##VIDEO ID:13bEuHRHkWc## Mr chair we are live Mr CH we are live we are live oh okay good I wasn't true yet we're live [Music] [Music] we're live good good it's uh 9:01 on my clock and so let's get the uh Crowing County Committee of the whole meeting to order um first we have uh the Minnesota Intercounty Association Matt and I think Nancy coming up to update us on what Mike is up to the yeah good morning Commissioners I appreciate that it is easier to work from the seated position and a table in front of me so uh good morning again Matt Mossman executive director of the Minnesota Intercounty Association um with me is Nancy celeski um you're familiar with both of us first of all Mr chair and Commissioners appreciate um C County's continued uh membership in the interner count Association uh we really uh uh welcome and appreciate the opportunity to get out and visit you all in person I am always you have a beautiful as you all know uh courthouse and building here um having uh had the the lifetime opportunity to lead the restoration of the Minnesota state capital years ago I'm always reminded um and love the Tennessee marble that is the same here as in the capital along with um other elements so a lot of history uh to Minnesota um want to just start off by thanking uh commissioner barels and commissioner fransen for your membership and participation on the the Micah Board of directors which is who sets our um policy and direction for the work we all do on your behalf at the at the state capital for our 15 member counties we have a presentation for you today we can go to the second slide we typically as you know um do a post session review of what happened in the legislative session um it just so happens that this year with some scheduling and rescheduling we are uh later in the season than we sometimes get out here so we are going to do a bit more dancing um in this presentation cuz we are very clearly thinking about 2025 um more than we're thinking about 2024 but in many cases um the conversation also ties together so just at a very high level um the 2024 legislature um had significant onetime upfront money on the on that's the chart you see on on the screen had significant one-time resources available to them but there were're concern as highlighted in the orange um charts in the in the tals um that there was some structural imbalance in the tales and that led leaders and the legislature to really sort of uh uh minimize expectations for what sort of permanent changes could be made um in the 24 session and so in the end of the day the legislature made about 4 $424 million of new um changes for from a budget standpoint uh in the 2425 budget and fully 25% of that most of that was one time fully 25% of that was the much needed $109 million um for the Tyler uh settlement again not money that went to counties but money that was needed so that uh the the settlement of this uh of the US Supreme Court case um finding Minnesota's tax forfeited uh uh land for non-payment of property taxes to be partly unconstitutional so that that didn't fall on County taxpayers to solve um obviously a state law and so in the end of the day I'm going to talk more about this slide at the end um those were the changes I'm going to just if we go to the next slide uh that Tyler uh settlement um fund both funding and policy was a huge part of the uh combined effort of County uh organizations including Micah at the capital and as you know there was both um uh the funding uh support but also um a lot of work around something that is very legally complex um to uh put in place a new um uh policy approach to how uh uh property tax forfeitures will happen for nonpayment of tax and of course just as a reminder for those who might be listening this is in Minnesota something that happens after a multi-year long process three years where counties work very diligently to help make sure Property Owners um have the opportunity to um pay taxes to uh address um those non-payment tax issues and and um uh continue ownership in the property um when that doesn't happen now the law will require um that there must be a sale of the property um and that that sale will then be used with the with a few uh minor exceptions um but that that sale of the property will then uh set the value in effect and that value will be compared to um the the fees and penalties and past unpaid uh taxes and if the value of the sale is above that amount referred to as a surplus um there will be a claims process then that will be in place for either the property owner or other interests in the property who have claims um uh to uh to to get uh resources back from that sale not everything got addressed in this issue in in in solving this um you all know that quite often these properties have um are in the the the properties that end up in um the County's hands as a result of this uh uh tax forfeiture uh system are often times have contamination issues uh demolition needs significant uh cleanup costs there's a reason often times that they're being let go um and that the taxes aren't being paid and in the properties fall back uh to the county uh to deal with so this is that's something that we most certainly will'll want to look at supporting returning to the legislature this session the good news is that it got a lot of airtime last year a lot more understanding a lot broader of understanding that it's an issue for counties and so we're hoping to revisit that if we move to the next issue this is where I'm really um want to transition to what we have been hearing from Member counties and I just welcome your feedback today either in this setting or to uh follow up with us later or pull us aside after our presentation this chart um was a chart that of all things that were being considered last session that didn't happen but it also very conveniently converts to a chart of things that are continued uh to be in interest for this upcoming session I don't have to tell all of you that there's a lot of upward pressure on uh property tax level and costs uh for County governments and local governments across the state both um uh uh Workforce issues um salary and compensation adjustments and also expectations um that have been uh growing with policy changes that the state has uh adopted in the last couple of years um and we want to uh make sure what we've been hearing is that there's an important need to revisit with the legislature what's driving some of those um those uh those Levy issues and just the general need to continue to be supportive of County uh program Aid in the state fiscal partnership a ton of the work that counties do is work on behalf of implementing um state laws and requirements and so we are hearing that County program Aid um continues to be an important um uh need that program was started in 2004 um but that's also when the legislature stopped annually inflating um that amount so just to give a little bit of an example and my numbers will be a little bit rough here but I did an analysis and provided it to the member counties a couple of months ago um there's about 55 counties that are going to get less County program made in 2025 than they got in 2024 and a lot of that has to do with the fact that when the when the appropriation stays flat and doesn't grow with inflation and the and the costs of government the the formula parameters have an outsized impact on that distribution if you just kept the appropriation um consistent with the value of it um adjusted for inflation about five counties um would get less in 25 than they did in 24 and that is more reflective of sort of the year-to-year transition of the formula parameters um so really important to want to revisit with the legislature uh keeping um that uh appropriation level uh holding its value to protect the the great work that the legislature did in 2023 which was an a largest increase ever in County program Aid at 80 uh $80 million so local uh sales tax um for cities and counties last year the both the house and the senate had separate proposals to um uh allow counties and cities to impose uh a limited local sales tax for a defined set of uh uh capital investment um projects that are typically done by either cities or counties um that legislation um there were differences between the house and the Senate that legislation did not uh make it over the Finish Line last year um in the absence of that as you know historically because of limitations with the property tax and limitations in um local government Aid the the uh access to the sales taxes become more and more a conversation over the last 20 years for local governments um but absent the transportation tax opportunity local governments can only access the sales tax by going to the state legislature getting special law authority to do so this would create General law Authority and we're anticipating this to be uh an issue next legislative session as well in fact there's a meeting coming up tomorrow there's that I'll be attending there's been some interim meeting means um with the tax shares having conversations around uh what this uh legislation would look like and so we really want to protect the important need for County projects like Public Safety facilities like libraries Parks Trails the things that counties do you do fewer of the swimming pools and community centers and things like that and really want to protect that Counties have a uh a meaningful opportunity uh to use this uh local Authority if it is put in place for the work that counties do construction materials on sales tax will continue to be an issue in the tax bill for us as well uh local governments pay roughly $80 million a year the estimate might come in higher now in sales tax that you pay um to the state um a lot of times that's bonding projects that you might be doing uh construction on so you're collecting tax to pay tax um and it's just something that has been uh broadly supported by local government govern to make a change um by labor by the construction industry um but it also um has a hard time getting politically over the finish line and we want to continue working on that so let me pause there there are a number of other new local Aid programs um uh increasing score dollars to count uh County governments generally is in the tax bill so that is the area where that is the bill uh in policy area where we really look for what is that St fiscal partnership and how can um the state continue uh to to step up to supporting the work that counties do and do often times at the direction of of state government so I guess I've got a question on this the sales tax so there's there's people that want to propose that um cities and other municipalities can do like the County Board has been given the authority on the half a cent sales tax for roads is that kind of what it is is that what they're proposing yeah Mr chair and commissioner Corin the The Proposal last year the the rough outline of the proposal was that cities and or counties so cities and counties could impose um by a vote of the County board but they would still have to be a vot a referendum so you would still have to then have a referendum locally to impose a Sal tax for what would be a defined set of capital projects in the statute so for uh it included things like um well this is partly where the House and Senate were different but it included things like community centers swimming pools recreational facilities parks and trails um one point of difference between the house and the Senate was for counties it's really important for counties um want to H be able to have Public Safety judicial facilities um uh criminal justice facilities on that list um there's some difference between the house and the Senate on that and then it was capped at one 1% so the maximum that any County or that any City could impose was 1% um really important um also that we've prioritized is that the that the transportation half cent would count against that 1% cap but it would not require the voter approval or referendum so the Authority for the county to do that would remain um but if you had a half a cent or a quarter Cent Transportation tax it would count against that cap but this is what's proposed now I mean that doesn't mean at the end when it's all shakes out they say that guess you don't have to have a referendum that could that could change correct under the proposal you would have to have a referendum either way okay um under the what what it would do what the the intent is to there's several intents and I think um you know different legislators and leaders in the legislature I think might have different goals but in general um the intent is to both instead of just limiting this to the local governments that sort of have the political influence or make the case to the legislature for a special law for there to be greater Equity so everybody has the opportunity to access their sales tax and to have that conversation and and to drive that decision process more locally within a common set of parameters so that that really is the foundational so the County Board would have the authority for all of Crowing County Brainard would only have the authority within their boundaries absolutely and brainard's cap would be 1% and then the County's cap would be a different 1% same with Jenkins up in Jin Minnesota in their we're really worried about it up there I'm sure I'm sure they are I'll have to check with them interesting so this is this is was talked about last session now we might have new legislators come in and this is still going to be on the table you're thinking for 25 uh this was well the both the tax shares had proposals in their bills and I anticipate that both the tax shares will be back to the legislature the house is obviously an election and so the majorities and that all of that might change but those individuals will both be in the legislature we anticipate and so but they'll have to reintroduce this th those bills are those bills are dead being being that this is a new bium yeah absolutely okay okay interesting so Mr uh chair transitioning to um transportation I I'll just let me first say that we have a number of transitions going on at Micah and one of them is that Mr Steve Novak is uh un not with us today he's actually Steve uh retired from his work with Micah at the end of um September he's um in travel status right now I think he's in retirement status right now and I'll just say that I learned a tremendous amount from Steve Steve was a tremendous asset uh to um Micah I know that I I speak uh on his behalf that he um really appre appreciated the opportunity to have a final visit to all of the counties and so on his behalf I know he would want me to add that he really enjoyed working uh with all of you um on behalf of Micah down at the capital and we uh stay connected to him and wish him well the transportation um report obviously um a lot of our priorities were right in the mix until the end of session this last year um but with the um uh lack of a bonding bill being passed on the on the final day of session um many of those went by the wayside so there was a transportation policy Bill uh that was quite uh non-controversial that was passed that had a few items in it impacting um counties uh and there was a transportation um budget bill that was passed that started with really small really small targets of general fund money but also moved some money around in the bill um that was appropriated in 2023 but hadn't yet been allocated a key part of that was that as a result there was uh 15 million more put into trunk Highway spending and 15 million more one time put into the corridors of Commerce program um which we uh strongly support there were also some uh limited adjustments made to the greenhouse gas assessment language and process that was um uh put in place as a requirement in the 2023 bill and I think really importantly actually um uh there was a permanent continuation of a of a technical advisory committee that County Engineers are participating in um including a Micah County engineer to provide guidance in uh with and to the Department of Transportation as to how that's implemented going forward and all of the bonding uh proposals um that didn't happen last year continue to be just critical priorities for the county uh this session funding for uh local Road uh Wetland replacement program um as you know you can't do projects um in the spring if we run out of uh uh Wetland monies uh lands to to uh provide for that mitigation and certainly um there was no local Road in Bridge money um the bills that were being talked about at the end of session bonding bills were going to put uh not as much as we were asking for but certainly meaningful additional money into local roads and local bridges that of course didn't happen and we will um continue to ask last year we asked for 200 million for local roads and 250 million for local Bridges and uh we haven't finalized our platform yet but I anticipate our ask to continue to be significant in in that area Matt does the do they understand as long as we keep kicking this thing down the road the can is getting bigger and bigger because the cost cost is getting more and more it the I mean you know when you look at not doing a bonding Bill and then all of a sudden you do it by the time they didn't fund it to the time they're going to fund it the costs are going to be astronomical on some of these projects commissioner and Mr chair my the hesitation of my voice is only is that is I think so um uh but you're right uh the the typical pattern of passing a large bonding bill in an even numbered year and a smaller bonding bill in an odd number year has I think in many ways become the atypical pattern um in the last decade and and certainly um the majorities were working uh to try to bring a bipartisan uh bill on board in the closing days of session um I think it's always a uh a priority for the majority party um and you know whether or not whoever that is and and then but it's also a significant uh leverage piece and and so we we continue to emphasize the importance of the bonding bill and I anticipate that it will be under consideration again this session thank you and with that I'm going to turn to uh Nancy and Health and Human Services thank you good morning Mr chair and Commissioners I'm Nancy celeski and I represent Micah in the area of both Public Health and Human Services and and it's good to be here this morning in in Crowing County I'm just going to follow along here um the first thing I would mention is the Emergency Medical Services funding that was a bipartisan proposal um I think the need that was expressed was about $120 million in the end they did appropriate $30 million to the system they also uh passed policy language that replaces the regulatory board with an office of emergency a state office of emergency medical service and those duties will be transferred to that board on January 1st of 2025 there is a task force that's been working on this for a couple of years and they've gone around the state they're continuing to meet the challenge again is to try and find an ongoing funding source and that's that's yet to be um dealt with at this point they're they're they're reviewing options at this point but that was very much a bipartisan Bill next item I would mention is the Minnesota African-American family preservation act again the legislature has been working on this for quite a while they did make some progress uh this year there's two key components um first of all DHS is establishing a pilot program in hanpin and Ramsey counties and that will implement the act for a two-year period and that is effective in January then under that is a working group which um is established it includes both henip and Ramsey but also other County organizations and at Micah's request we were added as an appointing authority for that so we were working have been working with AMC Maxa County attorneys to make sure that we have the right balance on that working group that geographically and size-wise is it's covered throughout the state the appointments that U Micah is is making to to the group is um St Louis County Commissioner Ashley grim and Ottertail County Commissioner uh Kurt mortensson the group is having their first informational uh meeting on Thursday the 7th of November it's going to be a an hybrid but we intend to attend that in person and and um see what how that goes it's looking like um it'll be about a two-year commitment in terms of the working group it goes into effect Statewide again this this uh act goes into effect January 1st of 2027 next item I would mention I don't think I have to tell you that Health and Human Services can be very hard to follow um this year you know there's there's no shortage maybe seven or eight different committees deal with different parts of of this area this year I would start with um The Children and Families portion of the budget that was actually amended into the education Bill the Omnibus education Bill and signed into a law separately um by Governor Wells at the end of May in terms of child protection and Welfare it does require a review of child fatalities and near fatalities and requires counties to establish local child mortality review teams DHS is required to provide training and support to those teams there is a new Supreme Court Council on Child Protection DHS is directed to review the systems in other states and make recommendations on a common entry point system for reporting the initial child maltreatment and DHS is required to develop a new it system it's called the Child Welfare information system in terms of funding ssis the the um technology that County workers are challenged by because of the fact that they're still using green screen technology from 30 years ago they did put $10 million into um to the department department is to consult with counties on that but it was just $10 million at this point they also put $1.1 million into childcare Improvement Grants in terms of a couple of policy items Child Care Centers and family child family child care providers um are allowed to develop a policy regarding immunizations for children over 2 months of age there was money of $350,000 a year for a family Child Care ID person and one of the things that we were working on that we were disappointed was not included was there was language that would have required a child welfare fiscal analysis we really want to push to show what the County's spend is on this area and unfortunately that piece did get dropped at the very very end next slide is um Health and Human Services this is the or excuse me it's just the Human Services bill this is chaired by Senator Hoffman and representative nure I'm sure you all heard of the last minute um last 20 minutes or so when they when the legislature put all of the Appropriations bills that had not previously passed into the Omnibus tax bill and literally passed it in the last the Senate I think received it about 20 minutes to midnight this was one of them the Human Services bill and I would just mention our priorities in their deal with with men choices another another issue that clients or that counties are dealing with as well as you know more importantly the clients have to struggle with this does allow counties to continue Contracting for the assessments there's language that modifies the timeline in which a county must visit an individual who has requested such an assessment it was 20 Cal days it's now 20 working days and it extends the validity of the men choices assessment from 60 to 365 days want to mention that the most important thing that we've been working on uh with the Department is the need for reassessments that are done every year there are simply folks whose situations are not going to change from year to year and having them sit through a 6 8 10hour process every year has been a burden for for them so we've been talking about about with the Department about shifting that to maybe every other year or every third year for a reassessment again with the permission of the client or or their Guardian but again if they request that they want it um we would provide that but again if a person's situation hasn't changed it's really backing up the the system in terms of doing those initial um in choices assessments the legislature created a task force on Guardianship and it does include a county appointee they did address JL Health in a couple of ways uh DHS is required to submit a waiver for an MA demonstration project to provide healthc care and coordination services to bridge the Community Based Services for individuals that are in Correctional Facilities there's another working group it's called the re-entry Services working group that is in effect as of July 1st and they also passed a pilot pro pro program to provide payment to counties to support correctional facilities administering long acting injectable anticho meds for people that are undergoing mental health treatment you've all been hearing about the priority Admissions and civil commitment task force they've been meeting for for quite some time several years ago Senator coring you you may have even been there then the legislature passed the so-called 48 hour rule that says if a person's in a correctional facility and has a mental health issue they are bumped to the top in terms of getting them into the NOA Metropol naan Regional Treatment Center that of course has created a backlog for other folks that also needed to get into the system so the legislature did pass a a legislation that required a task force to look at this County uh counties were very much involved Stern County Commissioner Terell Clark was involved and then Blue Earth County director uh Angela younger youngberg also spoke on behalf of the directors some issues were solved this year but the biggest issue has not been and we were talking commissioner barl and I about capacity is the issue we need beds in our communities we need beds at the state operated level and you know to be we have no idea what the cost of that would be but it's it's will be significant so what did happen is last year in 2023 uh we went to the legislature and and asked for a reprieve on the county cashare for those folks that have been deemed mentally ill and dangerous and they're civil committed as such there's a court order that says this and they're sitting in one state operated facility waiting to get into as an example St Peter into another state operated facility we have no ability to effectuate that transfer it's all state operated and so we did get a 2-year reprieve which saved counties about $8 million in the first six months of this um that ends however in June of 2025 so we still have work to do on that um that's in our platform we're also going to have a more broad um item that that suggests that it shouldn't be limited to those that have been deemed mentally ill and dangerous it's it's for any person that's sitting in one state operated and going to another there is language um that I would mention the hospitals have a limited exemption to take 10 people out of their hospitals 10 patients who have been civil committed and are sitting in their Hospital settings HCMC testified that they had an individual there for 2 years that was not receiving mental health treatment just a waiting to get transferred so there is that 10 person uh transfer that would happen right away so that's the Human Services Bill oh a couple more things they did eliminate the parental fees for parents whose children receive ma in disability or residential settings and then also there is language that DHS is to consult with counties to improve case management information systems so that's the Hoffman norbill the next item I would mention I guess it's the next slide is the health and human services again this is chaired by Senator Wickland representative lebling and this was another bill that was tucked into the Omnibus tax bill in the last moments of session couple things I would mention is it requires the commissioner to report to the legisl legislature on Alternative healthc Care delivery models and a county administered rural medical assistance model so another new acronym acronym called karma they set a telecommunications fee at 12 cents per month for each consumer line for the operation and maintenance of the 988 Suicide Prevention and crisis system and something that we've been working on for a really long time is children's crisis treatment uh DHS under the language that passed DHS is to consult with us counties as well as tribes providers and Advocates to develop a covered benefit under a to provide residential mental crisis stabilization for children we have it for adults we don't have it for children the uh section is effective excuse me the commissioner needs to report findings to the legislature by October 1st of 2025 I would just mention a little bit on prior authorization uh there were some some modifications made to the system this year including the prohibition on PA prior authorization for outpatient Mental Health treat treatment as well as outpatient sud treatment um it does not include drugs and medications at this time because the fiscal note did get to be rather large when you when you included that and so they've made some progress but expect to see more on that uh coming up there is also language that adds rural Mental Health Service Providers outside the seven County Mar uh metro area to be eligible recipients of Mental Health Services Grants there is a new Health Professions Workforce advisory Council and the commissioner of health is required to publish an RFI to assist the department in conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the current health needs and capacity in Minnesota finally I would mention that child placing agencies need to notify an Indian child's tribe tribe or tribes immediately no later than 24 hours after receiving information on a missing child with that I want to call out your staff I work very closely with both uh K Terry and Tammy luck very much involved in Micah as well as the Statewide organization and just want to make sure that you're aware of how much we value their their input there at every meeting and and offering their expertise at every meeting and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions are you going talk at all later I'm sorry can do it okay go ahead Nancy if I might sure just a couple things first of all on EMS so the developing that new Department we talked and and we know that won't be up and running until the uh first of the year probably but we have a concern in in our regional EMS meetings that they're addressing ambulance services in Greater Minnesota but they're not addressing our First Responders and I'm not talking about you know our share Sheriff's departments and police departments and that I'm talking about the individuals that give their own time and efforts to provide Emergency Services before those other services arrive on scene and we have a issue with the funding for that right now it's based on seat belt violations which people are complying with so the revenues are shrinking significantly but we would like to see in that bill or that approach that we start looking at the entire EMS system out there and this goes to the funding for our regional coordinator positions and I think there's eight of them around the state um ours happens to be in Sterns County but we need to find a revenue source that supports them otherwise in two years we're going to be out of money and then every County for themselves the you know the consistency of the train ings and will be individualized by counties which I don't think will bode well for the public out there so that's number one and the second one I just wanted to make a a point about the 10 million for the ssis it's a drop in the bucket I know it's a study they should have been doing this study 30 years ago and I keep saying that and I pound that drum every time I get a chance but just so the board knows that's going to be probably before they're done $150 million you know you think about the DVS project a few years ago and it was $100 million and they struggled with that this one will be even more complicated than than that one so um 10 million is just a bare start I just so that's all I have I just Mr chair and commissioner if I could just respond really quickly that is one of our items on the on the 2025 platform if I can just go move through it quickly um a few a number of us met with um the administration I don't know maybe a month and a half ago with lieutenant governor Flanigan's Administration on this we're told that ssis is also a priority for all of the tribes in the state and so if we could partner you know with them on this it would be important our ask of the agency is to replace the system which I'm hearing numbers of 80 to 100 million with half of it coming from the feds but that the state has to front those dollars and then get re reimbursed for it so that's the number I'm hearing included also in that is some planning money for maxus Maxa system as well is um you know tied to all of this obviously but just so you know that's that is a plat that is a platform item that is very important to all all counties in the state we've done uh a number of presentations in various counties and you know showing them the green screen technology again of 30 years ago is is interesting I think that was my first job so um I um it's very much and and the system crashes all of the time I mean I heard at one one presentation that the system went down when commissioner harpster was there and they it just crashed and so they weren't even able to show the demonstration so we're getting it out there for sure so I think two you know another problem with that is there aren't technicians that understand the platform exact that that's built under so to go out and find staff to replace retiring staff and that to put the B Aids on there is getting more and more difficult so exactly it's it's really time to invest in that right and with one we're hearing onetime money is is what they'll probably be looking at more this year rather than you know extending long-term or ongoing funding for things and so this would fit into that bucket if if they're willing to do it um other I'm just going to run really through the other uh uh priorities the men choices reassessment is has fallen on you know everybody's looking at that and then the county cashar is again related to to um the state operated Services as well as what comes out of that priorities uh admissions task force and finally also Child Protection we're going to need resources to be able to comply with the new African-American family preservation act and so those are the those are the things that we've been talking about in terms of Public Health I would just mention that disease prevention and control of course is something that public health addresses it's almost 100% County Levy and so that's something that they would like to see you know some investment in as well and those are the ones that have risen to the top but again we are we are working on oh one other thing with public health I think you all know that there was a reduction to the Cannabis education grant and that goes directly to local Health departments and it saved the state $7.3 million um so we that will be also on the list of priorities for public health to try and get those dollars back as a as a board and you know the times I've attended these meetings for Micah and AMC and and I listen to the staff and I don't know how you juggle all this stuff I mean it's shocking and then to try to you know during session to get to all those meetings and that that take place you guys do an outstanding job and you know we'll miss Steve I I think that's well known in the you know in the capital Arena down there so I I just thank you for what you do I it's just shocking to me that you even want to do this job but thank you you do a great job so thank you thanks thank you Mr chair and commissioner uh barrows and um I I'm going to touch on a couple of other things there is a there is a lot to juggle and I think sort of to that point I think it's particularly when it comes to Micah the next three areas are areas where we um definitely uh do advocacy on your behalf but we also do it in a more we don't attempt to cover every dimension of environment General government Corrections Public Safety but we do focus on areas where the large counties and our membership really tell us these are critical issues and we hear a lot about your challenges with managing Solid Waste um and the the conversations that have been going on at the capital particularly around waste energy and how that uh factors into the 100% clean energy standard by 20 uh 40 and so uh first of all in 2024 the big piece there was a number of uh pieces that passed but the big thing that passed was the packaging waste uh reduction act legislation that packaging waste is about 40% of the waste stream and so over time with this new um law uh manufacturers of Packaging waste will have will have be required to participate in um a producer responsibility organization that will also provide some revenues for you all and others who are uh basically providers administrators of solid waste for that work to both help um divert uh more of it to reuse um and and recycling um but those continue to be issues so we are we are getting feedback from counties that we we expect to really take a uh uh an have an important conversation with the legislature about solid waste and about either carving that out or having um some approach that continues to provide uh that support as well as um newer Technologies like Anor robic digestion and and carbon sequestration and other things that some of our member counties are looking at wood waste is a growing issue for everybody sort of that is in the EAB area of the state and in ensuring there's opportunities um for that happy to take any questions there General government um there has been a lot of legislation L that impacts you all as well as public and private employers but certainly impacts you all as employers um as well as administrators um certainly in terms of the earned sick and safe time the paid family medical leave um par changes last legislative session there was um an enhancement to the annuity multiplier for parac Correctional um uh uh employees but there was no estate funding that came along with that so on average uh well not on average total it'll be about $4 to5 million of additional cost that will fall on count mostly on County governments um annually with the increased contribution levels um and I know you'll see that here um in Crowing County um but looking forward to 20 2 pensions uh issues continue to be an expanding pension benefits continues to be a conversation at the capital that we are following closely and working with Partners um a key for uh uh principle that we is guiding our um conversations with legislators are just maintaining the financial stability of those Pension funds if these are State policy changes to make sure the state is stepping up to help resource those funding changes and or recognize through County Aid formulas or that sort of thing how they are impacting and and driving level and then also you know as we make uh have conversations about whether or not different classes of employees um have a need for different pension level benefits how does that impact sort of the employee contingent as a whole um and then uh the final one is Corrections and Public Safety and just to say that not uh some things happen not a ton happened our last legislative session in that area but we fully anticipate uh the importance of of revisiting Community Corrections act funding and funding for Probation Services this legislative session there was a huge increase of $43 million a much needed increase I should say because the state has never kept up um with uh its cost share funding for probation uh Services as a critical component of Minnesota's continue uh Continuum of criminal Justice um we uh commissioner Schnell attended the Micah's uh board of directors meeting um earlier I guess it was last week on Wednesday um and had a good conversation with board members about the upcoming session but we think that there's between 12 and $15 million uh annually that's needed to ensure full funding um for the Probation Services System going forward and so that'll be AEK key priority and then just finally on the slide um I I as this is sort of my history with the legislature is being a budget guy so I follow the numbers uh closely I know an October update um came out uh on October 10th I'm not fully versed on that yet but generally the picture is is still this and we'll we'll get the November um forecast I think it's November 7th or so that the forecast is is going to come out but in general there's a there's more onetime resources on the front end um but we are anticipating a session where the opportunity or the flexibility I should say in the state budget for ongoing adjustments to the budget whether that be increased spending or uh reduced uh revenues um will be limited in terms of um I I think that we'll be in a little bit of a positive situation um going forward uh but it will still be lean uh um leaner than it was two years ago for sure so just a question on Corrections is there any talk about let's say um let's see have somebody that's goes in the Crowing County jail and they're on medical Ma and once they go into jail then it's my understanding that they're not on Ma anymore and then it becomes our their health care becomes our respons ability is there any talk about changing that so that I don't I don't understand why that would be such a big deal you know M Mr chair and commissioner coring there is talk about that it does dovetail of course with the feds but part of the waiver that the department is going to be applying for would allow for I think it's 30 days of medication or to get a person on am before they leave our jails or the correctional State correctional system it's either 30 90 days where they would be stabilized as they're you know leaving um but that requires CMS to to sign off on okay and then and then back to the budget surplus tell me what it what's it forecasted in October uh Mr chair I uh commissioner I don't have uh the I I don't I haven't looked at the October numbers yet I I must admit they are I know they're out there cuz they they come out on the 10th so what what is on that page is the July economic update and what was happening at that time was the the GDP um projections were pretty steady um compared to February uh but the state was still has been collecting still more above uh forecasted revenues for February so I I guess I can't remember from my time in the legislature does the legislature go by the November numbers for the 25 budget or or is there another forecast I think it's in February isn't there Mr chair and and commissioner your your your memory is good quite solid yes they start in November um that's what the governor uh will put his or her budget recommendations together in January based on the November forecast but then a February forecast will come out there will often times be adjustments to the governor's recommendations and that's really when things kick in at the legislature once the February forecast comes out typically at the end of February thank you and then that I'm done with the slides um thank you again uh Commissioners for your comments I would just say that um the final final slide is is a little outdated we uh uh welcomed Amber bakas as the principal the lead for us um on Transportation representation at the capital from United strategies um we will um we will get uh a formal communication out to all member counties with Staffing uh changes we'll probably do that um after the election because we know some County Commissioners are um also uh up for election and that will have give us an opportunity to communicate not only to our board of directors but to all of you as to who we are um and and who our new staff resources are as we look forward to the 2025 session I'm up for reelection so he has nobody running against him any other questions uh we could send your letter now any other questions from the board at all for these people do you have anything I'm just thinking maybe County Administrator had something to Mr chair I don't have anything further other than to thank Matt and his team for the work that they do um we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a participant in Micah because it helps us with kind of working with some of our counterparts that we know were about the same issues that we're facing we're about the same size having that interaction with that group of counties is very helpful and the staff and the work that they do is very much appreciated thank you dippy thank you one one final thing um I wonder if it would be helpful if we had if we boiled down some issues that I think that affect Crowing County specifically and ask our legislators before the legislative session to come in here and talk to them I think that would be a good exercise Mr chair I I would concur I think any lobbying that we can do prior to the session bod's well for us so helping them understand our issues yes and the impact to the county taxpayer I think is important Mr chair board if you would like we would make sure we schedule something in early January with the legislators to make sure that we are all on the same page sounds good yeah if I recall there was some talk there's some counties out there that kind of have actually a I mean they do it Zoom or whatever just to and they put it either on their some meeting they have in the administration room where they just have that person in there and they just talk back and forth maybe for 10 or 15 minutes I can't remember exactly what county it was doing it but a couple of them are doing that on a regular basis if we could install something like that that would be kind of I think helpful for all of us would you like it to be at a committee of the whole meeting would you like it to be a separate legislature County Board work session I think it should be a separate work session with the legislature legislators and and the County Board specifically for that we can do that I think yeah I don't know I just think it's important that we tell them the issues that are having the you know I can I can tell you you know I went in reverse I wasn't a county commissioner first when I went to the legislature and I I I almost think it should be a prerequisite that you be a county commissioner and then you go to the legislature because you realize the effects that everything that you do has a trickle down effect of the County Board and I don't think a lot of legislators realize that and probably some don't really care you know but um anyway would you like to try for January 14th since you don't have a meeting that day you'll have to meet on the 7th for statutory requirements I don't know that they'd be able to be here they'd be in session but would you're thinking kind of as uh a Microsoft teams meeting is that it's possible we could do a virtual meeting or if we can get them before um session is February though session starts in February M Mr chair uh session this uh coming year starts January 14th so that is the first day of legislative session yeah so that one probably won't work but we coordinate with ask them to be here anyway that's that important well either be here physically or be here through our Electronic media or something like that at least so we got a one-on-one and I think it would be important for us to try to catch them before session begins um if if you've been as as commissioner coring knows the legislature gets fast and furious they are full of committee meetings and all the things that impact them I think it's important for us to make sure that they hear the message from you before session starts so we'll work for something late December early January I will be here um in person on the 7th for our reorganizational meeting would that be um like the afternoon or after the board meeting is that what you're looking at I guess well see you know because we got to also fit it into their schedule too we if you recall we have five legislators so trying to work to get as many of them in person as we could perhaps we could get them virtually if we had little kind kind of some talking points that we had out ahead of time I think would make their time more valuable I know going down to the legislature for us is a is also a little bit of work but I know when we get down there and actually go into their office and sit there then they see us one-on-one and I think that does make a difference I found that in previous roles that that has made a difference so not always easy to do though but I think it's I still think that we should have a recorded meeting with the the media here so that the croing County residents know the issues that we're talking about with our legislators I I agree I totally agree with you so thank you thank you very much thank you for your time thank you all let us know if we can be helpful thankk appreciate it you're welcome in croing County anytime thank you we we bring bring your friends with you we're stopping for coffee and baked goods sure after this absolutely it yes y it next we have uh uh Chris Pence coming up to go through our land use packet big packet today good morning I do have four items to just want to run discuss with you this morning and uh go through a few items the first item we have is just some changes to the land use ordinance um yeah I think that'll be helpful up there on the screen you see um trees put up there is a kind of a summary have the changes the the main changes again are going to be adding a new Article 15 for commercial cannabis but this was also an opportunity uh that Gary and I thought might make sense to um make a few other changes to the ordinance that we think will be important for heading into 2025 so if you look at article 7 um that is our current ordinance section talking about conditional use permits um we have we're allowed by Statute by 394 to add interim use permits as well they are the same as a conditional use perit they're processed the same uh the only difference between a conditional and an interim is that there's an opportunity to put a a Sunset date or an ownership change date on such a permit so that if uh if a certain um time comes where a permit's valid for 5 years they'd have to come back in renew that permit or ownership changes that's the real big uh difference for interim use permits we'd want those to be primarily for like gravel pits and um for things like the Cannabis uses would be interim uses so that if an ownership changes we want the folks to come in um and to uh to reapply if they want to continue that use on that property so that's really that's what article 7 um is about and we didn't have that before in our ordinances at all we have not had it on use before no this will be the first time that's been introduced into the land use ordinance I think it'll be a nice tool it's just another tool in the tool B I think to manage certain types of uses that are important but have a little bit different um potential um restrictions on them compared to the standard conditional use permit Chris a question on that so you know I had little controversy with a gravel pit down in my area so they come in there it's approved they come in there they process the material get the rocks to make asphalt right it leaves a tremendous amount of it's not really waste it's good field dirt it's a big you know like 180,000 yards of sand so when when the permit timeline ends does that mean that nobody can haul out of there or you just talking about when they're when they're making gravel or making right so it depends on what type of gravel pit they're approved for so we have a G1 through a G5 you know a G1 Gravel Pit is basically your a borrow pit on your own property for your own personal use a G2 is the extractive use for you just pull material out get into a G3 you start doing more of the crushing activities and then G4 G5 get more into the cement and the and then the hot mix plant for you know for making uh for Ready Mix type things so it depends on on the use and and just because uh a inter use permit is required doesn't mean there has to be it doesn't mean there has to be timing requirement to it it just provides that option for the Planning Commission to apply that if they think it's important but let's say hypothetically this this Gravel Pit let's say in five years at ends the the timeline ended yep and there's still 150,000 yard of this sand right which actually makes great field dirt again does that mean once a permit is ended that nobody can haul that stuff that's piled up in there correct out they would have to come back in and renew that renew their permit to can if if after that 5-year window there wasn't the um you know there was still more work to be done in that pit they would come back in and renew that permit for longer than that also isn't there something that if you're done with a pit if far as reclaiming it or putting it back to correct I've seen that done we know we're we're done we're done taking out what we need to take out of here and then they come by and push all the overburden back and just kind of plant seed in there correct all all Gravel Pit when they get a condition spel Reclamation is a requirement as part of the pl when they're done with the extractive use then like you said they can we want to get it we we don't want big mom we want to kind of grade it back down and get vegetation growing on the site again another that brings up another point point I know that that that they have to buy a bond and I think it's only a like a 5,000 the ordinance say right now correct oh that doesn't seem not that I'm want to Advocate a whole lot more but well I don't know how if that was $5,000 I don't know how you're ever going to reclaim that for $5,000 well and Mr chair um and commissioner coring I I agree with that that's an area I was actually looking at just a couple weeks ago and and that's been there that's been the ordinance sence I can remember and so just as a requirement to be you know we might want to look at it being more of a percent you know I think you can get some percentage of the overall you know what be what would estimated cost of what would take to reclaim the site um that would be what we'd be looking for for a bond amount versus just because I look I remember back when I started back in ' 08 and we did some of these road projects for these new plats and we had a flat bond rate for $5,000 for roads back then too and you can't even hardly mobilize equipment for $5,000 as much as us build a road and so you know we changed that to to reflect what would be the cost of actually building the road I'm not advocating for that I'm just saying that that that seems kind of low and but I don't know I I just don't want us to run after a problem that we don't have because I'm not aware of anywhere where where we've had an issue like that where we have to worry about that yeah so far my only response would be it's it's never a problem tell problem problem and then when then and then we're if we're in a spot where we didn't prepare for that then we you know we might be in a spot where we can't do what we need to do to have you ever had a case where you've had to you know trigger the bond to get something done in any gravel pits not that I can remember not that I can remember uh there's a modest change in article 9 is housekeeping we we just needed to um update the verbiage in about our septic site suitability requirement report for winter Windows is just more house keeping um on that and then if you go to article 10 I don't know if maybe we can scroll down to that page thees that's on page 57 of the packet might be easier just to to maybe see it so if we scroll down a little bit you'll see that we are deleting the R20 this is the response to the um comprehensive Plan update that we're getting R20 is no longer a land use District uh and if you scroll a little bit further you'll see that also we're combining our commercial one and Commercial two into one commercial our industrial heavy industrial Light into one industrial so we're um consolidating those two together before you go on Chris I have a question on that um because you talk about being adjacent to M municipalities and so are we proposing to allow for instance a metal crushing business right next door to a residential area if that one site is commercial and the other side is residential there's potential I mean there is there's potential for I mean I've always everybody always always get that question you know what happens when we have commercial up against Residential at some point it does it does reach that point of where commercial ends and residential does start but we have we have certain controls in the ordinance that say if somebody wanted to operate a like you said like a a Junk Salvage yard or metal crushing that's a conditional Ed to permit in the in more in the egg forested areas and so that's not something that we really want um you know in residential areas so we do have some controls as to where we want to put those sorts of activities so so my concern is though the C1 and C2 or the light and heavy allowed for kind of a excuse me well it's not really a live person so I don't have to say excuse me for it but um allowed for kind of a gradual approach so if your heavy is further out and residential builds up around it that's residential's problem then they understand that it already exists and we're not going to move it out of there with this it appears that that won't happen in that manner so when I did the review of looking at the differences between the C1 C2 and the commercial light versus heavy then differences were nominal there I mean they're really when I looked at when you lined them all up and you see what was different in the different tables it wasn't much different I mean so by changing this and consolidating from a commercial to two down to one and and Industrial to one the changes W would have wouldn't have really any negative impacts because they're really very similar to be the same when we had made some of those changes so I don't I don't see those sorts of of uh of impacts of those impacts happening okay if we scroll down um a little bit further you can see the just deleting those out so that we get that cleaned up and then we added if you go a little further this is where you'll see across the top where you'll see the commercial um being Consolidated and then commercial the light and the heavy industrial being Consolidated there as you when you looked across the side there really wasn't much of a difference between what was allowed in light industrial versus heavy industrial so I don't really there really wasn't um a big difference between the two now that doesn't mean that we can't go back at a future vision and look at these uses and make sure that where we want these types of activities or where they're they're happening but I will say that most of our industrial property is pretty minimal in the county there's not much of it the majority of it is around Cloud stamping up north of marfield um so we don't have a lot of industrial property in the county for the most part we really want in the like the industrial we want them in the brainer industrial park that's where we would prefer to have that we have we have an industrial Zoning for reasons like Cloud stamping that was here you know prior to their being zoning in place or the Baxter Industrial Park back Industrial Park any Municipal any Municipal industrial park is great because they've got the they're better suited for um with the infrastructure to be able to handle some of those heavier uses than some of the rural parts of the county so but we do have some but there just there just really isn't a lot of industrial around the county for zoning okay if we scroll down a little bit further um we'll stop actually we'll stop right here quick one change um that uh we're proposing would be that right now the if you have a a single family dwelling is allowed one per parcel so that would mean let's say you owned a a 40 acre parcel and it was owned r10 You' be able to build one house on 40 acres and what we're proposing is if we delete this one parcel thing you should be able to build one per your the density allowed on your lot so if you have 40 acres you should be able to build four houses on that lot without having to go and with with this you'd be required to subdivide it into into Parcels before you could actually put a dwelling on there and um I don't think that's necessary I think that if people have the density to be able to put you know dwellings on their property they can do that knowing that in the future if they decide to subdivide you know making sure that they put the houses you know where they' want to have them um have them built so that's one thing that we have we have situations across the county where we've got some of these larger Parcels where um they're familyowned and there's no interest in in in creating Lots because the family doesn't want to create Lots CU that'll just incentivize somebody to sell off that family a lot that's been in the family for you know for for decades and decades and decades and so we just want to clarify that if you have the density allowed in your property you can get a permit it doesn't mean that you have to automatically subdivide your property to be able to build more than one house in a parcel so would that mean like a simple land divide then You' do to to because you'd want that parcel wouldn't be listed it would still be listed on that one parcel ID two two homes on one parcel ID correct yep and but somewhere down the road when somebody left then then that's when it would come in where you'd separate it correct yeah at some point when they were ready to to possibly sell the property or or that but there's just a lot of family-owned properties where people only larger Lots they want to have these you know different units you know different dwellings on there and right now this only allows you to have one one dwelling unit per property per parcel and uh it wasn't always like that so um this was changed um in the the time frame that I was when I was left to work for the state this this got changed and updated so Gary and I have talked about it and we think it's our recommendation that we go back to allowing folks to have that one parcel you know not not based on dwelling per parcel but one based on your zoning it would be allowed on the property as far as the density so so an example for my property I 40 acres I could put 10 homes on that property depending on how it's zoned corre it's actually zoned U it's zoned through the city it's in a city so let's say it's zoned let's say it's zoned r10 so a 10 acre minimum then there would be a maximum of four houses on that without doing any more than just getting a permit and building house and putting the septic and the correct setbacks and all that correct where does that our guest cabin kick in on this I thought I thought that we allowed somebody we do and so you so you would you would be no that's so for if you're within the Shand District you're allowed a 700 sare foot guest cabin and if you're um in the nonon area I don't have my ordinance in front of me but I think it's a 900t so you could have a but that would be that's one we have that set up as a guest the guest C guest quarters are one property so that would that would be the limiting factor on that so you wouldn't be able to so is this similar to that I mean so it just it just limits people to the size as all so you would so if you had say 40 acres um the way the ordance stre is right now is you could have one house and one smaller Guest House on 40 acres and but if they wanted to you know we have situations where you know I'd like to build my son a house over here and my daughter wants a house over here and our house is over here um with the way the current ordinance is right now they would have to either get that platted or go through a subdivision process to be able to build those to build those on there where I could bring in some houses that were going to be demoed and brought them into my property and made them houses and then I could rent them off yeah we and I wouldn't have to go through any more than just bringing them all in and doing that to get a permit for you have to get a permit for it correct y otherwise right now we would just we would that would then just mean if we wanted to to you know on those larger tracks they would just have to sub subdivide their property buil to do um to build to build more when would you get when would you get to that point where you'd look at at having it platted and subdivided and going through that process I would say when they when it was when they felt it was the time for their family to decide that they want to start selling off some of those lots or making sure who owns what property um but a but there are there we just have uh situations throughout the county where the family owns a large chunk and they're they don't want to Plat it off to be able to build more cabins and as their families are getting older now now the the son is now married and wants to have his cabin up here and he wants to put you know have so it's more of like a family you know a family comound situation with mult in the district I'm at there's a place called Lincoln point and and which was you know settled how many years ago and it was kind of one parcel and everybody had their little pieces of it I've seen that look like that's become more and more of a challenge because it sounded really good 100 years ago it sure is not so good now yeah I guess the question is from a regulatory approach is this something that we would we prefer to keep it at one per paral if you want to have multiple dwellings you have to Plat off lots to make it you know to get more permits from the county or not I think that's the policy question just an another question um so let's say uh I have some property and I'm going to build a house but let's say my parents or my in-laws are getting older and I when I build the house I'm going to have an in-laws quarter the door separation they they have a kitchen they have a bedroom and everything how do we look at that we don't look at that like a dup as as long as it it's attached to the existing dwelling that's there we only worry about number of bedrooms to make sure the septic system has the right capacity for for wastewater treatment but other than that no concerns that at all that it for this one there's just uh I have to think about that one for a little yeah there's there's some yeah okay sounds that sounds good we'll uh this will you know as a reminder this will this is going out for uh for public comment starting today it'll be out for third day public comment the plan will be that we come back to the November Comm be the whole give you an update on what we heard get some feedback um depending on the number of comments and all that our goal is to get to the uh Planning Commission for a public Hearing in November and then come back for final review by the County board at the December meeting so that this is ready to go by the first of the year especially focus on the Cannabis side of it so Chris another question before you move on commissioner barrows and I talked to talked to me about this commercial thing can you tell me what the impetus was behind that changing that you know from commercial one and Commercial 2 yeah yeah when you looked at the ordinance and we lined up what was the differences between commercial one and Commercial 2 um I found one difference between and so it really seemed like there was really a duplication of having two commercials um zoning in the county that really weren't making a big difference as far as what uses would be allowed in certain areas um and the same with the light industrial and the heav industrial there just wasn't a big difference where it says wow this is you could see that because the commercial one is is meant to be adjacent to municipalities commercial 2 is meant to be more of the rural commercial but there weren't any differences in the uses and how they were how they were laid out so it we're just trying to simplify the code and go down to one commercial and one um industrial zoning instead of having four you know two instead of four now that was something that was identified in the comprehensive plan as need something that the county should consider updating in its ordinance okay uh a couple other changes in article 10 one right now that uh making making sure that cannabis uses are interim uses we've got that in the ordinance um and then uh so we know the districts we talked about that last time being in the um in the commercial parts of the county as far as the Cannabis uses uh and then um we had something in the right now in article 10 talking about Liquor on or off sale in the shlm district being a conditional use permit to be able to do Liquor on or off sale that really needs to be commercially zoned to be able to get your liquor license for that so that we're just going to say if you're if you want to have a you know liquor onor off sale it has to be located in commercial zoning why what brought that on to get a well when we because you get a you get a for there to be a LIC license that gets issued by the county that's commercial zoning is required for that and our zoning ordinance says it's a conditional use perment the sheland district so what we're trying to do is just line those up so that they're so they are equal I don't think we want somebody just come in that lives just on the shoreline to have a liquor license at their house with a conditional use from it versus being in a commercial property where it be the right location for it for somebody to have a liquor license that's the the reason somebody wanted to then they'd have to come in and have land use map Amendment they change be commercial to to build to get a liquer license so this doesn't affect any current okay all right doesn't affect anybody it's just for the Future Okay um and then uh if we jump well one item we did also add um as a as an a use within the um is to add a marina we don't have that current in our land use we have it in our definition section of what a marina is we just don't have it laid out in the land use tables where it's allowed and a conditional use permit so we added that to the to the land use tables as well to clarify where a marina can be located um if we jump to uh page 69 uh this is an uh a provision that's allowed through the state with their uh model Charlotte ordinance is called a um we're going to refer to as setback averaging but it's the called the string line test where if you've got you know if you got two cabins on each side of you um instead of going to the full variance process we can take the average of what those setbacks would be and we can issue a permit for that and not run them through the full-blown variance process to to go through that so it it'll simplify I think the permitting process on some of those variances where it's pretty obvious based on the neighborhood what should be allowed out there as far as permitting we did include their provision that says that if you are going to use this that you do have to do a storm water management plan and and then look at the vegetation on your Shoreline as well to to make sure we have those those are two of the main conditions that the board of adjustment puts into play when they do approve a variance so um it just meant to make things easier for citizens to come in and get permits if they're in long as they're equal with what their neighbors are doing they don't have to go through the full-blown variance process so let's say you had a a cabin that was built 100 years ago real close to the lake that our ORD Su and allow today and then two lots away you had another cabin that was done the same way are you saying the string line test would mean that that person who wants to develop that property in the middle can put his cabin within the it needs to be adjacent it needs to be your direct neighbors it can't be two or three neighbors down it's got direct neighb the thir the the the lot number two in the middle of one and three y direct neighbors and it cannot be in short Impact Zone one so you you you at least have to be half more than half the set back out so on a say for a lake like Bay Lake where it's 100 foot setback you couldn't be closer than 50 ft so if everybody else was 20 ft away from the lake then you just have to come back and go through the variance process for it that's not something that could be a permit issued without going to the board of adjustment for that so just just you know you just have those situations where we issue a variance to be 63 ft away from Lake when 75 is required and both neighbors are the exact same and you know it just it would simplify the process on some of those and you know we're seeing you know uh last month we had I think it was 18 items before the board of adjustment and this month we've got 12 um so just trying to see how the couple of can we remove a couple of those applications off the the agenda that um would fall into this category of doing that uh the uh averaging test for the Neighbors so um I think Baxter does a similar Thing mo a lot of as actually as I've been looking around a lot of counties do this so um and it's something that the DNR has in their model ordinance that's that they that they U allow as sequencing flexibility or not or for the for zoning flexibility so um it's it's not something that'll be it something that the DNR will support as well um if we jump into article 14 we don't need to go to the page but we're just deleting residential 20 out of that just for clarify ification uh if we jump to Article 15 which is on page 88 yeah I thought that might be thought that might be helpful so um this is the actual U cannabis ordinance itself everything we've talked about um it's now put into its own um article and I think it's ready to go um it's everything as we've discussed there's been no changes made since the last time we talked it was more of a draft form now it's been put into the and um indexed into the into the actual land use ordinance itself so unless there's any questions about that um I don't know if there's too much discussion we have to have about that uh and then the last uh was just adding some definitions um they start on page 188 maybe I had the wrong page number I'm sorry about that maybe I so well to that point um so the definitions that we're going to add are going to be basically cannabis related inter use permit so most of these uh definitions that you see here are all on this on that summary um yeah we'll yeah we'll just go back to that that's fine that when you go back to that summary they're all um canvis related except for the interim use permit and then at the very end I did add something to the ordinance after we um sent it over for uh trees to put into your packet uh we've been having some confusion over if a patio is considered to be a structure or not and so we're just proposed to update the structure definition to include patio in that to make it clear that uh they are expected to meet all the requirements of a structure as anything else so any questions about the the land use wens itself so a question so Gary this is for you to uh as you know I'm kind of a less government kind of guy I always have been and always will be I don't want you know us just making up a whole bunch of ordinances and putting the squeeze on at least putting the squeeze on my constituents any more than we have to other I understand we have to have rules and regulations I've seen what what happens when we don't um with some of these cleanups that we've been doing so my question to you is with all these changes what's your interpretation do you do you think that this is more of a kind of a cleanup and um or is it just adding a lot more pressure on people I don't know if I asked that the right way I'm is this do you feel like this is adding a hell of a lot more restrictions on people or is it just more of a cleanup and and um maybe some changes that need to happen sure um Mr chair commissioner coring um most of this this is cleanup okay um if you think of that interm use permit that's just another tool um the uh definitions definitely needed some clarity um when you get into a discussions with property owners I want to do something and then they like to say well it doesn't say that it doesn't say that we're just trying to get some clarity for our customers and the Cannabis is what it is we needed to uh I believe you guys needed to probably do some kind of Regulation otherwise or you know could be the wild west and um I think it's a really good opportunity since we had to do the Cannabis just to um clean up and um add a few more tools in the toolbox without really a lot more regulation to folks to string line or the setback averaging um to maybe shave we're estimating maybe seven eight variances a year to not have somebody do the $500 and uh the whole process uh through that where staff can go out and do a setback average I think is is helpful um to our to our customers so yeah I think it's a that makes it a little bit more common sense and a lot kind of more easier on somebody within that situation corre correct all right Chris what do you do you think it's I I I totally agree I don't think our goal is to make things any U more challenging for folks to develop their property I think it's um but I do think having interim use permits is a different is another tool in the tool belt that we build effectively use I think if you go back to get to that one per parcel I think that's not making somebody go through a big huge process to subdivide their property and just so they could simply build a cabin on their property maybe for their mother-in-law to live in or for you know maybe for their kids to stay in or something like that trying to reduce that burden of having to subdivide the property when you're ready to subdivide the property but I don't but so I I in my mind I think this reduces um some of the um regulatory burden on folks to be honest yeah if I and the reason why I bring that up is because you know for example I'm on the I live on Lower South Long Lake and I'm on the lower South Long Facebook page I think there's 12 or500 people on there somebody had a I don't know it looked like about an 8 by 10 or 12 foot little building and it looked like it was kind of close down by the water and said this person is saying hey anybody that wants this I have to get it out of there the county is requiring that I get out get it out of here because we have too much impov a surface well then if you read the comments you know they kind of beat up on us you know the county you know and somebody says what doesn't have the county have anything better to do and I just thought I'm not going to wait into that whole thing but I just want to make sure that people that are here don't think that we're just have our thumb on their head all the time just like the conversation I had at Gary's office you know the Minnesota Pollution Control agency always seems to have their thumb on us as that relates to the landfill and and drags their feet when we want to get our permit or or whatever it is I just I find that they're very difficult to work with and so we know how that is I just don't want that to happen to the people that we all represent here does that make sense yep well I think I think you get to the point of where you know everything you read on Facebook's always right you know and so you know for those folks who are out on Facebook who are questioning some of these things um they can call the office at 218 824101 and I'd be happy to chat with them about any specific question they have um you know Facebook has a way of of putting some things out there that just frankly aren't true and so if you want the truth you know come talk to the county and we'll tell you what the truth is but I think we've we've cultivated over the last many many years a a good relationship with the citizens of croing County where they come in and it's such a streamlined thing and and there's a lot of positive comment I just don't want us to to start heading I mean it just just depends on who is on the County Board it depends on staff to recommendations and you get the wrong person in there and and they have a different frame of mind and they could get us down the road where they just restrict everything that anybody wants to do and that's just something that concerns me so it was just a comment thank you next item next item all right so uh what you have before you on item number two is a basically an ordinance rewrite of the solid waste ordinance uh this was uh something that is a requirement that came out of our recent approval by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for the um our Solid Waste Management plan the current uh plan right now we have was drafted originally back in 1994 it hasn't been updated since um and so we've been working with our consultant Burns McDonald to help with this uh with this update um and so I think Heather are you online did she make it is anybody online is there anybody online right now uh yeah there is someone I don't know who though well I'm Wonder hoping that's that's Heather Heather Crowell is the um was the um with burn McDonald on the on the um update to the ordinance and um her the goal was for her to be here today but I don't see see I think so but maybe she and I did have to mute that participant because their phone was ringing in the background okay so if they are trying to speak you need to unmute yourself and if not we can just go through it um go through it on our own so that's fine all right um so if you there should be a memorandum in your in your packet that looks like this I didn't get number I was really good on the other one I was started out so strong with page numbers it's right there correct right uh and so um basically we'll just start kind of walk through it article by article and feel free to ask any questions if need be um so there's really no changes in article one compared to the old ordinance we just have to have the authority and the intent um and repeal of the old ordinance um as requirement Article 2 gives definitions we did need to update some definitions that were in there based on the old ordinance um if you jump into article three this is our general provision section the difference here is just clarifying that there needs to be planning and Zing approval for certain Solid Waste activities so if somebody wants to operate a um let's say a a transfer station on their property or that um they have to make sure they come and get Planning and Zoning approval from the county before they do that um making sure that there's things like um indemnification Financial Assurance um data privacy just general provisions of the ordinance that's what's in article 3 um Article 4 gets into Solid Waste storage collection and Disposal um this one I think is really um I think a big improvement over what was in the old ordinance because if you look at um what we have now we have a we have a nuisance section here that's much stronger than the previous ordinance the previous ordinance basically said you could accumulate up to 1% of junk on your property so if you had a let's say a a 40 you know a 40 acre lot you could take you know you could 4 Acres of junk could be accumulated property was what the old ordinance had and what the new ordinance basically says is that you can't have junk on your property you can't accumulate things like furniture and white goods and and you know just the junk cars those sorts of things the the new ordinance gives us a much uh much clearer and um transparent way of what we expect for property to look like in croing County as far as from a nuisance standpoint and I think it'll really assist us in being able to um work with people to um get these cleanups on these property done so that we can kind of you know get those especially in the rural areas of the county they can they look a little rough so and actually I think at least for my constituents I I can say that I think this is going to be a good thing I was kind of hoping that we get something like this in place because I still have a lot of um you know down in Roosevelt Township there's a lot of a lot of places that a lot of junk is piled up and um I think this is going to be a tool to um clean those places up and then I you know I think about I remember you know God Rest his soul uh commissioner dwey toes dwey toes was always property rights property rights and I I feel like I'm the same way but I think I've evolved to the point where it isn't just the property rights of the person that's right here on this lot it's the property rights on the person that's on either side or or close by they have property rights too if you got a a big huge mess there I don't think that's fair to their property rights either and the valuation of their property when you got a junkyard right next to them so I think this is going to be a a good thing a good tool for the county to when people call and say hey there's a disaster next door we've got the tools to kind of clean that up and I'd agree and I think at the end of the day we just want to be fair and consistent we want to treat everybody the same and to you know just get get some of these you know doesn't mean that you know people can have stuff I mean it's not that we're going to say they can't have stuff but just needs to be you know stuff that's not causing an imposition or being a detriment to the neighbors or to the neighborhood in general and we're not going to be running around and looking you know once this goes in we're going to be call coming the combing the properties when it's complaint driven and it comes to us and it meets this yep complaint driven Absolut complaint driven yes that's the only thing I look at we don't have to go looking for problems they come find us so I think there's enough out there there's enough out there just on a complaint basis that we have that we are we can follow up on and get resoled so uh Article Five if we jump into that it's just giving more details as far as equipment requirements for maintenance labeling storage and inspection recordkeeping that we need need to do um and it also gives us an opportunity for um an introduction of suspension and revocation language so if we have haulers that are not following the the solid waste ordinance and following you know the requirements that we have there's a process for a suspension or revocation of a license where they can't haul within the county what have you had in the past for like haulers that would haul from you know just throw it in didn't matter if it came from cing or another County and try to get it into the transfer station did you have any in there to keep that pretty weak not a lot of there wasn't a lot of of uh teeth in there to be able to really have what would be the steps to go through to ration on your honor that you were going to Dr right so that's some things we'll be talking about at the at the like Sal was committee coming up would be when the haulers come in and they and they they have to come in and sign the the scale sheet basically to have a language on that says that this waste came from grro County it's not from out of County Waste we're having some of those changes so that um if they are um doing some of that that you know at least we'll be able to go back to say that they had told us that they're you know bring in you know basically County Waste is what we're looking for it's a it's a landfill dedicated to the use of the citizens of cro County and so we want to make sure it's being used properly and these are all just going out for public hearing now is this the same type of process this is this this is already this has gone out for public comment the public comment ended last Friday and we received one comment on this ordinance basically saying that we had a citizen who wanted to organized collection where the county would would be in charge of of basically zoning the county into into areas and then getting contracts certain hollers in certain areas so um and that's from a from a staff standpoint it's not something that's you know that we would recommend um we think that the way that it works privately works well right now um and uh and so that was the only um common change comment that was made about the I read that you know that's a jurisdictional thing by the by a city a city could do that if they wanted to they could y a city could do that County's job to do that some counties have there are some counties that have gone and done that but it's a big deal and so it's a lot of work and a lot of you know lot to it and people like to pick their own garbage holler it's just it seems like people really want to be able to have that freedom to do that article six again this is just more of a um information about um obtaining process for obtaining a facility license from the PCA which means going to land use print from the county and and and that making sure we have proper record keeping um and then General requirements just to all facilities what do we expect these if the if you are going to have a transfer station in the county what are the expectations that we have for that article 7 talks about the different fees and service charges article 8 is inspections violations and enforcement um and so this is I think uh an ordinance that is um needed to be upgraded needed to be um updated and replaced and I'm uh I think it's been um done really well by our by Heather with with BR McDonald and and uh um unless there's any real big questions or from uh from the board the public hearing is set for next Tuesday for this ordinance any questions about this one okay we'll jump into the third one which is our recreational use ordinance uh this is an ordinance that uh um is really I think been needed for a while it takes right now we have some ordinance out there that refer to like um um deer stands and that has its own separate ordinance and and there was a separate it was called a park ordinance at the time and what we're proposing to do is to consolidate these ordinances into one for ease of use so that folks can um um easily find what are the regulations and requirements for basically um recreational uses in croing county and so it's broken up into these different sections on um County Parks and public water accesses our Trails um Environmental Protection um what do we allow as far as camping and then hunting and trapping and then what are the violations and penalties for those that that um that would violate the ordinance if the one change that I did make it's on that Gary and I talked about was we had a comment on hunting and trapping currently the ordinance says that um hunting stands of any kind will be prohibited Within Park your accesses are within 300 ft of a trail we thought that might be a little far so we proposed to change that down to a 50 fot so have a deer stand of 50 ft away from a trail and then to change the trapping to say that trapping of any kind will be prohibited within 300 ft of a trail so we don't want if people out walking around we don't want traps near those Trails so that either people or dogs might get um into a trap that uh would be problematic I think so so Chris I do have one change and Theresa if you'd go back to the first page so really get under your skin yep or I I want to see number 17 17 uh right at the beginning of the ordinance the definition definition sorry number 27 2.7 a 2.7 whatever it is motor vehicle one y okay alteran is spelled wrong what's that alteran is spelled wrong oh alaran yeah yeah thank you appreciate that and you don't think the Commissioners look at this uh no that's that's why we bring it here exact reason so thank you very much for pointing that out usually catch that I didn't catch it appreciate that very much yep yep yep are there any questions about the recreation ordinance has been through the natural resource advisory committee they've looked at it um we had some comments on this that were um not really related to anything specifically about this particular one was from mhb want to make sure that that they were made aware of it and it followed the um the comprehensive plan for the mhb uh we had um some folks that we thought we should have some more garbage cans out uh we had one from uh K Irish who is with iron Rider out over by in the Crosby area wanting to um ATVs should have access in the county parks to be able to ride your ATVs and County parks to use like picnic sites and and bathrooms and um and then uh we also had one from um in from uh Jenny Max up at nisah just wanting some clarification and then we also got from Christine rise with DNR and she was the one who brought up that 300 feet and the 50 ft as far as trapping and the hunting side so um those are the comments that we receiv received during the comment period so this is also set to go to the County Board um next Tuesday for a public hearing I like this where you know because before you had it in two different documents yes get it all in one where it's one place for people to look at and one place for us to kind of discern yes this one says this but oh this one says that and and so I think it's really good that you're getting that together any questions about that one no okay I'll jump to my last last one is more of an really kind of an interesting situation so we have a parcel that we share between Crowing County and Aken County and it's uh let's see could you maybe show that M that that actually that survey will probably work right there yep and so this it's a situation where the the property is actually cut in half between aen and and the how does that happen it's just the way the parcels line up when you set the boundaries of the county it's been like that for a long time I dealt with this back uh probably around 2014 so they had actually had gone in and got a variance from um applied for a variance to do some activities in their property back in 2014 and uh and it was um aan um uh let's see in 2014 2015 they had some activities that were denied by the board of adjustment and then I spoke with the then Zing administrator was Terry nef and they didn't feel comfortable taking action on it because it was split down the middle so they didn't really feel comfortable with that and and and uh and we did and so we took the application and they submitted a got a a variance to do a few things to um make the structure bigger and they were denied a couple things at the same time um but then uh we got a got in contact with a gentleman who's pre currently has purchased the property and um wants to redo a short-term rental on the property but because of the regulations and such in aen County um wasn't able to do that because of their requirements over there especially for sizing requirements and so um I had the idea that uh we would have a memorandum of agreement with aen County that we would assume all of the Planning and Zoning Authority for that parcel the parcel that is in croing and an Ain both uh then uh any sort of Permitting and Licensing would all come through us it' be easier for this customer they wouldn't have to you know um try to figure out how to work with two counties we nothing changes as far as the as the tax uh the assessment valuing and the taxing that nothing changes there it just assigns the Planning and Zoning Authority on this parcel to crowing to handle and uh do they have to do that as a resolution on their board at all to do that yes they and I I actually have a copy of the we have a memorandum agreement that was that's been reviewed by both County attorneys and this was approved by their board back on um October 8th okay and so um I'm planning if if if this is okay with the board I'd like to bring it to to you guys next Tuesday just have a Beyond consent I think um with just to enter into memor agreement where we would be the playing as Zing author Authority for this parcel so that they don't have to try to work between you know crawl and Ain on trying to get things on their property so a question for our great County Administrator so does this mean that they can vote in aen and in crowing then Mr chair commissioner coring I think you know the answer to that question and I think that's a no well either that or we're going to have to put a wall up I mean I'm just thinking I'm glad we can work with aen County right we have a great relationship we have a great relationship with otherwise we'd have to put a wall there and they're thrilled aen is thrilled that we're willing to take over the the planning don't shake your head Renee that was a great question no it wasn't too big to ring thank you very much I I appreciate it I knew that was going to be an interesting one when we got to that yep it it is but it's I think it's a good one so you don't think we need to run any of this by the inra committee do you you already did already did weren't you there thank you thank you thanks CHR thanks G thank you guys for thank you guys for Patiently Waiting we have now crowing energize coming up I bet you guys didn't think we did anything up here on the County Board did you have fun watching us definitely you always learn you always learn a lot than here same here we're learning I'm learning a lot every day I learn more and more learn all kinds of questions I need to learn how to ask we are passing out the complete report for the 100 um conver Community conversations we are not going to go over that whole report today but I brought it to you for your own reference if you want to take time to read it at some point feel free to do so brought a couple extra copies too okay um I'm l Johnson I'm retired educ Ator um in my retirement I'm working putting my volunteer energy into the crowing Mental Health Alliance which is a program of crowing energized if you're not familiar the Lakes area Justice table and the wise Ministry team of First Congregational UCC Church so I have had the pleasure of working with Karen on both of these projects but we're going to let Karen start off with a summary of our 100 conversations project so thank you for inviting us Commissioners um this project we did a while ago and really want to share the results with you I'm Karen and I just retired in May from uh 40 45 years of work pretty much all in healthcare Orthopedics and then crowing energized um as you know croing energizes the movement between Essential Health croing County so you folks as well as we receive significant funding from the Statewide Health Improvement partnership so this is um the 100 community conversations is a project that we did actually in the midst of Co um and what it is what makes it unique is that we actually reached out to people that we normally don't hear from so these are not people that are going to be gathered here they're not people that show up for our meetings um typically underserved um people and I think that the results of this were pretty amazing to all of us so demographic who was interviewed um on this page and you'll find this in the complete report on page page five um but you'll see that number one we had 32 respondents we didn't collect the information that's not because they didn't want to answer we just did not have it as a question so we had it as a note that referenced um demographics gender where they're from and we did not collect that information when we did collect the information I think what's unique is that you'll see that the ages between 30 and 60 uh that was 49% of the people that were interviewed I think if we look at the community health needs assessment that ensa does every 3 years um and then you have a China as well um you'll see that that's typically a little older demographic that complete that report completes that survey maybe because of the fact that it's paper people don't necessarily um complete it it's a long survey but interestingly these were younger people and geographically as one would expect these this was Crowing County but as you'd expect we have the most people from brainer that identified as being in brainer 44% um or 44 uh 44 people 35 in Baxter and then it should be noted that there were 3 35 people that identified as the Cuna uh Lakes area we intentionally worked with um crmc next slide oh perfect key findings I don't think anybody's going to be surprised here to see uh what the findings were some of the barriers included housing um both affordability as well as Just Karen can I just stop you CU I was going to ask you and you just mentioned it so are you doing some collaboration with kayuna Regional Medical Center too cuz I was just like that's where I go and I just think they're absolutely great and if we're not it it isn't all essential I know essential would like to have everything you know they built a clinic in Deerwood which I don't think there was any reason for that but but uh I hope you're collaborating with Cuna cuz that's a great place we did and what was really really impactful was the last China cycle so that would have been six years ago we actually reached out to crmc and said why are we not using the S same survey tool surveys are expensive as you know um so we actually worked together with them we looked at the questions that we were going to ask in regards to the Community Health needs assessment and then also with this project we intentionally reached out to their Community Health Team and said let's work together and we've kind of done that across the you know we serve the same people um croing County and we all have different experiences right so one person may not be one size doesn't fit all so for people that have a choice and we also have Center Care in the area so it's not just in Lakewood so it's not just um our area but that's a great question um also Access to Health Care uh barriers there included actually when somebody wanted to get into as you could probably guess a mental health provider this survey was done in the midst of C covid so we know we had challenges there on a plus side I think was how healthc care responded um to electronic visits or eits not electronic eits uh that was something that in the past we did not do so again with mental health you can probably see more people um when you are actually being able to go um electronically on a plus side many people referenced our land in nature as a valued asset in our community and then also um the resources that we have in this area resources that we have at the county we have so many uh community-based organizations doing so much good next slide um which Community or communities do you identify with keep in mind there were 105 people that were interviewed and they couldn't reply to this um in more than one they could pick one more than one category um the highest category were the mental Behavioral Health and Recovery um what's not noted here that of that group the 43 there were actually people that called out or there were 20 people that called out that were uh in recovery 43 people listed um or referenced AA na a in the sober Squad great things happening in our area people also the second category was a faith community uh third category was a a Community member 37 people replied we had people that were parents and Guardians 34 and uh Community Advocates 23 we're part of the community Advocates challenges um this question was what are the most important needs barriers or challenges facing your community again this was called out on the um key findings healthc Care Mental Health and people hear a few people referenc finding a provider that suited their need so for instance maybe they had a youth that they were trying to get a mental health appointment for um so more specifically trying to find the provider of their choice and getting it in a timely uh fashion housing 32 people identified that as a a barrier um a lack of housing as well as affordable housing diversity uh inclusion and discrimination challenges with racism specifically than Latin next Asian Native Americans and LBGTQ communities um I want to give a huge shout out to croing County and Debbie yesterday we GA gathered here for the second Daniel indigenous people's day recommend celebration uh we had it was filled downstairs we had all of the chairs taken and it was really meaningful for everybody that was here um I know that sometimes diversity Equity inclusion can be for some reason words that people do not want to use but I think that uh recognizing all of the people that live in our community and being that welcoming community that to everybody um only benefits all of us as a place we call home um next slide is what do you find valuable in your community again the number one thing was community-based Support Services um 28 and I I think this is a time to Pat yourself on the back cwin County um in my experience before I started to work with crowing energized had no idea of all the good things that are happening um there are so so many things that are happening within that County where they support the needs of our community and we have a lot of community-based organizations nonprofits doing wanting to do the right thing family friends um people that care for you 23 that's really important that we know that there's people out there that have our backs right that care about us um land in nature our parks and trails they were called out again thank you those things um cost money and you have there's only so much money that we have in our budgets so Landing nature is a really uh high priority for people and then public spaces um the shop both the shop and the library had four people that reference that they were important to them out of the 105 the next slide is the community experiences and perceptions this is a busy slide you you'll find four different questions that relate to this I personally thought this might be something that you're really interested in um again it's busy so if you pay attention I tell people either look at the green or look at the blue I mean the orange or the blue so that top one is there are pro there are opportunities to share ideas with Community policy makers I consider all of you and respect all of you for being our community policy makers um I happen to know that um you're very approachable I've reached out to my own uh commissioner Rosemary um and really appreciate that so but I think that that's something to take away is that people strongly disagreed with that statement at 46 on the plus side if you look down at the bottom there are people in my community um that I can turn to for help we know that that's important that people realize that people care and you can reach out 76% strongly agreed with that statement um the last slide I'm going to go over next slide is the work to dat so like I mentioned um this is what we worked on cro energized so croing County Essential Health but our partnership was really deeper than that with familywise um services in the Minnesota Department of Health so 105 um cups of coffee is what it was originally uh labeled that's not something that we just made up this is actually a campaign this is actually tried and true from um Minnesota Department of Health and familywise and there was more than one step to this um we followed the self-healing approach so before we even did this piece of it we did some things um we educated our community about neurobiology epigenetics Aces adverse um childhood experiences and resilience so that happened long before I became part of crowing energy the man to my right L's been passionate about that knows a lot about the brain um and has been passionate about leading the aces uh in our community that's something that you can ask for from cro energized to come and do a presentation uh they'll do that to three people up to uh probably 20 people but in any community- based organization Faith Community um and then we also had um we also conducted the third phase of this which was we've hosted two adverse childhood experience um presenter trainings a or interface um presenter trainings which was um significantly you can imagine the cost of that so we've been able to offer that twice in croing county and then lastly was this uh phase that we did the 100 cups of coffee we called it a 105 because we're overachievers and did 105 um uh oneon-one hour interviews with people to get this data and phase four L's going to talk about and this was our kind of boots on the ground what did we do with the information we had a project we called bold yet seldom told okay so um we passing out copies of the B yet seldom told to each of you and U this project really y um those of us who were doing the interviews during the 100 conversations project had an experience that we're calling an empathy stretch when you sit down and talk with somebody who's had a very different life experience in your own you you get empathy and you are stretched and learn something about how somebody else what their life has been like so the idea became then evolved into could we increase empathy and compassion in the community by telling the stories of these folks that we were interviewing so we settled off on that and again our our target audience um was the same as for 100 conversations so it was people who are big categories marginalized so that means a lived experience of uh mental illness addiction disability uh incarceration lgbtq plus folks black and brown skinned people sometimes the uh parents or caregivers of those folks so we asked them to write uh if they would be willing to share their story and they all said yes and um it resulted in the publication of of the bll yet seldom told book so we had our book launch back in April um as part of the uh effort we received money from the opid settlement fund and purchased 440 books to be distributed free in the recovery and Mental Health Community so because people learn and grow through stories is the basic idea um so uh this uh slide is uh at our book launch the folks who were there who contributed in some way in addition to the book we also did a series of videos uh 10 videos which are available on the crowing energize website of people who wrote their stories telling their stories in video form because believe it or not not everybody reads but people watch screens so that's a way to get some ins into some of these folks um so um yeah we're uh and just a a little bit of background about measurement of success I have to say we don't have the capacity to do a really sophisticated followup because basically we have no money and or staff people to do that however we have had held a couple book clubs um the ones I was involved in were one at the Crowing County Jail one at the shop we did a two- session book club we did an evaluation of those and on a fivepoint scale um each of those two book clubs receed 4.3 out of a rating of five so uh that's some data um the informal feedback we've gotten from people who've read the book and talked about it is very positive and I guess what um I'm A literacy guy right so I taught reading comprehension and I'm going to start with a book has no value unless somebody reads it but a book has added value if you talk to somebody about what's in the book and this is called making connections and reading comprehension terms so if uh Rosemary and I both read something and then we get a chance to talk about it she is probably going to have a little bit slightly different take on it or maybe a big different take on it than I do because we have different life experiences so it's the communication about the content in the stories where the real learning uh takes place and hopefully progress in uh more empathy and more compassion for others in our community so that's what I've got to say and I will take a few questions if there's time Mr chair excuse me I don't have a question for either of you but I appreciate this book to take a look at the marginalized communities we're going to have a change in Workforce in our I mean it's already happening I don't think we acknowledge it enough but this is going to have an impact on our community and I think that we have to understand that this is our community and these people live here they have stories to tell we all do and we should embrace every one of us because to your point LW two people have two different views of the same issue and so unless we're looking at each other as quality human beings we're missing the point of life as far as I'm concerned so appreciate that and as e efforts go forward one thing Karen and I have presented at a number of professional conferences about this project and if if it's appropriate for anything that's organized through the county we can get people whose stories are in the book to come and tell their Story I mean I can read their story I love all the stories in these books in the book but the story is more powerful or it comes from the person who wrote it rather than me reading it so I'll just offer that up to you I think it's interesting for me is to say that you put this together by these are just people this is not like a a group that you found or a group that they're just how did you get the names how did they how did they show up for those 105 cups okay uh well let's see for the book project um some of the folks who were interviewed for 100 con Community conversations wrote stories but otherwise it was just sort of the network because we are connected with people who work in the recovery communities think the 12-step programs I remember one interview I did with a guy who was at the Crystal myth anonymous group at upfront Alo club and as we completed the interview he was saying this group this group is like family to me if you read his story you you'll see that his family life was not positive but now that he's in recovery and been clean and sober for I can't remember how many years those 12-step groups are huge so our two area ELO clubs need to be recognized for all the good work they're they're doing um so um and then yeah it was just we who do you know and again the I don't know how to say the network ask people and and I'll just say another thing um of the people who were asked said yes only about 2third actually submitted a draft and I put that up to busyness and writing skills and even though we did have editors to help you know there's a lot more stories out there than are are contained in the book so and we had actually Lola and I both attended a a workshop it was um we did it virtually but they talked about it was two different cities Robinsdale cannot remember the other city but we actually about this 100 cups of coffee um it's a standardized pretty well standardized survey so that you can actually compare your data to other spots um so we really took that data and then we reached out we really worked with Crow energized with a mental health um task group and first identified reaching out to our partners which we have a lot of people that are represented from um you can imagine from the healthcare world you know including Nom and Associates on Northern Pines most of the mental health providers were there so we initially started with them started with the recovery community and then one thing we found early on was to ask people that were interviewed and said hey do you have a recommendation of somebody that you think might want to sit and do this interview because they really had to trust that we were going to do this we were going to respect their information none of us want to hear negative things right I just want to all the good things but um you have to listen to understand and to realize that you're never going to make 100% of the people happy as you all know um it you really have to be open non-judgmental um but that's how we really found was that it was those S soft handoffs so then when we contacted the next person we could say that Karen Johnson said you may be a person um that want to help with this we reached out to uh CLC they were part of it the students there so we really had wide variety of people to ask to participate in the actual um one-on-one interviews and I think it was helpful having it in person instead of like I mentioned the you know doing a survey online this was in person that you know you could it the conversation flows a little bit easy easier thank you MH anything else from the board in regards you have anything thank you for your presentation we really enjoyed it thank you thank you all you do and your good work reach out anytime if you have questions thank you that's all we have today Mr chair well then we are adjourned thank you it'll give me time to get up the peek Buton