##VIDEO ID:7a5hVRPwUr0## e e e e e 90 well 90 minutes but I don't it are you ready okay and we're back we reconvene the Ken County Board of Commissioners meeting in a work session regarding the budget Mr Baker good afternoon I think it's afternoon uh after 12 uh Kelsey Waker candy County Administrator uh I am here with uh department heads and staff to present the 2025 budget we have um a presentation for you all you have binders that were handed out in your seats they have um they have the this presentation so you have a a paper copy they have the spreadsheet that was included in the board packet so you have that more in detail um and they have some other information that you'll and then they have the full ifs 2025 preliminary budget this is not the official certified official budget this is our this is actually our third working draft there's already probably maybe um some changes that will be made to this so just remember in today's discussion um the overall departments those are pretty much solidified that's why we're presenting this information but there are some other maybe quazi government um health insurance that are still kind of fluid numbers within this budget um that we haven't finalized quite yet Minister Baker before you go into the kind of the uh yeah the details uh give us a quick background of the process how when you start how how you process with the different departments and how you arrive at at this preliminary I was going to do that oh good I didn't see it on on the it's not on there um so the 2025 budget Focus so when I start meeting with each department um initially we have it on the agenda the department had agenda in May and we start scheduling those one-on-one meetings with each department in June I like to have initial meetings with department heads just to have an idea that's when we're just having a conversation we don't have maybe numbers finalized by any means but we're just having conversations So within those conversations I have an idea that we're going to be doing a landfill we're looking at a cell construction so Gary then tells me that's a big number right and so then we're looking at Human Services and when in talking with each department in June and July I look for common themes and at your rad and Bridge work session Mel talked about preservation and planning for the county moving forward so that process entails meeting with department heads in June meeting with them possibly again for a second or a third meeting in July and really that's what it entails it's meeting with the staff figuring out where we want to come and present our preliminary budget fine-tuning FTE how many are we um how many should we approve for the 2025 budget what is being requested um and what's the analysis is there background information of why it's being requested are we not meeting deadlines things like that are we looking at technology and so all those things come into play but really June and July um all the finance staff administrator are work and department heads are fine-tuning next year's budget sometimes we have to wait for numbers and so we can't put things in um and really that's the overall process you really work on the budget from when it's approved to when it you're um continuously there's never a time when you're not necessarily working on a budget and that not just probably the administrator that's our CFO that's our finance staff that's our department heads I think this we do a really good job of being um staying on top of the budget and staying on top of the planning moving forward and so one of the common themes surrounding 2025 budget was planning um you'll hear Scott from our it Department talk about planning with technology we need of the game and maybe spend a little bit more to get us up to speed on spending uh planning with our Levy and Reserve goals um later on this year you'll hear with our financial audit for 2023 where we're coming in with our reserves you heard from CLA last year that we have healthy reserves the recommended amount is three to five months we're sitting about eight and a half months so we have overall very healthy reserves uh Implement new technology um I've said before we continue to analyze FTE and that's something that our HR department is continuously doing within departments if they're needed if or not how do we look at that do we are we understaffed are we overstaffed how can we collaborate with other departments how do we utilize technology so this all plays a role with our planning department restructures building assessments and staff development one thing that I think as the as an administrator I think is truly important is professional development we can't expect staff to be supervisors when we have not done the work to train them and set them up for Success um to be a successful super supervisor without that training and so one thing we're looking at for 2025 and this is kind of a common them again in all departments is Staff Development and providing professional development trainings for All County Employees these are preliminary numbers um as of right now the proposed budget is at 48,4 30,000 that's the gross Levy um this year our program our County program Aid increased um overall last year we received about 3.2 million this year we receiving 3.3 as of right now um with these numbers in the budget um we're sitting at an eight and a half percent which I think is uh a really good area to start and so on today's agenda we're going to hear from the budget planning from our department heads um after they're done I'll kind of go over and re recoup everything go over some Levy amounts where we're sitting at where some recommendations would be and I'm also going to be looking for feedback from the County Board where do you want the levy to come in at um and that will help guide these final this final month um for putting in numbers and putting in a preliminary Levy amount um we'll go over wages the levy history and then if there's any questions um and so from here I'm going to hand it off to Val our County Assessor morning or good afternoon good afternoon Mr chair and Commissioners I am Valore County Assessor and I'm just going to go over some basic information here I big part of our budget is um staff and we do have to go through a lot of training um we do have um this is our first year of true County this is our first year of true County so we no longer receive the income payments from our billing for our services so that was for 2024 and moving forward that will also remain the same that we no longer receive any income from our billing but when we did take on the 4,400 additional Parcels we did not um add in a full-time employee to replace our local assessors each of my staff did agree to take on the extra three 630 part Parcels amongst the seven staff that are doing the on the ground work and viewing and inspecting the parcels um but by doing true County we are improving our efficiency improving our quality of assessment and this is a great opportunity to communicate with the taxpayers of these districts and you know sell our services and so they understand where we're going and what we're doing we did also have a really nice article that showed up in the paper um last Friday so I don't know if you had an opportunity to read that also our staff um is a huge investment for our office because of the um the first three years of any staff it takes about $10,000 to train them to get them to the three-year point where they're mandated AMA lure and then after that we have about 50 to 60 hours of continuing education for each staff after that so education is a huge piece of our budget and um we have had you know wages and benefits is retention has a huge part um that you know as a county that we haven't had any change in staff and that is a very good thing for us um other costs in our office are obviously the printing costs of valuation notices that go out that's a a fairly large expense and then the appraisal and tax court costs which um that is in the budget and you know if it's needed we use it and based on you know what petitions we do get over the year and that is about what I have for you thank you um any questions and before I before I open the floor for questions or comments um I think I heard you say almost out of the out of the U get-go was staff is the primary expense and I'm sure you got pencils and need equipment but basically staff is is the major portion of your budget yes that's correct all right any questions or coms and uh go ahead well thank you Mr chair first off nice article in the West Central Tribune very well done trying to explain a very complicated process and that was very well done um so don't have your budget in front of us of course but you're not adding any staff then no we just taking on all this additional on top of this all correct you're still going to be able to try to do uh reviews every uh five years all of them yes we have to visit properties that's State mandated and then when when we get audited I have to report what hasn't been inspected in that threeyear time and we actually had three Parcels on my audit last week so so far so good so I I think one of the questions that's going to be begging all of us is your budget go up or down or stay the same as last year it went up like 360 thou going forward to the new year it's going to stay flat from last year it went up I think we got for the two County yeah what yeah and that was in the board pment based off each department so that's also in your binder as well and also was in the board packet and so this time we kind of want to flow through this the directors for doing their presentations and so I think if there are any FTE that are added that'll be talked about but overall there weren't many the the reason I asked there weren't any is added for 2025 the reason I asked the question is because in your uh early in the presentation you're going to ask us for um our thoughts on is 8.5 the right number or isn't it and so it does relate to you know the Departments is because we did have a significant uh wage and benefit increase last year which I assume comes out of the Department's budgets those increases thank you all right any other questions for Bale well thank you very much thank you and I agree that that article really helps if people read it uh helps them to understand the process because I just got that recently about why is my evaluation so much higher than someone else's and we have to do it one at a time if they read the article we can educate them several of yes thank you all right up next Mark Thompson auditor treasur what do you hit just return here perfect good morning good afternoon uh trying to keep this here short uh again our the I'm I'm speaking not only for the auditor office today but also including the records and the license bureau departments um our primary focus is service to the public and taxpayers candyi County we're also responsible for the collection and distribution of property taxes to cities townships and schools and to the various funds in the county uh we're responsible for paying the County's bills in a time of Mayor responsible for submitting an annual financial statement to the County residents showing the County's fiscal Health we oversee the county election processes to assure accurate election results we provide reporting services for property transactions such as deeds and mortgages and verifying with that we verify correct legal descriptions on those doc documents we record Vital Statistics birth and death records marriages military discharges and notary commissions the license bureau they provide licensing services such as vehicle registration and title transfer automobile license tabs renewals renewal of driver's license and DNR watercraft snowmobiles and ATV registration and title transfers primary increase in in the auditor recorders and the license bureau departments is primarily um payroll we also continuously look at the auditors and the records and the license bu staff duties and processes to find ways to be more efficient budget amounts outside of payroll are fairly consistent from year to year while taking on inflationary results so we do have some some increases but those are minimal um the budget for elections however will with the implementation of newer technology advance ments to assure election security we'll see costs rising in the future in future election Cycles we are focused on applying for any and all grants that come available to offset those Rising costs associated with election equipment and software and with that are there any questions again uh I think the the significant change in our budget is due to payroll we do have increases in other areas but those are are [Music] minimal Mr chair thank you I I appreciate those comments because one of my major concern is is that the payroll or uh salaries employees salaries are placed on the levy and so we know that the levy number is really being used for that as much as possible so I really appreciate feedback from all the all the people reporting today you know is a primary Le uh primary salaries or not so thank you for sharing that yeah anyone else I'm just looking at so when I when I typically look at a budget um it by the way it would be really nice to have a percent increase or decrease so a percentage one but I look for flags and one of the things I saw here was one that went from 6,000 license buau from 6,000 to 55,000 um and so to me that's wow how come that such a and there's I'm sure a good uh reason for that like your election year we're going to have a lot more expense than in a non-election year but um which account number was that you said license I'm looking under license bureau I'm looking at colored sheet we got it's probably the synopsis of your you know C was well you okay um I can look for it later but those are the things that as I look at a summary of a budget um it's nice to see the percent change or and the flaged items and so that one jumped out at me as a big a big change and always usually an explanation for it but curious what that might be but we'll move on because of time no I think you had K do you know what the what is the act title 42 it just says license bureau oh the oh the overall I see what you're talking about I okay I thought it was one particular li no no just the license bu 6600 to 55,000 sure yeah total I see all right thank you y okay Human Resources is Mart good afternoon Connie Mort uh Human Resources Director for candy oh high County um mine is going to be a very short report I don't really have a lot of increases in my budget outside of um the two staff members that are in my department myself and our HR generalists our HR generalist has also taken on uh the additional responsibilities of payroll um so she does payroll from start to finish at this time um she had taken over part of it last year and now she has taken over the entire process so that has run very much more smoothly uh without an increase in salary in my department things I'd like to uh kind of highlight today for you is it's not on my slide but so far we have had 51 postings uh job postings in the county to date uh that's in 2024 um and we also I guess again took on payroll right now um I am doing my recruiting and purchasing recruiting software through neogov and that is a line item on my budget as you probably see there uh for 2024 it will be 15, 670 was my current outstanding bill in 2024 excuse me um other ongoing expenditures for onboarding software starting in 26 it's we're still looking at some options in that so we won't be ready to implement onboarding software to make that a seamless um self-serving process until 2026 so for 2025 we won't have an expenditure for that but just for future planning we will have uh an expenditure for onboarding software if we go down that road and that can be anywhere from one vendor is starting out at $117,000 for onboarding software for a county of our size with the amount of employees that we have to anywhere to $29,000 so it depends on your vendor and what some of those um processes look like and some of the other services that they provide but those again are still in the planning stages and won't affect the 2025 budget uh the expense of going paperless I know that it will talk a little bit about this too but we are looking at what the indexing software and where those um records will um now be stored uh we would like to go paper l and that would be including our Personnel files and our payroll files if you've been in the administrative conference room you see all of those file cabinets in there those are those are all paper and so that would be part of our process going forward then ongoing General and Leadership training uh administrator Baker kind of touched on this a little bit as well we are having a countywide mandatory um harassment training program here on Thursday it will be over at uh the Emergency Operations Center it is mandatory for all employees if the employees cannot possibly be there physically there will be a recorded one that will be um they will be required to view and so we will do that through our no software as well uh the cost of that is just over $3,000 that's going to be pretty representative of what any other trainings that we were able to get through this provider as well and so we're looking at at doing doing some of those trainings in uh 2025 and those are in my budget under Professional Services any other questions Mr chair thank you kind of like the last question I see your budget is $3,000 under and with the salary increases and so forth uh how did you accomplish that there was some is there one big item or something no there was there was some line items that historically I had not used a lot of um and so I was able to cut some some fees there um I did reduce profession my professional um Services budget by a little bit but it was just it was maybe three or four line items that I was able to historically just take down a little bit so I don't have a very big budget so it's it's a it's a very small budget but uh over 200,000 so yes yes yeah good job thank you thank you any other questions yeah any other questions thanks Connie thank you I assume we're doing this in the order of what they're in our booklets so attorney Shane Baker County attorney Shane Baker Shane Baker candy County attorney on this year's budget we have no staff increases as far as positions no special projects um most of our budget comes through salary and then there's some others a lot of that is driven sometimes by the case load and work we're doing um we had some areas go up like Professional Services and books and employee travel um so my presentations is a little unique in the senses in the sense that I point out volatilities that can come up from year to year time to time um first it's Technology based um from the time I've started in this office to now it's really gone from paperless to a lot of processing by um electronic means so that means as you know a few years ago we got a new case management software system fortunately we had a grant for 140,000 um during Co funding for that but that helps Drive other costs because now that's how the core operates business they're going to need need a new have juvenile filings by E charging so we need to get that although I think I can get that under this year but that's an example of how the tech drives costs it can drive it because law enforcement gathers a lot of information from body cams there's so much done that way these days um legal research is electronic so it's not book but it's um West law and we do our research online of course they have almost like these large Cable packages where they have all sorts of options that that's worth that's worth getting because you just very narrow it down to say just Minnesota law very narrow area it' be more prohibitive so um and then evidence making evidence for courts you know we may have situations where we got to remove or redact certain information from our data so we will continue to see Tech kind of driving how our costs operate which leads us into transcription um it's a lot of stuff's done by Body Cam and it's not the standard um voice activated digital or recording equipment that makes transcriptions a little harder some of the equipment that um some law enforcement agencies have used are not compatible for making transcriptions so that cost then gets pushed down to us and we got to find providers to who do that not all those there's some things Sheriff's Office Still Still does and some equipment but that they do more than what other law enforcement agencies we work with do and of course with that driving certain cost for needing the transcripts for use in court is we have a very diverse population in this County so that leads to to our issue number three is translations um whether it's our victim Services individuals meeting with Witnesses and victims on cases and we need a translator there to provide that service or we need transcripts translated both with Spanish and English on them to help us have the evidence we need for court um but that also presents an opportunity maybe working with human services where we can maybe have economies of scale where how we go about getting Services provided for translation um training that's been discussed already a few times but um we certainly try to find as many lowcost items as we can but put on by the County attorneys Association but there are other Law related subjects for example I have two attorneys next month and I know Sheriff's Office is sending some people to a mental health and crime um education training because we're seeing a lot of those issues pop up over and over and over again in the community and staff are need to be trained to know how to what's the new issues in the field and be up to speed on those areas so it's not also on Law related subjects it's also on leadership since 2016 I've been sending staff to Vision 24 de what's now the lead program there it's a leadership program and so we that's about $1,100 per person per year but it's well worth it because whether their department head or just a Frontline attorney they there leaders in the areas where they're working and whether it's in court committee meetings what have you you need trained staff um and then that brings us to Talent um and that's more that's more about turnover what I'm trying to say there and since last year we've been operating an internship program we had one intern last summer we had one in the fall and we had one this past summer and that's been beneficial in two ways we were able to fit that in our budget but we've had such turnover the whole legal profession Prosecuting profession has seen a lot of Staffing changes but this helped us weather the storm we had one attorney who left us in at the end of March but we had already lined up an intern for the summer so that bridged us to our new person starting just a few weeks or a week ago um and that new person who started I should mention that's the one we had interning this past fall so basically it's building a farm team of potential hires and and whether it's for us it worked out that way I mean we had some job hostings where we one time we had two applicants and that was after not getting any of the first go around other times it's been kind of four three so when you have limits on the applications you want to bring in as create the environment that you can get more talent coming in and that worked for us this last time so we hope to continue that throughout the summer because you never know when you'll have someone depart for something else any questions any questions commissioner B yeah thank you Mr chair U are are they paid internships our are yes yeah which makes sense I'm not saying no no no no um I assume so but I just want to be clear on that and your budget seems you know pretty reasonably priced reasonably priced that's probably not the word I want but it seems very reasonable actually what was unusual about that is I actually called Karen Anderson because our salary went down okay and I was one from the 2024 PL I was wondering what where did that come from because that made no sense yeah during the changes but there was fluctuations during the year and then we had a very experienced attorney leaveing replaced with a someone just out of law school one more just a followup comment too uh interesting presentation uh thinking of body C cameras uh I always just think of the sheriff's department about you know they have to wear them they got them but there's all these other things connected with it that your department has to go through too as well it's also just the volume of use these things it's not just that they're used to them at all it's like everything is on body cam then when they're speaking with the witnesses or offenders or victims a lot of times that is by Body cam it was interesting thank you for sharing other questions all right thanks ATT Baker Community Corrections Tam ocean I saw you leave and then I didn't see you come back good afternoon I think I sent everybody into a little panic when I walked out the door um I gotta move it for there we go um so Community Corrections um in in your packet in the slide talks a little bit about all of the things we do in our department to address Public Safety um as we know um Community Corrections is pretty critical in addressing long-term Public Safety we have specialized units um and we work with you know all levels of supervision from the start of a criminal justice case at a bail study all the way to when somebody comes out on a life sentence review um which we've had many of lately the main drivers that you would see in our budget at this point like everybody else we're looking at um Staffing costs for a variety of different things but some of those I would like to talk about is we have some offsets right so my budget is mostly County funding but on the other hand I also we have state funding because the state has some requirements for what they are supposed to fund and then we actually have been lucky enough to be participate in two Grant projects this in the next coming upcoming years that have offset some of those costs for us um when we talk about State funding we were really successful in changing some of our state funding last year as you know um instead from $800,000 to1 1.4 million around dollars that we're getting annually from the state when we approach the state at looking relooking at that that's funding that we've been looking at for the last 25 years because the state wasn't following through with their requirements um we were not fully successful and so in the upcoming Years Years we're going to be looking again at going back and discussing that with the state about according to the workload studies and the state mandates they are supposed to be funding us at a higher level so we'll continue to look at those options as we go forward in particular you can also see a little bit in the budget um it's not as apparent right now but it will be over time is the legislature has um eliminated our ability to charge supervision fees going forward and so that will affect our budget um and so as we kind of keep going forward and what that is and some of our driving costs may be affected by that so another area we've seen an increase in costs is drug testing um that's substantially increased over the last couple years the cost of it um and our state funding hasn't kept up and the supervision fees technically may go away that we may not be able to charge those back going forward um another area that we're seeing an increase in cost which is one of those areas in my department that goes up and down um last year we saw increase um I expect one this year is juvenile out of home placements and as we look at that it's very difficult for us to predict what types of Auto home placements we're going to need for juveniles in an upcoming year so we some years are lower or higher this year is a higher year hopefully maybe in the future it'll be lower I I have no idea how how to know when we're going to have be able to put what types of placements and that cost is going to be be from year to year um I think that's pretty much you know upcoming training and different things of our grant we have a grant right now that's going to provide um quite a bit of funding over the next three years for training um in developing programs for um evidence-based practices and quality assurance so that's going to be a huge Focus for us going forward any questions for Miss lber go ahead commissioner Dwayne so juvenile our home placement is that no we um for my department so all of our departments here in the county have some juvenile out of home placement cost just here where so um Social Services is going to have a cost that they have to pay for the sheriff's department has a cost that they have to pay for and Community Corrections has a cost that we have to pay for and so the only individuals juveniles that we are looking at for those aut home placement costs are individual juveniles who are under some type of probation supervision so there are criminal charges um that have to be placed in a setting that we have to pay for um so in this year's cases the the kids that we are looking at that we're paying for have had some pretty significant higher end charges and that means that that increases my budget from sex offenses to um assault charges things that we we were not able to um manage in the community so so the placement is like in a facility or it's in a facility yes right or example I'm sorry what for example for example parade Lakes youth programs actually the kids that we've been dealing with right now we've actually had to have a higher level um even to the point where um this year we had one at Redwing that we had to pay for which is you know the juvenile prison so other questions yeah just a couple questions reference to the placement for example PR L youth program do get a discounted rate so that help we do and we're very involved with programming and making sure that when we place kids at Prairie Lakes that we have a continuation of program so that's why um myself and staff work very closely um I'm a part of the board that we work with our facility here in our County so that we don't have to send them out if we have a choice and can work forward with them and then just a follow question if I may um you mentioned the additional State funding which is fantastic U and you're feeling that's sustainable then going forward because otherwise we going to have to look at staff and Levy up so our state funding right now is um it will go forward where there's an issue with it is the way our funding formula works it's based on the legislature appoints a dollar amount for the state and the state then it's divided up and right now what our funding formula did two years ago is it meant that it's Equitable funding across the state no matter what delivery system you have we're still working at the state level to determine how that study or work we have a workload study coming up we have a variety of different things to stabilize that funding get things situated but I would say the funding itself is there as populations change it could change so we have a set amount for Community Corrections funding across the state and if um all of a sudden our population increased on what we were supervising and another Count's population decreased we may have more additional funding coming from the state out of that pot or vice person so if our probation funding is based on the work we're doing at the state level I think the question always comes up uh to commissioner Berg's point about sustainability is like grants like the or Grant or something you know yeah so we do have a couple grants and we're we're very conscious of the fact of those two crants we will Monitor and keep going forward and hopefully those will be okay but no the state funding is not a grant it's it's ongoing funding but it does have some fluctuation based on case loads very good Jo thank you very much thank you Emergency Management is a here are you gonna hand um he had to be at Kanas so I will do my best based off his notes um so we have on here the weather radar Gap uh strategic planning with the rescue squad and then overall awareness with the Emergency Management Programs and our Rescue Squad um the weather Gap I would say ace Bonar our interm director has done a phenomen phal job with us he he sits on state committees he's making a lot of awareness regarding this at legislative uh levels as well um I'm not going to do the joke as good as he is um but I'm gonna I'll read it uh so I laugh when he gave me the note everyone sees The Radars apparently are like sewer plants or group homes everyone sees the benefit but no one wants them in their backyard and I just think that is a true Ace fashion so um I hope I did that Justice um but there there's a whole lot of benefit for having this um and there shouldn't be a cost for the county other than his time he has done a lot of work going to different counties and educating other County boards regarding what the weather Gap means and not just County boards but legislators as well um Emergency Management also oversees the rescue squad we just had our 75th Anniversary um ace and I are personally proud of the work and the commitment that this group pass uh sometimes they go underlooked many times but the the dedication that these members have to our Rescue Squad um is beyond words I mean some of them are third generation Rescue Squad members which is really telling of the commitment and time and the dedication that they have to overall candyi County so some of the work that we're going to be doing is looking at some strategic planning and priorities and making sure that everyone's on on the same page with how we want this department to move forward um what are the stat staing levels look like what does our equipment look like and really G uh gauge where all the members are coming in at and then finally awareness is a huge part of Emergency Management um from tabletop exercises to evaluating our facilities to educating our own employees to educating the public um one of the things that is a project that we've been working on is the school reunification program and then you'll um that's something you'll hear about at our September 3rd board meeting a will provide an update on that and so it not just awareness to be proactive but we also have to be reactive and going through those exercises and creating the awareness and the response times regarding the train derailment or windstorms or tornadoes and so just creating awareness about that is one thing is a goal of ours is that we want to improve on moving moving forward Mr thank you Mr chair going back to the radar Gap uh any guest when that might come to fruition I I don't I know Ace is waiting on a few different things but like I said he'll provide more of an update to the Coney board at the September 3rd meeting I I'm shocked that there is such a thing but it really makes sense now every storm comes I'm watching and Els said there's no storm and EL boom there's a storm where was that before you know yeah so it's very much needed and I I appreciate them working on that and moving trying to move forward as fast as as we can and fill in that Gap and also this really comment about the rescue squad what a good job they're doing and trying to meet their needs as much as possible thank you so I'm having a hard time finding out where he is on this here it doesn't say emergency civil defense civil defense okay thank you that's right actually went down a little yeah I'm making I'm making a couple notes because some things are combined and so if I knew what was combined it would be helpful to all right um Environmental Services Mr gear thank you Mr chairman Gary gear Environmental Services director here uh this afternoon and bringing the uh Environmental Services budget before you uh and just kind of going to touch on the main drivers and the bigger items for Budget 2025 and uh the lfi cell construction will be is the significant driver this year uh it's going to be completed uh which will include development of 295,000 cubic yards of waste disposal capacity and revenue generation through 2029 and uh potentially further if permit modifications which I'll touch on in a minute uh allow for vertical expansion of the MSW disposal area uh it involves placing 15,000 cubic yards of clay material liner and 3.4 Acres of geom membrane liner uh Le collection pump piping granular material as the barrier on top of the the Geo membrane liner and then Frost protection mssw uh that's one piece you don't when as soon as you build a cell and you got the piping under there and you're collecting the leate we can't have it freeze immediately in November so uh we're a lot of folks don't realize that but we're we're moving we we're considering the fact that we're getting close to capacity with our current space available Within mssw but then as we develop the new cell we actually push 4 to8 ft of mssw on top of that new cell that we be building in 2025 and then we're technically backing up as we accept new waste then because we have space available where that just came for but that provides us our Frost protection for the leech a collection system underneath the cell construction so a lot of moving parts to building a cell and a lot of work involved in doing that uh additionally there'll be ultimate development Road uh improvements within the landfill uh storm water conveyances and basins um additional litter fence uh that we built two years ago that's been a significant Improvement for us along the road and we will capture just the the approximately 700 ft going north yet and that would complete that uh piece for the litter retention uh the permit modifications for the landfill we do are A Primitive fil facility through the Minnesota po control agency uh we will renew in 2025 which would include uh requests for additional vertical expansion of the mssw disposal are area uh we're looking at between 20 and 30 ft of additional height and changing our slopes from what has been historically 5:1 to 3:1 and what we're doing of course is selling space and we can create more volume and more space extend the life of the landfill so uh that is our desire as we move forward in rep permitting because our ultimate capacity capacity is approved through that permit so then the way to gain that space is through height and slope so that is part of the plan for 2025 and then in addition uh lee8 recirculation uh we would be proposing but I can't keep glasses on or glasses off um so recirculation of the leech eight uh which uh historically the only option has been well historically we have trucked our leate through the last number of years we've been using our Le treatment facility uh that has been operational uh throughout this whole year now so we're gaining some traction and success with that uh the the idea with the recirculation of the lee8 and get it permitted to be able to do that would be that any downtime or occurrences when we're not able to treat the leech a we can recirculate it through the cell and not have to truck off site so again we're uh a little extra uh liquid in the the mssw uh in our eyes will Aid in compaction of the mssw which again is what we're after because more we can come back more space we can uh maintain to uh continue to uh add disposal within that so uh and just then I guess I mentioned that no no Trucking would be the goal with that too that's kind of been the behind the scenes goal but I think we've learned through our DRP process with the Lee treatment system that it isn't the Magic Bullet that there will just never be any Trucking there is going to be issues in timing uh when things are either broke down or not functioning for some Reas so being able to recirculate will be a big plus for us in our permit to be able to uh inove compaction go ahead commissioner yeah thanks uh this a SE well it's kind of part of the budget I suppose um with all the rain this year that's probably been a huge issue with uh it it hasn't been as bad as maybe uh past situations we've done I believe a little better job of storm water management on the facility we used to uh went and it's it depends on the timing of the cell as well see we have a lot of uh MSW in the current cell so we have absorption so we're a little bit delayed there's a delay in leei coming through it doesn't rain rain today and we see it tomorrow so it there's a little bit of a bounce with that of knowing that exactly but we've also done a better job of storm water managing we used to have a fair amount of runoff into our cells that we've really worked to not allow to happen anymore so uh we are you're trying to just treat leech a and not additional water so that's kind of what I just had said to uh the storm water uh conveyances and basins we can develop and work those as best as possible and it helps our chances to keep the additional rain water and I understand rain water right on the sale yes but it's pretty much just sell then that you're yes correct okay so that's the big gain or the buer Mr thank you so what I hear you saying the leage system is working fairly well this year it's it has been operational we we still are Desiring a higher percentage of permeate which is the clean water going out of it and the concentrate which is what we also recirculate into our cell but we're we're operational which has been a you know it's been two steps forward one step back for a number of years of course but we're it's going well this year and one other followup question any uh chemicals new chemicals that we have to be aware of that you have to be aware of uh to test for I would I would I would say not not anything new that we're uh we are and we had implemented posos testing last year already too that's just kind of the the hot uh Front Burner one that we're watching for but we had already already been monitoring for that and then testing for a of course a laundry list of chemicals through our sampling that we do and uh nothing that we are not finding anything in our monitoring Wells that is coming from any cell we've constructed so we're we're pleased with our reporting results good thank you okay I'll keep trying to go here um oh and well I do want to add one other piece with the Dr the DRP that we're under and you know we're at some point we need to get that pulled into our facility permit as well um and it's good to know that we're we're getting consistent production out of our treatment system do we wish it was would have been working better sooner have we invested a lot yes we have but all mssw landfills have just been informed that they need to have a DRP and a way to treat their leech Aid within five years so I credit the board and past administration and staff that uh worked uh stuff you next out to introduce and try a Le treatment facility uh because we are on the front side of a lot of of a path that's coming for everybody else so at least we're I believe in a good position for what we have done and uh moving forward jumping to equipment uh as another budget driver for 2025 uh a new tra to Dozer The the current one we have is on the 5-year program that we've been under for the years that I've been around so that's this a a replacement but it is a significant item looking to go to a full-on dozer instead of a crawler uh a crawler is kind of a hybrid between uh payloader and and Dozer and the Dozer as we're phasing which the crawler was used primarily in our demolition cell and that phasing out will uh a true Dozer will be a better piece of equipment for landfill operators uh primarily in the MSW cell and again a big plus for providing the compaction that we're looking for um that's it for the landfill just a quick highlight on Planning and Zoning then as well salaries are the main driver there uh number of permits that we've averaged are just over 600 over the last five years uh average fees we've received 357,000 uh there's been 4 new homes permitted this year so those are just some of the things again salaries main driver uh the ssts low interest stolen that's a septic system program it's been a great program over the years a lot of money has been uh loaned at a low interest rate through that um and in recent years we've got the income based grant program available as well uh and that in conjunction with the glacial Lake Sewer District you know we're covering a lot of properties that have good Waste Water treatment and Improvement in the long term so good things going on there so that is all I have for Environmental Services unless there was further I guess I got some questions Midstream but if there's anything further I just make a couple of comments um you know technology is defined as not just equipment but ideas too and uh really have to commend you for I mean we the GLA Lake Sewer District does the same thing we don't want storm water being treated in the sewer district because it's expensive and keeping that storm water out is I think a great uh move forward and then the recirculation you know instead of hauling It Away pump it back on and give it a few more days buy some time as it re or rep percolates I think that was also a good idea couple of big goals for us through the new permit C thank you all right thank you all Andy you haven't had enough of us yet look at back yeah let me hit you okay Andy after Andy is I'll make your short and sweet gentlemen um so most of my operational budgets I was able to have no changes with the acception of some of the larger ones and those driving factors of course are wages and benefits um I did have to raise utilities on three four of those budgets um I wish I would have had a little foresight that uh when was going to start charging us a uh fee for natural gas now too otherwise I would have raised up my budget a little bit more um but we'll see what happens there Mr chair can I ask excuse me where are you on the budget here I mean what oh not on there what's the name of it oh I have all over okay yeah overall it's like 15 okay right that's why I can't find so there's nothing big on any of my operational budget should be fun one uh fun 15 and fun 16 um the major changes will be to fund 13 which is our abil fund um so if you look at each of the numbers on a 2025 budget those numbers reflect the capital Improvement plan so how much will be spent in each one of those facilities um to go over uh next year's Capital Improvement plan um we have uh the attorney's office we have the elevator that's going to be a big line item I did hire an engineering firm to write the specs for that is that not nothing I can do um Library we have a proposed roof um the main air conditioner which is original to the building so 25 years old um we have some a split unit to put in in the uh the it room um some vfds for for controlling the fans um County office building we have the elevator that should be right around $95,000 um Public Works would be replacing the majority of the INF floor heat boilers um they've come to their end of the life um we had replaced one last year ready and plan is for uh in-house staff to paint the facility next year and law enforcement center um we have uh building water pumps and drives um we do not have enough water pressure out here so we have to have supplemental pumps to keep the water pressure up in the building not only for showers and stuff but for mainly the fire system to keep the code [Music] um they're failing we've had replaced Parts on the 10 there now it's just dep part was $7,000 um so we got that coming down the pipe uh maintenance garage um that's coming on 20 years old um we're looking at the boilers over there and that's about it but you know that comes to a price tag of $960,000 amongst all facilities and then you know I I'm going to calculate another 5% on top of that for inflation um so that's another $48,000 so we're nearing a million dollars for the capital Improvement plan next year and what have we been putting away for that 1.3 so we're staying ahead of it yes okay thank you um any questions for Andy what I'm going to suggest if I think this is getting a little long for those of you who have reported I think it's safe for you if you want to leave free to leave and and uh we're not going to ask any more questions afterwards we'll get our answers another time thank you all right thanks Andy SC afternoon try to Breeze through this a little bit um so we've got a few priorities for this director Scott hoveland IT director um so we got a few priorities for this year uh as a whole we tried to stay pretty close to where we were um at up a bit um cyber Security's been a big thing in the last couple of years um so and as you know we've had a couple of recent events that have thrown us a curve um we've invested a lot of money and ironically the things we invested money on were things that had issues so sometimes you can't win um but those uh those tools that we've implemented are um because of Regulation from the FBI the DCA um and so we've purchased some things that we've been really benefited from what you've given us through arpa funds uh we're going to continue those and next year I think we'll be okay uh be prepared for some other numbers if we don't have other grants to pay for those incoming years um we've been working with modern modernization of different it systems throughout the county uh number of our departments have brought up that it has been involved with uh whether we're looking at HR uh scanning or um bringing some of our on Prem uh applications to the cloud uh we're looking at various things and with all of those bring questions concerns U stress so um and money so um there as we've seen there's there's money invested here to have it on Prem there are some benefits to having it in the cloud um but sometimes that cost us a little more money too do it that way um we've done some pilot projects with candra County and several counties throughout the state to try to be ahead of some of these initiatives and that's been beneficial we're trying to get some group purchasing so that we can drive down pricing that's what we did with our Sim project that we have implemented uh without that big group we would have paid significantly more uh operational expenditures uh that's that's where we're kind of getting hit um we've got licensing that unfortunately Microsoft doesn't ever charge us less than they did the year before our backup software our you know all kinds of stuff um that's where you know I guess as we were looking at budgets I could not have a level budget there because of an uncontrolled um fee we're looking at this next year to probably move to Office 365 for the whole County uh what that looks like is probably about $100,000 and we can take care of that through some of our arpa funds but that's not a one-time cost that is an ongoing cost from and I think I've talked to a few of you he said hey we just gave you money for this well guess what here here's what once we go and put our foot in the water um we're going to invest that um we're always trying to keep up to date with our our our servers our PCS you know we've got a load on a truck right now for the county office building so we're always trying to keep our staff working to keep our the rest of the county staff up to date so we're not uh fighting old equipment um and then security within that infrastructure too we've invested a lot of money there to again back to the cyber security what do we have to do to keep candy County function um some of the other things we've done this year and we're going to continue to do next year we've done some Innovation with our technology uh including as you're looking here at your uh consoles in front of you U that was one of our big Investments through arpa dollars uh we're this next year we'll be looking at boardrooms and things like that to make them more usable for County staff uh and then the last would be Personnel um as we know that's not something that with our salary changes that's been a bigger amount um but that's what we can do we're going to look at some different on call um benefits for our staff right now it's kind of a comp time one for one and so we're going to look at that through this next year um again I don't know that that'll be a big expenditure in the future but down the line so um with this like I said we have greatly benefited from the decisions that have been made to give the the IT department uh financial assistance through grants uh we're going to invest those things to do the right thing however um in coming years we're going to be asking for more money or more or we're going to be continually looking for Grants to fund those things sure keep looking for Grants what's that keep looking for Grants yeah yeah well and I think that's just it I think as a county um I think we're always looking for that right and and who is that and who's got time to do it so um yes um so um with that like I said we're trying to look at long-term Solutions not onetime Solutions onetime payments and that's where we're at as far as technology for the county any questions question cor just a comment and a question um have you seen a lot of changes it over the years I can remember back uh when Jay helped me with a floppy disc it's a long long way since then hasn't it been and uh you got a lot of experience I appreciate that and you're doing a good job in that aspect um one thing I hear from some of my meetings U is that we need a a room you know with a good uh uh monitor you know for Zoom meetings and things like that is there plan to set up one of the uh the meeting rooms building what we'll start to see with as I talked about with our board um our different conference rooms um something in so you can walk in with your laptop connect to the screen and then you just that'd be really nice needed you know and as we see in this building there are not enough there's not enough spaces to have big meetings like that so but even the smaller rooms we do have we still get you know 10 15 20 people some of them so be nice to have one there thank you all right other questions thank you Scott appreciate that I'm gonna pause for just a second here we've got so the agenda initially said 90 minutes for this and need just started at 11: we're approaching no start at noon was no but start at about 11 so now we're quite a bit over is there any way we could uh take five minutes well I'm just wondering if we could uh do the rest of this at the next meeting I know we've already had staff waiting around or we power through it because no we might have it another okay I just wanted to ask all rightline good afternoon Caroline Khan uh Health and Human Services director I know you guys have ifs reports um but Carol puts together these really nice easy to follow would you like a copy of those um I can pass those around a little EAS to walk oh mov over he's pred ready for me so uh today I'd like to just talk to you a little bit about our themes for the upcoming year and how we're really going to be focusing on optimizing our Synergy uh we've been a health and human services department for I believe since an Steen was our director is when we made that transition um and we're still continuing to to way look for ways that we can leverage both sides of our department to to really improve the work that we do um so we're going to continue to focus on right sizing our initiatives and optimizing our resources to streamline some of our processes and efficiencies some of those things that you know Scott talked about in partnering with it uh we're looking at moving forward with a tech program that allows like our text messages instead of typing them out we can just cop click and drag uh and still meet some of the requirements that we need but really decrease some of that staff burden on areas such as that as well as things like we've talked about uh with our caseworks and E signature and finding ways that we can use the systems that we have or other systems to improve the way that we work um continue to look at our organizational Frameworks and team designs so we've recently had some changes within our Public Health Department under foundational Public Health responsibilities and instead of adding staff really did an assessment of capacity within our staff uh to see areas in which we could grow we've identified some other areas of opportunity where we were able to ask um our Services side what are areas that you need uh so we'll be moving forward with looking to uh bring forward an opportunity to do jail parenting programming and how can we work um for needs on one side and benefit from the other and work together to accomplish some of those goals and that kind of still rolls into like our our culture of shared services and team design and how can Public Health and Human Services continue to to partner and and move forward for things such as parenting education and others um and the again continue to identify um and strategies to boost productivity for our and satisfaction overall for our staff and our clients um with that comes some changes as you can see if we'll I believe the public health one is on top um Carol has done a remarkable job putting this in a nice easy format for us so just to call out some areas in our revenues I really want to highlight that foundational Public Health dollars uh it was really a strategy from the state to make sure that this doesn't decrease our Levy um that's very important so you're going to see a decrease um in candy ohigh County's Public Health request on a levy but that's because our our team is doing such a great job and Carol's team on the finance side is doing a great job on Revenue recapture and providing Revenue delivered Services um so that the reason you're witnessing that is because of this this these foundational dollars but it is a direct result of the revenues that we are receiving for the services that we're delivering to the community um we continue like everybody else to look for Grants and utilize grants within the work that we do to to reach our goals most of our um change that you'll see I know that it's probably jumping out so I'm just going to address the elephant is that increase on our health promotion line we've seen decreases a in availability for funding to support areas like CTC and our Public Health has done a really good stewardly job um and with that increase in Revenue uh we were still a ble to modify some opportunities to still achieve those goals for like our child and teen checkup and our other health promotion goals um and so we chose to allocate putting in a few more dollars to maintain that consistency in our our community impact um while still moving forward with a decrease on that Levy request again if you move over to our Human Services side you'll see uh modifications some of our Public's uh purchase of soil or our recoveries uh there was a change in Parental fees uh from a legislative standpoint uh so we are no longer able to collect those and that is where you'll see a majority of that decrease under our recoveries line um other revenues we continue to move forward and find ways that we can leverage the revenue opportunities that we can get under our time study and um other areas uh Carol's team does a really good job helping educate our staff especially with staff turnover to make sure we're optimizing every opportunity to receive that state and federal funding for the work that we do um and then if you move down you will notice uh a shift in in Personnel that is our main about 64% of our budget does go to Personnel so that is um able it's a it's a pretty hefty portion but I think it's really stable if you look at the budget that you're looking at from 2024 didn't yet allocate for those increases and we're having more staff participate in our health insurance um so that's why you're noticing that in increase there but overall I'm really impressed with the way that candy ohigh county has been able to keep their per capita cost of of Levy dollars spent on the Human Services delivery if you look at that uh number our per capita cost is pretty in line from 2020 and if you look at the Statewide per capita cost that they had a pretty significant increase so I think it really goes to the Testament of the work that candy ohigh county has been doing to maintain a stable Service delivery while um increased demands and regulations and changes on the work that we do so I'd just like to highlight that as well Mr thank you yeah per capita costs um we're staying pretty reasonable there that's good still a lot of money per cap when you think about Services uh but uh at least we're staying pretty much in as we go along um I noticed also on here that the arpa funds you know they're running out now we hired the staff with them and I'm assuming then for the health or the for the Human Services Levy increasing by 463,000 um that's mainly Levy dollars for salaries for these positions having to pick up the full amount for that as well and is there any new hires in this position no going forward now we are still analyzing some needs but at this point the budget we're putting forward doesn't have the FTE um we we'll always find needs and desires but we still have to remain stewardly so we're going to Contin to move forward with opportunities to see what we can do to meet that need uh without the additional increase of Staffing at this and so the the levy increases of mainly salaries and that we're trying to yep and then the offset of that minor recovery reduction so that's kind of if you look on that differential side yep so okay thank you all right any other questions thank you I have a few questions but I'll I'll ask at a different time because in the interested time yeah members of the board M Public Works director um on your screen is I've kind of done it in four four major areas this is the proactive side of my budget the reactive side is the maintenance side which is about three and a half million um I didn't list that out because it's kind of what people expect this is what um we are they they expect it to do forward thinking they kind of assume that we're doing maintenance with that note um the other thing I don't have just for the record is the glacial lakes will be coming up in October November that's an Enterprise fund so that's not included in here and I think that's oh and then so let's just start out with Capital Equipment we have $778,000 of Capital Equipment we're looking at and we're recommending that we split um that between Levy dollars and buffer fund dollars we did have about 120,000 of that is eligible for the buffer fund which would be the skid steer tra o conditioner stump grinder so I is a as kind of a the administrator and I were thinking like if this is a you know like a headd direction we can go this will help also the the levy reduction because our Levy has remained the same for Public Works 4.7 and so this would be one way that we have a revenue Source or an area that we could use which is an eligible cost now this will leave at the end of the at the end of 25 we'll still have a balance of about $700,000 in that so with these purchases so you did I hear you looking for some sort of well to me it just makes we were just we were just thinking like because it is a direct impact to the levy it's not you don't need to make a vote but I'm just if the general direction we we haven't done a lot of purchases with the buffer account but we do and we can't and I guess the point I would make is that the money is there continues to come in there's no sense in sitting on it so if we have eligible purchases and eligible uses for that we may as well use it otherwise and granted we have pretty good interest rates right now but money is there to use and on that note one of the things that we were looking at buying in 2024 was the we're buying the skider a trailer right now Austin uses just a pickup and then we borrow one ton from public works and we would just um maybe get rid of his pickup and go with a 250 or 3/4 so he can pull it so with that being said um we would like there's no impact to the 24 budget but maybe to purchase that now with the $24 it would still that was all calculated into this whole um balance of the buffer anyway you can think about that um but we would like to maybe proceed with that um as as administrator said you know this is for us kind of a planning and preservation year um but I do want to highlight four projects that we're going to be doing for safety projects one is we're going to do the grade separation over the Burlington Northern railroad tracks the the $9.6 million grade separation 're we're going to be doing uh 12 intersections with LED stop signs we're going to throw in some where two of the sites will have rumble strips so that's a big change we're going to have I believe uh 35 or so intersections with with LED stop signs now U that because the state did an overb Buu last year um we're going to be doing our grounding what reflective again this year through the federal dollars and then um we do a off-road Trail project every year um and we're doing one on Lake Avenue South and then one up from kind of the Bible Camp Northerly on our County Road 95 uh construction is 25.2 million that's 31 miles of Paving and overlay there is no construction in there but we are going to be doing um some full depth Reclamation which is we have the grade we're going to go all the way down into the gravel and then build it back up so it's quasi the same as construction you'll have the same quality as a new constructed Road and then the last um thing I want to point out uh maybe I'll go back to construction some of the notable projects we're going to be doing next year is a Tri County Road we're going to be doing the College Road um from 5 over to 41 um we'll be doing the bridge over here and then um 7th Street in Wilmer or Our Kind Ro 41 from the fairgrounds up to Walmer Avenue so those are kind of like your Flagship bigger projects that you might see if you will it would be all of our County we would start where 10 and two split and do the 10 and two little dance there and go all the way up then go all the way North to a mile North I think of 102 I think it's five miles yeah yep yep and we would what we're looking at doing is an FDR and Paving grass line to Grass line so it would be almost it would it would be the identical same road as eight BL and North it would be the exact that look would be what that would be up to is it not nope NOP no you can tell we love construction um the full depth Reclamation uh on roads used for Highway 23 detours yeah people are going to be very happy about that is that covered in the cost of the no uh orlane project by the state no we don't get no um not even close like it that's just a token of feel good what you have to do to get yeah the inter agency cooperation we use there incidentally you know we do use trunk highways as Rd tours as well and we don't pay them anything so um on the budget side our Revenue um we have 12 Revenue sources that we fund this program with I listed the top six and as far as budget goes our Levy has not changed so 4.7 million our budget changes because our budget fluctuates with construction Revenue so it went from a little over 30 million last year to 32.16 um with that I believe that was and that 32 includes uh the bridge y corre so in another year it might be six million for The Interchange at New London yep so yeah that that's why this this budget is a little hard to when when we show it in the budget report because if you get a big Grant if you don't get a big Grant if you it it goes up and down quite a bit all right any other questions no good thank you CHF little break oh I'm sorry corki requested a three minute break and I am going to set a timer on you used to have a little thing with s I'm gonna set well no that was a 15 minute e e e e e e e e she we reconvene the KY County Board of Commissioners sh welcome afternoon chairman members of the board Eric tffs from cany County Sheriff um well here to just give you some highlights for for blow lights however you want to look at it for 2025 um as far as the Sheriff's Office concerned when you're looking at your document um there's three main areas of course the county jail falls under my budget uh Dispatch Center and then there's one listed as Sheriff then also boat and water safety and and uh snow bill Patrol and saf so those are small little things that are just taken care of by grants and stuff so for your reference but one of the biggest things that will probably happen in 2025 will be the purchase of a computer AED dispatch um records management Corrections management civil process and law enforcement mobile software currently we're running LG which we purchased for a really really low price a long time ago um and uh they're sort of the company is sort of ending it so to speak through lack of support and there's a few aspects of it that don't currently work um we did kind of scramble in 20 when I first took office in 2023 all of the uh law enforcement agencies that were using letg were under the assumption turned out to be false information that letg was just going to end of life at a certain time and not support its software which would of course essentially us uh that didn't happen but they have really backed off on their support so a lot of agencies are looking at different different products that are out there um some agencies have already gone Sterns County has gone to another replacement um called Tyler Technologies um we're looking really hard at some of these vendors right now and we're also looking at the possibility of maybe being a host site for the outlying uh agencies that's around us that's what Sterns County is actually doing with Benton County and a few other agencies up there so there might be some Senate appropriation appropriation funding available for that type of scenario but we're still kind of exploring that so uh the next item would be we're going to trade in if it's worth anything we still have the old style ATV we haven't upgraded to a side by side so um we've been kind of on our wish list so we're looking at working with some of the local businesses on that as well um far as Staffing one thing we're going to try to explore we haven't posted for it yet but we will be shortly uh part-time positions in the jail that will be correct directional officers that will be assigned to court security that is in response to more in-person uh Court hearings so things are moving away from virtual when we were having virtual hearings the correctional officer that was escorting the person to their hearing wasn't technically leaving the facility so didn't really affect Staffing levels but when they leave and go to the courthouse that affects the Staffing levels which are based on inade population that kind of thing so now that we're doing more in person so we're going to explore you know the word is that maybe part-time position will be more you know desirable for some people out there we'll see so and then also a medical secretary to assist with the uh medical records within the jail which were required to maintain and Cooper who's coming up on 11 years of service um and be our German Shepherd Canine will be retiring at the end of this year so the intent then would be to purchase another uh K9 in 20 25 but for that we we still have uh um donations that we had received from from dunck and from the wi Area Community Foundation to fund that so any questions nice and brief question for the sh so of the it's a significant increase of nearly 10% what portion of that maybe it's a better question for administrative Baker what portion of that would be Levy dollars it's all Levy isn't it well is there any do we use any of the funds to the jail is one of our um areas where we do have um Revenue positive Revenue uh can we offset that with that Revenue um instead of using levies Levy dollars I would recommend that um but the sheriff's budget is in the general fund so therefore yes it is all ly all right thank you other questions all the yes so all the software increases of a million plus is that Levy them too they saying that's what I mean that yeah I can explain that further so that will come from you know we a significant portion of that can come from our 911 fund uh because you know the cad system for instance which is a bulk of this you know we could it's a it's a pretty comprehensive Software System it's everything from the the mobile system that your squad cars are running that the each office using it's the management records management system and the jail software for intaking booking in inmates retaining uh records of them uh it's uh so that's the corrections management the Civil process software and then of course our records management itself because we hate we keep all of the uh Public Safety records for the county and but yeah so areas of that software that directly relate to the piece that was dispatch CER Center then that can come out of the 911 fund then of course you know other agencies that contribute will be part of that as well because Wilmer will be on the same system as us as well more likely okay so all these that you listed here are not weren't budgeted items last year right no they were not so really it's more than $460,000 or whatever 40 a lost number whatever the uh 10% increase this is on top of that correct yes yeah what fund would that I'm sorry I missed your question so um I lost the uh the number but roughly 10% increase the question I asked about the levy if that all comes out of the levy and the answer was yes but then um then there's this we'll call it a million dollars for the mobile software uh uh up replacement 33,000 and 120,000 so roughly $1.2 million does that also come out of Levy or where does that come from well medical secretary position we were discussing if that would come out of the reserves the carry over yeah boarding Sheriff from the jail Reserve what about the 1 million one to two million on mobile software so that that's just the total proc price of the U particular software that we're looking at right now so that's total software and implementation and everything so like it explained it could come come from you know some of that's going to come from existing funds within the 911 fund that we have um some could come from other agencies um if we end up being a host agency there could be some possibility for Senate appropriation funds as well uh because they're they funding like using the word consolidation but at the combining of resources so like if we have you know surrounding counties then um participate in the same uh software as us that would be a cost savings for everyone and then so there uh St Louis county is actually going through that process right now and I believe they I guess my bottom line question is that do we have everything in and I know this is a draft but is everything in the 88.5% proposed okay so if this is part of the levy then it's already included in that 8.5 if this would come from existing other funding sources as well as a Le so otherwise it's it's about what 1% increase in the levy but it's not going to be totally one the 439,000 so in other words that's that's my I just want to know where the money's gonna come from so it's I'm not saying what you requested and what's what you got have now you need so this how it's all going to work yeah I I know I may have misunderstood too my role here but I'm just uh pointing out some of the highlights good so the the the software it may not even happen in 2025 we may stick with LJ through that year the uh um yeah and then the and the can9 and that's that's money we already have okay and if the software happens and I think I'm understanding it now it then it would come out of um either grants or reserves wouldn't we wouldn't add to the general fund correct where Sheriff tson was kind of coming in with the slide and maybe I missed it from the beginning was part of the um the directive I gave to department heads is what's planning even if it's not 2025 planning what's upcoming and so this Pro process might start in 2025 but it might not be implemented till 2026 so this is not included in the budget so that 88.5% is everything that's included in your ifs a little bit I can I can explain more um but some of stuff on his slide like that medical secretary I know he's been having conversations with Connie and I regarding you know maybe that comes from the carryover dollars from our reserves because it's a part-time position there would be no benefits let's maybe look at this more creatively um and really this is needed because of you know our ice contract and all of the documentation that they're needed um they need to do right now it's it's a lot of work for correctional officers and there they are are already worked very hard with the amount of um individuals we have in our County jail and so and like he said the the K9 we already have those funds so these are just kind of upcoming things that are we're looking at moving forward as well so when he comes back maybe does request to to utilize reserves or something on um to outdate the board on this this is you would have had a heads up so the medical secretary will happen in 2025 we're hoping because it is needed and it's causing a lot of distress with but it's not in the 8.5% because it wouldn't need okay I really feel strongly yet that any salary increases or positions be put on the levy and not come out of reserves because then next year we're have to put on the levy in addition to the increase over that year so I'm fine if but then we should be in the in the levy so if that's the need there for for those positions let's do it let's put it in the levy instead Tak on reserves so my question Mr chair would it would it be are you talking the Jil the reserves from the jail or okay so that's that's income so it's kind of like you know paying for that position yeah it's not coming out of general fund reserves it's it's just coming out of what excess the jail has so the jail is basically for the medical secretary as well but but that position excuse me Mr chair is it may be pay for that position for that year but you're going to have to put that on the levy sooner or later and you have to make that up am I am I correct on on that Karen well right now the jail is carrying um a healthy reserve it would it would pay those salaries for quite some time well there if the ice contract were to change in the near future that's going to change are and I think nobody's questioning the need no just how we do it yeah what bank we we take what fund we take it out of CU When we approve this Levy after a while whatever percent it ends up being um is that 125 for the secretary coming being added to that or is it out of your F and I think I heard the answer those are really small details in the grand scheme of things 1% is 350,000 I mean those are things that Karen and I administr but three of those makes it gives you another percent I don't those are things Eric and I have had conversations if we would add a correctional officer if the medical secretary would have we needed if something were to happen with contract those are things we have right this is just Eric's Department if you get 30,000 another department you add them all up and pretty soon you've got another percent on the on the budget deal Eric if if that dispatching part of it if that breaks are you like in trouble or you got some way to keep it going I guess that's my if it's something that's going to break and it's going to be broke then I know that's a lot of money but you need that yeah I I know what you're saying it was kind of the fear early on um but uh know it's it's a company that's been so the reason we got it for such a good price many years ago is because we were one of the first people that bought into it they were they were like a startup and they they gave us a really good deal I think right around 250 50,000 we paid for that entire system um but you know I as things happen as companies change hands and then you know they they sort of you know how technology they sort of just make things become outdated intentionally so the company that currently owns what we're using offers another product and they they want to push you to that you know so I mean the support is still there the company still exists it's not like they but you know the the the scramble or the the Panic that we experienced a little over year a little over a year ago was I think just a rumor amongst probably these companies you know it was kind of a mess so M Mr yeah so at at my Emergency Services Board we had we had a big conversation about this a lot of these providers they they kind of got you because at when they first sell it to you they go we got support but then after about five years they go yeah we're not going to support this year anymore but we have a you on here and so that's where they they kind of get everybody and everybody feels like what how can we do what we do about this and there really isn't you're kind of stuck I mean y I'm glad we didn't there were some counties that jumped onto something really quick um and I'm glad we didn't because now we have the advantage of being able to sit back and look at this product that we're really interested in that is currently being put uh to work or to put to use in Sterns County and uh to see how it goals for them and uh especially that part where where Benton is actually is is going to be participating as a user within so Stern already got B County on board it's it's kind of neat so I'm glad we're able to to see that to let that them kind of Blaze the trailer so to speak all right well thanks Sheriff right free to go all right thanks veteran services I don't see Trish here so I assume administrator breaker is going to handle this one TR was unable to be here so I'll just do a a quick recap um information on the slide what we're trying to do within the veteran services officer or veteran service office um we did increase the pums for the advisory council members that's been talked about and so that was added in the budget um we're planning multiple veterans events throughout the county but those events are paid for through the grant that we get through the state which we get that $10,000 Trish was just here to approve that contract so that's what um pays for the majority of those outings and some of that is in kind or um different free events and things like that throughout the community um and then we're working with St Cloud standown and bringing food to Veterans um who are struggling financially um or have uh personal burdens things like that to deliver uh five to 10 boxes a week so they're narrow down um some of those veterans that would be able to be able to have that service one thing we're also working on is providing a timely newsletter with the information that we're working on um and then some sort of mass communication so we can send out a text where all veterans that sign up receive the same information a reminder if there's an event reminder for the advisory Council different things like that and so we are working um we're working with Melissa actually be on a software that's been utilized in our Emergency Management and then we'll eventually be working with Scott to see if there's other solutions that we're able to use so that's a wrap up for all the department heads reasoning why and I think I said this a lot before was the reasoning why I had departments had department head heads come and present is because this is an increase in the levy I wanted you to hear not just from me um because of the raise uh increase in the levy I wanted you to hear it from them that these are the needs that I hear from them on determining whether or not it's approved or denied in the overall budget and so one thing I I think we'll start doing this maybe every other year not every year we need to do this presentation like I said before some counties do it some counties don't um but I think it's really important to hear from All County departments and for you to hear from them because that's what I'm hearing when I present to you the final Levy so moving forward the wages so this is something I also included at the TNT meeting as well um so included is the full-time wages for 2025 2026 and 2027 that's just a look ahead on what we're seeing so this does include um the steps in Cola and um this also fluctuates um like Shane said sometimes when you have someone retire and they're at the the top of the scale and you have you bring someone in and there at a step one or two that makes a huge difference if somebody's coming in taking our insurance things like that health insurance plays a role in all of that and so um this is always a moving Target but this is the best guesstimate that we have for 26 and 27 and to note 26 would be the end of our three-year contracts uh and so 27 would be a new contract and I don't um I think the staff have really appreciated the wage increase and the the relook at the the insurance and the benefits and in conversations you know Connie and I have already talked T won't be here um for going into 27 I don't feel that we'll need to relook at our wage we might modify our wage scale and maybe relook at the percentage in between steps how many people are at a step 10 and kind of re-evaluate that but I don't for see coming to the board and asking for an increase um I I got a question Karen do you have the 2024 numbers for for those um but if you had the total I do not have those with me okay I could get those though and send okay and then um this does not include I think this year if I understand right this year I understand we still have the uh we still have the health Reserve health health insurance Reserve but I don't see health insurance or is that in here some 25 26 27 no so we don't have our final health insurance numbers for 25 and so that's something that we um we receip numbers this morning I'll I'll get into that um but if you give me one second I'll have and if you if you could do the total that's good enough of full-time wages part-time wages overtime wages F and P you received that in the TNT presentation yeah do you have them in front of you okay 2024 was 36987 300 and that was all included in the TNT presentation from 20 yeah would you repeat that again 36 um for 2024 fulltime wages were 34 m987 300 parttime wages we estimated at 3 96,000 OT wages we estimated at 445,000 F Pera we estimated at 5,577 300 totaling 41,46 that's the number I'm looking 41 million you talk fast 41,46 1100 okay thank you and so go there's a lot of moving parts right now um I was at my regional meeting that we host here in Wilmer a couple weeks ago and I was asking other counties where they're at and on the preliminary Levy and they were like oh my gosh we're not even close yet Kelsey where are you you're really ahead of the game and so there's a lot of moving parts from today until September 16th now and that's where today really the budget work session how I look at this is really the guidance and direction from you not to get in the weed that's my job to do that work is really the guidance to when I get to the September 16th that we can approve that you can approve that Levy September 3rd I'll provide an update to the board on where we're coming in it so we're still kind of fine-tuning things um that's typically how this work session should work then is um you know Gathering that information looking for guidance from the board the next slide would be the Quasi government requests that come into the county um you can see there's an additional column it says requested 2025 those are all the amounts that have been requested and the total at the bottom and then you see the last column there is recommended 2025 these are the recommendations that I have put in how do you reach how do you arrive at those recommendations I base it off the levy so however what's requested for the 2025 that's in that 8.5% Levy so when I say that 88.5% don't take that to heart because if you were to look at me and Nod say Kelsey go with that recommended that amount that already lowers the levy in on the quasa government I'm sorry I'm a little confused on that yeah you're which one you're talking about with if you were to look at the requested 2025 yeah those are all in the ifs budget that got us to that 8.5% ly right but if I were to put in the recommended that already lowers that 88.5% Levy oh gotta yeah okay thank you for the explanation but so yeah so the the the requested is the 8.5 no you or the I'm talking about the total uh recommendation for the levy it's not really a recommendation or where it would be at if we accepted it today right y if we accepted the recommend your recommended instead of the requests no the request the request yeah so I'm sayfe yeah okay and I'm okay with that I think it's right on and so these are you know I I lowered so like s swcd they requested that 536 536,000 I lowered that to 350,000 now this doesn't I I want to really preface this doesn't mean I don't support the S swcd and support the water initiative this is in order if the board at the end of this work session says Kelsey I really would like you to get in get the levy to a six to a six seven and a half% then that is what I'm going to look at to cut um and so that's where um some of my recommendations there is some areas of improvement and so if we wanted to use one-time exception funds like reserves things like that what we did with s swcd this for 2024 we approved their request at 285,000 but then the board approved to pull $300,000 from the building fund reserves for their new building and so are there is some wiggle room when I say if we couldn't approve the the entire if you wouldn't want to approve the entire requested amount Mr chair thank you so with with the soil and water request for the 536 what is all that for then wages that is all for wages exactly okay so this would be an ongoing request I mean or or that it's in the it's going to be built in the levy so each year then if we did the full amount typically their requests don't go down but in this instance it could go down I you know that's really up to that operating board like if you can see CCT in 2024 requested 20,500 and in 2025 they requested 20,000 so it's not typical that you're going to see a a quasi government entity go down in their request um but because of the jump from with s swcd from 285 to 536 you might see that go back down or kind of even out a little bit but I I'm not sure on that so I because I I I may misunderstand this but is some of the requests including uh matches local matches fromc yeah not from the these are straight County Levy requests but I mean are they used for match so if there's less projects in another year it can go down yeah yeah yeah and there is a I'm just going to throw this out here there is a way to meet that without using Levy dollars and that's those excess dish funds that that are they qualify for water yeah so and that account still continues to build even with the what they're taking out so we could you know what's going to get lost the first one taken off the list is games nor because it was the last one on so and those are things absolutely that I can look at and we can we could utilize the repairing $8 and um I could still keep it at the 350,000 and we could use the the buffer dollars to offset that cost to get it up to that 5 530 no so let's say I would use Levy use County Levy dollars at that point oh yes yes yes got it y yeah so then we would use the repairing a to like offset that difference right I think it's that we should consider I go ahead oh I actually I think this is a year that that we could go 8.5 I know it's a big jump but I think we looking back historically we've done so well and this is kind of an adjustment and yet moving forward with some um some positive things taking place meeting the needs out there so I'm com comfortable with what you what's there at 8.5 without digging into more and going have more questions like I said it's going to change but I I I I see yeah and there's a couple things though we go to the next slide for the 2025 proposed Levy that you know the listed gross Levy that we're had that we're at that's where I'm at yeah yep that 48 million the 2025 CPA yep County program Aid and our 2024 net Levy was that 38 million and so that jump right now is that 10 right there and so um I had this slide too and I think this is a really just transparent basic sixth grade math level like telling how we get there and so after CPA we you know we minus that off we get to that 45 million so the landfill cell construction which Gary talked about in the heavy equipment purchase that um combined was 3.6 million and so I have taken that out of the reserves and so when we get to our that's how we get to that 88.5% I'm not including the landfill cell construction project within that 8.5% preliminary level it's a wash with the reserve yes right and it's absolutely and it's a one time expense and so that has been done in the past and so that's why we went with that 8.5 that's the proper use service right um and so the levy history in this is I kind of have gone over this in the past two and so we've really kept it under a 5% so I appreciate your comment Corky regarding that 8.5% um but some next steps are um thank you to all the staff all the department heads we I mean I think I've been working on this budget longer than any other administrator in the state of Minnesota I feel like um and the staff we talk about this almost at every monthly if unless we've had to cancel a department head meeting we talk about the budget um and so it's really the direction from the County Board where's that sweet spot that the board is looking for are you comfortable with that 8% because there's still some moving Parts like I said health insurance it's a 5050 split so employer and employee it's that 5050 split we put in for a 20% um we had uh Connie and Lisa were on a call this morning with a finalized number or their their proposal um but I want to wait to talk with them but that's a lot lower than that 20% so we could probably see a good 300,000 come out of the budget right there that quasi governmental come out of the budget or be added to it come out of the budget and so um the Quasi government if I put in that recommended we use some of the repair need that's probably another 160,000 give or take so right there is almost a percent and a half so and then if we were to use any of the reserves and I don't if we go with that higher Levy we shouldn't have to use if the board is okay with going with the higher Levy we honestly shouldn't have to use any of our reserves to for the preliminary Lev I I guess for me I feel comfortable um going with that because then that gets us from where we should have been for 24 moving forward going into 25 for 26 and 27 it Le it levels out that Levy um so the reason I asked that about the 2024 and this does not include insurance I think last year Karen was like three4 of a million dollars that we use a of reserves to cover the health health benefits maybe even 850,000 600 but there's all that that's a finite 147,000 there's a finite account amount there so at one point that probably has to get added in here no I don't think we have I don't think this year we'll have to use our no not this year but but in 2026 2027 so without the insurance in here and I'll get to my point in a minute I did a calculation from 2024 our current year so next year just just because of wages part-time overtime that whole package we go up 5.2% following year is 5.2% as it's proposed here the following year after that is 6.3 so I think it's 100% reason that we're at 8.2 because or whatever because there's other inflation involved besides wage inflation you know the cost of fuel can go up the cost of pencils can go up and so if just if you took the wage inflation if you will and took General inflation you probably at that 8% and I know people are saying I get it because we're paying more at the store for salaries and McDonald's is paying more and so they get it when you have to raise wages and most of our cost is wages and I absolutely and that's very typical when it comes to any business I just have uh yeah so I you know this is a big concern for me too you know it's hard because Farmers you know they their income is going down when we're going to be going up but I talked to a county commissioner I can't remember which conference it was we were at and he'd been a commissioner for close to 30 years and he said you have to go he said your budget almost has to follow inflation or he said you get in trouble if you don't and and and it happens really quick he said and it's hard to dig up out of that so I don't like that it's eight and a half but I I understand it you know we we have to be yeah I'm saying it times I'm the only one here up for election that is but you know but I I I get it but at the same time you know as a you know land owner it's hard to stomach it but but I you we're stuck I mean you have inflation and that factors into a big and if you look at our his we've been pretty good well and and actually probably Mr CH we've been pretty good because other counties the last couple years they've all been almost I many were a lot higher on their Levy than we were cities yeah oh in the cities and yes you know uh a county commissioner once told me that it's you shouldn't always pride yourself on having a low Levy Y and sometimes that's hard to wrap your head around that's hard to tell your constituents um and that's hard coming into a county that's always consistently had a low Levy and here I am disrupting every apple cart there is but I think the work that we're doing also shows it and I think one thing I wanted to end on when you go back to the beginning slide is the planning and I think I really credit the staff to this work we're not only just planning what we're doing with our roads which seems to get a lot of air time but we're also going to be looking at strategic planning with the board what is the vision what are the goals for the county we're planning Caroline's doing a phenomenal job looking at our staffing and our technology and how do we better serve our clients and our constituents um how do we better serve with technology and that all kind of encompasses that planning and not that we haven't done a good job and I we have done a good job but we want to continue to do a good job with that and so I think to 20 for 2025 if we can really dig in and get some planning done to set us up for 26 and set us up for 27 you all will be aware of what is coming down the pipe for a budgetary request and so I'll end it at that I think I have a good gauge on the8 and a half% the the one comment I have that I don't know if that'll be the preliminary because we'll I'll kind of fine-tune some numbers I'm not going to just cushion it just to cushion it um but we'll fine tune some numbers in between now and September 3rd at the September 3rd meeting I will provide just a short update of where we're at um with the levy and then at that September 16th they'll come with a resolution on the final preliminary Levy so there are some more questions well I guess and I'm just going to be the devil's advocate here because I talked to somebody and I won't say what county it was this weekend and they're going to come in at 12% so my question is I know it's high but is it high enough to start as a preliminary is it high enough I mean you have to ask the question even though we don't want to even think about you didn't say that with all the department write that down I think Caroline said it best when there's always she said it best there's always needs and desires for more Staffing right right but we have to be Steward right well and like I said I'm just I'm just saying it because it needs to be yes I'm not saying I want to do it either but I'm just I think that's where we're looking at the planning I will be honest in the in Department 880 I know if it um Shane Tammy Joe some departments added training dollars within their budget I did add dollars within the 880 which is kind of the um depart the commissioner's budget I would call it under Professional Services I cush I shouldn't say cushion but I added dollars in there for training not only just training but also strategic planning if we have public committee events um and so I don't always like to cushion the budget on that because we have such a large budget um and I would to be honest I don't know if there's is a lot of cushion these we've really fine tune on where we code things in line items where we're pulling it out of who's paying for what um sort of thing so we've really fine-tuned that and that's has been set up by that my predecessor as well well and I don't know other than one other Western County that is this well with you know Financial reserves so kudos to Larry for doing that for me to come in as a new administrator that's really healthy um to come in with really healthy reserves to work off budgets in this time Mr yeah so going back on like Soil and Water are we going to is there consensus that we can take out of that buffer strip money to help meet their goal so that they can access you know funds I mean they they have a lot of projects they want to do and there's a lot of money available if they can I think I have the consensus now that would still all be approved at the September 16th okay when we do that then I'll explain you'll see that in the budget I'll have this I'll um have the budget presentation numbers in the board package all right great thank so I got a question it's my last question um you your budget and the commissioner's budget is down by about 8% or something like that how will that affect what we're is that because we were going to take a pay cut I'm just kidding your wages are up to you so we haven't added that in there get that so your W your department will increase depending on what you do for your wages um we don't do that until until December um but how how does how do you you know what's that 35,000 has that been over budg budgeted over the years is that why you're able to for the Commissioners yeah and your you're down 14 you're down 14,000 too you didn't know that wages yeah but I Mr CH my feeling is it's a budget we'll go with it you know both of our budgets we do what we have to do if some training comes up and we meet meet the max we'll still probably find a way to do it you know so it's I think we're okay no I I mean I'm just curious from 24 to 25 how it could go down in in our case 35,000 in your case 14,000 and maintain what we've been doing e either for our wages or our because our our travel and our our all policy and all that stuff comes out of there too right for you guys yep yep cover all or was it you're typically a little over on your travel okay um but you're really I think I don't have why wouldn't we increase it a little bit rather than decrease it to make sure that so we don't go over well it it could be a one-time thing one time year thing take reses you typically don't do that all five always go um come out of reses if they have an idea what you want your wages or to go up we can certainly put that in the budget well they're not going to change much I would think not like hen County want what I'm seeing is that but I mean if you're thinking 5% right but if we've been using pretty much what's been budgeted for 23 to 24 to 25 wouldn't you go just add 3% to it just like we did for the employees and call that the number rather than you know go down 35 didn't last you didn't take AE correct that didn't make $35,000 difference for this year right but we can put something in for 25 but that W only erase that whole 35,000 what even a 3% increase yeah 3 maybe when you add p and all that stuff to I I don't think have a budget breaker and I just think we should leave and vote on it not I'm not supporting a we increase no budget work thank you for your time um longer than 90 minutes but we'll get the hang of this you know we're not going to do the department head every year but I think um that's all I have that was okay and if we want have questions we can probably ask you or Karen if we have a but we're not and then we will Jour holy I got is this going to be on YouTube too