Board of County Commissioners Regular and Meetings - Special Meeting

Welcome to a regular meeting of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners. It's June 16th, 2026 at 11 a.m. Please turn your cell phones off or silence them and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

I like to make a motion to approve the agenda. I will make a motion to approve the agenda.

Seconded.

To a vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Agenda is approved. We move on to community information items. I have nothing this morning. Elsa, would you like to go next?

We have a lot of Pride events this weekend. There is a a nature walk, there's a parade, a health fair, and a drag show all on Saturday. So if anybody wants to volunteer, you're very welcome. And we need volunteers for helping keep the parade safe. And then if anyone wants to be in the parade, they can meet at the Mining Hall of Fame and sign waivers there. That's it from me.

Commissioner Lee?

Yes. I am going to voice concerns I've been getting from some more than just a few locals about the manner of OHV use on city and county roads. As a supporter of OHV use and I am, you know, for the record, I am I'm glad that Lake County does allow limited use to access trailheads from town on county roads and city streets, not state roads, i.e. not Harrison Avenue, not Highway 24, 91. The issues that keep getting brought up to me by constituents are the manner in which people are using their OHVs on public roads. So I just want to reiterate to anyone who might be listening or can help spread the word that irresponsible use, driving recklessly, trying to do wheelies all the way up Sixth Street, riding without spark arresters or excessively loud over 98 decibel exhaust systems, and not using the roads to access the trail or basically just doing laps around your neighborhood all day long. Those are the kinds of things that are going to get the wrong type of attention put on our limited OHV use. If enough people complain, there's the possibility that the state police would get involved with crackdowns, things of that nature. Too many people riding without helmets. I don't want to see anything hinder the current situation that we have for responsible OHV use on county and city streets. So people freshen up your game a little bit. If you're driving crazy on the roads, stop and try and get to the dirt. Don't just let the neighborhoods all day. Wear a helmet. Make sure your exhaust systems are Within compliance and please put spark arresters make sure they're on your machines aside from registration a spark arrestor is the other thing that's mandated by the state. So. freshen up the game a little bit on the hb tip, please, so we don't see any more problems or or someone get hurt that would just be horrible so. On the note of the spark arresters, the last week we opted not to come out of the stage one fire bans. We're still in a stage one fire ban. It is extremely dry out there. Boots on the ground, hiking around in the mountains, places that are normally really damp are just dried out. There's the green up has already peaked and it's things are drying up fast. wildflowers are like at the lowest level i've seen for this time of year that I can ever remember, and just every footstep is scary crunchy so obvious things obvious, you know, obviously we have the main staples of you know don't have a giant fire open burnings not allowed. But. little things like trailer chains, flicking cigarette butts, random sparks, those could turn into something really disastrous for this community. So I just implore everyone to keep a mindful eye on what they are doing with anything that could cause a fire. So that's it.

Thank you, Commissioner Lee. This is a reminder that all meeting recordings are available and work sessions are also recorded and available on Lake County Government YouTube channel. They are transcribed and indexed videos. The recordings can be watched at a time that's best for you. Subscribe and stay informed on county decisions. Next, we'll move to public comment. Public comment is available for residents wishing to speak on an agenda item or another issue that is not on the agenda. To make a public comment, residents may request to speak by raising your hand in person. using the raised hand feature in Zoom and sending a message in chat. The chair will call on the public in order. Comment is limited to three minutes, not including board questions. Action, if required, will be assigned to county staff. The chair might also ask that public comments or on specific agenda items be held for later in the meeting. In certain instances, public comment will not be accepted, such as on public hearing items Noted on the agenda. Is there anyone in the room who would like to make a public comment?

Yes, sir. Just tell us your name. Sure. Christopher Olney, non-resident, neighbor from Colorado Springs Utilities. I just want to reach out to the commissioners. Thank you for a little bit of time. Be sure to, I hope, receive an invitation for your dinner. We are hosting in Salida in July. This is a gathering of multiple jurisdictions from every level, from the federal to the local level. officials to meet and discuss water impacts of the Arkansas Valley. And we would love if all of you could attend and be a part of that conversation. That's all I want to do is just extend that invitation and answer any questions you might have.

Great. Thank you. I went to the last Arkansas Valley meeting. It was terrific. So yeah. And you sent invitations out? Yes, sir. You should receive an email invitation.

Okay. And it's an RSVP? Yes, it's quite invitational. That is because of the matter of the conversation we are having in these current drought conditions. We want to have those that have an impact on what policy or procedure we have going forward as a state. We want to hear your guys' input on how we can all work together.

Great. Thanks for coming.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Let's see. We'll go next online here. Mike Martin, would you like to make your comment?

Yeah, so I had a question about the abstract and certification document. I was looking for it based on some questions I had from taxpayers and the increases in taxes over the last three years, some of them being over 150% increases. And the abstract and certification document is found and should be found on the front counter or on every website and is found on every county website but ours. And so I really wonder why that is. And it was something that was noted in the independent audit. And it was highlighted in red as being missing. And that's the most critically important document in my opinion is there for taxpayers and for taxing entities because the Colorado abstract assessment compiles all taxable property values in a county. And then the certification is the value report to the taxing entities, school, county, et cetera, which then set the mill levies and calculate the revenue, meaning the tax bills that people pay, those ones that increased 150% plus. So how do you know where the money is going, coming, what the need is? More importantly, how does the community know where their money is going? Because how it's used is you can go in there with your increased tax bill and somebody in that building hopefully should be able to explain to you where every dollar goes proportionally to the school district, to the hospital, to the city if you happen to live in the city and all by district. And so having that information missing How can you feel confident about any expenditure? How did you set your budget? And I have many other questions related to that, but I would beg you to follow up on that and look at that audit report. And it's in red for a reason, critical. And it was not submitted to the auditor. And from what I can see, it does not exist. And so how do the taxpayers know what they're even paying for? They don't, sadly.

OK, thank you, Mr. Martin. We'll follow up on that.

To follow up, Mike, do you have an email we can send a follow up to?

No, the most important thing is it needs to be out there to the public.

Totally hear that.

It should be on the website. It's the most important thing that relates to your job and how you spend taxpayer money. Okay, we hear you.

Thank you for your comment. We'll follow up.

I can follow up on that as well. It's probably something in line with the assessor of the treasurer's duties, which are different elected officials than the Horry County Commissioners, which you guys don't have any control over those offices as we've talked about before. I will follow up with those elected officials to make sure that we're following statute.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that. Could you repeat about the control on elected officials part?

Well, there's other elected officials in the county, and the abstract certification likely falls within the assessor or the treasurer's duties, not the Board of County Commissioners. But I will follow up with the other elected officials with your concerns, Mr. Martin.

So the commissioners wouldn't have any duty or ability to hire and fire or manage that office or request that document be produced today?

They are elected officials.

That's an interesting perspective you have. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Thank you, . That's enough. We're going to mute you. I appreciate you guys for your efforts. That's all I wanted to say. And thank you very much for your time.

You're not going to mute yourself. We'll mute you. Yeah, thank you.

I just wanted to thank you for your time and all your effort. I know your job is .

I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you for commenting. Next, we have Tina Takanczyk.

Okay. So my concern is, Elsa, I got your letter back on May 20th. And it was regarding CBS accounting. And you had said in that letter that it was mainly for human services and the treasure reconciliations, but didn't engage in the historic audit findings. So do you have a copy of that document that you're saying it pertains to? And the only reason I'm asking is I've went back since 2020 when CBS accounting actually had the contracts and those contracts haven't changed. They've done financial reconciliations, accounting assistance and support, preparation of audit work papers, year-end closing, and then your grant monitoring and related financial functions. So you did say that this audit did not identify theft, fraud or misappropriations, which I agree, but that only conforms to the GASB accounting standards, which reflects mainly on your internal controls and your material weaknesses. So what I've been asking for is a forensic audit, which would address fraud, theft, or misuse of funds. So even though we're paying CBS accounting up to $160,000, it's like we're still getting reportable findings. So I just want to know how we can afford to pay the employees that are in the finance department on top of CBS accounting of $160,000. And we don't have a clear audit yet. Then the next question, I haven't. I'll be done. But there was a lease office sharing agreement between Rocky Mountain General Council and Lake County government, which went into effect January 1st of this year. So Chris Floyd signed it January 23rd. Candace signed it January 27th. But you guys later did a ratification February 3rd. So... If this agreement was effective January 1st, why was it signed by either party? Why did it go to ratification? I want to know who authorized the agreement prior to the board approval and then. Why in this agreement, it also states that it includes provisions specific to attorneys, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and circumstances involving co-counsel or consultation, which raises additional questions about the nature of the office sharing arrangement.

Okay, Tina, your three minutes is up. Thank you for your comments.

Yeah.

we can have someone follow up with you in an email okay thank you you're welcome yesterday you're up mr peter day you're muted i should be on right there you go

Okay, great. Good morning, Commissioners. Last week, I noticed that you tabled the consideration of the strategic plan, and I didn't see it on today's agenda, so I guess it's still in play. I'd just like to comment that... that in that plan, it's great for government. It'll help government clean up a lot of things. It's indirectly good for residents of Lake County, but it doesn't have very many specifics in it. And my main comment is it doesn't align at all with the one community plan, which lays out 23 goals and 113 strategies. PB John Gerstle, So i'm just wondering why there's not even a mention of the of the comprehensive plan and the strategic document for the county and the only two tangible things I could see were 2027 goals for landfill expansion and. you know, work at the airport, you know, business park. So I really think that you need to incorporate into your strategic plan, the one that's going to be in front of you soon, you know, something about the comprehensive plan and incorporate strategies from the comprehensive plan into that strategic plan. And maybe they should all be one thing. I think the comprehensive plan is going to be reviewed every six months to see how it's progressing. The strategic plan every three months. Those look like two different silos to me. Why not have some sort of crosstalk between the two so we can see how accomplishments are being done? you know, across the board. So I'd encourage you to at least mention the comprehensive plan, the one community plan in this strategic plan, and even better is incorporate, you know, some of the things that the community wants is expressed in the comprehensive plan in that strategic plan. Thank you.

Can I respond really quickly just so he and other people online know? So Peter, Commissioner Stark wanted more time to review it before we were gonna adopt it and we had done a work session on it previously. And then she came back with quite a few changes and I wanted to make sure that everybody had time to weigh in and add anything else. So I didn't bring it back today. I'm gonna put it on a work session so we can work through some of those changes collectively and make sure we're all on the same page and that we feel good about it. So thank you for sharing. you know your information and what one of the items that I think was brought up is our our codes and looking at that comp plan which you know the comprehensive plan is really just created we're required to have one to help us guide like what development decisions what investment decisions will the city and county make together and a lot of the groundwork that we're doing in that document will enable us to actually HAB-Juliette Boone, Execute the comprehensive plan it's like you have to have the wheels on the bus before you can drive it forward. HAB-Juliette Boone, And so, a lot of the things that were in that plan are getting the wheels on the bus in order to actually accomplish the things in that plan, but one of the items that was added is that. HAB-Juliette Boone, And so, just so you know, so you can join us, I did ask savers the next work session right. HAB-Juliette Boone, yeah I just wanted to circle back since we're adding some things and just make sure we all feel good before we have another meeting, where we go to. So if we're going to make changes, let's get them all in there. So you can join us for that if you'd like to.

Okay. Thank you, Peter. Anybody else online have a comment? Hearing none, we will move on to our regular agenda items. Agenda item number one is discussion and consideration of resolutions. 2026 dash 25 a resolution approving a supplemental appropriation of $4,000 from the general fund for clerk and recorder office improvements in election security enhancements, this will be led by candace bryant's.

So this may be familiar to you because you've already voted on it and our elected departments and. So our staff, my staff, they create the memos and the resolutions for elected departments when they don't submit them with their request. So both of these items were submitted by elected departments, and the resolution didn't get provided when we voted on it. So this is just coming back to actually get you guys to approve the resolution. You've already voted to let these elected departments have these supplemental moves. we just need to get the paperwork in line. So we submit it to DOLA when we change the budget. So every time we do supplementals, any changes we make, those resolutions have to be submitted to DOLA with our budget changes. Hard to do when we don't have the resolution. So we apologize for missing these, but I think there's just some miscommunication, staff thinking that the elected offices were gonna provide their documents and then... we provided them for them in this case.

Okay. Thank you, Candace.

I'll move to adopt Resolution 2026-25, a resolution approving a supplemental appropriation of $4,000 from the General Fund for Clerk and Recorder Office Improvements and Election Security Enhancement.

I will second that. To a vote. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Moving on, item number two, discussion and consideration of resolution 2026-26, the resolution approving a supplemental appropriation of $89,128 from the general fund to the coroner's office. This is also led by Candace Bryans.

So Alex came and presented to you all regarding his staffing, and we spent a good amount of time discussing what did he need, what Where were the gaps and you guys approve that for him? This is just to sign the resolution to so we can amend our budget.

I will make a motion to approve resolution 2026-26, a resolution approving a supplemental appropriation of $89,128 from the general fund for the coroner's office.

Seconded. Two vote. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you, Candace. Do we have Heath for the next one?

I can present it if you...

Okay, you want to present it? Yeah. Item number three, discussion and consideration of a professional services agreement with Paradigm.

Paradigm?

Paradigm.

Oh, were you joking? I'm sorry.

Public affairs to provide human resources assistance to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. For internal affairs, I wish I was joking.

I didn't know that's how you spoke.

So, and Matt can help with some of the statutory authority pieces. He, as the sheriff, has the statutory authority to have his own chain of command and HR, well, not HR, but staff policies, like his handbook. And he works with us to try to align his handbook with the county handbook. But his staff don't really report to my HR. And my HR honestly is not versed in investigative services for police activity or police issues. And so what we have asked of Heath is would he consider having an HR when he needs to have a safe place for his staff to go and look into an investigation that's a third party. We also have recognized that it would be really helpful for us to have that other third party for other offices to go to if they need to use it. If there's an instance where an elected office has a staff member who maybe needs a different sort of look at an HR issue. And so Heath went to RFP and interviewed multiple entities to pick one that would be a really good fit. We feel like this is really helpful so that his staff, you know, if my staff has an issue, they have, you know, HR to go to. They don't have to go through me to get to HR and we want it to be that way. Same thing for Heath. And that's what setting this up does is if they have an issue with their chain of command, they have a third party that they can go to to address any sort of issues. Anything?

Yeah, I think you summarized that. I mean, we've discussed this issue with the board before in terms of elected offices and controlling their personnel, and I think we've run into a few situations where it's become clear having an outside third party sort of investigate certain HR complaints would be beneficial in terms of managing risk for the county. And it's pretty common even in much larger organizations to do this. It's kind of the best practice in terms of employment, especially the more sticky HR issues is just to have a third party come in and do the investigation. And my hope from a legal perspective is You know, this contract is drafted in such a way that it's both Heath and the board, and to the extent, you know, we need an outside third party occasionally for our HR, that we could also go to this firm as well. Great.

I will move to approve the PSA Professional Services Agreement with Paradigm Public Affairs to provide human resource assistance to the Lake County Sheriff's Office for internal affairs.

I will second that.

To vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Item number four, discussion and consideration of county payment elections for Forest Service payments to states for the federal fiscal year of 2026. This will be led by Candace Brines.

So this document I'll be completing and turning into DOLA. I thought it would be a good idea to walk through what we typically do with this election and why we do it, just to make sure everybody understands. Also, if we don't elect anything, which I think has likely happened in the past, it looks like looking at historically where these have gotten dedicated to. We haven't turned this in at some point because I've seen where we have a different breakout than what we are currently set at. So SRS funds, those are going to be passed on to the school. So when we get four service payments every year, and we pass on their Title I, II, and III funds, and we pass our funds fully on to the school, If we elect to go through the 1908 Act, then we keep some of those funds for ourselves and only pass on a small portion to the school. It reduces the amount of PILT payments that our road and bridge can keep to put towards road and bridge. So it is more beneficial for us. We're going to end up with more money from PILT by passing the SRS funds on to the school. then if we do the 1908 allocation method, we would keep part of those funds and not pass it on to the school, which would reduce our PILT by more than what we're keeping. So this comes up every year when they're received. I generally get an email from the Charter's office asking me what to pass on the school, what to do with our Title III funds. We do actually keep our Title III funds. They're not ones that get passed on to the school, but Title III funds can be used for a couple of different things. They can be used for our wildfire action plan, and that's what we have used them for this year. They've been used for wildfire mitigation. We provide a grant match for RWIC to do wildfire mitigation for us, and we also provide a grant match for them For a wildfire action plans, they actually create that plans for Lake County. So we would like to use the title three funds for that again, because we have to turn it up wildfire action plan. And it takes a lift off of us creating a plan to have other professionals who are working with the forest service to create that plan. And if we weren't using the title three funds, we'd be using our general fund to provide that match for them.

Okay.

So if you would like to change our allocation method, I'm happy to, but I just wanted to bring it up so you guys could actually make a decision instead of us just either letting it default to what we did the year before and also just not having a context for what are these funds, what are we doing with them, who gets them, why would we pass it on? I think it's just good for all of us to be understanding what we've done and why we do it.

That is good. Thank you. And so you're looking for us to formalize that today?

Yeah. In a perfect world, I would be shoveling as much money into our roads and streets as absolutely possible. And the absolute last thing I want to see is us do anything here that looks okay at face value but then ends up meaning less dollars for road and bridge and public works. Well, the schools are going to get this first, you know... Turn it. Yeah. But I'm just from the angle of our streets. I really need help. I will move to approve the county payment elections for Forest Service payments to states. For the federal fiscal year 2026.

To use SRS or 1908 amended?

The SRS is what we normally do.

Okay, so the option that gets money to the schools and make sure that our streets department doesn't lose money. For the SRS.

Second.

Tuva.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Great. Thank you. That concludes our decision items. We will now move on to county attorney updates. Mr. Hobbs?

We had an all-day trial yesterday on a land use enforcement case. I haven't got a decision yet. The judge said he'd issue a decision within a week or two. Seems like the case went well. Obviously, I can't predict the outcome, but I think we all felt pretty good about it after the trial. That's really what I've been spending a lot of my time on. I think when I was in private practice, I used to tell my clients, you know, for every hour you spend in trial, it's about two to three outside of trial just to get ready for it. So you can kind of do the math there. You know, eight hours in court yesterday adds up to a significant amount. You know, I'd like to thank, you know, Cami was great in helping me and it was great. and Don as well, the code enforcement officer. It was really a team effort, and yeah, I don't know whether it'll come out well. It was the enforcement of a camping unit, essentially using it as a second home. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you, Matt.

Thanks. All set? Did you have a question? Is there an added site for this?

We filed three additional cases. There's three more that they have provided to us. It came out in testimony yesterday that there's some 70 plus outstanding violations that they've been in various states of working on over the last two, three years.

So don't know where all those are at. But yeah, I think it will continue to occupy a large amount of my time. And hopefully, they won't all go to trial, because that's really what occupies a lot of time.

But most times, civil cases, 90% of civil cases never go to trial. So this one, the homeowner retained an attorney and wanted to fight it. So let the court decide, yeah.

win the case, it'll certainly help. It sets a precedent, for sure.

Yeah, I mean, they were trying to argue, they made the argument that the code was unclear and the fact that it doesn't expressly require the removal of the camping units. They essentially hooked up an OBTS system, a well, electrical, and it wasn't really a camping unit, frankly. It was a tiny home. And it basically set up a permanent structure with no permitting whatsoever. But it will set a precedent, yes, which is another reason I spent a lot of time.

Great.

Is that all, Matt? There's a few other things, but I think that's it for now. There's an executive session. three of them we got coming up. Yeah. Yeah. That's I think for, you know, update. Let's play out right now.

Okay. Next up is County Manager updates from Candace Bryans.

So just a reminder at the end of the month, we let departments share all of the cool things that they're working on. So I'm not going to read every single thing in here. We could be in here for quite some time, but just going to hit the highlights for each department. And I really love this part because departments, you know, share these out with us, the things that they're excited about. So tourism and economic development, the All About Leadville event generated more than $130,000 in local business receipts while showcasing our community assets, strengthening local partnerships, and encouraging visitors to spend within Lake County. Um, this is the first time that we've done that activity. Um, and so that was really great to see that it was successful. Um, through partnerships with Destination Twin Lakes and Lacoste, um, uh, a mini grant was awarded, um, to support, uh, public and visitor trash service in Twin Lakes. This is really important when that's not provided, we end up with trash in our pristine places that we want people to enjoy and we want to keep clean and take care of. Staff is advancing several economic development initiatives, including the development of a pilot housing buy-down and fill incentive program, continued evaluation of industrial park and business attraction opportunities, and ongoing efforts to support commercial lodging development opportunities that are identified in the Caledonia East Lodging Feasibility Plan. Public Health, big shout out to them, they spent the majority of the month of April addressing a measles outbreak. We had six confirmed cases locally, four hospitalizations, and no deaths, and there was no untracked community spread. We got a lot of feedback from CDPHE and our state partners about what an awesome job our public health department did and just how on top of those tracking those cases, getting people quarantined fast enough to not let any more cases be contacted. So they did a wonderful job with that. Sorry, there's one thing I wanted to make sure I had for sure.

There it is.

Um, the public health improvement plan has been sent to, um, our community health advisory council for final feedback. Um, that will be completed in the next two months and submitted to CDPHE and that's a statutory requirement for public health. Um, also public health, uh, will be working with CDPHE to conduct the research sweeps of ticks in Lake County. The purpose is to collect information about the species of ticks that live in our county. As well as the prevalence of tick-borne diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, tularemia, and others. We will be conducting our, the public health staff will be conducting cloth drying operations in a couple of different locations around Lake County to collect those specimens and send them into the state for testing. making sure that's on everybody's radar.

Are the results of any of that testing or dragging going to be available for the public to find anywhere?

I am not certain, but I can follow up with staff on that. I'm not sure if it's CDPH's information, what they'll be sharing out or what I'm sure they're doing in other locations. So we definitely can follow up with them on that. This is really exciting. We have had a lot more increased demand for transportation through our senior center and the CDOT grant that we were awarded has allowed us to add three additional on-call drivers and increase the ability for our seniors to be able to get to appointments, to go to meds, go to the grocery store, all kinds of activities that we take our seniors out for. So we're really excited to have been awarded that grant and to see that it's making a difference. The senior center team is very grateful for three additional fleet vehicles that are now parked at the senior center. We've talked a lot about our fleet. Stuart, working alongside Josh, they have really taken a deep dive into our fleet. How many vehicles do we have? Do we need them all? Are they actually at locations where they get utilized? It's hard to get people to utilize a vehicle if they have to drive across town to get it. So really just being intentional with where we put our vehicles, how we're tracking the use of them, and right-sizing our fleet. So we just want to say thanks to Stuart for all of his work on that.

Thank you, Stuart.

Water and natural resources. Do you want me to share yours, Bryce, or do you want me to put you on the spot? Sure. Okay. I didn't know if you wanted to share. The DWR water commissions turned off the head gate at our upper river ditch in late March after several weeks of coordination with Public Works to repair the ditch and install a new measurement flume. Flows to the Hayden Pond via the upper river ditch were restored in May. Beavers continue to be a problem on that stretch of the ditch. Thank you Bryce for going and clearing that repetitively. Parks and Rec summer staff is assisting with the WNR and regular cleaning of the ditch to ensure consistent flows. Let's see, Mount Nassau Golf Course was able to secure an alternate source of water for the 2026 season, but potentially into the future. The firm yield water allotment WNR had planned to use for the golf course irrigation was then freed up for other uses for the 2026 water year. Climax approached the WNR with interest in leasing available water to secure water for their potable water well at the mine, which is threatened with falling out of priority later in the summer with the dry conditions that exist. Or IGA negotiations continue with major progress in quarter two, 2026 and an estimated completion signing date later this summer. Bryce has been working with C4 to have a work plan for the climate action plan and working with our sustainability contractor. He has been working with them to meet, I think you guys have met with all of the departments at this point and are moving on to community engagement.

There's been several community engagements. They've met with all the department directors to kind of talk about their priorities and then now where they're at is they've kind of come up with a prioritization list. an easy win slash ongoing work that are compatible with the compliant action plan and the sustainability plan. And then just kind of what's financially and logistically feasible for the county to pursue in the near future. Keep working on that plan.

And Bryce will be working with C4 to come back. They're going to do a presentation. We're trying to get it scheduled for the end of July to come back and give feedback on the work that's been done thus far to you all. Human Services, this is pretty awesome. We have a small but mighty DHS team. They had a case review by the state to audit whether any errors were made on their SNAP cases and they had zero errors, which is pretty great for our team. We are stretched pretty thin and everybody, to be stretched that thin, to constantly have more added to your plate and still come out of your audit with no errors, really a lot of work to their team. So that's thanks to the leadership of Kim and the great work that her team is doing in that area.

That's really great too from just, because the errors in smaller counties hit much harder than they do in larger counties because the numbers just don't work out.

Right, and the changes that happened with HB1 and error rates come into play with this as well, right?

Yeah, it's huge.

Yeah, it's amazing.

The legislative session is now over, as I'm sure you're aware. And county and state agencies are working to digest all the changes, not only to budgets that are much leaner. But over the course of the next 18 months, particularly for DHS, the state has decided to move to a new model of delivering some of the social service programs throughout the state. So counties, state agencies, and advocates We'll be assessing ways that they can share the work among counties and start to have some shared services. The goal of sharing the services is to increase sustainability and stability in programming, but there's still a lot of unknowns, like what will it look like? Having support for regionalizing and having communities that we work with is great, but for smaller counties, the resources we have And how we can operate looks a little different than, say, Denver. And so when you come to these regionalized models, which is what it sounds like the state is moving towards, we really want to make sure that the needs of Lake County residents don't get lost in that new plan to manage some of those services. And so Laura's going to be, she wasn't selected to be on that committee, which we had our lobbyists really pull for us to be included. they have come back with some other ways that she can be engaged in that decision making and she is going to continue to be doing that.

Do you know like a comparable county who was selected that would represent us similarly? Small, rural?

I haven't read the list so I'm not sure but Laura and I are meeting I think early next week and they're going to kind of circle back because she just got the official notice that she wasn't selected. Just so you guys know for DHS and public health, the state fiscal year ends at the end of this month and their new year begins in July. So we are going to be really working closely with public health and in particular DHS. They build their budget, but they don't know what the state will change their budget to until now. So really just looking at how can we stay within the budget we created for them How can we rely on other counties for support where we need it? How can we adjust allocations or budgets to make sure that they're fully funded even though the state's reduced what they're passing on to us is always a challenge because we are mid our budget year when the state changes what they will pass to us. And so it makes it really challenging to budget for DHS in particular. Facilities and fleet. For facilities, we've used repurposed materials to build stairs from Baker Field up to the restrooms at Huck Finn. We've installed new infill dirt on some of the ball fields that are currently in use. We've removed the old floor in the sheriff's patrol room and installed an epoxy floor. We've repainted the courthouse stairs to the courtroom, built ski and boot shelving for goal rentals, and erected a courthouse event tent. On the fleet side of things, have serviced all of our lawn equipment, replaced starter and landfill trash compactor, repaired numerous items on the Huck Fin Zamboni. Our Zamboni went down the last, the day before the final of hockey. And we, Stuart and team, were able to cobble that thing back together to get one more sweep of the ice. And then it was sort of dead. at that point, but they've been able to actually restore Zamboni, which we love to make it usable. We've also fixed a gold trailer. An airport forklift manned mast seal was repaired, which is actually really challenging for our staff to find all the parts for. And then we've prepared auction items for sale and done quite a lot of cleanup of some old equipment that we've just had sitting around for quite some time so really trying to analyze what do we have are we using it if we're not using it do we need to repurpose it do we need to move it off of our cleats rather than let it sit and run outside so really taking a look at those items CSU Extension completed a second year of the raised garden bed kit program and they were able to give away five raised bed kits this year they had 39 participants and were able to hold a lottery to give away the five kids. They offered 16 youth programs this quarter in partnership with Project Dream and C4, including four full-day environmental education field trips. They participated in the OEM Wildfire Preparedness Fair, which was in May. They're currently developing a partnership with CMC to advance workforce development programming with the first co-sponsored event to be held in the end of June. Grant funding updates, they wrapped up a $5,000 grant funded project from CSU's 4-H state offices for youth education on AI and agriculture that was completed in partnership with C4. They received $4,000 from CSU for the raised garden bed project that was completed in partnership with C4's Cloud City Farm. And then they received $750 from CSU to jumpstart our partnership with the CMC Leadville on workforce development force-focused programming. Diana also completed a 30-hour master food safety advisor training, which is the course required by CSU Extension before she can start offering food preservation programming in Lake County. So just for you all, to know we've had the CSU Extension as one of our partners for quite some time. And this is the first time it's been fully staffed. Really, the person who was in the position before was there and then left pretty immediately. I would just like to say Diana has done such an excellent job. She really is immersed in the community, really looking for ways that CSU Extension can be serving our community. And we just really appreciate all the hard work that she has done. We have a very small allocation for her, and she has worked her rear end off to find additional funding to actually make the program meaningful for our community. So I just big shout out to her. That is a huge lift. She is a team kind of a one over there doing a lot, and we just really appreciate all that work. That's all I have. Oh, our audit's almost done. Finance didn't put anything in here, and Ann is going to do hers.

Okay. I apologize. So just wanted to, I think you're aware that the 10-2 project is nearing certificate of occupancy on several of the homes and closings scheduled in July. So working on getting all those moving parts together to ensure those closings come to fruition. We have the celebration on May 26th. where we're going to have an on-site celebration. Oakwood would be there, Dole will be there, all of our partners, our funding partners, and obviously I'm excited to be able to celebrate this event with the board and community members on kind of the ribbon cutting ceremony at the houses on 10-2. We did have an interview with DOLA on our planning reform efforts and the project. And they're going to highlight us as an exemplary project as part of recognizing the awards that were granted through the planning grant and the IHOY grant. So excited to be featured in that. The one community project, as you know, is nearing the end. We'll be looking for the joint public hearing on the 29th and the adoption of the comp plan on July 7th. And likewise, DOLA, the feedback that we received from DOLA on this is that this is an exceptional planning grant. They also wanted to communicate the significant achievement, it is and actually having a joint comprehensive plan. This is not a model that you're going to see replicated very often throughout the state and they thought that was a significant accomplishment as well. The moratorium scope of work continuing to lean into and make progress on this today we'll have our second engagement. With economic development and tourism, we already had a second engagement with public health and environmental resources, natural resources, excuse me, and OEM. And so we're getting excited. The next step after that will be our public engagement with the community as we move the recommendations forward for code revision And we'll be working closely with the county attorney's office to review those recommendations for code. So exciting to be making progress on that. I think I heard Matt sharing our experience yesterday in an enforcement case with a district court or county court. County court. County court, sorry about that. And also really being able to continue to see progress around voluntary compliance from an enforcement standpoint, I think you're seeing real that reflected in real time within our Community. The property on homestake the highway the property on highway 24 south, the removal of the burnt structure of Floyd's. And so continuing to move through kind of those really positive outcomes from enforcement efforts. Our codes, our building and energy code are obviously adopted, but we met today with being prepared and ready for implementation of both of those by the end of the month. The Wildfire Resiliency Code and Wildfire Resiliency Fair, we attended and provided guidance and information for our community on that. We've applied to the Energy Office for a grant to continue that community education program in order to help shepherd people into the new codes and provide information. And so hopefully we'll be awarded that. If not, we still have prepared to provide just with maybe a smaller scale of that same type of education and programs. We do have some internal resources that we can draw on. We have an engineer that is participating on the Board of Review that can also do some workshops for us as well. So we continue to upload materials and information on the website regarding resources and information. for the public on how to manage and prepare for those new codes. And of course, as you all know, we have a new member of our planning department, Rachel Pollack. I'm really excited to have her on board and already contributing to the planning department. So I think those are just some of the kind of wins that we've had lately. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, any more updates?

I know it's a long one. That's why I try to do just once a month to really share out what everybody's working on.

Well, thanks for everyone and the updates and all the hard work. I was rowed by the yard a couple times over the weekend, and I was like, what happened to all the junk? So it looks organized and clean. It looks like we got rid of a bunch of stuff. And then also dispersing the cars to their proper places and getting rid of some of our stuff. I've signed quite a few titles, disbursement titles, in the last few weeks. So thank you for all that.

And all the great things that staff are doing here for the county, for the community, I don't think those achievements get sung. Those praises don't get sung enough. and you know from fleet restructuring to all the stuff public health has done in the last you know recently here with the measles outbreaks and everything and um you know tourism economic development raising those monies those those dollars with uh the events it's just these are all things that you know people who are especially the people who are really critical of lake county they don't this doesn't even go across their radar so thank you staff thanks everyone for all the good jobs you're doing

Okay. I guess that does it for updates. Should we take a five minute break, see if anyone needs to go to the bathroom besides me? Sure.

Okay. Can we move into executive session and then do our break? Just so Andy can have, doesn't have to come back and back. Is that okay?

Okay, that'll work.

Andy's like, I have work to do, yes.

It's a busy time of year for some reason.

Okay, I'll move that we go into executive session pursuant to state statute 24-6-402 section 4b and e to receive legal advice and determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations. concerning Lake County's proposal to the Colorado State Land Board for the long-term lease of Lake Fork Ranch water rights. No formal decisions or actions will be made during this executive session.

I will second that. To vote.

Aye.

Aye. And then we'll have in the executive session just will be Bryce, myself,

Josh's name?

Josh, Rachel, Bryce, myself, and Candace.

Thank you, Andy. Thanks, Andy. You're free to go to the box.

1204. What is going on?

Okay, the board is now out of executive session and has returned to open session. For the record, the board discussed only the matters identified in the motion. To enter into executive session, no formal action was taken. If any member believes discussion went beyond the scope of the motion, please state that concern for the record now. Is there any direction to staff or motion related to the matter discussed in executive session? Do we need to talk about that?

We have now. Okay. All right.

We're going to go into the second. We're going to go right into the second one. Okay. Moving on, can I get a motion to return to executive session for item number eight?

I will make a motion to go into executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-402, section 4B, for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding the prescriptive easement claims. arising from recurring temporary uses, special events, or permitted activities on private property or across private access routes. Second.

I'm sorry, are you done?

No formal action or decisions will be made during the executive session.

Seconded.

To vote?

Aye.

Aye. A motion has been made and seconded And voted on, we will now go into executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-4024B for the purpose stated in the motion. No adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action will occur during this executive session. The executive session will be electronically recorded as required by law unless the county attorney certifies that the matter constitutes a privileged attorney-client communication and therefore is not subject to the recording requirement. And those present are in hand.

I'll just make a note for the record that Julianne executive session, myself, Candace, Josh, and Ann. I'm going to go ahead and certify this one pursuant to CRS 24-6402, subsection 2. It buys the county attorney certified that the next portion of this executive session constitutes a conference. legal counsel for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific questions surrounding prescriptive easements and temporary use permits within the county accordingly no record or minutes are required to be kept of this portion the recording may be stopped okay the board is now out of executive session it has returned to open session for the record

The board discussed only the matters identified in the motion to enter executive session and no formal action was taken. If any member believes discussion went beyond the scope of this motion, please state that concern for the record now. Okay, thank you. Let's see, can I get a motion for item number nine?

I will make a motion to enter executive session pursuant to CRS 24 dash six dash 402 section for be for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding lake county's 2024 certificates of participation or COPs including the county's legal obligations under the financing documents permissible uses of proceeds. options for repayment or defecence, potential return of funds, project modifications and related legal and financial considerations associated with the courthouse renovation project and other capital improvement alternatives. No formal action or decisions will be made during executive session.

Seconded.

Did we vote on it? Yeah. Two vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. The motion has been made and seconded. We will now go into executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-4024B. For the purpose stated in the motion, no adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action will occur during executive session. The executive session will be electronically recorded as required by law, unless the county attorney certifies that the matter constitutes a privileged attorney-client communication is therefore not subject to the recording requirement.

And I would just note for the record, we're going to have Ashley Dennis join us, who is our law counsel from Kutak Rock. Candace Bryant's county manager, myself, and Josh will be in this executive session. OK. OK. Pursuant to CRS 24-6402 subsection 2, I, as the county attorney, certify that the next portion of this executive session constitutes a conference of legal counsel for the purpose of receiving legal advice of participation. Accordingly, no record or minutes are required to be kept in this portion and the recording may be stopped.

The board is now out of executive session and has returned to open session. For the record, the board discussed only the matters identified in the motion to enter executive session. No formal action was taken. If any member believes discussion went beyond the scope of the motion, Please state that concern for the record now. Okay, we are now back in open session. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second it.

To a vote?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Just a reminder that all packet materials for agenda items are available upon request. Subscribe to get emails or text notifications at our Lake County website. This concludes the regular meeting of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners at 3.07 p.m.