##VIDEO ID:EFnmSc1cFus## good morning everyone I'd like to welcome you to the C County Board of Commissioners regular meeting today Tuesday August 13th and a ple stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to flag United States [Music] standy and justice for all [Music] as we begin I would like to thank the court administration for allowing us to use the courtroom today because of our primary election as we uh come to order because we are in a different location just a reminder that you're going to need to speak relatively loud pronunciate clearly because we don't have mics particular for the board right here at the tables as we get started are there any adjustments to today's agenda any adjustments or changes to the agenda yeah all right is there a motion to approve the agenda motion approve thank you so much commissioner sterley is there support all support thank you commissioner right we have a motion and support any further discussion all in favor hi I oppose motion carries at this time we'll open our public comment period and opportunity for citizens to appear before the County Board we have a significant number of people in attendance to speak today so we will be limiting our comments to five minutes and we'll be timing those um what we have is a microphone set up at the table up front and so if um anyone likes to speak for the public comment period they can come up there sign in and then speak into the microphone are there any members of the public that wish to speak this [Music] morning yes if you can sign in and then okay great okay so I like to speak about the extension position um everything I'm going to say is back Carolyn could you just state your name and address car dry 4 6C of no um i' like to say that everything I'm saying is factual and logical and I hope you'll listen to my C um as Diane Bo predicted when administrator y um single-handedly put the position into the university um it would the position would have loyalty to the university and as she said the local residents would be left to ATT for themselves which is a different version of extension that we're used to than we were used to in the past um to me there are two two issues one is where we spending $100,000 outside of the county two of the university in which the phys is um located there and second way the issue is are the individual um needs of residents and taxpayers being addressed um there are lots of um issues one is in the community garden there were suddenly lot rules and requirements that the people there had to donate um time to maintain the overall garden and the farmers market some people I was told quit um because there were a lot of rules um imposed and um at the community Archard um that was taken over by the county even though I the um trees to the jail and uh to the community and none those um there are volunteers that work there Fridays even though there will be no volunteers that I know of working on the um Apple Festival and no uh public people um being able to pick the apples so that's why I have to ask all these questions why because none of this makes any sense as a taxpayer in this community um there have been other I have an answer for that there's been other information um that's been us about there's no treatment for borms except spraying which is not TR Buck sells these things these caps that work very well in my air um there's been an attempt to cancel G sale which eventually went through there's a suggestion of tearing down some of the fruit trees in the orchard which should not be torn down because they're just too young you know apple trees Blom after a couple of years um apricots and cherries take four to seven years so that was a suggestion I blocked it um there's been two leaves of absences covered by an extra assistance um there's been en closures on Monday and evidentally Dian told me that when she was um trying to teach the new person the person said after two sessions of two hours that she learned all she could learn and with that um all the 30 years of data were thrown away what's the answer why is this happening the answer as far as I can concern I can conern ascertain the extension persons all the time the attention extension person spends on organizing Vol activities on the computer the ru making Etc is part of the University of Minnesota new configuration of extension for counties for a tracking system in which activities are to be tracked organized and controlled here only have a minute and a half okay so I hope this form will cancel the the overreach by the university and that the Personnel that kept on can now be asked to begin to unline some of these um um or of these rule making and control decisions and be directed to spend time taking care of the needs of the county taxpayers and learn this job the past on doing the university organizing tax of tast of local volunteers and the love of computer makes one wonder if this is a good Personnel lives thank you other other members of the public that wish to speak [Music] this good morning good morning a place to sign in right there yes and then when you're finished if you just state your name and address for the record all [Music] righty s Cedar Stone um I come sure got out um and I'm so I'm on the far west end and I uh am also commenting on this uh issue about the extension and um I uh have some a lot of questions which I guess you can't answer I can only com right okay um um [Music] so I guess some timer is running here um I won't start till you're ready to speak okay thank you so I've been a Master Gardener for five more than 5 years in Cook County and I found um there's some concern about the um um Extension Office role if I'm not mistaken each of the 87 counties has a um extension office they are led by Community Educators princess late in St Louis County and our own County and Sarah wad is the Cook County extension and educator and Community Center Director she is an excellent one she's cheerful creative proactive approachable a great Problem Solver and always ready to offer followup she's an excellent fit for this community the August 8th letter from M dry regarding the mo MOA umm extension was filled with um lack of knowledge and inaccuracies uh despite my efforts to understand the content there was a great deal of distortion in the formation and I ended up and I'm still quite baffled on how to address the writer's concerns um so the U ofm extension provides great University resources and makes them available to all and this is a benefit to our community and it's my understanding the extension committee has local towns people on it the extension commit has local tals people on it and there are openings for all to join to offer their input any person with ongoing interest May apply to be on the committee and I suggest this person do so uh I do hope that Commissioners will continue the memorandum of agreement with the U extension program to lose this Arrangement would be a great loss to our community and every Community to my understanding has one um I came from the West End today uh we have a West End Garden Club down there and um I wanted to let members know about this meeting and sent an email to the people who decide what emails are shared um what information shared and it was decided this topic was too political uh Garden U ofm extension community service is too political interesting this is what we're facing these days it's just to provide a service and someone has to be in charge and help us develop the program and Carry Out duties There are rules to me rules um I was vetted I had my background checked in order to become a Master Gardener um that's not too many rules um I don't know what rules are a problem so um confusing more questions than answers I hope to learn more thank you thank you [Music] are there other members of the [Music] [Music] public good morning Justin Rex Ro two lane gr marray president front Lo R Association [Music] one of the items that you have in front of you on the agenda is for the um amending the current PL operting Association had originally brought forward to the board uh it's a pretty simple change uh they go from it's for Insurance liability requirements go from a million a half for currence to down to 1 million uh upon months of working on insurance for a proposed shooting range it was found that industry standard was for range though besides that we're looking at build is a million per occurrence 2 million Agate 500 for wrongful debt when we sought out the insurance policy to cover that million and a half that puts into Market of excess Gap coverage excess Gap coverage we found out was a very lengthy process and it's three times what the first policy cost uh which would be for a range of our size and with our financial being right now it it would be crippling to the range I've had a conversation with attorney Molly hickin about some of the issues that we were having and she did some research and figured out that you know one a million per occurrences industry standard and that to it could easily drop down with no issues um upon her doing research on that so um I ask that you um approve and support that change um it will be very instrumental into us getting this range going um being able to meet that simp for requirement versus getting excess Gap coverage which would greatly hit us very hard financially to get this up and running so I thank you for your time and I appreciate everything that the County Board does and thank you to Molly haen and James JY for your support on this thank you too Bry for your research as well have a good day are there other members of the public to speak this [Music] good morning Arvis Thompson 1455 County Road 14 I wish to speak um first of all on the Cannabis that's going to be looked at later on today uh there are a couple AR in the last few papers that talked about the decision which sounds like it's already made for the 14 um licenses and I realize that that's in a draft I'm asking you to consider uh something less than that um I think thought that was one of the decisions that you were going to be making today um and we're only talking retail here uh there were questions raised at the coveville meeting that suggested less license initially would be a better approach given that there are still some unknowns the paper said the County liquor license allows a maximum of one license in each of seven areas I'm wondering why you doubled that uh one that was a license in each of the five districts why not give yourself some time couple years to set this up to organize on a smaller manageable scale right now the county doesn't know who all sells the lower potency Edibles nor are you authorized to register or license those public health is charged with compliance checks and more they deserve time to set up for these initial checks and the ongoing work that they will incur time to figure out who and how to do this time before you run rampant and start to hire and expand before anyone knows what they are doing and what of the auditor's office section three places a lot of responsibility on that staff do you know your population's health issues cannabis other drugs alcohol staff deserves time to explore and document what currently is so a comparison can be made as to the growth of this product whether it's a Healthy Growth or problematic a comment was heard that cannabis would be just plain fun for residents and visitors Edibles are already available in a couple of spots in the county how much fun do we need or are you seeing cannabis as the new recreation for our tourists I encourage caution and sending the retail numbers let's grow this thing together your constituent are wondering if the revenue from can from Cannabis is clouding some of the decisions and who are you making new decisions for I'd also like to address housing on um on July 23rd at a County board meeting the statement was made that the county we still need up to 500 housing units if you would refer to the July 6th News Herald article an HRA housing analysis shows that Cook County could absorb over 500 new units by the end of 2026 need was being used to justify when the actual statement was absorbed huge differences or again are you building for do we need to build for the year round workers families who want to live work and contribute to this County or is the need for the retirees the halfe residents the second homeowners this past week the borberg project was highlighted and according to LCI I don't know how to pronounce that in a 2022 uh housing study they Quantified or measured the shortage in County at 600 units and Home Ownership opportunities are in even shorter Supply I'd like the HRA the Eva the city and the County Board to share who they think is going to be here to service these imaginary numbers and where they intend to put up the 10th City that's going to house the service Personnel thank you you other other members of the public that wish to speak this morning good morning good morning my name is Jennifer Victor Larson I'm at 23 B Creek Road just off 7 West of town uh I've been here four years so I'm a newcomer um I know there's a lot of history and um diverging opinions and I love that I was part of the the district 10 Council and St Paul um so I appreciate the work that you do here um and and input from the community um I am here to speak on the extension agreement and I'm just going to speak from my own experience I don't have again the whole history um that you all have here in the county but I would like to say um we have come here um really looking to be part of the community um one of those things means stewarding the land that we have here and creating a more robust uh Forest as well as producing food uh for us and if it all works out for the community as well um and I'll just I from my experience um the has been an enormous resource for me Sarah W personally has just provided so much information uh it seems like her name is attached to everything that I found useful um she got me involved in the uh Cook County Food Network and um from there you know gotten even more resources uh Vian of course has a lot of resources but I've been interested to find out that there's a there's a lot of local resources which is what I was desperately looking for um you know so everything from there to providing potatoes and onions to plant that that were successful here so um it's it's been a really wide range and I really personally have benefited and found it to be an incredible value so I just want to speak on on that um from that perspective thank you thank you and if youd make sure to sign in yeah are there other members of the public that wish to speak this any other members of the public not we'll close our public comment period at this time and move on to our consent agenda so are there any items that motion thank you m to but just have an understanding about the request of Life lending going from um leaving an absence of his Deputy into the chief Deputy in just you know that's another higher position I understand okay so then that leaves opening for the deputy okay just for public information because it is an important area that we just talked about a few months ago absolutely thank you anything else question I'd like to add on to that so there has there's not been an identified investigator before this time a person is that correct no there was there was and who was that oh Le was oh problem I mean I didn't have I was just going for [Music] clarification and I was the only one okay all right but that is their motion to improve the consent agenda I'll move to appr thank you commissioner white and thank you for your support commissioner Mills we have a motion and support any further discussion all in favor I opposed motion car we'll move on at this time to our Soil and Water Conservation District and we have olena Hansel with us this morning she is going to share a little bit about her headers for million River Watershed one Watershed one plan implementation Grant and uh I've had a lot of experience working with us I'm actually G be oh yes I am thank you yeah thank you um so in your your um I'm the county water planner and I'm the water planner for the stone Water Conservation District and so the am I okay okay um and so the county because you adopted the one Watership one plan that is able to get implementation funding similar to when um we get implementation funding for the Lakes North so um uh County attorney hickin has reviewed the document and when we went through the process of how can we spend the funding what can we do to help with the resources and the re Headwaters um the highway department and the Land Services both came forward and said that they had projects Land Services is to do active system inspections on Moon Lake and virtually virtually thank you and then the highway department has some CTS that can be replaced that might not otherwise have been replaced but this funding allows for this so um just asking for the county to enter into the fiscal agreement I will let Land Services in the high Department determine who's going to manage that part of the grant um but that would just be opening up that funding source and it's good for 3 years any questions for any questions for all right well I'd make a motion to approve the grant proceed dispersal agreement between C con and nor St Louis Soil and Water for a total of 122,000 to implement our Headwaters re milion comprehensive watered management plan thank you commissioner M for your support any further discussion all in favor I I opposed here great thank thank you on behalf of the county department that we work with so the next is I'm an old school here with a projector and a screen um and just talk about the soil and water budget and I just don't want to trick you I don't know sorry thank you see I jinxed it earlier [Music] [Music] all right so let's see if it's going to [Music] work we do have a paper Cofe okay one more shot plug it in otherwise might have to go really aing it worked before it's not going to work um so I'm just going to pun a little bit um sorry to those members of the public because my technology skills just better what they um so I'm going to talk about the so and Water Conservation District budget and explain why we're asking for an increase in our budget for this year um and I want to start off just by saying thank you first of all to the county we are one of the only two in the whole state conservation districts that are able to have a partnership that we have with the county and with the very large County that we have and our resources and we're in a state of protection so it's hard to get funding we really appreciate this and that people before us have opened up the opportunity for our district to work so closely with the county to have office space and just to be able to utilize the resources so um a few highlights for accomplishments I would like to kind of celebrate with our board and my staff you know what have we accomplished so far this year um if you remember we've hired two new staff this year and then we have Stephen who's been around for two years we're still kind of new um and we've still been able just to knock out the part to get more landowner service so today this is as the end of July we've had over 35 site visits for 224 normally we only have about 39 or 40 so we're really increasing our site visits we were behind due to lack of staff so we're able to start catching up on that we're still some people were having a way year so but we're trying to get out to as many people as we can um we are required with our projects to do site inspections they're on 10year contracts again like of Staff we haven't been able to get out for a number of years we're now able to catch up on that work with those land owners again making sure that conservation is seen in the ground and it's been pretty cool to see these projects six seven years out and just just performing like they should be um we're bringing land owners together for example the East Bay land owners are working closely with the city and everyone from the SAA all the way to the point working together and try to look for Solutions and what do we do with some of that sand and erosion but we really want to make sure the beach stays there so we're ensuring that we're involved in that process and that everything looks really good and we can keep it natural we're working with Inland Lakes beaches streams and lakes care monitoring we're monitoring regularly monthly um sometimes weekly for some of these we're working with over 20 some volunteers to accomplish this and then the Lake Associations um our AIS program is the County's program is out of our office now and so there's numerous AIS Outreach activities we do monthly WTI interviews um we just have a lot of Outreach for best management practices we've completed the Rover Headwaters uh one water which is exciting we work with a lot of uh land owners now on forestry plans that something new that we're able to do since we have full staff again and a lot of Shoreland planting so we're starting to enter into more contracts to increase the buffers on people's lawn uh we had a successful tree sale with over 48 land owners we have the youth from the Cook County Youth exchange which is part of extension in the county so we're excited to have them in our office for the summer and yes they don't sit in there so we don't have seven people in our office or in and out um and then you know we're just planning on projects of Partners and an example would be um we're working closely with the forest service and DNR and the hway department to do some work on the Woods Creek area in the next couple years um so just a lot of partnership building a lot of work and trying to All Pool our resources so we're not duplicating work so what's our budget look like and why am I here to ask for more funding um just to put this out there when we set our budget I normally don't set it till September or October because we're so heavily Grant funded that's when I know a lot more when our grants will come in so I put it together early just to try to paint a better picture and have a better understanding where we're at I don't know our wages for next year I know there's Union negotiations going on so I totally guessed on those I don't know what our health care costs are going to be again I've had to guess um I guessed on a county allocation I put it to the higher one because I'm local and um we may receive other grants So currently we have another Grant just sitting for a grant agreement so we have another $155,000 coming in so I we have constantly coming in so that's always kind of changing as to what our budget's going to be so what does our budget look like we have three funds within our budget we have the technicians so they are one budget we have Administration that would be myself and our financial administrator and then we have a budget for the Lakes pure North one Watershed one plan the sbcd is the Fiscal Agent so we are taking on a million dollar every bium for all that liability which increases a lot of our work um and a lot of our expenses but we have a Fiscal Agent for the whole Lakes P North Watership so we're the pass through so that's a separate fund over there and I'll get into that a little bit more because sometimes people are like why don't we then have a million dollars and I'll explain that also later and then we have the AIS budget and that's a separate budget it has statute language it's only for AIS yes AIS means Aqua thank you Aquatic and based species yes please help me if I go acronym so what are our funding sources we have the county funding we have state funding which includes stable funding and grant funding and then we have Federal funding which is all grant funding and when I say Federal funding I mean we're not just competing against the folks along the NorthShore we're competing often against all high Great Lakes so I just wrote a grant for example and I was told great Grant but Lake eie folks are going to get this because we need to help people drinking like Eerie water and it's got B allery Bloom so even though we understand that's a resource concerned where you're at it's just not big enough so we're a tiny fish and a huge huge p and it's very very very competitive to get grants um so our cut couny funding how that works is we put in a request every June we work closely with the auditor's office and I wanted to project you can see that the amounts of changed we used to start with around 30 40 some thousand 45,000 and I don't know know the whole history of this and then it decreased as the county had to decrease budgets we were also asked to decrease our budget and then it got State at that level and then the state came forward and said hey if you can get the county to give 20 $225,000 more I don't remember the exact number we can match that and you can put that towards a project so the county at that time did and it went towards the city of gramar storm water project so keep while you're listening keep that in mind this isn't paying my personnel and my staff this is going towards projects so that that extra money went towards a project we're so thankful that the city did that and then we were just kept it at that 60,000 Mark since then so it's been maintaining and just kind of flat right there again we're thankful for it um but times they change it so so what's changed I wanted to put together kind of this is again estimates what does this look like why do you need it over the years you can see our staff has changed between two and a half per staff up to four people which is where we are right now we function best at four people because we've got a lot of work to do and a lot of land our estimated budget for a Personnel cost you know for two people in 2014 was around $140,000 with all the extra expenses it's now up to $452,000 that's hard to get through grants so our County allocation covers a percentage of it which I'll show you in a minute we have state grants right now just doing the 2024 around7 ,000 that we know we get currently and so I have a deficit of $221,000 I have to try to seek through grants the pay sta that doesn't include doing project on the ground so what's our state funding look like you kind of let those numbers sit in we have a natural resarch block grant the county actually receives money for shway won conservation and ssts which is um subsurface treatment systems the S swcd receives around 12 to 14,000 um sometimes it goes up right now we're at 20,000 it goes back down in 2026 for local Water Management um Wetland Conservation act we get $7,500 and um conservation practices we get around 18,000 and cier goes strictly towards projects and that's 12,000 so I'm going to keep throw in numbers just to kind of let all this set in s swca is from the Department of internal Revenue that's similar to AIS for that money is just sitting there and we get it every year unfortunately the numbers go down 2026 by 20,000 because that's the way legislation wrote it so right now we're up here and then we go back down to around $120,000 a year we also get a little bit of funding for one Watershed one plan whoops because we are the Fiscal Agent so we're able to take a big chunk off the top and help pay for staff through that because again we're required to do all the reporting we get audited or reconciled every uh 50 at 50% of the funding is spent and then at 100% so twice and that takes a lot of Staff time to be able to do that because they're not checking just our invoices we're checking every partner so if we have a project for example the highway department when we helped with their storm water it's $180,000 I have to make sure all their invoices are in place and then I have to give it to the state so it's a lot of manard to do this we're happy to do but it's just takes a lot of time and then Federal funding currently we have what's called an npca uh Minnesota Pollution Control 319 program um fundings every 3 years we're currently in the first cycle the next Cycles in 2027 don't remember off the bat how much we get for that um around 20 some th000 and that's strictly to work in a specific area so that doesn't go counting broad it's in the devil's track junko and kind of over the Woods Creek area to do specific work in there and we have to match that 50% so we have to have that funding appli and now we've got to figure out where we're going to match that with and what and how um under other funding we get it as we're awarded but as I mentioned earlier it's really tough because we're competing with all [Music] five um Thanks Elena um just a quick question uh we see that if if we're competing with all five grade lakes lake areas is the southernmost it's the shallowest it is the most impaired yes and so is it just always going to be the case that I mean l Superior is in relatively good shap yes right yeah so that's a great question um which it was great to have our application rejected in the sense that it's spurred a lot of questions when a lot of people for their taxpayer dollars don't want to put money into protection and because we are more in a protective State up here they they it's it's harder to find them because we can't sh in a bang for The Bu Buck where we're saying hey if we spend the money now in 10 20 30 40 years when these larger events come through and the the roads are washing out it's going to be so much cheaper if our CS are the right Sid if these banks are stabilizing they're not flooding the water and people can still come up and recreate or the people who live here that it's not a cell yet but we're working on we're trying to change that story and we're continually putting grants in but the same thing we always hear is it's not enough bang for your buck um because it is so expensive to be protection so yeah so we're always going to have to compete and it's always going to be a tough sell but it doesn't mean we can't to do it we've done it in the past so but people like to throw the money at the restoration and the fix fix fix and it's hard so what does our budget look like um for our numbers I won't go too in depth but you can kind of see we have our County fund we have our federal fund for 2025 we have our state fund and then sorry budget is around for the public I can't see this is around a million doll for 2025 that includes personnel and projects then you'll see that $500,000 that's pass through money we're like the bank that's for all our partners for one Watershed one plan we don't see any of that money we just say here go forth give us your invoices and we'll already check um if we don't have the money then we have to float back and then get reimburse and then we have $350 our charges for services is literally the tree sale so um rolling it in so and then we have you can see our expenditures with the Personnel Services that includes the cost of our board so we pay our board a small um bit of money and some mileage you'll see our membership dues we have a lot of groups we're involved with so there's a lot of dues um other services include things like we get separately audited because we're our own government unit um so we get separately audited so we have to pay for this and our ncit and a lot of other things we pay for um supplies that's general you know and then just our other operations so you can kind of see our expenditure for 2025 or 54,000 and if you're wondering what that goes towards it goes towards a lot of it towards the little Devil's track project um that we're working closely with the hire Department those banks are eroding due to the fact that the C's too small so the velocity is just been eating at that bank and it will continue especially with our increased and our different fluctuations in our Arena events so we're going to come in and restabilize and redo that so that it will have longevity and it will'll be able to um withstand more of these precipitation FS we do try to zero out our budget each year and then you can see at the bottom it says a projected fund balance we are required by the state by the Board of Water and Soil resources as conservation districts to try to have a six-month fund balance you can see if by addition of Staff we curently not there but we're doing okay question on the budgets I'm sorry you said it but could you just repeat the other services and charges yeah that's things like we are paying for a pay for ncit yeah all those kind of things very this just to show you kind of what it looks like again the one maral plan kind of trips people a little bit and we've had to learn how to navigate that you can kind of see where we get the funding for we're getting funding for FY 2022 so F year 2022 Watershed base implementation funding and then we have a larger trunk for FY 24 that our office specifically gets but they're allocated towards projects you know that's not to pay a lot of it it's not for staff a lot but you can see below us the Personnel out of that 342,000 is only 50,000 Personnel the rest is all for projects with land owners and then you can see the pass through down below [Music] so what is security and what soft funding what does that actually look like why does this matter yes you have a lot of money coming in and out of your office um so as you can see for the funding source breakdown secured funding annually that I can count on is 23% of my budget the rest of is 77% I have to write grant for which takes 20 30 40 hours sometimes if on the Grant and then we operate off of 30 some grants that we have to report on so a lot of our time is my time to spent writing on grants and Reporting on grants and shifting money around and doing all of that um so you can see we have County allocation is um in the blue there the light blue is 7% um we have the unsecured State funding is 49% that's the green fedal for 2025 is 24% and the safe secur is% so as we think about this and people are like well so what you get grants great um a few things to keep in mind which we are constantly trying to REM remind people is that we can only charge 10 to 20% of personnel time towards the grant that's it so when I'm trying to match $500,000 Grant and I can only take a little bit of personnel time I still need to be able to pay my staff to actually manage the project which can take 2 to 300 hours over two to 3 years sometimes and when we're on double strap we're on year three already so I got to figure out a way to carry all those hours over the time of the Grant and it's a lot of guing and sometimes I guess right sometimes not but we have to we can only take a certain amount and that's it it's capped it's been like that for all the grants it's been like that forever um if we can't cover the C the cost for our staff time to manage a project from start to finish um which can take a year or two or three we've got to find other funding sources so we'll take it out of our s swcd Aid we'll take it out of our County allocation we take it out of our general fund whatever we can do to P the staff um currently we work off of 15 grants sometimes it's been up to 20 sometimes even more um which means we have to track every hour that we spend so I have to figure out where am I going to build it where do we put it to and then we have to show that every day every every hour takes a lot of time to write the ads and just do that work so an increase for us for the county allocation is it really would be helpful it will help the staff to be able to spend less time writing and we rep on grants I know you know um more time 15 land owners again we've got a backlog with a spruce bedw worm and other things going on out there we're getting a lot more phone calls than we had in the past and we're able to have a lot more Partnerships now and so we're able to hold more resour resources in but we need to be able to have the staff to do that um we have more time to collaborate again with our other agencies and departments we have more time for conservation projects to be installed which is really exciting and it just provides a better public service if we are not spending all of our time writing grants um and having to deal with that so it also provides us the opportunity to match local funds with State funds or federal funds um because you cannot match for those who don't know St state to state and you cannot match Federal to Federal so by the Federal grant find something different state find something different so really offers a lot opportunity for us so that that is why I'm requesting the from the sbcd and from the board to have an increase this year for 20,000 so from 60 to 80,000 perfect thank you for your presentation all the information and explanation is um very valuable and we'll make sure since the public couldn't see this that we do publish that with the minutes um and I also want to let you know that AMC The Association of minota counties we hope that through our policy committees we can really try to um change that decrease in your funding that's going to happen in 2026 we very hard for that any questions I don't have any questions I just want to say greatly values our soil and our water shoreline um and we're just so fortunate to have you and the team us we're we're a standout County on part of so all right thanks so much thank you have a good day right at this time we'll move on to item five human resources and we have Alison permer with us this morning to talk about job descriptions and job grade updates [Music] good morning good morning let's see here all right this morning I am bringing two positions um forward to you uh for recommendation for approval of a revised job description um also paired with a change and increase in the job grade as well so the first position is the maintenance technician uh with our maintenance department now some background on this one so this is one position that we are actually kind of reclassifying and regrouping into a one and a two position um that came about during the review process in getting the feedback um from the supervisor Brian plus the two individuals in that role both Troy M and Jimmy walner became apparent that even though they are both maintenance technicians that there were differences in the level of responsibility um for them even in that same position a lot of similarities but some differences and so to account for those differences in level in responsibility primarily in the role that Jimmy fills that he takes on um kind of a higher level oversight overview role um even with the presence of Brian silence and then outside um when Brian is absent that we needed to account for that level of responsibility and oversight in the job description so subsequently we split it and made a one and a two kind of a hierarchy um um description so presented in the board packet the maintenance technician went from one One Singular position to a maintenance tech one and a maintenance tech two to account for those differences and similarities in those two positions um the maintenance technician one role which will continue to be filled by Troy M will remain at a grade 140 while the um maintenance technician to job description that entails encompasses a bit more oversight um with Jimmy wner Position will be increased to a grade 150 instead of that 140 uh then the other position is located in the county attorney's office it's the County Attorney office administrator rule um that is an updated job description um through the review process and the appeal process that grade is going from a 140 to a 150 are questions for if not I would entertain a motion Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the job descriptions for uh m technition one and two as um the County Attorney office administrat thank you commissioner mels is there support a than you we have a motion and support any further discussion all in favor I oppos motion thank you at this point we'll move on to item six attorney hicken [Music] thank you chair okay so the first item uh is our Cook County uh cannabis regulation and um juvenile possession coordinates let me get that it in front of me um so the draft ordinance which is proposed only at this point and uh which commissioners have the ability to make changes to um today it's up for your consideration of enacting the ordinance because it has been duly published at this point there have been public hearings twice um on August 6 formal public hearings um in which the um not the court the uh Commissioners took uh comments and questions we've also done additional public Outreach in um two Town Halls one in cville on the 5th and one last night in Grand maray I've provided Commissioners with some of the public comment that was received um both in summary format from kville and then in a text format from uh public comments that came into the web page that we designed for that purpose um there are so the um original draft that was has been amended slightly those changes I've underlined and highlighted in the version that you have today just tweaking um thanks to their review by Neva Maxwell of the Land Services Department um we filled some gaps and and clarified some things um those aren't changes sign significant amount until you have to republish ordinance prior to um your enactment should you wish to do so um so a couple things I need to clarify uh because my um analysis of the timing of this ordinance has changed a little bit since I've first proposed that commissioner that a public heing um if you recall I talked about um social Equity applicants and the fact that there will be a special Lottery um problem it it's set for this fall I say early this fall um social Equity applicants had the ability if they fall under that definition of social Equity applicant um to request pre-approval for a license and there would be a lottery of those preapproval applications and um ocm officers of Canabis management could issue pre-approvals um as the guidelines around that process have developed and been published by ocm we've learned that um the social Equity applicants don't need to define the location of their proposed business in the preapproval process so essentially they're saying I qualify as a social Equity applicant here's my business plan or whatever the basic application requirements are and and that and they don't need to identify where it's going to be so it could be anywhere in the state of Minnesota um rather than how I was initially thinking about this like they might identify I want a place in personality I want a place in grar I want a place Inon or whatnot um so it's not going to be possible to even um know exactly how many applicants are going to want to establish in Cook County um until later on in the license application process we do know that no licenses are going to be issued until 2025 um so we have some time there are other considerations to take into account though so I'm saying we have flexibility in that part of the timing equation but you know I'm I was reminded by um the business folks in our um on our committee you know this committee attempted to include all the stakeholders and um business interests and Business Development interests are a stakeholder um in our cannabis orament that's proposed I was reminded that um if they're going to establish a business um and go for a license they have to plan and in order to plan and invest in what they need to invest in um save up the capital or attain funding maybe through loan um they need to know what the County's plans are in regulating these Canabis businesses so I think those voices will probably um encourage you to consider passing this ordinance sooner rather than later um I really think it's it's up up it is obviously up to you you're the ones who have the authority to en it now orer um there are reasons on both sides we have I I would say at this point we've thoroughly studied the issue as best we can under the circumstances given that ocm continues to add detail to the process and they just published the rules um but we talked about we began talking about this at least a year ago on County and City leadership and then the committee has been established and discussing it um and studying the issue for about three months um what else do I have to say about this um I would say to summarize public comments there was not as much public engagement as I might have predicted I expected this to be a more divisive issue the most divisive issues it appears um about this ordinance um are the municipal um the municipal cannabis retailer uh enabling language um and there are arguments on both sides of that issue um and then there seems to be some confusion and also um some opposition to section six of the ordinance which creates penalty for juveniles um that does existing state law um for juvenile to possess transport or consume canvas and also to present a false ID or use somebody else's ID to attempt to purchase it or acquire it um I've been working on a detailed piece of writing kind of in the vein of a legal memorandum which explains that issue and why I believe it's necessary to include the juvenile cation against possession Transportation or use of cannabis um it's kind of a complicated it's complicated for me to describe but I know I can say a couple things to just summarize one of the concerns that's brought been brought up is we ought to if we're going to penalize cannabis possession uh consumption Transportation by youth it should be penalized in the same way that pize um alcohol consumption you know underage alcohol consumption possession um for decades at least since 2008 in the juvenile court rules and the juvenile delinquency statutes um a court has been allowed to order a child a minor into inpatient treatment for chemical dependency on their third offense their third third juvenile alcohol offense or their third juvenile controlled substance offense no matter the level of that chart so it it would be a misdemeanor or it would be a petty offense for a juvenile but if it's their third time around with that type of offense um at that point the court can order them into an inpatient treatment and that's a what's called an out of home placement um in taking custody away from the parents and putting it into this treatment facility or into the custody of Social Services for replacement in facility the definition of juvenile alcohol offense that's solid that hasn't changed over the decades um the definition for juvenile controlled substance offense um refers to a section of 152 Controlled Substances statute which has been repealed under the Cannabis um under the new cannabis law so the definition of juvenile controlled substance offense has not been updated and I foresee a complication in arguing to the court that um illegal unlawful possession of canvas by a minor could fall under the definition of jual controll substance of L because that definition hasn't been updated therefore I see a complication with requesting that the court order inpatient treatment after three times of possessing cannabis so that all leads to and I can back all this up with legal citations if youd like them I'm willing to share absolutely um but that that's what leads to my concern Gap here in state law that needs to be so somehow if we can through a County ordinance it doesn't happen frequently you know we have a um I would say um it's a good thing that we have a very small delinquency case load but we have people including youth in this community who really struggle with controlled substances and especially with those developing brains at for age 14 15 16 um intervention and the ability to intervene um to get the child out of the environment in which they became ill is really um important and Urgent um so I'm trying to open up um that tool B for prosecutors in the court um and I it absolutely is a serious thing to take a child out of their home um but I I want to talk a little bit about what else a court is required to find if they're going to if a court is ordering a child out of their home under a delinquency case um any uh order for disposition disposition equals sentencing in the juvenal court has to include written findings of fact to support that disposition including why the best interests of the child are served by that disposition and what alternatives were considered by the court and why those Alternatives were not appropriate so there has to be a real thorough analysis of why the best interests are served and what alternatives were considered and dismissed um for any um any disposition of court orders where a child is taken out of the home for 30 days or more a case plan has to be ordered um and that includes um um a case plan is made in consultation with the child's parents or custodian and at a minimum it has to include how we're going to ensure the child's safety the child's future lawful conduct compliance with courts orders and that the services to be offered and provided by the agency to the child are appropriate um there are there's also an analysis if a child is um falls under the definition of Indian child is a legal term um what is the cultural appropriateness of that placement is the child still have um access to the cultural practices practices that their family might you know have them involved in um are they going to have adequate spiritual [Music] um providers there so I just wanted to flush that out a little bit more um and explain that part of the ordinance I'm here to answer any other questions that you might have um I haven't prepared language for other options but it is true that you have this is not set in stone this is not decided already this is the point at which you can decide if you wish to set the registration requirement um the lowest limit of registrations you could set would be one um and if you enable the municipal retail Cannabis stores those don't count against that limit form um if you wish to limit registrations per geographically defined area to one instead of two like we recommended in the ordinance you can certainly do that um I would not recommend as was suggested that it be one per commissional commissioner District uh and the only reason is because we know that as populations change across the county and they are changing those lines are apt to change um you know redistricting happens on a periodic basis and um a business that established itself was in the correct Zone in one year could potentially be in the incorrect Zone the next year due to redistricting but you can geographically Define those zones however you wish you can ditch that whole idea of Geographic zones and just say one in the county um or five in the county as long as we're um doing this based on reason and Analysis and um not just call num one of the things that I've thought about a great deal based on emails and phone calls I've received the two town halls I attended as well as our two public hearings and then also the presentation by the office of cannabis management last Friday is the number of registrations that thought about that a great deal and listen to the input and I would like our board to consider limiting the registrations to seven so that there's one for organized Township and one within the city of right um and that way we are parallel to what we have with alcohol um we've talked repeatedly about um trying to create a parallel structure for alcohol and um so that is kind of the only change that I've thought of as it looked at this particular model other Commissioners commissioner St thank you mad chair well commissioner Mills and myself have been on this division it's the most moving parts of any group I have ever been on and it will continue to be so um so um I would like to have a definition for myself and the public who would have what is the definition of social Equity who would be part of that let me bring up my notes on that issue a lot of because I think this applies then to how many um appliations we are going to set for the company that's why I want an understanding of what that means if anybody in the state can come into Co County we need to have our set applications on as you are saying 24 okay all right um this is not word for word this is my summary of the definition of social Equity um to save some time I suppose I'll just read my notes uh from our June 4th meeting of the committee social Equity applicants are those previously convicted of marijuana offenses or their family members military veterans emerging Farmers so emerging farmers include those with three plus years of Labor or management for a small firm a small farm excuse me um residents of high poverty areas um they the ocm did create get a map to so you could search if your community applied to those High poverty areas nowhere in coook County actually applies um as a resident of high poverty area um yep those are those are the those are the basic social Equity oper [Music] definitions so commission salivan if you see you'd like to see it only um restricted to our districts what happens in the future in the meantime if you have applicants from a veteran or a farmer or whatever so we don't approve the applicants those are approved by the state right and um we don't know if would be local people or if they would be um you know people from Greater Minnesota or even out of state that's an unknown and out of our control I'm just looking at starting at 7 so but we have something that's manageable we can collect data I think it's um a little more manageable for Public Health and Human Services if they're going out and um doing compliance checks and then it is something we can expand an or something we can always change um but I think to start small from what I'm hearing from the public is is something that our community is requesting other commissioners well I've heard great concern that 14 seems like an excessive number and now that you I have not thought about this we can have outside the county players coming in and that changes everything my thought was we have a business owner here and in the West End and east end but it could just be somebody completely different coming in and yes they would be here I think working is too many how many Li stores do we have seven we do have seven this would be the same as the number well that seems more damage but the whole thing is we don't know how much time how much paperwork is going to be involved setting up the oversight of these businesses at all since everything is changing and there's the security issues then there will be yeah and that's what I agree is the importance of making a decision now so that the people that are in our County that do want to start businesses have time to be fair to themission um yeah I um I'm a big fan of starting slow and working through it as the rules change and as our understanding changes and as community understands things more so I think there's a lot of wisdom in in in the suggestion um my hesitancy um is that when we set the number it's um right now I think we're all thinking about just retail and what the number entails is also the micro and the meso businesses and what those are are basically the grow what to sell you know the whole the whole process and um our Agriculture and farming Community is is something that I want to support as much as we can um and so that's that's on my mind um because it would include that so um if we did set it at 7 um I'm assuming there would be seven retailers but then there would not be an allowance for any other operations such as the grow to to sell or they could be just grow to sell in which case you know my concern is M but um I think that's a lot more involved of a business um and would be much more difficult to set up so that's where I'm hesitating is because of that um I'm also trying not to get too worried because I do expect we will be revisiting this and updating it again um just again as we learn more as the rules evolve um so so that's what I'm question I have for attorney hickin and I think I know the answer but I'm going to uh verify it so if I'm correct we cannot control the an application for a meso or a micro business that is a an application in the state approves is that correct the state licenses micro businesses and meso businesses um we as a local government have the ability to require those types of businesses to have a local registration only if they hold that retail endorsement as well so you could have a micro business that only um grows and and produces the product for a different retailer um or you could have and and that's the type of business we don't have authority to require registration for but if that type of a business has the retail endorsement then we we can require a registration and this um ordinance as proposed does require a registration for those M micro and meso businesses with the retail ement other questions yeah have a concern about Al home placements um how many kids and I see public health is here too but how many how often do we have to create a case plan how many of our youth actually go to out of home placements in this County because of substance abuse do we have like two a year or 25 or I have no idea something more than two and less than 25 I say then and can I just clarify what I've been talking about is delinquency placements there's another whole type of placement called Child Protection placement and the Court's considerations sometimes are similar between the two but they're they're different types of findings where do our go um let's see so I've been out of that game for a little bit but when um when I was in it uh Northwoods in iasa North homes in the duth area um uh at times to Arrowhead juvenile center which has um um more and more over the years a treatment type environment versus a correctional type environment um um itaskin is another um placement our kids have gone as far as you know across the state when needed when their level of care is high and the level of security the facility is is needed there is no um there's neither inpatient nor outpatient chemical dependency treatment for kids in C County that's in person of course now everything is available by zoom and by remote option um the efficacy of that type of treatment especially for kids is kind of questionable um so they would go if they were to have impatient if they would travel down the highway to duth would they be able to secure impatient he as opposed to being placed you know in a resident home siace yes that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the out of home placements for treatment I'm talking about being placed in an inpatient treatment facility specifically for kids you don't want to mix it out kids one other um well I'm not sure that the county and City on the same page exactly yet and so our ordinance includes um allowing for licenses for Grand array but we're not necessarily on that same page yet so as we may or may not pass this gr the city itself May um do their own thing and I just want us to be aware of that so they how our ordinance is written may not be the city has not handed over our regulator has delated hasn't delegated to the county at this point so um I'm not entirely comfortable including assuming that delegation we having that in there um again very comfortably visiting anding and changing this so I'm not going to get too bent out of the shape of that but just want to bring that uh commissioner Wills I it wasn't if I did include in there the delegation of the city's authority to the county that was not my uh no it it did explicitly say that it has been delegated but I do believe it's 2.6.2 where it says cannabis retail business registration shall be limited to for organized Township and City yes yeah um there's other language though um that existed in the model orance that I removed because we don't have the city's agreement that um it delegates it auor to register into count um so that's been removed um yeah you're right it it does the the city can after the app is pass if they don't like the way we've set out things or they wish to add controls or change the limit of registrations within the city they can pass their own ordinance and you know we've had City Representatives a as a part of our committee this whole time um and that's been their stated intent they want to um see what the county passes and see whether that means their needs or not um I did not get any comment back from the city Representatives on Section seven which is en City uh comments still on 2.6 from the city no okay um and I yeah again I don't have a a beef with it I just wanted to make sure we're aware that that is a factor here and it is kind of a chicken EG situation right so also just want to thank you for all your work on this thus far um I didn't explicitly say that the town H last night but Stellar work and also with public health um um just the whole team it's out standing I attended the um Community Health board meeting uh virtually yesterday and uh we are way ahead of the other counties in the region just as far as our engagement our discussions thought research really show thank you there was one typo that I have to say it where you CH uh section s first line County and the City of granday [Music] each oh y I thought you fancy s arrived from French thank you I'll get that changed any other questions or discussion I I I do um I want to recognize the concerns too just about um the the burden on staff and for compliance checks and also we don't quite know what's all going to be um involved and so um I am rolling around the idea of lowering that to to try to better understand that um jumping right in I haven't [Music] heard um I haven't heard that it's going to be over the top out we're not going to be able to handle this uh and and I do think there's going to be enough visibility probably um with the the businesses that are licensed that uh anyone trying to pull something I don't think will be uh that won't go well um so so kind of weighing the the burden versus the the reality of of out of compliance but just thinking about that too I wanted to add um I did have an opportunity to speak with establishments the 13 that we have in the county that are already selling low do edals and THC beverages about section four they're very comfortable with that and anticipated that it would be something additional they were thinking the state might have something additional but there have been no concerns about that and that's a good um thing I'd like to clarify just after public comment um I we do know how many businesses in are selling those lower potency products because they are required to register with the state the state publishes a map which um identifies where those businesses are um and we anticipate that there will be some additional regulations issued by the state in the future um this ordinance is going to fill a gap I guess um and here I uh there are other members of the committee here that I want to recogniz as helping out with this whole process um Tim Tim Nelson from Land Services not an official of the community of the committee but has helped in the subcommittee for drafting the ordinance um Chris hak is here and Grace grager is here both of them have been really helpful in the public engagement process and in coordinance drafting um and Rosio also from public health is here has been kind of a surrogate for Grace which you can see um and then of course Todd over there uh helped us with a lot of the public engagement too we really made it uh a big effort here to allow for the voices of the community to be heard on the canvas ordinance imagining that it might be um a divisive issue and an issue of concern so um I'm really proud of those efforts that we put in um regardless of the number of comments we received or the number of people who showed up we made space for them um I I just thought that was that was really important here um and chair I don't know if it's uh if you have time for or wish to allow for any comment of the committee members if they want to respond to question I was going to actually suggest that um members of the committee come forward and speak if they wish or respond to any comments or questions we can so if anybody would like to come for thank you [Music] Chris so coming forward is Chris H AC those of you that are unaware of um operates a store in luten general store and was a citizen member of uh thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about it um I was talking earlier um about the idea that you might be going too fast or we need to slow down um there are a lot of business people that have come to myself and Linda jerk as the executive director of the chamber Commerce interested in the possibility of starting a cannabis business and not just the retail side but also the cultivation the manufacturer wholesale delivery there are so many different license types and in reality the county can only limit retail registrations so we may still have cultivation we may still have a manufacturing business we may have a delivery business I doubt we'll have a wholesale business just based on it would be odd to CER a wholesale business in Cook County but um that being said we're only talking about retail on the retail side the 14 businesses may seem like a large number however when you look at all of the other barriers to entry in this um in this type of business there are a lot when you look at your county as a whole the amount of um commercial real estate that's open and available to build on we all know the costs of building a business or a home or anything like that outside of grand Mar you have to add on a quar of a million dollars just for well and septic I mean there are significant barriers to entry to build something then you look at commercial rentals that are available there are not many if any commercial rental spaces available to operate a business so there are two barriers and then you look at the rules that have come out um from ocm about retail businesses and what they're going to require for security and for lighting and for um Inventory management um the ocm right now and their Draft rules is going to require daily inventory uploads to the State website so in order to track to the eighth of an ounce or half eth of an ounce or one yummy or and individual batch numbers there's a lot of Technology that's going to be required on a business owner to be able to manage those pieces um the cost just to build out those systems is high and then build out a space and where will that space be and then the inventory I mean it's not a cheap undertaking so the idea that there would be 14 local business owners or even those from out of the county that want to come in and start business here I don't see it happening the idea with the 14 when we were talking about it um and Linda Jer and myself brought that to the Cannabis committee was that it allowed for competition business competition in that um right now there's only a lot one liquor store allowed I myself if I wanted to sell um strong beer wine in my store would not be able to and so it allows for um variations I'm not I don't believe that there are going to be two retail dispensaries in each space um that is listed in that ordinance because competition allow and there isn't enough business for that but there might be a micro or mesal business as well as a retail operation and so we wanted to try and lot for that in our recommendation um and then um are there any other questions for me I guess I mean that there are a lot of moving pieces and I understand it's not an easy thing to say yes or no to this I believe that um as ocm comes out with more guidelines and updates their Draft rules until they have a final version um there will be changes but businesses need a chance to be able to start planning and start looking at whether it's even feasible to open this type of business in the space that they're looking at um and there will be significant time and money put out by any business owner that wants to do this and so the more time that anyone would have to plan and figure that out would be appreciative thank you so much commissioner W um so in your conversations with business owners are there upwards of more than seven people that or businesses that have expressed kind of serious interest in examining or or possibly proceeding um I know of I myself I've looked at it um for my property in Len I know that there are at least one or two other possible retail operations in Len that have commercial space that they're already operating some kind of business out of um and would be able to build out or retrofit their space so I mean there is interest whether anybody will continue on once they've read through the rules and see what's there I I do believe that there might be um more in gr Mar I haven't heard as many but I do know that there are three or four people that have come to talk to me about retail operations on the west end of all Beyond Myself um and they're all varying sizes too I mean one was hoping to have a small greenhouse and grow and sell that flour but then also um with the micro mzo retail endorsements I believe they can also buy from a wholesaler at which point then they would be able to grow and sell their product but then also sell other smaller pieces and paria and things like that and so there have been those businesses that have come for yes well great question well I guess that would not want to Welsh not aspirations but I would like to have our business owners have the opportunity to decide but then competition and the number of people that will the amount of product that will actually be sold will I would expect to be much more limited than if you were in say even duth or Minneapolis so competition will be fierce and they would have to figure out their investment would it be worth taking that chance absolutely um but you also have to look at that the seasonality of the NorthShore is starting to go away in some ways we still have our shoulder seasons of April and November but with at events and other um weather pieces and environmental pieces that have come into play in the recent years um those shoulder seasons are getting smaller and smaller so it's not as much of a seasonal area as it used to be um that being said they're still winter and they're still summer um but those two seasons we see a million and a half visitors a year and so that million and a half visitors a year on top of local residents um do keep seven liquor stores open year round and there is call for additional because we have seven liquor stores full liquor stores we have a total of is it six or seven other businesses that sell 32 beer because Minnesota is still a 32 uh beer State and we're the last one but there the liquor ordinates in and on itself there are seven full liquor stes yes but there are still seven other businesses that sell 32 beer and there's Voyager brewing and there's nure Winery so that Li ordinance when you say it's only seven well actually it's closer to 15 of varying sizes and varying degrees questions for Chris thank you again not not a not a question but just want to thank you for your work on the committee U for your perspective is extremely valuable and helpful um and um I just really appreciate your reasoning and and thoughtfulness and and your openness as well thank you um thank you again for allowing me to share my PE thank you so much we have Grace grer from public services Grace is served as well thank you for coming this morning yeah absolutely all right so I would say um I think kudos to the TR office for bringing together such a representative group of individuals from different parts of the county different um backgrounds around the issu um there are several Provisions in the draft ordinance that came directly from public health regarding the buffer zones around schools dayc carees parks with youth serving um attractions like a playground or an athletic field also some of the um advertising and product placement pieces both for the low potency uh TC um hemp derived THC beverages that are in the community and the adal so those are some of the pieces that public health provided direct input on um with regards to the compliance checks this is also something that we need to establish we frankly have needed to establish it since before the pandemic not for tobacco retailers it's also in our tobacco ordinance um so my plan in terms of compliance checks is going to be using the existing staff to do the work um I would appreciate starting at a lower level with the southern retailers just as we get our Fe on the ground and develop a good process um but I also understand the um point of view of the business community and having that competitive atmosphere from a staffing perspective and public health perspective I appreciate the approach of starting with a smaller number of licenses and then allowing for divisions to the ordinance over time as um as needed I suppose um the way that the compliance checks work is that we would work with law enforcement and we would also work with young people so the people doing the compliance checks are between the ages of 17 and 20 they enter a establishment and attempts to purchase the product and if they're able to do so then the business does not pass their compliance check and there's penalties written for that which you're going to have to read them off if I don't have them off the top of my head but that's how the compliance check generally Works um in terms of workload for staff and the public health Team I think some of the participation in the committee in an ongoing basis is really studying impact so um we have done some brainstorming and we'll continue to do so what is the data that we want to track track about the impact of adult use cannabis ization in Co County so some of those data points would be data from our emergency department from our Clinic regarding um visits related to Canabis use um it's all me identified data so there would be a perhaps a cross sector partnership with that with law enforcement and our Highway Department on impaired driving and other um you know reasons that someone might come in contact with law enforcement for get rela um reasons of tracking that piece also working with our schools to see if there are um athletes who so student athletes in high school have to abstain from using substances and if they do not do so then they there are penalties to participating in athletics so they already have that Data Tracking that data through the schools also through the Minnesota student survey which does track youth in the past 30 days Youth and also perception of harm or perception of harm of different substances will that perception of harm change after adult you Canabis is um has been legal over a longer period of time so those are some of the things that we're looking to track we also have um Ria REM us here and she's our youth prevention specialist she's going to be starting to do more work that we haven't done in the past and that we've been our team on substance and prevention with that young school age 10 to 24 population so um we'll have the capacity through rant funding to really dedicate more time to doing prevention that we did not have in the past and that's just sort of stand that's not TI to the Canabis legalization at all um we're also still uh awaiting what type of Grant funds will come through the state to our County to do public health education and Outreach specifically around canabus so that amount was lowered by about 2/3 in the last legislative session but that was funding that I had hoped and continue to plan to use to support staff do so happy to answer other questions from any questions just just this you know 714 you know fluctuation I really appreciate your input there and um and would be concerned if um your 14 was going to be too burdensome I do have a lot of confidence in you your your team and your processes and so um yeah it's hard to tell because you haven't done that yet so that's why I'm something say I I'd appreciate to start lower and then once we have an established process and a little more experience to consider expanding I do think it going to be impossible to go back and if we say a larg number and then we decide to go that that that's just not going to work commissioner St well we do say up to4 um [Music] 12 up to 12 why is 14 we decided 14 was going to be the max so we we um go ahead okay um 14 comes from two per Zone um and since we were kind of building our model off of the off sale liquor store licenses um those are one per Zone we went two per Zone because of what um Chris was describing where we wanted to um provide an opportunity to have at least one retailer and at least one meso or micro business with the retail endorsement in each Zone okay that's how we came up this that's how we did thanks for the direction well since we're not a full board I think we need to be a full board than we decid to pass this so my recommendation is that we don't do anything today until so we have full board so do you want to make motion the table yes I make a motion table okay then your turn second that I am all right any further [Music] discussion just as long as we're talking about this I wanted to reiterate where I've been at in the process starting with one that's kind of where I wanted to be and rationale again was corner of the market right if we wanted to do a mun everyone I've talked to whether there's support for mun or not doesn't want no competition right um so even if they support the M they don't necessarily think it should be only the Bea or one other one and so I'm I'm internal Iz in that feedback and and and then on board with that um and so then um after that I jumped on board with the 14 because I really appreciate that rationale and to have some flexibility um in my younger years I resented that we only had seven Liquor Stores [Music] um now I don't have a problem with it uh it's it's not that much of an inconvenience um and um but I also want to respect the idea of competition and flexibility for for the businesses so um just wanted to in case I haven't recently enough expressed my thoughts on that whole journey that's that's where that comes from I I think it's also wise and fair to have the full board to to talk about this more and and after attorney Hick's kind of timeline explanation um I feel a lot more comfortable waiting to decide on this for a while there it seemed like we had to get on this or else um so I appreciate that further insight and I really appreciate just the the community discussion that this ised and hoping that um we'll get more input as time goes on I would like to know a little bit more of what will it inail to modify the ordinance have to do first a first hearing right reading and another yeah for a significant Amendment after an from 7 to 14 would be significant right yes after yes um yep it's the same process and to an act so uh the Board needs to set a public hearing to consider the Amendments we need to publish the amendment um and allow for public comment public hearing and [Music] then discussion guess I would like to if we table this item to make sure that we are considering it at our meeting in two weeks because I don't feel it's fair to those people that are looking at starting a business to continue to make them wait um time is of the essence for them to get their things in order so um I hope we could put that on the agenda two weeks from to commission other technicality um is just about the public hearing I'm not sure that we closed that and do we want to maybe we don't we're tbling it and we can leave it open we were just talking about the timing you know if there need to be another hearing but would there be adequate time to consider that the next meeting or we have to wait SE so that's just [Music] another issue I'm sorry and it might be the case that we need another public hearing before we can pass an ordinance well if if we are significantly changing it from 14 to 7 that that would have to that would require another hearing even though we haven't passed anything I don't know the answer to that question and I wish I did and maybe that's not perfect okay I appreciate that that we most decided need to get out in front of the St whatever well and I I just think for our businesses we waiting we need to to make a decision and um I would stress that we need to make a decision right other discussion so we don't have a full board at the next meeting you should probably I'm going be willing to make a make the call them even if we don't have a it's only two weeks so back to the loc side of things it's still open right yeah it's open until the grateful for that I think it's good to continue to get input and feedback I just want to clarify that yes and we couldn't even if we weren't going to table it today we couldn't um pass the ordinance or or deny it before closing accurate okay thank you and one last thing I would just like to let the business Community know is I'm really out for a competition I mean I really want to help our business because they're here they're supporting our commun so just [Music] mean so we have a motion to table this till two weeks and a second anything further all in favor I I opposed motion carries stay all right um I was going to suggest we take a short break at this point in time and then when we come back we'll have an update on issues related to commissioner so we are returning now from a short break and we are on attorney item 6 b m okay [Music] next up is uh okay so I wanted to make sure Commissioners were aware of some um Court action that's been taken in the last couple of weeks related to um the race for District 4 commissioner um because I expect you uh may have been curious about what's going on with that issue or and or have gotten questions so um we just put some time on the agenda for me to talk about this so um our dear citizen Arvis Thompson had been um moved from one District to another through the redistricting process um in 2022 um or maybe she had stayed in one District but at any rate um because of population changes in the 2020 census in 2022 we needed to move District boundaries as the Commissioners are or of every single commissioner District in the county um the boundary between um District 1 and District 4 uh in one section became County Ro 14 on the East End of County um the map identified um a section of County Ro 14 as the even numbered addresses being in one district and the odd numbered addresses being in another District so um as is often the case once side of the road neighbors were in District Four and the other side of the road neighbors were in District One um that's the map that um this board approved after uh as part of redistricting in accordance to all of the rules so after public hearing and public comment and after publish um in 2022 then what happened is um and I'm going to ask Mr poers to interrupt correct me if I getting any of this wrong CU I'm just relying on my memory um the Statewide voter registration system is a System created by Statute um that the state is in charge of establishing and maintaining but which relies upon data that comes from the counties and part of that data is which addresses belong in which county districts um when the county gathered it data it to to um send into the state for the sbrs or Statewide photo registration system they used GIS mapping data um they layered Census Data with howy Road data um and created a set a data set which was then sent into the state um when proofing that data they missed an error um along Cony Ro 14 which made it appear in the list that um certain residents of Cony Road 14 uh were in District 4 when they were actually in districting in district one and a couple of those residents appeared to be in district one when they were actually in District 4 according to the map the map is the official districting um the list is what is often relied upon to reference um including when somebody applies to be on the ballot for a commissioner race auditor staff are looking at sdrc SS to you know check is this person in the district in which they're applying for candidacy um so when has Thompson applied for commissioner district for race which was open um auditor staff looked at the list and they said okay looks like you're in District 4 and accepted her application it was a couple weeks later that an error was discovered this error with SDS was discovered and unfortunately that came after the um period in which any candidate can withdraw their candidacy um and so then it became a question um well first of all Miss Thompson was immediately informed which was required the statute by the auditor um and auditor Powers explained to her um the consequences and the options um if she were to remain on the ballot and win the election she and she stayed in District where she currently lives she would actually be ineligible um to serve in that role um but she was not technically ineligible then nor is she Tech until a court action would should be technically ineligible until 30 days before the election because um I'm sure you've known from your research uh in whether you can be eligible for commissioner in your own District you have to have moved to that District or Liv in that District by 30 days before the general election that hasn't happened yet the general election is November 5th okay so that was one option the other option is um if Miss Thompson were to agree and say I'm not planning on moving I agree that I'll be an eligible for this um commissioner seat if I don't move um then the county could file a court action and ask for a court order determining her ineligible and opening up a vacancy um a vacancy in a nonpartisan office like County Commissioner if there's only one or two candidates who files um can then reopen the filing period to add a commissioner candidate or another candidate to that se and in the end after doing her own research and her own investigation and and looking at different options um that's what Miss toson did agree to us moving forward with a court action um I quickly Drew up a petition um which I filed in Brady's name um Brady signed an affidavit to go through all of facts that I just described to you um and we we served both Arvis Thompson and an Sullivan who was a party because she was also a candidate in District 4 um judge hanky heard that case um really quickly it got on the calendar um the hearing went smoothly and I want to thank uh profusely thank Arvis Thompson for her patience and apolog for the error that has indication um I think commissioner suan also for her patience and for appearing at that hearing on very short notice um the judge did um declare a vacancy um and then the filing period was reopened um and we had to get all of this done very quickly because ballots need to we need to start preparing ballots or the auditor's office does is it today tomorrow the official the calendar when they suggest yes process so that filing period was reopened as of Wednesday last week closes today closes today 5: PM did go ahead one candidate has five yes and so now there's there's time because there'll be a withdraw period so candidate or anybody else that comes in today changes their mind they still have two days to s in the reg filing period they and leave it as it is now but if it goes forward there's time now that candidate will be on the general election ballot so yeah so um the process worked there was another candidate who filed and um we all learned a lot about election this little part of it yeah um how did we come to light it was a neighbor uh that was close to AR who I'll back up a little bit because this this error on the section of roow affected everybody on that section of row everybody was reversed if they were AED in this district for some reason it revers them just in these two um not on the map but just in the paper documentation the G and so everybody that did vote were registered voters have been voting incorrectly in the 22 elections in the primary in the general and in the presidential primary District but there weren't any local candidates that anybody like aha these are generally State and kind wide issues around about and it wasn't until a neighbor noticed that his neighbor was filing in District 4 and wa say I think I'm District 4 even though he been getting a ballot but you have to look at the bottom you have to expect that there's a problem the bottom tells you appreciate you're in but if you don't have any reason to think there's issue look at so no one notice I tell because it was something close in person and call and ask and first check yep it's correct it's district for and went to the MCH because somebody asked well let's just go the map so that [Music] started the rest of the week sure this eror anywhere else and contacted AR first contacted G so we stand ready for your questions about that process my big concern is that we make sure that we have procedures in place so it doesn't happen again it's a very difficult situation and I appreciate that artist handled it so graciously and so patient thoughtful and um I just want to make sure we have a process in place where we double check these things that was discussed all during that week so uh J staff is immediately CL how we still know technically how happen is some tech system bues [Music] the future believe using a system like that and two um we will be double checking every line change with a map not just with the U paper instructions so we technically we actually make every change to every person on every line in our office and so those are actually typed into the state line system using this G prints and uh so what you can done with that you and you double check that um and you think it's the same information most but you know you will be double cheing Maps same each and every CH change years eight more years it's my understanding to a large part of this was the loop right like that's what who we think okay I mean that was it seems like it was something to do with this is get the reads mapping systems left and right because start this Ro hit a major Highway 61 both and the West End you have the system has to know we're starting from here we're going this way so left means this right me that it's different start there and we think potentially when it to this area it's the same on both sides of the road and we get then suddenly it's two sides um we think there's something in there that oh uh think starting over here something like that had it [Music] revers and some little small areas G is not because you're using sper census blocks use that and the census blocks don't match in this even in the mapping data completely different they sure you got bubble over here a bubble over there a bubble here a bubble there and so we went through even as a committee saying let's fix this Bo let's put that where it belongs because it's showing up on that side of it really belongs as that District that District things like that so we're trying to fix that g we did for staff they came in later and fix more [Music] and having a system totally and so I think that's what you're work on to have a system that when we're looking at it it's going to line up [Music] exactly that's the plan G side plan on our side is you look at the maps and anywhere to changes both sides should yeah I was just trying to think of other preventative measures um and identifying the loop potential issue so maybe that isn't part of count 48 or there's other groups that we can you know just be a winner of when we do we dist secretary St office remember they but there get remember want I think we're also hoping to do some census block work um for the next redistricting too right wasn't that because isn't there something we can do especially when we get into the more densely populated areas to be able to have more Poss in the federal census block itself make more sense yeah my memory was you saying it's it's quite a Cress and it be more appropriate the next the district thing and we' have to do a lot of preparation for that but I know a lot of our commissioner Johnson and I challeng with the redistrict and mapping had to do with those blocks and say like INR when it's much more highly densely populated or other areas too just because they're odd shapes and and often times odd numbers that make it very difficult to make things make sense that's eight years against the road I just want to make sure we're thinking about it and trying to plan for it as best we can reminds me of Google Maps for you are going down the road that they say you have a map right Road and is like oops the end so appreciate all your work on that plenty of the questions or comments for Grady or all right now we will move on to item C which is dispute of our work in the tennis courts and for this um we need to move into a closed session authorized by 13d subdivision 3B for attorney Cent privileged MERS and is there a motion to move into close session thank you commissioner sterley is there support all in favor oppose motion carries very to close session so we have returned from our closed session and we are um right at this point on attorney item D which is to consider an approve an amendment to insurance requirements in the Flint loock shooting range Le attorney um thank you chair I I don't need know that I need to make a bunch of comments about this you've heard from um Justin rexroad of the flintlock range Association he um accurately described the issue and the reason I am recommending that the board lower it to 1 million lower the insurance um coverage minimum to a million dollars per occurrence uh is because under Minnesota statute municipalities tort limit um tort claim limits are are um down at a million dollars already when uh they relate to if the claim involves a nonprofit organization engaged in or administering outdoor recreational activities funded in whole or in part by municipality or operating under the authorization of a permit issued by a municipality so if you recall this um shooting range which definitely follows in the um definition of outdoor recreational activities is taking place on land owned by the county um by uh use of a lease so I do believe we qualify under that little exception for T limits um so there is virtually no risk to the count in lowering um the amount and it's going to make um this a um the range of possibility whereas otherwise it would be class any questions for jne if not is there a motion thank you commissioner is there support thank you commissioner start motion and support to Insurance requirement for flight block range Association from 1,500,000 per currence to 1 million which is consistent with statutory tours any further discussion all in favor I motion carries auditor Powers thank you madam chair these will be the two shortest agenda items of the day thank you so first is pretty standard uh canvas board membership for elections got a primary election happening today and canvas board I scheduled it for Thursday August 15th at 10: a.m. we have you Thursday or Friday you can change that today if you wanted to so and the commission is going to Canvas the results of the 2024 State primary election so it has to be canvas which means review and certifi the results and the canvas board consists of the administrator the county auditor the mayor of our most pop in City uh and two members of the County board members who are not candidates at this particular election and uh so you're all eligible but commissioner solivan is a candidate in the general election and is it all [Music] possible not be chosen for this so any member so the board can select one or two the three of you to attend the canas or design and in the absence of that County aor select members of the or not candidates for office those are the options and the same thing the court administrator can appear or designate someone well I'd like to recommend that we um not consider commissioner Johnson at this time because personal situation um so of the three remaining Commissioners willing to serve on Thursday a um I was I'm not available I'm very comfortable having the auditor's office as a delate commission W or commissioner St I un comfortable with the aitor office selecting somebody can't get to I think I have something i' have to reer a couple so suggestion thank you just to know that three members of the candas board is cor Corum yes so um yeah that'll be fine okay thank you right we'll move on to Item B which is State payment and mo tax 2024 and so this this is information you're already aware of because you talked about it when the the law was passed it was it was for to 2024 and so now we're seeing the results we just got paid for the 2024 L total amount is 5769 31 a year ago prior to this legislative change we received 43043 so this is the the changes that were primarily was the change in the dollars per acre of the natural resources land to3 so 50% higher and then um there was another change for total acreage and we fit under one of the categories so you take our total acreage of all the various descriptions and we get 8 cents on our total aage of 145,000 so in addition we get this 11,619 under that category um there's some options for how it breaks out and most of it is clearly for um for Ling relief and the the only one that is not an option or I should say is an option is there's a little bit $2,771 of County ad minur other acor can go to Parks or can go Rel I'm here I assume you want it all for 11 relief in which case 53100 is in our budget this year for ly relief and then 35,000 goes to Resource development Parks Trails Etc and then the other 10,505 is for the town's goodest small Park and school $22.7 and uh I'll mention this you know that what pushed that through was really a bipart effort in our state center hille and uh Mard they championed this uh at the AMC meetings and there were nine authors on the house side I mean 11 I'm sorry not n 11 with rer and Natalie zard were authors on that side and on the Senate side minority I District Six and Senator FS District s here also authors five authors of the support really good news for us as well as a number of other counties and our work together and in particular our work at AMC is so important so this is just thank you for sharing some [Music] good any other questions or comments right we'll move on to item eight administrator right thank you madam chair so first item um under my section is the um proposal to change the reporter's position from elected to appointed this was something that uh we discussed at the July 23rd meeting um at that time you approved publication a resolution affecting this change um and I I should say I don't recall did we so I haven't received any public comments on this and I don't know if we need to um where we are and actually collecting those comments do we have to have like a hearing on this you have to provide an opportunity for public comment before the so I mean it has been published that people are aware of it um and so anyway the one thing to note about the the attached resolution um as it says cover sheet um it has been amended to remove um Holly's name from uh from the original version so it basically just says that um you know in in the lead of Toy's uh retirement that we would be going through a regular recruitment process to select or to recruit candidates and then have a review process and candidates for so are there questions about the resolution or the proposal to convert the position to well based on my research and looking at data from AMC and talking counties um and just looking at the job discreption that's required that me it's a very appropriate way the to reevaluate um so uh we've had time for public comment and we're allowed to um to make a motion this um it it would be my advice um chair that you just make a call for public comment right now in this room uh make a record as to whe anyone St forward to provide public com before the motion so at this time are there any members of the public that wish to comment on this see or hearing none no can the motion I'd like to make a motion to um U pass the the resolution modifies the kind oford position from elected position to an appointed position thank you commissioner is there support thank you commissioner St we have a motion and support any further discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries thank you board um item 8B is the memorandum agreement with the University of Minnesota extension program um this uh this MLA is something that was presented to the board at the committee the meeting back in June and the main feature of it is after holding cost constant per the period of the last M there was a proposal to increase the cost uh to $100,000 annually starting in 2025 and then there's a 3% C later for the two subsequent years um and I'll just say I mean having worked with with and the extension team over the last several years I I feel that this is really working well for the county it's given us access to extension resources that previous St we didn't really have direct access to and um I would just like what I heard earlier in the meeting in terms of the uh level at which Sarah is doing this job she is really um hting on all Cinders and doing festic job both as exension educator and Center Director um she's done a lot of good work to to kind of update processes and to um kind of formalize I me they developed a community center board has developed a strategic plan for the community center and Sarah has really taken a good look at all the aspects of that job and organized things prioritize things and look for ways to make sure that the resources that we allocated to to the work that she does um for being bu in the best possible way so um just want to publicly give my thanks to to Sarah for the great work that she's doing again I think this this MOA serves the County's needs very well and recommend the board M anything you want to share since you sit on there yes I have for the last 10 years so I'll give a little background my experience with the County Extension which been here over 60 some years and started off as the county agent and then title changes happen all the time so now they're the extension um I think transitions are hard and I think was presented to us 3 years ago we were looking at oh my gosh U what are we going to do you know we have someone who retired I am both and um we have some uh opportunity to look at this all in a new light and I'm just going to cut to the chase um I think today is not the day to recommend it um I would like commissioner Johnson to be a part of this because she's also on the board with me and I've always had an issue with two people being on the board it's a state legislator thing and I'll just take care of that later at some session because as we all do in our counties we have someone who is designated to go to a meeting and then we have back up on that and I think that's more than that but anyway I sat through all of this with Brady and all of that with two people okay that's another issue but I'm hearing um from folks in the community who feel and I'm just going to say this statement right now that the university has taken us over and um I think Sarah's done a stellar job I think she's risen to complete what has been asked of her to do but I feel that every meeting that I go to she doesn't make an agenda the university does when we have meetings it's always the university and then we'll get down to Sarah's report Sarah is the one who's the educator here and I feel that um we need to re look at this we have till the end of the year to decide if we're going to r or not and I'd like to know the implications of if we don't what happens I'd like to look at more Community comments because I am getting them from past board members we don't even have a quum this last meeting we have the secretary to so that we can have a quum we have three vacancies nobody's standing and I mean that's across the board with a lot of other things not just this the interest and what has happened to um our little Cook County um extension group is puzzled it's very puzzled um I think we are the only one in the whole state of Minnesota that has a community center along with running an extension B you know coordination so um I would just ask for your support and um waiting till commissioner Johnson would have a chance to U give her opinion on this and moving out to either the end of this month or beginning part of September coms oh yeah um well so um I wish we would have talk more about some of your concerns at the work session when when extension was here presenting um I hadn't heard any concerns um until some emails from Member grp Drive who also spoke today um which I found confusing because um the opening statement was all this is factual and true and the very next statement was false and so that's taken back um administer did not make this decision we as a board made this decision um and um my understanding is that until we are part of the mou we were the only county in the state that was T um and and for good reasons and we had our system and it worked well when Dian was retired we looked at this and with with the University of extension in their resources to find candidates and to interview candidates and to go through that whole process and the feedback I've been getting food project and members of the public at large is that we've got a great thing going we want to keep going with it um I'm not sure that the mou has anything to do with I'm sorry the m has anything to do with with um board attendance or or vacancies um I think that might just be our demographic you know it's like you said it's it's challenging to to get enough people to fill all these seats and the statutory requirements is a whole another next level that you mention I am I I can be okay with um tbling this until commissioner Johnson has has um is is with us as well it's just that I from a work session I didn't gather um any real concerns the biggest concern is just the cost increase which that's just happening because of health insurance basically and and the cost of living increase so um as far as the the meat of it or the structure of it I don't I don't um I don't know that there'd be any um improvements to to the agreement but um but I guess I'm I'm just kind a little off guard with um with the RO of the M have other I've had only um other than the the public comment today and the email we got from that particular citizen I've only had positive comments um from the Northwood Foods project from people that are actually going out to the orchard that are working on Fridays doing weeding and mulching and those types of things um I see that the facility is very well used and there's great organization around the use of that facility I mean it's used seven days a week um all year long um and one of the things I see as a real plus that has happened um since we made this change is that we are able to get Resources with the University of Minnesota but there's a tremendous amount of collaboration and as an example I'll just take the fact that we have worked with firewise we have worked with the University of Minnesota extension and Emergency Management to bring um workshops and trainings and videotape them at Hami higher that had not been done before and we're getting out to a tremendous number of members of our community who don't even come to the community center um I pulled um as actually Kelsey Kennedy to pull some data and one of the sessions we ran this spring 252 people went online and looked at the program um so the Outreach is incredible um so I am just very supportive um I have have not had um you know the same I guess questions that we've had commissioner commissioner white and I've had number phone before this no right after our committee of the poll before them taking it all in and then I got some phone calls about people being unhappy with Sarah's lack of knowledge on different things uh regards to plants and C by three different Community people part of it I think is because Diane Bo was in over ACH and she had a lot big shoes to fill she would say oh yes this is and she give you the Latin name for it but I think that might be part of it and it might be in one instance it might be a personality uh fairly the social person very nice but doesn't interact socially very well but had a relationship with Diane over the years was just not hitting it with Sarah at this point uh so what we are getting now could we not have tapped into the university resources before like you know the collaboration with them fire wise and I mean just all these different things those those are things that s hasn't aied it okay okay and so if if we did not have the contract with the university we would not have those resources for example um let's go to the welfare Readiness program that was put on she brought things from the University of Minnesota about how to do household inventories prior to fire insurance purposes contact information if you evacuate things that we did not have in place and so she in the University of Minnesota brought those to usion and you commissioner point about why it wasn't something brought up the I felt that I needed to care have her say I didn't want to challenge anything or say because she's new at this as a regional director she lives in FL and she's new at all putting all of this together so I went her on the stage sure and it was only after that that I was receiving so and that's not to say that um there wouldn't be opportunities for for Sarah to still continue getting University Minnesota programs we can all do that you know we can all do our own insect or whatever anybody knew who was stepping in and unfortunately there were circumstances that she did not have the training so therefore she was sent into an office of oh my gosh what am I going to do and she sorted through all that I give her credit for all of that that she sorted through so if a new bug comes up Diane would research it and then sure Sarah would research it too so that isn't the point right it's the point of as one person said it's like a conglomerate coming in and taking over and so they're seeing it as a not and so that's you know that's only saying that's what the perception is so that's where we are administrator that that perception was completely contrary to my 3 years of experience working with the extension program staff um from the beginning of our conversations about whether we should enter into an Mo MOA with with the U they have worked with us in a very collaborative and they have worked to make sure that this agreement reflects the unique needs of County we are the only County that has a an extension position married to a community center director position and I have to say Sarah chur and k k everybody from that office they have been great to work with and I don't see any effort to take over C count I think they have been really working in in a way to try to work with us and make sure that our needs are met and I think they've done a great job of that so I think that's a real position yeah we're such an independent community but I feel that um sometimes when there's collaborations it might not jive with the independence and and and so it it might feel like a takeover but really it's more of a collab more of a collaboration instead of exclusively Independence so I could I could see where that people might be feeling a little cramped or or and that the agenda Point too was pretty interesting well then I would like to say Sarah's credit since I've been walking around the architect and I've Community Center and I've been at the same table as her I have found her uh participation her Insight her thoughtfulness and just what ideas like well you know just working with the Architects and knowing the community center I was in my surpris I mean I don't know surpris the right word I just didn't know what to expect it was on the same it was on a good caliber of person that developed that are so I felt very good about that part she is very capable and if she doesn't know something she learns about it and like you said commissioner St I mean you know I'm sure Diane was in that position many times in the course of her career where she got to learn new information so and I an excellent job of getting up to speak like like you said she came into fill some big shoes how long has she been here she's been here now three years well and this isn't about Sarah or the position right this is just about yeah this is about our collaboration and um it was interesting during the interview process because before we interviewed we were discussing about this and um and at the time my memory and please correct me was that extension of saying yeah sorry you kind of have to do this so we're not going to actually extend these resources as you know as as you won't have as full access as we give to those who are we have an um well I mean otherwise what's the point of an MOA if we don't need an MOA why would we have an MOA you know it's it's because they're offering we have more access because of the otherwise what is the point right like that was the point of the M or tracking well it's for data collection in completing knowing what what resources or how the extension and county is being I I don't know I mean I I I don't know but I'm as a taxpayer you me to say that the Minnesota extension will give me some information oh no sure it will but it won not to our or it won't be like the same resource where they handle uh but just the um just this the sheer uh support staff that Sarah has um within extension just the HR just the interview process and then there's the whole knowledge base there are aspects of extension that Diane didn't mean into as much um and I'm really hoping I think s is already doing it but I'm really hoping we can lean in more on particularly with family services and um it's not it's not all a is is what I learned through that process and before extension was a but that's that's that's only a small part of it small part but for each was the big deal attended all of the meetings at the um AMC that there's going to be another one the end of this month which uh is um really something that I've always always enjoyed is that we meet during State Fair and have our meeting at a resource place and then we get on the bus and go over to the 4 building which was part of 4 for many years so that was a big deal but many when I first started being on the board 10 years ago going to those meetings it was forage farming suicide of farmers and agult it has really grown now and I see you know a whole new set of guidelines and things that are more appropriate to other counties it's still agriculture well given our discussion um we could go one of two ways we can take a list till commissioner sterley comes back or or we can a motion thank you long thank you um commissioner Johnson returns or we can um move forward with with a vote today but we need a motion I make motion to table it for until the next meeting um and should um commissioner Johnson not be able to attend that probably have enough information her Insight would be interesting I mean i' like to know how she's feeling about the feeling like it's being or being driven from the outside not just what you said just about it's a change and I you know I stand on that for really really long time ago when my kids were like in middle school so that's a long time so uh and should should commissioner Johnson not be able to we should to the vote because I don't think there's a lot of danger well yeah I was frankly surprised to hear the con the level of concerns that commissioner Starley was sharing um and so maybe commissioner Johnson has there too so I would like to hear about that so we have a motion to table till our next meeting is support thank you commissioner we have a motion and support any other discussion um do you see any problem with tbling it [Music] until all right all in favor ition carries right a few things under updates and I know I'm standing between you and lunch so make it pretty brief um just wanted to to let you know that we're well into the master planning process with bkb for the um at the courthouse and then also potential the community center um we have already seen some preliminary ideas about how this courtroom and adjacent spaces could be modified to address some of the security issues that currently face um bkb is looking at a creating a sally port that would enable um the Sheriff's Office to bring inmates for for hearings and and basically uh securely get them out of the vehicle they would have their own dedicated hallway and entry into the building so that no longer would we have um people in custody and and other people who are part of the Court proceedings so that would eliminate that security risk and we we'll have a lot more information at a future meeting about how how that would be accomplished there's also um a proposal to create a um secure entry uh where we would use some of the space in the assessor's office I'm probably going to go to much detail here because to describe everything um is is not going to to work in the amount of time that we have but sufficing to say they are looking at um some of the key issues one one thing about the courthouse or the courtroom rather um the space is small the bkb did contact the State historic preservation office preliminary signals are that we could modify the Interior Space to make uh this cour room larger maybe move into the county attorney's space current space to create a gallery back there and there we got some space in here for proceedings um so there are a lot of moving parts and what I'm describing is very preliminary um and subject to revision um the other the other thing we looking at is creating in new office space over at the community center this would be a building basically behind the community center that would create new offices likely for services and I would open up the other side of this building then for County attorneys offices Fort Administration and probation um we would also be addressing the Stace of deficit with soil and water which as you know we have people now cran into a space for basically to so a lot of good work going on there um again I continue to be really pleased with the way that BV is conducting this process they L the with at all um and they you the input that they receive from State holders is reflected in the designs that they're that they're proposing um and I would invite commissioner white she's been part of this process if we' like to add experience in our most recent conversations they continue to be 180 degrees different than management probably says of all they're or management remember that group from way back when anyway um I continue to feel good about their their efforts to help us get what we think we need and sometimes we don't know what we need but you can kind of explain that you should really think about this especially with the safety issues so I think it's a good choice and I actually don't tell them that I think did this job this time what we're paying for all of this I think the bount what we're getting from that is oh definitely very high yes yes and I do know that at some point they're actually going to probably it might end up just being a conversation with Council trying to that they're willing to go up and and talk to somebody about how could we do some cultural softening or additions to these additions and they just to Henry is ready to go so and thank you for facilitating um so um other things just wanted to I did talk talk with Henry Bitner from dkb about the status of the proposal to or the proposal for the addition to the lcal services he said they are working on that they don't have it ready yet to us very soon so that is in process and then the last thing I wanted to mention um we did have a first round interviews for the facilities director yesterday and I Happ to report have some really solar candidates it's going to be difficult selection process um and so we're kind of wrapping up trying to figure out who we bring back but again strong can was very knowledgeable and excited about our prospects for doing something really aming who sits on the on the interview the first round interviews it was me and Rowan Watkins and Alexon McIntyre and then the second round with the gr involved staff and probably a commissioner I you be involved yes that's a little right to have the outo I mean it is a different position it is not you're right that is not the usual practice um I can see value in doing there oh yeah um for [Music] sure TR think there would be any combats um well I think because the position is different that there aren't the drawbacks that you would have in a typical situation I should probably ask is there a commissioner would like to be part of that next of interviews anyse I would also be happy to but I'm very happy to I'm happy with the the committee feel the if you wanted more [Music] participation um so that's that's it I me there's a lot of other stuffs sring around those are all right uh commissioner updates commissioner stle one interesting um attendance I had was at the C County board of directors Vis County and Andrew was there to give a presentation and um he made a numbers here right now for vbos we have 366 of which 72 are self managed that's like within resorts um we have 340 that are licensed and 25 that are unlicensed which they working with um he had a wonderful map with little dots where they all are but it's not ready for public release yet but soon yeah will be soon yeah so that's my one really fun and important commissioner W um I guess the most exciting one exciting um the NorthShore no no the northern count land for grand rabits um they uh are very well the invitation has been extended from Grand page for them grandage want suppos to be and they are in agreement they really want come and it seems that they really know Bobby from his time as a commissioner and they're looking forward to to doing that Margaret Watkins uh attended uh last time and she was very clear that difference between uh reservation oversight by the federal government and counties are overseen by states that there's a real difference especially I mean even with water I mean with everything and so she was there and she actually had one of the D's lawyers with her it it was just for information it was it was not I mean it was very good it's not confrontational it's just an educational opportunities and this was at the group's request many times many months ago and they finally had a chance to get to get it was good it was very good commission well I'm sorry to share that Teresa um will be leaving as director OFA um we accepted her resignation at a special meeting yesterday so um starting that search again in the meanwhile we're hoping to hire our H director as interim director for Eda and um and then also is willing to do work to help support in meanwhile during the transition but it'll need more as contract so um not not happy with that I know there's a lot of ins outs and it wasn't an easy decision for T whatever um I did ask if there to steal do sound like it actually she's done a lot oh my gosh yes I yeah I I said my only complaint is setting the bar so high because there's a lot of huge things har course it's there's just a lot of professionalism and formality that's that's been injected and um and it will continue um but it's it's just expectations are s pretty high but so so the World Turns um do we have the concern that Jason will be over that was the whole point of having to we do we do certainly have that concern and basically it's going to be keeping the lights on situation we have grants that we do not L and we have projects that need to stay relevant and moving forward but um you it's just kind of tre water Jason director Hill has plenty on his point so there is that concern and and we talked about that and then that's that's kind of inter contract conversation came from this there so she did get four weeks um is very nice but now we're down fews sobly didn't officially accept it until I have question you represent us um I have a personal concern or personal request that I believe on the 20th in the afternoon into meeting and will be a zoom it's in the commissioner's room it's in the commissioner's room I believe believe at the last meeting we finally got the tech workout because it's not a county it's not a county War um there's Chan that's really helpful hopefully uh we got things worked out there um but to be honest I don't frankly don't um just we where sad recorded and all that stuff I didn't go back and Rec so my question then leads to the reason that I'm interested in that there will be rep from the I we have a quum so I yeah generally commissioner Johnson is there I don't know if Johnson will be there but I do recognize the importance of of the report and the discussion and the report will be available if we're not making I'll have to find that out and and as commissioner Sal said the report is already available so you can have that it's just the presentation and the conversation and I think that's going to be a really important discussion [Music] [Music] that's um let's see I had it the S swcd meeting where we primarily review the budget that El brought us today um we got our two Town Halls our um public hearings and spent a lot of time visiting with people just chatting about canas and learning about what our community needs and wants um had a County Coalition of Lake Association meeting and what was fascinating is um they have always had three subcommittees aquatic invasive species septic and get the out and they have added the fourth subcommittee surface water and so there are a group of um Lakes I believe all three um are up the D trail that are considering some type of surface water ordinance and so they have formed that sub committe administrator might call them um but at the meeting um I know K Lake was willing to share their big F not notebook we all remember looking at that and all of the data um but anyway that is a new sub for call and um then on Saturday I went to the seagull say Property Owners Association at the end of the G Trail um and we talked a lot about what Mike Valentini had done for the Gant Trail fire department um he has his house up for SE on is moving those are going to be some big shoes to fill um they talked about the progress they had made as a volunteer fire department and just how much they appreciated all of his work so I wanted to publicly recognize that work he's not gone yet and everybody's hoping no one will look at his house and sell be but um anyway it's a very very good event we also looked at vacation mental data um for that end of the trail and what will be very nice for people throughout the county is they'll be able to look online and go live pretty quickly um at vacation rentals in their neighborhood and see the property ID and they can see the unlicensed ones too um it was interesting that um back when I did the track L um presentation so that would have been in June that they could see where those two unlicensed ones were located and it helps people if if there's concerns or issues to to know what's going on in a property so with that that will be all of my meetings um we have a lot of meetings coming up correspondents with our tax comparisons made through and then recognition of staff so Alissa Sasa two years with us Andrea orus with phhs three years and Josh dicks and Robbie G both four years with the highway department and then Milestone anniversary for five years with job backer also so we thank you for all your good work contributions to our and with that is there a motion to adour is there support support motion support all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you all very much for your flexibility [Music]