Commissioners - Regular Meeting

also takes into account the population. And so that's how it's calculated. So it's based historically off of...

It just doesn't seem right that some of these are just there and our hands are tied, so we have to make everybody...

I don't think your hands are tied on this.

And that's what I didn't...

I mean, if you guys simply say no, then they have to come back to you with a different figure. Because I don't think there's anything statutory. You're in it off of um european you guys have chosen but i do a part of it we could keep moving on i guess that could we just don't want them to say that they're not taking our kids all right yes exactly but you guys are also a big funder of that yes which would hurt them significantly in their day-to-day operations if that funding was gone right so i mean you do have they'll be transferring

Why do you do that? That we pay them? They don't have room. I know that, but we should not be. Do they pay you to take the kids?

The last time they actually, they transported them.

They should be transporting them. That is in the contract that they transported, not us. Well, that I can see. But when you go to arrest somebody and there's not enough room, they are required to find the time. Well, I mean, somebody getting arrested in, I mean, anybody, if they get arrested on warrant, I'm going to get them anyway. So, I mean, that's a normal thing. But we have to transport them to QC.

Well, I know they do good things over there. I just, I was asking about all of them. It's kind of irritating that, you know, you get some of them disturbed, you know, by whatever that they get. Well, I tried to go on to the ankle bracelets to the

They do actually quite a few.

The reason why they can't fit all the kids in is because half of that over there is secure care. They can't use it. That's why. And I mean, this is an issue all over the state because they were so dead set on not putting kids in jail and they closed all these juvenile detention centers and now they realize, yes, some of these people do need to be in jail.

Now they don't have jails. Ottawa County opened that, so I think that is another source that is being used. I don't know if that's where you're taking them to, Justin, but they do have that new facility.

Garden City, Hutch, Hitchcock.

Oh, really? There's some all over.

Yeah, I know, but I mean, Ottawa is right down the street. Okay, so Opera House, you have that 55, so 50 coming from General and 5 from CBB. Yes.

And they will not have any more coming out. either places. Right.

Pawnee Mental Health, $200,000. Senior Citizens Center, you have at $165,000 and you have to have a discussion about rent. Correct?

Do you want to leave it at $170,000 and have a discussion about rent?

That's what I'm saying. $170,000 and then have a discussion about rent.

200.

Which one?

Frank. Silver hair.

Got 11.

And then soil conservation, you guys didn't make a decision. So if that's one that you have to talk about rent as well, are you wanting to leave it?

See, I think we should charge them rent because they get a match based on what we give them and them not giving, us not giving them, they can't say that we are allowing them to stay there for free as part of the match. So if we leave them and they say they have to pay rent, then that's part of it.

Yeah.

So we need to figure out how to do that.

So 35, 100 plus rent is what you're looking at. You want to give them that full $31,500 and then charge them rent?

You know, I think that's a discussion we ought to have with Angela too. If we charge them rent, how that calculates with the state match. I don't know.

The state match is what we give them.

Right. have to pay rent, then that is set on top.

Actually, no, we would probably have to allocate them like $3,500 and then charge them whatever that is a month. So then they're getting that $3,500. See what I'm saying?

Then you're not gaining anything at all.

You're not getting anything, but...

All right, so I have one down that you need to talk about still. And then right now, I have your membership going to that next tier, which is either 4500 or 4525. I've got to look it up. Yes? Yes. Chamber of Commerce is on hold. Circle A Club is, well, one person said eight, and two people said seven.

I think they asked for that increase because they remember they said that their insurance went up because they didn't have the second floor. Right. I could go with the eight. And that's how the outcome went.

Right.

You are the one that said eight. No.

I was the one that said eight.

No, I had. Oh, I had you at seven. And I had Trish and Kathy at seven.

I was the one at eight. They were at seven. Well, I didn't get those initials correct. Can we address Juneteenth? Well, I. So you guys are leaving that at 8? Yes. Well, it's not evening. They asked for 8 at 7.

Well, whoever said that originally... Oh, we're leaving it at 8.

Yes, yes, yes.

Community Recovery Board, 26. Community Involvement Team, 25. Zero for Harmony Fest. And the library district, we're leaving it at 130K, but you guys are going to look at the documentation and make sure that you're good with that.

So then you wanted to say something on Freedom Fest? No, on Juneteenth. I just like to take care of that so they're not going to both places. But I think 3,000 is a good amount to give to them. of cvb how much three because in the past they were getting both from us and cbb well last year they didn't last year they got 1500 from cbb and that was it yeah and i i i kind of wish rose was here so she had some or kind of knew what we were doing too or understanding

I mean, I know it's up to us to make that decision, but it would have been nice to have her here to know exactly what arrangements we're making with her funding.

It's not cutting into her budget that you have right now. It's surplus. so why didn't every tgt looks like yeah why didn't they request any commission they did try to request but then um not from us yeah but cbb they did and and uh okay yeah well because we had already given them 1500 they were allocated 1500 from cbb's funds for this year already

So based on what we told them in their award letter is they were getting that $1,500, which included CBB's funding and the county's funding, and they would get no more in 26. So then it's in 27, you have to decide if that... I mean, they asked for nothing in 27. There was no documentation that came through.

That's all. So I think they were confused on... And I think there was just some miscommunication.

But they did get a packet from us telling them exactly what all the other appropriation entities got.

Right.

I don't have a problem giving them something. I just don't know what amount from CBB.

So right now in the budget that you've got from CBB, It is in there with the $30,000 from Main Street and the $25,000 from Freedom Fest. So you guys increase that $2,000. So based on what's in the budget, which is what Rose has available right now before you make any adjustments, you would have $2,000 that could be dedicated to Juneteenth. And if you go above that, then it would be an increase to the budget that you've been presented.

I could do that, $2,000. That's what we approved in 25.

Yeah, but they also got money from the CBB, too. That year? Yeah. They didn't get any last year because they didn't get all their stuff. Actually, we're taking more out of that than last year because we're taking kind of the historical society in. Right. Those aren't in the numbers either. But we were already giving them money, so we're just saying this is what needs to happen as far as how much they get and they get more. So it's not like they weren't getting from the CBB and they are getting it now. It's not from this appropriation list in the past. Yeah. So I just, that's a huge, I mean, they really have grown. The city gives them 10,000.

Inside the city, Junction City?

Yes. No, I'm just saying, What did that end up did we fill in all the blanks well

we know because there's some that you haven't decided on like right and then there's the ones that you need to look at rent and then the library that you still want to review okay right and then i guess looking at the membership you guys will need to go back and look at that budget i sent you previously and determine whether you want to increase the budget or you want to move funds from a different line item for that and it does not matter to me, just that I know, so I know how to fix your budget.

Well, last year, whatever, and I wasn't sure about that, but I thought that kind of was the norm, that we just do the 25-25, and that has seemed to work for us in the years past.

Yeah, I mean, that has been what you guys have done every year since. I didn't have a problem with that. 24-24. is I think when Jordan approached me on that. Because I think before that you guys just gave them like a small amount and it wasn't an actual, it must have been the bare minimum instead of an actual.

The first year we gave them $1,500 because it was after the budget. Okay, so we just took it out of our budget.

But it wasn't the level you're at now. You weren't on the step number or the step.

Well, I think all those, the Chamber, EDC, and MAC, I think they are important. And I think that those really are ones that we're going to have to have some good discussion about because they are important. But I don't have, you know, $25, $25, you know, $2,000. You know, you could increase it, I guess, and then we don't do whatever.

I mean, it's your budget, so I just need to know what you want to do. I would leave it then.

If it's up to me, I would leave it, and then we'll see where the chamber members should leave it at 2525.

Okay, well, we got some of that done. I don't know if there's anything else you want to look at. Chairman, do you want to let Gary talk?

Can I make a comment?

Sure.

So you're working on these expenses of which roughly half plus a little more are from the general fund, which affect the middle level. The rest of them don't affect the middle level, right? Just tracking in terms of understanding. So you're trying to reduce the budget. By reducing the budget, only a portion of the reduction of the budget is actually . And second question, where does the economic development funds come from? Is that a TGT or?

No. We transfer money to our economic development fund. And then those- From?

From the general fund. Okay, okay. So there's a mill or a percentage or whatever, a dollar amount of this.

Yeah, right now it's at $445,000 for the transfer.

So where did TGT go?

CBB.

Okay.

In sports complex.

Sorry. No, just trying to track. Good question.

So on that appropriation page, clear to the right, it tells you what funds they'll be coming from.

Yeah, I saw that.

That's right. So the ones in the general fund are the ones that are going to affect the levy. Economic development does as well, because it gets a transfer from the general fund.

It was just hard to comprehend how much of that is the general fund, because it's intermixed in it, as opposed to a section of general fund, a section of economic development, a section of CBB. You know what I mean?

Yeah, that would be nice maybe in the future to have that. It shows you how much. Well, I mean, you've got them over on the side there, so.

Well, and if you were here with the economic development presentation, the ones that were .

Yeah, it would be. The reductions, yeah.

So, we still want to have

or Rose and the library, Donna?

Oh, yeah. Or do we? Yeah. No, no, no. I think Rose and Tammy and possibly maybe we're going to sit down and go over her budget with her. I mean, one was submitted on her behalf, but she hasn't really sat down and went,

She did real well on that RERC yesterday. Oh, yeah. She's impressed. She's very impressed. Yeah, I appreciated her taking the ball and running with it. Yeah. Okay, so what did you say?

Do we want to have library come in?

What?

And soil conservation. So to ask if we do what we...

Well, does it say in their handout, because we asked them, if you don't get the funding, what will you do? They're not going to come after you or anything.

No.

Let me look at the library for numbers.

It would be interesting to see, does that rent charge, will the state match that amount?

Well, I don't know if this makes any difference, but since the library is its own fund and it's exceeding revenue neutral by one mil, you can leave it alone, let the clerk know it could exceed up to that point, and then at a later, before you finalize, determine whether you're going to come back down. I mean, you don't have to spend the time today.

Yes, I agree with that because I'd like to look at that a little bit.

And I would even say with Gary's on fire too, you could leave his alone right now. Go ahead and say you're going to exceed by what he has and then make adjustments if you need to before it's finalized.

Can you just remind me, why are we going over our non-split business? She has a question I can't answer.

Why are we going over it?

What are we in your budget that's making you a higher than previous year? That's what it is. Yeah, what was the extra stuff you asked for? I think a lot of it was the repair of vehicles.

from 45 000 last year up to 60 000 this year we've already spent uh probably 32 000 on two vehicles for karen that i told you guys on monday about and i've got probably two that are going to need that again this next year it looks $40.85, going up asking additional money to give them the trucks or whatever, the emergency vehicles. You cannot get them for the prices. If we do, we're going to be preparing them right away. You cannot get a good quality vehicle for little money. Even brand new vehicles that are double, triple in prices, which is making everybody's buying used fire trucks, and they're up in high price too. They went up about as much as regular vehicles. I don't buy new vehicles. I'm going to find a good used one and make that do.

So, I mean, another key point to that is the estimated cash balance coming in has decreased 37,000. So you have $37,000 decrease that we're expecting to come into 2027. You have the emergency vehicles went up 25,000. We changed our transfer to potentially transfer 20 at the end of the year. As you can see on 2025, he was not able to transfer any because his cash balance was at a point where he wanted to preserve the balance inside his fund. But he had emergency vehicle costs in 25 of 69,000. You can see on contractual, we had 104,000 and the previous year was 57. So quite a bit of repairs went through in that line item. as well as you can see, he started paying property liability insurance in 2025. And the reason he did that is because before it was all being paid in the general fund, as you all know, it's a special district and the buyers be paying for fire stuff, not general funds. So we made that change, but it does put an additional burden that hadn't been placed on there in the past. It's 20, it was 20,000 in 2025. And we estimated up to 24 for this year based on what we have and how high insurance has been going. But again, you know, that's 24,000 more than he's had in the past. And in the budget, his size, that does make a difference on your mills going through there. And, you know, repairing and maintaining county vehicles, that's one of the things you have to look at as a trade-off. is when to get rid of your vehicles, when are you spending more in repairs than it would be to just get another vehicle. We talked about that earlier this year. Right, and he's working on that, but we can't do it overnight, so it's a building process. So when you see that right now, we're at a point where we're spending more in repairs than we would like to do, but it can't be helped unless we want to fork over a bunch of money to help him get all the vehicles new and under warranty. so you have to look at those things as well but okay any capital improvements can't come out of the regular general fund cip either all those come out of my budget right and i mean just since i've started one thing that we changed which would have been different before you uh left commissioner tremont was Gary's and Kurt's salaries were being paid also from the general fund in full. And since they're at least 50% FIRE, we adjusted that so 50% of their salaries and benefits go to both FIRE and EM. So it's about where it's supposed to be paid and making it

And yours ends up being like a $27 tax increase to those that live in that district.

Right. And so when you look at that fire revenue neutral worksheet, I did create that so you guys could see it. When you look at an average house appraised at $200,000, $23,000 assessed, which is 11.5% of the appraised. And you take that times the difference in mill, the 1.172, it equates to, on average, a 26.96% increase. And the thing is, for people watching this, that's not definitive for anybody's taxes. That's if an average house of $200,000, but if you're in an area where you're higher or your valuation has increased more, That number is not going to be exact. So I don't want people thinking that, oh, well, that's all we're going to raise because it could be different depending on your situation. So how's that?

So you're talking about houses.

How's that equate? And maybe Travis to help out for property like pasture, cropland or whatever.

Well, he probably knows the value of their assessed from what is appraised, right?

Yeah, but ag land's value varies so much. It's hard to pick out a typical ag property. You can kind of get an idea on a $200,000 house, but 200 acres of pasture is way different than 200 acres of dry crop, right? I could go do some numbers and come up with an idea for a few different scenarios, maybe.

Well, my question, I guess, is so you own a house and you own all these buildings and then you've got all this land. Are you getting charged the middle levy on the land value and the outside buildings?

Everything. Everything.

Even if you just have a fashion. This is only saying if you have a $200,000 house, just the house. Right.

And I couldn't possibly give you all the scenarios of what it would cost you. That would take a lot of work. But if you look at this right here, where it says overage on neutral mill rate and overage of dollars. So from last year, his ad valorem was 467.023, which you can see right here where I'm circling. And this year he's asking for 548.045. that difference between last year's ad valorem, which would mean he's revenue neutral. And this year of what he's requesting is $81,022. That's going to go and be divided over that entire district that funds fire. So you're a piece of that $81,022, but I don't think you're 80,000 of it.

Well, I hope your property is not that big, but, but it's spread out over the whole district and, and,

So when you're looking at $27, and I have no idea how many parcels are out there, but... Oh, 5,000 outside of the city limits?

So when you get your tax bill, it just says by district. For those that live in that district, they'll have that right increase just on theirs.

So what he's asking for is $81,000 more than last year. That would be spread back out to the district.

And quite frankly, that's... My notes that I wrote on that copy there, you know, I'll say it again. It's like EMS. It's very important to people in the rural community.

Again, that's the county's primary functions is support services, is fire, police.

Not only that, but I also jotted down. the mutual aid that you guys provide to and receive from other counties or fort riley and sometimes jc well i think they've just worked real hard and um and i gary i'd say it every time you're in here but i i know that how hard you work and i commend you to have you know the well we're lucky that we got that air pack ramp too because we'd be looking at that spread over

So for the people out there in that district, I would think that, you know, they have that assurance.

And we're upgrading our fire stations and houses.

Because it's just not out in the county because it's like yesterday. You guys respond when you have a call. Usually you're there and about when you can.

But I do appreciate your answer.

Well, you can just leave it and then they'll have the hearing as well. If there's people that are disgruntled about it, then they'll come in and talk to Gary.

Because last year's study, fire protection was one of the top, what, five or eight?

Yeah, yes.

So, I'm observing. I'm learning about it.

I mean, when you look at wages, we kept it relatively flat, largely because of the adjustments we made on health insurance. But I mean, it's actually a little bit lower. But when you look at the scheme of it, it's relatively flat looking across for 26 to 27. Because I know that's a concern with everybody getting raises and that kind of stuff. And that is one thing we worked hard on on all of our wages is to try to keep it relatively level from what we saw this year, what we're seeing.

So that leads me to my other question. Refresh my memory. The reclassification for an employee.

That was an emergency management.

That's an emergency management, not fire. Right.

What you see in here is fire chief, assistant fire chief, and then the stipends for the volunteer firefighters. Part of her salary isn't taken out of fire. Because she's That helps. I'm just curious.

I mean, she's not an actual planner, but she has designated me to do anything special.

Thanks, Karen.

well and then just following up on the em em also gets a grant in close to 30 000 each year for that goes against salaries so of the salaries that are remaining in the general fund that covers a large portion of that one person's salary

Right. We just gave that check for $29,353 a couple weeks ago and they're anticipating the same thing next year that depends on the federal government.

Which we did take it out of 26 budget because they had shut down that program. Right. But they put it back into place now. Where do we want to go next?

So we're at, we're going to look at soil conservation and check with, who's that away, soil conservation. We're going to talk to her, Angela. Yeah. And then with the library, we're going to check on those things. That's where we're at with this sheet. Is that right?

Yeah. And then you also have the,

extension and senior center and then I guess we need to know unless you're going to do anything or how we want to do that you know with you know that's just like administrative fees you know if we're going to implement you know those because I think on that one sheet you had $53,000 and I'm not sure where you base that number on so their expenses in 25

I took what the expenses were in total in those funds because we do the AFP, we do the payroll, and took 5% of that. And the 5% was based off of that's what we did with all our developmental agreements and NRP program. And it doesn't mean you have to land on time, but that's what I did for consistency purposes.

So are we at the place to start asking about other areas? Because since Justin is in here, I wanted to, and you look at the whole picture and go back and forth with it, you have a tendency to lean basically on those with higher budgets, but I did make a note, and Tammy, you could tell me if I'm wrong, or obviously, however, But with the reserve transfer, we talked about that, but maybe on your sheet with the possible deductions there, reducing that, and again, you hate to do that, but reducing that to, reducing it to $150,000. And the CIP, 600,000, and I think I came up with that because, Because in one of our worksheets, we kind of had some scenarios there. If we didn't fund and delayed like we did to the emergency management, we delayed some of those purchases. Because, Justin, you've got three vehicles and you're requesting three more in the 27 budget. Is that right? Yes. Okay. So if that's a possibility, however we can do that, that could be a possibility of... of doing that.

And where's my camera?

Oh, now I see it. I'm sorry, I had to leave. You were talking about this space here, and you saw what I kind of proposed.

Oh, I didn't even, oh, no, we were kind of just talking then about just, I was just going over some of my worksheet that I had, just what I'm doing, and the CIP transfer, because you know the Public Works has that heavy truck whatever that is a in SNI CE equipment truck I know and you know it's important I know when he was talking about that they're all important but you know at the end of the day again it's going to impact your budgets but is it going to necessarily be critical to where you can't manage because what you have existing and so that's where I'm at with

It's not that you can't, but it's just like what we just talked about with Barry, that then your repairs and expenses start getting higher because now you have to try to maintain these things that are broke down a lot. And so that's where you have to determine. And then sometimes parts become obsolete. So when the cost of repairs start outweighing, when you get to that point where you're no longer at a break even where it's worth more, then you're spending.

I didn't know if this was a new piece of equipment or something. Yeah, it's new. Okay. So what are they using now? And I didn't hear the grandma, you know, what was going on with what they had.

I mean, Jeremy's not here to answer what they're using now, but it's an older. So he's, he like Gary is working on his fleet.

These are some of the scenarios presented and not what I'm using.

Yeah. So, so he has, he has a list of all his equipment and machinery. And so he's putting it on a rolling schedule so that like after every so many years he's replacing a vehicle because it's that breakeven point where it starts to get more expensive, but it just takes time.

So, I mean, they haven't replaced all these things are, we know that all of these things are important, but we're at a point in whatever people want the budget to be reduced. And if it means that we cut the budget and then we say, well, we shot ourself in the foot. Then we're going to have to live with what we have. We have to live within our means and then hope that things get better and we'll be able to improve what we have. But I'm not willing to. And that's where I'm at with this. That's what I'm doing. So that is one of the suggested cuts that I had. is the equipment and then with this led lighting that was just presented to us all the lights in here work well in the three buildings they were suggested that's almost 79 000 so that would be another reduction that i would suggest that we probably wouldn't wouldn't go with this i think they already signed that contract yeah you guys approved that okay eventually it'll get we'll make our money back on that yeah

That was the whole goal. That's why, yeah, that was one of the questions we asked. Right.

And I think he's also trying to do tax credits against that to bring some money back in on that project.

And the COLA, you know, again, when you get to the nuts and bolts of it, then is the COLA reduction is, you know, one, you know, step two, you know, doing one, which you say equates out to $150,000. And what I just said equates out to about a million dollars.

So you're wanting to cut the CIV transfer by $650,000?

Is that what? Maybe that wasn't one. Or do you want to put $600,000 instead of $150,000? Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm sorry. You want to put what? How much? Well, she has, we have a decrease. The total was $750,000. Right. And then just put it down to $600,000. Okay.

I dropped it. Yeah. I dropped it at $50,000.

Okay.

Well, and that, just for conversation purposes. I just kind of dropped all of the reserve, the CIP and facilities. I hate getting behind, but $50,000 on each, that's another $150,000.

one and a half percent because you know that's another and I you know once again I've been there done that and I everybody here deserves their raises and their salaries we fought to get them up and they're about where they're at now and stuff but the end of the day then you know people get irritated and say you know well the county's given you know seven percent and I didn't even get a raise the last two years you know that's we need to be prepared to answer those questions

Well, I've always looked at it this way. You know, everybody deserves a COLA. But we also have our step in place to help out.

So if that's, yeah, however that works, yeah.

And we do a very good job on benefits, I feel. I think the county has always done a very good job on benefits. Now, the cost of health insurance going up, that's not our problem. We can't fix that.

We can't fix that. I actually, I did not know. I was under the impression that, and I'm only going to use general numbers. Somebody has a single plan. The County pays $500 towards that plan. And then the, the employee pays the other half. I thought everybody just got that, that $500. If you have a family plan, the County is paying $1,500. towards that for that employee. And they're getting $1,000 a month benefit over all the other employees. I feel everybody should be the same.

Yeah. My daughter got her paycheck in June, July or June. And she said, Oh good. I got my paycheck. She looked at $15 and 84 cents with the health insurance increase. That's what she took home. That's how much the school districts.

And then you can, I mean, people could argue, well, if I don't take it, I should get that $500. I don't feel that because we provide benefits. You can take them or you can't. And I have checked. Some people, there is a staggered amount depending on their employee and what they're taking. But I was under the impression that everybody got paid the same amount towards their premium.

well that's maybe something you know i mean with these i mean this is just uh just for talking purposes that's that's a good point too yeah because i didn't think you knew guys that's why i brought it up i i thought everybody was getting the same amount but now that and you know whenever that changed however they and anyway but county does have very good benefits and but you know again that don't necessarily puts food on the table or whatever, but they still want the money to, you know, but that's just, it's just tough.

Well, I'm glad we implemented the STEP program too. Yes. That was behind. So, I mean, because when we talked about it earlier, we were calling it a potential of 5%. Well, if you go with 1% COLA, it's still a 4% increase. And, you know, some of that's just... And if I'm, You correct me if I'm wrong, but when you look at the CPIU, I mean, that 4% with the step in there, I know it's strictly looking at all of it. There's probably a lot of places that don't do a step program. I'm not.

against the employees i'm just saying i'm not yeah i've been there done that like i said yes well i would not be doing my job if i do not provide the additional two thoughts to what you've just had a conversation about first off i just want to remind you which i've already told you but again i'm not doing my job if i do not say this again We fund EMS. We're funding them a flat rate for their entire budget, no questions asked. They get that money, no questions asked. So for me, I just want to let you know that saying you're going to fund the city service and you're going to cut our COLA at the county could create, you know, a lot of conversation at the county level too. You still have to do what you do, and I understand that you have to make the decision, but I'm not doing my job if I do not remind you of that fact.

Yeah, that's appreciated, Tammy, because that might be something that, you know.

And I'm not saying EMS at the city is not worthy, but it is not a county function. Police is a county function, or not police, but sheriff's office, public works, Those are our biggest apartments and they're a large part of our payroll costs. But I certainly want a police officer there to save me if I need it. And I definitely want to drive on a safe bridge or safe road. And so I think they're just as important. No, I want our sheriff's department to come get me if that happens. Well, they're not going to save your life.

They might pull you out of the burning building or burning truck, but they're not going to give you CPR.

Some of them have some of the life savings. I'm just saying, they're just as important, I believe, just as important as the city EMS and fire. I don't think they're any less important.

That bag hurts, Jason. Come check it out.

The second thing I just want to say on the CPIU, again, we are working hard to have that in place for recruitment, retention, and morale. And I wish HR was here. She had medical that she couldn't be here. But when you're looking at recruitment, retention, and morale, and all the things we're trying to do to get good people here and keep good people here, I would hate for us to go backwards. Does anybody else?

Real quick, I'll say, you did mention, I think we do have good healthcare, good benefits, right? Great benefits. And that's a big selling point when we go to hire because our pay isn't always super competitive. I have positions I'm trying to fill right now that I'm not getting a lot of applicants and the pay is a big part of that. So a potential selling point is, but we have great benefits. well now I'm maybe not as competitive on pay and we don't have that selling point anymore right that's you talk to folks who work here is to work like great benefits is I will tell you that I haven't really dug deep into like the insurance I get so my husband owns his own trucking company

our trucking company pays for mine and his health insurance. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield. It's $1,253 a month. So when I heard bits and pieces of what the county had, granted, if the salary wouldn't have met what I had previous, that wouldn't have been a turning point because the benefit, I mean, that was to me was huge. Yes, the pay was exceptional from what I'm going from, but the benefit was, was massive because health insurance is the hardest part. I don't hear what anybody says. Health insurance is the hardest part to get and afford. Yes. Our insurance went from last year, a thousand dollars to this year. It was $1,153.

And I think some of that is generational. The older you are, the more you appreciate the benefits. When you're young, I just want the money and run.

I'm not a department head, but if I could chime in too, a lot of people don't realize that without that COLA, every year the health insurance costs go up. And last year, if you're at the lowering of the pay scale, you took home less money. That's what I was going to say.

Several that brought it to my attention. That's going to happen again this year.

Every employee is going to take home less money. That's been brought up.

That's what's happened at the school district. So, you know, we're not the long ranger when it comes to health insurance and the benefits, because like I said, they wouldn't have 30%. 30%, yeah. So I'm scared we don't have our numbers yet. So I hope, but your point's well taken, Justin.

But I'm just trying to emphasize that. Sure. Talking about not funding the COLO and step increases, and we have a 30% increase on top of that, you will lose a ton of employees. Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's tough.

But if they go up 30% and we don't get raises, they're going to make a lot less money.

I said there's several employees this year that that happened to. I heard from several of them. So it's happening now.

What goes up 30%?

Health insurance. So let's talk about revenue then. We talked about... uh, you know, having some, um, the user fees for renting the rooms. I think that could be a source. And I did have a question and, um, and it's been a while with this, even, you know, with this, uh, this, uh, health money for the payments in lieu of taxes. Um, you know, when I went through and Tammy, you'll have to remind me exactly what, what happened with that. You know, cause I, when I looked at the, you know, the sheet that tells us what our revenue is going to be, You know, it said for 24 it was $1.5 million, 25 was $1.76, and then for 26 it was $1.73. And then on our revenue information, then we've just got $60,000 and $20,000 this year is our projected.

so in 26 budget we projected 60 and i that was before that program was cut so then we thought we would get nothing this year and so i actually thought we were probably over budgeted for 26. we got a check just the other day that reinstated it so i'm saying so i have not messed with the numbers since these have been presented to you because of that but If I get an estimate because they have a website you can go out and it tells me that there's a 27 estimate, I'm more than happy to increase that. Yeah, it just says 26. But I haven't seen anything that guarantees a 27 estimate yet.

Only 26 payment. Well, I guess with them, who was cutting it? Because I went through NACO and all government, and they said they're not going to cut it. And then they said that NACO needs to make sure that they place their you know, put their representatives, you know, on tasks that they just need to stay in place, because that's another mandate, the un-funded mandate, because, you know, and they were talking about the importance, because this was from Gary County, and the importance of

uh you know in federal land and everything else and the stability of those dollars here so i guess i agree with you at all i just don't have anything definitive that's telling me that we can expect it yet so where did it say they they cut it i mean they they cut it from in 26 it was cut so we did our budget from what i put in 60 thinking we were going to get it and i estimated that because that website didn't show it either and i thought well they're just behind because they've been shut down right and then they cut it I mean, they cut all sorts of federal programs. They cut the EMPG for dairy as well. So we didn't budget for that at all because we didn't think we would get it. And then now here we ended up getting it. So it's been very wishy-washy on the federal government and the money that comes down from them.

This is weird because, yeah, it doesn't say anything, but, you know, completely I do away with it from, you know, getting 1.7 million to... getting $20,000.

That 1.7 million, I don't know where you're seeing that number.

I took it off the PIL website, the revenue.

For Gary County? Yes. We've never gotten more than 80,000.

I kind of pasted it off of there. Yeah, we've never gotten more than 80,000. Maybe it was the distribution, but that's how much I put on the... Yeah, no, it'd be nice

yeah so anyway that was another you know I think that if we're not getting it or whatever I think that we need to reinforce the fact that we need those dollars and you know all the more is you know Gary County is kind of unique so this is the website the US Department of the Interior and then if you go in it has where you can look up your state and county and if you put that in there And you can't even go to 27. So, and 26 wasn't there until about three weeks ago. There was no 26. And that's when they gave us the money. So for 26 and you search for that and you go down to Gary County, it's $85,981. And that's exactly what we got paid.

I went under NACO and was looking under that as well through there.

Well, this is who it comes from. Yeah, but this is the information and this is where I pull it from every year to give me an estimate. But like I said, right now there's nothing for 27, so I don't know if it'll be in place or if there's going to be an estimate.

And so when we're talking about revenue, that I guess my point in all this saying, if that's what's happening, then we need to make sure we're advocating with our legislators. Right. And putting that on our unfunded mandates is the whole conversation.

I mean, it's not an unfunded mandate because they're not telling us we have to have anything. It's just based on land that we have in Gary County is why we're eligible.

I see there. That's always...

But what they're doing is taking money away that we previously relied on. We don't get any. So it's a loss of funding, but it's not an unfunded mandate.

I was just thinking of different . Does all the money from when you guys write, deputies write tickets, does that all go to the state? It doesn't come to us at all, right? Nothing comes to us. But you guys are required to buy the tickets, you know, to buy the software and all that. It's just another.

Well, it's always hooked up me is that we had some of this federal property in this town.

Right. That's exactly what the military.

We're not. We're not able to tax them. I'm sure Travis would love to do that.

Well, I don't intend to tax them, but I would like to.

He would, yes.

So this is for Fort Riley and Milford? No.

I don't think that's for Riley. We don't get anything from Fort Riley. I think that's all the core, right?

The interior should be the lake.

Yeah, that came about because when they put the lake in, that's payment in lieu of when that was in place.

It hadn't kept up with the inflation. Well, Riley County's somewhere too.

That's what I'm asking them. They've never talked about that.

So are you guys definitive on any changes with the reserve with all you in agreement?

I think we should just put $25,000. 25,000. In the reserve.

Out of 250? And we were short 100,000 last year. For the reserves? We took 100,000 off of the 250 transfer.

I think that the CIP and facility fund are more important than the reserve fund.

See, Tammy, I'm on that website, too, that payment in lieu of, and that's where I cut and pasted that off of there, so I don't know, but that's the Department of Interior. Did you take it down from the bottom for total? Because you have to be in the right state.

Yeah. And the right county. Yeah. there's only one line you should be pulling from not the entire report in the right state i got it kansas okay but anyway i have about 1.4 million must be for the whole statement not just maybe

But I was just looking at that, because we had talked about that before, and it's like, darn, I thought that we got more money than that. But then I hadn't heard that it had been cut. But you look at that information through NACO and everything, it doesn't ever say, it says they need to stay intact, but it doesn't say they've done away with it. So that's the only reason I'm asking.

Well, and like I said, if I get something that tells me that, here's your estimate, I'd be happy to put in another $60,000, but... That 20,000 is for the Milford flood is what the 20,000 is. And usually we get around 60-ish. And I'm not real sure why we got 85 this year. It was more than we've gotten past.

So back to the reserve. 25,000? From 250 to 25.

That was my look. That's what she did say, too. On the reserve? On the reserves. Oh. I think that building up our reserve is important, but do we need a reserve? based on our want.

No, you need a reserve so that if you have a disaster, you have something to carry you to get FEMA money, which could be a very long time if there's other entities or counties or states because it's federal dollars.

But I think we need a CIP and we need facility funds more so than putting a quarter of a million dollars in our reserves.

I would probably agree with that because, like I said, I would hate to, you know, again, you look at the largest budgets or whatever or however, but at the end of the day, you know, that's been a big objective of mine is not going after core services. So if that is it and holding our feet to the fire on everything else, then that's probably where I would be at as well. We agree on that, Trish.

Oh my God.

Write it down.

I think that you should at least put $100,000 in there. I would not cut it to $25,000. Because if there's a disaster, what we have in reserve, that's what we need.

I agree with that.

If we have a disaster, the $100,000 that we're cutting is not going to help us. No.

We need to get to $3 million, and we need to probably go beyond that. But we don't even have carryovers like we've had in the past. So you can't count on carryovers to save us either. So just saying, General Fund has, I mean, we can look at our financial reports per month. And you're looking at what we spend in there per month. And we spent 1.5, 1.7, 1.9. January, it's 4.9 because of all of our insurances and transfers. But if you have 1.5 million, we're not even going to make it through two months with that reserves. We'll barely make it through the one. And that's only with general fund. That doesn't count any other, like if something happens with solid waste, there's no way there's money in there to cover them. And even though they're not supposed to tap into it until they could get FEMA, they're going to need something. So am I an advocate for you going down to 25? Absolutely. No. Am I an advocate for you decreasing at all? No. But if you're going to decrease it, I wouldn't go any lower than 100 and you're right. That a hundred thousand won't get us anywhere, but, and that's in a disaster. But if you look at a cybersecurity event too, We have no idea what that could cost us.

I hadn't thought about the carryover.

Well, I guess, you know, we're back at, you know, you give us some of these possible scenarios and then we're basically shot down. So we're back at, you need to give us some...

so this is me advocating to take care of the county because that's my job to take care of the county take care of the people and look out for the taxpayers and it's very difficult to balance sometimes because believe me the first thing i think about are taxpayers and then i look at what can we do to balance that and we have done i mean you you have said in those chairs and it's not been the same commission the whole time i've been here but you have done a tremendous job cutting your budget but In cutting our budget, we also have gotten to a point where we don't have that carryover. So the reason this number is higher is because we don't have the carryover for unfilled vacancies in the past that has carried us for numerous years. And that's a good thing.

And I mentioned to you yesterday that I think we're at that point in time where, again, that that may be the reality of it, that we're going to have to, and people said it, that we're going to have to And I don't think Gary County never necessarily has to look outside of their parameters necessarily. They've been frugal for many years. But that being said, it's in front of us. And why it is high as well is because, and obviously because a lot of that was salaries and benefits when we did that. I mean, that's what's going to consume obviously a lot of the budget. So we're, you know, I...

I've told you guys, I've told you, appropriations is not required of you at all. But you are required to have employees to do our job. So the trade-off is, is if you fund those outside agencies, then you're taking away from the employees that do the day-to-day jobs of the core services.

Did you have a total there? Because I think I just got, when I took that other off there, I had some stuck in there. Yeah, because I think I just had some.

The outside agencies. I'm not saying you're not cutting some.

but I'm just saying because I would I would agree I would hate to do you know not I think that it needs to be go away after a period of time and not just overnight but the fact of the matter is at the end of the day if we didn't do all of those you know that what it's a very hard decision and I'm glad I'm not in your chairs

i'm still going to stand over here and advocate for the county well i mean she has to give us the yes i i know i i did that i did 650 and they they got more improvement plans so i'm cutting that under time right there and then 200 for the facilities as a trend then almost 75 000 on the reserve

You heard mine. I was just cutting reserves, CIP, and facilities, 50,000 each. That was my thoughts. And I know 150,000 isn't half a million.

So what would be the median between those two then would be...

but I do agree with the CIP and I'm so thankful we started that program. I mean, I really.

Well, we had money in that in reserves years ago, but it was, yeah, but the same thing happened where, what do you want to do? And it just kept dwindling away to where, you know, and then, so that dwindles away and you don't have that. And like you said, then you start increasing the salaries and stuff that at the end of the day, that's where, wherever we ended up.

When I first came on here 10 years ago, our carryover was like $900 and some thousand dollars. It wasn't even a million.

I know. I know. And we had 20 levied funds where that money was so limited you couldn't tap into any of it for working capital.

So if we do $100,000 for reserves, $650,000 for CIP, and 200 for facilities that would get us to 300 000 which is awesome and what we do on appropriations of animals that's two and then special bridge transfer you wanted to ride on safe bridges i mean

I mean, you know, we don't want anything bad to happen. It was 200 last year, right? It's been 200 since I came.

If we did 25 there, it's not 25 there, and then we'd definitely be in those 330, and that would be 325. 325, that's it.

Well, you guys decide, but on the reserve, I don't know. The CIP and the facilities, I agree with.

What do you mean, you guys?

Me too.

I just talked with my husband. You need to be in on the conversation.

Well, I told you. What was yours again? This was $250,000. $50,000 off all three. And you had, well, I did have a $25,000, but... You made a good point, but a hundred thousand for the reserves.

Well on reserves, one thing to keep in mind when you are looking at reserves, one of the things that, I mean, there's a couple of different ways you can figure out what makes sense, but they would say that you should have at least three months worth of expenditures in there. So if we're looking at our normal, you're looking at four and a half million is what we should have to cover three months of expenses. And then they also look at what your revenue is compared to what your overall revenue is. And so when you look at that, it's around three and a half million. So that's why at least every five years we should visit whether we're where we're at or whether we need to reset the goal because the three million we set probably won't be the right answer when we get to year five. which is 2027. So next year, we'd not need to probably renew that policy. Okay, so I had a couple of things thrown out. CIP transfer decreasing 100,000. Facility transfer decreasing 50,000. The reserve transfer decreasing 150,000 and the special bridge transfer decreasing 25,000. And then I also had another commissioner say decreasing the reserve, the CIP facility, and didn't mess with the bridge. Each one decreased by 50,000.

i think we and the facility transfer decreased 50 reducing it 50 000 that it would be okay with me special bridge transfer where are we at with the maintenance of the bridges i mean uh is it yeah i thought that they've worked on two of them it seems like since i've been

getting ready to work on another one.

How many bridges do we have?

Forty-some. Don't quote me on that.

There were two that Jeremy had said in 27 and 28 that they would be working on that he had on his list besides what he already had in 26. So in 26 right now, he was saying that he had, in 26, he had estimated Lyons Creek at 400,000. And that would be moving to one lane in 25 due to its condition, but hoping it can last until 26 for replacement. 27, he had potential bridge replacement with Skiddy West, 180,000, hoping it can wait until 27 for the replacement. So they're in dire straits. If he's putting hoping it can wait, then that tells me that he's pushing it off down the road as far as he possibly can. And then in 27, he put...

I wouldn't go any more than 25,000.

He had the Westlands Creek still at that 400,028, the Skiddy at 180. So he's telling you the same thing that he had in the previous year, hoping that he can push it down. Because he did have the Westlands Creek in 26. Now he's pushed it to 27 and now he's pushing the Skiddy West to 28.

I see that goes back to what we talked about with our core duties. We don't want to have an accident and get sued.

Is that Westlands Creek Bridge by State Lake Road?

So I guess I just need to know I know what we're doing on the ones that you've

adjusted the appropriations and are you okay with any of these adjustments that were proposed on the potential budget decreases and if so by what amount and then we just need to figure out when you want to come back next week and i'll show you what those numbers look like after all those changes and then you can decide if there's anything else you want to do before we get the exceeding revenue neutral to the quick would that work yeah and can you just go over that you know you gave us the

is too much stuff that about the flat what is your thoughts on that uh the best out of those or what are your all thoughts about staying flat staying flat staying right yes and then we wouldn't have to come up with this this okay yeah this we got a lot more to cut if we're going to do that well the uh We have to cut 2 million.

I think 2.4 million. We barely got through 600,000.

So if you go down to revenue neutral, just so you know, from where we originally started, you would have to cut 3,414,635, which is what that worksheet reflects. Oh, I thought she was asking if we just kept the And if we kept the mill flat, then we'd have to increase the revenue by 831. You would still have to decrease $2,582,824 to get down to that $18,587,258, which would keep the mill flat. So that's 2.58 million, and I don't know what your numbers equate to of what you did. So whatever your numbers were that you did would come off of that 2.58 that I just said. Because the 2.58 is the 21 million less that 18 million 587.

Could we kind of get that scenario, doing that? Because we would just be coming up, would you say, down to two?

You want us to get to that, to get to exceeding the revenue neutral by leaving the mill levy flat?

What are we going to cut?

No. I thought that's what we would have to cut if we stayed the same.

If you want to get down to 18.5 million, you would have to cut 2.58 million total. And right now, I would guess just looking at the numbers, it's what, maybe a little over a million? Maybe not a million?

I don't even think it's, well, maybe 1.2 million, I think. Well, I just wondered what that scenario would be. Not even, I don't even, I think it's like 600 down.

Well, I thought it was 600 on just the appropriations. And then you have another 350 on these transfer things. I think it's right around a million. Well, when you counted in Harmony Fest, that I think was where you got the 600. So I think that was around six. This would be around three and a half. So you're somewhere around a million. So you would still have 1.6 million. You would have to decrease somehow.

which is more than five mils as far as next week i told you uh monday afternoons don't work now for me because my doctor's appointment so is there a day tuesday through thursday you guys i have to look at my calendar i just need we don't have a meeting on monday right

Yeah, we do.

We have the auditor coming.

It's the August 3rd.

Yeah, let me check my calendar. The 14th through the 16th, is that what you're looking at?

The Tuesday through Thursday.

I'm sure I can find a date.

Do the other two commissioners have any days that definitely don't work? No.

afternoons, I think.

It doesn't matter to me. I'm here regardless. I just had to be at NY5 on Thursday, but Saturday.

Well, and I'd like to see with what we've kind of decided so far. Yeah, right.

I'd like to see that as well. Yeah.

I got juvenile detention. And I know we haven't decided on the co-op. Thank you. I said afternoon.

Okay.

You said afternoon, right, Keith?

Yeah, that works better.

So, yeah, I should be good. Tuesday or Wednesday? Yeah.

Because Trish has to leave early on Thursday. Well, not early, but right at 5. So Tuesday, Wednesday, you want to check and let me know. You can just text. I will definitely let you know. And then I can let you know in the clerk's office. Calendar at home. So we want to try to schedule it like 1.30 to 4.30, and we don't have to stay the whole time if you don't need it all? yeah okay okay tuesday tuesday or wednesday yeah tuesday or wednesday okay we'll try to see which one works for keith and okay but you guys know for sure all right all right thanks guys do any of you guys thanks for coming have any more or have any input because we appreciate it we want to hear what you have to say that's for sure it's tough

If only that you weren't asking for money.