##VIDEO ID:8ZNm4Rc9zEg## to approve the 2025 to 2027 memorandum of agreement between the University of Minnesota extension instead County to approve a gambling permit for the lake zumro forever Inc to approve a gambling permit for the Stewartville Sportsman's Club to approve renewal of the Southeast Regional Crisis Center lease with Nexus family healing to approve the grant with the mpca for tire and solid waste removal project in HH Hill Township yay to approve the annual liquor license for Maple Valley Golf and Country Club to approve the annual liquor license for the Douglas Saloon and Social Club to approve the annual liquor license for Uncle John's Bar and Grill to approve the annual liquor license for Char's country Palace to approve the annual liquor license for Jeff's L store LLC to to approve the southeast adult mental health initiative Cooperative agreement a to award a contract for the government center air handling unit for replacement project Pro to establish a public hearing date to discuss the 2025 29 to 2029 Capital Improvement plan and authorization of the issuance of capital Improvement plan bonds to declare intent to reimburse the original project expenditures with proceeds of the future tax exempt bond issue I move to improve the consent agenda second I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda is there any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppose same sign motion prevails and now we get to hear an election update and congratulate the team that did so well in 2024 so please uh luk are you going to lead the way welcome Madam chair Commissioners I'm Luke Turner and associate director of property records and Licensing I have a brief update uh and some of the highlights of the 2024 election cycle um so I'll start with the abstract from this general election so we had a very similar overall turnout number 91,500 votes in this general election um that compares pretty closely to 2020 uh we had 91,000 I think approximately 700 that year so U same number our percent turnout went down overall though um as we see uh because our registered voters went up um interestingly enough we've gone up about 10% in our registered voter count each election cycle so every four years for the past eight years we've gone up 10,000 registered voters uh and we expect more to come as the community grows um so more voting more processing applications more work for the team uh every year after year uh so our estimated voter turnout this year while down from 2020 is still exceptional uh so I want to highlight that Minnesota historically has led the nation I think we're still too early to tell if we'll be number one or not this year um but I would assume we're in we're always in the top few uh Minnesota had a 76% approximate turnout for this general election with allate County 84% uh so we continue to be ahead of the state in voter turnouts uh and which is even more impressive when you consider it's the top state in the nation for voter Turnal Mr Turner are we number one in the state we are not number one in the state it's harder to beat some of those smaller counties because one or two votes make up a lot larger percent of turnout okay thank you um so some of the top turnout precincts I have listed here for you uh you can see that we've had up to 88% turnout in some of the the smaller or some of the Rochester precincts uh and then we broke townships aside again as they have less registered voters but still some incredible um incredible overall percent turnout so our absentee number is one we always monitor because that is a massive amount of work for County staff this is one of the big drivers of our workload especially during those past two weeks and now we dropped down from 2020 which was 57% but we did see a a pretty large increase over the the over the overall trend excluding that 2020 um so we had 21 24 23% and then we jumped up to 37% for this election um more than expected uh so it was a difficult jump and interestingly that all pretty much came in the last two weeks the direct ballting period opens up 18 days before the election and that's where voters can vote directly into a tabulator uh and this is very popular in Olstead County um even outpacing that record 2020 year we had 6,800 in 2020 with 177,000 voters vote in person in our office and just was last 18 days um so we got incredibly busy um incredibly strained over that very short period of time uh so direct Bing has been expanded over the years uh but I wanted to highlight that even with that expansion we did see daytoday turnout higher than 2020 as well so we added a week on from previous years uh based on St statute and then we also added an additional two weekend days so we're open now two Saturdays and a Sunday for General election but even with that we can see in the orange on the seven days that is the 2020 numbers for those S days leading up to the election this year was still higher day by day than than 2020 had so um while 2020 overall we had a incredibly difficult election process um this year was just as intense for those last two weeks permanent absentees also growing this is the a change again starting uh June 1 this year uh previously voters would receive an application uh for each election that they're eligible if they're on the permanent list it was changed to they're going to receive a ballot for each election that they're eligible for uh didn't really affect this year as far as voter turnout so General year we're going to have a massive voter turnout either way uh but we did see a pretty large growth in that permanent absentee from 650 to 3,400 this year alone just in that short time what that means is the those offe elections will most likely have higher absentee uh demands than ever before uh starting with the township elections many have grown from needing to send out one or two ballots for absentee so some will be upwards of 50 plus uh starting out before before we even start taking requests we're required to send that out so uh the smaller elections School elections Town elections we'll see a lot more permanent absentees of ballots mailed out day one of all elections going forward um last I want to highlight some of the testing and accuracy that we did um so in total 55,800 ballots were tested with no errors uh that was the preliminary testing that staff does inhouse to ensure all of our equipment is accurate next we had our public accuracy test as always that was on October 15th uh while we didn't have a large turnout of public we only had three or four members of the public we did have a lot of media there uh we had four different stations each asking for interviews um or four different organizations each asking for interviews um so it's well well uh well well participated in um with all that it just uh we were expecting a larger number of public to show up to it with all the requests or really directing people come and come and see will let you test ballots yourself uh so bit disappointed on that um but still well attended overall last we had the post election review on November 19th and the Highlight from that is again uh this is a hand count after the election where all of those um questions uh is there a fold on the bubble um did the machines tabulate accurately how do you know well we hand count and compare it to the tabulation and again we were 100% accurate for the four Precinct selected so we found zero errors uh zero reason for concern after doing that testing um so the elections team it it's a massive process each year um so I'll start by highlighting the fact that we hired on a new election manager this year who needed to learn and jump in in the midst of all the the chaos so we really appreciate Amanda kefir uh for stepping out stepping up and helping us out this year so welcome her to the team next our full three-time election Specialists or or three full-time election Specialists Chris Martinez M Mike bomgardner and Alysa cloros uh and their massive contribution to the team um the overtime numbers for them were were excessive and we really appreciate all the sacrifices they made this year Could you um would Chris Mike and Alissa raise their hands so you know we go thank you um we hire additional support all throughout the year as well so we hire 20 election assistants 13 election AIDS and the 10 ballot board members all to help throughout the process so we have a few assistants here today um again like to thank them for all their help also we received significant support from PRL in the county uh property records and Licensing helped us with check-ins during direct balloting they help deliver equipment they help with election night um so the team really comes together and supports the election staff and the county as a whole um we can reach out whether it's a support from admin um whether it's support from its no matter what our requests is County staff really comes through for the elections Team U when we're buried so I'd like to thank everybody for their support this year and really appreciate the team we have atate County questions for members so the state moved to a voter funding account starting uh last year um and it's continued on this year while it's an additional funding it it does not cover our full expenses I believe ight County's share was under 100,000 from the state for all elections um that's equipment purchases staff purchases um ultimately the the burden of additional postage additional material U ballot stock um staff hours is County the County's responsibility and the voter funding covers a small portion but um by no means does it cover everything or all the out expenses well uh my projection for the future based on the demographics that we have in the county is that there will be more absentee ballots cast and more permanent absentee ballots cast and I hear that at the door from a lot of older people they don't want to get out it's hard for them to get out of the house it's hard for them to stand in line so they really do appreciate the fact that H state county does provide that service for them and as the population ages will probably be having more of those people do that so it's going to go up good toar Mr do you know off the top of your head or round figures what what was the total cost of of our elections process this year for the coming I do not have a a total cost so the biggest biggest expense is going to be staff hours so without looking into the overtime I can say that there were a number of weeks unfortunately where we've had to ask full-time staff to go into the uh close to 80 hours in a work week um which is not our intention we want to make sure they're supported but um so overwhelming cost will be staff hours uh postage would be a far second and then the last would be your raw raw materials typically for our ballot order it's under 50,000 um for ballots ballot stock ballot supplies uh but the postage drives that up a lot we mentioned those permanent absentee voters um we're required to pay obviously to mail it out but we're also required to apply postage on the return mailer as well uh so we'll double it for each of those so it's it's almost $2 per and when you're talking tens of thousands of mailers that adds up quick what lessons would you say your you and your staff learned this year that you're going to keep in mind what went well what what were you know what are some things that you'd like to to address in the future so one of the main concerns we have is that last 18 days was significantly more intense than it's ever been um we need to focus on uh flexibility to help cover that last 18 days whether it's using the the election Aid position for example um flexing that position up a bit as they are only on when we're very busy uh so allowing that flexibility um we've worked with PRL we've actually cross trained uh four staff members to do check-ins um and that worked great for this year and we expect that to continue on where they're really helping focused on those last two weeks so we're looking at get some equipment um snags as well to help speed upe especially election night that's one of the main challenges we had was the transfer of data now and as part of our testing uh we test 6,000 ballots through that upload process we're removing by by USB we're uploading it to the state uh all before the election we do that again and again the testing process that takes 5 to 10 minutes for six 6,000 ballots on the real election when you update to 6 16,000 ballots we'd expect it to go up but we were surprised that it went up from 5 to 10 minutes to 2 and a half hours um so we need to take a very deep look at that that's one of our main areas of concerns is can we get that down to a reasonable 20 30 minutes um is there other upgrades um other avenues so really relying on Our IT staff and vendors to um provide Solutions or or suggestions for Solutions you wanted to ask question well I was going to ask about that upload thing so I'm glad you brought that up um this direct this permanent direct or permanent absentee Ballance so if somebody signs up for that they get mailed a ballot and if they don't return it can they still go vote or absolutely yes so it's not true mail voting uh there everybody's still allowed to vote on Election Day until they until we have been accepted an absentee um so that that number of 3,000 will send those out and um until we physically receive it back and the ballot board accepts it uh that's when the roster is marked and Frozen then they can no longer vote do we see a lot of that happening or not there's always a good um percent of folks that vote vote absentee that um choose to vote on Election Day or choose to vote in person because of ease uh a lot of it is the last minute decision um I received the mailer last week I'm not sure if it'll get back in time uh so I'm just going to vote in person and take care of it uh hopefully with a permanent list though because it's going out 46 days before the election there's less of that group U most of them will have plenty of time when they receive the ballot to get it back in time and there's less of the the Urgent ones um we can accept absentee requests all the way up till the day before the election um so most of what we see there is that that urgency I just got my ballot today it's Friday before the election we'd recommend you vote in person with us just come on in we'll take care of it so good amount of that we'll still we're still required to mail the ballot out um if we can't otherwise get a hold of them and arrange a a voting solution for them but um yeah do we talk to them that about maybe not signing up for permanent absente ballots if they're going they're going to show up because we're just buying postage that we don't need to buy so we'll we'll suggest that that you know they're welcome to bring their ballots in if they've received it and vote on that so we're not reprinting it and doubling up the cost there um the permanent list ultimately is folks that that enjoy voting at home that's so out of our you know we had 16 17,000 people vote by mail only 3 or 4 thousand are going to end up being permanent majority of those are ones that they want the time to vote at home um a lot of the other ones that we see that end up voting on Election dat aren't going to be permanent absentee they're just going to be a a student that requested it far too late to to get it there and back in time sure thank you commiss how about at the um the off off-site election areas that we had a number of them uh what particular issues or problems came up that maybe we could work on next year I knew that there was a lot of immigrant uh that had difficulty reading uh and we trying to find people to vote for um uh is that is that something that you're thinking about uh for next year of how we might work with with some other um nonprofits to help those immigrant populations get ready to vote sure so we've already reached out to the League of Women Voters or or Amanda has already reached out to the League of Women Voters and had just the same suggestion as you um the second thing we're looking at is we have translated materials at the polls there's the three most common non-spoken uh English languages available um via signs but we want to try to highlight that a little bit more we've always had a language line available to election judges that's in our supplies where they can call in and receive translated services that that's been there for a while but again how do we highlight that so we want to try putting that in more places currently it's in the head judges binder so we're talking about adding it to our sample ballot table so you have the language line right there more prevalent um adding it to the translated materials with the greeter uh just so it's it's every staff every judge is equipped with it um I think what happens a lot is the head judge has it another judge may not have been aware that they had that option so we'll highlight that a lot more um and then just keep our Outreach going okay very good make one more so I I voted on Friday at 4:55 pm and I just want to comment that was very busy but you guys got me in and out so fast it was incredible so nice work thank you I think we all to all of you it went it went very smoothly um there were we we we didn't even have um we had no questions raised this year I think that's credit to the communication and the training and the engagement that you had with anyone who was willing to volunteer and and work uh that's all great and then as we see uh some of our other counties had had glitches in their systems um so uh we know that it it is you know you you put it together well you carried through you had a good plan we have we have a good result and we have uh at least if appears our our our residents are are satisfied about the Integrity of our elections which is so critical so well done all the way around a question uh curiosity question uh and you reminded me Madam chair uh Scott County and and uh city of shaki I believe uh any event Scott Count's you know has got a situation up there with 21 lost ballots and uh that that's got lots of potential repercussions um and it was suggested at least by the county attorney that uh at least as I read it the city city staff from Shaka somehow got their hands on absent ballots so my question is do do we do we allow any other jurisdiction any any access to our absentee ballots no so in some of the Metro cities the cities are uh designated and delegated to administer absentee so think of the city hall voting location however locally we've kept full control over the absentee process so even though we have a popup in city hall with their support ultimately uh county is leading that and we maintain custody of the ballots of the whole process that's probably a good practice thank you other questions would you do you have any concluding remarks Mr tuner I no I the last thing I just like to thank everybody thank the team and the county for their support so really appreciate everything this year I know it hasn't been the easiest year especially the last month um uh but it it can't be done alone like I said so um a lot of great help that goes into making this happen well let us Echo that thanks from the County Board to all of you thank you for a great election year for all of your commitment and your diligence diligence that led to a great outcome so thank you thank [Applause] you um we are going to have a hope a couple reports from committee members although I'm I'm I know that the person who's supposed to report thinks that this process needs to change and will change it next year so uh we have a report from commissioner Ty on uh the destination Medical Center we had uh DMC meeting today at 9:30 so I to do it remote from the Arizona room um but probably the the number one thing that I would report on is some months ago we approved uh funding uh the historic district in Rochester so we set up a process whereby if you have a historic building in that district and you want to do major projects to maintain that building that you could apply for DmC funding for 50% of the cost and today we approved three projects up so I'll name the building and the total cost and you can do the math as to what the DMC portion was at 50% but so the 330 building which is where marrow is is a $250,000 project to basically activate the second floor and make housing out of it the 400 South Broadway which is where uh limb lab is is a $44,000 building to project to replace the roof and and do some tuck pointing on the on the uh brick and then uh 2 212 First Avenue Southwest which is where uh City Market is is a $761,000 building to or project to uh rof a trust replacement and mechanical upgrade so major investments in the historic district thank you and is there um is there was there there was a discussion I believe about using of DMC using Tiff for housing that was not a decision item today but there might have been discussion after I had to leave the meeting for okay I I understand that's that's somewhat controversial so maybe at some point the board would want to hear a little bit more about that sure about using of DMC having Tiff Authority um the dispute I've heard is that whether or not the legislature intended to have uh the DMC to have that kind of authority and and they're using it now so I guess you can look at it to the Future so um and I hear I hear someone to my right going no the legislature didn't intend that but there's there's a discussion underway about them doing it so um we are all invited to talk about the association of Minnesota counties at this point of our agenda is there anyone who wants to report on uh any activity from the the groups that they're working with various committees yes I would report on um two weeks ago Olstead was invited to be a part of a conversation with district 10 around solid waste and four board members as well as a staff member were able to attend uh that day we visited we did two facility visits and then had a robust discussion about how we can uh coales around solid waste speak with one voice that has become a top priority and will be a top priority for AMC moving into the 2025 legislative session as we're all well aware um as we look at our waste to energy facility look at the Strategic direction of that facility and and evolving it into the Future these are really really big Capital Improvement projects every body is facing that that has a facility around the state and um we're absolutely going to need um money and Direction and a focused approach with the state to fund and continue to U move those facilities into the future so couple things that came up um there's an oped being drafted that we hope to begin some education prior to the session so hope that um to see a draft of that next week and um see that published soon and then AMC is going to discuss discuss at our um Conference next week the possibility of forming a workg group around this and I would hope that hestad County we'll have um some representation on that work group so we can stay engaged with district 10 and continue this conversation and have an impact in the 2025 legislative session great other reports not on AMC not other things right just a second um just a little tally how many how many of you are planning to go to the MC annual meeting so four okay great uh and commissioner wght you have another report you wanted to well I just uh wanted to uh compliment the park department on working with the disabled vets and all of the other contributors in the city of register that helped the disabled vets H have another successful hunt at uh Chesterwood and then we also had another vet hunt um at our other Parks they they harvested 39 deer which really helps manage the herd but I think it's a great event uh to honor our disabled vets and allow them uh to have a full service hunt and then Zoo Dazzle is coming up so anybody out there listening Zoo Dazzle and and the cookies and the Santa Claus that that's the uh 13th and the 14th n this weekend but the next weekend so it's a very popular event uh so get out and see the lights at the zoo Dazzle thank you great thank you all right um I'd like to end our meetings with a quote and uh since I'm a strong believer in the importance of local government I chose a a quote from Kelvin kage the wiser and especially given uh the uncertainty that we're facing in some ways with our state legislature being at uh you know divided legislature a lot of change happening at the federal level let's uh let's keep a focus on how things happen at the local level and Kelvin kage once said the wiser policy is to leave the localities so far as we can possessed of their own resources and revenue and charged with their own obligations in other words um let the let the locals be locals let us but I I really didn't agree with entirely their own sources of revenue especially in Minnesota when the state legislature tells us what we have to do how we have to do it and how fast um then I think they need to share the revenue as well so uh thank you everyone I will take a motion to adjourn and we will go to our committee of the whole second moved and seconded all those in favor I I we are adjourned