##VIDEO ID:jEc9pMJIXho## 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 morning it's 8:30 and I'm going to call the Clay County Board of Commissioners meeting uh for Tuesday October 8th 2024 to order first thing on the agenda is approval of the agenda move to approve second the motion motion second all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes uh next we have a uh citizens to be heard are there any citizens here that wish to be heard on an issue that is not part of the agenda Steve do we have anybody remotely we do not Mr chair okay next is approval of payment for payment of bills and vouchers move to approve have motion second all in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes and next we have approval of minutes from September 24th 2024 second a motion second any discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes we're going to start off this morning with Steven Larson our County Administrator a request to approve uh approval to hire full-time assistant Clay County Administrator uh thank you Mr chair Commissioners uh before you this morning is a discussion to talk about the possibility of creating that full-time assistant County Administrator position uh as as you aware but for the Public's knowledge currently Darren Brooke uh serves both jointly as our HR director and as our assistant County Administrator um you you know as the as the fourth fastest growing County uh in Minnesota uh the role of the administrator has and assistant have have uh evolved over the last few years uh this position was first brought about in 2007 uh as a request of the then County Administrator BJ sethy uh to address some different challenges that they were facing from a planning purposes uh also from day-to-day operations uh and uh at that point we had roughly 325 employees we now have over 680 employees as as Commissioners you uh at that point looking back the the most committee assignments uh the Commissioners had was was 24 the least that you guys have now is 33 and so uh again while the administrator is not at all of those meetings it does go to show uh the uh how busy that that we've become as a county and so uh recently we've had two pick meetings to discuss this uh in full transparency wasn't as part of my initial uh 2025 budget one because uh I think most importantly because as a board you asked us only to bring the the uh the cha the most challenging concerns that we had this year uh and I brought that to my staff my staff answered that call and so I felt that it would be tone deaf of me if I added this in uh as a request this year having said that I do think that it would benefit the county uh as a whole uh and so uh with that I guess I would uh would look for for different feedback from the board uh again uh we had uh a recommendation or request of this board was uh the preliminary Levy was set September 17th uh it the request was that if if there was a way to bring this forward without impacting the 2025 Levy uh that we would that this board would consider that uh as part of your your handout handouts we did have uh two higher than anticipated revenues that came in one uh the state police Aid was $70,000 higher uh than what was budgeted in 2024 uh and anticipated then for 2025 and we also we also had State funding uh that now covers the benefit packages for for disable law enforcement Personnel that we're currently paying uh which uh this year was $65,100 uh rather than uh we will still have to have to initially pay for it but there'll be a reimbursement uh from the state uh that uh uh the the positions that we've talked about previously I did uh put in the calculator uh that you you guys have seen previous discussions from a cost perspective uh it would be uh keeping the the uh county commissioner or County excuse me County Administrator at its current Uh current um grade but would be Shifting the HR Director uh to grade 30 um and again this is just for for purposes we don't know uh yet we go through an interview process if the board would uh uh would move on this for the HR HR open director position uh and uh came up with an estimate total cost of $13,300 which these two new two new Revenue sources would potentially cover uh if the if the board look to move forward with that with that I'd yield for any questions just uh pick did forward this after after a a good discussion um one of the things that surprises me and I've been around local government entities for well since 1978 and spanic control is always an issue and we have a administrator on top of all his other duties is responsible for directing and evaluating and controlling uh 17 department heads and it just that right there is is a concerning number uh you know I think this is a good good uh time to move forward with this Steve's done a great job for us but you can only expect so much when you spread somebody in three different directions and I think uh getting him some more assistance in this is critical anyone else commissioner mooso thank you I am really excited about this today um I think uh the request before us is really something that's been well thought out throughout a multitude of years really we've understood that the work has continued to increase and while the need has been met from that department I think it's really time that this board steps up up and offers um some substantial help in in that area I I do appreciate Steve that you didn't include it as part of your um budget this year discussion to be uh aware of the constraints that our budgeting process uh you know really has before us but um with that I think it's important that we also take note to realize that that there are some some large items that this could help your department out with so um certainly appreciate that P has has discussed this I really appreciate from the direction of commissioner Campbell that we find some revenues to um help to subsidize this so that it wouldn't be an additional new request but uh certainly if when we meet with our colleagues from across the state Klay county is really the exception uh due to the size and programming and and scope of what we're working with to not have a full-time assistant administrator anyone else commission Campbell two revenues that we're talking about here um it's it seems to me that they're specified for another purpose um Mr chair commissioner Campbell that the the uh police state aid does does come in and it shows up as a as a revenue in the sheriff's department uh again for this year it was wasn't anticipated it wasn't anticipated to receive the funding that they have and so the $70,000 is above uh what was budgeted uh I did talk to the sheriff uh in in because of exactly of your question uh he was supportive in providing these dollars towards this uh this piece this the state funding as far as the benefit packages this was a revenue that that we did not have anticipated some years we get get nothing some years we've we received $400 uh this year the legislature set aside uh funding moving forward that's going to to take this cost off of counties uh and so we have this expense we have the expenses budgeted uh but we don't have the revenues and uh again I my thought my understanding was I was being tasked with finding funding uh to address uh the cost for for one time with the understanding moving forward that it would be in in the 2026 budget um but uh but I did as as I mentioned I did talk with the sheriff in regards to the first item and the second item is is just new funding that has become available based on legislative action in regards to item number 14 on the agenda are we uh what what do we are we can expect to hear in regards to other revenues over expenditures so so at this point again our our main focus is going to be the expense piece uh the revenues gener are six to8 weeks behind and so uh we're 75% through the county or excuse me through the fiscal year and financially uh you're going to find that all of all of our departments are within within that time frame or below at this point I didn't I at expenses are at the 75% range or below is is where we where we're at and that's through through September commissioner krainov yeah um thank you for bringing that up uh commissioner um I really want this to happen uh I am um so going to the last piece at what point as we get toward December will we kind of know project close closer to what that um revenues over expenditures if there's an increasing Gap or a gap that we could be pointing toward those monies instead I I'm bothered by the Sher of piece um maybe it's um you know even though Sheriff 's good with it um does that take away some contingency for him or that department that's a concern and then I I apologize I'm a little confused on the other uh is that money that um is going to be taken for the use of some something else within that group or I I I guess I'm misunderstanding the 65 so Mr chair Mr C we have several law enforcement uh in individuals and our families who were we are paying we are paying their benefit package okay because of a disability that they had while on on duty okay uh and So currently we are we're we're paying that it's it's an expense in our budget but until this year we weren't receiving any revenues uh to replace that or to to offset that cost and the legislature made changes this year uh that that that we were we're going to be receiving 65,000 $166 that we had not anticipated gotcha okay thank you for that clarification um and again I I guess I'm concerned about on the play say but I mean it's a concern I have but if we're feeling I don't know again I really want this to happen um um and I I I guess maybe to get it through I'll go on good faith probably just that something no a gap there toward the end of the year but I I I don't know I don't I I struggle with the police a one sorry Mr chair commissioner Campbell when what this was previously discussed I did ask for um you know how we would how we'd cover this I think this is going to be a record for the for the uh soonest we've uh spent above our preliminary Levy um in the history of my time on here um but at the same point in time I um you know my question to you just now was where are we going to be at on the 20124 uh 2023 we had well revenues over expenditures and we used I think about 1.5 million of that to 1.8 yeah 1.8 million in this budget but there was still more room there and and there was more room there and you know for so from that standpoint um you know I think I think we could find the one-ear funds just out of not even looking at what 24 brings but still what was left in 2023 and revenues of expenditures because it was significant um I you know I I certainly I certainly think Darren's the right person to step in there um yeah I maybe if I may so Kevin I think we all know kind of where that reserved piece is you know from what we've seen I mean um and I know that's a delicate balance too having a contingency for far enough for our department but I don't know if um I I'm not I'm not one bit concerned about taking another $130,000 from reserves I'm not because I think that that has been that's built as a matter of fact I think in the in the last audit report I think for the first time ever we exceed uh the six-month level that the state talks about that's the first time since I've been on this board we've done that and it's good to know that so I guess maybe what I'd like to see or potentially is I I'm good with the 65 I understand that either that or we don't name it and we just say we're going to pull it from reserves to cover it Mr Mr chair commissioner krainov I do I mean I I I think what you're asking or what you're saying is is in fact true from the standpoint that you know we have we have an additional $135,000 of Revenue that we weren't anticipating and so at the end of the year essentially assuming that that's not spent it will go into our into our general fund reserve and so what I in in bringing this forward what I was anticipating they're trying to do is showing that there's additional revenue and so at at the end of the year assuming that money is not well assuming that money is not spent it become part of the I would I would agree with commissioner kraban ofon that I if we're going to do this I think we should do it without designating the two2 doll amounts that you talked about as where it comes from okay uh i i instead I think we should just say that it comes from our reserves uh I don't want any uh any um Potential from Law Enforcement Officers anticipated police state aid fund that we're taking from that fund I I just don't I don't want I don't even want the perception that somebody could have of that uh and the same with the funding Now cover the benefits package for disabled law enforcement Personnel I don't even want the perception that we've taken from those funds he you know and somebody somebody based on this could interpret that and you know just going by your question um you know so I I guess you know if this is to be done then I think it should be done just with the idea in mind that the 2025 position would be funded out of Reserves and in listening to this discussion I think uh commissioner Campbell and commissioner krainov have a good point a great for of the sheriff he's being a team player on this um but overall it is not even saying the old the old analogy which pocket are we going to take this out of it's basically the same pocket after January 1st the money will be in reserves anyway so um I think that this is a necessary expense for doing business at the level that we're doing with the number of employees we've got the growth of the county and you look at our at at other uh counties within within our state my gosh you know all of them have an assistant that when they the in in counties are much smaller and do a lot less business than we do so I think it's time entertain a motion I'll make a motion to to approve the position I'll second the motion okay I have motion a second any further discussion does the motion include where the funds are going to come from include that they can come out of reserves but I would also indicate that those the future money coming in for the sheriff's department and for the other department that they those go in reserves too that does become part of their budget that's 70,000 and 63,000 soes that become part yeah in in the in future in future budgets it will it will show in the 2025 budget uh it could show the the additional 70,000 that we would be anticipating receiving again next year um but uh but I think I do think that the motion is would be clear uh based on the the discussion as board had if you just said that it specifically came from reserves okay my second motion that BEC comes from reserves and my second would reflect that as well any further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Mr chair thank you commission for uh for that I do think that uh as a as a county it puts us in a stronger position for the administrator uh moving forward uh the second portion of that would be then the recommendation uh would be to to move Darren into that full-time role uh Darren has been with the county for over a decade uh in the last six and a half years uh I'll just say that uh he's been an essential role and someone that that work with uh he really stepped up during our covid uh uh pandemic um he is uh he has stretched I think is the information that I shared with you in the handout you know we've gone from we've gone from uh 300 and some employees during his time to to over 600 uh with uh with four different departments having over 100 employees uh now uh and so he he's professional uh he is able to handle anything that that we give them he's he's managed he's managing uh many of the of the duties uh that are in the job description or will be in the job description already and so I would be very happy to uh to have Darren take on that full full role and I think he'll serve this commission very well Mr chair commission Campbell look going back to the item number two agenda um um notes that we have here the implementation timeline for the assistant County Administrator was going to be January 2025 is that correct that that's correct so that's what we're still even that's what we're utilizing what what I would be asking is that we would be looking for backfill in this and so we would be looking to replace the administrator or excuse me the HR Director portion uh and then potentially a generalist and so we would like to have all of those positions ready by 20 I I yeah I understand that so so the process that you're asking for in the back fill now would be to find that HR candidate basically to step in and fill those shoes starting January 1 that is correct just want to make sure that talking about the same thing here further discussion I'll make a motion that we designate U Darren Brook's full-time role to uh assistant County ad administrator with the back bill I'll second that I have motion a second further discussion that back fill will reflect all the way down the line for back fill for any position within um HR that comes open have to fill those roles yeah yes if no further discussion all in favor of the motion to say I I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you bard next request approval for the city of Holly to receive tax forit uh partial for authorize public use okay we've got uh Erica poly Holly Clerk and treasure good morning good morning go ahead and proceed so we have a property in the city of Holly um it's been tax forfeited for I think close to 10 years now um it's a funny shaped lot and about 70% of it is wetland so technically by the time excuse me by the time you hit all your setbacks for a residential property it's an unbuildable lot so the city is looking at it it's adjacent to another one of our Park areas with Wetland on it the city's currently sorry the city is currently mowing it and maintaining it and we're right now we're kind of tossing around the idea of doing a community garden or something along that lines on that property so we're just asking for it to be transferred back to the city to use for part of our Parkland thank you and the um commissioner Campbell yeah the former owner has never asked to reobtain that property nope and it's gone up on the County's land auctions a few times and we get phone calls from people who are inquiring and once we tell them that it's wet land and you really don't have room to put a house on there then it just sits so this way we can at least do something with it make grabing off not knowing the process completely how do you uh uh sever the lead from that own ownership to the county you how does that work or is it done already it's already done yep so the county it's currently in the County's name when it went tax forfeit yep at that point so now we're doing a quick claim is what we're asking over to you yes um yeah and you have it sounds like an intended use already Yep this this is one of the ideas we're putting out there but it's basically when you drive into one of our newer developments it's the first lot right there so it's sitting vacant we'd like to see something put on there whether like I said one of the ideas is the community garden or even just a few benches for sitting as you walk up there because there is a walking path that comes from the high school over to that development currently so we have a few ideas we're working on but we are going want to do something with it and at this point the Count's maintaining is that uh we are actually doing the Mowing and stuff on it because it's adjacent to one of our other Park Properties I see commission one of the in uh intended authorizations that we have is to uh turn this back uh to the local community if it's for public use so this would meet that that threshold I would move to approve the Po's request second the motion he motion and second further discussion if not all favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you thank you right Sheriff good morning Mr chair good morning thanks for having me here this morning um received an unexpected resignation from a deputy uh with nearly 10 years of experience he uh is going to go pursue a different passion he has indicated that um the law enforcement culture has changed quite a bit over the past few years and uh he just doesn't have it in him anymore so we wish him the best uh in in his next adventure in life but I'm looking to replace his position this would be a rather budget neutral position as he's currently at step seven on our uh grid and if we were to hire anybody it would be either at a step seven or below depending on experience um the only other thing we would have to do is the cost of uh uniforms and things of that nature to get a new person started any questions for the sheriff move to approve the request second okay I have motion to Second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks thank you sheriff is that your only vacancy right now that you have yes it is and he will be uh done on October 18th okay that is the only vacancy we could have you got any candidates waiting in the wings no wish we did but we'll uh we'll start advertising probably today okay and uh in hopes to get that filled as soon as we can I'm hoping for December January sometime if we can get apps thank you you have Cory bang saw waste manager saw waste would like to eliminate the recycle program manager replace position with two positions at a lower pay grade Cory thank you Mr chair and Commissioners yes we've had in the past month we've had two um resignations within the solid race Department both long-term employees and when we looked at replacing these people excuse me I felt it was best to uh to redo the job descriptions and the pdq's and actually replace the recycling manager with two positions that would give us an extra body at the landfill and somebody that could kind of cover it would free up our our landfill technician to do some stuff that she would be better suited for and paid for so uh the request would be for a recycling educator and a landfill clerk in lie of the recycling manager uh the net cost would be virtually zero because the when we redid the PDQ and created the PDQ we came at a lower price um so it's basically a wash at that point and with with the loss of the landfill operator we also gained some funds there so it won't affect the budget at all questions just to indicate uh this has been before pick and we forwarded it with recommendation um G's done a lot of work on this to make it focus on where he has his needs and and keep it within the original budget any questions or comments there's no questions I'll make a motion to approve second the motion and have motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign thank you Corey Mr chair if I could I'd just like to thank Corey uh he continually explores different ways to one make his Department more efficient and also cost effective and and this is just another example of the many things that he's done over the last year and a half uh to to become more efficient and and provide better service to the customer so thank you appreciate apprciate that we were we were both the commissioner gross and I were uh very impressed with the presentation at pick and you put a lot of energy into this so we're grateful uh the next item I have um in the past few years the npca has has approached all Solid Waste departments across the state and asked us to try and improve our hauler um reporting percentage it's throughout the state it's like 10% of the haulers that report Clay countyy is much better than that but we do have some that don't report um what the reporting does is it helps the npca decide where the score funding goes based on volumes and that kind of stuff what we've decided to ask for is adding an additional $50 fee to all huler licenses um if they report to the state the previous year we would wave that fee so there will be no no cost to those that are doing it correctly it would just be a a little push to get the um the ones that aren't f following the rules to start following the rules so with that we would ask for a $50 wable fee added to the to the haulers licenses annually questions comments this was discussed at swack too and I think the swack committee also agreed that this would be appropriate yeah I'll make a motion then motion to approve adding a 50 fee for non-reporting to the holler license application second I have motion a second further discussion not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks Cory next up Klay County employee United Way campaign presentation uh Rita Rucker uh James O'Donnell from our uh juvenile West Central juvenile uh let's see uh lay Goden Christian leard and uh Sarah Mass uh mastera and Valerie mice we got everybody here except lay Laray is not feeling well today so she uh took the prudent choice and stayed home so good choice and looks like we got a full team here so they'll take it away I am so pleased to work with these people because they are always so helpful and um I sent out an email to the whole County and said uh anybody want to be on the United Way Board and I got zero responses so I contacted L Ray and James and um Kirsten and before I barely got my fingers off my keyboard had already said come me in the next I heard from James he's like whatever you need I'm here so and then Kristen said sorry I've been away from my desk but I'm on it so great people to work with and I appreciate their help good morning Commissioners and and chair um we're kicking off our 2024 United Way campaign and um we have Sarah mastera and Kristen leard valie me and James lonnell with us today I also have um two people at the Clay County Government Center that are great help and asset to our campaign and that's Greg cordovi and Tracy Bard or Bedford sorry um so I want to make sure I give them credit where their credits due to um this last year I was asked to participate the two sessions of the 2024 Community impact review panel um what eye opener there's so many worthy uh organizations out there that are looking for money to help our citizens here in our community and to see the um time and effort they put into just even preparing their request is amazing so that was a good experience um I'm going to give a quick recap of our 2023 campaign at the government center we had activities that included a pie social baked potato bar guessing jars and Penny Wars and a chili feed um oh well those those um four things were $943 14 and then a chili feed raised $188 a big sale rais 430 and a book in media sale had $20 um this year we're already starting yesterday on guessing jars it was requested because they enjoy doing these things it brings Community it brings a sense of um fun light-hearted fun and still being able to get your work done so we started our guessing jars yesterday they'll run through this week we have a chili feed plan for October 16th and a bake sale planned for October 28th Kristen is going to um fill in for L raise information and take it away good morning so the recap cap for social services um for last year's activities um Laray organized a wonderful bake sale um that raised $883 um as well as a soup luncheon that raised $590 um we're going to have another bake seal this year and that's going to be on October 23rd from 9 to one I believe I tried to find the time this morning but I couldn't find it um so if any of you are around that day stop by because we have some wonderful Bakers over at Social Services um and there were some mighty fine looking treats last year so I have no doubt that there will be some again this year um Laray and I had also talked about um social services having a friendly departmental competition um to try to increase donations um so I will follow up with her when she's back in the office hopefully this week some more to come on that as well thanks interisting James sure um yeah I guess um the juvenile center um ran a taco bar last year um this year we're going to fill in the Gap whenever um there's something not happening one of those weeks one of those days um we'll provide lunch or something that everybody can come to and hopefully we can break a thousand this year that would be a good goal for the juvenile center to try to hit so we'll see if um we can make that happen but um yeah it's good cause thank you Rita James does a great job by the way um we'll send out a notice and let everybody know when the taco bar is but uh it's a hit and it's really good food and plentiful um so and goals are always good last year we set a goal for our um County Employees for $116,000 we missed it we hit 88% but I'm not going to feel bad about that because we still raised 14,000 something I don't have right here in front of me anyways um employee Don employee pledges were $10,400 so I still feel good about that so um Kristen you want to talk about uh school supply Drive sure so this year's school supply Drive was held in July um we had a goal of 5 $100 and we collected just over 750 um so we met that and hopefully next year we can increase that as well um it's a super easy way for anyone and everyone to contribute if they choose to so um super easy goes wonderful cause this year we did our Skool Supply Drive online and um I didn't have to load all that stuff into my vehicle and haul it over to the Fargo doome or Shields Arena and then unload it again so that was awesome it saved me a lot of work just like our online um pledge forms they it makes the process so much easier so um I'm going to ask Valerie and Sarah to uh share some of their Insight on our campaigns and on the goals of the United Way yes ma'am good morning everyone thank you so much for giving us some time this morning um yeah I just want to share a little bit more about United Way and where all of the dollars that Rita and her team are raising and where that is going um to help Clay County and Cass County here locally um United Way here in Cass and Clay counties is focused on really cultivating solutions to end poverty and so we work and partner with um 29 organizations and fund 44 programs that are really helping reduce barriers for people experiencing poverty so you know things like Transportation Child Care housing um food and security living wage employment um all of those barriers that people are facing every single day the programs that United Way is investing in are really helping to break that cycle of poverty and really make the biggest uh most long-term change for families and Children Here locally um last year we were able to raise about $6.1 million um from our Community um this year our goal is to raise 6.2 million every single donation helps us get there um whether it's uh you know participating in a bake sale or um chili feed or any other kind of excuse me small event to um people who are choosing to do a payroll deduction or a one-time donation um all of that goes back to helping those programs that are really really uh needed for many people here locally in our community a couple of programs that uh I just wanted to share about that are here in Clay County that um all of your um residents and and citizens can access our the reach Food Pantry in Holly um The Jump Start program at Morhead Area Public Schools um we have a great partnership with caplp here on the Minnesota side as well as legal services of Northwestern innesa um the village is another um organization that we work with to provide Mental Health Services and so um our each year our campaign kind of focuses on a different aspect of the impact and this year we are highlighting mental health and the importance of making those services available to everyone that needs them um we have a campaign video that I'm sure Rita will be sending out to everybody to share about kind of a few those stories of impact of the people that have been helped um and the ways that the donations are specifically helping local people um but mental health is something that is affecting everybody um specifically students in our area and um when it comes to kids only about one in four of the kids that need mental health support are actually getting it and so um United Way has made that a priority uh this year more specifically in looking at our funding and how we're um helping the programs throughout the community and making sure that Mental Health Services are available to everybody that needs them so we thank you for your consideration in participating in the campaign this year um and for your um just advocacy on behalf of United Way for encouraging others to participate and give back as well so thank you Sarah good morning uh my name is Sarah I just wanted to um especially what Valerie and what Rita have said and more than anything I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Rita always responds cheerfully um when asked um to give her time and talents um to the United Way and her team and so we're very grateful for that um this is my second year I'm working directly with K County excuse me Clay County and um supporting them I will say um one of the most impactful things that I also had the opportunity to do was was sit on that impact review panel that Rita mentioned and we all know that the need is not going away if anything the need is increasing in our communities and um the diligence um provided um to just the diligence and the time and the concentration and thought um of who to award the funds to um is almost is intense because every organization that is speaking that day is worthy of um support um however we don't have an unlimited checkbook um and so I do want to say that the United Way is a fantastic Steward of the dollars that are raised um and that um you know I'm I'm proud to support the United Way and that we truly appreciate your support and allowing um Klay County to also support it so thank you thanks Sarah that was a great day yeah it's I learned about programs I didn't even know we had here in in the area um so I thought I was plugged into everything I wasn't so that was interesting um James you want to talk about our 2024 kickoff sure um just uh an email will be coming out October 14th um look for that don't Market as fishing and send it to it but always do that if you're in doubt but uh I sent it to it so it'd be whitewashed so October 14th y Monday so um respond to those emails you can respond by saying I'm not donating but what that does is it it keeps the system flowing so we can have a count so we know that people are responding and seeing and we're not missing anybody um last year I think you all got a copy of our spreadsheet from last last year or from the last several years actually um last year there was a little snafu where we did not get emails for the entire employee Workforce we only got full-time so you'll see on the sheet that it's talking about uh 400 and some employees and the difference on that is because we actually have 600 and something and we only got emails for the full-time people so those part-time variable hour folks they did get missed last year um I took a look at our information from previous years we don't seem to get a lot of response from that group not that we wouldn't accept anything they want to give us because we always have our hand out but um that would not have impacted our numbers that much if any at all so um yeah I want to again thank this group who is my backbone pH and uh Greg and Tracy over at the government center and ready for any questions if anybody has any yeah thank Campell thank you to all of you for your efforts um I'm just wondering uh Rita when it when it comes to the um bake sales and those types of things when you raise money are are you able to use those dollars to leverage through giving hearts day I not I'm I'm not I don't know that' probably be a Valerie question I I mean is it something that should be considered because it seems to me that that you know during that giving hearts day time period all contributions are increased and is it something that should be worthwhile and considering to do I can answer that question um so yes so I I guess it would be something you could consider of just the timing of when that's turned into United Way um as far as the match funds for giving hearts day all of those are all the match funds are raised ahead of time so it it all depends on um each individual organization um yeah so we raise the match funds ourselves that's every organization does that for giving hearts day um so I mean that could be an option if you wanted to wait to turn them all in on that day and have it count towards giving hearts day um but it's all helping it's G kind of going to the same place and helping um in the same way so it kind of depends how you want to look at it but yeah I just didn't know if that was considered at all I hadn't considered it I hadn't even thought about it so thanks for that idea last year I was more on top of stuff um we had several activities at the government center where we were raising you know a couple hundred dollars here couple hundred dollars there and once I got to$ 800 and something or $943 I called Valerie I'm like can I bring some money over because I didn't like having it sitting in our office and then um then we had our campaign drive and then after that we found we had a penny drive and um I guess I was feeling weak because we found a whole bunch of pennies that had been counted but didn't get out of the big huge cardboard box they were in so then I brought another donation over after the fact so that is included in our in our funds but um so I did I did we we had three separate deposits over the time last year so you know if I'm organized and have events throughout the year and then just save them and contribute them on giving hearts day suppose I if there's a benefit to do that I and it's not anymore work on my end just organization so yeah commiss krainov well thank you for all the great work you do and I hope uh for the county you can um continue to build this um I guess uh I got involved 15 years ago maybe through the realtorss and I know what we've done through those groups um in my brokerage I guess our participation Almost 100% every year and uh and I know you're kind of more a beginning or you've been involved in growing it but um the uh impact I I guess that hit me again I think probably probably 15 years ago or a dozen anyway uh was back when you start doing the backpacks for kids uh for their lunches and I I saw directly what that did for the community and and uh it's NE that's never left me and I I'm I'll be curious how you work toward mental health I I really uh will follow that if there's some way to do that I'd like to uh because I see that need I work a lot with social services and in that need so it'll be interesting um United Way fills in in in that those gaps that we have so and and uh maybe you're doing it already but I hope you can create competition between all your divisions I like your your goals there James and firston get them at Social Services will you anyway thank you for all the wonderful work you do thank you Paul yeah the I know the mental health aspect is a a strong your strong Advocate as well as um commissioner Mojo yeah um that our kids have been through a lot and um if you can get them turned in the right direction early on it's going to cause Less Problems they're not going to end up over with James they're not going to end up with our social services you know it's it's it's a well- needed and um high priority item right now in our community so commissioner BR if you're giving the money to given hards day would that take away from me inited way no you can still designate it yeah it comes to United Way it would be designated for United Way and then there would be additional funds included to it okay I I'm grateful for you folks being here United Way has been part of my entire working life before I I even came here it was strongly encouraged by the city I worked with and I think we need to encourage our employees participate you know the money is going where it needs to go you know it's there's good oversight and there's a lot of energy uh put into it by our folks and look forward to another year working with United Way any other comments thank you thank you have our County engineer Justin [Music] sorm yes good morning so the item first item I have is a request from the Metro flood diversion authority to set a public hearing um to acquire and obstruct right away on its 170th Avenue as part of reach se4 the proposed public meeting date would be November 19th I guess any question on the request so this is just the initial request to set a public hearing to hear their request I I just a a little background I think we've talked about this uh numerous times this is at the is it 170th 170th Avenue and there's a there's a small portion of that road that will be permanently closed and part of this process will require the county to be involved uh just from a from the Le ity standpoint of it so uh what we're what's being asked for today is to hold that public hearing before the county would take that action is that did I sum that up pretty good yes you did all right any questions yeah just more curi 170th is that what down By by Road that's correct is it number two no it is not number oh just north of that a little bit South South pardon South South okay more on the line okay thank you comments or questions and a the process with uh and there is a work in progress to with um Holy Cross onou that's the road that's just north of there is that correct yes that's correct um we are we' have reached an agreement with Holy Cross Township we're just working on getting the final details put together so anticipate commissioner Campbell that'll be on the October da board meeting but I think we're very close to having a a full agreement but I think we've reached agreement on all the fundamental items on on that agreement as well so and the and just going back to the legalities Holy Cross Township is aware of that the county does need to be part of that process yes the the same language exists in the Holy Cross Township mou just of acknowledge ing that the county will take that segment over and close that road officially and for the rest of the Commissioners we've been we've been using the same process all along the diversion Channel and Southern embankment on the North Dakota side as well and it's it's worked quite well there too just takes a little burden off the townships from having to do the road closure part of part of uh the activities and um keep that at more of the diversion Authority member entity level is is what our objective has been there all right um in our packet here I noticed that we're asking for the public hearing to be held on November 19th and do we have a and that would be during our board meeting correct and do we have a have we got a Time established for that Jackie do you know have a do we know do we have any within our agenda right now that would suggest what time we'd have to have that I don't believe so no there's nothing on that um I think 9:00 has usually worked pretty well and then um we'll actually send out letters to land owners the diversion Authority will prepare the letters for us the county will mail it out and then we'll also advertise in the Holly Herald Mr cheer if there's no other questions I would move that we uh set the public hearing on no November 19th at 9:00 a.m. 2024 to consider the Metro flood diversion authorities request to take over 170 Avenue South in the location identified in its request and obstruct this same with reach south se4 of the comprehensive project a second have motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oos same sign motion passes thanks folks and Justin you've got another item yes so the second item I have is we've been approached by mot so they are selling both a tiltbed trailer and a tanker so we they did offer them to us before they did put it on Min bid so we have the opportunity to purchase a 2001 tanker and a 2011 tiltbed trailer so these are two items that I think would be a huge benefit to the county so first of all the tanker so we currently have one that's a 1967 it's an army surplus one that we've used quite a bit put quite a bit of money into so I do think that this 2001 would be a huge benefit and especially on a fall like this we've used that trailer more this year watering roads than we ever have so I do think it is a good opportunity and then the 2011 tilt bed so right now all we have is a lowboy so if a tandem truck were to break down we don't have any ability to haul it whereas this has a winch and we can haul tandem trucks or anything else with it so I do think that would also be a good opportunity so the tanker would be 20,000 and the Tilt bed would be 30 so we do have internal service Fund in the amount of just over 120,000 for our lowboy and our low boy is in excellent condition doesn't get used that often so we'll just add some years of service onto that and I don't have any concerns with it questions commiss Mojo thank you Mr chair thank you for bringing these forward Justin in you in the equipment world you can eat up the cost of this um fairly quickly if you need to uh rent any services that way um certainly to have the ability to haul in and Implement with that tilt bed I think is really important and then two uh when we are talking in um you know that tanker trailer we've really probably squeezed every last ounce of life out of that other one that we've had uh in in the discussions that we have around planning and zoning and dusting of Roads it it really is something that citizens speak frequently about and so to have that on hand should we need uh would be really helpful I think the price uh really is appropriate given the fact fact that you have some funds in the internal service um but again I go back to if we if we don't have that on hand need to lease or um contract with someone to utilize that you can eat up the cost of having it fairly quickly and then too uh now we have the ability to lease that out should someone else need to use a trailer that capacity as well commissioner crabing off just uh Curious how big is the tanker I'm yes here is I think it's 6,200 gallons okay it's either 61 or 6200 okay and our current one is 5,000 so it's a little bit bigger commissioner Campbell this was presented to Highway tracking and we discussed this and it we agree with commissioner Mojo that this it does make sense to do these um it would still leave about 6 something th000 in the internal service fund for the future um low needs of the low booy uh the fact that you're going to be able to extend the life of that Lil booy for a number of years and you've talked to L about continuing that contribution into internal service for that purpose to help gain that back up over a number of years to so that when the L boy is time then the funds will still be there that is correct and are you anticipating I can't remember I think we asked this question in Highway tracking are you anticipating having to put both of these new items in the internal service fund for contributions no I don't plan to at this time okay um those tankers obviously and as long as you take care of them we have a 1967 that still works so I don't they're all stainless steel so I don't foresee a need to put that on internal service very good and recommendation from the highway tracking was to approve this request so I would make that motion second have motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Justin thank you and let's take a break e e e e e e e e e e e e next up on the agenda uh we have uh Christine Goen from the Buffalo Red River Watershed U District uh motion to approve resolution 2024 28 and 202 2429 support petitions for the Buffalo Red River Watershed District to utilize taxing Authority and open it up to you good morning good morning uh thank you for having us today um like you said I'm Christine Gayden I'm the administrator of the Buffalo Red River Watershed district and with me I have Bill Davis one of our board managers appointed by uh your board um so today we're here to uh request you consider approving two petitions for the Buffalo Red River Watershed District to utilize taxing Authority Under Minnesota Watershed law uh 103d 905 and this statute Grant taxing authority to Watershed districts for basic Water Management activities if petitioned for by a political subdivision and so our Watershed District comes to Clay County um because Klay County accounts for 73% of our tax base based on the taxable market value and so I'm going to keep it pretty brief this morning I know we come here every year and you guys are pretty familiar with what we do um and in 2025 our request is similar to what we've done in the past few years um so I'll just give a quick rundown of of What's um what we're requesting um so that we have two petitions this year um and the first is for an assessment in the amount of $795,000 and these funds will be used for contributions to our four Soil and Water Conservation District Partners um within the district for their conservation marketing um their technical assistance and soil Health practices they'll also be used for our education and Outreach for entities like River Keepers and the Red River Basin commission and and other Watershed wide programs um that um request support from The Watershed District um they'll also be used for our stream gauging operation through the United States Geological Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as well as our water quality monitoring efforts are permitting and then other investigations that may come to the board um that are water related concerns from land owners the second petition is in the amount of $800,000 and these funds will contribute to project design and construction um and some of the projects that we'll be working on in 2025 are the Whiskey Creek Whiskey Creek and South tributary project which is just North of Barnesville um as well as the Stony Creek project and the upper Buffalo River restoration which is up in Becker County um they will also be used to leverage Grant funds that we obtain through state and federal Grant programs and I know every year we kind of give you a um kind of a general idea of what that means for the taxes in terms of a $100,000 property value so in 2025 um the approximate amount per $100,000 of property value is $662 and just to compare that we did include in your packet what that's been the last few years um but in 2024 it was um $19.39 um so with that that's kind of the brief overview if there's any questions we're happy to answer them and again we appreciate uh your consideration questions commissioner krainov so um I just want to uh number one thank Christine and the and the the board I think um I went to those meetings where you were going through the budgeting and and I really appreciated Christine how you've worked over um the last three years right or four nov how fast the time going uh but that uh being really careful about that budget and the reallocation or um I don't know if be reallocation that's the wrong word but looking at each individual account and understanding uh it's uh um you don't need to tax that one anymore or assess that one anymore on on the general budget uh and trying to make sure those uh each account speaks clearly for itself and is in a in a a good standing if you will so I appreciate that extra effort and I know you've spent hours and hours doing that and I think it really uh reflects the he healthy budget which leads to a very efficient or the be most efficient tax levy that you're you can do so I appreciate your work and certainly support it and else can I just ask Mr Campbell thank you good morning um I'm looking at your annual assessment comparison and the so so it looks like the first Levy that you're asking for is going to be up 35,000 Bas from compared to 2024 that's correct and the other one is down um 37000 correct so it ends up being a net change of two less than $2,000 right I think that's really that's really good I I commend I re I commend you for for that yeah um but I I on that the the 400,000 or the 420,000 that it shows for administrative are those dollars that come in from projects so those those are the so that's part of the general assessment that's separate from what we're requesting that's something that the board can levy on their own um and that's for administrative fees um for just running the office in the past um the we were capped in statute at $250,000 and um and so then that kind of that balance was paid for by projects we would charge the projects for those um and now we're capped I believe it's at 500,000 so we're we're just it's just it's the same as just how it's allocated out in the assessment so yeah those first two items you don't need our approval to correct yeah okay well again I want to thank you for maintaining that uh that level I think that's really good and for and especially for the amount of work that you're doing and you do receive in some instances there are assessments that go out to properties for benefited projects right that's correct yeah yeah so on this comparison comparison sheet that is included in the projects and ditches just for your information how that's changed as well Mr chair if there's no further questions I would move the resolution 202 24-28 I'll I'll second the motion further discussion thank you Mr chair thank you for the presentation Christine I just want to um Bill thank you and Kurt and Jerry for your representation as our Clay County managers on that board you did a really great job of advocating for the citizens that reach out to you asking those really tough questions uh water work is challenging and uh contentious and you do a really great job of rising above that and finding the the most common ground to do the work so thank you for attending those meetings and doing the work and thanks Christine too um nice to see a decrease in what that Levy amount is certainly I'm just um really flabbergasted at at how the assessment value has just Sky reted though in the last couple years which is I think the reason that we're seeing the the decrease but thanks for the work any other discussion not we have motion second all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign that motion passes Mr J I'd also move resolution 202 24-29 I'll second the motion motion the second all in favor say I I oppose same sign both motions pass thank you for coming up this morning thank you we appreciate the this this reflects some real good stewardship of the funds Mr chair uh commission yeah I just want to um touch base a little bit I know you're you're working on um the project the Georgetown project you you the sponsors of that through working with the diversion Authority and I you know uh commissioner gross and I have been driving up to holstead once a month and we drive through hendrum and perly and those areas and the road raises that have been done there are really significant and impressive and I'm looking forward to Georgetown having that same uh type of project done for them for flood control so I don't know where you are in that process I'm assuming it's that's moving forward but uh thank you for your continued work on it y so that's moving forward um we're hoping to do some land acquisition for just the road raises and in Georgetown kind of this year um and our Engineers are optimistic to start construction next year so we'll see how that goes and the more you can probably keep us a breast on how that works we've taken a pretty um active stance in the lobbying for the legislative funds at the capital and and to be able to share those specifics the um opportunities with the challenges as well uh would be really helpful for our outcomes there okay absolutely we can do that put your there did you see the recap from when um Bennett had the meeting with the land owners up there no I I can send that I could too I got that yeah if yeah that'd be pass on Steve would you like all like that why don't you give it to Steve or send it to Steve send Steve and he can put it out to us okay yeah thank you Bill there's a bake sale coming up you let me know when you bake something and I'll go buy it probably not going to happen yeah okay next up we have the Clay County Extension National for H week presentation of proclamation uh we have Mindy Grant and manique Styer with us and others or another good morning good morning we have mine Brenda mule with us today um we're here kind of in a light-hearted I know happy news update I guess um it's National 4H week it's something that's been going on for many many years across the country um for the 4 program nationally has reached over six million youth uh and and they're continuing to count there's a somewhat ambitious goal of reaching 10 million youth in the near future um so we're pretty excited this year's theme for National 4 week is beyond ready uh and that speaks to what 4's goal is and why 4 is uh why it's important to the young people involved and why it's important to our communities uh for is preparing young people to be ready um to be beyond ready once they reach adulthood uh to be ready to contribute to their communities to care about the people that they live and work with um and to take on leadership roles in their Community 4 has a long history of doing that um 4 of course has been around more than a century my grandfather started 4 in 1936 with the hog project and then he brought his children into 4 and became a club leader um and a County Fair volunteer and a swine project leader uh and my mother then brought me into 4 30 years later in the early 90s um I've been involved with 4 since 1990 so I'm not going to do the math for you but it's almost been 35 years um I've been involved with 4 for a long time I chose to make 4 a career and a pathway because I found that working with young people and seeing what 4 can do in teaching life skills um and preparing young people to be contributing members of the community I experienced that myself I choose to volunteer within my communities I choose to give back I choose to donate I I choose to be an active contributing member of my community and hopefully in a positive way and I love that 4 provides that pathway for other young adults U and we brought one of them with us here today she's she's on the cusp of becoming an adult she ages out of our program in about eight months next fall she ages out um and so she's one of those young people that's ready to launch right ready to launch into our community and become the next young person um but before we turn it over to meline to kind of share with you what for is for her and what she's excited about for her future um Mindy's going to kind of share with you what our local reach is real briefly hi I'm Grant I am a cooworker with Monique in the Clay County office here with extension uh Jenny's smiling because she recognizes the photos up on the screen um this is a great photo of some of the achievements that our our kids share in during the Clay County Fair and excuse me this year we reached 577 youth members and all of those members come to us in different ways we have some that join Community clubs like Barn buddies humble legal clovers um and we have others that join us through after school programs we do programs with all of the five school districts here where we provide enrichment programs in those after school hours for our youth and then we also do Partnerships with other community organizations where we provide a variety of services we may be going in as guests to actually facilitate an activity or we might be training other Youth Development workers to deliver for each curriculum um helping with supplies curriculum lessons training people so those are all different ways that we reach our youth members um over the year and then we also have 75 um screened adults so in Minnesota 4 we do have a process to do a background screening for our adults who will be in charge with children um as part of our safety of minors um policies so we have 75 of those people who will help us delivering programs it might be our club leaders it might be chaperon that go to state fairs or camps that we provide um any project activities or project days that we do we have our screen volunteers there uh we do have dozens dozens and dozens of other people parents community members grandparents um that do come along with us to help support us during the fair and other activities that we do as well and we'll pass it back over to Monique um well and like I mentioned before the reason why 4 is important I think that's a question we sometimes forget about and we we talk about what we do and how we do it but sometimes we forget about the why um and it really boils down to because we're building people that are ready to be a part of our community and that we want to see um we're we're helping young people become the people that they want to be um and become positive successful adults within our community um for each is associated with 109 land grant universities across this country and they are all conducting research and studies on why4 has been a good program uh and that's one of the thing that research of course is feeding our programs and our approach to working with young people um but it's also showing that we are four times more likely to make positive contributions to their communities once they age out of 4 AG that young people in 4 are twice as likely to report feeling competent um and that's important for people today um that's important to our mental health to feel like we're competent and capable of doing something um young people are twice as likely to make healthy choices this all ties back to like mental health and um how we're contributing to the community and how we're helping other people find success around us so that's an important part um that's part of that why this is why 4 is important and what its place and role is within our community uh that said we're really here to talk about meline I want to thank you all for having me here today I want to thank Mo'Nique and Mindy for inviting me and I want to thank you Commissioners for also inviting me to this meeting um like Monique said I am I will age out as of September 30th of 2025 which I'm really disappointed about but I also 4 has been a really important part of my life I there's been so many opportunities like National trips State trips Community leadership opportunities service opportunities there's so much that 4 offers you that like it's it's beyond like I'm speechless for how many opportunities that are present and with um so like I talk about like National trips like I'm very competitive on like the horse side of 4 that's kind of my Niche and I have been able to go to like so many different places around the United States I've been able to go to Lexington Kentucky for Eastern Nationals which is during one of the live one of the biggest livestock shows in the nation too um I've been able to go to quter Horse Congress and I actually leave here next or on Sunday to head back down to Ohio for my second and last National trip for hippology and um hippology is like the study it's a study of horses so like we do judging we do um there's like diagrams that we have to label there's a test there's a speaking portion in a team problem so there's many opportunities that that I've had to go all over the nation that and those opportunities I don't know if I necessarily would have taken if 4 wouldn't have give wouldn't have provided me those opportunities and also like the leadership opportunities that 4 offers they're so vast like you have different opportunities to like serve in your county you have opportunities to serve at a regional level your state level I'm a region um horse PDC Youth and so I attend State meetings but then I'm also a regional voice for for the northwest region up here in Minnesota in this area so I'm really proud to be one of those youth who who lead in the state and who have a voice in in the state position and so that's honestly that's honestly about all I have for you guys today I don't know if you guys have any questions or anything but like I said thank you so much for having me commissioner Mojo well you knew I'd jump in on this nah um the exciting thing about having mateline here today is mateline really represents an amazing group of young people in Clay County that are making really great healthy choices uh in uh deliberate actions and projects that they uh take under their wing uh mateline and my old oldest son have done this for each thing together for a long long time since you were in early early childhood and so it's exciting to see how much they've all grown up uh together really we call them our 4 each family uh one thing mateline did not talk about is meline has been a finalist at the state horse show in a program called The Dan Patch leadership program and that is one of the most prestigious leadership program uh opportunities throughout um Minnesota 4 for young people in the horse project and I can count on one hand the amount of young people from Klay County that is part that have done that I believe Melissa Barrett from the um from The Glory Days if you will commissioner Campbell uh also was part of that as well so um she's done some really exciting exciting things um so often around this table we need to talk about the really hard opportunities that some of our young people in the community are facing and progr s to help lift them out of some unfortunate circumstances so it's really exciting to hear the success stories if you will about what Klay County 4 is doing not only locally but on our state platform and National platform as well so thank you so much we have a proclamation that we're going to vote on does does the uh commission feel up to winging it right now or should I just read the whole thing I was going to give it all to commissioner Mojo but she's playing hurt and I'm not going to make her do that but if you want to lead it off sure sorry all right whereas 4 is America's largest Youth Development organization having supported more than six million youth across the country and whereas 4 has helped more than 2500 youth in Clay County to become confident independent resilient and compassionate leaders and whereas 4 is delivered by Cooperative Extension a community of more than 100 public universities Across the Nation to provide experience experiences for young people to learn by doing Hands-On projects in areas including Health Science Agriculture and citizenship and where ask National 4 week showcases the incredible experiences that 4 offers young people and highlights the Remar remarkable for H youth in Clay County who work each day to make a positive impact on those around them and whereas 4 networks of volunteers and professionals providing caring and supportive mentoring to all four aces helping them grow into true leaders entrepreneurs and Visionaries now therefore the Klay County Board of Commissioners to hereby Proclaim October 7th through the 12th 2024 as 4 week throughout Clay County and encourage all of our citizens to recognize 4 for the significant impact it has made and continues to make by empowering youth with skills that they need to lead for a lifetime adopted this e8th day of October 2024 can I get a motion on this so offer second okay we have motion a second any further discussion before we vote on the motion this is a great program uh you've got a strong Advocate on this commission for it and uh what that's managed to do is is is bring to everybody's attention here commissioner Campbell had a son that was part of 4 as well the value of the program and you can count on our continued support so we have a motion all in favor of the motion say I I poose same sign thank you okay next up Darren Brooks says here HR Director but soon to be uh full-time assistant County Administrator and an well this isn't going to be as exciting as 4 I can tell you that right now because we're talking back benefits um but I do appreciate um the uh motion that you made today uh making the me the uh assistant administrator so I'm greatly appreciative of that um I I want to take a little bit of time to say that my HR team is just fantastic uh they they do the majority of the work there and um Anna and Melissa and Sarah have really stepped up with h as Steve said with all the employees that we've added in the last 10 years and we really haven't added that any people so um I want to give a shout out to them as well and and um moving into the assistant administrator job I can just go straight into the assisted living after that so I'm good to go um as far as the uh insurance goes uh I have three things one of them two of them will will uh request a vote from you the third one is more of a a discussion topic I handed out a just an updated um sheet for you the only difference is um I added a bottom column there or the bottom box there it says County contribution and so start off um the first issue is back in 2020 we changed our benefit plans so that the county contribution was reduced for new new employees um um but we kept the grandfather plans and back in 2020 and as you can see in the the very top box on the right it says breakdown as of uh September 30th I think is when I ran these numbers we have 227 employees that were hired after January 1st of 2020 and in 2020 we made it so that the county contribution covered 100% of the non-grandfathered single single Health single dental and basic life so all four plans were covered 100% for that fast forward 5 years to 2025 and with the calculations that we use um the non-grandfathered single plans only one is covered and that's the high deductible when it comes to all of the premiums and so the um Insurance subcommittee met last week to discuss if this would be possible to correct this and if you look at the second second from the bottom box um it says remaining dollars to the employee after Health dental and life uh in order to cover two of our plans the high deductible and the 2600 Viba we that we're recommending that the county add $4.88 to the non-grandfathered single County contribution um what that does is for 160 non-grandfathered single plans we have 160 employees that have non-grandfathered single plans um that would increase their monthly County contribution $488 that way that those two plans are 100% covered to include Health Dent single Health single Health single dental and basic life um so that is the first thing that is in front of the board right now the total cost to that is County contribution and then we had to have a vote by the insurance committee as well we had that vote last week and 12 of the 17 voted yes and was it five uh did not vote so we still had a majority of the insurance committee that said that this was um a good idea for their employees as a as a reminder that uh Insurance committee is made up of of uh members of all the unions so all of the unions had a vote in this and so the recommendation from the subcommittee and the insurance committee is to increase the non-grandfathered plan for single County contributions by $4.88 um to make two of those plans 100% covered Mr chair commissioner Campbell you know ideally ideally we we wouldn't have wanted to put the insurance committee into that um that quick of an action item without having the dialogue through the normal process of an insurance committee meeting but because of the um late time frame for and the rapid approaching ear uh open enrollment period we we had to do it that way and and actually what this does is this really enhances everybody who is um non-grandfathered in in the single plan correct um so not only would there be two of the four that would fully fund those that would select the cmm1000 or the cdhp 4,000 will still get a reduced amount out of pocket by what's being proposed here corre and I do want to thank Lori for crunching the numbers and as you see in our deal we looking we'd be looking at about [Music] 9,369 and cost for the entire year 2025 to do this um I certainly think going back I uh my concern on this would be if we only had just the one option available to be fully funded that that does put the employees who would be in that position at a real disadvantage to have to take that plan because of the high outof pocket costs associated with that plan and and this allows at least some flexibility amongst those people to choose another plan that doesn't have such a high outof pocket correct maximum so and just for a reminder um we're in 2025 we're at the end of our um guaranteed increase we if you recall we had a negative 5% then we had a 789 well 2025 is our nine and so we're going to be going back to the negotiating tables and back to uh RFP for um benefits next year so this will this will solve it for this year or next year um but we'll see starting in 2026 where we go with everything and I and I think one of the things that the board has to be aware of and and there can be some concern both from the county standpoint and the employee St moving forward is that is that depending on the amount of annual increas percentage increases to premiums there is nothing that's going to guarantee you know based on the current option that we have of the 50/50 uh right on increases that this is always going to be sustainable um you know where where there wouldn't be some out of pocket expense moving forward but those are discussions that'll come later um but it you know what Darren you mentioned that five years ago all four plans covered and the reason they don't cover anymore is because of the higher than you know the percent percentage increases right in the C in the way the calculation goes commissioner kraban off yeah thank you great comments um I just want to um as being part of that subcommittee uh it was very good to hear I hadn't heard tell this morning how the vote went I knew the back and forth we were having with the uh people on the insurance committee and it's uh really good to hear uh two things number one that it was a majority uh every there was no NOS I guess positive and as important uh also the fact that you uh got a voice from the people with the unions right so I I think that uh brings the Comfort level I think to all of us on that subcommittee that you know even as already expressed it wouldn't be the way we normally like to do it but yet we're moving forward in a positive way with the agreement of the committee yes correct thank you so thank you for that commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair I just had a question on why the five abstained from the vote uh did you hear from any of um there was a conversation with one individual that just didn't vote um otherwise nobody responded I reached out to them multiple times and no action yeah we we did um Anna did send out reminders okay so they were reminded a couple times so if they didn't vote then I don't know why I just think it's important to relay the significance of serving in a capacity like that and uh using your voice when you're allowed the platform to do so is really important as we shape the scope of programs moving forward so I'm hopeful that it was nothing more than just an oversight yeah and of those five that didn't respond three of them represented a union so two of them were non-union representatives and and we offered um in the email that they could certainly uh call us with any questions that they would have if they didn't understand what was being put out or what was being changed um I did not I I got an email that I responded to but I don't think you got anybody that reached out and said I don't understand this okay there was a few emails but no phone calls okay I again I want going to commissioner M I just want to emphasize that you know though some some of those five may not have felt comfortable voting for it because of the rapid response and that this was a this was done uh basic basically by a virtual vote as opposed to having the entire Insurance committee meet together we just didn't have time to call that meeting correct and I you know and again uh there if there's any apologies that go out there that can fall on on those of us that that did meet in the subcommittee group but the fact of the matter is is this still enhances everybody in that area's um benefit there's not there isn't anything there's no downside no down employees just point for the commissioner I think we need to treat these as three different definitely three different items so this uh first uh the increase is subject to a motion anytime somebody's ready to make it I commission mooso thank you I I also want to thank you for bringing that discussion I understand that it happened rapidly and needed to happen but but really if you look through some of the comments throughout the years on and maybe there are some areas where we can strengthen our insurance offerings what you're doing right now is really reflective of those comments uh I I think it um to have flexibility um with Medicare is really important I think to have flexibility and um and acknowledge that having families were to spouses work for the county you know that that duplicative policy is challenging but not really a service to the people that are working for us and I think in the end we'll really strengthen Recruitment and Retention as well I'm Mr sure I would move to increase the non-rf non-grandfathered single County contribution by $4.88 a month for 2025 call second have motion a second any further discussion on item number one in this not all in favor say I I oppose same sign okay motion passes now we can move on to the next one okay um the next one uh also goes T kind of to uh commissioner Mojo's um taking care of the employees right now uh as you know we require uh everybody to have at least single Health single dental and basic life um and right now we have seven employees uh that are married that both work for the county based on our current policies both of them have to have s at least single Health single dental and and basic life if they have a family if they have kids or whatever then one of those individuals has to take a family plan and the other spouse takes a single plan um that is duplicate on a lot of uh things for the employee it's duplicate premiums it's duplicate dedu deductions um what else am I missing uh claims and everything else so the motion that we brought to the uh subcommittee was to allow married couples that are getting two two County contributions to continue to get their two County contributions but have one of the uh family members or spouses um opt out of our health insurance because the other spouse that carries family um a family plan would also cover that second that spouse that is a County employee um we did we did some of the number crunching and um if you look down at the very bottom box it says County contribution those are the county contributions that would go out if a person was had a family plan and then was a single grandfather plan they'd get $331 for 2025 if they had a family plan single non-grandfathered theyd get 2847 so what we're proposing is that if you are a married couple both working for Clay County we would give you the option not making it mandatory but giving you the option of having one of those spouses drop out and opt out of the health care so that they can then be covered under the family plan of the other spouse um this is a this is a big benefit because then a lot of the family plans for these individuals would be covered uh especially for the if you look up the um on the 1 two 3 fourth box down where it says Health Plan costs 2025 if you look over under the family premiums those are family pre pre premiums per month and so a lot of the family plans would be covered uh until you get down to two single non-grandfathered they're they're getting 254 um the the county contribution would not change for whether your grandfather or non-grandfathered the same we and so if somebody is grandfathered and they have a family plan and they're grandfathered and they have a single plan they would still get that but they one would be able to opt out and then that would cover their family plan so I think this is a big benefit to those who want to take advantage of it like I said it's voluntary you don't have to do that but um it does save the county money I think in premiums and uh deductions and all of that as well well um let's see what am I missing else the only thing I want to clarify it was seven couples so 14 employees not seven employees yes true seven couples the S cover by life insurance and yes yes and dental yes just a worst case scenario we have have uh two employees who decide to do this and the uh there is a death or divorce or whatever where the employee that continues to be working at the county is the one that's not covered how quick a turnaround could we make could we do that mid year yes so anytime someone experienced a life event marriage divorce child birth uh loss if they left Clay County the individual that is employed has 30 days to make changes so it could happen in the matter of days so nobody be left in in a crisis situation right okay and it would be no additional cost to the county because this is what we're paying right now um so there's no no cost at that as far as that's concerned other questions commissioner Campbell so you know when we originally talked about this there was some didn't we talk about both being able to have single coverage yeah the original conversation and yeah that was the original conversation and actually when I submitted this uh information sheet that's what we had discuss but once we started crunching some numbers um it we found that it wasn't avocations to just give them two singles because they still wouldn't be able to pay for the full family coverage at that point so that's why we changed it and I sent out an email to uh commissioner karhoff and commissioner Campbell yesterday I think it was yeah just kind of explained that some of our calculations were a little bit different or off when when we were just going to give the the original plan that we had talked about was giving both individuals uh single coverage but when we did some calculations it it wasn't going to be advantas to um the employees at all so and again so they I I get the idea of of having the family coverage make sense where where you'd get them both on the one policy and you have that one premium I think that I think the other area that we haven't had the discussion on is for the one employee who would give up that but still get the county contribution MH uh how how would that work say for example for somebody who's now going to get a get the full cafeteria plan contribution there's a difference in a contribution between those who are grandfathered and non-grandfathered right so the question becomes if if we're going to do this for the one who no longer has to is going to have to pay the premium but they're getting the contribution would would the non-grandfathered contribution along with the contribution for the other one be more than enough to make those premiums in any of those plans do you follow where I'm going with this um I followed you up until your last sentence well um so so right now if there if there's if we have a plan right now where both both employees are grandfathered correct right correct and they're both grandfathered and their and their are both required to take single policies okay and now the proposal would be that both those grandfathered employees would be eligible to fall under one family plan correct so that that employees contribution who takes that the one of you know of the two married coupl the one who takes that right and his grandfathered that premium falls short of being able to pay for the plans by itself so so where where they make ground is is then the person who no longer has to is forced to take the single plan still gets this full non- grandfathered contribution right and that non that non-grandfathered contribution could be more than what is needed to pay to cover the full the full premiums of all four of those and so so the question becomes is could could that person who and again this is why we probably should this should be in our through our insurance committee to have this dialogue but yeah but would would the person [Music] who does not have to carry the plan Ops out could they fall into the non-grandfathered St status and still have a contribution between the two of them that would cover the full cost of of four plans so if you look at the very bottom box on the worksheet um the if I'm understanding you correctly um the family and the grandfather single grandfathered individual um would have enough to cover any of the four family options if there's a family and a non-grandfathered there's enough contribution when you the tool two together to cover three of the four Family Health Options um and then for if both individuals are single and grandfathered um it does make I mean if because the family contri or the family premiums are so significantly higher than the single there isn't necessarily an advantage to those employees because now their contribution is when you pull them together it's only covering a few of the plans where right now their single policy is covered in full so it's really going to depend on the couple on the um their family Dynamics whether they have children that are covered for our plan so it's it's really going to depend all seven couples could be completely different and I think I think a lot of this has to do with what the family makeup is if if we have two individuals that are working for Clay County that have no uh uh children or children that aren't that don't qualify anymore then they will probably take two single plans it's really for for the people who have a family that are trying to cover children as well and instead of having a whole another uh insurance premium insurance deductible and and all of that we would just take that other spouse and and they would fall under the whole the the family under that family plan yeah exactly but but that but then that single one would still get the the full grandfathered yes cafeteria plan apply which could result in a lot more leftover dollars it could result in some leftover dollars as well we and you can see that from like if if we had a family and a single grandfather they're going to get $3,300 per month and the CMM 1000 is 3,49 so they're going they're going to get more than what the premium is the the thing about changing if your grandfather now we're going to pay you non-grandfathered that gets real messy and that would have to go back to being negotiated with the unions because now we're changing this is this proposition is that this is optional and if you want to do it and it makes sense for you then we're we're making that available for you if it doesn't make sense then you just keep what you have but there's no additional cost for the county because this is what we're we're paying right now if somebody has married spouses we're we're giving them single coverage and family coverage at the same time now we do have a couple that don't have any kids and so they have two single they have two single plans so that hopefully explains that and I raise this because and we've talked about it in our insurance committee for a long time is is that the the the in the intent of the of this is to provide insurance for our employees yeah and there the the intent really wasn't to allow money to be given back but in treating everybody equally that you know right there's no way of getting around that I guess and and I think um I I reviewed the the contracts and really what it says about insurance is if there's any change in the calculation you know the 50/50 that has to be negotiated um and if there's if the county wants to change carriers then it has to be a vote by the insurance committee so the two things that we're talking about now or the the married couples is doesn't fall into either one of those categories that's why and it's it's optional so we're not forcing somebody to do this so that's why it's not necessary to go back to the unions and negotiate all of this now if we were to change the you know saying okay instead of getting grandfathered you're going to get now you're going to get non-grandfathered to bring you more in line with what the the premium costs are we would have to negotiate that because that would be a a det and again we're not talking that many y yeah we're not talking that many and some of those seven might just keep what they have right now we don't know for sure we won't know that until open enrollment is uh done so it'd be their advantage to take the family plan it most likely would be y commissioner moso thank you I yeah I think it's also important to know those those family plans still are a substantial out of pocket premium even with the additional piece that I mean it is it is substantial and part of as you look to how do we best Supply uh health insurance programs that fit the need in the the most appropriate way you know a family plan uh you know a single a single parent with children is still taking out a family plan and and so there are other companies and policies that allow to have a parent and dependence plan that might make more sense going forward too and I think that's important to keep that as part of the dialogue I understand that you know out of those seven couples every policy and situation is going to look vastly different and I think we need to be careful to make sure that people aren't pocketing as you say um the additional components but I would guess the the majority of those people are still going to be paying several hundred dollar out of pocket in addition for what the plans are yeah that that second box from the bottom um that kind of shows you the out of pocket for just a person who has a one family plan so let's say that's one employee that has to take a family plan everything in red is coming out of their pocket ET every month and that's pretty significant and then what's not coming out is in the auto could potentially be in the auto pocket maximum correct which is over $113,000 for corre lesser amount correct um any additional questions we can entertain a motion on this if there's no further questions yeah I'm comfortable doing that uh I'd like to make a motion uh to give the option to married employees who were both uh who both work for Clay County to elect only a family plan instead of carrying a family and a single plan again it's an option thank you I'll second the motion okay I have motion a second commissioner Campbell for for clarity though would somebody so right now is is there still the option to be able to both choose a single plan yes yes that's still is there definitely yep okay because because that's not in this motion but it's still an option that's y certainly still an option all of this would be optional for for employees depending on on their situation and commissioner krainov commission moo you stipulate that and the Motions you made well we don't need to I mean it's it's taken care of okay all right well ex excuse me though because it because it says here motion to give the option to married employees who both work for the county to either select a family plan instead or carrying a family and a single he said an opt he said that in his motion but the but it doesn't state that there should be the option of a single plus a single he said in his motion that this option gives them the opportunity to do that if they so choose that's not precluding them from doing what the other element was they they right now there there would be no change to what our policy is right now that they would they could both have single plans okay because again I'm I'm just what it reads here elect only a family plan instead of carrying a family and a single plan this would be completely voluntary based on the needs of the family we we do have some of the married couples that aren't currently carrying a family plan and so their single coverage would remain as is or this would be the option so the record shows it can have both that's def okay any further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign okay motion passes thank you um the last thing we discussed in the subcommittee is um and and I really only need this for discussion and kind of telling you where we're looking at going with this um this proposal would require some research because we would like to get a hold of Steve Smith who is our NIS consultant he is extremely knowledgeable in Medicare um U policies procedures rules whatever you want to call them and unfortunately his uh father passed away recently and so we have not been able to talk to him but one of the proposals that we're looking at is employees that are over the age of 65 and that are Medicare eligible would be allowed to opt out of our health benefits and go into Medicare with Medicare there's a lot of rules and regulations that I don't feel comfortable right now saying yes let's go ahead and do this but I think this is something that we just wanted to throw in front of you for some thought and maybe get any feedback that you would want us to look into as far as questions go and um maybe this is something that we can put into play uh next year when we're talking about our 2026 um health benefits uh I I think it's definitely an option out there um but I wanted to do a little bit more research on that so if you have any comments or something that you maybe want us to look into a little bit more I just don't feel comfortable with this with the short amount of time that we have to to change the database which is this Friday I I think this is a bridge too far to try to make this into a policy this year commissioner Campbell no PA commission grabin off yeah uh just to uh what's behind the conversation and and uh from my point of view and I'm very comfortable waiting let's make sure but the reason for this whole thing coming up is that there are people that are again employees that are required to have your health insurance right while at the same time they already are under medic Medicare and they're carrying the supplemental align with that correct and maybe a few of us included myself uh already have another group plan correct and and I dropped and so I have a county group plan I have supplmental and have Medicare and it's just duplication but we want to be careful I'm not the one off here I want to make sure this is um there's other people in this situation uh so we just don't have this duplication also we know that some of our highest costs are people over 65 correct and so it's about looking not only about contribution but the what the effects are are of Aging people uh on the costs uh into the future while they're still working to the with the county yep thank you for that commission I'd ALS I'd also like to point out in addition to that and and when you have those coverages and if you have the county coverage your county coverage is primary no matter how good all these other insurance you have so when you have some of us that are up there in age or whatever and you all of a sudden you have a high claim situation it it hits the County's uh deal first right and it hits the county claims first and this is an opportunity under this format to to remove that and I I'm disappointed pointed that it's it's this late in the game because I think this is would be worthy of doing in 2025 um you know and I think Lor's head nodding yes back there too but it I mean you you look at the I mean you could wait till 2026 and you could have one of a 65 an older person have one have one strong claim and it can be impact to everybody's next year's premiums MH right you know right now we have um I totaled up about 18 employees that are 65 or over which would be eligible for Medicare and and individual's claims are confidential so we are assuming that people over the age of 65 have higher claims but we don't actually know and so maybe I over stated that but there's I think there's a higher probability correct say that um so following with what commissioner Campbell said there even though you aren't totally comfortable who it is what's the harm in making it an option to keep it moving forward in the fact that you may have information by the time the open Period closes which I think is December 7th for medic I believe so but isn't that the concern the piece so the piece where my concern lies is I just don't know the rules and regulations of Medicare it is it is very regulated and as Darren said Steve Smith is licensed in Medicare we just haven't had the opportunity to connect with him due to a family matter I mean it's something that we can certainly continue to look at and if we can get a hold of Steve Smith and say hey this yeah you can do this and this is easy and you do it then maybe well I would hope we could bring it back y if it's before you know if it's before the close of the enrollment period I would hope that maybe we could bring it back to discuss again discuss again that's my thoughts and I you know I I again this would be a question for Steve Smith too but I think the open or the enrollment period in terms of somebody signing up for Medicare benefits I think there's a there's a December date that that's supposed to be done but if you have a change and your in your your own coverage you you that could be so for example if we made this policy change effective January 1 then that's that's something then I would think that would extend that period but that's a question for Steve Smith it would be it is very similar to the life event um where if you do have a loss or gain of another coverage you can make changes that applies to Medicare as well just yes so maybe maybe that could even another question could be you know if we're not comfortable with it yet could that could that life could if it's considered one of those life event changes could could we make this policy effect of March 1st um the only thing I would be a little hesitant on would be that would be a a you're not really losing coverage you're making the option to drop coverage so I don't know well that's a question for Steve Smith y y okay are we looking at for on the on the um op the the supplemental policies that you get when you get Medicare right are we we're looking at the county supplying an option with one of those or no or paying no uh for that plan so you so I think I think the discussion that's been taking place is that those employees who are 65 and older would would keep their cafeteria contribution and that cafeteria contribution could be used to go out on their own and buy these because everybody's supplemental policy is different when it comes to Medicare right right everybody's going to have a different monthly premium MH based on what selections you choose between Part B and Part D and all of those types of things so the the intent was was that whatever the 65 and older would have in terms of a cafeteria plan would still be in place right they would still get their County contract but instead of having to pay for one of these four policies in full that money could be used to buy these other um supplements correct Medicare correct and the part b as well uh yeah I think it would cover whatever you would want to whatever you would want to pay for or use it to pay for so so we'll we'll we'll continue to look through this if it's possible to do it for 2025 we certainly bring that back to the board um and once we find out more information about yeah this is this is you can do this and this is easy to do then we can certainly look at doing that okay any other questions comments well I think it's good that we even try to pursue it still this year if possible okay that can have as significant of a impact on our premiums as these other two things we did today yep definitely in addition to the fact it is a costly demographic you may not have the facts in front of you but I think if those of us that are eligible take it to Medicare it's going to have a positive impact on the numbers down the road for for the county right I agree okay well again I want to I want to thank both of you for the work that you put into um these things and I certainly I think you you have the county in mind and you have the employee in mind as your as you're you know proposing some of these changes and I think it's I think it's been really good yeah we're always looking for the win-win you know when we can get it so good for the employees good for the county find a win-win for us people over 65 that's [Laughter] impossible all right any we appreciate it okay thank you thank you next up St and Lori good morning again uh Commissioners uh we're here uh to just provide an update we try to come in each quarterly uh just to give an idea M mainly on our expenses as I mentioned earlier our revenues generally fall anywhere from from six weeks to two months behind uh and so we have before you this morning we have uh our our revenues and expenditure balanced through September um uh so about 75% of our of of of the year uh and so you see the broken down of on the right side of your documents uh What uh what was budgeted uh where we are year to date uh and the variance uh the variance of that and so as was shared earlier uh in the other item uh from a budgeting standpoint financially the county is in a very good position uh all of nearly all the items are at 75% or less or are entities or items that are paid in a one-time payment uh to to some of our outsid agencies uh for their Appropriations uh and so uh in reviewing this document with Miss Johnson I didn't identify any specific areas uh that that I could highlight as far as uh a spending so I would take any questions uh from from the board in regards to where we are from an expenditure standpoint any questions on the expenditures okay proceed quiet on this side all right and if any other questions come up as we go certainly can can step back the other item that we' like to touch base on uh during our quarterly updates are also our half C sales tax uh for a law en enforcement center Correctional Facility uh as you can see we we've we're we've kind of plateaued from the standpoint of of the the earlier years of 16 3.4 20 20 and a half 10 and a half and N9 uh percent last year uh in in our uh the funding receipts uh there's a change in state funding so we now receive all of our all of our payments each month in one payment versus two two separate payments and so uh as you can see uh we continue to maintain a good situation as we've talked about uh in previous budgets going back I believe three budgets now uh we have not included uh any any Levy dollars within the repayment of our jail and law enforce enforcement center project I believe this year we're at about $3.9 million is that is a principal interest payment uh and so if you project uh if you project over the next four months uh even based on the 20 2122 22 figures uh we will again be well uh in a in a firm financial position to make that payment uh and and to have additional dollars left over M Johnson and I review uh this this payment every month to to ensure uh that it's within the time frame or or excuse me within the amount that we are anticipating uh and so that as we move forward with this upcoming budget we're able to uh adjust as need be with that I'd yield for any questions we're making it too easy well I mean there I mean there's it is there's hard to complain about something good but I've got faith in you commissioner Campell well if there's anything good it's this page right here indeed well thank you for uh both of you for your diligent stewardship of this of our budget and of this of the the projects we have it's one of the reasons being a county commissioner here is a lot easier than it is in a number of other counties we have good people who are responsible and stay on top of these things thank you grateful and I want to just Echo that I think um you know when I looked at especially the summary and we get them partway into the year it just helps us all track or you know you see it enough time so that you get you become a little more familiar you know of how things roll out and so it isn't such even though we've done the preliminary you know it's not so much guess workk right at the end so appreciate it thank you thank you they're afraid to leave them mic was too easy okay committee reports and I believe start with uh commissioner Campbell last if you want me to go I'll go did did I hit you twice in a row no I went first last time but I oh well we we can looking at my notes you're right Mr gross we'll start with you hey last Tuesday we had the personal issues committee meeting we discuss two things uh reorganization of solid waste department and making the assistant uh County Administrator position fulltime I mean and both of those things we had on the agenda so they're already covered uh Thurday oh also on that day we had Highway tracking um there we discussed uh setting up uh November 19th as a meeting which we already did during the agenda today uh there was a staffing update as far as what positions they filled they've had a few retire retirements out there they're still waiting for more motor gror operators a shop foran uh so far both maintenance workers have been field and also engineering technician also discussed the equipment purchase which was covered in the in agender today and also there be an open house on uh that uh round roundabout on County 12 and 52 on November the November the 6th pardon what's that that round about the highway the highway department it's on our agenda calendar also that even I went to the which wasn't a regular meeting here it was a heart of clay that was put on um Marriott had a full room there are people supporting the hardest play program things a pretty worth after listening to people talking there it's a worthwhile thing that's happening here in Clay County especially our our chil ministry in the jail uh very good program and I was glad to see a room full of people there supporting the program um and Thursday I went to an open house for the Morhead Armory which was H Thursday afternoon those are my meetings thank you commissioner CRA and off and uh so last uh Tuesday on the 1 I had the adult mental health executive committee uh setting up our agenda that we'll have later in the month um discussion of uh new topics um spotlights we call them coming in uh for discussions uh from our uh partner non-private or nonprofits excuse me and then U we'll be having elections coming up for a secretary for that group um then um just uh I I do want to it was in the afternoon we had the open house for the uh uh detox and the withdrawal Management Facility along with the DMV and I I just uh thought that was really a great afternoon so impressed it was my first look on the inside of those two buildings and um I was really moved by the detox center I I just uh very excited for the people I know U as I talked to Public Health some people are pretty uh uh jealous about the new digs over there for some of the folks but you know and and on the other side of the coin uh having been a person that is around addiction and whatnot um it's sobering and uh exciting at the same time and I I just uh uh really compliment the staff and the dedication and commitment of the people in our Public Health uh that work in this area um uh it might be a pretty facility but on the inside sometimes things aren't so pretty and to help people that are in a um potentially uh um a end of life situation to be able to help them through that event and hopefully lead them through through a treatment management situation uh that may pull them from that over time uh I think it's just I want to thank everybody involved is obvious obviously got started long before I came here but to see the end of it and what it will do for us in our region uh um it just kudos to everybody involved so I uh that was very good uh the DMV will be exciting to see when we open that door and and U uh the efficiency it's been so nice downtown how the operation worked there uh and I think this will be um again just a a place to have our own that we can control for the years and it'll also be important to see when the state comes back in with their Spate uh with their space on Thursday I had the Children's Mental Health Lac meeting and um there again uh good reports uh from all our people uh that's always a big me meeting with our providers and the main thing going on there is again collaboration which they're all doing but how do we get that information out as to the referrals uh for for people and a lot of this comes through our schools throughout the county um you know referrals out but trying to identify um making it easy to use QR code and so we're going to start in that development that maybe it's a QR code that we can do to be help people navigate uh to the resources for families or and our schools or other uh uh nonprofits all together just have one area that people can come into and find direction easily so with that that was my week thank you commissioner Mojo thank you last week I had the opportunity to attend the media tours for our new two new facilities really grateful for staff for the uh um for taking on those questions and taking uh so many people on the tours last week I know staff did a lot of work to make sure that the ribbon cutting area was ready and signage was up so thank you to everyone for that um that afternoon then we did have the chamber sure brought a lot of people out for that and then I attended with commissioner C uh commissioner gross and staff the uh Correctional Facility um Suite Freedom um fundraiser really great to reflect on 10 years of their impact and programming at our facility they've really um really um put a mark on a lot of the folks that they've worked with it's really a great partnership that we've built with them over there and then yesterday I had the executive committee for the Metropolitan Council of governments we had General business on the minutes and agenda but we did uh approve a cpg contract Amendment um there was some um moving of funds availability from Minnesota do and so wanted to make sure that was reflected in a contract Amendment and then we did discuss at length the 2025 2026 upw and budget that will go for the um policy board if it seems like I've reported on this a lot in the last couple of months I have been there are so many different appendices to that programming document um it's it's really been reflected in that uh it's really good though to see particularly with Clay County how our engineering and planning departments are bringing potential studies and opportunities for work to that so that if there is a shift in funds which we've seen frequently they're able to uh address that need and get it in the work plan after that I attend Ed the final meeting for the withdrawal management uh construction committee I guess if that if you will with that um wrap up basically to discuss the planning and on the final walkthroughs and and transfer of um occupa occupancy if you will waiting for um mdh to do that final walkth through on that there are a couple items um to wrap up but I think the contingencies we're around that $190,000 on that um that project after that we had the uh DMV construction committee meeting the contingencies on that are about 177 I believe um certainly there's some um FF components that we need to purchase um it was brought to our attention there's some chairs that needed to be ordered um but certainly both of those facilities are Marching towards completion the uh transfer we discussed a little bit about how we publicly notice and get the the word out on when the DMV on the 21st will be open so we'll be working with communication staff to do so um I believe that concludes my reports thank you commissioner Campbell thank you on October 1st we had the highway tracking committee meeting with which commissioner gross has um given a good update on the several of those things we acted on today regarding the diversion issue the equipment issue um so I really don't have any more to add to that report on the 4th of October we had a diversion Authority planning committee meeting and it was an all day um interview process with multiple candidates for the uh new executive director position and ultimately it was the planning committee's task to bring that down to three finalists uh which will be put forward uh to the full diversion Authority board for interviews of those three candidates and as of yesterday I believe that was um an invite was that's going to happen on October 24th from 1:00 to 5 o'clock uh is the plan for that at at which time after that um I'm assuming that the diversion Authority will choose one of those finalists so that's that process is moving quite well we did have we did originally have six candidates uh one withdrew and the other five were all all very good candidates qualified candidates but we ultimately put down to three and I believe those names have been uh put out in to the media I don't have them with me right now I I know one of them and I don't want to name just one without naming the other two but they're that's public information for those who want to know it then uh we ALS then I also attended yesterday the as commissioner Mojo said the final meeting of the withdrawal management detox facility we shouldn't we should no longer need to meet on that project um there has been some ongoing issues regarding um door pass issues I and I think those are finally resolved now uh we are looking at final some final inspections being done and we should have the certificate of occupancy on that building by the end of this week and Joel Olen uh did point out that he will have both of those new buildings put onto our mcit insurance coverage effec of starting now I'm assuming he would did that yesterday or he's doing it today so um all you I mean you guys get the tour of the place and the public got the tour of the place and it really is uh going to be a a good asset to Clay County that same afternoon then we did attend what should be the second to the last meeting on the um DMV facility that was all also talked about and you know I mean we're down to the contingencies are good I I know on the on this one the Joel is going to be bringing before the board I believe next week some adjustments to the FFN budget I think there's an increase of 8 to 12,000 for difference in shairs that are going to be used in the lobby area there but he'll be bringing that next week uh other than that um um I do want to point out that I think um gert's construction has done a a really nice job on these on these buildings and they were very good at really keeping that project in line and when we when we look at having a a you know contingency numbers the where where they're at all when all said and done I think commissioner Mojo did point that out I think on we're at somewhere around 175 maybe 170 by the time we're down on the DMV building uh remaining contingency um that will hopefully not be needed and we're right around 188 190,000 on contingency on the U withdrawal Management Facility so those projects really have done well and it was nice working with the management level that that um gerts had on that project so that concludes my report thank you last week um attended the pck committee which is the issues we covered were covered today and commissioner gross cover the meeting um I also attended the detox and DMV grand opening um or open house a little preceding the actual opening but uh everybody has said it they're both very impressive facilities uh they're coming in with without uh hitting the contingencies too hard so it's all good news uh Wednesday the 2 I participated in the Chamber of Commerce candidate Forum here at the courthouse I want to thank the chamber for giving us uh the candidates an opportunity to express uh our our positions and move forward and inform the public on on what we're doing here it was a good good opportunity uh Thursday I remotely attended the emergency Northwest emergency communication board uh are representing them on the legislative committee for the Emergency communication uh legislative affairs group uh we covered the uh State emergency communication board fact sheet that we need to have obviously the last legisl session and left a lot of things undone we've detailed some of the UH responsibilities of our board members uh the skip which is State communication interoperability board uh we set some goals for next year including hopefully getting four the statute 403 revised and dealing with some of the uh working for uh some State funding for uh local Regional and tribal level communication centers uh and that completes my report Steve uh thank you Mr chair last Tuesday I participated in the pck meeting uh that's been well addressed again I want to thank the board for their actions today and and making the full-time assistant administrator I think that will truly be a benefit to to the county uh also participated uh on the first uh on the the both the media tours and the and the ribbon cutting event again want to thank Lori Chelsea Kathy Troy Mark and Jackie uh and Joe and his staff and along with the chamber for having their ambassadors there uh again it was a exciting day uh and so and I would just note that uh our our DMV was not quite as far along as we hoped it would be but uh as you can see from Tuesday till Friday there's quite a trans quite a transformation as we had in just about every project that we've done um participated in Highway uh uh Highway tracking after that afternoon which has been well covered that evening I participated or went to the heart of clay uh uh fundraiser uh really great event it was good to see Julie saat provided uh some testimony on the impact that that uh she saw as her time as a jail administrator uh there uh and so that was a really really good event uh the the the second uh third and fourth I participated in the Mac macra annual conference at ruter we spent a lot of discussion on legislative priorities different leadership trainings uh and also marijuana impacts legislative impacts uh the uh the also participated in na leadership uh sessions last week we're about three quarters of the way through the cohort this time is about three quarters of the way through uh on Friday Also Darren and I also met uh on some legal issues here at the County uh yesterday I participated in the owner meeting that has been well covered uh just a reminder for our employees there's going to be a countywide fire drill uh Wednesday at 11 a.m. uh please treat it as if it's a real event there's going to be different people monitoring uh to to make sure that we're uh we're adequately addressing that issue should they happen uh you all should have received an email it's a it's a posted for upcoming meetings if we're interested if you're interested there's going to be a a partnering with the city Mor at and a cyber tabletop uh exercise on October 23rd uh from 8:30 till 12:30 at the mcom center uh if you're interested in attending let uh Sarah or I know and will get you registered for that uh and then one of the things last things I wanted to touch about touch on last year uh we had a uh a work session that addressed uh that addressed a series of different ideas for legislative priorities out of that work session the board came up with uh with three of them uh as we move closer to the to 2025 legislative session uh while we made progress on the three areas uh three areas that the board selected we didn't get it to the finish line and so my question before the board today would be is if you're interested in uh bringing those topics back up uh in a regular board meeting and have some additional discussion or if you'd like to see another work session to further discuss those areas and or bring forward some additional any ideas that you'd like to see thoughts on that you know it may be worth a work session we've got a lot of issues we we want to look at in depth and that gives us opportunity to do it with some Focus are there thoughts on thate i' prefer a group first I see some head nods so I think do we have consensus okay all right I will uh I'll look to schedule a uh one o'clock most likely a one o'clock work session here after one of our upcoming meetings I'll get some dates out to each of you and that concludes my report thank you we have Katie stock from the county attorney's office here here and every week uh we put the county attorney's office on the hot seat and see if you have anything want to contribute okay thank you for being here no anything I think I've said enough thank you you look tired Jackie you got anything for us okay well then if there isn't any other business we're adjourned --------- ##VIDEO ID:lajXxj0i8po## good morning it's 8:30 and I'm going to call the Klay County Board of Commissioners meeting uh for Tuesday October 8th 2024 to order first thing on the agenda is approval of the agenda move to approve second the motion motion second all in favor say I I both same sign motion passes uh next we have a uh citizens be heard are there any citizens here that wish to be heard on an issue that is not part of the agenda Steve do we have anybody remotely we do not Mr chair okay next is approval of payment for payment of bills and vouchers move to approve have motion second all in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes and next we have approval of minutes from September 24th 2024 second a motion second any discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes we're going to start off this morning with Steven Larsson our County Administrator a request to approve uh approval to hire full-time assistant Clay County Administrator uh thank you Mr chair Commissioners uh before you this morning uh is a discussion to talk about the possibility of creating that full-time assistant County Administrator position uh as as you're aware but for the Public's knowledge currently Darren Brooke uh serves as both jointly as our HR director and as our assistant County Administrator um you you know as the as the fourth fastest growing County in Minnesota uh the role of the administrator has and assistant have have evolved over the last few years uh this position was first brought about in 2007 uh as a request of the then County Administrator BJ sethy uh to address some different challenges that they were facing from planning purposes uh also from day-to-day operations uh and uh at that point we had roughly 325 employees we now have over 6 80 employees as as Commissioners you uh at that point looking back the the most committee assignments uh the Commissioners had was 24 the least that you guys have now is 33 and so uh again while the administrator is not at all of those meetings it does go to show uh the uh how busy that that we've become as a county and so uh recently we've had two pick meetings to discuss this uh in full transparency it wasn't as part of my initial 2025 budget one because I think most importantly because as a board You' asked us only to bring the the uh the cha the most challenging concerns that we had this year uh and I brought that to my staff my staff answered that call and so I felt that it would be tone deaf of me if I added this in uh as a request this year having said that I do think that it would benefit the county uh as a whole uh and so uh with that I guess I would uh would look for for different feedback from the board uh again uh we had uh a recommendation or request of this board was uh the preliminary Levy was set September 17th uh it the request was that if if there is a way to bring this forward without impacting the 2025 Levy uh that we would that this board would consider that uh as part of your your handout handouts we did have uh two higher than anticipated revenues that came in one uh the state police Aid was $70,000 higher uh than what was budgeted in 2024 uh and anticipated then for 2025 and we also we also had State funding uh that now covers the benefit packages for for disabled law enforcement Personnel that we're currently paying uh which this year was $65,100 we will still have to have to initially pay for it but there'll be a reimbursement from the state that uh the the positions that we've talked about previously I did uh put in the calculator uh that you you guys have seen previous discussions from a cost perspective uh it would be uh keeping the the uh county commissioner or County excuse me County Administrator at its current Uh current um grade but we would be Shifting the HR Director uh to grade 30 um and again this is just for for purposes we don't know uh yet we go through an interview process if the board would uh uh would move on this for the HR HR open director position uh and uh came up with an estimate total cost of $13,300 which these two new two new Revenue sources would potentially cover uh if the if the board uh looked move forward with that with that i' yield for any questions just uh pick did forward this after after a a good discussion um one of the things that surprises me and I've been around local government entities for well since 1978 and spanic control is always an issue and we have a administrator who on top of all his other duties is responsible for directing and evaluating and controlling uh 17 department heads and just that right there is is a concerning number uh you know I think this is a good good uh time to move forward with this Steve's done a great job for us but you can only expect so much when you spread somebody in three different directions and I think uh getting him some more assistance in is critical anyone else commissioner mooso thank you I am really excited about this today um I think uh the request before us is really something that's been well thought out throughout a multitude of years really we've understood that the work has continued to increase and while the need has been met from that department I think it's really time that this board steps up up and offers um some substantial help in in that area I I do appreciate apprciate Steve that you didn't include it as part of your um budget this year discussion to be uh aware of the constraints that our budgeting process uh you know really has before us but um with that I think it's important that we also take note to realize that that there are some some large items that this could help your department out with so um certainly appreciate that P has has discussed this I really appreciate from the direction of commissioner Campbell that we find some revenues to um help to subsidize this so that it wouldn't be an additional new request but uh certainly if when we meet with our colleagues from across the state Klay county is really the exception uh due to the size and programming and and scope of what we're working with to not have a full-time assistant administrator anyone else commission Campbell two revenues that we're talking about here um it it seems to me that they're specified for another purpose um Mr chair commissioner Campbell that the the uh police state aid does does come in and it shows up as a as a revenue in the sheriff's department uh again for this year it wasn't anticipated it wasn't anticipated to receive the funding that they have and so the $70,000 is above what was budgeted uh I did talk to the sheriff uh in in because of exactly of your question uh he was supportive in providing these dollars towards this uh this piece this the state funding as far as the benefit packages this was a revenue that that we did not have anticipated some years we get nothing some years we've we received $400 uh this year uh the legislature set aside uh funding moving forward that's going to to take this cost off of counties uh and so we have this expense we have the expenses budgeted uh but we don't have the revenues and uh again I my thought my understanding was I was being tasked with finding funding uh to address uh the cost for for one time with the understanding moving forward that it would be in in the 20 26 budget um but uh but I did as as I mentioned I did talk with the sheriff in regards to the first item and the second item is is just new funding that has become available based on the legislative action in regards to item number 14 on the agenda are we uh what what do we are we expect to hear in regards to other revenues over expenditures so so at this point again our our main focus is going to be the expense piece the revenues generally are 6 eight weeks behind and so uh we're 75% through the county or excuse me through the fiscal year and financially uh you're going to find that all of all of our departments are within within that time frame or below at this point I didn't I at expenses are at the 75% range or below is is where we where we're at and that's through through September commissioner krainov yeah um thank you for bringing that up uh commissioner um I really want this to happen uh I am um so going to the last piece at what point as we get toward December will we kind of know project closer to what that um revenues over expenditures if there is an increasing Gap or a gap that we could be pointing toward those monies instead I I'm bothered by the share of piece um maybe it's um you know even though Sheriff 's good with it um does that take away some contingency for him or that department that's concern and then I I apologize I'm a little confused on the other uh is that money that um is going to be taken for the use of some something else within that group or I I I guess I'm misunderstanding the 65 so Mr chair Mr C we have several law enforcement uh in individuals and our families who were we are paying we are paying their benefit package okay because of a disability that they had while on on duty okay uh and So currently we are we're we're paying that it's it's an expense in our budget but until this year we weren't receiving any revenues uh to replace that or to to offset that cost and the legislature made changes this year uh that that that we were we're going to be receiving 65,66 do that we had not anticipated gotcha okay thank you for that clarification um and again I I guess I'm concerned about on the play say but I mean it's a concern I have but if we're feeling I don't know again I really want this to happen um um and I I I guess maybe to get it through I'll go on good faith probably just that something there'll be a gap there toward the end of the year but I I I don't know I don't I I struggle with the police a one sorry Mr chair commissioner Campbell when what this was previously discussed I did ask for um you know how we would how we'd cover this I think this is going to be a record for the for the uh soonest we've uh spent above our preliminary Levy um in the history of my time on here um but at the same point in time I U you know my question to you just now was where are we going to be at on the 2024 uh 2023 we had well revenues over expenditures and we used I think about 1.5 million of that to 1.8 1.8 million in this budget but there was still more room there and and there was more room there and you know for so from that standpoint um you know I think I think we could find the oneye funds just out of not even looking at what 24 brings but still what was left in 2023 and revenues over expenditures because it was significant um I you know I I certainly I certainly think Darren's the right person to step in there um yeah I maybe if I may so Kevin I think we all know kind of where that reserved piece is you know from what we've seen I mean um and I know that's a delicate balance too having a contingent for far enough for our departments but I don't know if um I I'm not I'm not one bit concerned about taking another $130,000 from reserves I'm not because I think that that has been that's built as a matter of fact I think in the in the last audit report I think for the first time ever we exceed uh the six-month level that the state talks about that's the first time since I've been on this board we've done that and it's good to know that so I guess maybe what I'd like to see or potentially is I I'm good with the 65 I understand that either that or we don't name it and we just say we're going to pull it from reserves to cover it Mr Mr chair commissioner krainov I do I mean I I I think what you're asking or what you're saying is is in fact true from the standpoint that you know we have we have an additional $135,000 of Revenue that we weren't anticipating and so at the end of the year essentially assuming that that's not spent it will go into our into our general fund reserve and so what I in in bringing this forward what I was anticipating they're trying to do is showing that there's additional revenue and so at at the end of the year assuming that money is not well assuming that money is not spent it become part of the I would I would agree with commissioner crabon often that I if we're going to do this I think we should do it without designating the two dollar am months that you talked about is where it comes from okay uh i i instead I think we should just say that it comes from our reserves uh I don't want any uh any um Potential from Law Enforcement Officers anticipated police state aid fund that we're taking from that fund I I just don't I don't want I don't even want the perception that somebody could have of that uh and the same with the funding Now cover the benefits package for disabled law enforcement Personnel I don't even want the perception that we've taken from those funds they you know and somebody somebody based on this could interpret that and you know just going by your question um you know so I I guess you know if this is to be done then I think it should be done just with the idea in mind that the 2025 position would be funded out of Reserves listening to this discussion I think uh commissioner Campbell and commissioner krainov have a good point grateful to the sheriff he's being a team player on this um but overall it is not even saying the old the old analogy which pocket are we going to take this out of it's basically the same pocket after January 1st the money will be in reserves anyway so um I think that this is a necessary expense for doing business at the level that we're doing with the number of employees we've got the growth of the county and you look at our at at other uh counties within within our state my gosh you know all of them have an assistant that when they the in in counties that are much smaller and do a lot less business than we do so I think it's time entertain a motion I'll make a motion to approve the position I'll second the motion okay I have motion second any further discussion does the motion include where the funds are going to come from include that they can come out of reserves but I would also indicate that those the future money coming in for the Sheriff's Department and for the other department that they those go in reserves too that doesn't become part of their budget that's 70,000 and 63,000 do that become part yeah in in the in future in future budgets it will it will show in the 2025 budget uh it could show the the additional 70,000 that we would be anticipating receiving again next year um but uh but I think I do think that that the motion is would be clear uh based on the the discussion this board had if you just said that it's specifically came from reserves okay my second motion that comes from reserves and my second would reflect that as well any further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Mr chair thank you Commission for for that I do think that as a as a county it puts us in a stronger position for the administrator uh moving forward uh the second portion of that would be then the recommendation uh would be to to move Darren into that full-time role uh Darren has been with the county for over a decade uh in the last six and a half years uh I'll just say that uh uh he's been an essential role and someone that that I work with uh he really stepped up during our covid uh uh pandemic um he is uh he has stretched I think as the information that I shared with you in the handout you know we've gone from we've gone from uh 300 some employees during his time to to over 600 uh with uh with four different departments having over 100 employees uh now uh and so he he's professional uh he is uh able to handle anything that that we give them he's he's managed he's managing uh many of the of the duties that are in the job description and will be in the job description already and so i' would be very happy to uh to have Darren take on that full full role and I think he'll serve this commission very well Mr chair commission Campbell look going back to the item number two agenda um um notes that we have here the implementation timeline for the assistant administrator was going to be January 2025 is that correct that that's corrected so that's what we're still even that's what we're utilizing what what I would be asking is that we would be looking for backfill in this and so we would be looking to replace the administrator or excuse me the HR Director portion uh and then potentially a generalist and so we would like to have all of those positions ready by I I yeah I understand that so so the process that you're asking for in the back fi now would be to find that HR candidate basically to step in and fill those shoes starting January 1 that is correct just want to make sure that talking about the same thing further discussion I'll make a motion that we designate U Darren Brook's full-time role to uh assistant County ad administrator with the back bill I'll second that I have motion a second further discussion that backfill will reflect all the way down the line for backfill for any position within um that comes open we have to fill those roles yeah yes if no further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you bard next request approval for the city of Holly to receive tax for partial for authorized public use okay we've got uh Erica Erica Paulie Holly Clerk and treasure good morning good morning go ahead and proceed so we have a property in the city of Holly um it's been tax forfeited for I think close to 10 years now um it's a funny shaped lot and about 70% of it is wetland so technically by the time excuse me by the time you hit all your setbacks for a residential property it's an unbuildable lot so the city is looking at it it's adjacent to another one of our Park areas with Wetland on it the city's currently sorry the city is currently mowing it and maintaining it and we're right now we're kind of tossing around the idea of doing a community garden or something along that lines on that property so we're just asking for it to be transferred back to the city to use for part of our Parkland thank you and the um commissioner Campbell yeah the former owner has never asked to reobtain that property nope and it's gone up on the County's land auctions a few times and we get phone calls from people who are inquiring and once we tell them that it's wet land and you really don't have room to put a house on there then it just sits so this way we can at least do something with it commission kraban off not knowing the process completely how do you uh uh sever the deed from that own ownership to the county do how does that work or is it done already it's already done yep so the county it's currently in the County's name when it went tax forfeit yep at that point so now we're doing a quick claim is what we're asking over to you yes um yeah and you have it sounds like an intended use already Yep this this is one of the ideas we're putting out there but it's based basically when you drive into one of our newer developments it's the first lot right there so it's sitting vacant we'd like to see something put on there whether like I said one of the ideas is the community garden or even just a few benches for sitting as you walk up there because there is a walking path that comes from the high school over to that development currently so we have a few ideas we're working on but we are going want to do something with it and at this point the Count's maintaining is that uh we are doing the Mowing and stuff on it because it's adjacent to one of our other Park Properties I see commission m one of the uh intended authorizations that we have is to uh turn this back uh to the local community if it's for public use so this would meet that that threshold I would move to approve the Paul's request second the motion he motion and second further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oose same sign motion passes thank you thank you all right Sheriff good morning Mr chair good morning thanks for having me here this morning um received an unexpected resignation from a deputy uh with nearly 10 years of experience he is going to go pursue a different passion he has indicated that that um the law enforcement culture has changed quite a bit over the past few years and uh he just doesn't have it in him anymore so we wish him the best uh in in his next adventure in life but I'm looking to replace his position this would be a rather budget neutral position as he's currently at step seven on our uh grid and if we were to hire anybody it would be either at a step seven or below depending on experience um the only other thing we would have to do is the cost of uh uniform and things of that nature to get a new person started any questions for the sheriff move to approve the request second okay I have motion a second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks thank you sheriff is that your only vacancy right now on the CH yes it is and he will be uh done on October 18th okay that is the only vacancy we could have you got any candidates waiting in the wings no wish we did but we'll uh we'll start advertising probably today and uh in hopes to get that filled as soon as we can I'm hoping for December January sometime if we can get apps thank you you have query bang saw waste manager saw waste would like to eliminate the recycle program manager replace position with two positions at a lower pay grade Cory thank you Mr chair and Commissioners yes we've had in the past month we've had two um resignations within the Solid Waste Department both long-term employees and when we looked at replacing these people excuse me I felt it was best to uh to redo the job descriptions and the pdq's and actually replace the recycling manager with two positions that would give us an extra body at the landfill and somebody that could kind of cover it would free up our our landfill technician to do some stuff that she would be better suited for and paid for so uh the request would be for a recycling educator and a Landfield clerk in lie of the recycling manager uh the net cost would be virtually zero because the when we redid the PDQ and created the PDQ we came at a lower price um so it's basically a wash at that point and with with the of the landfill operator we also gained some funds there so it won't affect the budget at all questions just uh indicate uh this has been before pick and we forwarded it with recommendation um G's done a lot of work on this to make it focus on where he has his needs and and keep it within the original budget any questions or comments there's no questions I'll make a motion to approve second the motion and motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign thank you Corey Mr chair if I could I'd just like to thank Corey uh he continually explores different ways to one make his dep Department more efficient and also a costeffective and and this is just another example of the many things that he's done over the last year and a half uh to to become more efficient and and provide better service to the customer so thank you appreciate that we were we were both the commissioner gross and I were uh very impressed with the presentation at pick and you put a lot of energy in this so we're grateful uh the next item I have um in the past few years the npca has has approached all Solid Waste departments across the state and asked us to try and improve our hauler um reporting percentage it's throughout the state it's like 10% of the haulers that report Klay county is much better than that but we do have some that don't report um what the reporting does is it helps the npca decide where the score funding goes based on volumes and that kind of stuff what we've decided to ask for is adding an additional $50 fee to all holler licenses um if they report to the state the previous year we would wave that fee so there will be no no cost to those that are doing it correctly it would just be a a little push to get the um the ones that aren't following the rules to start following the rules so with that we would ask for a $50 wable fee added to the to the haulers licenses annually questions comments this was discussed at swack to and I think the swack committee also agreed that this would be appropriate yeah I'll make a motion then motion to approve adding a $50 fee for non-reporting to the holler license application second I have motion a second further discussion not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks Cory next up Clay cany employee United Way campaign presentation uh Rita Rucker uh James Donal from our uh juvenile West Central juvenile uh let's see uh Laray Goden chrisen leard and Sarah mass mastera and Valerie mice we got everybody here except lay lay is not feeling well today so she uh took the prudent choice and stayed home so good choice and looks like we got a full team here so they'll take it away I am so pleased to work with these people because they are always so helpful and um I sent out an email to the whole County and said uh anybody want to be on the United Way Board and I got zero responses so I contacted lay and James and um Kirsten and before I barely got my fingers off my keyboard Laray had already said count me in the next I heard from James he's like whatever you need I'm here so and then Kristen said sorry I've been away from my desk but I'm on it so great people to work with and I appreciate their help good morning Commissioners and and chair um we're kicking off our 2024 United Way campaign and um we have Sarah mastera and Kristen leard valie me and James lonnell with us today I also have um two people at the Clay County Government Center that are great help and asset to our campaign and that's Greg cordovi and Tracy Bard or Bedford sorry um so I want to make sure I give them credit where their credits due to um this last year I was asked to participate in two sessions of the 2024 Community impact review panel um what an eye opener there's so many worthy uh organizations out there that are looking for money to help our citizens here in our community and to see the um time and effort they put into just even preparing their request is amazing so that was a good experience um I'm going to give a quick recap of our 2023 campaign at the government center we had activities that included a p social baked potato bar guessing jars and Penny Wars and a chili feed um oh well those those um four things were $943 14 and then a chili feed raised $188 a big sale raised $430 and a book in media sale had $20 um this year we're already starting yesterday on guessing jars it was requested because they enjoy doing these things it brings Community it brings a sense of um fun light-hearted fun and still being able to get your work done so we started our guessing jars yesterday they'll run through this week we have a chili feed planned for October 16th and a bake sale planned for October 28th Kristen is going to um fill in for Lay's information and take it away good morning so the recap for social Services um for last year's activities um Laray organized a wonderful bake sale um that raised $883 um as well as a soup lunch and that raised $590 um we're going to have another bake seal this year and that's going to be on October 23rd from 9 to one I believe I tried to find the time this morning but I couldn't find it um so if any of you are around that day stop by because we have some wonderful Bakers over at Social Services um and there were some mighty fine looking treats last year so I have no doubt that there will be some again this year um Laray and I had also talked about um social services having a friendly departmental competition um to try to increase donations um so I will follow up with her when she's back in the office hopefully this week some more to come on that as well thanks Kristen James sure um yeah I guess um the juvenal center um ran a taco bar last year um this year we're going to fill in the Gap whenever um there's something not happening one of those weeks one of those days um we'll provide lunch or something that everybody can come to and hopefully we can break a thousand this year that would be a good goal for the juvenile center to try to hit so we'll see if um we can make that happen but um yeah it's good cause thank you Rita James does a great job by the way um we'll send out a notice and let everybody know when the taco bar is but uh it's a hit and it's really good food and plentiful um so and goals are always good last year we set a goal for our um County Employees for $166,000 we missed it we hit 88% but I'm not going to feel bad about that because we still raised 14,000 something I don't have it right here in front of me anyways um employee Don employee pledges were $10,400 so I still feel good about that so um Kristen you want to talk about uh school supply Drive sure so this year's school supply Drive was held in July um we had a goal of $500 and we CL Ed just over 750 um so we met that and hopefully next year we can increase that as well um it's a super easy way for anyone and everyone to contribute if they choose to so um super easy goes for wonderful cause this year we did our school supply Drive online and um I didn't have to load all that stuff into my vehicle and haul it over to the Fargo doome or Shields Arena and then unload it again so that was awesome it saved me a lot of work just like our online um pledge forms they it makes the process so much easier so um I'm gonna ask Valerie and Sarah to uh share some of their Insight on our campaigns and on the goals of the United Way yes ma'am good morning everyone thank you so much for giving us some time this morning um yeah I just want to share a little bit more about United way and where all of the dollars that Rita and her team are raising and where that is going um to help Clay County and Cass County here locally um United Way here in cassen clay counties is focused on really cultivating solutions to end poverty and so we work and partner with um 29 organizations and fund 44 programs that are really helping reduce barriers for people experiencing poverty so you know things like trans Transportation Child Care housing um food and security living wage employment um all of those barriers that people are facing every single day the programs that United Way is investing in are really helping to break that cycle of poverty and really make the biggest um most long-term change for families and Children Here locally um last year we were able to raise about $6.1 million um from our community um this year our goal is to raise 6.2 million every single donation helps us get there um whether it's uh you know participating in a bake sale or um chili feed or any other kind of excuse me Sol small event to um people who are choosing to do a payroll deduction or a one-time donation um all of that goes back to helping those programs that are really really uh needed for many people here locally in our community a couple of programs that uh I just wanted to share about that are here in Clay County that um all of your uh residents and and citizens can access are the reach Food Pantry in Holly um The Jump Start program at Morhead Area Public Schools um we have a great partnership with caplp here on the Minnesota side as well as legal services of Northwestern Minnesota um the village is another um organization that we work with to provide Mental Health Services and so um our each year our campaign kind of focuses on a different aspect of the impact and this year we are highlighting mental health and the importance of making those services available to everyone that needs them um we have a campaign video that I'm I'm sure Rita will be sending out to everybody to share about kind of a few of those stories of impact of the people that have been helped um and the ways that the donations are specifically helping local people um but mental health is something that is affecting everybody um specifically students in our area and um when it comes to kids only about one in four of the kids that need mental health support are actually getting it and so um United Way has made that a priority uh this year more specifically in looking at our funding and how we're um helping the programs throughout the community and making sure that Mental Health Services are available to everybody that needs them so we thank you for your consideration in participating in the campaign this year um and for your um just advocacy on behalf of United Way for encouraging others to participate and give back as well so thank you Sarah good morning uh my name is Sarah I just wanted to Echo um especially what Valerie and what Rita have said and more than anything I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Rita always responds cheerfully um when asked um to give her time and talents um to the United Way and her team and so we're very grateful for that um this is my second year I'm working directly with K County excuse me Clay County and um supporting them I will say um one of the most impactful things that I also had the opportunity to do was sit on that impact review panel that Rita mentioned and we all know that the need is not going away if anything the need is increasing in our communities and um the diligence um provided um to just the diligence and the time and the concentration and thought um of who to award the funds to um is almost is intense because every organization that is speaking that day is worthy of um support um however we don't have an unlimited checkbook um and so I do want to say that the United Way is a fantastic Steward of the dollars that are raised um and that um you know I'm I'm proud to support the United Way and that we truly appreciate your support and allowing um Klay County to also support it so thank you thanks Sarah that was a great day yeah it's I learned about program I didn't even know we had here in in the area um so I thought I was um plugged into everything I wasn't so that was interesting um James do you want to talk about our 2024 kickoff sure um just uh an email will be coming out October 14th um look for that don't Market as fishing and send it to it but always do that if you're in doubt but I send it to it so it' be whitewashed so October 14th y Monday so um respond to those emails you can respond by saying I'm not donating but what that does is it it keeps the system flowing so we can have a count so we know that people are responding and seeing and we're not missing anybody um last year I think you all got a copy of our spreadsheet from last year or from the last several years actually um last year there was a little snafu where we did not get emails for the entire employee Workforce we only got full-time so you'll see on the sheet that it's talking about uh 400 and some employees and the difference on that is because we actually have 600 and something and we only got emails for the full-time people so those part time variable hour folks they did get missed last year um I took a look at our information from previous years we don't seem to get a lot of response from that group not that we wouldn't accept anything they want to give us because we always have our hand out but um that would not have impacted our numbers that much if any at all so um yeah I want to again thank this group who is my backbone and and uh Greg and Tracy over at the government center and ready for any questions if anybody has any yeah thank Campell thank you to all of you for your efforts um I'm just wondering uh Rita when it when it comes to the um bake sales and those types of things when you raise money are are you able to use those dollars to leverage through giving hearts day I'm not I'm I'm not I don't know that' probably be a Valerie question I I mean is it something that should be considered because it seems to me that that you know during that giving hearts day time period all contributions are increased and is it something that should be worthwhile in considering to do I can answer that question um so yes so I I guess it would be something you could consider of just the timing of when that's turned into United Way um as far as the match funds for giving hearts day all of those are all the match funds are raised ahead of time so it it all depends on um each individual organization um yeah so we raise the match funds ourselves that's every organization does that for giving hearts day um so I mean that could be an option if you wanted to wait to turn them all in on that day and have it count towards giving hearts day um but it's all helping it's go kind of going to the same place and helping um in the same way so it kind of depends how you want to look at it but yeah I just didn't know if that was considered at all I hadn't considered it I hadn't even thought about it so thanks for that idea last year I was more on top of stuff um we had several activities at the government center where we were raising you know a couple hundred dollars here couple hundred dollars there and once I got to 800 and something or9 $143 I called Valerie I'm like can I bring some money over because I didn't like having it sitting in our office and then um then we had our campaign drive and then after that we found we had a penny drive and um I guess I was feeling weak because we found a whole bunch of pennies that had been counted but didn't get out of the big huge cardboard box they were in so then I brought another donation over after the back so that is included in our in our funds but um so I did I did we we had three separate deposits over the time last year so you know if I'm organized and have events throughout the year and then just save them and contribute them on giving hearts day suppose I if there's a benefit to do that I and it's not anymore work on my end MH just just organization so yeah Comm krainov well thank you for all the great work you do and I hope uh for the county you can um continue to build this um I guess uh I got involved 15 years ago maybe through the realtorss and I know what we've done through those groups um in my grage I guess our participation Almost 100% every year and uh and I know you're kind of more a beginning or you've been involved in growing it but um the uh impact I I guess that hit me again I think probably probably 15 years ago or dozen anyway uh was back when you start doing the backpacks for kids uh for their lunches and I I saw directly what that did for the community and uh it's NE that's never left me and I I'm I'll be curious how you work toward mental health I I really uh will follow that if there's some way to do that I'd like to uh because I see that need I work along with social services and in that need so it'll be interesting um United Way fills in in in that those gaps that we have so and and uh maybe you're doing it already but I hope you can create competition between all your uh divisions I like your your goals there James and Kristen get them at Social Services will you anyway thank you for all the wonderful work you do thank you Paul yeah the I I know the mental health aspect is a a strong your strong Advocate as well as um commissioner Mojo yeah um that our kids have been through a lot and um if you can get them turned in the right direction early on it's going to cause Less Problems they're not going to end up over with James they're not going to end up with our social services you know it's it's it's a well- needed and um high priority item right now in our community so commissioner BR did you giving the money to given hards day would that take away from you United Way no you can still designate it yeah it comes to United Way it would be designated for United Way and then there would be additional funds included to it I I'm grateful for you folks being here United Way has been part of my entire working life before I I even came here it was strongly encouraged by the city I worked with and I think we need to encourage our employees to participate you know the money is going where it needs to go you know it's there's good oversight and there's a lot of energy uh put into it by our folks and look forward to another year working with United Way any other comments thank you thank you have our County engineer Justin [Music] sorum yes good morning so the item first item I have is a request from the Metro flood diversion authority to set a public hearing um to acquire and obstruct right away on its 170th Avenue as part of reach se4 the proposed public meeting date would be November 19th I guess any questions on the request so this is just the initial request to set a public hearing to hear their request I I just a little background I think we've talked about this uh numerous times this is at the is it 170th 170th Avenue and there's a there's a small portion of that road that will be permanently closed and part of this process will require the county to be involved uh just from a from the legality standpoint of it so uh what we're what's being asked for today is to hold that public hearing before the county would take that action is that did I sum that up pretty good yes you did all right any questions yeah just more of curi 170th is that what down by the by Road that's correct is it number two no it is not number oh just north of that a little bit South South pardon South okay more on the line okay thank you comments or questions and a the process with uh and there is a work in progress to with um Holy Cross on mou that's the road that's just north of there is that correct yes that's correct um we are we have reached an agreement with Holy Cross Township we're just working on getting the final details put together so anticip commissioner Campbell that'll be on the October da board meeting but I think we're very close to having a a full agreement but I think we've reached agreement on all the fundamental items on on that agreement as well so and the and just going back to the legalities Holy Cross Township is aware of that the county does need to be part of that process yes the the same language exists in the Holy Cross Township mou just of acknowledging that the county we'll take that segment over and close that road officially and for the rest of the Commissioners we've been we've been using the same process all along the diversion Channel and Southern embankment on the North Dakota side as well and it's it's worked quite well there too just takes a little burden off the tone chips from having to do the road closure part of part of uh the activities and um keep that at more of the diversion Authority member entity level is is what our objective has been there all right um in our packet here I noticed that we're asking for the public hearing to be held on November 19th and do we have a and that would be during our board meeting correct and do we have a have we got a Time established for that Jackie do you know have a do we know do we have any within our agenda right now that would suggest what time we'd have to have that I don't believe so no there's nothing on that I think 9:00 has usually worked pretty well and then um we'll actually send out letters to land owners the diversion Authority will prepare the letters for us the county will mail it out and then we'll also advertise in the Holly Herald Mr if there's no other questions I would move that we uh set the public hearing on no November 19th at 9:00 a.m. 2024 to consider the metr flood diversion authorities request to take over 170 Avenue South in the location identified in its request and obstruct this same with reach southe se4 of the comprehensive project a second have motion a second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thanks folks and Justin you've got another item yes so the second item I have is we've been approached by mind do so they are selling both a tiltbed trailer and a tanker so we they did offer them to us before they did put it on Min bid so we have the opportunity to purchase a 2001 tanker and a 2011 tiltbed trailer so these are two items that I think would be a huge benefit to the County so first of all the tanker so we currently have one that's a 1967 it's an army surplus one that we've used quite a bit put quite a bit of money into so I do think that this 2001 would be a huge benefit and especially on a fall like this we've used that trailer more this year watering roads than we ever have so I do think it is a good opportunity and then the 2011 tilted so right now all we have is a low boy so if a tandem truck were to break down we don't don't have any ability to haul it whereas this has a winch and we can haul tandem trucks or anything else with it so I do think that would also be a good opportunity so the tanker would be 20,000 and the Tilt bed would be 30 so we do have internal service Fund in the amount of just over 120,000 for our lowboy and our lowboy is in excellent condition doesn't get used that often so we'll just add some years of service onto that and I don't have any concerns with it Mr questions commission Mojo thank you Mr chair thank you for bringing these forward Justin in you in the equipment world you can eat up the cost of this um fairly quickly if you need to uh rent any services that way um certainly to have the ability to haul in and Implement with that tilt bed I think is really important and then two uh when we are talking um you know that tanker trailer we've really probably squeezed every last ounce of life out of that other one that we've had uh in in the discussions that we have around planning and zoning and dusting of Roads it it really is something that citizens speak frequently about and so to have that on hand should we need uh would be really helpful I think the price uh really is appropriate given the fact that you have some funds in the internal service um but again I go back to if we if we don't have that on hand need to lease or um contract with someone to utilize that you can eat up the cost of having it fairly quickly and then two uh now we have the ability to lease that out should someone else need to use a trailer that capacity as well commission crabing off just uh Curious how big is the tanker I'm just curious I think it's 6,200 gallons okay it's either 61 or 6200 okay and our current one is 5,000 so it's a little bit bigger commissioner Campbell this was presented to Highway tracking and we discussed this and it we agree with commissioner Mojo that this it does make sense to do these um it would still leave about 60 some thousand in the internal service fund for the future um lowy needs of the lowboy uh the fact that you're going to be able to extend the life of that little boy for a number of years and you've talked to Lori about continuing that contribution into internal service for that purpose to help gain that back up over a number of years to so that when the little boy is time then the funds will still be there that is correct and are you anticipating I can't remember I think we asked this question in Highway tracking are you anticipating having to put both of these new items in the internal service fund for contributions no I don't plan to at this time okay um those tankers obviously and as long as you take care of them we have a 1967 that still works so I don't they're all stainless steel so I don't foresee a need to put that on internal service very good then recommendation from the highway tracking was to approve this request so I would make that motion second have a motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Justin thank you and let's take a break next up on the agenda uh we have uh Christine Goen from the Buffalo Red River Watershed U District uh motion to approve resolution 2024 28 and 20 2429 support petitions for the Buffalo Red River Watershed District to utilize taxing Authority and open it up to you good morning good morning uh thank you for having us today um like he said I'm Christine Gayden I'm the administrator of the Buffalo Red River Watershed district and with me I have Bill Davis one of our board managers appointed by your board um so today we're here to uh request you consider approving two petitions for the Buffalo Red River Watershed District to utilize taxing Authority Under Minnesota Watershed law uh 103d 905 and this statute grants taxing authority to Watershed districts for basic Water Management activities if petitioned for by a political subdivision and so our Watershed District comes to Clay County um because Clay County accounts for 73% of our tax base based on the taxable market value and so I'm going to keep it pretty brief this morning I know we come here every year and you guys are pretty familiar with what we do um and in 2025 our request is similar to what we've done in the past few years um so I'll just give a quick rundown of of What's um what we're requesting um so that we have two petitions this year um and the first is for an assessment in the amount of $795,000 and these funds will be used for contributions to our four Soil and Water Conservation District Partners um within the district for their conservation marketing um their technical assistance and soil Health practices they'll also be used for our education and Outreach for entities like rivere keepers and the Red River Basin commission and other Watershed wide programs um that um request support from The Watershed District um they'll also be used for our stream gauging operation through the United States Geological Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as well as our water quality monitoring efforts are permitting and then other investigations that may come to the board um that are water related concerns from land owners the second petition is in the amount of $800,000 and these funds will contribute to project design and construction um and some of the projects that we'll be working on in 2025 are the Whiskey Creek Whiskey Creek and South tributary project which is just North of Barnesville um as well as the Stony Creek project and the upper Buffalo River restoration which is up in Becker County um they will also be used to leverage Grant funds that we obtain through state and federal Grant programs and I know every year we kind of give you a um kind of a general idea of what that means for the taxes in terms of a $100,000 property value so in 2025 um the approximate amount per $100,000 of property value is $162 and just to compare that we did incl clude in your packet what that's been the last few years um but in 2024 it was um $19.39 um so with that that's kind of the brief overview if there's any questions we're happy to answer them and again we appreciate uh your consideration questions commissioner kraban off so um I just want to uh number number one thing Christine and the and the board I think um I went to those meetings where you were going through the budgeting and and I really appreciated Christine how you've worked over um the last three years right or four four November I'll ask the time going uh but that uh being really careful about that budget and the reallocation or um I don't know if be reallocation that's the wrong word but looking at each individual account and understanding uh it's uh um you don't need to tax that one anymore or assess that one anymore on on the general budget uh and trying to make sure those uh each account speaks clearly for itself and is in a in a a good standing if you will so I appreciate that extra effort and I know you've spent hours and hours doing that and I think it really uh reflects how healthy budget which leads to a very efficient or the be most efficient tax levy that year you can do so I appreciate your work and certainly support it anyone else can I just ask Mr Campbell thank you good morning um I'm looking at your annual assessment comparison and the so so it looks like the first Levy that you're asking for is going to be up 35,000 Bas from compared to 2024 that's correct and the other one is down um 37,000 correct it ends up being a net change of two yeah less than $2,000 right I think that's really that's really good I I commend I re I commend you for for that yeah um but I I on that the the 400,000 or the 420,000 that it shows for administrative are those dollars that come in from projects so those are the so that's part of the general assessment that's separate from what we're requesting that's something that the board can levy on their own um and that's for administrative fees um for just running the office in the past um the were capped in statute at $250,000 and um and so then that kind of that balance was paid for by projects we would charge the projects for those um and now we're capped I believe it's at 500,000 so we're we're just it's just it's the same as just how it's allocated out in the assessment so yeah those first two items you don't need our approval to correct yeah well again I want to thank you for maintaining that uh that level I think that's really good and for and especially for the amount of work that you're doing and you do receive in some instances there are assessments that go out to properties for benefited projects right that's correct yeah yeah so on this compar comparison sheet that is included in the projects and ditches just for your information how that's changed as well Mr chair if there's no further questions I would move the resolution 20 24-28 I'll I'll second the motion further discussion thank you Mr chair thank you for the presentation Christine I just want to um Bill thank you and Kurt and Jerry for your representation as our Clay County managers on that board you did a really great job of advocating for the citizens that reach out to you asking those really tough questions uh water work is challenging and uh contentious and you do a really great job of rising above that and finding the the most common ground to do the work so thank you for attending those meetings and doing the work and thanks Christine too um nice to see a decrease and what that Levy amount is certainly I'm just um really flabbergasted at at how the assessment value has just Sky reted though in the last couple years which is I think the reason that we're seeing the the decrease but thanks thanks for the work any other discussion not we have motion second all in favor the motion say I I I oppose same sign that motion passes Mr J i' also move resolution 202 24-29 I'll second the motion motion to Second all in favor say I I oppose same sign both motions pass thank you for coming up this morning thank you we appreciate the this this reflects some real good stewardship of the funds Mr chair uh commission yeah I just want to um touch base a little bit I know you're you're working on um the project the Georgetown project you you're the sponsors of that through working with the diversion Authority and I you know uh commissioner gross and I have been driving up to holstead once a month and we drive through hendrum and pearly and those areas and the road raises that have been done there are really significant and impressive and I'm looking forward to Georgetown having that same uh type of project done for them for flood control so I don't know where you are in that process I'm assuming it's that's moving forward but uh thank you for your continued work on it y so that's moving forward um we're hoping to do some land acquisition for just the road raises and in Georgetown kind of this year um and our Engineers are optimistic to start construction next year so we'll see how that goes and the more you can probably keep us a breast on how that works we've taken a pretty um active stance in the lobbying for the legislative funds at the capital and and to be able to share those specifics the um opportunities with the challenges as well uh would be really helpful for our outcomes there okay absolutely we can do thanks you put your there did you see the recap from when um Bennett had the meeting with the land owners up there no I I can send that I could too I got that yeah if yeah that'd be good would you like all like that why don't you give it to Steve or send it to Steve yeah send to Steve and he can put it out to us okay yeah thank you Bill there's a bake sale coming up you let me know when you bake something and I'll go buy it probably not going to happen yeah okay next up we have the Clay County Extension National 4 each week presentation and Proclamation uh we have Mindy Grant and manique Styer with us and others or another good morning good morning we have mine Brenda mule with us today um we're here kind of in a light-hearted I know happy news update I guess um it's National for each week it's something that's been going on for many many years across the country um for the for program nationally has reached over six million youth uh and they're continuing to count there's a somewhat ambitious goal of reaching 10 million youth in the near future um so we're pretty excited this year's theme for National 4 week is beyond ready uh and that speaks to what 4's goal is and why 4 is uh why it's important to the young people involved and why it's important to our communities uh 4 is preparing young people to be ready um to be beyond ready once they reach adulthood uh to be ready to contribute to their communities to care about the people that they live and work with um and to take on leadership roles in their Community for has a long history of doing that um for of course has been around more than a century my grandfather started 4 in 1936 with the hog project and then he brought his children into 4 and became a club leader um and a County Fair volunteer and a swine project leader uh and my mother then brought me into 4 30 years later in the early 90s um I've been involved with 4 since 1990 so I'm not going to do the math for you but it's almost been 35 years um I've been involved with 4 for a long time I chose to make 4 a career and a pathway because I found that working with young people and seeing what 4 can do in teaching life skills um and preparing young people to to be contributing members of the community I experienced that myself I choose to volunteer within my communities I choose to give back I choose to donate I I choose to be an active contributing member of my community and hopefully in a positive way and I love that 4 provides that pathway for other young adults uh and we brought one of them with us here today she's she's on the cusp of becoming an adult she ages out of our program in about eight months next fall she ages out um and so she's one of those young people that's ready launch right ready to launch into our community and become the next young person um but before we turn it over to meline to kind of share with you what for is for her and what she's excited about for her future um Mindy's going to kind of share with you what our local reach is real briefly hi I'm Mindy Grant I am a coworker with Mo'Nique in the Clay County office here with extension uh Jenny's smiling because she recognizes the photos up on the screen um this is a great photo of some of the achievements that are are kids share in during the Clay County Fair and excuse me this year we reached 577 youth members and all of those members come to us in different ways we have some that join Community clubs like Barn buddies humble legal clovers um and we have others that join us through after school programs we do programs with all of the five school districts here where we provide enrichment programs in those after school hours for our youth and then we also do Partnerships with with other community organizations where we provide a variety of services we may be going in as guests to actually facilitate an activity or we might be training other Youth Development workers to deliver for each curriculum um helping with supplies curriculum lessons and training people so those are all different ways that we reach our youth members um over the year and then we also have 75 um screened adults so so in Minnesota 4 we do have a process to do a background screening for our adults who will be in charge with children um as part of our safety of minor um policies so we have 75 of those people who will help us delivering program it might be our club leaders it might be chaperon that go to state fairs or camps that we provide um any project activities or project days that we do we have our screen volunteers there uh we do have dozens and dozens and dozens of other people parents community members grandparents um that do come along with us to help support us during the fair and other activities that we do as well and we'll pass it back over to Mo'Nique um well and like I mentioned before the reason why 4 is important I think that's a question we sometimes forget about and we we talk about what we do and how we do it but sometimes we forget about the why um and it really boils down to because we're building people that are ready to be a part of our community and that we want to see um we're we're helping young people become the people that they want to be um and become positive successful adults within our community um for is associated with 109 land grant universities across this country and they are all conducting research and studies on why 4 has been a good program uh and that's one of the thing that research of course is feeding our programs and our approach to working with young people um but it's also showing that we are four times more likely to make positive contributions to their communities once they age out of 4 age that young people in 4 AG are twice as likely to report feeling competent um and that's important for people today um that's important to our mental health to feel like we're competent and capable of doing something um young people are twice as likely to make healthy choices this all ties back to like mental health and um how we're contributing to the community and how we're helping other people find success around us so that's an important part um that's part of that why this is why 4 is important and what its place and role is within our community uh that said we're really here to talk about meline I want to thank you all for having me here today I want to thank Mo'Nique and Mindy for inviting me and I want to thank you Commissioners for also inviting me to this meeting um like Monique said I am I will age out as of September 30th of 2025 which I'm really disappointed about but I also for a has been a really important part of my life I there's been so many opportunities like National trips State trips Community leadership opportunities service opportunities there's so much that 4 offers youth that like it's it's beyond like I'm speechless for how many opportunities that are present and with um so like I talk about like National trips like I'm very competitive on like the horse side of 4 that's kind of my Niche and I have been able to go to like so many different places around the United States I've been able to go to Lexington Kentucky for Eastern Nationals which is during one of the live one of the biggest livestock shows in the nation too um I've been able to go to Quarter Horse Congress and I actually leave here next or on Sunday to head back down to Ohio for my second and last National trip for hippology and um hippology is like the study it's a study of horses so like we do judging we do um there's like diagrams that we have to label there's a test there's a speaking portion and a team problem so there's many opportunities that that I've had to go all over the nation that and those opportunities I don't know if I necessarily would have taken if 4 would have give would have provided me those opportunities and also like the leadership opportunities that 4 offers they're so vast like you have different opportunities to like serve in your county you have opportunities to serve at a regional level your state level I'm a regional um horse PDC Youth and so I attend State meetings but then I'm also a regional voice for for the northwest region up here in Minnesota in this area so I'm really proud to be one of those youth who who lead in the state and who have a voice in in the state position and so that's honestly that's honestly about all I have for you guys today I don't know if you guys have any questions or anything but like I said thank you so much for having me commissioner Mojo well you knew I'd jump in on this n um the exciting thing about having meline here today as mateline really represents an amazing group of young people in Clay County that are making really great healthy choices uh in uh deliberate actions and projects that they uh take under their wing uh mateline and my oldest son have done this for each thing together for a long long time since you were in early early childhood and so it's exciting to see how much they've all grown up uh together really we call them our 4 family uh one thing mateline did not talk about is mateline has been a finalist at the state horse show in a program called The Dan Patch leadership program and that is one of the most prestigious leadership program uh opportunities throughout um Minnesota for AG for young people in the horse project and I can count on one hand the amount of young people from Klay County that has part that have done that I believe Melissa Barett from the um from The Glory Days if you will commissioner camp also was part of that as well so um she's done some really exciting exciting things um so often around this table we need to talk about the really hard opportunities that some of our young people in the community are facing and programs to help lift them out of some unfortunate circumstances so it's really exciting to hear the success stories if you will about what Klay County 4 is doing not only locally but on our state platform and National platform as well so thank you so much we have a proclamation that we're going to vote on do does see uh commission feel up to winging it right now or should I just read the whole thing I was going to give it all to commissioner Mojo but she's playing hurt and I'm not going to make her do that but if you want to lead it off sure sorry all right whereas 4 is America's largest Youth Development organization having supported more than 6 million youth across the country and whereas 4 has helped more than 2500 youth in Clay County to become confident independent resilient and compassionate leaders and whereas 4 is delivered by Cooperative Extension a community of more than aund 100 public universities Across the Nation to provide experience experiences for young people to learn by doing Hands-On projects in areas including Health Science Agriculture and citizenship and where ask National 4 week showcases the incredible experiences that 4 offers young people and highlights the remarkable for AG youth in Clay County who work each day to make a positive impact on those around them and whereas 4 networks of volunteers and professionals provided caring and supportive mentoring to all four aces helping them grow into true leaders entrepreneurs and Visionaries now therefore the Clay County Board of Commissioners do hereby Proclaim October 7th through the 12th 2024 as 4H week throughout Clay County and encourage all of our citizens to recognize 4 for the significant impact that has made and continues to make by empowering youth with skills that they need to lead for a lifetime adopted this 8th day of October 2024 can I get a motion on this so offer second okay we have motion the second any further discussion before we vote on the motion this is a great program uh you've got a strong Advocate on this commission for it and uh what that's managed to do is is is bring to everybody's attention here commissioner Campbell had a son that was part of 4 as well the value of the program and you can count on our continued support so we have a motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign thank you okay next up Darren Brooks says here HR Director but soon to be uh full-time assistant County Administrator and an well this isn't going to be as exciting as 4 I can tell you that right now because we're talking benefits um but I do appreciate um the uh motion that you made today U making the me the uh assistant administrator so I'm greatly appre appreciative of that um I I want to take a little bit of time to say that my HR team is just fantastic uh they they do the majority of the work there and um Anna and Melissa and Sarah have really stepped up with h as Steve said with all the employees that we've added in the last 10 years and we really haven't added that any people so um I want to give a shout out to them as well and and um moving into the assistant administr job I can just go straight into the assisted living after that so I'm good to go um as far as the uh insurance goes uh I have three things one of them two of them will will uh request a vote from you the third one is more of a a discussion topic I handed out a just an updated um sheet for you the only difference is um I added a bottom column there or the bottom box there it says County contribution and so start off um the first issue is back in 20120 we changed our benefit plans so that the county contribution was reduced for new new employees um but we kept the grandfather plans and back in 2020 and as you can see in the the very top box on the right it says breakdown as of uh September 30th I think is when I ran these numbers we have 227 employees that were hired after January 1st of 2020 and in 2020 we made it so that the county contribution covered 100% of the non-grandfathered single single Health single dental and basic life so all four plans were covered 100% for that fast forward 5 years to 2025 and with the calculations that we use um the non-grandfathered single plans only one is covered and that's the high deductible when it comes to all of the premiums and so the um Insurance subcommittee met last week to discuss if this would be possible to correct this and if you look at the second second from the bottom box um it says remaining dollars to the employee after Health dental life uh in order to cover two of our plans the high deductible and the 2600 Viba we that we're recommending that the county add $4.88 to the non-grandfathered single County contribution um what that does is for 160 non-grandfathered single plans we have 160 employees that have non-grandfathered single plans um that would increase their monthly County contribution $488 that way that those two plans are 100% covered to include Health dental single Health single Health single dental and basic life um so that is the first thing that is in front of the board right now the total cost to that is in order to do that we were really under a time crunch so we had to um have a we had the subcommittee uh determined that this would be a good way to go to add that $488 to those count that County contribution and then we had to have a vote by the insurance committee as well we had that vote last week and 12 of the 17 voted yes and was it five uh did not vote so we still had a majority of the insurance committee that said that this was um a good idea for their employees as a as a reminder that uh Insurance committee is made up of uh members of all the unions so all of the unions had a vote in this and so the recommendation from the subcommittee and the insurance committee is to increase the non-grandfathered plan for single County contributions by $488 um to make two of those plans 100% covered Mr chair commissioner Campbell you know ideally ideally we we wouldn't have wanted to put the insurance committee into that um that quick of an action item without having the dialogue through the normal process of an insurance committee meeting but because of the um late time frame for in the rapid approaching ear uh open enrollment period we we had to do it that way and and actually what this does is this really enhances everybody who is um non-grandfathered in in the single plan correct um so not only would there be two of the four that would fully fund the those that would select the cmm1 ,000 or the cdhp 4000 will still get a reduced amount out of pocket by what's being proposed here great and I do want to thank Lori for crunching the numbers and as you see in our deal we looking we'd be looking at about [Music] 9,369 and cost for the entire year 2025 to do this um I certainly think going back I uh my concern on this would be if we only had just the one option available to be fully funded that that does put the employees who would be in that position at a real disadvantage to have to take that plan because of the high outof pocket costs associated with that plan and and this allows at least some flexibility amongst those people to choose another plan that doesn't have such a high out of pocket correct maximum so and and just for a reminder um we're in 2025 we're at the end of our um guaranteed increase we if you recall we had a Nega - 5% then we had a 789 well 2025 is our nine and so we're going to be going back to the negotiating tables and back to RFP for um benefits next year so it this will this will solve it for this year or next year um but we'll see starting in 2026 where we go with everything and I and I think one of the things that the board has to be aware of and and there can be some concern both from the county standpoint and the employee stand moving forward is that is that depending on the amount of annual increase percentage increases to premiums there is nothing that's going to guarantee you know based on the current option that we have of the 5050 uh on increases that this is always going to be sustainable um you know where were where there wouldn't be some outof pocket expense moving forward but those are discussions that'll come later um but it you know what Darren you mentioned that five years ago all four plans covered and the reason they don't cover anymore is because of the higher than you know the percent percentage increases right in the C in the way the calculation great commissioner kraban off yeah thank you great comments um I just want to um as being part of that subcommittee uh it was very good to hear I hadn't heard tell this morning how the vote went I knew the back and forth we were having with the uh people on the insurance committee and it's uh really good to hear uh two things number one that it was a majority uh every there was no NOS I guess positive and as important uh also the fact that you U got a voice from the people with the unions right so I I think that uh brings a comfort level I think to all of us on that subcommittee that you know even as already expressed it wouldn't be the way we normally like to do it but yet we're moving forward in a positive way with the agreement of the committee yes correct thank you so thank you for that commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair I just had a question on why the five abstained from the vote uh did you hear from any um there was a conversation with one individual that just didn't vote um otherwise nobody responded I reached out to them multiple times and no action yeah we we did um Anna did send out reminders okay so they were reminded a couple times so if they didn't vote then I don't know why I just think it's important to relay the significance of serving in a capacity like that and uh using your voice when you're allowed the platform to do so is really important as we shape the scope of programs moving forward so I'm hopeful that it was nothing more than just an oversight yeah and of those five that didn't respond three of them represented a union so two of them were non-union representatives and and we offered um in the email that they could certainly uh call us with any questions that they would have if they didn't understand what was being put out or what was being changed um I did not I I got an email that I responded to but I don't think you got anybody that reached out and said I don't understand this okay there was a few emails but no phone calls okay I I again I want going to commissioner M I just want to emphasize that you know though some some of those five may not have felt comfortable voting for it because of the rapid response and that this was a this was done uh basically by a virtual vote as opposed to having the entire Insurance committee meet together we just didn't have time to call that meeting correct and I you know and again uh there if there's any apologies that go out there that can fall on on those of us that that did meet in the subcommittee group but the fact of the matter is is this still enhances everybody in that areas um benefit there's not there isn't anything there's no downside there no down the employees just point for the commissioner I think we need to treat these as three different definitely three different items so this uh first uh the increase is subject to a motion anytime somebody's ready to make it I might follow Comm mooso thank you I I also want to thank you for bringing that discussion I understand that it happened rapidly and needed to happen but but really if you look through some of the comments throughout the years on and maybe there are some areas where we can strengthen our insurance offerings what you're doing right now is really reflective of those comments um I I think it um to have flexibility um with Medicare is really important I think to have flexibility and um and acknowledge that having families or two spouses work for the county you know that that duplicative policy is challenging but not really a service to the people that are working for us and I think in the end we'll really strengthen Recruitment and Retention as well Mr J I would move to increase the non- grandford non grandfathered single County contribution by $4.88 a month for 2025 call a second I have motion a second any further discussion on item number one in this not all in favor say I I oppose same sign okay motion passes now we can move on to the next one okay um the next one uh also goes T kind of to uh commissioner Mojo's um taking care of the employees right now uh as you know we require uh everybody to have at least single Health single dental and basic life um and right now we have seven employees uh that are married that both work for the county based on our current policy policies both of them have to have s at least single Health single dental and and basic life if they have a family if they have kids or whatever then one of those individuals has to take a family plan and the other spouse takes a single plan um that is duplicate on a lot of uh things for the employee it's duplicate premiums it's duplicate dedu deductions um what else am I missing uh claims and everything else so the motion that we brought to the uh subcommittee was to allow married couples that are getting two two County contributions to continue to get their two count of contributions but have one of the uh family members or spouses um opt out of our health insurance because the other spouse that carries family um a family plan would also cover that second that spouse that is a County employee um we did we did some of the number crunching and um if you look down at the very bottom box it says County contribution those are the county contributions that would go out if a person was had a family plan and then was a single grandfather plan theyd get $331 for 2025 if they had a family plan single non-grandfathered they get 2847 so what we're proposing is that if you are a married couple both working for Clay County we would give you the option not making it mandatory but giving you the option of having one of those spouses drop out and opt out of the health care so that they can then be covered under the family plan of the other spouse um this is a this is a big benefit because then a lot of the family plans for these individuals would be covered uh especially for the if you look up the um on the one two 3 fourth box down where it says Health Plan cost 2025 if you look over under the family premiums those are family pre pre premiums per month and so a lot of the family plans would be covered uh until you get down to two single non-grandfathered they're they're getting 254 um the the county contribution would not change for whether your grandfather or non-grandfathered and they have a family plan and they're grandfathered and have a single plan they would still get that but they one would be able to opt out and then that would cover their family plan so I think this is a big benefit to those who want to take advantage of it like I said it's voluntary you don't have to do that but um it does save the county money I think in premiums and uh deductions and all of that as well um let's see what am I missing anything else the only thing I want to clarify it was seven couples so 14 employees not seven employees yes true seven couples the still cover by life insurance and yes yes and gentle yes just a worst case scenario we have have uh two employees who decide to do this and the um there is a death or divorce or whatever where the employee that continues to be working at the county is the one that's not covered how quick a turnaround could we make could we do that midy year yes so anytime someone experienced a life event marriage divorce child birth uh loss if they left Clay County the individual that is employed has 30 days to make changes so it could happen in the matter of days so nobody be left in in a crisis situation right okay and it would be no additional cost to the county because this is what we're paying right now um so there's no no cost at that as as far as that's concerned other questions commissioner Campbell so that you know when we originally talked about this there was some didn't we talk about both being able to have single coverage yeah was that the original conversation and yeah that was the original conversation and actually when I submitted this uh information sheet that's what we had discussed but once we started crunching some numbers um it we found that it wasn't habitations to just give them two singles because they still wouldn't be able to pay for the full family coverage at that point so that's why we changed it and I sent out an email to uh commissioner karhoff and commissioner Campbell yesterday I think it yeah uh that just kind of explained that some of our calculations were a little bit different or off when when we were just going to give the the original plan that we had talked about was giving both individuals uh single coverage but when we did some calculations it it wasn't going to be advantas to um the employees at all so and again so there I I get the idea of of having the family coverage make sense where where you get them both on the one policy and you have that one premium I think the I think the other area that we haven't had the discussion on is for the one employee who would give up that but still get the county contribution mhm uh how how would that work say for example for somebody who's now going to get a get the full cafeteria plan contribution there's a difference in a contribution between those who are grandfathered and non-grandfathered right so the question becomes if if we're going to do this for the one who no longer has to is going to have to pay the premium but they're getting the contribution would would the non-grandfathered contribution along with the contribution for the other one be more than enough to make those premiums in any of those plans do you follow where I'm going with this um I followed you up until your last sentence well um so so right now if there if there's if we have a plan right now where both both employees are grandfathered correct right correct and they're both grandfathered and they're and they're both required to take single policies okay and now the proposal would be that both those grandfathered employees would be eligible to fall under one family family plan correct so that that employees contribution who takes that the one of you know of the two married couple is the one who takes that right and is grandfathered that premium falls short of being able to pay for the plans by itself so so where where they make ground is is then the person who no longer has to is forced to take the single plan still gets this full non-grandfathered contribution right and that non that non-grandfathered contribution could be more than what is needed to pay to cover the full the full premiums of all four of those and so so the question becomes is could could that person who and again this is why we probably should this should be in our through our insurance committee to have this dialogue but yeah but would would the person [Music] who does not have to carry the plan who Ops out could they fall into the non-grandfathered St status and still have a contribution between the two of them that would cover the full cost of of plans so if you look at the very bottom box on the worksheet um um the if I'm understanding you correctly um the family and the grandfather single grandfathered individual um would have enough to cover any of the four family options if there's a family and a non-grandfathered there's enough contribution when you pull the tool two together to cover three of the four Family Health Options um and then for if both individuals are single and grandfathered um it does make I mean if if because the family contri or the family premiums are so significantly higher than the single there isn't necessarily an advantage to those employees because now their contribution is when you pull them together it's only covering a few of the plans where right now their single policy is covered in full so it's really going to depend on the couple on the um their family Dynamics whether they have children that are covered for our plan so it's it's really going to depend all seven couples could be completely different and I think I think a lot of this has to do with what the family makeup is if if we have two individuals that are working for Kay County that have no uh uh children or children that aren't that don't qualify anymore then they will probably take two single plans it's really for the people who have a family that are trying to cover children as well and instead of having a whole another uh insurance premium insurance deductible and and all of that we would just take that other spout house and and they would fall under the whole the the family under that family plan yeah exactly but but that but then that single one would still get the the full grandfathered yes cafeteria plan Supply which could result in a lot more leftover dollars it could result in some leftover dollars as well we and you can see that from like if if we had a family and a single grandfather they're going to get $3,300 per month and the CMM 1000 is $ 3,49 so they're going they're going to get more than what the premium is the the thing about changing if you're grandfather now we're going to pay you non-grandfathered that gets real messy and that would have to go back to being negotiated with the unions because now we're changing this is this proposition is that this is optional and if you want to do it and it makes sense for you then we're we're making that available for you if it doesn't make sense then you just keep what you have but there's no additional cost for the county because this is what we're paying right now if somebody has married spouses we're we're giving them single coverage and family coverage at the same time now we do have a couple that don't have any kids and so they have two single they have two single plans so that hopefully explains that a bit and I raise this because and we've talked about it in our insurance committees for a long time is is that the the the in the intent of the of this is to provide insurance for our employees yeah and there the the intent really wasn't to allow money to be given back but in treating everybody equally that you know right there's no way of getting around that I guess and and I think um I I reviewed the the contracts and really what it says about insurance is if there's any change in the calculation you know the 5050 that has to be negotiated um and if there's if the county wants to change carriers then it has to be a vote by the insurance committee so the two things that we're talking about now or the the married couples is doesn't fall into either one of those categories that's why and it's it's optional so we're not forcing somebody to do this so that's why it's not necessary to go back to the unions and negotiate all of this now if we were to change the you know saying okay instead of getting grandfathered you're going to get now you're going to get non-grandfathered to bring you more in line with what the the premium costs are we would have to negotiate that because that would be a a de and again we're not talking that many y yeah yeah we're not talking that many and some of those seven might just keep what they have right now we don't know for sure we won't know that until open enrollment is uh done so it'd be their advantage to take the family plan it most likely would be y commissioner moso thank you I yeah I think it's also important to know those those family plans still are a substantial out of pocket premium even with the additional piece that I mean it is it is substantial and part of as you look to how do we best Supply uh health insurance programs that fit the need in the mo the most appropriate way you know a family plan uh you know a single a single parent with children is still taking out a family plan and and so there are other companies and policies that allow to have a parent and dependence plan that might make more sense going forward Ward too and I think that's important to keep that as part of the dialogue I understand that you know out of those seven couples every policy and situation is going to look vastly different and I think we need to be careful to make sure that people aren't pocketing as you say um the additional components but I would guess the the majority of those people are still going to be paying several hundred out of pocket in addition for what the plans are are yeah that that second box from the bottom um that kind of shows you the out of pocket for just a person who has a one family plan so let's say that's one employee that has to take a family plan everything in red is coming out of their pocket every month and that's pretty significant and then what's not coming out is in the auto could potentially be in the auto pocket maximum correct which is over $133,000 forre lesser amount correct cor um any additional questions we can entertain a motion on this if there's no further questions yeah I'm comfortable doing that uh I'd like to make a motion uh to give the option to married employees who were both uh who both work for Clay County to elect only a family plan instead of caring a family and a single plan again it's an option thank you I'll second the motion okay have Motion in a second commissioner Campbell for for clarity though would somebody so right now is is there still the option to be able to both choose a single plan yes yes that's still is there definitely yep okay because because that's not in this motion but it's still an option that's ex certainly still an option all of this would be optional for for employees depending on on their situation and commissioner krainov commissioner moo you stipulate that and the Motions you made well we don't need to I mean it's it's taken care of okay all right well excuse me though because it because it says here motion to give the option to married employees who both work for the County to either select a family plan instead or carrying a family and a single he said an option he said that in his motion but the but it doesn't state that there should be the option of a single plus a single he said in his motion that this option gives them the opportunity to do that if they so choose that's not precluding them from doing what the other element was they they right now now there there would be no change to what our policy is right now that they would they could both have single plans because again I'm I'm just what it reads here elect only a family plan instead of carrying a family and a single plan this would be completely voluntary based on the needs of the family we we do have some of the married couples that aren't currently carrying a family plan and so their single coverage would remain as is or this would be the option so the record shows it can have both that's all defin okay any further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign okay motion passes thank you um the last thing we discussed in the subcommittee is um and and I really only need this for discussion and kind of tell you you where we're looking at going with this um this proposal would require some research because we would like to get a hold of Steve Smith who is our NIS consultant he is extremely knowledgeable in Medicare um U policies procedures rules whatever you want to call him and unfortunately his uh father passed away recently and so we have not been able to talk to him but one of the proposals that we're looking at is employees that are over the age of 65 and that are Medicare eligible would be allowed to opt out of our health benefits and go into Medicare with Medicare there's a lot of rules and regulations that I don't feel comfortable right now saying yes let's go ahead and do this but I think this is something that we just wanted to throw in front of you for some thought and maybe get any feedback that you would want us to look into as far as questions go and um maybe this is something that we can put into play uh next year when we're talking about our 2026 um health benefits uh I I think it's definitely an option out there um but I wanted to do a little bit more research on that so if you have any comments or something that you maybe want us to look into a little bit more I just don't feel comfortable with this with the short amount of time that we have to to change the database which is this Friday I I think this is a bridge too far to try to make this into a a policy this year commissioner Campbell no PA commissioner kinof yeah uh just to uh what's behind the conversation and and uh from my point of view and I'm very comfortable waiting let's make sure but the reason for this whole thing coming up is that there are people that are again employees that are required to have your health insurance right while at the same time they already are under Med Medicare and they're carrying a supplemental align with that correct and maybe a few of us included myself uh already have another group plan correct and and I dropped and so I have a County group plan I have supplemental and I have Medicare and it's just duplication but we want to be careful I'm not the one off here I want to make sure this is um there's other people in this situation uh so we just don't have this duplication also we know that some of our highest costs are people over 65 correct and so it's about looking not only about contribution but the what the effects are are of 18 people uh on the costs uh into the future while they're still working to the with the county yep thank you for that commission I'd ALS I'd also like to point out in addition to that and and when you have those coverages and if you have the county coverage your county coverage is primary no matter how good all these other insurance you have so when you have some of us that are up there in age or whatever and you all of a sudden you have a high claim situation it it hits the County's um deal first right and it hits the county claims first and this is an opportunity under this format to to remove that and I I'm disappointed that it's it's this late in the game because I think this is would be worthy of doing in 2025 um and I think Lor's head nodding yes back there too but it I mean you you you look at so I mean you could wait till 2026 and you could have one of a 65 and older person have one have one strong claim and it can be impact to everybody's next year's premiums MH right you know right now we have um I totaled up about 18 employees that are 65 or over which would be eligible for Medicare and and individual's claims are confidential so we are assuming that people over the age of 65 have claims but we don't actually know and so maybe I overated that but there's I think there's a higher probability correct okay to say that um so following with what commissioner Campbell said there even though you aren't totally comfortable who it is what's the harm making it an option to keep it moving forward in the fact that you may have information by the time the open Period closes which I think is December 7th for Medicare I believe so but isn't that the concern the piece so the piece where my concern lies is I just don't know the rules and regulations of Medicare it is it is very regulated and as Darren said Steve Smith is licensed in Medicare we just haven't had the opportunity to connect with him due to a family matter I mean it's something that we can certainly continue to look at and if we can get a hold of Steve Smith and say hey this yeah you can do this and this is easy and this is how you do it then maybe well I would hope we could bring it back y if it's before you know if it's before the close of the enrollment period M I would hope that maybe we could bring it back to discuss again discuss again that's my thoughts and I you know I I yeah this would be a question for Steve Smith too but I think the open or the enrollment period in terms of somebody signing up for Medicare benefits I think there's a there's a December date that that's supposed to be done but if you have a change in your in your your own coverage you you that could be so for example if we made this policy change effective January 1 then that's that's something then I would think that would extend that period but that's a question for Steve Smith it would be it is very similar to the life event um where if you do have a loss or gain of another coverage you can make changes that applies to Medicare as well I'm just yes so maybe maybe that could even another question could be you know if we're not comfortable with it yet could that could that life could it if it's considered one of those life event Chang es could could we make this policy effective March 1st um the only thing I would be a little hesitant on would be that would be a a you're not really losing coverage you're making the option to drop coverage so I don't know well that's a question for Steve Smith y y okay are we looking at for on the on the um op the the supplemental policies that you get when you get Medicare right are we we're looking at the county supplying an option with one of those or no or paying no uh for that plan so so I think I think the discussion that's been taking place is that those employees who are 65 and older would would keep their cafeteria contribution and that cafeteria contribution could be used to go out on their own and buy these because everybody's supplemental policy is different when it comes to Medicare right right everybody's going to have a different monthly premium MH based on what selections you choose between Part B and Part D and all of those types of things so the the intent was was that whatever the 65 and older would have in terms of a cafeteria plan would still be in place right would still get their County cont but instead of having to pay for one of these four policies in full that money could be used to buy these other um supplements correct to Medicare correct and the part B as well uh yeah I think it would cover whatever you would want to whatever you would want to pay for or use it to pay for so we'll we'll we'll continue to look through this if it's possible to do it for 2025 we certainly bring that back to the board um and once we find out more information about yeah this is this is you can do this and this is easy to do then we can certainly look at doing that okay any other questions comments question well I think it's good that we even try to pursue it still this year if possible okay that can have a significant of a impact on our premiums as these other two things we did today yep definitely in addition to the fact it is a costly demographic you may not have the facts in front of you but I think if those of us that are eligible to take it to Medicare it's going to have a positive impact on the numbers down the road for for the county right I agree okay well again I want to I want to thank both of you for the work that you put into um these things and I certainly I think you you have the county in mind and you have the employee in mind as you're as you're you know proposing some of these changes and I think it's I think it's been really good yeah we're always looking for the win-win you know when we can get it so good for the employees good for the county find a win-win for us people over 65 that's [Laughter] impossible all right any we appreciate it okay thank you thank you next up St and Lori I good morning again uh Commissioners uh we're here uh to just provide an update we try to come in each ly uh just to give an idea mainly on our expenses as I mentioned earlier our revenues generally fall anywhere from from six weeks to two months behind uh and so we have before you this morning uh we have uh our our revenues and expenditure balanced through September um uh so about 75% of our of of of the year uh and so you see the broken down of on the right side of your documents uh What uh what was budgeted uh where we are year to date uh and the variance uh the variance of that and so as was shared earlier uh in the other item uh from a budgeting standpoint financially the county is in very good position uh all of nearly all the items are at 75% or less or are entities or items that are paid in a one-time payment uh to to some of our outside agencies uh for their Appropriations uh and so uh in reviewing this document with Miss Johnson I didn't identify any specific areas uh that that I could highlight as far as uh a spending so I would take any questions uh from from the board in regards to where we are from an expenditure standpoint any questions on the expenditures okay proceed quiet on this side all right did and if any other questions come up as we go certainly can can step back the other item that we' like to touch base on uh during our quarterly updates are also our half sales tax uh for a law en enforcement center Correctional Facility uh as you can see we we've we're we've kind of plateaued from the standpoint of of the the earlier years of 16 3.4 20 20 a half 10 and a half and % last year uh in in our the funding receipts uh there's a change in state funding so we now receive all of our all of our payments each month in one payment versus two two separate payments and so as you can see uh we continue to maintain a good situation as we've talked about uh in previous budgets going back I believe three budgets now uh we have not included uh any any Levy within the repayment of our jail and law enforce enforcement center project I believe this year we're at about 3.9 million dollar is that is a principal interest payment uh and so if you project uh if you project over the next four months uh even based on the 2021 22 22 figures uh we will again be well uh in a in a firm financial position to make that payment uh and and to have additional dollars left over Miss Johns and I review uh this this payment every month to to ensure that it's within the time frame or or excuse me within the amount that we are anticipating uh and so that as we move forward with this upcoming budget we're able to uh adjust as need be with that I'd yield for any questions we're making it too easy well I mean this I mean there's it is there's hard to complain about something good but I've got faith in you commissioner Campell well if there's anything good it's this page right here indeed well thank you for uh both of you for your diligent stewardship of this of our budget and of this the the projects we have it's one of the reasons being a county commissioner here is a lot easier than it is and a number of other counties we have good people who are responsible and stay on top of these things thank you grateful and I want to just Echo that I think um you know when I looked at especially the summaries and we get them part way into the year it just helps us all track or you know you see it enough time so that you get you become a little more familiar you know of how things roll out out and so it isn't such even though we've done the preliminary you know it's not so much guess work right at the end so appreciate it thank you thank you they're afraid to leave the mic was too easy okay committee reports and I believe start with uh commissioner Campbell thought I last if you want me to go I'll go did did I hit you twice in a row well I went first last time but I oh we we can looking at my notes you're right Mr gross we'll start with you hey last Tuesday we had the Personnel issues committee meeting we discuss two things uh reorganization of solid waste department and making the assistant uh County Administrator position fulltime I mean and both of those things we had on the agenda so they're already covered uh Thursday oh also on that day we had Highway tracking um there we discussed uh setting up uh November 19th as a meeting which we already did during the agenda today uh there was a staffing update as far as what prisions they filled they've had a few retire retirements out there there's still waiting for more motor grador operators a shop foran uh so far both maintenance workers have been filled and also engineering technician also discussed the equipment purchase which was covered in the agenda today and also there'll be an open house on uh that uh round roundabout on County 12 and 52 on November the November the 6th pardon the round the about the highway the highway department it's on our agenda calendar also that evening I went to the which wasn't a regular meeting here it was a heart of clay that was put on um Marriot had a full room there are people supporting the hardest way program things are pretty worth after listening to people talking there it's a worthwhile thing that's happening here in Clay County especially our our jail Ministry in the jail uh very good program and I was glad see a room full of people there supporting the program um and Thursday I went to an open house for the Morhead Armory which was H Thursday afternoon those are my meetings thank you commissioner Crain off and uh so last uh Tuesday on the first I had the adult mental health executive committee uh setting up our agenda that we'll have later in the month um discussion of uh new topics um spotlights we call them coming in uh for discussions uh from our uh partner non-private or nonprofits excuse me and then U we'll be having elections coming up for a secretary for that group um then um just uh I I do want to it was in the afternoon we had the open house for the uh uh detox and the withdrawal Management Facility along with the DMB and I I just um thought that was really a great afternoon so impressed it was my first look on the inside of those two buildings and um I was really moved by the detox center I I just uh very excited for the people I know U as I talked to Public Health some people are pretty uh uh jealous about the new digs over there for some of the folks but you know and and on the other side of the coin uh Haven been a person that is around addiction and whatnot um it's sobering and uh exciting at the same time and I I just uh uh really compliment the staff and the dedication and commitment of the people in our Public Health uh that work in this area um uh it might be a pretty facility but on the inside sometimes things aren't so pretty and to help people that are in a um potentially uh um uh end of life situation to be able to help them through that event and hopefully lead them through a treatment management situation uh that may pull them from that over time uh I think it's just I want to thank everybody involved is obvious obviously got started long before I came came here but to see the end of it and what it will do for us in our region uh um is just kudos to everybody involved so I that was very good uh the DMV will be exciting to see when we open that door and and U uh the efficiency it's been so nice downtown how the operation worked there uh and I think this will be um again just a a place to have our own that we can control for the years and it'll also be important to see when the state comes back in with their Spate uh with their space on Thursday I had the Children's Mental Health Lac meeting and um there again uh good reports uh from all our people uh that's always a big me meeting with our providers and the main thing going on there is again collaboration which they're all doing but how do we get that information out as to the referrals uh for for people and a lot of this comes through our schools throughout the county um you know referrals out but trying to identify um making it easy to use QR code and so we're going to start in that development that maybe it's a QR code that we can do to be help people navigate uh to the resources for families or and our schools or other uh uh nonprofits all together just have one area that people can come into and find direction easily so with that that was my week thank you commissioner Mojo thank you last week I had the opportunity to attend the media tours for our new two new facilities really grateful for staff for the uh um for taking on those questions and taking uh so many people on the tours last week I know staff did a lot of work to make sure that the ribbon cutting area was ready and signage was up so thank you to everyone for that um that afternoon then we did have the chamber sure brought a lot of people out for that and then I attended with commissioner C uh commissioner gross and staff the uh Correctional Facility um Suite Freedom um fundraiser really great to reflect on 10 years of their impact and programming at our facility they've really um really um put a mark on a lot of the folks that they've worked with it's really a great partnership that we've built with them over there and then yesterday I had the executive committee for the Metropolitan Council of governments we had General business on the minutes and agenda but we did uh approve a cpg contract Amendment um there was some um moving of funds availability from Minnesota do and so wanted to make sure that was reflected in a contract Amendment and then we did discuss at length the 2025 2026 up WP and budget that will go for the um policy board if it seems like I've reported on this a lot in the last couple of months I have been there are so many different appendices to that programming document um it's it's really been reflected in that uh it's really good though to see particularly with Clay County how our engineering and planning departments are are bringing potential studies and opportunities for work to that so that if there is a shift in funds which we've seen frequently they're able to uh address that need and get it in the work plan after that I attended the final meeting for the withdrawal management uh construction committee I guess if that if you will with that um wrap up basically to discuss the planning and on the fin walkthroughs and and transfer of um occupa occupancy if you will waiting for um mdh to do that final walkth through on that there are a couple items um to wrap up but I think the contingencies were around that $190,000 on that um project after that we had the uh DMV construction committee meeting the contingencies on that about 177 I believe um certainly there's some um FFN components that we need to purchase um it was brought to our attention there's some chairs that needed to be ordered um but certainly both of those facilities are Marching towards completion the uh transfer we discussed a little bit about how we publicly notice and get the the word out on when the DM MV on the 21st will be open so we'll be working with communication staff to do so um I believe that concludes my reports thank you commissioner Campbell thank you on October 1st we had the highway tracking committee meeting which commissioner gross has um given a good update on the several of those things we acted on today regarding the diversion issue the equipment issue uh um so I really don't have any more to add to that report on the 4th of October we had a diversion Authority planning committee meeting and it was an all day um interview process with multiple candidates for the new executive director position and ultimately it was the planning committee's task to bring that down to three finalists uh which will be put forward uh to the full diversion Authority board for interviews of those three candidates and as of yesterday I believe that was um an invite was sered that's going to happen on October 24th from 1:00 to 5:00 uh is the plan for that at which time after that um I'm assuming that the diversion Authority will uh choose one of those finalists so that's that process is moving quite well we did have we did originally have six candidates uh one withdrew and the other five were all all very good candidates qualified candidates but we ultimately put down to three and I believe those names have been put out into the media I don't have them with me right now I I know one of them and I don't want to name just one without naming the other two but they're that's public information for those who want to know it then uh we ALS then I also attended yesterday the as commissioner Mojo said the final meeting of the withdrawal management detox facility we shouldn't we should no longer need to meet on that project um there have been some ongoing issues regarding um door pass issues I and I think those are finally resolved now uh we are looking at final some final inspections being done and we should have the certificate of occupancy on that building by the end of this week and Joel Olen uh did point out that he will have both of those new buildings put onto our mcit insurance coverage effective starting now I'm assuming he would did that yesterday or he's doing it today so um all you I mean you guys get the tour of the place and the public got the tour of the place and it really is uh going to be a a good asset to Clay County that same afternoon then we did attend what should be the second to the last meeting on the um DMV facility that was also talked about and you know I mean we're down to the contingencies are good I I know on the on this one the Joel is going to be bringing before the board I believe next week some adjustments to the FFN budget I think there's an increase of $8 to 12,000 for difference in chairs that are going to be used in the lobby area there but he'll be bringing that next week uh other than that um I do want to point out that I think um gert's construction has done a a really nice job on these on these buildings and they were very good at really keeping that project in line and when we when we look at having a a you know contingency numbers to where where they're at all when all said and done I think commissioner Mojo did point that out I think on we're at somewhere around 175 maybe 170 by the time we're done on the DMV building uh remaining contingency um that will hopefully not be needed and we're right around 188 190,000 on contingency on the U withdrawal Management Facility so those projects really have done well and it was nice working with the management level that that um gerts had on that project so that concludes my report thank you last week um attended the pck committee which is the issues we cover were covered today and commissioner gross covered the meeting um I also attended the detox and DMV grand opening um or open house a little preceding the actual opening but uh everybody has said it they're both very impressive facilities uh they're coming in with without uh hitting the contingencies too hard so it's all good news uh Wednesday the 2nd I participated in the Chamber of Commerce candidate Forum here at the courthouse I want to thank the chamber for giving us uh the candidates an opportunity to express uh our our positions and move forward and inform the public on on what we're doing here it was a good good opportunity uh Thursday I remotely attended the emergency uh Northwest emergency communication board uh are representing them on the legislative committee for the emergency communication uh legislative affairs group uh we covered the uh State emergency communication board fact sheet that we need to have obviously the last legislative session left a lot of things undone we've detailed some of the UH responsibilities of our board members uh the skip which is State communication interoperability board uh we set some goals for next year including hopefully getting for the statute 403 revised and dealing with some of the uh working for uh some State funding for uh local Regional and tribal level communication centers uh and that completes my report Steve uh thank you Mr chair last Tuesday I participated in the pck meeting uh that's been well addressed again I want to thank the board for their actions today and in making the full-time assistant administrator I think that will truly be a benefit to to the county uh also participated uh on the first on the both the media tours and the and the ribbon cutting event again want to thank Lori Chelsea Kathy Troy uh Mark and Jackie uh and Joe and his staff and along with the chamber for having their ambassadors there uh again it was a exciting day uh and so and I would just note that uh our our DMV was not quite as far along as we hoped it would be but uh as you can see from Tuesday till Friday there's quite a trans quite a transformation as we had in just about every project that we've done um participated in Highway uh uh Highway tracking after that that afternoon which has been well covered that evening I participated or went to the heart of clay uh uh fundraiser a really great event it was good to see Julie saat provided uh some testimony on the impact that that uh she saw as her time as a jail administrator uh there and so that was really really good event uh the the the second uh third and fourth I participated in the ma Mac annual conference at ruter we spent a lot of discussion on legislative priorities uh different leadership trainings uh and also marijuana impacts legislative impacts uh the uh the also participated in na leadership uh sessions last week week we're about 3/4 of the way through the cohort this time is about 3/4 of the way through uh on Friday Also Darren and I also met uh on some legal issues here at the County uh the yesterday I participated in the owner meeting that has been well covered uh just a reminder for our uh employees there's going to be a countywide fire drill uh Wednesday at 11: a.m. uh please treat it as if it's a real event there's going to be different people people monitoring uh to to make sure that we're uh we're adequately addressing that issue should they happen uh you all should have received an email it's a it's a posted for upcoming meetings if we're interested if you're interested there's going to be a a partnering with the city Morad in a cyber tabletop uh exercise on October 23rd uh from 8:30 till 12:30 at the mcom center uh if you're interested in attending let uh Sarah or I no one will get you registered for that uh and then one of the things last things I wanted to touch about touch on last year uh we had a uh a work session that addressed uh that addressed a series of different ideas for legislative priorities out of that work session the board came up with uh with three of them uh as we move closer to the to 2025 legislative session uh while we made progress on the three areas uh three areas uh that the board selected we didn't get it to the finish line and so my question before the board today would be is if you're interested in uh bringing those topics back up uh in a regular board meeting and have some additional discussion or if you'd like to see another work session to further discuss those areas and or bring forward some additional any ideas that you'd like to see thoughts on that you know it may be worth a work session we've got a lot of issues we we want to look at in depth and that gives us opportunity to do it with some Focus are there thoughts on that agree I'd prefer our group first I see some head nods so I think do we have consensus okay all right I will uh I'll look to schedule a uh 1:00 most likely a 1:00 work session here after of our upcoming meetings I'll get some dates out to each of you and that concludes my report thank you we have Katie stock from the county attorney's office here and every week uh we put the county attorney's office on the hot seat and see if you have anything you want to contribute okay thank you for being here no anything I think I've said enough thank you you look tired Jackie you got anything for us okay well then if there isn't any other business we're adjured