are additional uh fees for contract and consulting services for specific projects um such as 15th Avenue bike our bikes plans Etc uh this year we saw we did not see as many contract Ed planning projects uh and so we saw we saw a significant difference in that request for metrocog West Central initiative saw 11.1% increase that was mooved that moved from 18,000 to 20,000 uh the greater Fargo Mor at EDC chamber and abatement program saw a decrease of 18.69% uh the the amount that this board is contributing to to the chamber and to the greater Fargo Morhead economic development is the same uh where this shows up from an expense standpoint is is the new construction sales tax abatement program that this board has approved uh and there was there was a lower number of homes that participated uh in that in 205 uh in the uh in the appropriation for Northern Lights populationbased uh we saw but uh again that was only a few hundred difference senior coordinat coordinator program with caplp uh we we have the senior ridership program and we also have a program that that's funded uh in uh through Quinn's group and Social Services uh and that uh just shows that the breakout of of that uh of only one of the one of the positions when we look at the summary of of expenditures by Department moving to to raden bridge uh we saw 19.17% increase uh in uh in Highway I think the the big thing for our citizens to understand is uh the board the board levies about $400,000 a year for for projects and you see construction uh is the is the main uh increase of 37% this year uh and this fluctuates every year based on that that Justin receives funds for at Highway and so really it's a more of an in and an out I also want to uh focus on juvenal detention 12 bed non-secure facility again this board is to uh take an action to make sure that uh that we've seen an increase in the need for for female transition homes uh and and so the increased cost associated with that program uh which we are hoping to have going by close to the first of the year uh we'll see we'll see that increase again uh should we should we not uh start at the beginning of the year um we may see a a lesser amount there uh Public Health 15.04% again in uh one of the things that uh in Cathy's budget over the last several years uh we've seen uh seen the usage of uh of uh arpa or excuse me uh covid dollars those grants are now starting to uh to expire and so again making sure that we have uh the funding to carry out that work solid waste management we saw did decrease is 2.61% uh again I want to thank Corey for his continued VI Vance and in going through uh with our swack Commissioners uh making sure that uh that we have a a a budget that uh that meets the needs of of the changes that have happened so we saw a decrease there uh and then debt retirement going to commissioner gross commissioner gross's question earlier we added another $135,700 note for our citizens again there's been uh several projects that the facility has or the county has has taken on as far as facilities uh and because of the planning of this board and the foresight uh of that this is the first uh first project that we have that's the oper the payment of the facility is going uh on on the levy so any questions in regards to any of the any other of the expenditures commissioner Campbell Steve just a clarification when you were talking about the greater farore EDC and the abatement program you referred to it as a sales tax sorry yeah it's not a sales tax it's a property tax right property tax yes it be the property the two our two-year property tax uh program that we've had the last 13 years just want to make sure that clarification go any other questions comments proceed thank you uh the next item that uh that we want to touch uh touch on has to do with periodically the legislature uh will will make a different um different changes to the tax law several changes were enacted in the 2023 legislative session that were applied to the 2024 assessment and now we're seeing the impact of the estimate of the 25 pay taxes reflected on the truth and Taxation State truth and Taxation statements uh the first change that that we are going to touch on tonight uh is the is the first tier valuation limit for agricultural Homestead uh this section uh increases the first tier agricultural Homestead limit excluding the house garage and the first acre of land to $3.5 million for assessment uh year of of 24 in assessment year of 25 and thereafter the tier limit will will continue to be changed annually in the same manner under the current law the Department of Revenue calculates and certifies the first tier valuation limit annually based on a formula that that compares preceding years and Statewide average taxable Market values for the 2023 assessment um year PID 24 the first first tier limit was 2.15 million this one-year bump is limited is isn't the limit in reaching uh the capacity of increasing tillable land sales over the past year the second year second point that we that we want to met mentioned is the increase to the homestead Homestead market value exclusion this section increases uh the home base the base Homestead market value exclusion from 76,000 to 95,000 and increases the overall value qualifying for the exclusion from 43,800 to 57 57 17,200 again this law was passed in reaction to the rapidly appreciation appreciating residential sales and market value the higher the value the less Homestead exclusion a taxpayer receives uh these legislative uh changes are important as we address address the next a couple of slides dealing with real estate tax and also estimated Market values so um uh as we move forward uh with our preliminary Levy the schools uh our edas our cities and our watersheds were also required uh to meet the preliminary Levy setback uh and today uh in your handout uh you have a breakdown of the impacts of those those preliminary levies if each department or each governmental entity were to approve uh as as listed uh we have a homes priced at Value 3,450 and 550 with a reminder that 517,000 is the max for the homestead credit uh so tonight for for our example we are going to look at a $250,000 home uh I think the important thing to remember in in this review is this document shows the impact of a proposed Levy increase if the value of your of the the same as last year and we know that uh based on the uh the impacts of of the sales that that very likely has not happened uh but uh in comparing apples for apples that's what we would be looking at so if the this board were to approve the preliminary Levy based on or the final Levy B final uh budget based on the preliminary Levy uh a Clay County citizen in Morehead would see a $9 54% increase or uh 94% the Morehead Morehead citizen for the more increase of $654 or a decrease of 7 5.75% uh the city or Township uh would see an increase of $25.19 or an increase of 10.97% the Eda uh is $156 or an increase of 3.53% and those that uh had a watershed uh uh amount on their tax statement would see a decrease of 6.34% or $2.50 that means a citizen of Morehead who owned property with a market value of $200,000 assuming no change from last year uh and all budgets stayed the same where they were said the preliminary Levy would see an increase of $683 per year or 2.03% you can also see the breakdown in the the document that was hand out for the other areas uh this is again is for the city of Morehead uh but Lori Johnson and her staff can also provide uh provide information for uh other cities and townships if that would be your wish with that I'd yield for any questions questions for Steve appear to be none uh thank you Mr chair chair I just I just want to point out that this budget process has been going on since early July and there has been a lot of questions asked prior to tonight so if the for the public watching you know if we're not asking questions it's because we've been going through this for six months and I've asked a lot of questions already just just to clarify that so the the next uh uh area I would like to on is the summary of estimated Market values um the the areas that we're going to focus on Mo mostly are tillable land residential land but also touch on tillable or excuse me on Commercial uh if if you take a look at our document here uh the estimated market value of all of clay County's land is uh 10 billion 26 million $47,700 an increase from 2023 estimated Market value of 9 billion uh 362 m822 700 uh the breakdown is tillable land uh is a increase uh up to 3 b191 Milli 827,000 or 31.8% of our total market value estimated market value and the residential land and buildings is 4 B9 29 m131 or 49.1% with a total estimate of those two categories uh equal to 80.9% uh the remaining 19% 19.1% is attributed to Comm commercial properties uh which is an increase from 18.7% in 2023 in 2024 we continue to see an increase the sales price uh per acre in sales of land auctions which increased the the uh uh estimated Market valuable till tillable land uh about a0 5% increase over 2023 with that I'd yield for any questions any questions you're not okay uh lastly uh Mr chair Commissioners I'd like to provide this as some context uh again we talk about this board's uh steadfast uh desire to make sure that from a from a taxable standpoint that we're not putting anything on our taxpayers more than what is needed uh when we look at our our our expenses and and revenues from the state auditor again based on the mo most recent information provided by the state auditor's office uh when you look at a tax per capita um Clay County uh is is at 78 out of the 85 87 counties uh are the 85 that reported uh that's on the lowest end um the charges for services as I mentioned earlier uh the additional cost that we charge services for for our citizens is is 86 out of 86 uh when when we look at total expenditures uh from a county perspective uh while no one likes to see the increases we're we're 79th out of 85 uh counties reporting when it comes to total expenditures and so again while while this County remains one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Minnesota nobody likes to see increases this commission continues to strive to be excellent stewards of public funds uh and this document supports the comments made this evening with that I would yield for any questions questions for Steve well this this uh the final page kind of sums it up uh we have we have tried to put keep controls on what we spend and we still have met a lot of the challenges and the uh the needs that we've come as what the fourth are we the fourth fastest growing county in the state so that's and that is work that we can definitely attribute to our staff and the people that work here keeping lit on it um Steve do you have any further comments or we can open it up uh no Mr chair if we would I would uh wait for any further com comments till after the public comment section okay we have people here that have come I will remind you that if you're here because of your appraisal of your your property we have people across the way that can review that for you what tonight is about is about what we're taxing and what we're doing with the taxes and if you are going to speak be sure you sign in and identify the Township from from where you are anyone wish to speak okay it does not okay sir step up the microphone tell us who you are uh David kragness address is felt in Minnesota Moran Township um and I'm I'm a now retired farmer so now uh the retirement account that I have AC Creed over 50 years of work is being taxed on a yearly basis unlike anybody else's retirement account in the united in the in the state of Minnesota uh we don't tax antique cars or or 401ks or anything else on an annual basis but we do tax Agland on an annual basis and because I chose to invest in Agland rather than 401ks or gold bars or antique cars uh I get to be taxed each year um I think that's grossly unfair and I hope that you folks will push back against any state mandates that get passed down to uh vigorously uh because the unfairness of that tax system uh the some of the increases are uh in a little bit I I thought I saw some smoking mirrors and slide of hand for example there was a Communications one that got moved out of someone's department and yet their Department didn't go down so the where the communications person got moved to that went up where they came out of the Auditors Department I believe it was that didn't go down uh this year you've got 100,000 and some odd going against your DMV well a few years ago you had a building where you were're doing DMV work and then you remodel it and then you move to another place and then you remodel it and then you move to another place and built new and I'm going really uh and that's a nice looking building and so do people drive by on a Wednesday afternoon and say that's a nice looking building I'm going to stop in and peruse their do license plate selection because I want to shop there I don't think so you have to buy a DMB plat you don't have to have a gorgeous building in order to show up in so your expenditures per person are too much and your choices on how to spend them I think are too much I could cut this budget in a whole bunch of places um way too much detail that I don't have the paperwork to go through here tonight but but those are just a couple of examples that seem uh a shining example of of government's mistaking wants or needs thank you very much yes so just in response to the DMV they're they're tearing the DMV down that we were currently in so it's definitely a need and this building was built uh with a lot of architectural work into meeting the needs of the community the number of people they're coming out in the function of the work and I think it's uh ultimately we're going going to have the state with us when their lease Runs Out that'll make it easier for our citizens plus they'll be paying us rent so there's a lot more that goes into it than just a shiny building it's a need that our citizens have and it's a a adequate facility to meet their those needs if I can I what I'm going to say may or may not satisfy your thoughts regarding the DMV but but going back when um when when we moved to the Morad Center mall we we move there during the time of when if you had ever been to the previous place on 15th Avenue North you couldn't you couldn't there alone Le less trying to have some spacing between them and there can be some argument about that now but the fact of the matter is is when we went into the mor Center mall we went in with a three-year lease with an additional optional was it one or two years optional two years so and and of course the what we did on that then is we when we did that three-year lease what we had to do is we had to pay I think it was about a quarter of a million dollars for fixup to get that to the way we wanted to have it within that space and at the same point in time we did the three-year lease that entire amount of both the fixup and the three-year lease was paid for out of arpa money that came in from the federal government for that purpose for for those types of purposes not one nickel of additional dollars were put on anybody's Levy to pay for that now now you you know you make a good argument well why did we build new versus and there's empty buildings around I serve on that building committee and we researched all sorts of different buildings and options if we had if we had our brothers we would have gladly found something that existed today and moved in there but when you take all the criteria that was needed and the potential cost of the remodeling for old buildings and the size that we need and the and the requirements that the state has for licensing for semis uh there that it it right away took a lot of those local fac facilities out of the options because we have to be able to have Ingress and egress for semis and so so there it brought those numbers of available buildings down to near zero and so what we were able to do is we were able to figure out a way to do it and we built it on County owned land that land out there that you drive by out there that's County we already own the land so you know sure we had we had to build new on that particular project but that when when you looked at all the available Alternatives this was probably going to be as as cost effective as any and this is going to be good for probably 40 years and that's that's just I'm just telling what we went through on that okay well thank you for that I noticed the the fastest growing chunk as I recall is social services I think it was a $2 million jump just year this year in Social Services as your driving around the county most Farmers rows are half mile long and a half mile long row uh each one of them is $5 a row for for County taxes count School the tax bill for County and the school um $5 a row it costs um and they don't need any Social Services horn beans don't need Social Services it's really an unfair way uh that the farmers uh are getting taxed um and okay when you if you would have been here when our local legislators were here I I talked about that issue with them and and you know part of anytime that we're dealing with social services and when we have when we have to fund those things locally I bring up I bring up all the time that property tax is a regressive tax it's a regressive tax for Farmers it's regressive it's the same thing you can say happens to every individual retirement retired person that lives in town their property taxes still increase just like your farm taxes still increase and you're not working anymore so what what we need to do and that that we talked with our local legislators about on those areas where we can get the help from the state we only have one source of funds in the county and that's property tax whereas the state collects your sales tax they collect your income tax they collect all the other taxes that you pay that that should help resolve all these issues you're I I guess you're preaching to the choir when you talk to me about about that but I hope the choir SS real loud when the state is listening we we'll do what we can do we have any other citizens who wish to address the commission on this anything additional Steve Mr chair Commissioners if there's no other comments what I would request the board's approval for Lori and I to bring forward uh a resolution for final adoption of the 2025 budget uh on December 17th uh again this will give us provide us an opportunity to go through uh the budget one final time and make some of the adjustments that I spoke about uh earlier when we looked at the the department dis um Department expenditures that maybe have adjusted since uh the preliminary Levy uh and uh uh that would be my request I I have one final question and I'm going to ask it again on the 17th you know what it is right yes Mr Mr Campbell commissioner uh Mr chair we we are not providing any additional slush dollars within this budget uh the only the only only funding that we uh have in this budget that are not designated for spe specific operations are number one the internal Service uh that we spoke about earlier and preparing preparing for projects uh and large purchases and we also have $250,000 in this budget uh for next year uh when our our cap is done with our insurance and uh this board has made the decision to save a little bit of money uh again from a planning perspective to offset the the impact for our citizens so that those are the only two two items so with those two things in mind so as we go into 2025 uh and like as we look at previous years when there's revenues overe expenditures we should be trying to do our part for this gentleman here what he talked about to help keep our taxes low uh yes and and I can uh I will say uh over the last 10 budget Cycles uh this board has taken a certain portion of revenues over expenditures from the previous years and applied it back uh to the budget so our citizens are not taxed two times commission mjo thank you just a a comment and feedback as someone who pays Eggland taxes I hear you and we definitely you're having those conversations loud in St Paul uh the other component is part of the one of the items that's really hard to accurately depict in this entire budget is the unfunded mandate component that is significantly affecting our budget particularly the department in which you identified sir so uh we will continue to advocate for those components um they are Clay County operates as an extension of the state whether we like it or not sometimes and those unfunded mandates are very very painful and so the um the more we can raise awareness and offer Creative Solutions to that uh the better off we all will be do we have a motion on uh make a motion to approve the U stated resolution and the uh date that the administrator uh mentioned uh to be moved to the agenda for approval a future again do we need a motion we just we just get make a motion for your approval for me to bring forward the resolution and Lori okay I have motion a second any further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Mr chair just if if I could take a uh we're not quite at the end but uh we appre appreciate the board's uh action and direction from the the start uh as as I mentioned earlier uh the clarification for for our departments uh to to have a Target to hit uh is a is an important part of our budget process and so we appreciate all the guidance and direction we received over the last five months thank you Steve okay next uh we will go back to committee reports and Frank you're going to you're going to be the next one oh God I need Chen's computer to give me up you're sharp to Frank we should not get you people together after dark um last Tuesday the Personnel isses committee uh we met and we discussed the the year and adjustments as far as the salaries for the county attorney sheriff and Commissioners role raised accordingly according to what the rest of the County Employees again which was a 3% raise and then a 3% wage study increased too so all the pums will state the same all the mileage rates will go according to what the national rates are and then U and the PDM rates State recommendation was to stay the same uh we went over some stuff as far as animals and workplace decided not to have any animals in the workplace other than there of course you got that um exception to service dogs or whatever working Kines but other than that there's no uh exception to be made as far as animals uh we made uh specified against smoking and vaping and will not be permitted uh we went over the insurance structure for Meritt employees when both spouses work for Clay County that was covered and that's already been satisfied I think from procure that we went through before um and also the T County government employee we discussed a little bit about that some of our employees have uh County discount cards whe they go to a parts department something to pick up you know if you pick up of any personal stuff you do not use the county discount card it's just the way it is I mean you should know the rules on that and I just wanted to emphasize again you know don't do that so you appreciate the good knowledge on how to use that that discount card that you were given and I think we pretty much covered everything there then we also went over the County Commissioners board operating guidelines I hope everybody will receive one of these or you probably have one as far as the meetings that you attend that DM you can put in for stuff so that that's a draft form it'll be circulated I GNA say I have not received one we'll have a personal conference with Steve then okay and Tuesday uh Tuesday evening I went to dward they had a a hearing on e8th Avenue that a wrot going through in eth Avenue I think Jenny you went to the 15th Avenue one went through the eth Avenue one just a lot of discussion seemed to be support for it there you know with the no definite plans yet but all good plans to increase uh um what D was planed on doing then uh Friday at the partnership for health like CH did what did I do with it let's keep dishing it up Frank you're a role model lged we're not getting any younger are we Frank no are you on November 2025 on the calendar too I think I got her now okay okay the Friday we had a meeting partnership for health down Fergus Falls where four counties uh aale Becker wilin and Tay met we discussed a lot of good discussion as far as what's going on um Wayne Johnson gave us a report on the Shaq committee don't ask me what Shaq stands for but um he went down uh talked about what happened there and they gave a good report on that um he also gave an assessment on the chb assessment update now I should know MC Cathy chb County held Community held ooo gosh I got to turn write those things down okay uh gave a good report on that there was also we had um elections for the next year um luckily Dave got to be elected for chairman for next year will'll be taken over for me and shoes to fill there's a tough uh R tough um committee there as far as running running for that and U good going there Dave other than that um we went through the annual bylaws and stuff like that and whatever we planed do G you want to talk more about it there you got as much out of as I did then okay no sorry about that and um we yesterday we had the West Central County a shet board meeting where commissioner Campbell's already described what we did there um again I think the important part that we did come up with that the budget as he said there was only we spend the $211,000 of the $300,000 that we put into that fund we're getting short uh we may have to be looking at that you may have to be looking at that in the future about putting some more money into es that includes you and this morning uh we had the county owned lands committee which we talked about the sheriff's department utilizing some Riverton out there by the demolition area we also talked about the Molen Township there's a flood byout that we're looking at there's a about two three months ago someone was in here talking about I don't know how many were in that if that was committee meeting if that was here where they showed one of the hom homes just uh their backyards falling into the Red River so we're looking at buying out uh what we can do as far as buying out that property then we also got County owned lands inventory and uh Matt chickson and um going to come up with a list of the there's 44 owned properties the count is going to make a list of where they are what their cost whatever what what their situation is so that concludes my report thank you commissioner kraban off thank you Mr chair um going back to last 20 or last Tuesday the 19th uh it's been G with the Clay County collaborative ongoing um process here to find a new coordinator um the present one will be uh resigning somewhere around the beginning of uh Jan anuary uh anyway we finally got to the point of having our interviews U uh put out a search and we had two applications inter uh interview committee um rated the two uh I'll be presenting that at our next collaborative meeting on December 4th and then we'll U hopefully uh have approval of one of the two and and we'll move on and uh have a new coord studed again in January of 25 on the 20th I I had the um historical cultural Society uh finance committee meeting uh again kind of the year end getting ready for the year and uh Levy to make sure that or not Levy I'm sorry budget make sure that's going to be on track and um to date on the 2024 budget revenues um for missions gift shop and grants Are all uh at or above budget which is really positive um we finally uh going back to admissions and the go the gift sh sh is at alltime high the admissions are towards some of the highs so we really um that group was really recovered quite well from the U from the pandemic when the admissions really dropped and it's worked worked it works it way back on the 21st I had the monthly meeting for HRA um there too uh another entity much like um other shelters and those type things that were so hit hard by uh the pandemic and the occupancy and then the moratorium put on these places and people not paying their rent anyway long short of it we've had that uh you know a discussion about that and I'm happy to say for HRA that almost all the buildings are full again uh revenues are working their way back to the positive side and get them back on track so that's really good to see um there is the only uncertainty they aren't sure about the grants they'll receive from HUD uh all their federal funds they AR quite sure how the new Administration um uh when U um they come into being in January will affect the annual grants but um we know there may be a um some adjustment we but we don't know in what direction so that was a conversation and then last um let's see oh that's it on H excuse me and then my uh third meeting that there was um the uh um uh family Resource Center uh ongoing um uh conversations there as we're still waiting to hear on the state money is that coming in and how the final use of that Grant will actually look we do know we have caplp as a navigator so caplp is working uh along with the uh core team as to what that may look like and uh more of that will be be coming forward over the next month um then on Monday I had the wild rice Watershed uh district one one Watershed one plan policy committee uh it was well attended with almost I think there were only two people missing out of probably 15 I think it is so was well attended we reviewed U there are three grants the 2021 has been completed and that was in uh approved uh that was a total of $1.3 million then we moved into the uh grant that started a two-year Grant uh for 23 that goes to 25 um about 23% of that Grant has been spent and again and that's another 1.9 million and then the new Grant coming up for 25 through 27 uh the plinary was approved and that again was a $1.9 million um and these are all projects within the uh uh wild rice Watershed and um just all coming out most these monies are coming out of the Clean Water fund from the uh Legacy Amendment which is our 38% uh 1% sales tax um throughout the state of Minnesota so lots of projects uh later that afternoon uh I don't know if there was an official name for this but a name that was brought up this is over a Good Shepherd in the afternoon and uh one person it made sense it was Churches United for churches un united and what was it was a GA gathering of of churches um public officials so the four four Mayors were there elected officials uh Dave and I were there and along with C County so there were separate discussions on what type of supports we can uh be utilizing for Churches United I will say I was U impressed uh from what we heard in October to where they are now and uh the deficits they had um you know uh we don't have the uh deep detail of the budget but it seems like they um really engaged uh uh a modified board I I would say and and then also the revenues they brought in through uh donations foundations and other grants they found and um of money and they've come from a position um a couple months ago you would have heard that they were saying $200,000 a month just to keep us open to the end of October and then it was November and through the money that they've raised so far they're at a point estimating for the month that he December that they will actually by the end of December have cash on hand uh finally which was wonderful to hear so the the the ESS or the main purpose of it was to ask the community their continued help and keeping them going there's roughly million dollars of money coming from the state sometime in um uh June July so it's how do we keep them sustainable during that time on their uh on on their um funding they have cut their expenses in half which is really good and so we'll see uh how things proceed um I think from a county level it was talked about uh Quinn was there and we talked about um you know the monies that may uh be utilized through prevention aid and and whatnot so um we're there as a support um mors all in and you know um we've also seen quite a bit of U help from C uh C County public in the utilization of finding places for um um um for the homeless so very complex but uh they seem to be making their way slowly forward and and as long as public maybe uh listening I think the one thing that their organization is doing again affected by the pandemic there was a period of time there where volunteers couldn't come in to help uh because of uh what was going on in 2021 and what they didn't do after that was done was rebuild that volunteer base and that's one thing they're working hard they've cut their staff and they're trying now to fill through the churches and other uh entities volunteer groups to have the services covered uh fill the Gap with volunteers so so anyway I thought it was uh well done Dave may have couple other comments to make on that and then the last I um last night at the mor city council I really appreciate um uh commissioner Mojo um you know she gave a presentation uh much like we're giving others but giving them background of the the potential prtf and it was really nice to hear very positive I thought number one it was going to be on their legislative priorities to help back us but also to hear back from a couple of the councilmen or Council persons uh in their great support uh and just not only do they want to make sure um passing a resolution they want to make sure loud and clear that they support Morehead supports Us in what we're doing so uh that was well done thank you Jenny so that's my report thank you Frank okay I one item I forgot to mention I mean when I went go over tonight we went over our our budget and when I look at a $124 million budget that we got and I look at Steve going and and uh Lori going over this and taking care of that and looking at a 4% increase I think that's that's great work and I know it's because our 17 supervisors that we got in our County that they do a good job they do their job especially when we're looking at we have we're given a 3% raise to our employees plus a 3% wage increase I mean it is just amazing how we're still keeping almost one of the lowest County in in the state as far as cost per person and I'm just want to thank uh Steve and Lori and all our supervisors for the great work they do thank you Amen to that thank you uh okay on the 19th T last Tuesday I tend the pick meeting uh which Frank already covered did very well covering it the next day I attended the restorative practice practices Advisory Group on this grant we're trying to get to get restor to Justice program set up um we have got 30 or 26 community members that they've listed uh it is a broad spectrum of people from the schools from the commission the the uh the courts judges Klay County attorney uh correction agents just a lot of professionals that are backing this up and the guy who's overseeing the grant uh from the state was in town and was very impressed and Michelle's doing a great job on this she'll submit the Grant in early December and we'll hope for the best it's for $500,000 uh to set up restorative justice not just in the community but particularly in the schools it has a real beneficial uh effect on on some of the problems they're facing okay on Thursday 11:21 I attend the Clay County suicide uh and drug abuse prevention meeting remotely and give me a chance boy I'm going to join the crowd tonight I can't find my notes uh we had a asset assessment activity uh to started off with just looking at a number of things um sort of how to how that go to mental health and then Annabelle default did a report on the national opioid crisis summary that she went to uh she was also uh also had Mike Miller from Morehead fire department there they're talking about some of the harm reduction uh practices are doing and uh map trying to map indicators and IDs of resources uh Mike covered the Naran program Department then then we did do a review of some bylaws that are coming up uh potentially going to restructure this committee uh to have a chair and a vice chair uh let's see later that day I attended the diversion Authority board meeting which uh commissioner Campbell did a good job covering we did also one thing I want to add to it is Jason Benson has now assigned an agreement to be the executive director he'll start in was it January or March January um and uh some of the terms of his agreement but he's well thought of and I think I think he's going to be an exceptionally good pick they did a good job finding him uh following the diversion Authority I had the finance committee at the Lake agasse Regional Li Library uh we agreed on uh during the finance committee we agreed on the union negotiations and uh the wages for Lake ay Regional Library non-union people and we forwarded that to the full board we had the full board meeting right after the finance committee meeting both of those measures passed and uh we had an update on the library construction and then we had nominations and elections for next year's officers and uh it must be my week I was elected president of the of the uh Board of Trustees so that's two elections I won last week and a third three weeks ago so I'm ain't I something following that no later that finished my day out and then uh the next day we had the partnership for Health Community Health board meeting and Frank covered that well uh and yes I was elected on that day I was elected as chairman for next year so and then Monday we had the meeting with Churches United and the whole Community I want to add Steve was there um we we had so much staff there had people that really knew what they're doing when I'm looking at I'm Miss McKay was there um we just did a good we had a good turnout and the I think the emphasis on the thing was to the communities of Faith this is not something and as we've talked about a couple of times tonight if we spend money it's coming out of the the public in property taxes we have people that just now making their house payments retired folks here if we run it up too much to offset expenses like Churches United it's going to be uh more people facing a h housing crisis just to remain in their own home I think we made that we expressed that uh to our state representatives earlier that this is something that needs State funding to be increased it's something we need to uh focus on and I I got an opportunity they asked me to address after after mayor car Carlson and I said that this is a thing that the county is going to support we're going to try and channel and Steward funding through this that comes from the state to this project but is it's also something we need a community involvement in the Community of Faith opened this and operated for many years and that's where sememphis needs to go and I know we probably don't have a huge bunch of people listening to this but we they need volunteers and they need financial support and if you can do it that's a critical issue there is going to be State funding but it's going to be in the next fiscal year and they're just going to have to tough it out this year and stay on top of it uh they have done a very good job of that up to this point and I'm very encouraged that they have the the the wherewithal and The Savvy to get it done and the community Faith or the Community of Faith was there represented very strongly so it was it was just a good meeting and I appreciate the efforts they're going through and then today earlier today I met with Rory Beal and Jason McCoy we discussed the tobacco ordinance it's up coming up for a public hearing and that completes my report Steve you got anything for us I thank you Mr chair last uh Tuesday participa in the pick uh that's been well covered uh later that afternoon I met with representative Keeler uh and three representatives from the state in regards to our getting our bill language so it's ready to be jacketed uh for the prtf also worked with Joe uh on uh operational costs specifically of the of the area within the facility that the prtf would include uh for a rental amount for Solutions uh the 20th I met with Sarah we continue to plan for the intergovernmental Retreat that we're in charge of this year with our other uh governmental entities uh again that's January 31st uh and there'll be uh save the date documents going out uh on our emails going out on December 20th again uh opioids homelessness uh our p prtf and a legislative area session will be taking place that day excited about that on the 20th with many of you have participated and stopped in for GIS day I want to thank Mark and Joselyn for their great chocolate chip cookies uh it was fun to see a lot of the the good things that uh uh and adjustments like many of our departments uh trying to enhance the services for both internal and external inter use uh on the 20th I also met with Jill Murray uh again Jill shared with you she's been providing overviews U uh to better understand the assessing assessing process uh to different citizen groups in our community and we thank Jill for for doing that on the 20th met with Robert Wilson C County administrator again talked on budgets uh the red the Red River Regional dispatch project uh participate in the swack meeting that's been uh been well covered uh met on the 21st met with Matt Jacobson and Eric dods from a2s uh uh in uh in Planning and Zoning uh looking at planning and zoning from a from a the sc4 and sc5 standpoint once the project is built uh the core had a few different questions uh and so I would guess that some of that will probably end up in before our Planning Commission uh in the coming months I participate in MCC jpa that's been covered I also on the 20 second participated in the call with derell on the Buffalo Ridge project I was interesting to hear about their company uh and the potential potential program or setup that they would have um yesterday participated in the West Central Water District board meeting that's been addressed also participated with the church's United event uh we had a Government Center emergency procedure uh review meeting again just want to thank the Safety Committee uh for helping us plan for hopefully things that we're never going to have to utilize uh but to have our staff ready for uh just in case we do did have me a phone conversation yesterday with Dan mly on several uh shared issues with the county I would note that in regards to uh to the resource recovery facility uh Dan's hope is again that we will be able to come to an agreement to make sure that partnership continues uh as we get close to the end of the year uh in December we generally start I generally ask you guys to start looking at your uh committee assignments uh from the standpoint I know that several of you have uh different uh different um committee assignments that conflict with each other that make it challenging to hit both uh and so as we have a new commissioner coming on in January it' be good to start looking uh looking at that I know that uh uh several of you have different committee assignments uh that that actually need to be appointed prior to January I know that for example the EDC will have that before the commission uh next week uh uh with commissioner Eiger but if there's any other assignments that you guys have that require a resolution or a signature from this board uh we can look at bringing those forward participa in the Lance committee meeting this morning um also just one thing we received an email earlier this week uh from the chamber in kale uh there is going to be a a Minnesota legislative session event it was scheduled during our board meeting uh on December 17th uh and so uh would just be looking for the board's feedback if one um you would be interested in moving the board if it's important to move the board meeting back to say 9:30 if we have a representative there from the county or or uh what your thoughts are I think and I I talked to kale this morning it's a little disturbing that our opportunity to talk we had our legislators here but uh something that's designed for local officials to get what the legislative uh body is scheduled during our meeting and I express that to kale um if we moved our meeting to 9:30 and I don't I if you had a chance talk the sheriff about if the facil the lec's open yeah I didn't didn't get a hold of them this afternoon but okay um it would be convenient they can't have it at the yumc but it would be convenient to have it here on campus we can look into that but I would uh I'm asking for motion that we move our meeting that day to the to 9:30 what's the date uh 17th 17th Mr chair yes thank you given the amount of you're trying to lobby for at the capital I think it's important to utilize their presence as many of us as possible and so I would make a motion to move that meeting on that date to 9:30 second have motion to Second um so just remember on that agenda we have the public hearing for the tobacco ordinance that day so just make sure we give get the notice out to people of Interest we comeing we may be a little later that's a good point um we had we advertised for that public hearing I suspect at 9:00 so problem I have it on here oh yeah I have it on here at 9: then we can't change is it too late to change it yeah well yeah it would be too late to let oh you haven't posted okay okay you've not s sent notices though no no notices have been sent so could we make that for uh 10:00 excellent all right perfect um and then the last thing we we still got a oh sorry hav we have the vote yeah I just T I appreciate that that was important um any further discussion all in favor the motion say I I oppose same sign and then just final thing that I have for our citizens the county uh offices will be closed Thursday and Friday this week in in recognition than that concludes my report thank you and uh go ahead the uh when does AMC need the um committees for um MC we would have you have you have already voted our voting members and if they ask for any changes um about the Committees oh um we would uh they would they would uh probably want to know here by the first of the year um Because unless you're looking to unless you want to change for the upcoming meeting then we would we would just you would have to take a vote and I would notify AMC at the next board now I'm I'm just bringing it up because obviously Frank will not be on and and I I'm I'm assuming that the other board members will stay on their committee and I would like to transfer from transportation to government and let um let Ezra have the transportation committee that would be the change that I would recommend and I think Ezra would appreciate being on the transportation so I don't know uh I don't know when that notification needs to be made well if if you if this board was to make make that motion right now to to do the assignments um I could notify I would notify the AMC right away well do do you want to participate at AMC in December on what committee well I'll I'll still be on on transportation for December so I just didn't know when they needed to have the notice for you we can probably make that when we do the portfolio assignments on the first of the year Frank will be there for General government yeah if your intent isn't to participate in in in December here we can do it in January okay okay anything Jackie do we have to do something on December 25th and 24th two meetings on the 24th and 3 first are we going to do that later or well well I mean we can you can talk about it now or we can talk about it up well commissioner Campbell will be gone I guess next week so um yeah so we're just looking ahead at the schedule uh we are scheduled on Tuesday of Christmas Eve uh to have a board meeting uh and so uh it it's extremely important from the Auditors auditors standpoint that we have a board meeting at the end of the year on the 31st uh the 24th I would leave that up to the board if what their wishes are is there going to be any difficulty uh with agendas if we pass on the 24th I think it would be pretty pretty limited from from that standpoint I know I mean we do um having I know from from our past discussions having the board meeting at the end of the end of the year on the uh is more important than than this meeting generally we'll still have four meetings in December by counseling the 24th because there five Tuesdays in December well we won't have a meeting on the we won't have a meeting on the 10th because we'll be at AMC yeah Mr chair I you know and again I the county the county is open till noon we're going to have a lot of employees that are having to work my my only reason in would in suggesting that we wouldn't have one would be so that that we don't have to have County Employees having to prepare and present at that meeting otherwise I'm I'm available if we need if Lori would need us to have a meeting would it certainly wouldn't have to be very long but I don't want to have to have any of our staff people on that morning uh make preparations to have to present to the board that's my only issue and I agree that's if we can do it that's a courtesy to them more than us well we if you if you want to cancel that meeting we would need to make a motion I'll make a motion we don't have a meeting on December 24th I'll second it any further discussion well i' I've said you know I I'm willing I'm willing to come here but I you know you typically when we have meetings uh we have staff that are here presenting for some reason or another and I don't want them on a short day of their schedule to have to prepare for that I you know but where people that taking PL on so from that standpoint I you know I'll support the motion but I I'm I'd be more than willing to come to us all any further all in favor of the motion say I I I poose same sign okay motion passes thank you Jackie you got got anything okay if there's no further business I I will journ us