##VIDEO ID:wf0Jy0_Ae_4## and checks really every box that we need at this point um I was told before the meeting one of the buzzword now is future uh what was it future proofing yeah um is that axon is really looking forward in this new uh phase of what they're providing um looking for the future with 5G and all the other you know technology terms that are out there it's really adding more to what is going to be capable and available to us um with this so with that um I'm not going to get to we're going to try to hope hopefully answer some questions that you have at this point I know we've been going back and forth a lot with alfredo so and Travis Pete um and then behind me I have uh Captain Mangan here he's been our lead on this on he's our administrative Captain the law enforcement side but also Chief Deputy Schuler and director uh reps are behind representing the LC side and the ADC side of our office um also um Mark is here too he we didn't have a chance to talk but this also helps it with our collaboration not only with and it says it in the in that document uh kind of further down in the bullets on the the the whole process of how this supports us it's about halfway through the page um where it includes the county attorney's office and how they are able to review body cam obviously Rochester py but even the Minnesota BCA is going to be more capable of uh in these larger critical incident events uh being if they're helping us with an investigation be able to log in and be able to view these things much more quickly and hopefully speed up investigation etc etc so with that I think uh we can pause for questions I don't know Alfredo Travis anything you want to add in regards to the financial side of it um but it is a big number um the unique thing about it and it does say in there on the bottom uh the increased cost um again it does cover the body cams the fleet car the cars the alprs which is the automatic license plate readers um and then the tasers if we didn't do the tasers at this point would very likely cost us another $1.4 million in addition to what this is and that's how huge this project is and that again is covering both ADC and Lac U because every day our folks go to work um they they truly do need the body cam they truly need the taser it's a tool that is a necessity in this day and age and uh you know we we just can't do without it and then on the other side of it this will be uh to BR point I think and that would be any lawsuit that might come of it of not having them when you have that well he said this she said this well let's check the body cam I can't tell you how many times and it's not a lot but there are so many times when we've had body cam Squad cam incidents that people have said hey they did this and this was inappropriate well let's check the body cam oh they had a body cam yeah we'll forget about it um you know they don't even get to to that point of of of that but it's complaints that come in that are clarified just simply because the body camera and the squad camera are working and and helping so our staff has always looked at it right from the very beginning as a very strong positive on their end because their word is very important and before that um it was he said she said as we say in the business um situation and it it can be very difficult and the body cam Squad cam these things have have really clarified it and I can't imagine a law enforcement agency in this day and age not having them um it's an expected thing and I suppose Mark could talk to on how important it is when it gets up to court so if you have questions we'll take them I'm sure we do um members questions right thank you uh this is for uh Mr Ostrom does this save and court costs the body cameras thank you commissioner Mark a m County attorney um in Saving in court costs I would say probably not in the presentation of evidence so and our ability to present cases body cameras are invaluable I I just can't overemphasize the the value that they bring to us presenting a case to court and and in some cases to even dismiss or not charge cases because we've got this right in front of us uh almost on a daily basis we'll have attorneys will say you know what you know we're charging cases right now as we speak um and there are times when the attorneys will say well wait a second I need to see the body cams and so we'll we'll make arrangements to have the body cam sent up so we can look at it to better understand exactly what happened um and the other point I guess I would make in in support of this is um our office is very supportive of the of the sheriff moving to the the axon um uh format um right now we've got Rochester Police Department on there the state patrol just put in Acts on body cams the BCA does frankly to have the Sheriff's Office on a completely different format is a royal pain in the ass pardon my French but it's a royal pain in the ass for our office to have to work two different formats um and it's caused us a lot of challenges and frankly there have been times when we've just taken what the the Sheriff's Office videos from that other platform and we've input them into what our our other axson utility has been and play them and use them that way so um we're very supportive of the sheriff moving to this new platform um moving to the consistent platform that everybody else in our region is on I'll take any other questions if you have questions and I hope I answered your question commissioner thank you just add one thing and it does say it at the top of the page but there is an axon Justice format that is in this contract I think it's the top maybe it's at the bottom um but that that's what he will use that's what Mark in his office will use I should clar I'll clarify that as well uh we were notified so forever we've been on a free version of the prosecutor tool for axon and that's been we basically U kind of tailgate on with the law enforcement providers recently axon has let us know that they've been kind of turning off some of our availability to to utilize some of the tools tools um with that with that um management system and that we were going to have to buy our own subscription which I think comes to about 35 fro I can't even remember what the number is but about $35,000 a year um and so we're going to have to do that and again uh it's kind of a little bit of a blessing that we get the sheriff on the same platform because we're going to have to be using this this case management system uh to use these recording anyway so it it timing wise it bundles well together as well members questions commissioner Ty nice Sheriff um so for about $700,000 a year right that's we looking yeah depending on I know there's been a lot of discussion about how we're going to pay and whatnot but this price is the price uh there's no uh we were talking a lot about that ahead of time Fredo looks like he's ready to say something so I'll get out of the way but it looks like there there's nothing there's no benefits if we pay it all at once or ahead ahead of it but it is if we paid it on an annual basis it would be the same so I don't foro if you want to yeah so um let me go off so good morning Commissioners wifredo Roman Catalan Chief Financial Officer um as you've seen in your materials regardless of what happens in the uh Sheriff's Office the County attorneys will need to have that license so if we move away from that 35,000 uh per year that leave us close to 640,000 per year for five years right and like like uh Sheriff mentioned that includes the additional cost of having the the other uh tasers and things like that otherwise I believe uh uh Captain Mangan did a wonderful job in analyzing the existing provider versus axent and the numbers are very comparable when it comes down to that so the the the important component here is um we have the public safety Aid available now there's a portion of it that have been committed for 2024 uh expenses right so if we think about that part there'll be an amount closer to $1.8 million available after we satisfy the 2024 uh commitments there's a request from the county sheriff office for using some of those dollars in their CIP for 2025 so putting those aside for a second if we don't account for those we'll have about 1.8 million close to 1.8 million to use towards these annual payments to axom uh for the about 640 per year so that give us close to three years without having to add additional resources to pay for this by year uh four and five is when we will need to have additional resources attached to this mainly Levy to pay for it and our and our existing contract with the utility company that's ending soon what what was the annual cost of that uh I believe that was about $144 uh $144,000 per year uh the annual maintenance uh so that's in and that's a part I need to verify if that's in the base Levy or not um just to double check that but that can be used also to further uh satisfy some of these needs okay and is this is this new hardware then too you've got a camera on your sh right now so so we're talking hundreds hundreds of new cameras or yeah it is every Deputy that would be using them um in uniform and not plain Clos as well so yeah it's a it's a big lift uh we get your approval today and we get uh uh Finance to sign off on everything with axon uh we've got a lot of training days lined up there's a lot of installation time lined up and all of this has to be ready to go by by November 1st so we're we are there's a lot a lot of moving Parts after this happens to get is there is there the thought down the road that in 2029 then that we will be able to combine with RPD as far as uh negotiating with axon for for a better deal oh I don't know about that um I don't know what their uh it depends on what their uh contract schedule is um that I don't know um that's something we can look at but um I don't know if axon being in the business as a business um would be interested in doing that but it's something we can talk about for sure I support this thank you my concern is I'm going to take in a little because I I understand why you would want to go with axon for for consistency across systems but it also seems to me that we are now setting up this company to be able to dictate whatever terms they want because we aren't doing any kind of competitive bidding or procurement processes we're just accepting um what they what they tell us the cost would be for 10383 tasers um 183 um body warn cameras and then exess and we've already heard that they've uh uh begun to notify the County attorneys that what they offered in the past without charge is going to charge for so I'm a little bit concerned that we are helping build a monopoly um and I'm wondering to your point um commissioner if there isn't some value for our law enforcement systems to look at how we do a a Statewide competitive bid of some sort because otherwise we are all just kind of captive to whatever this company demands rather than being able to be prudent purchasers as we try to be for almost every other service and every other product right and then a piece of that that I wondered about is the tasers you said we'd have to contract for them separately how often do you expect to have to replace tasers do they last five years do they yeah so and where we at life expectancy for our current uh equipment or or is this just a an opportunity from this company to have an addition to their contract no the the taser generally around 9 years is that expected life of those obviously there's failures um at times but they're immediately replaced that's been the the one positive on the taser side of things um way back to when I was in training when we first got our tasers um there was a failure they immediately I mean you shipped it you called them there was another one coming your way and there was always there's always a buildup of of additional resources that we have here in store so no one goes without there should ever be a time when one's without one unless there is a you know catastrophic failure of some kind that you know happens in the moment um but I agree yeah there is no question there's we're kind of putting all our eggs in one basket as they say um but axon taser in this sense uh taser in particular is uh absolutely the top uh tool that is out there of that kind in law enforcement in this country in fact i' i' men should say in the world um axon has really amped up their body cam uh as we I said earlier future planning future proofing um they are they are ahead of everybody else there is no question and their support is way ahead of everybody else it was one of the other factors in this decision was our current company uh was not there and they're not going to be there um with being able to keep that pace with what axon is doing so um yeah they feels like a monopoly um but on the other end it is the best product that is out there at this point in time um for all of the reasons that we started you know we were talking about before um and ultimately it comes down to to uh know potential lawsuits or complaints um and handling those situations with as far as the cameras go um it's good equipment it's solid equipment they all train our Fleet Maintenance guys on how to uh manage what's in the squad cars and obviously our training staff on both sides ADC and LEC will uh be up to speed on on how they handle those day-to-day issues as well so uh they're very supportive and a very um they're really good company I don't know how else to say it but so you the contract is for $183 units but for 5 years uh my impression from being on the board for 12 years is that over time we have expansion of of of personnel and we have replacement of fleets of of of your vehicles so how does that phase in to uh the current projection if we add staff what happens if you as you replace vehicles and the vehicle has to be outfitted with all the equipment how does that factor in that's where our Fleet Maintenance the the guys the training on that and if I'm saying something out of line let me know um but they'll train our guys uh on how I'm asking more about the equipment training transfer from vehicle yeah absolutely I mean we we try to do that with a lot of our equipment uh something that's always part of that conversation when it even when it comes to uh you know the the uh Hol it's not really holsters but the supports the mechanism that hold hold the rifles in place to the the the um detain compartments and all that all of those things are things we have to look at and try to figure out okay is this going to fit in this newer model and whatever and all those different my question is really about the equipment we're purchasing here yes is it going to be are we going to be able to really maintain this amount over 5 years transfer it to new vehicles as we add staff will we be able to add the body cameras that new staff need is there replacement automatically within this contract or is it or is it uh we you know this failed now you have to purchase new asking several questions so I'm trying to understand the scope of this contract yeah in in regards to uh The Replacements and I think it says it in our our bulleted sheet we hand it out at two and a half years there is an upgrade that will happen that's part of this contract so I think I forget where it is it's body BWC must be body War camera device update at 2.5 year mark right so that's part of it already written into it um as far as the infrastructure part to it the actual equipment that makes it run like the squad car equipment yes our Fleet guys will be trained in how to uh install and support those things transfer from car to car so it's not like we are asking for extra cost or axon to pay more or us to pay more to axon to to make slow transfers they should be able to do they were already doing it now when we switch out from the squad cameras that we have with the utility company at this point so it it that's not unusual and it shouldn't uh be any burden cost on the other end if it's new vehicle uh new positions new Deputy or something like that then that goes without saying I guess in my opinion that um yeah that's going to be new equipment um for each additional person um and we talk about that all the time when we add new positions we know in the Sheriff's Office an FTE is not more is more than just a person it's all the other stuff that allows that Deputy to go out and do the do the work whether it's LC or ADC uh from the uniform it's had to tell the whole thing is accounted for when we we take that on so we we fully are aware of the additional costs of an FTE and how that um those additional costs are there so right y there's two things that I would like to add all the important things that uh the sheriff have mentioned and I'm going to invite uh some of the staff here to come and elaborate on what I'm going to say but in addition to all the important things that the sheriff just described in the a little summer you got two things caught my attention when I it was explained to me uh by Captain Mangan number one was uh the officer safety the existing uh um cameras they use they're not they're like cell phones and like cell phones they get warm and things bad things happen with batteries and cell phones so we're putting ourself a little bit at risk with those systems so switching that it helps drastically minimize and hopefully eliminate that risk um and the the the second part of this is that uh with with the uh with the like I mentioned before when you compare the two companies cost-wise if you exclude the T is very similar cost between the two uh so um so is a competitive environment right so in that regard if you take everything into consideration the financial piece and the safety of the officer it makes to me a lot of very attractive going through the axom in addition to all the connectivity and interaction we will have with all the other law enforcement but I'm going to have staff here come forward and explain that better than I can Madam chair Commissioners Jim Schuler Chief Deputy law enforcement Serv Services um as much as I'd like to get up and talk about this I think at this point I would like Captain Mangan to come up since he's done all the work on the project specifically I think he has uh some answers to your questions Madam chair that may clear things up a little bit Captain Captain Mangan welcome thank you madam chair thank you Commissioners again I'm captain Ryan Mangan with the m County Sheriff's Office law enforcement side um I am uh heading up this project um I do have some expanded answers for your questions um I can start with um number one with the pricing with and with a on potentially becoming um a monopoly in the industry um we do go through sourcewell contracts which is like State pricing um for these contracts so they're kind of held in check um for their pricing um that way um and doing our due diligence of um exploring that we do um include that in the contract talks um with them um they are axon is um right now for tasers and body cameras they are the best of the best um in the industry um there is no doubt about that they're in reference to the body camera device um right now we're carrying a cell phone um and there are failures with that in fact when I um before I met with um CFO Alfredo um it happened four days prior to that where a deputy had this in their vest and it started to bulge because of the Heat of the battery and obviously the placement of that is very concerning um axon's bodyw warn camera device is an actual body warn camera it's made for this um it's mounted on the outside it's made to be a body warn camera nothing else that has GPS capabilities but it's not a cell phone you don't get phone calls on it nothing like that it is strictly a body warn um device made for that specific use if you have any other questions this ask I can't remember everything you asked so this cont if we need additional equipment we'll be able to get it at this contract price or will that be a separate negotiation it it'll be a separate negotiation this contract is all the equipment we need right now there is a 3% spare um rate included in all this so we have spare tasers spare body cameras in the event um that um we have difficulties with any of them and also I just worked it out this morning with our axon rep that if we were to have additional staff due to plan retirements or planned shortages of Staff they will flow us some licenses with our with our spare devices so that we can keep going without adding extra for the life of five years we can add it for you know use them for the three months that we need to get us by until we're back to even thank you other questions members no all right Commissioners uh I don't think we're approving this today but but I wonder if and I don't know we can bring the uh requested action uh up on the screen or not but as I read that and my question is it does this read right because when I read it it it seems like we're initially requesting uh a sum of uh 3.3 million essentially and then uh approve an additional funding of 2.3 we're not talking about 5.7 but but that is when I read this that is read the resolution on this next page the next page is the resolution here you go so we're being asked to approve a 5-year contract on the amount of 3,372 625 to to be made paid an increments agreeable to both parties within 5 years and it lists what would be included and who the authorized representatives are that answer your question commissioner uh well yes it it it it does and that 3.3 includes a a million that has already been budgeted is that right according to the script yeah correct so we have funds already available set aside to pay some of these through the public safety Aid uh the conversation needs to be as well as there's a little bit extra money from that Public Safety Aid if that money could be used also to satisfy this need or not but at least we have $1 million today set of decide to pay for it right okay so that'll be a budget consideration for us when we have our full budget of whether or not we use that Public Safety Training funds which you've described as covering the cost of this for up to three years and after that it would have to be local ly yeah so if we go up to the 1.8 million we can stretch these up to three years otherwise we'll be less than that obviously yeah thank you and the sheriff is uh comfortable with that as a means of funding well that's the finalization that we need to have yes yes now watch watch him to foot all right all right thank you are there are there any other questions for members I'll make a motion to approve this resolution attorne your contract with act Jack motion and a second to approve the contract I was going to invite the sheriff to make any closing comments is there anything else you'd like to say Sheriff no before you vote I guess I would like to say thank you because I'm very hopeful that you're all going to vote in favor so I appreciate it thank you we have a motion we have a second is there any further discussion all those in favor of the resolution for the purchase of with for the contract with the aan signify by saying I those oppose same sign motion prevails thank you you very much and thank you everyone for the flexibility and allowing this to uh move from admin to this commit full discussion of the full board today so I think that worked out well and we got it done in time so now we have the opportunity to hear uh an update from the city of oroo which I understand is going to be done electronically so welcome mayor I believe it's the mayor is online [Music] correct yes good morning aw morning welcome mayor iart I am always afraid to say your last name if you want to know the truth I'm afraid I'll pronounce it wrong you want to you want to help me I it's Ryland n course I'm the mayor of oroko and I really appreciate sharing an update with you badam chair and the Commissioners and thank you for offering this opportunity to share my comments with you I apologize for not having a presentation um the month of August just kind of flew by and uh unfortunately I didn't have a presentation but I do have comments that I would like to share with you and of course if there's any comments um questions by all means I'd like to share responses to those um no doubt the sewer system and water distribution improvements has been a big change for the city of oroo we started construction uh spring of 2022 with $2.6 million treatment plant and a $7.2 million for infrastructure with six slift stations miles of trunk and lateral sewer lines stop construction from Marshfield Wisconsin was a treatment plant contractor and fit tril Excavating and trucking from good Hue was the infrastructure contractor the plant is located about a mile and a quarter south of or noal city limits on 10 acres of land that was purchased from Matthew construction the plant is located at the southernmost end of our ultimate service area because all of our growth is to the south and east of our current city limits Pine Island and Prairie Indian Community borders are Northern uh City Limits initial startup of the plan started in late March early April then npca allowed a 90-day limit for startup which ended in early July to meet our permit levels and we are currently meeting our nitrogen levels and the plant is becoming more automated as we work with the software and the processes to make that happen work by the Water and Sewer committee and the city council started in 2015 and $24 million in bonding Bill funds and 7 million in point source implementation grant funding was awarded in November of 2022 so this was our goal was to have 80% funding and we ended up with about 76 77% uh State funding so a huge thank you to Senator Sim uh who was our local Senator and that time and for his support it was unwavering and we really appreciate that the plant will service over 450 users of which 230 are in developments that have been their service connected to the system uh when the pl started up consequently there's over 220 individual septic systems that are in process of connecting to the Sewer curb stops in the rways by the end of May 2025 along with the sewer project we have several miles of new pinous streets was the result of the lateral and trunk lines going through the city streets the project also allowed over 80 new water users to be connected to the city water system with the new sewer system uh no doubt this was open an opportunity for growth and um we that is currently allowing the city to grow and while are we still maintaining our small City character in downtown oroo within this past six months uh the Glenn motor coach facility was opened in early summer two sisters Kitchen and Bar which you've seen and heard a lot about is opening in midt shops on Cedar by Two Sisters is also being proposed as a small strip mall Jeff Green is um has a building in Downtown oroko and he's planning on opening a kitchen bar as well as a retail store in downtown oroo in 2025 Thompson overhead door is planning a warehouse expansion and we have a new Dollar General market store on Minnesota Avenue which will open in midt we're really excited about that as you heard past news Hamilton Real Estate purchased land to develop 43 acres for housing and we're excited to see that happen later this year or in 2025 the same time there's another piece of property it's a large R2 property which is for sale by the gas and go store on Minnesota Avenue and all of these projects and discussions are a result of the sewer plant and our water improvements our new city administrator clerk Jason Baker joined the city staff in February and we're happy to have him on board we've installed new electronic message boards on Minnesota Avenue and Lake Shady Avenue to share updates for both sides of the city uh on either side of Highway 52 this summer and last summer we had a music by the zumro events at Oral Park that was well attended we're also looking at a recreational improvements in quality of life within the city of oroko I'm working with the mot to purchase three Parcels of land along the east side of Highway 52 which were on the west side of Lake Shady the plan is to acquire the mop properties and mot will install a RightWay fence along Highway 52 before we can start any major development of the lake Shady bed but we planned a I should say the lake Shady bed was transferred from the county to the city in December of 2018 and we thank the county very much for that so it's going to allow orocal Park to become a bigger Park with biking and walking paths gazebo we're also looking at a bridge crossing the North Branch of the Zumba River from which flows from the Pine Island area the bridge is to help unite the west side to the east side of oroko through our Park system for overall Community Development and interaction the 52nd downtown oronoko Gold Rush days was a successful event with new activities for kids there's a Sandbox of dollars that you could dig for a scavenger hunt a medallion hunt we had live music at the fire hall for two days as well as a car show in or noal park and we had an for the first year A Duck Derby with a $300 was a first prize and we had over 750 ducks floating down the zumbro river by oroo Park so a lot more to happen in oronoko in 2025 and um with that if there's any questions I'd be more than glad to answer those I'm looking uh I'm not seeing any any indications of questions certainly a lot of dynamic growth uh at oronoko does oroko have a have a goal of what you want your population size to be or are you just open to all possibilities that's a good question and when we designed the plant uh stanch was our city engineer the plant is designed for a 20-year growth to double the size of our city to around 3,000 uh we're 1,800 right now and we anticipate the growth with these uh land expansions and annexations to occur we have an orderly annexation agreement with this orle Township so um this last year we also had a an Eda that was developed um it's quite act becoming more active it was developed in 2024 uh we developed our bylaws um Ceda is our representative Rec Rebecca Charles is our executive director and so she's very active and we're setting go our goal goals and action plans for 2025 so that's something um I've been wanting to have happen and now that we have a Wastewater Plant and growth we there's definitely an opportunity for an Eda in the city of oroko have a question commissioner right yes thank you mayor uh with all the uh Earth moving and digging up that you've done in oroko have you found any more gold no nothing really um you'd be the first to hear about it but no I'm sorry we haven't come across any gold yet um I was reading in the history book that some of the gold was discovered five miles down stream of oronoko so um I guess there's opportunities if you want to go looking for it I have a I have a different extraneous question um mayor uh with the with the p with the Prairie Island community um looking to develop just north of you uh have you have you had opportunities to work with the with the tribal government and do you have any Reflections on that on the future of our noo sure um the Prairie Island community has been very open with being good neighbors we've met with them three times over the last four or five years uh they came to us um first time just to express uh the um being a good neighbor and um so there is support for the Prairie Island Indian Community and uh they also recently came to us uh just shared with us their plans for uh developing um a land use for the gambling casino and a land use um topic for housing uh there's no time frame for those land use plans but they were um interested to hear about our economic development at the uh for the city of oronoko and we shared with them that with our city sewer plant that we would be having some economic growth um as likewise I plan on having that as well but um there's no collaboration plan or but just awareness that both of us are looking at Economic Development thank you I'm looking to see if there's other questions commissioner senum thank you madam chair I'm just I think I can probably answer this myself but I'm going to ask you uh you you come back in 20 years what Main Street will probably be Minnesota Avenue you do do you believe that and maybe you already mentioned it uh that perhaps uh one business might be new and what all call downtown oroko at least downtown old oroko but I'm going to suspect that's going to change a little bit and then the whole the whole strip going going south towards what is County Road 12 is going to be going to be kind of a main street for you you think that's about right I believe so I think the um you know we uh our comprehensive plan granted it's a 2006 but we're also looking at um even the 2006 economic or excuse me comprehensive plan was all predicated by growth around the sewer treatment plan and it's amazing how much of that comprehensive plan is still in place we are we will be looking at a new comprehensive plan here in 2025 but I do see the Minnesota Avenue continuing to be the the Main Street in the city and as we move South of 100 Street right now our future land use map shows um that is being more of a M1 industrial park I think the residential growth will be on the north side of 100 Street both on the east side of 52 and also on the West Side to our city limits to 60th Avenue so so there's a large 155 acre partial of land um on the north side of 100 Street as you go west of 52 but there's also growth on the South Side as well for us right now the uh current treatment plant is designed for population of 3,000 and that right now is expanding to about a quarter of a mile on our service area for the treatment PL about a quarter mile south of 100 Street the entire distance from the west side to the east side of our city limit so um we do think that's we're in a good position I should say for growth so I think that's going to happen great Madam chair I also want to say if if there's a mayor of the decade in Minnesota U it's Ryland I course uh Ryland uh lived at the state capital for I don't know it seemed like 10 years Ryland and uh and you were persistent you were hardw workking you never gave up uh a lot of state legislators that come to know you would run to the corners because they would all rylands here once more and uh and another message about oronoko but you persisted you got it done and uh and oronoko is all the better for you going forward so you uh big part of the history of that Community thank you senator Sim it was my honor to work with you and also for the city of oroo and its residents um this was a much needed project and um I've um I've got a a letter a copy from 1972 where the um village of oroko the health department approached the city Village of oroko at that time and said you need a city water and sewer system and uh 50 years later in March of 2022 uh we were able to make that happen so um now we can pass that distinction of the largest unsed city in state of Minnesota to somebody else but um we're it's all for the better and we appreciate your support well congratulations on your persistance it's one of the key uh key aspects of politics is persistence right so thank you for um for for protecting the public that way and your persistence in making it happen and thank you for being with us today I don't see any other questions from Members um we certainly do have the opportunity to to pass through oronoko and observe some things happening along 52 and then occasionally we actually get to drive off of the highway and play pickle ball and other things um uh at a at a residence near your your lovely city so it's great to be with you today and thanks for thanks for being here and we'll look forward to our next uh next opport opportunity to collaborate thank you madam chairman of the Commissioners and maybe someday we'll have a Business Loop for 52 through or oal that can happen all right thanks so much that can happen yeah all right take care thank you very much bye bye bye bye all right so we are going to move on now to the administrator's showcase and hello Commissioners I'm Mary Blair heft director of property records and Licensing and today we are going to Showcase one of the Departments that is part of property records and Licensing it is a department that has many names it's sometimes called the property tax department and sometimes it's called the revenue department however their primary Duties are under what would be would have been the county auditor so I'm going to send you over to Luke so that he can follow up with the team and go through a some slides with you thank you Mary mam chair Commissioners I'm Luke Turner I'm the associate director for property records and Licensing I was going to be joined by Jana but uh she wasn't able to make it today um so you may hear me talk a little more than expected but that's all right um so I have just a brief overview of the department for you today this here go thank you um so this is a very small team uh Jan Smith is the current property tax manager and she's been with us since 2023 so the newest member uh joined with me today are the two experts so I have Lisa Hawkins and k coers um leas has been with uh the county since 2013 and the department since 2018 K County 2011 and then the revenue department in 2021 so as Mary mentioned the tax Revenue team uh fills a portion of the role of the county auditor as it's a wrapped into the department rather than the old elected position uh and they fill various portions of Ro so today I'm going to talk about uh this list here uh collecting Levy amounts Supply special assessments uh process delinquencies and forfeitures fair truth and Taxation notices uh entering and distributing tax increments process tax abatements issue refunds and uh processed property taxes um we'll start off with struggling with it there it goes all right we'll start off with the Distributing Lev dollars um they'll do that basically in two different ways commercial and Industrial taxes get distributed to City County school state and then the residential taxes are just a City School uh City County and School uh this is very unique because it happens in odd times throughout the year so it's a constant process of uh reviewing collected taxes and then allocating them to the appropriate authorities um so as you can see it's not a consistent monthly schedule it's a it's a random schedule that the team needs to see on top of again constantly reviewing um and then Distributing throughout the the entire year um for the year 20123 $369 million total were distributed by this team next portion I'll talk about a little bit is special assessments um they're applying special assessments to Parcels that are later collected with taxes so that could be from anything from sidewalks storm sewers Road Project utilities um and then currently the team has applied 10,237 of these such uh special assessments to properties so the next four slides kind of all go together and I actually have some numbers here to pull out um but I want to talk about the forfeiture process um so I'll walk you through all four and they kind of all go together starting with judgments which are new delinquencies from the previous year um so these are delinquent property taxes that have been determined and announced the first year so for this process uh the team has actually two courteous Communications and then the one required U communication uh the first letter sent the first week of June and a Second courtesy letter is sent the first week of December so these are additional Communications we're doing just to make the public aware of their current standing uh then we get to the required Delinquent Tax letter sent by March 20th that's the one communication that is required uh that the team must meet prior to the two Publications that follow that um following that the uh expiration of redemption starts um so for this this is a a period of time following that judgment process uh where the properties can only be redeemed if they uh pay that uh liquid tax amount so an interesting thing about this is that originally uh we have that one required communication right so that March communication that says you're a delinquent you have this set amount of time to uh to make those payments there's no other required payments through that three-year period uh so the staff does additional communication just to make people aware of the the full process um they do this in the second year by sending one additional and then the third year they actually send out three additional Communications again just courtesy letters the goal is to make the public as aware as possible of the situation and their standing and possibly um options to go into a confession of judgment or basically a payment plan on how to redeem the situation and not go into forfeiture and then last is that forfeiture process so it started off and so basic General numbers uh 2024 753 judgment letters were sent out so that's properties that were initially laid um so they ended up only sending out 23 um of those uh expiration of redemption letters and entered in uh in 2023 17 um 17 of the go back one slide confession of judgments and then six in 2024 so it kind of follows flows down right we end up with a very very large amount of properties that are late uh we're communicating explaining what they need to do offering the confession judgments and then in the end you're getting to the forfeiture step uh where 2023 we had five 2024 we had four um so it's really an effort of communication providing re or not necessarily providing resources but providing guidance or steps uh to R in these situations uh once we go into for process these next few slides I know you've seen many times so I don't want to talk about them too detailed um we know that there's been massive changes what I do want to highlight is the continuous learning that the team needs to do so this is an entirely new process for the team so it's part of their job is to learn uh update their processes make sure omide county is still in compliance as laws change throughout the year um so one thing to highlight about this team is that that massive change that just came through um staying on top of it and making sure that we're still uh doing what we need to do to administer this process next I'll talk about the truth and Taxation notices uh this really works like a large project each year uh there's two portions to it first is the notice itself which is very much Guided by Statute there's a little bit of flexibility we're really proofing uh that the information is going in there correct and that the data is accurate um but we don't have too much there isn't too much room to customize or provide additional information the second piece is an insert and that's where you do have some flexibility with what we can include a statute does limit what you can include and it's restricted to notices relating to budget deliberation announcements uh showing local tax rates for the current tax um so there's there's some limits the team Works uh to develop this each year um there's some creativity involved but in the end um they're putting together these notices in in 2023 66574 uh were mailed out are they mail to commercial properties as well owners as well as residential okay um next we're processing tax statements U processes uh processes like the TNT uh the layout is set in statute and the staff work with vendors to ensure the local statements meet the statute uh so it's very much a um a proofing and ensuring everything is going correctly right so we're working with a vendor we want to make sure that the data comes over correctly and that the information we're sending out is good so again another step to uh proof taxes make sure the information is working right make sure sure that the vendor's information that's being sent out uh has been accurately pulled over the team uh enter and distribute tax increment uh financing so they enter and distribute the Tiff projects to taxing authorities uh and then this is distributed with the levy funds also a batement and tax court so for this the team is uh making adjustments for those properties so the abatement scheme P for a number of reasons that we see here however the the most common one that we know is just your homestead applications um and then Tax Court as well if there's any adjustment to the value from Tax Court uh they're making these adjustments from those uh specifically abatements in tax court and also oftentimes overpaid tax say staff are issuing refunds 2023 596 refunds were issued totaling 1, 378,000 and then the last the team processes property tax payments um through um escro and Banks so these can come for mail or online and they they do process a lot for how smaller team is uh 25,600 Parcels totaling 51 million uh come through this rather than the front counter so that was it just wanted a brief uh highlight of this great team uh I know it's a very small team with three members total and again unfortunately Janet couldn't be here today but um yeah thank you and let me know if you have any questions commissioner T so let's let's say somebody's behind on their taxes and they get the first letter do we allow them to set up some kind of payment plan and if they're current on that payment plan but they but they haven't totally caught up by the and a year three are they yeah so correct correct me if I'm WR but that's the uh um that that's the plan through the confession of judgment plan uh so you're you're creating a plan to pay off in x amount of years what do you have a typical time frame for that yeah it's could you come thank you commissioner Lisa Hawkins senior property tax specialist they nine times out of 10 they're not going to enter a confession of judgment until I know they say three years but you're really at your fourth year by the time you're looking at your forfeiture year so when you turn like if their forfeiture year is 25 a lot of them are going to coming in January to set up those confession of judgments and the reason they do that is because if they got back tax was said they have the three years if they set up their confession judgment right now they have to put 10% down on the plan plus they have to pay current whatever is due in the current year so they usually wait until everything goes delinquent and then they put 10% down on the plan and then they have nine more payments over the next 10 years um and the problem with the confession of judgment is an annual payment which doesn't help sure okay thank you I'm not clear how often we get confession of I mean it's how often is this a how often do we have you gave us so many numbers sure 700 and some delinquencies we currently have 66 taxpayers on confession of judgment right now and um we probably add you know five a year but some fall off for paying earlyer selling or completing the contract so you know 65 66 this is this is kind of our average so and they're mostly Residential Properties mostly I do have a few commercial commercial have to pay in five years and 20% and then residential is um 10 years at at so I have a confession of judgment I owe a lot of taxes I sell my house what happens um taxes our first lean so we love it they have to pay everything they they pay out of their sale that goes first okay yep and all right so then what we were we were looking at the potential uh house that will come into tax forfeiture at a future board meeting at admin this morning so it wasn't really clear what happens what what do we do to try and avoid uh forfeiture for Homeowner oh um great question if I may sure um I work really hard with the homeowners not to get them in this position um this situation was a little different and um maybe just talk about the process normal and then you don't have to speak to this one specifically right thank you thank you um what I usually do is um I scare the hell out of them I tell them what the process is what what's going to happen and this is real you possibly could lose your home so um by starting my letters early I start conversations early and I say this is the process this is what's going to happen and this is where we need to be to not be there and I welcome every taxpayer to call me and ask where am I at what should I be paying what should I be concentrating on what's coming and I get they all call so that's the conversation part that really helps in in getting it rolling too so they're not here um and I'd have to say um that helps a lot and they all say Lisa I'm glad I'm done with you and hope I never see you again but you know so I get a lot of that but so the for for our portion again a lot of communication we are not the ones to provide the resources however often times we are here's some re reforce resources for you to reach out to uh these May benefit you again the tax departments were not the subject matter expert on who can provide that relief um but frequently they do reach out um and provide information try these phone numbers try these contacts and see if someone else can help you and so they can enter into a payment schedule with you so I say say I owe taxes for two years I can enter a payment schedule to pay you periodically and to catch up but I have to pay this year's taxes first well actually um they cannot enter the only type of payment plan that is offered is the state mandated one the confessional judgment process and they um so typically people don't enter it and the reason they don't enter it right away is because they only get two two tries at it and if they default then they get their second one if they default on that they're right into forfeiture so if they if they default at the end of 2024 they're right in forfeiture in May in 2025 and then they have to pay in full so they're looking at selling or you know figuring out some way to pay in full so um there's no other type of payment plan so most people um I Tred to convince them to if if you're going to wait to enter into your confession of judgment then make you know try to stay current you know I tell them what when you enter your confession judgment you need X you need this amount of money I can I can figure it out to the penny future what you need a year from now to enter a confession of judgment you make sure you have that so you're safe from the forfeiture and then then you really need to start hitting this so you don't have the interest the penalty everything adds up and you know that's a lot of where they get in trouble I mean I do know we have like the hardship policy um which I think we were going to review Tom I'm not sure but um the it's limited to who can go into a hardship policy you know it's usually a medical or type some type of situation like that so um and then we're also Limited to only decreasing penalty and interest and things like that so so what are the sources that you can send people to that might be useful for us to know where where do people get help if they're behind in their taxes sure so I don't have the exact list for you right now um we've reached out to our apartments and um HHH um provided them contacts over there there's a couple um religious institutes as well that are frequent names um um not sure you the I the first thing I do is that well first I get a an idea of what who they are and what they need because if they're they're eligible for senior deferral I help them you know look at that program so I get them involved with Sandy moon at the state and then um between her and I we can get them what they need to sign up for senior deferral the nice thing about senior deferral is that it will pay delinquent taxes the back taxes and then and then the state figure out how much they have to pay a year which is usually 3% of their income and then um the state pays the their portion and then the people pay their portion and that works out that works out pretty good um then if they're veterans there's resources that way if they're um if they're just missing some credits like I always look at are they homesteaded um if they're blind disabled um if they're eligible for those I look at that um GPS intake I call them I send them a lot of people and just say you know these people are having trouble paying their property taxes but if you can find another way to save them money so they can pay their property taxes great um so we do that um okay thank you um I had a question this morning about the specific property that's coming forward and the assessed value of that property my question was um do we know if if there's you know how do we how do we conclude what our expenses are related to assessing that property and and do we have any assessment of uh the condition of the property because we were told that you know it's market value based on what was sold in the in that immediate neighborhood um but not necessarily the condition of that particular property so the condition we won't know for sure on the condition uh we're visiting this Friday for the first time uh able to enter and look around so we'll know a lot more on that question this Friday but I was just going to note um Commissioners that the assessor does rate houses based on their condition when they bring the value forward okay right so that that's that's from the street right that's from the street not interior no no real inspection sometimes yeah and they do this every time they bring a value to a home you know it's rated I don't know if it's one through five you know so a brand new home might be a five right they do that to everyone's okay Greg sorry L how many houses did you say that are currently in this process of possibly forfeiture did you say 17 oh I'm sorry for this year we forfeited I actually forfeited on two two properties would you would you come closer to the mic please thank you three properties so far this year yeah but in total uh you sent out how many letters and oh we start with a CT courtesy lates in um June I want to say they're like 3,000 December will be about 3,000 I know and then and then when we get to the Judgment process we're down to about 7 700 so that's a lot of payments coming in you know so and then out of those 700 I would guess most of those people get it paid off yes so then how many are you left with so looking at like what I'm doing right now in 24 for PID 25 I right now I did letters in July I had 91 letters go out um for the um ones that will be forfeiting next may but of those 91 there's really only 30 property tax payers cuz one person has 25 lots and another person has five or six so it's really 30 taxpayers so and that's pretty normal about a year out to be down to like 60 70 Parcels you're looking at for fitting yeah I guess my question is trying to get at is is there a kind of a profile of a taxpayer that is in trouble is it a certain age group is it a certain you're going to is it an older house newer house uh the strangest thing is it's people who inherited the property because if you think about the average taxpayer has a mortgage yes and they're going to get foreclosed on before they get forfeited on because the mortgage compan is going to pay the taxes okay so if you're looking at somebody that's in for forfeiture tax forfeiture they're free and clear nine times out of 10 okay if they do have a mortgage by the I have to notify the mortgage company and I do that in December the year before and so the those people come off the list because the mortgage company steps in and pays yeah all right but it's oddly enough if we get a house it was inherited inherited all right that's interesting I know right well am I correct in making the Assumption here after listening to you that Olstead County really doesn't want people to Forfeit we we're not out there looking for houses and and land we really are trying to do everything that we can to help them out to pay their tax taxes and so that they can keep their property that's correct absolutely so just basically looking at the extra Communications that are done uh our main goal is to make sure everybody is well aware of the process and and well informed so starting from start to end there's at least five additional Communications and countless phone hours and staff time uh to inform as much as possible um inform public about the process um helps bring the temperature down get in contact with any support they can early rather than later uh these are all goals that we have absolutely members well thank you for the overview appreciate it and uh uh was nice of you to come up and field all of our questions I know was a little nerve-wracking I think oh no thank you thank you and thank you for working hard to make sure that people can pay their taxes and stay in their homes appreciate that all right um we are to the committee reports and I have been advised that we will not be hearing about the library today actually we will oh we will I I I guess the person who advised me was wrong pardon me pardon me um several um points occurred to me after our discussion so I serve on the Rochester Public Library board and throughout the summer they continued to offer robust uh physical uh digital cultural educational and experiential programming for um all generations uh especially kids during the summer as they move into their fall programming now and some highlights from the board meeting is that the board got to meet uh the new Safety and Security specialist and this is a person who was hired three months ago and serves in um as a primarily in a deescalation role it's kind of a merger between Safety and Security and a social worker so this person does have a a Safety and Security um function to his role but really he's building relationships and friendships with um some uh of the more challenging patrons because I think as you know the library among other things is a can be a safe place in the daytime for some of our residents who struggle with mental health um with housing instability and chemical use and they can sometimes have behavioral issues so uh this person uh among other things helps to stabilize um you know potentially volatile situations and deescalate and um redirect those people so that uh to restore safety in the public library um the the board also learned about a really massive digiti like I'm going to just say this once digitization oh my gosh digitization digitization um uh project which includes um like uh newspapers from a hundred years ago and all kinds of physical Publications from over the years uh history yearbooks from uh every year book that they get their hands on they digitize it um it it was uh and it was in partnership with the um with the History Center in many ways so this was a massive and successful ongoing project um and my last update for the library is that the library has once again youth Representatives on it it had um um the the youth on the on the board graduated high school so they uh put out a um a notice for applications they received many and they have one youth from essentially from the county and one from the city and they'll be joining um the board in the fall great thank you welcome are are there Plans by the library for updating the current facility are they planning you know 10 years ago they were actively planning a new facility what's the status of their satisfaction with the with their facilities what are there are there any plans underway I think because the physical expansion plans and um requests for approval generally were not um approved or met their their focus is now on their um their card holder membership their patrons and uh and their uh vast uh Continuum of of programming that they offer that's really the focus I haven't heard about um physical expansions lately thank you well thank you I'm glad to have that report a little time for reflection all right um and then we're going to hear about Rog from our our three Representatives commissioner rashman Mueller and senum what do you have to tell us about what's happening with ROK I can tell you I was at the Rog meeting and we're going over uh Transportation Improvement programs for 25 to 28 2028 um they are accept accepting public comments up until September 16th and uh with these projects it looks like um over the next four years it's going to be $441 million um um Highway expansion of course with us14 and County 44 interchange uh roadway preservation mainly at down at Stewartville on Highway 30 um Transit with EV support vehicles and chargers and bicycle and pedestrian construction like on 37th Street and a reminder is the Rog is projects that are qualified for federal funding so it obviously doesn't cover all the projects around in the County so that's kind of in a nutshell what's going on with Rog um then we jump to the Whitewater rivershed project which uh we had last week and um big um they had a field day at the Ross Gren Farm in uh wona County he's a he is a Soil and Water supervisor for wiona County and it was a good turnout um also looking at um uh efforts to identify undoc undocumented Wells within the Whitewater Watershed and an Outreach and education for Rural homeowners on maintenance of septic and Wells on their property and also Outreach information to land owners on importance of sealing unused Wells um another thing about the Clean Water uh Grant resolution um Bowser is actually looking for two representatives in the area they did hire one for man and they are looking for a representative for the Rochester area um I guess that's kind of everything in a nutshell for these to and then the uh wind laac U Watershed meeting isn't until next week so thank you uh commissioner Rosman or commissioner sendan is there anything you want to add about Rog I uh I I was not able to make it so I can't add anything on that one Dre like it all right okay well thank you commissioner Mueller good to have your voice in the room um any other uh committee reports or I'll so um see mayor rour ior I'm sorry ran iour U reminds me that and we just had major rebuild of County Road 21 White Bridge Road and and we had a lot of traffic of uh construction equipment going through town and I just want to give kudos to Ben Johnson his Department because he he called me I can't remember what day of a week it was but he called me and the night emailed Ben in his Department was literally like they closed the faucet the next day all that traffic stayed out of town and he wanted to express how happy he was that we were responsive like that oh great and then I'll also point we had a meeting last week on cter Road 21 I think I said 21 first but 12 was our first project 21 we're going to rebuild going to Elgen next year and there's a concerned group of citizens and Nathan and Ben went to a meeting last week at firemon township um with about 30 residents and handled themselves well so appreciate that good thank you any other reports yeah commissioner Wright comment I did send to the Commissioners a document that I had created on um Adult Services for Seniors and if you haven't looked at it if you want to look at it sometime you can ask questions about it I would appreciate it thanks commissioner senum I was at um I think the week before last uh we had some uh German visitors here in Minnesota from North R West faia the minister of energy and economic development and a cadri of business people and academic people I about 15 but uh but we had a an event at the University of Minnesota U they call them salons uh and I and that was all good but I happened to be approached by uh uh actually a former state senator Katie Sean who's now public utilities chair commission chair and Katie said Dave Dave you got to get involved the the commission has got a docket before it on defining renewable energy they were sent that responsibility by the legislature and and and they're charged albe it she didn't want the job but the commission's charged with defining renewable energy and so we need to keep track of of that and I'll try personally and others as well I hope and uh as it affects our waste energy facility because it's a it's a big decision and uh and uh although public utility Commissioners are expart so to speak uh meaning they can't be lobbied maybe they can be talked to if we if we are gentle about it did uh commissioner sein have a specific request for involvement did she have a suggestion or uh o only Dave Dave you have to get involved in this I'm thinking uh that this might be something that we ask our our um pack staff to uh make some inquiries so that we are really aware of what their schedule would be and um what the opportunities might be for comment and uh this is a you know the Public Utilities Commission is an open commission it is staffed and so our staff probably can get some sense of schedule of when they're taking this up and how they plan to study the issue so that we can monitor it more closely in addition to whatever um direct uh contact you want to have but I think that would be it would be useful if we could put that on our on our work plan for our our our Pack Unit are was going to send me the docket number she hasn't yet but uh I'll get back with her I suppose it just got lost in Liberty stuff but uh but yeah I'll get i'll extend that out we just and and I suspect there public comments have already the docket is closed unfortunately uh from the standpoint of comments but uh we can we can at least look at what's what's been commented on and the nature of those comments do they not hold public hearings in addition to the docket is kind of open for for documents right but not public hearings are in addition to that docket I think there is a public hearing process that yes okay beyond beyond the written comments so I it sounds like it's something we really should pursue and know know what the procedural steps are is there anything else for the good of the order here all right well I will end with a quote I was looking for something that was really relevant to labor day but instead I came up with something from John Wesley do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can John Wesley do all the good you can with that I would take a motion for