Billings County Commission - Regular Meeting

missing or you know if anybody else was going to come back too late here anybody watering down uh who's doing that you mean down by the fire hall the best one

Well, I think we can just call it to order. I said quarter after 1.30. So we have to do just a preliminary budget and get it approved today. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So I made some adjustments. I'm very sorry about my voice. I've made some adjustments for the preliminary budget for 2027. The one was the domestic violence rape and abuse crisis center went from 66 to 76,000. That was the only one of the department budgets on top that changed at all. So the general fund budget is set at $8,233,696.21. which is a decrease of $344,883.72. Without the Presidential Library, it's an increase of $155,116. On the bottom, you can see all of the different budgets for our various county entities that are included in there. The ones that were added now are operating and maintenance of $250,000. That's the amount that's estimated that will be needed to transfer from operating and maintenance to the wheat board for next year. It's likely that they won't need that large of an amount of transfer, but it's based on their revenues and what they bring in for chemicals and spraying and things like that for the year. The land utilization fund.

Where is this?

Sorry, on the very bottom of the big sheet.

Oh, okay.

Yep. It's the last three blue lines of the bottom there. The land utilization fund, that's the Bankhead Jones transfers that we do for the school and for Broad and Bridge to supplement all of their expenses. So the amount on the bottom is somewhat... tricky to look at because it's a large amount. But that $13 million is just a transfer within the county funds. So it's a transfer from land utilization to road and bridge. But when you're appropriating funds, you have to include the transfers in and transfers out of these funds. And then the unorganized township, that is the same situation. So that'll be a transfer from the unorganized township road fund into road and bridge as well okay but it just has to be laid out so that there's no question the unorganized road fund we have to levy 18 mils for in order to receive our our funding from the state or to be able to apply for the flex funding so okay so for billings county um the flex or sorry not the flex the unorganized township road fund the max cap calculation and you guys don't have this i'm just telling you this for your information is 377 766 which brings us to eight mils or sorry 18 mils so 377 000 is 18 mils correct

And we are putting that on there.

Okay. This sheet is new. This is just the estimated revenues based on the last five years of revenues in each of the funds. Okay, where is that one?

Underneath the one. Oh, sorry. That's the one you just got.

Probably got stuck underneath there. Oh, there it is, right in front of you, to the right of your screen. So these are the county-wide county levies. So everything that's in your cap calculation worksheet here is included in this revenue spreadsheet. So if you're looking at the highlighted portions, those are what's estimated to be levied for 2026 taxes, okay? So for the county general fund, property taxes, $420,000. For the unorganized, that $377,766. For the veteran services, $9,000. For library service, I put in their total estimated need, because we may have to look at moving some of the state aid funding around next year. Same with extension services, their total budget amount of 22,256. And that's 20% of the total budget for the Billings Golden Valley Extension Service. And the County Weed Board, 97,159.87. That is their max at four mils. So they cannot go over the four mil requirement. So if you go back to your cap calculation worksheet, this one here, you can see last year total dollars levied was $992,734, but then you take out right below that the not entity-wide, which includes the unorganized township. And last year we levied $354,551. leaving a difference, or sorry, the amount at $638,184. And then if you just go to the second, or sorry, the third page, or second page, second page under calculation four. Calculation four is the revenues and the budgets and the max mill levy dollar amounts that we can levy on each of these funds. So that's not actually the max. We could go up another $4,553, but this is leaving a little bit on the table for ensuing years. So it's $698,108, including all of the entity-wide or county-wide, I should say, levies. It leaves a remaining percentage or excess percentage to carry forward of 2.04% for future years.

What was that percentage last year? It was 2.72 last year.

So kind of leaving everything roughly the same, leaving a little bit to carry out. I mean, it's only $4,000 among all of the entities, but in the ensuing year, when you take into account the taxable valuation increases, so our levy for the County General Fund is estimated to go from uh it was 405 405 000 for 2026 and that was 17.87 mills and to go up to that 420 000 and our mill is actually going to drop down to 17.29 so it's less of a burden on taxpayers but we still bring in more dollars And unless anybody has any questions for me at this point, there's going to be more information with the max levy worksheets and everything else at the general or at the final budget hearing. But this is just the preliminary to get the ball rolling and get it approved in the general October meeting.

So last month, I know you gave us the handout and maybe even the budget meeting we had. What has the general fund been bringing in again? And say the last couple years, income-wise.

In revenue.

In total. Do you have a sheet on that?

Yeah, I cleaned my folder out for some reason and put it... and came without it. Let me just... Maybe you know where it's at.

Well, I got everything. I didn't throw anything.

I didn't. Yeah, I just took it out.

Yeah.

Okay, so for the County General Fund, last year's revenue was $6,216,000. So that includes a general property tax of $424,000. So when we're estimating what we're going to bring in for the ensuing year, the oil and gas revenues are so volatile. I always take the last five years in. pretty much go on the low side because you don't know what prices are going to do, what's going to happen in the future. 2024 was $5,122,000. 2023 was $5,144,000. And that was six and six. Some of the revenues were like for the general fund, there was some reimbursements and refunds. So we actually got over a million dollars in reimbursements and refunds one year. So it throws those numbers way out of skew. I know Dean had asked a question earlier before the meeting about being able to change the budget if necessary between now and October. It can absolutely be changed because at the max mill levy, you're only going to bring in $420,000 roughly. Not at the max mill levy, but the max capped levy.

This...

Just so you know too, this does not include the fire district, the school district, the city of Medora. Those entities all have their own budget hearings that they have to put on. So everybody has to have their preliminary portion done before August 10th so that we can do a publication and allow everybody to go to those meetings if they have any issues with budgets.

In the last three years, you know, and now looking even to next year, we're adding more commissioners, we're adding more employees, fire, EMS, sheriff, commissioners, and the number keeps going up. And it doesn't account for inflation or, you know, just other costs that go up.

so so

How come the audit fees went up $100,000?

Because that's a two-year audit. Two-year deal. Yep.

So each year is $50,000.

Right, roughly. But now it's $75,000. Yeah. That includes both the county audit and the single audit for the federal awards.

So,

So our total budget for the general is the 8-2. Correct. And there's nothing else to change in there right now? Pretty much that's where it's going to be.

Not unless you have any issues with any of the department budgets or anything that came in.

When you put in health insurance, the increase of $25,000, does that include for the two extra commissioners?

yeah it was over budgeted last year oh sure it's budget yeah right not actual i'm sorry and last year we lost a number of employees and then we've gained them back now so yeah i was thinking actual versus

So where is the emergency fund that's being used now?

Down on the bottom.

Way in the bottom? There it is.

County Emergency, correct. So is that $1 million, I put it to 500,000 because I don't know what the final fund balance is going to be at the end of the year. It can stay at 500,000. We don't levy for that fund, so there's no concern with it. You can adjust it if the ending year balance is higher than 500,000 and you can use those funds.

Thank you. Thank you.

So where is this A250 presidential library increase at?

over here it's within the department budgets so it would be 200 000 in the sheriff's department budget 150 000 in the ems budget and 150 000 in the dem budget so if you look at sheriff's department at 1.211 that included the 200 000.

oh yeah because it's okay

Thank you.

Well, is there any more questions or concerns?

Well, concerns, it sucks we were 155,000 over from before. For example, each entity comes and acknowledges they need more and all that and understand it more. And you add it all up and you see it and it's like, oh. Yeah, everything keeps going up.

Where's our revenues at our page? for revenues i mean that that one no no are you talking about your treasurer's cash report well that's probably what he's talking i think what's the approximate coming in where is that paper

Well, I gave you the five-year revenues and expenditures for each account. So it's between $5 and $6 million annually for the county general fund.

Yeah, because you gave me $6,216,000.

Yeah, it's that sheet there.

Yes.

That's over here.

Your treasurer's cash, yeah, that one. That's where we're sitting right now for what's in the fund currently. That's as of the end of July. So that top line would be the County General Fund. But that other sheet I gave you gives you a full year outlook of, I guess I could, because I gave it to you in your books before, too, of the five-year comparison of revenues and expenditures. So it broke it down so you had each general fund, unorganized, road and bridge, all the revenue sources.

So do we have that in our book now?

That is in your book, yeah.

Thank you.

So, so far this year we brought in this much. So just a little bit under what's been dispersed.

Where is that paper that we had from the fire department this morning on how much we paid out to the fire department?

$39,700, I think. Is there a paper?

She has it back.

It's actually, I just went through some of these, right here in one of these.

Anna took it back to do a voucher for it.

I think it's one of these.

Yup, right here. How's my memory?

39, 970. Okay. So did we, we had mentioned earlier about doing a a bonus or whatever to employees that are exempt, right? We talked about that. And so, and that's because they don't get any overtime hours. They never did come up with anything to put in there. Yeah.

So that would be for the budget. If you wanted to do it in this year. This year, yeah. Then it would not be included in the budget. Right. You'd just make a motion to do it if you wanted to do that.

Well, I don't want to forget to do that after we get done with the budget. Because I saw it here and that's what reminded me of it. Okay. So let's finish the budget and then we'll move into that. So if we make this preliminary, I guess my question is, is there anywhere that anything can be cut of any sort?

I guess my point from last meeting was if you cut back on our salaries, that $80,000 right there would be a lot closer to the break-even from last year.

That would still be $75,000 off. It's a tough one, isn't it?

It is a tough one.

And then this don't take into account what's left at the end of the year that could be turned back. Well, we don't know that.

Wait, so regardless on your treasurer's cash report, this is the cash that we have. So if the total budget of $8,578,000 gets spent this year, if they don't return it back, you would take that off of there and then add in the revenues on here to tell you what your ending fund balance is going to be. That's all the money that you have along with your anticipated revenues for 2027. When you add it to that, that's the dollar amount that you're working with for the year. So the estimate at $5 million plus anticipated, let me just look and see what is left in the budget after last.

Grab me. Okay. So,

so you've got roughly five and a half million budgeted left to spend for 2026 between now and the end of the year so if you take that off of your treasurer's cash report general fund down to five million with some revenues for oil and gas uh starting in september we'll go back up to the um hundred percent of off the top of the oil and gas revenue we should have an influx of money roughly let's say a million dollars by the end of the year more more so roughly six million plus the you know estimated four and a half million next year so

And that's what we started with at the beginning was 10 and 6. Correct. Okay. i'm okay with the way it is but unless somebody's got some is there any of these things that we do not use every year more or less than it's in here

I think we just put them in just in case we do use them.

Oh, I know. I agree. But it just seems like there is some of those.

One thing that sticks out, like courthouse renovation, we shouldn't have to do much this year now. You know, it's still in there. Is it $250? $260 or... So, I mean, there's an item that's... We hope we don't spend much on that after what we've done in here.

maybe i'm looking at the wrong one but we live on a spring yeah yeah and then salaries keep going up every year a little bit one two percent whatever So then that makes everything else go up.

I mean, I wouldn't have a problem by lowering that unless Dale has big plans for next year.

I'm not trying to call it what I am. You just, you know, you mentioned...

But I mentioned that if there is something that could be cut out of there... And it's a matter of, you know, essentially artificially inflating the numbers or deflating the numbers if you... If you've had something for a significant number of years and you haven't used it, you could lower it. But we've gone over in some budgets some years and under in some years. It's your best guess at what the ensuing year is going to bring.

it says courthouse grounds from 260 to 264. so that is dale's budget which includes his salary so that's that's some of the increase Yeah, and the museum, that's because of the wage over there or whatever, mostly, right? Yeah.

They do their own budget. The museum, that was turned in by Rodney Krogh. And the general fund miscellaneous, I did decrease by $50,000 from this year. We've gotten a lot better at making sure that things are coded specifically to the line items instead of being a miscellaneous expense, tracking down who it belongs to if it's a courthouse expense and getting it out of the miscellaneous line item. But there are those costs that come out of miscellaneous and nobody wants it in their budget because it's a for everybody cost or a request that comes in that has nowhere else to go.

well yes i'm i'm you want to make a motion to to do the preliminary budget yeah i'll make that motion i'll second it okay motion in a second all those in favor say aye aye aye and motion carries

Derek, question for you. The topic of the agenda, can we talk about it now or should it wait until next week or next month? With the bonuses?

Sorry, you said the bonuses? Yeah, with the bonuses. I kind of thought of that when Dean mentioned it. We didn't say to put it on this month, but Grant, do you have...

estimated hours like i don't know if we have a number in mind i know just from our numbers uh i want to close 125 hours over two week periods the last the final two weeks when we opened up the operations center okay and pat was close to 90 hours if you look at the dollar amount fixed that's going to be between eight twelve thousand dollars Just as rough to be said doesn't come anywhere close to out saving a person for the 14 16 months of work that's gone into them all this account this means that went to sure Mostly just to Steve's question.

Can we address it today? It was I guess supposed to be addressed once we had some numbers for the Commission to consider

no objection i guess it wasn't on the agenda but so a regular meeting agenda they can add during the correct and yeah we can be talking about it sure it was the table basically until this meeting correct so if you have enough information to

Discuss it or come up with it then So what are we gonna call it we discussed that last time we called it a bonus or what was it a

uh so that we were a bonus instead of a salary increase or anything like that just a one-time

I forget the language of it, my computer's dead.

So I looked into it and it is allowed, it is feasible, it has been done before, especially under the emergency declaration allowance, a one-time bonus for the non-exempt employees. Or the exempt employees, sorry, yeah.

Okay. Well, if you came up with that kind of number, I'm okay with coming up with a number because this would be for two employees. So it's kind of a... a thing that wasn't ever planned for, you know. It's kind of a, there was a lot of extra work put involved and there was a lot of, a lot of stuff with this thing that never even was talked about before, so. I feel that there should be some sort of compensation there. I don't 100% know the number, but I just want to hear what you guys have to say.

Well, we've done it in the past. I was on fire call with Don Heiser, and we've done it. I can name about three, four incidences, so I'm all for it. I am. This is kind of out of the deal. If it wouldn't happen, we wouldn't have that.

And just to clarify, the two exempt employees would be Dean Wyckoff and Kyle Shockley, correct?

I guess I'd like to hear what you guys have in mind for numbers before I would voice my opinion.

well you got the hours you said right um my hours are 125 hours okay that's for that 90 hour mark and if you use a rough average of the two that puts it it's going to be between that eight and twelve thousand for the low end and twelve thousand on the high end okay um and both kyle and dean put in a hell of a lot more hours than that we're looking at. As you mentioned, it was a one off, one time, and those two really stepped up

i don't think belgium's county could have pulled it off if they didn't have those two in the positions that they were in i don't think the expertise and the quality of services would have been there they still kept their eye on the rest of the county and did their job so like two cents well thank you and we're not quite all done either but i mean that's just kind of now it's normal days though now more or less but Hopefully we get it done here by the end of the month.

I have to agree with Grant. I was here that whole week.

When I got down here at 6 in the morning, them two were here. And when I left at 8.39 at night, they were still here. And that was Monday, and I left for home on Sunday.

i don't know if they did the week before but i'll vote for that week well in the week before we were over setting up over there you know and then the weeks before that all the extra other meetings

So now it's just, you got a calculator there? Are you figuring it up? I don't know.

Well, he figured it up, 8 to 10, or 8 to 12. What is overtime on somebody? $60 or something?

It depends on the position.

If you're looking at, if you took Dean's salary, it'd be $86.04, $83.04. that was his hour overtime rate if he was allowed overtime 10 375 there you go all right

Kyle's would be less.

Do you want me to pull his overtime rate?

Hmm?

Do you want me to pull his overtime rate?

What would it be? Yeah, you can. I don't know if you want to do them separate or do them the same, but I mean...

I think it would be easier and fair. Well, I guess the fair is whatever.

Kyle's would be a little less.

I guess my number is 9000.

What's your number? 2,000 was what I had in mind coming to this meeting as a bonus. 2,000 came to mind. They could take a week off. They could take two weeks off. They both have staff. They put in extra time, but I'm not going to say they didn't do a good job. I wasn't there watching them, but... When you say a bonus, a bonus usually is not the value of what the overtime the other has put in. So I had $2,000 come into my mind coming into the meeting.

It's your number. Yes.

Yeah, we make a motion on that today.

And then it would be paid in the August payroll.

Mm-hmm. And payroll would apply. Correct. Correct, yeah.

Pat, do you remember how we did it back? I know we did it with Don Heiser and a few other ones, Hallie Lavelle and all of them. Did they come up with the hours and the hours they permitted into it? Because I remember Don and I had to sit down and figure out the hours, and then that's what the county paid them on was the hours. Do you remember? He would have been on DEM's side that time. What's that? Would you have been on DEM? No, Kelly was on DEM. So at that time, DEM was part-time.

So they gave her a full-time job until she was a part-time employee. Okay. which event was that it was finance you know is there you know just like this event there can you i'm sorry can you make sure people speak loud enough so that the deal can hear you at that time you know they were getting up at sunrise and going to sunset, basically. I mean, they didn't have, they didn't compare hours to what the others were working, because the deputies at that time were, that timeframe also, I mean, everybody went to work before sunrise. They just never did do the hourly. It's just a number.

It's just a number.

I'll speak out of turn, I guess, not that I don't get a vote, I don't have a say, I don't have any numbers, but from a planning perspective, and more so the sheriff, and I don't know exactly how much extra. I know Kyle Shockley was involved with, he went to South Dakota, he did all the table cops, he did all that. Just from what I saw during just that week, I was here I think all but two days just because I had other things I had to get taken care of. To look at it based only upon Comparatively, overtime hours, the event planning for a year leading up to it, all the extra time in that, I don't think just focusing on the week of the event for overtime and comparing it with overtime hours is necessarily on point because there was so much extra time in the planning and preparation that was so far above and beyond the normal job duties for both of those individuals would suggest that the Commission take into account a year of planning and preparation above and beyond just the week of and comparing a two-week pay period as a reference point. That's just my thoughts on it. because it was so much more planning than they would have had to do otherwise in their normal job capacity so exemplary bonus or exemplary service bonus or performance bonus something to that nature you know just for how the event ran there may not have been as many people those few days as we were anticipating but the planning was still there as if 40,000 people did show up so that's all i'll say is i i don't think it should be totally based upon comparison for those two weeks but you can certainly take those two weeks into account with kyle shockley and the sheriff you know probably working more than than both grant and pat you know for their hours that they've that they've stated so mr sure i'll just

speak on this to them at this point. He's absolutely right. I mean, the fighters we're talking about was the incident. So I was brought on 16 months or 14 months or whatever it was. Those two put in more hours than anybody can ever believe. And I mean, that's part of the job. I give back, that's part of the job. But at the same time, you know, appreciation for what, you can have an administrator that said, I'm not dealing with it and passed it on. It wouldn't have been as successful, probably, as it was. But he's absolutely right. That whole year was meeting after meeting, nights, weekends, and everything. So you really shouldn't take in just the two weeks. He's absolutely right, actually. That's what makes this way different than a fighter situation.

two weeks was just given as a dollar value as an example of a short window of time like i said you couldn't no county could have pulled it off the way this county did for those two guys and all the coordination

yeah i gave my number what's your number well i'll tell you i i'm just going off of what grant said i don't hear that whole damn week and i know what so but it's still you gotta weigh everything out um i didn't didn't realize you know about what it would be until you'd actually see it but maybe i'm too old maybe i'm too high but i'm gonna say we're gonna get ten thousand dollars And that would be my goal.

Yeah, I was here too that week. I think it was one day I couldn't be here. But otherwise I was here every day too, morning and night.

I didn't know we were invited to be here the whole week. to sit on the security like you guys did?

I'm the portfolio holder of Dean and Kyle. And that's why I was here. That's why I was here.

I was asked to be here.

That makes sense. Yeah.

And we had a lot of things that were asked of us and whatever. So we had to do a lot of things. There was a lot of decisions to be made during that time that they had to make. It could have been worse, too. We could have had an event or something, you know. Well, I'm going to make a motion for $9,500 then for each of the one-time bonus. So do we have a second?

I'll second it.

So we have a second. Any more discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay. Any more items for this month's meeting? Yes. Mr. Chairman? Okay.

Chairman and I got a hold of Kyle, and he is willing to hold those for another one. Okay.

Thank you.

Did you say something too? No. Nobody else did? No, I don't. All right. Yeah.

All right. So do we have a motion to adjourn?

I move to adjourn.

Second? No, second. All right. Meeting is adjourned.