##VIDEO ID:JxbBigjk4mc## asked to be rescheduled so that will be going off our agenda tonight um and our first order of business is a public hearing on chapter 1400 of the county Zone zoning ordinance to add cannabis business regulations 0224 d001 ta welcome good evening Commissioners I am Alison Sosa stop moving that microphone I am the associate uh planning director for H state county I'm here this evening to introduce Christy gross a senior planner with our department who will be presenting to you this evening um a zoning text amendment that will um identify where cannabis can be sold and where it can be grown in the unincorporated areas of Olstead County um chrisy has a brief presentation can we get this and we'd like Christy's presentation to be on our screens as well please it's it's above us but it's not on the commissioner's screens so if you just wait a moment I think they're trying to demonstrate why we are about to approve improvements to the Telecommunications equipment in the boardroom a living example there we go there we have it thank you very much ready okay well christe has a brief presentation this evening um followed by which um Christy myself and Dave Dunn are our housing and planning director will be available to answer any questions uh I also want to take a moment to uh recognize Christie's uh dedication to the planning department over the last nine years Christie will soon be transitioning to a new role as planning director in Lake City her last day withad County will be next Friday so this is her last opportunity before the County Board and I just want to take a moment to uh recognize Christy's accomplishments and honor her work so thank you thank you thank you chrisy for all of your contributions we're sorry to lose you and Lake City's gain are loss so well thank you very much yes um Madam chair Commissioners I'm Christy gross senior planner and flood plane administrator for the county here to talk about o 2024 001 ta the Cannabis regulations there we go almost now number two there we go so what is the request the request is text amendment to chapter 1400 of thead county code of ordinances which is the zoning ordinance and it affects um several sections article two is definitions article four we incorporated interim use permits Article Five is the agricultural District article seven is the rural Service District article8 is the commercial districts and article 10 is the performance standards or general General General zoning standards and I'll go through these in a little bit um but to give you a little background in history um when we analyzed the zoning regulations for cannabis we took a conservative approach based on County Board input and so what we tried to do with these regulations is set a baseline we can always go back and re-evaluate if they're working or if they're not you can always always change those ordinances if they're too tight and you're getting that feedback but once once the glitter falls on the floor it's really hard to put it back in that bottle so some important dates to note on June 18th the County Board you folks initiated the zoning text Amendment um on August 1st the planning advisory commission held a held excuse me held a public hearing and recommended approval of the text Amendment and then your last meeting meeting um not your last meeting but August 20th um you continued the public hearing at our request because the packet wasn't quite right and we wanted to make sure you had a complete packet to know what you were deciding on so the County's role in licensing it's almost like a three-legged stool where the Cannabis licenses are issued by the state of Minnesota and then the county has two different roles in that licensing one one of them is zoning and one of them is registrations and tonight we're talking about the zoning side so where can it be located how do we permit it those zoning regulations how does it fit with the character of the area um to go into the ordinance amendments so in article two we added cannabis definitions we added business cultivation manufacturing processing and extraction micro business medical combination business meso business retailer transporter testing facility and wholesale all of those definitions are within your staff packet article four we added interim use permits um interim use permits are like a conditional use permit they're reviewed very similarly they use the same findings of fact but interim use permits are a use that has an end so you they either have an end date or they they have something that ties them to an ending so you might want to permit it based on a property owner or based on a time frame that's indicated by the applicant um we felt that cannabis businesses were an end use product because they were tied to a license which is you know a tangible thing that could go away and so that's why we created the interim use permits we feel that there are other uses within the zoning ordinance that could fall into interim use permits and that should be evaluated down the road Article Five is agricultural use districts and here we added cultivation as a permitted use so cultivation is the growing of cannabis and when we talked to the Department of Agriculture they indicated that cannabis was an Agricultural Product and so by that we don't regulate other agricultural products we don't tell people how they grow corn or soybeans and so we feel like it was appropriate to indicate how to grow cannabis in those districts in um article 7 is the rural service districts and these areas are your historical Village areas like the the Chester Village like the village of Maran and um they're a mixed use little Hamlet City area and here we allowed for cannabis retail and medical can cannabis combination businesses as interim use permits um article 8 the commercial and Industrial districts covers a few different commercial style zoning districts from a commercial Service District to an industrial district and in those zoning districts we matched up Lake uses so retail was treated like retail and um manufacturing was treated like manufacturing and so in some districts their permitted uses in some districts their interim uses based on other similar uses in article 10 for the general regulations we clarified that cannabis was not a homebased business we felt that would just open the door for too many properties to be able to utilize a retail site on anywhere and so we just wanted that clarified that it was not accessory to the use of the property and and so and then we added section 10.54 which um indicates the setbacks so the locational criteria where all cannabis businesses must be 1,000 feet from a school 500 feet from a licensed daycare 500 ft from a residential treatment facility and cannot be located on county-owned property um County could open their own cannabis business so if you are in the market to do that you may want to amend this ordinance to allow the use on your own property but as of today it's not allowed on come owned property um we also clarified that cultivation is only permitted in the agricultural districts of A1 A2 and A3 um these are the more um commercially agricultural areas so you'll find the Fe the you'll find feed Lots in those areas there are larger um um tilled tilled agricultural properties and so there are more intensive agricultural uses in those districts um and then we also clarified that the personal use cultivation is allowed according to State statutes um that is directed towards you have a home and you can grow it according to whatever the state is allowing we're not going to regulate that um this table just gives you an idea of how things are permitted in the different districts so it's either permitted or interim use permits um you can see a lot of P's in this table which is permitted but it doesn't necessarily mean that a micro business is allowed in its whole in the agricultural District but part of that micro business is cultivation and so the cultivation part of that micro business could be located in the agricultural area um to give you an idea of the zoning districts that are impacted um these Parcels in blue are all of the Agricultural zoned properties that meet those setbacks to um the schools and the residential treatment facilities the like um so this is all of the agricultural property that would allow for cultivation specifically these Parcels so the parcels in purple here are where the Cannabis and other retail um other wholesale sale other types of cannabis businesses would be allowed either by interim use or permitted use based on the zoning District um so you can see it's a much more limited area where the actual sales and um production of the of the product can be utilized findings there's two main findings for the text Amendment um number one is as the is the proposal consistent with the policies of the County's General land use plan and cannabis was not legalized at the time that we were amending the general land use plan so there's no indications in there however um the recommended changes allow for cannabis businesses within zoning districts that allow similar uses and one of the STA County's strategic goals is growth and development this text Amendment balances the County's need to abide by state cannabis requirements while still adding reasonable restrictions on the development to that cannabis growth occurs in Agricultural and Commercial zoned Properties or districts the amendment is in the public interest because um again we have taken a conservative approach including the determination that cannabis is a commercial Agricultural Product and appropriate in the agricultural protection areas where more intense agricultural uses are in are common and the creation of the interim use permit process allows for cannabis businesses to Sunset the Planning Commission held a public hearing on August 1st and recommended unanimously the changes to the ordinance as proposed and we are also asking you to resend um resolution 24-12 this was included in your August 20th staff packet and it was inadvertently signed when we continued the public hearing so we just need to resend this resolution at the conclusion of this action so our recommendation is to approve the text Amendment 020241 ta to incorporate cannabis regulations into chapter 1400 of the olad county code of ordinances and to resend resolution 24-11 two and sign the updated resolution and with that I'll answer any questions you might have commissioner rman M gross um I need some clarification on cultivation and where it's allowed so there is large scale cultivation that happens inside buildings so in a commercial District there's large warehouses and in your chart it showed cultivation for the three Egg Zones but not in commercial spaces right um we did add a a caveat that we were allowing indoor cultivation in those industrial districts when tied to a micro or or meso business that specifically is tied guide to that cultivation so we're not going to allow just a cultivator in the industrial district in a agric in a big building but if you have a meso business license and you want to do a you want to process it there and grow it there that would be part of your meso business license so a meso business could be a cultivator also you're saying but a cultivator Zone egg right there there's it's it's it is confusing it's based on the state has different licensing levels so there are just cultivator licenses that all they're doing is growing okay those licenses are allowed in the agricultural districts if you're a meso business and you want to be located in an industrial district because you're a wholesaler you're a processor you're a retailer and you're a grower you can do that in the industrial district and um but the growing is limited to inside a building so you can't be just a cultivator in a commercial District correct we have to do additional things y commissioner time I'm trying to I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind that so if you're growing the product inside the building what does it matter whether you're packaging it for resale or whether you're transporting it to somebody else to package to Res resale it's just because it's tied to those specific license types and so when the state sends us a meso business we will look at what is is it zoned and if it's zoned for an industrial use will allow that whole thing what is the difference between that and the cultivation the cultivation we were told was just Agricultural and so those agricultural uses are limited to the agricultural District perhaps Miss gret would help if you could help us understand the difference between a micro business and a meso business because the definitions when at just reading it seem very similar yep um the they're different in size so they're they are very similar they can do the very very similar things but there's just size limitations put put on the state that limits what is a micro business versus a meso business so can a micro business also cultivate in a commercial Zone yes and a meso business which is larger larger volume of sales larger volume of that also can cultivate indoors in a commercial Zone correct and then an agricultural uh cultivate uh can have a whole field if they choose to and that's Outdoors correct they can't just cultivate cannot the cultivator can cultivator could cultivate in the agricultural agricultural Z but it's commercial they have to cultivate and do something else correct right in the commercial Zone you have to cultivate package according to the definitions I'm looking at so that you're you're cultivating manufacturing products and uh packaging such projects for sales and um you can operate in a single location for a micro business and then you can have up to three locations doing the same kinds of things in a meso business um question can I be a meso business in an agriculture A1 A2 or A3 not the not the entire meso business so a meso business license has different components to it if a meso business came in and said I'm just going to grow here I would we would allow it to for their grow operation only their retail and their processing would have to happen in a properly zoned and if I wanted to grow it inside I'd have to build a building on that agriculture land correct okay yeah if you chose to do it you have the option of Doing It Outdoors yeah correct we have we have many agricultural buildings in the agricultural District that allow for different things so a building associated with the cultivation would not be uncharacteristic for the agricultural District members are there other questions commissioner M Sher uh just just to make sure I understand this in your background information you suggest that uh the enforcing of this ordinance Falls within Yota Maran and Quincy townships is that the exclusive uh the if you will area of authorities for this ordinance so the and it doesn't apply anywhere else thead County zoning ordinance only applies in those townships that have adopted it so Iota Quincy and Maran townships are those that we enforce Zoning for um there are other townships that fall under the township Cooperative Planning Association that also utilize the County's ordinance but the townships that have adopted their own zoning ordinance would have to incorporate these rules into their ordinance in order for them to be in effect okay and and then maybe just one or one or two others I'm reading about in section 1024 where it talks about uh uh youer so we can follow with you uh it's on on the paper page 23 or 3A okay thank you uh and 1024 has to do location criteria and maybe U maybe our staff knows this uh as we talk about these locations uh they're all kind of defined except uh a licensed daycare facility uh I guess that would be defined but is a residential treatment facility defined in in in law um I don't know if it's defined in law but we do have it registered and so we have a map that I utilize to create um the maps within this presentation so we do do have mapped points of where those residential treatment facilities are so I believe they're tied to some type of license and that's where those mapped Point thinking is a place like the 180 is that is that a residential treatment facility or a residential care facility or it's it maybe I don't know them specifically I just know there was there was points that were available and it it was there were license types that were tied to specific points on the map my last one's a hypothetical and that's sort of a grandfather and if for instance a rural church has a cannabis uh field next to it and they would want to do a daycare facility in there uh could they do that so you're asking the if the if the daycare facility was second if you will the field was already there um they're not they're not reciprocal setbacks so we're not saying a daycare can't be located within this area of a cannabis facility um there's things in the the Cannabis licensing law that says it can still be licensed if a daycare moved in next to them so there's state standards that govern when things move in next door to them but at the time that we're issuing the license they must meet those setbacks at the time okay thank you Mr M Madam chair other questions members see none will open the public hearing thank you Miss gross thank you is there anyone who who wishes to testify on this proposed Z ordinance is there anyone who wishes to testify on this proposed zoning ordinance do we have anyone online I'm seeing heads are saying no and then the third call third invitation is there anyone who wishes to testify on the proposed zoning ordinance to add cannabis business regulations move to close the public hearing second I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing all those favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion prevails Madam chair I just have a couple more I just noticed would you like to make a motion to I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution uh uh I don't know the number uh as presented I'll say that we have a motion do we have a second second second have motion and a second to amend chapter 1400 of the county Zoid and ordinance to add cannabis business regulations now we're open for discussion commissioner would miss gross come up uh on our page 3A uh page 22 in the paper copy it talks about lighting standards and uh and it refers to article 10:16 which I hope I don't have to eat my words I don't I don't see in our in our script is that in a different section of ordinance yes okay yeah okay and then my last question will be are are places like Rockell Douglas Potsdam are are are th are those I'll call it places uh generally commercial they're a mix so they're the those rural service districts that have small neighborhood scale um type uses that are allowed as commercial and that's why we specifically said retail was located was allowed to be located Canabis business could go into a small right correct location like that okay thank you are there other questions commissioner T do we need to resend that thator one before we vote on this one at some point so you can vote on this one resent to that one okay yeah that order would be fine with me okay is there any further discussion on the motion to adopt chapter 1400 of the county Z zoning ordinance to add cannabis business regulations any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I those oppose same sign motion prevails one more step toward cannabis in in the county now uh going to have a motion to resend resolution 24-11 two so moved second I have a motion in a second to resend uh resolution 24112 is there any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I I those oppose same sign motion prevails all right moving right along we are going to now move to our consent agenda we're going to approve the County Board minutes from September 3rd 2024 we're going to approve the sale of a tax forfeit forfeited parcel 74- 33- 33- 00412 we're going to release the deed restrictions for parcel ID P ID 77435 excuse me 74 35 31586 we're going to award a contract for the Graham Park Old Highway shop exterior preservation we're going to award a contract for the gr Park Old Highway shop roofing project we're going to approve a joint Powers agreement for laboratory services with the Minnesota Department of Health and we're going to award the contract for sap 055 62527 for casassa five do I have a motion move to approve 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 now we have some decision items uh we're going to authorize we're going to decide whether we will authorize the issuance and award sale of General obligation bond series 202 24a which will fund the County's 2024 Capital Improvement plan projects including solid waste and we have received a document that outlines that and Mr ran Catalan oh very good commissioner Madame shair uh yes my name is wifredo Roman catala I'm theate County Chief Financial Officer and yes in front of you U there's a resolution asking you to approve the um the acceptance of the sale of the bonds 2024 a a um we have here with nor Northland Securities U Tammy omul and George erson that I would like to invite to come forward and and tell you more about the process and um share with you the good news thank you good evening and welcome good evening Tammy UMD with Northland Securities I'm going to um speak to before George goes over the sales results the process um for the sale and most importantly the rating process as part of this when we were here before you a few weeks ago we talked about that we would be working with County staff on seeking rating on these bonds we did go through that process and Moody's has affirmed the County's Triple A rating and if you had a chance to review the report it's a public document but I want to highlight a few things with respect to affirming that AAA Moody speaks to the health of the local economy in the county very strong financial position when I was before you last year I spoke to that word very strong um that is not common to see even with triple A and I congratulated the county and Alfredo and staff on that and we note that that term very strong financial position um was included in the report this year and modest total leverage and fixed costs as part of the rating review process County staff shares with the rating agency your Capital Improvement plan so they have seen your plans not only for this Bond issuance but for future years and your plans for Capital and potential financing of that and affirming that triaa rating after seeing that so that rating um in the affirmation that tripa um now for George to speak to the results there was excellent results for the county today um it was a good day to sell bonds and let us share that information with you thank you welcome thank you Tammy Madam chair members of the board the um excuse me so the document that was handed out the paper version I'll refer to a few highlights in that um as Tammy my colleague indicated very good day very good interest in your bond sale and certainly indicated in this uh report on pages two and three um there was 16 biders that signed up will actually bid on your bonds this morning at 10:00 a.m. uh we base our reward um on the far right column of page two which is the true interest cost so um the low bidder in this case Raymond James and Associates out of St Petersburg Florida was the low bid with a true interest cost of 3.35% the cover bid or second place bid TD Securities out of New York uh 3.39% so pretty close that second place uh bid to the first all the small font that goes with Raymond James those are called Syndicate biders so there were six other investment banks that joined up with Raymond James and some of those are names that you might recognize Morgan Stanley certainly FHN Financial that often times are bidding on their own too so um so very nice results very um it's very nice to see so many biders on your bonds so um the the AAA rating the general obligation pledge those are the things that that draw them to the table um so board that's that's kind of the key point there is is the result of the bids a couple other uh points to make the call date that's the date when you can prepay or prepay principal or refinance on your bonds that date is February 1st of 2032 at that point you've retired approximately 40% of your principal so there's still about 60% remaining at that time and the closing date on your bonds is October 16th so that's the date the funds are available um I I can certainly address any other questions you may have uh Madam chair and members of the board uh as as my colleague Tammy noted the the strong bond rating or very strong bond rating rather um the results of the sale and actually if you don't mind my elaborating just a little bit when I was here six weeks ago there's a question about what's the trend of interest rates are we at a good point in the market and at that point you were at a good point in the market the true interest cost at that time at August 6 was 3.58% so we're almost a quarter of a percent lower six weeks later so that's a lot of interest cost savings the county is going to realize uh with that drop in interest rates so um so that's very positive the other positive certainly is the low bidder when we put a bond out for bid we allow a certain amount for them to work for that's called the underwriters discount and in this case they provided a very strong bid a very low bid and then they worked for about half of what we allowed so that's that's another positive there so we're able to downsize with lower costs of issuance there um I can certainly address any questions Madam chair and members of the board members other questions uh I have a question they're working for about half of what you allowed is that because that they felt that it was a very good safe risk and they don't have to have more money to assure themselves of getting paid back Madam uh chair members of the board excellent question that's you answered it yourself that uh a very strong credit they they built they felt they had to bid aggressively to to uh secure these bonds so with that said they felt comfortable with the scale that they bid and then they certainly sharpen their pencil on uh their compensation and my next question is do they get to bid more than once is it kind of like an auction do they see what everybody else is and say well I'll lower mine or how does that work Madam chair members of the board uh it is not an auction it is bids are due at 10: a.m. I and so they're they bid one time okay questions members U Madam chair uh just uh nice work by the way just to understand make sure are these 20-year bonds yes thank you and and that's something I should have noted it it's an overall 20year financing term the bonds are structured based upon the useful life of the of of of the project s that you're financing so some of the projects are financed over 5 years 10 years 15 years and 20 years based upon the useful life the overall length of bonds is 20 years but uh as you'll as you'll note on page five of the handout it's it's weighted differently some you you can see certainly when there's fiveyear um useful life of assets that you're financing you see more principal uh being retired up front in the first 5 years and and then we structured the debt accordingly based upon um the length of the life if if I were just to summarize it's it's uh uh to borrow uh $22.9 million over the course of 20 years will'll pay 77.3 million interest is that right in in this case on page five of your handout the county will be financing 19945 million the based upon the low bid which is you can see the coupons listed there on that page um there'll be 8.2 million dollar of Interest cost for a total uh over a 20-year term approximately 28.1 million of overall Debt Service okay thank you thank you very much that far ahead members other questions I'll move to approve this the sale of obligation Bond General obligation bonds is presented second I have a motion in a second to authorize issuance and award sale of the general obligation blond series 2024a uh is there any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I those opposed same sign motion prevails thank you very much I think it's um it's uh it's really good news for us and it's it's a wonderful day as we uh as we look at our Levy and we look at our future budget to have this good news on uh as well so thank you thank you for your assistance next we will be hearing from ran Mr Roman Katana about our proposed tax levy for 2025 after a day uh two days of discussion and um uh previous uh reviews of our of our budget Outlook and we have come to a conclusion this afternoon and would you please review where we've been and where what we' what we've decided my pleasure to do that yes again my name is wifredo Roman catala I'm the county Chief Financial Officer and you're correct Madame chair uh this is a a lengthy process that started back in April um with a review of our five-year model back then uh then we move into July time where we uh asked the board to review our fiveyear CIP plan and provide feedback uh and the CIP stands for Capital Improvement plan um then during the month of August we have the opportunity to meet uh the administrator uh and other members of EMT um and myself have the opportunity to review all the departmental budgets we did that during the month of August then thanks to to that process then we came up with a list uh to provide to you uh uh of recommendations uh that happens uh between Monday yesterday and today where all the Departments came back and review those recommendations with you uh and after all that lengthy process we have uh at least come up with a maximum proposed property tax for the year of 2025 which is $132 m690 and6 $673 um and uh that represents almost $7 million uh from our 2024 uh property tax levy or about 5.57% so that's kind of the the amount we're looking at uh from a property tax standpoint just to remind the the board this will be the maximum amount then later in December when we present the final budget to you you have the opportunity uh to to decrease that amount if you wish at that point in time which historically you have not done that uh but is a reminder uh and that meeting will take place December uh 17th and before that we'll have the truth in taxation in uh December uh 5th right in this uh uh chamber uh to review with the community what the uh omic County proposed 2025 budget will look like and Mr ran catala we often uh that 5 5.57 maximum Levy uh doesn't account for growth in overall market value so that that we sometimes talk about what it will really feel like to the property owner um are we when will we know um what that valuation would be and what what the feel like will be yeah we'll still have uh a little bit of work to be done with that but the preliminary amount will be closer to the three three upper three and a half% or so depending on what happens between now and the finalization of um uh the the budget um it just depends on the amount of growth that is happening in our community um and so before we uh make our final budget we will have that information and we'll be able to look at the net impact on taxpayers and we'll we'll cover a lot of that in the truth and Taxation hearing as well yeah and I I I miscalculated that commissioner will be what 4.68 well yeah I thought we were about 1.3 less y y okay so I apologize for that okay right members uh I think uh for the for the six people that are listening to this meeting outside of the room people in the room they they may not appreciate that all of the months of work that our staff have done and the kind of intense review that the board has done at three different occasions including the last two days so I guess I just I just really want to note that we take this responsibility very seriously and we've tried to be both diligent about what our needs are and what impact our meeting those needs would have uh on on the people who pay the bills on the taxpayers of ofad County so it's a balancing act for for us as a board to respond to community expectation and Community need and also to protect the interests of our taxpayers so um members are there other uh questions or comments that you would want to make um I certainly am open to entertaining a motion chair I would move uh resolution 24 pertaining to truth and Taxation ask the clerk to put in the appropriate numbers in the blanks uh and uh that the truth and Taxation hearing be December 5th second we have a motion in a second to approve um off the top of my head Comm commissioner what's the resolution 24 24133 2413 1113 right 43 113 what is the what is the number we don't know got 2 133 according to what I see in the packet okay 2433 we have a motion and a second to approve the resolution uh for the the proposed Levy amount and the truth and Taxation hearing for December 5th 2024 all those in favor signify by any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppos same sign motion prevails thank you thank you now we will move to uh review the proposed Housing and Redevelopment Authority Levy for 2025 as recommended by the HRA board which this board understands very well so a lot of we have a lot of uh dual dual responsibility here so yes you do Madame chair uh Dave dun Olstead County planning and housing director and I'm here tonight to offer up the recommendation from the HRA board so at the September 10th HRA board meeting the H board looked at the 2025 H Levy and made a recommendation of the the maximum amount of H Levy that's available by State Statute which for 2025 would be 5,172 68 members are there any questions from Mr dun I have a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve the the H Levy at 5,172 $726 second I have a motion in a second to approve the H Levy for 2025 at the legal limit of 0185 percentage of estimated market value or approximately 5,172 68 is there any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppose same sign motion prevails this is quite a day and U now we have another major decision for the County Board and um Mr Curry is going to update us on the County Administrator hene process good evening Madam chair Commissioners Julian Curry human resource director uh I want to First say uh thank you to the county board for allowing myself and my HR team to help help you through this important process of finding our County Administrator our next County Administrator uh so during that process uh we had a we posted a position uh n nationalwide search uh for our our next County Administrator and during that search we uh received 11 applications uh we in HR my HR team we reviewed those 14 uh excuse me 14 applications we reviewed those 14 applications uh for minimum qualifications uh of those 14 11 candidates uh possess the minimum qualifications for the role uh those were passed on uh and reviewed by myself commissioner Rosman and interim uh administrator Pete Geeson we reviewed those 11 candidates and we selected the top five for face-to-face interviews um we uh I worked with uh the executive management team and the County Board to develop a process an interview process that was uh in a b uh in abidance with the open meeting laws and we formed three panels uh those panels were led by wo Roman kalala uh and uh two other uh two Commissioners served on his panel commissioner T commissioner syum uh intrum County Administrator uh Pete Geeson uh facilitated uh second panel uh that included commissioner cascaden and commissioner Rosman and I facilitated the third uh panel that included commissioner Wright commissioner pooki Smith and commissioner Mueller uh the the panels were rounded out with executive management team members uh Mary Blair Huff uh Brent walls and Deborah aart Miller uh so during that interview process all these all the interviews all five interviews took place on September 4th and uh were had uh designated interview questions for each panel uh the questions each panel consisted of eight interview questions all questions differed from panel from each panel but each question highlighted certain skill sets from candidates skill sets involving leadership communication decision making and budgeting uh after completing all five interviews uh each panel debrief individually as groups um separately from each other and uh after thorough conversation and discussion of each candidate uh each each panel arrived at similar outcomes uh each candidate identified their number one candidate as Mr Travis gry and uh instructed me uh upon completion of the interviews and identifying Travis gry as the top candidate uh to talk about to go into uh discussions with uh a formal offer to Mr gry in which we have finalized that and now I turn it over to you madam chair and County board thank you well first of all I think the process that you that you designed for us was very effective I think it was really uh useful thank you management team for us all to feel like we had a role in The Selection I think uh County boards generally acknowledge that hiring the the chief administrator for the organization is maybe the most important decision that we make um because it really does atone for the organization and I think it's quite remarkable that we had three panels each each panel uh rated Mr grany number one we each had a we rated number one and number two the panels differed in number two but we were United in knowing uh Mr gry's talent and his experience I feel very strongly that he is uh qualified to lead we had other good candidates some of whom we hope will keep us in mind as we have other positions open but but I think uh I also want to commend you and the executive management team because we have had a focus as long as I've been on the board of succession planning and I think this is an example of honoring um that process of that process working and of recognizing the talent that we have within our staff and trying to provide opportunities for them to grow professionally and as they grow professionally continue to serve the Olstead County residents so I think it's it's I think m Mr Curry there's a any number of things that our HR folks and our executive management team should take credit for in addition to the fact that Mr gry simply is very talented and we are fortunate that he has grown professionally over the years uh as an hestad County employee and is ready to step into the top leadership position so I think it's I think we're all pretty darn happy and uh with that in mind I would uh I would take a I would entertain a motion to to approve the uh hiring of Travis gransy as our incoming County Administrator so moved second I have a motion and a second to approve Mr gransy as our incoming County Administrator is there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I those opposed same sign motion prevails Mr gransy [Music] [Applause] that one wasn't ready for that I was not ready for that um Madam chair Commissioners I'm I'm humbled and honored to be standing before you as your selection to be the next County Administrator here in Olstead County um it's been quite a journey I've worked had the opportunity to serve the citizens oldstead County for over 20 years um and to be maybe the third administrator that's going to serve in this role over the course of the last 50 years um knowing some of our history there um you know over that 20 years there's been three things maybe that stand out the most to me in my opportunity to serve here in Olstead County and first and foremost is our staff um we've got amazing people that work here in hestad county and I know over the course of the last couple of days you all had an opportunity to interact with a number of our department directors and our executive management team as we went through the budget and and I'm sure you recognize too that our staff are are really topnotch um the other thing that I've been super proud of in my in my time here with the county is our um willingness to innovate and to make sure that we're offering the the best possible Services we can to the citizens of the communities that we serve um we take that seriously um and we do it well um and we're constantly searching and striving for ways to not only become more efficient but make sure that we're meeting the needs of the communities here and I last I mean I just think that our community comes to expect that that is the kind of service that we will deliver um and that's an expectation that none of us should take for granted um we're all here as public servants and I think if we hold that true and recognize what our purpose is on a day-to-day basis we're here to serve and without the community that we have um we wouldn't have that purpose but if we can maintain that as our North Star that the people in this community or the people that we're here to serve every day will all be better off super excited about the future we just completed as you know um our strategic plan that kind of out um goals that we want to accomplish as a county between the years of 2024 and 2028 um having that the many process improvements that have occurred over the course of the last seven years here within the county I think really set us up very nicely and I'm excited about stepping into this role and this opportunity recognizing the work that's happened before me and us uh to put us in a position that I think will continue to innovate we'll continue to be a leader across the state continue to be a leader in the nation super excited about this opportunity super excited to continue to work with all the folks in this room and many many more we got a lot of strong relationships plan to continue to build those and we'll continue the the progress we make and the commitment we make to the communities we serve and I stand before you tonight just um super thankful for this opportunity and um this will be this will be a good ride and this will be great so thank you thank you at this point I'm rambling stop now but thank you again for this opportunity I really appreciate [Applause] it well Mr gry I would say you've earned it so um I think we all feel that way so uh we have a section of our agenda for board and committee reports I know we've been together a lot for the last two days is there any uh anyone who has a border committee report all right then I like to close with a quote as you know and I found one that I think fits very nicely for for the decisions we've been making today you know let's face it that having a AAA Bond rating comes from a lot of leadership at a lot of different levels within the county um the fact that we have had two days of detailed budget review and um and discussion and no acrimony and a a plan to move forward U with a levy that we feel is fair to the to our residents and will allow us to provide the highquality services that we believe our community expects and that we are known for um as Mr gransy says we are proud of being an Innovative County we are proud of the fact that we have wonderful staff that come with new ideas of how to make improvements and that we've been open to those we proud of the fact that as a county we are we believe in prevention as much as we can seeing our friends here at Public Health we believe in maintaining our buildings we believe in a lot of of ProActive Management but really the the the County Administrator position sets a tone for Ev for everyone and I can think of times that we didn't always have a great tone and um we are in a great place now so this quote seemed to me and uh to really fit for the selection we've just made an effective leader instills in people a hope for success and a belief in themselves positive leaders Empower people to accomplish their goals I believe we've just selected a very powerful leader and I'm very proud and pleased that we've come to this point and with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn move to adjourn second it's been moved in second and we are adjourned y Mr