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