Agenda Friday, June 28, 2019 Land Department Building

Agenda

Friday, June 28, 2019

Land Department Building, Backus, MN

Annual Planning Work Session

Board of Commissioners, Citizen Budget Committee, and Department Heads

◼ 8:30 AM – Coffee and Donuts

◼ 9:00 AM – Call meeting to order with flag pledge

⚫ Introductions

⚫ Any changes to the agenda?

⚫ Budget updates since last meeting (June 22, 2018)

⚫ Department head comments

⚫ Selected market trends

⚫ Legislative update

⚫ 2020 issues

⚫ 2020 budget timetable

◼ 12:00 PM – Adjourn

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Budget Update

◼ Adopted 2019 Budget

⚫ Spending = $59,197,058 (up $2.6M or 4.69% from

2018)

⚫ Property tax levy

◼ 2018 = $22,307,860 (+$541,306,+2.49%)

◼ 2019 = $22,530,913 (+$223,053,+1.00%)

⚫ Fees

◼ Recent land use fee changes

◼ New liquor fees to accommodate brewery and

taprooms – No activity to date

◼ Local option sales tax – Stable at $1.9M

⚫ Other revenue trend

◼ 2018 $33.8M OPM and $2K of fund balance

◼ 2019 $36.2M OPM and $300 of fund balance

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Budget Update

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-$200,000

$0

$200,000

$400,000

$600,000

$800,000

$1,000,000

$1,200,000

$1,400,000

$1,600,000

$1,800,000

Spending Change by Fund 2019 vs. 2018

Budget Update

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-$400,000

-$300,000

-$200,000

-$100,000

$0

$100,000

$200,000

$300,000

$400,000

$500,000

Levy Change by Fund 2019 vs. 2018Before County Program Aid & Designated Funds

Budget Update

◼ 2019 Budget Performance to Date

⚫ Revenues & expenditures – trending close to budget

⚫ Levy contingency – none

⚫ Fund balances – increasing reserves to offset risks

◼ Capital Plan Updated

⚫ Funding – no debt issuance, utilize fund balance, levy

of $600,600 for 2019

⚫ Facility strategy – extend useful life of Walker County

campus, new construction for highway shops includes

partners, co-locate with Leech Lake Band at Cass Lake

(HHVS & Courts), continued jail bed contracting

⚫ Technology – reallocated an FTE to address

technology demands

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Department Remarks

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◼ Sheriff – Tom

◼ Recorder – Katie

◼ Probation – Jim

◼ Land – Kirk

◼ HR – Kelsey

◼ Highway – Darrick

◼ HHVS – Michele

◼ ESD – John

◼ Court Adm – Kayla

◼ CFO – Sandra

◼ Cen Serv – Tim

◼ Attorney – Ben

◼ Assessor – Mark

◼ Administrator – Josh

Sheriff

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Increase in DUI/Drugs

⚫ Violent Crime Increase - Gangs

⚫ Recreation Usage Increase

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Cooperative Law Enforcement Agreement

⚫ Medical Marijuana

⚫ TCPR Bill (Give CPR over the phone) 2021

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Staffing Counts – Open Positions

⚫ Radio 800 MHz Compatible Equipment

⚫ Line 3 Issues

Recorder

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Abstract & Torrens Volumes Down

⚫ Passport Volumes Up

⚫ E-Recordings is Down but still at 39%

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ minimum Deed Tax – raised from $500 to $3,000 –effective 1/1/2020

⚫ Elected/Appointed – now provides some protections for incumbent officers – effective day following enactment

⚫ Property Owner can now record a Declaration regarding discharge of Covenant against protected classes –effective 8-1-2019

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Requests for bulk images

⚫ Requests for list of expenditures of Technology and Compliance Fund Accounts

⚫ Interest rates will likely be cut by Federal Reserve soon

⚫ Predict doc volumes to remain about the same

Probation

8/19/2019 9

◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Decreased felony DWI filings (10-year period)

⚫ Drug offense filings remain high

⚫ Increased pretrial supervision cases

⚫ Stable number placed on probation

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Wireless communications devices (hands-free only)

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Pretrial Release grant application underway

⚫ Implementation of Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI)

⚫ Judicial policy change regarding human resources

⚫ Validation/modification of pretrial risk assessment instrument.

Land

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Customer contacts continue to increase.

⚫ Timber market outlook.

⚫ Over the counter land sales YTD.

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ County forest road maintenance appropriation continued for two years

⚫ Bill to require DNR to plow snow on minimum maintenance forest roads-requests for services-Failed

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Biomass-closure of Benson Power Plant

⚫ Northern Long Eared Bat-Population down 90% since surveys started

⚫ Forest inventory

Human Resources

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Pay Equity compliance

⚫ Electronic timesheets

⚫ Labor negotiations

⚫ Job descriptions

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Janus v. AFSCME

⚫ Family and Medical Leave Act

⚫ Affordable Care Act continues◼ New tax law repealed the individual mandate only to reduce the

penalty to zero effective in 2019

◼ May be softening of the employer mandate meaning easier reporting

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Payroll software

⚫ Ancillary benefits

Highway

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ 2019 County State Aid Highway Funding Program: +$17k construction and +$11k maintenance.

⚫ 2018 County levy for CSAH maintenance ($42k) & construction ($450k) increase.

⚫ Service delivery – adequate based on feedback

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ EQB lowered wetland impact threshold for an EAW but MCEA were able to lobby an exception for Hwy Projects

⚫ No gas tax increase and no major bonding.

⚫ Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) projected to be $1.9M+ per year. LOST delivered $2M of improvements in 2018.

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Roundabout construction at CSAH 44 & CSAH 1

⚫ Project Development for large projects on CSAH 37 (2022) and CSAH 70 (2023).

⚫ Continue pursuing partnering opportunities with LLBO, MnDOT, USFS, Townships, Cities and neighboring Counties.

Health, Human &

Veterans Services

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Building on Integrated Behavioral Health Continuum

⚫ Transforming Service Delivery through Integrated Services Business Model

⚫ Performance and Revenue Tracking

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Dedicated federal and state funding streams for Adult Protection Services

⚫ SUD Reform ( Substance Use Disorder)

⚫ CCAP ( Child Care Assistance Program) Compliance and Integrity

⚫ Opioid Stewardship Fund

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Child Welfare Training Academy

⚫ Competency Restoration Task Force

⚫ Opioid Crisis

Environmental Services

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Cost of Recycling going up

⚫ Permits, Variances and workload increasing

⚫ Aquatic Invasive Species still an important issue for citizens

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Funding for Leech Lake & Pine River 1W1P from Clean Water Fund

⚫ Funding for SWCD Local capacity stable from Clean Water Fund

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Solid Waste Contracts – Request For Proposals

⚫ How do we keep recycling going?

⚫ Leech Lake River 1W1P Non-competitive Funding

⚫ Ordinance Consolidation and Revisions Needed

⚫ Re-evaluate Permit Fees inc. (After The Fact)

⚫ Workload

Court Administration

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Continuing court hearings at Leech Lake Tribal Justice Center.

⚫ Costs for county paid attorneys continue to be unpredictable.

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ No issues at this time.

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ New staff due to a number of retirements last year.

⚫ Continue to monitor county paid attorney costs.

Chief Financial Officer

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Election year will increase levy request for the department (additional costs for presidential primary in March 2020);

⚫ Completion of storage facility for election equipment -$12,000 savings /year;

⚫ New phone system has decreased call transfers to other departments;

⚫ Sheriff transition to paperless timecards mid-2019.

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ No movement on support from the State to offset utility valuation appeals. Enbridge case in the appeals process while smaller cases are getting settled without litigation at a cost to our local governments.

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Begin conversion to new payroll software.

⚫ Retirement of Election Administrator.

Central Services

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Fuel Prices may actually go down this season

⚫ Information and network security still at the top

⚫ More movement to hosted services (SaaS)

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Passage of Tax law provides the mechanism for natural gas pipeline construction and expansion

⚫ Still no revision on various data practices, policies, and storage

⚫ New bill provides users affected by State apps the ability to go through user acceptance and testing

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Increasing concern and cost to secure networks and data

⚫ Retirement (alleged)

⚫ Year of updates, replacements, etc., for many high use applications

Attorney

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Voters affirmed County Board selection of County Attorney

⚫ Good economy means more land use issues that require legal intervention and exposes the limits of our enforcement options.

⚫ Homicides, violent offenders, and drug distribution cases are a primary focus. The more accountability we pursue, the more of our finite resources are consumed.

⚫ Appeals.

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Nothing significant to report at this time.

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Controlled substance DWI’s on the rise with law enforcement DRE training and prevalence of drugs. These cases are more difficult to prosecute than alcohol related DWIs.

⚫ Dealing with drug case volume.

⚫ Continuing efforts to break down transportation barriers for those who have lost their driver’s license.

⚫ Continue community outreach efforts.

Assessor

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◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Market values trending up. County EMV up 4.5%.

⚫ New construction value down 3.65% (Total NC $60,262,699) and new home starts up 5% (Total new home starts 135)

⚫ Real estate sales and foreclosures – 1st quarter 2019 sales level (Total 156) and foreclosures up 3 (Total 7).

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ Agricultural fractional homestead determination

⚫ Change disabled veterans homestead exclusion application deadline and spousal limitation

⚫ Change threshold for filing a CRV

⚫ Authorizes assessor and VSO data sharing

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Short term vacation rentals

⚫ State assessed property tax court decisions

⚫ Staffing

⚫ DCS mobile solutions software

County Administrator

8/19/2019 20

◼ Selected Market Trends

⚫ Customers continue to praise great service

⚫ Strong economy results in more customer contacts

⚫ Relationship with Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is recognized nationwide

◼ Legislative Update

⚫ No change in county share of state share of tribal/state tax agreement

⚫ County program aid change is positive

◼ 2020 Issues

⚫ Staff is getting younger, expectations from employer changing

⚫ Strong economy pushing cost of living adjustment up

⚫ Workforce pool shallow for some positions

⚫ With capital levy we look for more input from budget committee

2020 Budget Timetable

⚫ Annual planning session – June 28

⚫ Preparation packets released – July 10

⚫ Departmental requests due – August 02

⚫ Initial citizen budget committee review of requests

◼ Confirmed dates – August 16, August 23

◼ Optional date – August 30

⚫ Establish preliminary levy – September 03

⚫ Departmental citizen budget committee review

◼ Tentative dates – October 11, 25

⚫ Truth in taxation notices – November

⚫ Budget hearing – December 05 (PM)

⚫ Adoption of budget and levy – December 17

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Additional Comments?

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◼ County Board of Commissioners

◼ Citizen Budget Committee

◼ County Staff

Thank You

8/19/2019 23