Cass County Commission - Regular Meeting

If we'll show you what it is and you'll be like in his absence appointing Commissioner Fletcher is acting presiding commissioner pursuant to RSMO 49.070. All right. Thank you Kathy. Going to call the uh commission meeting 12 p.m. for um April 8th and roll call please. Kathy Mike Morland here. Jeff Fletcher here. obviously. Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Accept the agenda as presented. I'll make a motion to accept that. All right. I second that. All in favor? 240 against approval. I get a motion for approval of commission meeting minutes. April 1st. Make a motion to approve. I second that. All in favor. Two favors. Two four and zero against. Uh resolution number 2632, C County Road and Bridge authorizing the lease of two John Deere tractors through a MDOT contract. Make that motion. I second that. Travis, you have an update for us.

Yeah, this is a a lease program that we utilize through MODOT that we can lease tractors for 350 hours per tractor for $7,000 a year. We use that to pull our bigger road. Um it's a higher horsepower tractor. That way we don't put all the hours on the trackers again. Okay. Any questions for you? Nope. Sounds good. It's a good deal out there. It is. All in favor? 24 zero against. Resolution number 2633 C County Maintenance Department approving an agreement with Saras Systems Inc. for valve replacement. So moved. I'll second that. Bobby Ray

is to have new regulator and system put in the basement. It was installed wrong from the very beginning and it's allowed the regulator not to work. We're running 100 to 120 PSI through those lines over there and it it just keeps on blowing pipes and stuff apart. So, we're going to get the regulator put on. We can get it back down 65 to 70 lbs and regulated as such. Okay. Any questions for I'm surprised we blasted this long. It's taking a total. Yes. Okay. All in favor? 240 against. Resolution number 2634, Cass County Maintenance Department approving agreement with Seaman's Industry, Inc. for 2026 life safety inspections at Cass County Justice Center. So move.

I'll second that. I'll be ready. Seamans is the one that's in charge of the sprinkler system, uh, the fire protection system, fire extinguishers, everything. They've pretty much set the whole system up. Kell originally installed it. Seam has came in and retrofitted everything. They're the ones that maintain it. We've had very good luck with them. They're there when we need them. So, long as we can keep going, we're good. Okay. Any questions for all good. All in favor? 240 against? Thank you.

Thank you. Resolution 2635, Cass County Commission, authorizing payment to the Missouri Department of Revenue in response to the department's March 5th, 2026 and April 3rd, 2026 demand of for repayment of previously distributed adult use marijuana sales tax. So moved.

Second. Um Steve, you want to give us an update on that? Uh yeah, just uh we're being asked by the department of revenue to return the sales tax that was decided by the courts to be erroneously collected in the first place and a deal at one point roughly $1 million that we collected over two about two years. They asked for a total of close to 900,000 of that. So, I expect more to be requested later, but we'll deal with it as it comes. Okay. Thank you, Steve. Any questions? No. No. Okay.

All right. All in favor? 24 zero against. Public comments.

Good afternoon. For the record, Chris. Well, we've got a lot going on. Uh yesterday, uh obviously was a was a big day. A lot of counties in Missouri rejected Senate Bill 3, but we do not. And uh so we're going to go ahead and implementation process. Um let's start with maybe the most pressing thing. This is a reminder uh for your constituents. Monday the 13th, 9:00, open enrollment for new seniors wanting to freeze their property taxes begins at my office in the No Mall. These are not for the folks that have already signed up. These are for the folks that are new to Cass County and already a senior or folks that are turning 62 this year. We'll have open enrollment until Friday, July 3rd. So this is just like Medicare for seniors. There is a period of time to enroll. So again, Monday the 13th of April through Friday the 3rd of July, 9 to 3 each day in my office at Milwauke. Those seniors will need to bring a photo ID. They'll need to remain a utility bill showing it is their homestead. And if that home is in a trust or limited liability corporation, we need the certification of trust or the operating agreement for the LLC. We will have notaries available to notoriize their signature on the initial application. Again, new applicants, not u not. Second item u and I will come back maybe for formal permission. I think the time has come now. CO has long passed us. I think the time is to move the annual tax sale back inside the building. Uh you'll remember in 2020 that then the health department director said I could not conduct a public sale properties and of

course the law says I shall. So the problem solved was to get a pop-up tent and to move into the grass on the lawn. We've done that every year since. But I think it's time to move it back downstairs to the second floor and I'll I'll come back and ask for approval from from the commission obviously. Um and we'll probably ask the sheriff to walk off the balcony and just use the main courtroom. But I think that's going to make the most sense. The number of properties we auction hasn't necessarily grown, but the number of biders has because of the housing market. And if you remember last year, we had biders a block away to the north, a block away to the south, a block away to the east, and I can't I I I can't conduct a sale with people 6 800 ft away. So, we're going to move them all back inside. Uh we'll sit down with you and we'll get a plan. It has been six years since we've been inside the building. Uh tax sale this year is the fourth Monday in August. by statute that is the 24th and the sale will start at 10:00 a.m. You also need to know that the first set of delinquent notices went to those homeowners uh this week. Uh we sent out a delinquent mailer. So we closed our books at the end of February. Kathy and and my staff work together to do that 205. Thank you Kathy for all your help. That's our return. We filed with the Department of Revenue. So the books are closed at that point. We send out blank notices. There's no law that says I have to send out a blank notice. I do it as courtesy. We sent out 17,000 61 notices. It is not a record. It is a crushing, smashing, jaw-dropping amount. We never had this. Uh so uh just to let you know this might be a year where the sale is a little bigger. uh folks are hurrying cost of

things matter and we see that with property tax collection. So they have 17,61 postcard notices to save money by the way postcard notices out on the street. Um the final item was the first thing I touched on Senate Bill 3. Regardless of whether Senate Bill 3 passed yesterday, the fact remains is that I have um a 30 year old green screen AS400 IBM power series. Um we have had not only my programmer announce his retirement, our backup firm that does programming, three of their employees have now retired. So I don't have a backup backup. So with Senate Bill 3 and the situation with the mass number of retirements, I think it is time to go ahead and move into the 2000s uh and bid out a new system. I am taking bids as we speak to close tomorrow. I hope to come to you the Wednesday after next with a proposal. Um we have two bids currently. I've been told by two other vendors that they will have bids in tomorrow by close of business. And so um I want to try to make these folks like we vote on our bidspects Missouri based preferably and they must all be working with a current first class county collector. Obviously our laws are different than the collector treasuries third class folks. Our laws are different than second fourth class counties and certainly some of our procedures are different than the charter county. So I want to look at a vendor who who deals with somebody just like us. um we will bring the proposal to you. I'm going to send staff on site uh to a couple of uh vendors who are vending their their county collectors to volunteer to demo the product for us to give our folks some real real world experience. What does a day look like

taking a payment? What does a day like processing a bankruptcy claim? What does a day on the system look like processing a tax abatement, a refund check? All the things that we do every hour of every day. So, uh, been working with Jack, our auditor, on how do we do this fiscally responsibly? How do we do it with a blend of TMF funds as well as, uh, the general budget that you all me for computer programming? So, we'll do that as well together, but bids bids will close tomorrow, the close of business. We will open them Friday and then your staff and I mainly Kelsey and Lori and I will review what we're looking at and then set interviews and appointments to demo all of the software in the next few days.

So that's a lot a lot on my plate, but I did want to give you guys an update to keep you in the loop on what's happening. What's a range do you think on this system price-wise? Oh, so we don't get stickers. I thought you meant size. No.

Well, it is all over the map. Uh, one vendor wants $48,000 down. One vendor wants $224,000 down. Um, one vendor uh wants to send me the prices in a separate bid from the initial bid. And then the fourth vendor hasn't sent me anything yet. He was traded some phone calls. And I had a vendor call me and turn me down that I actually really wanted to talk to. Um but that vendor said frankly between Senate Bill 190 implementations because remember we were like the first or second county out the gate. I heard taxpayers not responded. Other counties waited. Other counties haven't implemented it yet. And that vendor said to me, Chris, between Senate Bill 3 and Senate Bill 190, I I don't have bandwidth. I don't have people. I don't have resources. I don't have time. And they just added a new county base. So I've actually had a vendor turn me down. Uh which is pretty shocking. Uh, a couple of them, you know, they do offer monthly payment plans. Uh, and there's some plug-and-play features. Would they host my payment website? Would they not host my payment website? Right? Would they provide banking services like our Jaguar software does? How would they integrate with software? All those things are sort of dollars around the edges of the main bid. But as you guys know, pennies add up. So, I want to be conscious of what's all a cart, what's sort of the base service, what could we add later. I also don't want to too many things too quickly for employees. Uh we want to be trained correctly and get this done. My goal is to do this as fast as I can. So, we've got a few months of real-time practice before property tax season hits, right? I I can't I can't wait another year because my programmer said, "Hey, I'm going to be elk hunting, trout, trout fishing, bass fishing, traveling. I'm not taking a phone call anymore." So, I've got to move really quickly. Um and I would prefer something that's Windows based. So those are the initial reactions that I have from the bids. They're they're

very gosh commissioner there. These things are you know bibles of technological goblin and I am using a couple of folks to help me get through it understand all the the computer aspects and what we need to do on our end to host the system as well. We have plenty of bandwidth out there plus we have backup internet and Mark has upgraded all our So, I think from a hardware standpoint, I think we're going to be okay unless I pick a vendor that uses a Linux system, a Linux system, and then I'm going to have to buy a whole new set of boxes for the computer. So, I've got to debate, is that is that cost effective? Is that really what I want to do? So, lots of choices to be made in the next 30 days.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Chris. Any other public comments? Seeing none, uh, commissioner communication collect Bob missing today. Just had to spend time with his brother. Um, so um I guess do uh we'll journ after we're done in close session, but we will be going into close session under RSMO 610.021.1 legal. And uh as soon as we get out of that, we will close the regular session. So need a motion. Need a need a motion for that. Sorry. Make a motion to adjourn regular session.

Make a motion to go into close session. And go into closer 1621.121.1. Legal. So moved. Second. Roll call. Yes. Mor. Yes.