County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Dauphin County Board of Commissioners meeting for August 12th, 2026. We'll begin with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Chief Clerk's report, Mr. Haggerty.

Good morning, Commissioners. An executive session was held on Tuesday, August 11th, to obtain the advice of legal counsel on issues relating to personnel matters and county finances. In addition to the July 15, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting minutes, the July 15, 2026 salary board meeting minutes, salary board packet, personnel packet, and purchase order packet, we have 334 items for board consideration today. We've got five adoption assistance agreements, three deferred compensation fund change requests, two engineering services agreements, one parks and recreation agreement, four facilities maintenance agreements, one prison agreement, one adult probation and parole agreement, one information technology agreement, one coroner's office agreement, five public safety agreements, one human resources agreement, one economic development cooperation agreement, 170 gaming grant agreements, 116 tourism grant agreements, one juvenile probation agreement for the receipt of state grant funds, 10 human services agreements, one legal services agreement, three satisfaction pieces, six tax forgiveness requests, and the training packet. A few notes on some specific items on today's agenda. First, I want to provide an update on our engineering services RFP. As a reminder, the board previously selected RATU to provide non-transportation engineering services. Today we have the corresponding proposed contract with HRG to provide engineering services on those projects which do relate to transportation. We also have a cancellation agreement with HRG which winds down the current contract following the completion of work already underway. So that is why there are two separate agreements with HRG on the agenda today. One cancels the existing agreement and the other is the new one. There are also obviously nearly 300 gaming and tourism grant agreements on the agenda today. These are the contracts that correspond with the grant awards already approved by the Board of Commissioners earlier this year, and which include the language strengthening oversight of these grants, which we had previously announced. For the 116 tourism grants specifically, for some technical reasons relating to completing the new preamble in the contracts, which will be done later today, but are not done as of this minute, we will need these to be voted on separately and with a motion that approves the contracts conditional upon final terms and conditions acceptable to the solicitor's office. Lastly, at the request of the Board, we have scheduled time for representatives from nationwide to make a presentation today relating to their Deferred Compensation Administration proposal. This will be followed by a presentation next week from Retirement Collaborative on the same topic. That concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Any questions for Mr. Haggerty? Hearing none, we'll move to the solicitor's report. Mr. Owens.

Good morning, Commissioners. All matters requiring board action have been reviewed and approved by my office, of course, with the caveat of the conditional approval on the tourism grants.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Owens? Hearing none, we'll move to public participation related to agenda items. There will be two times for public participation. At the end of our meeting, we'll have general public participation. This is related to agenda items only. So if you'd like to speak to any of the agenda items before us today, please, you can come forward. You'll state your name. You'll have three minutes to speak. We are being live streamed. And you'll need to state which item on the agenda you're referencing. Anyone for public comment? Hearing none, we'll move forward to review and approval of the minutes from July 15th, Board of Commissioners meeting. Moved by Commissioner Hartwick. Do I have a second? Second that motion. Seconded by Commissioner Preece. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We'll now move to our directors and guests. I want to invite Nationwide Deferred Compensation to come forward for Greg Watson, Matt Ring, and Martin Burch. Thank you for being with us today. Good morning. Good morning.

After hearing that agenda, I feel even more pressured to tell the entire nationwide story in five minutes or less here. So we'll do our very best. I'd like to start off just by thanking the commissioners, Mr. Haggerty, clerk's office for having us here today. giving us an opportunity to share some details about our response to the request for proposal for the 457 plan and answer any questions you may have. So we want to start off with a quick round of introductions. My name is Greg Watson. I am acquisition director for the company. My role is focused on making sure we're bringing industry best practices and great value when we submit an offer in response to a request for proposal. I'm based in our corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. I've been with the company for 35 years.

Good morning. My name is Martin Birch. I am the local retirement specialist. I'm based out of the Lehigh Valley. I've been with Nationwide for a little over 20 years now. So I'll be the one that will be servicing the account here.

Morning name is Matt ring. I'm program director with nationwide. Martin's on my team. We service states here in East. We're responsible for onsite service and education support for the counties and municipalities that work. I also live in the high Valley, like, Martin, and I've been nationwide for a team.

So those of you doing the math, that added up to 73 years of experience by the nationwide team sitting at the table here today. That's something I think you'll find throughout our associate base working for nationwide. So I want to say Nationwide. I'm sure there's a few people hearing the jingle in their head, right, or at least seeing the commercials. A little information about Nationwide that you may not know. Today, we were formed in 1926. So today is actually our centennial year. We were formed to help farmers across the Midwest with their auto, home, and farm insurance needs and have grown now into a multifaceted insurance company, both on the property, casually, and the financial services side. We're ranked number 69 on the Fortune 100 list. Today, we have over 30,000 retirement plan customers across both our private sector and our government retirement plan space. That represents over 3 million participants, of which they have $250 billion of retirement savings at their disposal under our management. From a government retirement plan space, we have over 8,000 plans across the country, including 2,300-plus county plans across the country, in part due to our partnership with the National Association of Counties. That makes us number one in terms of market share of most 457 plans in our industry. Statistic we're a little more proud of even than that is that our average client tenure for our government plans is 29 years. You met the team. Just want to highlight a couple of things about each of their roles. Matt, as a program director, is that relationship manager that oversees all aspects of your plan. If there are any problems to be resolved, he's your first point of contact. He also is constantly looking down the road for ways in which he can improve the plan, better meet your goals and objectives, as well as those of your participants. He manages a team here in the Commonwealth of four retirement specialists, so it's not just Martin. Martin is the assigned representative, but there are others at his disposal should he need them for blitz campaigns We do let Mark take vacation in the occasional personal days, so plenty of resources to back him up. Martin's job is to be onsite, working with you to make sure all work sites are covered, all shifts are covered, being available to the employees to provide them with the education and enrollment services they need to make sure that they're able to make informed decisions. He's one of 300 retirement specialists across the country for Nationwide. And then they partner with Skylar Weiss. Skylar is based in our corporate headquarters in Columbus. She's the single point of contact for over 700 associates at Nationwide that serve our public sector retirement plan customers. So you don't need 700 phone numbers. You just call Skylar. She gets you connected if it's a payroll issue, statement issue, so forth. A few other resources available to your participants. 200 licensed representatives in our customer service center. Everybody's got customer service, but ours is open during the week until 11 o'clock and on Saturday from 9 to 6. Sorry. We also have a team called the Retirement Resource Group that's 40 additional resources similar from a licensing experience and expertise standpoint as Martin and they can assist over toll-free phone lines during extended business hours. One of the tools I want to draw attention to, we have the digital services, all the things you would expect, but our My Income and Retirement Planner is a critical tool that we use, and our goal would be to make sure that every one of your county employees has had the opportunity to meet with Martin, get set up with a digital account, and have gone through this tool, which aggregates all of the information about their retirement. So what they have in the 457, what they would be expected to receive from a pension standpoint, social security if they participated there, other outside assets. It brings all that picture together and allows the employee to see exactly where they are today in terms of their retirement readiness. And then a market can work with them to make sure that they have a plan in place. It's not just enough to participate in the plan, but make sure they're using the 457 to its fullest advantage to meet their retirement goals. From an administration standpoint, I know to keep things brief here, our team is 100% US-based, either in Columbus, Ohio, or in Scottsdale, Arizona. We use a proprietary record-keeping system that we have used since 1973 and continually update and invest significant dollars, obviously, to make sure that it continues to meet all legislative and regulatory needs. I would characterize what we do as making sure your plan's administered accurately, timely, and securely. And from the security standpoint, data security, huge issue today. We have over 1,000 associates at Nationwide that are focused on data security. They're working 24-7, 365 to make sure that participant counts are safe. If there should ever be an issue where a participant's account is compromised, Nationwide offers the account pledge, reimburses that employee in full. Last part. moving to nationwide, it would require a transition, right? But all 8,000 of those plans went through that process, whether they were implemented or converted from another provider. So we have extensive experience as an industry leader in the transition process. We recently did plans as large as the state of Indiana. And we always say, I'm not sure why I've never actually called on one of these, one person mosquito abatement district, right? And everything in between. But the county will be assigned a specific project manager to oversee all aspects of that transition. They'll work with Matt and Martin and Skylar, and then obviously with the county resources to keep you involved in all aspects of that process. Normally it takes about three to four months to convert a plan. At the end of that process, your participants are only out of the market a single day in one day blackout. Lastly, our offer to you in our proposal, all of the services that we provided would be done with a 18 basis points revenue requirement. So that's fully transparent fees. There's no hidden expenses associated to our offer. There is also an optional fiduciary service, should you choose to use it, that would provide you with assistance in overseeing your investment venue. Nationwide, given our relationships and the financial services business has relationships with over 220 mutual fund houses that provide access to over 14,000 funds. So we would work with you to have very low cost top performing funds for your participants to choose from. I guess in conclusion, I would say, you know, when it comes time to make that decision of what provider you're going to use, we know at the end of the day, it's all about the people. So I hope our discussion today illustrates the resources that we have, the access that your participants would have to real people to help them solve their problems and help them prepare for retirement. We recently had a consultant visit our company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio last week, and his parting comment was, while you're a large national firm, everything about your service model feels like a boutique organization designed specifically to address our needs. And I think that really summarizes what Nationwide focuses on and aspires to be. So again, thank you for the opportunity to present. We'll open the stage to any questions for us.

Any questions?

Yeah, 1st of all, thank you for coming today and providing a presentation. You know, we haven't looked at our 457 plan place it out for bid for. Quite a long time and, you know, as I've engaged with over the course of years, particularly this year, we've heard a host of. Experiences from other commissioners that feel the way that I do related to ensuring that our employees have education. We're in a government environment where the pay is less. We're in a difficult. world of affordability where people cannot make their income work the way that it is let alone think about retirement savings and what that means for compounding interest and having something for the retirement benefits but despite all of those challenges that are in front of us there is still um i'm still continuing to hear stories about opportunities to target groups within county governments that uh through specific campaigns and ways to ensure employees understand and value the importance of even The coffee you may get for the week, trying to put those dollars in something that good. There you go. I look over and I see $5 coffees that you may have for the week. We were talking about that before you came in. But we're supporting the local economy. The idea is... know this is not only an opportunity for us to you know sort of take a look at proposals and address concerns that we may have related to fee structure and best value for our employees that's right but it's also an opportunity i think to help re-engage reinvigorate and educate our workforce so With that opportunity, I think one of the biggest questions and concerns that I've heard is, number one, you may not have as much of a local presence, the ability for you to be able to be on site, the ability to educate. I've heard from sort of larger counties about their specific campaigns. Tell me with those kind of express goals of getting more workforce participating, trying to target groups, the importance of educating our staff and then getting them engaged in the program, What kind of campaign and commitment could you give to the county related to both on-site levels of support, education, lunch and learns, and the ability to carry out that kind of vision to ensure that we've got that? Hopefully, a person who doesn't think that they have any ability to save realize 20 years from now the collective value of compounding interest and what that may mean for them in both the transfer of wealth or their ability to limit pay bills.

Kind of let Matt respond to that, but you did steal my word. I always say that the RFP process and the transition of a plan from one record keeper to another is that opportunity to look at every aspect of the plan. And make sure plan documents are updated that agreements are appropriate. Is there a loan option that we want to build that in as an example, but also reinvigorating as you said. The plan from a participation standpoint, so employees understand not what's being done to them with the change, but what's. Being done for them, because the county's gone through this process. And identified. the industry leaders and made a decision to go with the company that they have. And then it really falls upon us to make sure that we're delivering on those service commitments. So Matt, share your experience of this process.

Yeah, I would echo those comments that we work in partnership. So, where we have business and. Be several ways, whether it's attending. And if affairs, other seminars, open grades to onsite direct department visitations, which Martin can schedule directly contacts. So, in some places where you work, he has access to as another leaders. Schedules with their facilities directly and other areas it's through. General HR contact schedule on site. Um, typically best practices for us to get together. Maybe at most quarterly at minimum once a year with our plan sponsors and do an overall plan health assessment. We can take a look at low participation rates either by department by age groups and target those audiences either with 1 on 1 opportunities with Martin or broader educational outreach. Um, on our team, we do, uh, every 3rd, Friday of the month, we have a webinar that we broadcast all across the state. So, with the county's participation, they can help notify employees and even on our side retirees to make sure that they're aware of those educational opportunities from a group standpoint. Um, just making sure this is. To Greg's point, a really good opportunity to put the eyes back on the plan because the fees have changed. So that's important to current participants. But it's also a good opportunity to broadcast to those people who, for whatever reason over the years, maybe have chosen not to participate, to maybe give it another look now that the plan has been enhanced.

So give me an idea. If we're targeting, let's say, young families and young mothers, I'm thinking of children and youth, for example, where we've got lower salaries, a whole host of needs in the young family, repaying student debt. How would you run a campaign if we'd say we would determine with Nationwide, we want to target those individuals and provide an opportunity of resentment to them? How would that look in that kind of relationship and sort of what would be your role in that? Going out and meeting with staff and employees and trying to encourage their participation. And the last part of that would be I hear a lot from our current provider about the time that they're spending individually with people trying to get through these choices. Sort of for a person who's prospectively thinking about getting in, what kind of service could she expect?

Uh, we have marketing information, educational information that discusses compounding the power of getting started early and often in Martin's case, when he's meeting with people. The minimum to participate is only 10 dollars just to get it going. That's our period minimum. Oftentimes that helps people understand that doesn't really take much to get it started. And through hopefully meeting with us, at least on an annual basis, they. slowly start to increase that we also have educational workshops that we can provide in person or virtually on things like budgeting finance one-on-one other things to help them kind of bring that full picture together so for young parents people who are working multiple jobs help them understand the power of putting together a budget where all that money is coming in from where it's going out to so they understand really what they're able to do in participating in the plan, showing long-term how even at $10 in pay, it really adds up for the course of a 20- or 30-year career. Um, the county would have demographic information. Obviously, we would notice participating. And, but if there's from a participation rate standpoint, if there's departments where it seems to be a lower. Count of people who are participating or choosing, we would. Work with those department heads leaders to make sure that we're getting access to their employees to provide this information sign.

I'll just add to that real quick. I'm in the area quite a bit. I have other accounts that I go to, specifically the city of Harrisburg. So I'd be available to do presentations, depending what the department had wanted to do. I also would be available for the employees to be available to make individual appointments with me as well. So starting out, it would be probably a weekly basis to get everybody on board. And then we would go from there to see how often they want me to be on site. but at least monthly, I would predict.

Because the general thing is big company, you get lost in the shuffle, no personalized service, and no ability to connect with somebody individually to be able to help guide me through this process.

They'll have the ability also to have my cell phone number. That'll be posted everywhere, as well as email. I'm very responsive to that as well. So if they don't want to meet with me one-on-one, they can always call me. I try to get back to them by the end of the day.

I want to thank Mr. Hartwig for bringing nationwide to our attention. I want to thank you gentlemen for your presentation. It's more providing us with documents in front of us, and I look forward to comparing and contrasting the plans that we have in front of us moving forward. So thank you. Thank you, sir.

I have no questions. Thank you so much. All right. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. move to salary board uh item one under salary board this is the commissioners and controller we have the july 15th salary board meeting let's drive a motion so move second moved by controller bateman seconded by commissioner priest any discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed motion carries salary board packet do i have a motion so moved second moved by commissioner hartwick seconded by controller bateman any discussion Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Robert Morgan. Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. A revised personnel packet has been distributed and is ready for action unless there are questions.

Any questions?

Yes, just confirming everything within here falls within the accepted

2026 budget there is one item that is not budgeted that is number eight thank you any other questions entertain a motion for the personnel packet so moved moved by Commissioner seconded by Commissioner Hartwick any discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed motion carries thank you just for Davis

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. I have no changes to the investment report sent out earlier in the week. There's also no changes to the purchase order packet. Ready for your vote to approve.

We have a motion for the purchase order packet. So moved. Second. Moved by Commissioner Hartwick, seconded by Commissioner Preece. Any discussion? Yes. Is everything listed here within the budgeted 2026 numbers?

Yeah. All items are within the line item chart. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We have a number of items before us today. I am going to request we pull item 274 for a separate vote. Other than that, are there any other items that need to be pulled?

Yes, I'd like to pull item number 9 and item number 16. Item number 9 and 16.

Okay.

And the only other thing that we're going to have to do is take items 197 through 312.

Yeah, I got that. And vote on them conditionally. Yep. I'll entertain a motion for items one through eight.

So second.

Moved by Commissioner Hartwick, seconded by Commissioner Priest. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. So we are now on item number nine. make a motion to approve item nine i'll second any discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed no motion carries um entertain a motion for items 10 through 15. so move moved by commissioner priest second seconded by commissioner hartwick any discussion All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're on to item 16 now. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion for item 16. Second. Seconded by, motion made by myself, Commissioner Douglas, Commissioner Hartwick with the second. Any discussion?

Yes, just for the record, that is an item related to Dauphin County Prison, and that is no longer able to be budgeted at the prison, so it's coming out of the County General Fund.

Yes, it is not budgeted for, although the recruitment of staff will drastically improve our overtime costs. So the idea here is we saw pretty good recruitment numbers under our last marketing for staff recruitment. And I'm hopeful that this will be, in the end, a net cost savings with the overtime. But I understand the concern for it not being budgeted.

Does anybody, Chris, do you have a listing of the current overtime budget for the President?

While we're waiting on that, I'm going to ask that the Chief of Staff provide us an update soon on which departments may be... on the verge of potentially being over budget for the 2026 year. Thank you. If you could present it to us at some point coming up.

That's okay. While he's looking that up, I mean, I can share that, generally speaking, we are estimated to end the year about a million dollars over budget, of course. Overtime costs due to staffing challenges are a large component of that.

And are there any other current, like, recruitment efforts that are happening?

I believe our typical HR practices, which was pretty significant online presence, indeed ads, social media ads. I think when I became a commissioner, we were hovering in the high 60s of how many correction officers we were down. We got that into the high 20s. And over the last six months, we've seen that rise, I think, into the 30s. I'm concerned that if we continue to trend that direction, overtime costs will inflate.

But the trend from positions, I think I remember the arguments were. It may not help. I'm sorry a 40,000 dollar investment that has had shown some level of achievement related to actual positions and. filling those spots as a possible opportunity to be able to curb those overtime costs. As we've seen, that's the approach.

That's the assessment, I think. That's the logic for me is that an investment like this, I mean, the challenge at the prison is also a churn rate, right? You know, people get in there. How many COs are we losing to how many we're adding to our number? We certainly know that recruiting is a big part in having a larger recruiting pool. you know, helps, but it's retention is part of this too. There needs to be, you know, more strategies applied to all that.

It was definitely in the prison board have shown that there were results from the Apollo efforts. 26 budget is 6.6 22 million hours just you got a microphone so you're good obviously i would prefer any of these dollars to come out of um the uh The prison fund, obviously those dollars are no longer available to do that, but I think it's a mistake to not continue to try to invest in some level of recruitment efforts to be able to address those overtime costs. I've got a couple questions.

When did the last contract we had with Apollo run out for these particular services? I'd have to check my notes. The reason I'm asking is if it was successful before, then we stopped it. If there was an opportunity to have had it done in last year's budget for this year, maybe we should have done that at that time, but I don't know when it ran out. And then you're saying it's $22 million per salary at $6.64 million in overtime?

$20 million per salary, $6.64 per overtime.

Okay, so what is the projected of the $1 million that we're projected to be over in the prison budget? Is that specifically in overtime?

Well, part of it's overtime. Overtime's estimated at $8.44. However, salaries are estimated at $18.2.

Sort of an offset, but overtime's up by a month.

Okay. Thank you. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. Motion carries. Item 17 through 196, I'll entertain a motion for. So moved. Moved by Commissioner Hartwick. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Preece. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are now at 197. This is where we'll need to.

Ensure we I will make a motion to conditionally approve based upon final terms and conditions Acceptable to the commissioners office second to the solicitors.

Well, well quickly I want to make sure we're clear about the items because I pulled 274 so can we do items? 197 through well, let's just do it this way items 197 through through 312 without item 274 second All right. And just, again, that's the motion to conditionally approve items based on final terms and conditions acceptable to the solicitor's office. We have a motion made by Commissioner Hartwick, seconded by Commissioner Priest. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. For item 274, so moved. Moved by Commissioner Priest. Do we have a second?

This will also need to be conditional.

Motion to conditionally, can you, I'll give you the language. Are you amenable to motion to conditionally approve item 274 based upon final terms and conditions acceptable to the solicitor's office?

yes second seconded by commissioner hartwick any further discussion yeah i just want to take a moment i've said it before the great american outdoor show is the largest outdoor show in the world it's right here in dolphin county farm show takes place over a 10-day period 75 to 80 million dollars in revenue generated and it's a a boon to the local economy something that is over 200,000 people were here last year, 8,000 jobs created, and over $2 million in taxes.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. Items 313 through 334, I'll entertain a motion for. So moved. Second. Moved by Commissioner Priest, seconded by Commissioner Hartwick. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

former business none before us today any new business hearing no new business we'll move to commissioner's remarks commissioner hartwood try to make them brief um first of all thank you to all uh county staff human service agencies our cultural celebration committee that have put a significant amount of work into the preparation for this weekend's cultural festival We're expecting an incredible turnout. Children's Corner, we had a slight adjustment in the musical lineup that due to unforeseen circumstances, we need to make a change between Sugar Hill Gang and Full Force. But we still expect the event to be one of the most significantly and well-attended events. It's been a culmination of 18 years of a level of work. It's also going to have an opportunity. I think it was 1 of our steps that you may mess around, come to the cultural festival and actually learn something and come and connect with services that some 1 of the intent is the ability to have the community come out be present and in a sort of a safe. unthreatening government environment be able to access services for them and their children related to behavioral health services drug and alcohol services the ability to connect with seniors and the ability for us to be able to provide a level of support to children in the community those are all important things in the setting that we are in and the ability to gain both hopefully some recruitment and retention of staff and employees when you're coming down think about dolphin county jobs the ability to come work here and make a difference in this community. We want to have a workforce that is reflective of the community that we serve. We also want to let people know that we are here to serve them and that connecting with faces, names, and people within those departments really make it easier to pick up the phone when you may need help to be able to make that call. And beyond that, Bring your dancing shoes because we expect a live show and performance. And we've got even some local talent that's going to be a part of this festival. We in this county are very proud to have a tapestry of different nationalities and diversity that make a woven thread that is not going to be broken and it really makes dolphin county one of the best places to live anywhere in the country so we're grateful for all those participants and all of those who behind the scenes who put this together we're also taking some additional precautions this year to ensure no bags are allowed I want to make sure that's clear. We want to ensure that we're running people through having safety and security checks to make sure everybody here. We've never had an incident in 18 years, and I'm going to knock on some wood. We're planning to ensure that this year is not the year that that occurs. And we have shown love from the cultural festival, and we've received nothing but love from return and from the community. And we expect the same level of love that's going to happen this Saturday. The last thing I want to report is we had our CCAP conference was the reason why we did not have last week's meeting. And there were two resolutions that were passed by the CCAP full body that I think are worthy of noting. One involves early in-person voting. the ability for the counties to be able to now take a position and reverse a prior decision that had us positioned against early in-person voting to ensure that counties are at the table as these discussions continue to happen. I think they're looking to We heard from multiple states that instead of just one day to have an election, to allow for a series of days that don't pressure people who are going through emergencies just to be able to show up on the one day related to voting. There was a whole host of different discussions around this, but I was proud of the organization. In a world of great polarization, where we see people angry on both sides of the aisle, it shows that I think when we come together how uh commissioners particularly can lead the way uh in in trying to promote solutions and seeing what's in the best interest of the citizens within our community that was a reflection of a very hostile and volatile potential issue that i think arrived at a great resolution as we move forward from the board of com from the county commissioners association and lastly they also took a position related to property reassessments we are one of the only states in the entire nation that does not have statutorily mandated reassessments of our county-owned properties. The base year for the county is 2001, and other counties across the Commonwealth in many cases are in the early 50s, early 40s since their last reassessment. So for us, I think it's important that we have through Tax fairness, the ability to have that dialogue, and most importantly, if they're going to mandate those assessments based upon a schedule, we're asking for the legislature to come forward. Reassessments cost anywhere between $8 to $14 million, depending upon the counties and the size of the assessments. That additional burden, when those legislative mandates, if it does occur, should not be placed on the taxpayers. We're expecting to have partners in the legislature that assist us in order to make sure that tax fairness and equity occur.

that's all i've got commissioner priest i want to start off by thanking commissioner hartwick for over 18 years ago i know this will be the 18th cultural fest you said over 18 years ago uh you and team planted seed for this idea which has flourished over the years and forward to attending this weekend thank you and some of the initial folks that started this faye fisher ruby dow edgar cohen uh he's no longer working with the county but george connor helen spence and others who spent countless hours over the years working on putting the show together it's a tremendous event here for the county so again thank you for your leadership there and it it brings many many nations into one county and that's a that's stealing a little bit from your theme when you were still mayor what was that many countries one people okay great um so that's something we should all be very very proud of uh on saturday uh i attended eagle scout ceremony for gabriel becchio and commissioner douglas was there as well it was great to be there When these young men and women now obtain the rank of Eagle Scout, by virtue of the projects they do for their community, they've done more in their community than most people do in a lifetime. And young people like them lead a way to create nations in very very good hands and lastly yesterday I had the privilege of attending an 8d ribbon-cutting two new 80s in the Hummelstown Park system we were at Schaffner yesterday with mayor roading senator Kim and other elected officials from Hummelstown and dignitaries and community members and George and I got to be there for the ribbon-cutting it's very very important because the mayor's granddaughter Bella her life was potentially saved by the peyton walker foundation screenings that are done she then had some things taken care of which quite possibly saved her life and it was just great to be there and seeing the smile and the pride on the mayor's face having us there having her lead that project in her hometown was quite impressive thank you

as stated by commissioner hartwick ccap uh was was the reason for uh us not meeting together last wednesday i sit on courts and corrections committee just um uh always thankful for opportunities like ccap and daco just for those who don't live in the world of acronyms that's county commissioners association of pennsylvania and national association of counties for you know the opportunity to continue to be educated on things happening across the country for counties And things happening here in Pennsylvania for counties. With that, got a couple weeks of things just to run down of recaps that I've been able to be a part of. India Day took place just a few days ago at HACC, which was a really great day. Amazing festivity. If you've never been, please mark your calendars for next year. So many different like food vendors there and cultural celebration. It's an amazing time. Allison, my assistant, was able to attend Asian Refugees United Youth Summit Day at Camp Hebron, which was a great event. I was able to attend the Hershey Farmer's Market for National Farmer's Market Week, and Secretary Redding was there as well. I threw out first pitch for one of the big 26 games. and attended multiple riverfront concert events, Dauphin County Riverfront Concert Series, Lake Street Dive, String Cheese Incident, and Tomorrow Night is Slightly Stupid. Just want to encourage you, if you have not been to the riverfront concert venue, it is really great. You're right on the river. When the weather is good, it's just an amazing place. Now this year, they've allowed people to bring lawn chairs, which really gives it just like the laid back vibe, kind of like you're in a park. You are in a park, but like you're just hanging out with thousands of people and hearing some real amazing music, national acts. And obviously in that same place, we're going to be celebrating the cultural fest this weekend. really excited to to be there that is a free event just want to remind the public that is a free event to come down to and see national acts as well any acts who have you know legacy decades and decades of experience touring it's going to be an amazing day and want to encourage people to get out to that with that correspondence will be received and dispersed as needed by the chief clerk's office we have a number of items on the agenda today we'll move to general public participation this is Time for you to come speak. If anyone has anything to share, it'll be a three-minute cap on your time. You'll need to state your name prior to speaking, and we are being live-streamed. Anyone for public participation? I don't believe we had anybody sign up is what I'm hearing from the side.

before we close out i know it's under public participation but i just want to add something i see there's a couple representatives here in the audience from hrg our longtime county engineer we did make an adjustment today to the scope of work they're still being retained at the county i want to thank them for the great work not the good work the great work that they have done for the county over many years i have never once when talking to a director or department head ever heard anyone ever say anything other than they did great work here at dauphin county they're a dolphin county company and it has been a pleasure to work with you and look forward to work with you in the years ahead so thank you and please pass it on to your fellow workers final call for general public participation

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. Moved by Commissioner Hartwick, seconded by Commissioner Priest. All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned.