Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Go ahead and call our meeting to order. First, we're going to have an invitation by Isaac.

One more time.

Just bow your heads with me. O Father, our God, we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. You are holy, holy, holy. The whole earth is full of your glory. This very morning, each of us awoke with air to breathe and lungs to breathe in. You have blessed us with this beautiful county to care for and to raise our families. Yet in light of your righteousness and the blessings surrounding us, I confess that we in this room and in our county beyond take your gifts that you have given to us And each one of us, either as we stand here today or before the grace of God was shed abroad in our hearts, we often hate you, the gift giver. The scripture says that we are haters of God apart from the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. So, oh how we desire, oh how we deserve your just judgment in this room and in this county. Yet, oh the hope that we have in you For you have promised that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a promise. That even one as I may be saved. That any in this room may be saved. That this county may be saved. You call us to choose ye this day whom we shall serve. It is Christ or chaos. I pray for all who are here today. that in our homes, the leaders here in our county, that Christ would be exalted. I pray that the truth would be the currency of the county and that justice would ring out throughout our sweet home land. It is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

So let's go ahead and have a roll call, please. Okay, do you have an agenda?

Any conflicts of interest?

I have an issue with the agenda.

in all of my years what is possible motion for action without resolutions and we've often we've stated twice there is a conflict with the county attorney this probably should be stricken from the agenda if there is a conflict um there's not a conflict and let me get that we can if you still have reservations but uh motion for action is allowed we don't have to have a resolution um okay so

Other than that, we do have an amendment to the agenda to add Ryan Marksward to the Economic Development Board. There could be no one to feel rushed during public comment. I don't agree with that. But hopefully he's here. So when we get to him, we can, so if you could remind me.

I will move to the end of the agenda to include Ryan. Just put him under the, under the department.

I'll second the session. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, motion carries. All right, going on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we're now into department head reports and discussion. Michelle?

Our accounting update, we have been meeting with our software support company, our team, weekly. This was to address our inability to progress through the balancing month ends. which is necessary to complete the annual accrual report to the Department of Management. I've shared my concerns frequently, not only here at the BOS meetings, but most recently in a direct email to Supervisor Stancil on January 21st. As you are aware, we will not be able to certify our budget if this is not done. It could result in us not being able to levy additional money from this year. Clark County will not be able to adjust for inflation. It was suggested at the last team's meeting call, which we do again weekly with Solutions, that we employ a forensic auditing firm due to the dire situation with the accounting balance, the balancing process. They indicated, I want to read very loud and clear, this is not a reflection on our ability or our efforts. We have tried everything we can think of. We've worked long hours, it's just they indicated that The system may be complicated by previous bad acts of the treasurer's office that we know now is in trouble. So it is with that. I guess I just don't know how to be more direct and get attention from what we need to do. I'm looking for acquiescence for the supervisor and the treasurer's office to bring someone in. I believe this would need to be at your discretion and your direction. To execute services from an outside scope of our annual audit, if we want to go ahead and call Modlin and Jenkins in early, I would ask you please work with the treasurer to determine the best course of action. I don't think anyone who is a part of the county, employment or otherwise, is going to feel very good next year when we have no more money in our budget and we are mandated by law to give certain raises. So that is a very big concern. On to a positive note, state valuations were completed as of yesterday, January 26th. I thought I had them done last week. There was some significant work caused by the dissolution of the Orient-Maxburg School District. We had to create new tax districts and two new TIF districts. I now have enough knowledge to be dangerous. I want to thank the assessor for working together along with the state and with solutions to get that wrapped up. The budget process timeline, I had anticipated not being here today. My appointment has been moved out another week. I think it's a blessing because I will be farther down with the input of the revenues and the ancillary budget areas that I think you'd find beneficial. I don't expect to meet any time regarding the budget or necessary before I get back mid-February. Let's see. I'm going to be fine tuning the IT budget and Department 51. And then, of course, it remains on there, the future planning of a five- and ten-year plan. The state auditor report, we requested and extended, or actually received an extension from the state of Iowa for the fiscal year 25 audit to June 30, 2026. I did talk to David Irwin and copied him on that information. So I'm working on starting a... a strong communication link with him this week. Again, blessings. The courthouse custodian, the voting equipment has been ordered, shipment is set up and set up expected into February and Solutions has installed all the new share points. The vault room is all but done. We received, I want to thank Caldwell Parish and the Ambulance Department for delivering and setting up a new conference table for free. The plan for installing the workstation and the absentee voting, for the absentee voting process, that's in process. And we won't be adding it to the resource for meetings just yet. We need a couple weeks for that. There are other areas of concentration. The italicized verbiage on that report is for your eyes because it is of the security nature and not subject to the public. The other, everything else I have is on hold. I think I have a, Michaela has an update on our elections and the primaries. And the caucus is coming up, and I would like to defer to her now.

I actually don't have anything on the caucuses, but I just did have two things on co-workers and a candidate filing. So the candidate filing window for the primary elections is going to be March 2nd to March 20th for anyone wanting to run the primary. So if you're running for, you know, county supervisor, county treasurer, anything that has a party affiliation on it, that's going to open up March 2nd, and that goes through March 20th. Our office can only take paperwork for People filing at the local level, so if you're running for state office or higher, that gets filed with the Secretary of State. But I did want to kind of highlight there was a significant change that is now effective for the filing period for nonpartisan or independent candidates. So that's now moved to June 2nd. So this affects all of our townships, trustees, and clerks. Um, you can no longer file. I think it used to be almost as far as like August. So for every township trustee and clerk who is going to be up for election this year, your filing deadline is on June 2nd. That is also the day of primary. Please try to file your paperwork before that, because I promise you I will not have time to look it over on primary day. And if you have anything wrong with it, we're not gonna be able to let you know in time to fix it. So all the township clerks and trustees will be getting a letter sent out shortly close to that with an affidavit of candidacy in that as well. We don't need any signatures. You just gotta fill it out, get it notarized, bring it to our office. We can notarize it as well. And then for people running the primary, I did just make some candidate packs. It's got the candidate primary guide, an affidavit of candidacy, and signature sheets. So I'll leave those in the back. And then the other thing I have to add is that we are recruiting poll workers pretty much all around the entire county. We redraw our poll worker board every two years, so it kind of just goes to a blank state. We've had a lot of poll workers return, but we do need new people, specifically younger people would be great, people who are good with computers. If you guys have students in high school, we can take high school students as well. um they would have to be 17 years old at the time they were in an election but they stay on that list for two years so if you have a kid who's you know 16 they're wanting to work the primaries um and they're going to be 17 by then they can still sign up for that so i also have some flyers with just a little bit more information and i will leave those at the back as well thanks

Just, I noticed that the annex doors were on the agenda. Do you want to talk to Chip now so he can go back to work? That would be great. Thank you.

What was your question? Just the status, because it's been now 20 weeks since we approved it, and we were told the maximum was 16, so do we know when they're going to... Two extra weeks?

Yeah, the aluminum. So it's the aluminum. Do you want to step up and just give your technical... Make sure some aluminum is what's got our delaying.

I'm going to find out more this week.

Can you find out, because that's too long of a delay, because I've talked to other contractors and they're able to get them, so I don't know if it's their supply or maybe it's the supplier.

Can you find out what the issue is? Certainly. And just let the board know? It was too cold, isn't it, to put sealants in? They wanted to wait. Was that another reason? No. No, it's just they'll ruin it. Okay.

The tariffs on aluminum is delaying us. Do you remember, Claire, back when I proposed that to you last year? It was a 16 to 18 week window then.

OK. All right.

Thanks. So that was easy. Thank you. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about?

So back to your original concerns regarding certifying the budget. Yes, you've mentioned it. What's the plan, I guess? Forensic audit is what you're recommending?

That's what Solutions is recommending, and they've been working along with us all along.

We do have it in the fiscal 26 budget.

We do have to do it. So are you initiating that?

No, that will not be me who initiates that. So the treasurer? Yes. and or the board. That's what I said, you guys need to talk.

I think we need to consider a special meeting and talk about it.

Again, I'm trying to communicate. When I find out something, when something gets escalated, I would be remiss to not share it with you. And that's why I've been emailing.

Do you, regarding the budget, the other meetings and stuff like that. Because there's a couple departments we still haven't really met with. Which ones? I haven't had a chance. I sent you a list.

Yes, and I've got all, everybody who's going to meet with you has been met with. Oh, yeah.

For you, to sit down with you, like Department 99. We haven't gone over that.

I think we can pump the brakes if you're okay with that for two weeks. You okay with that?

Yeah.

It's the best I can do, guys. I mean, I really want to get the worksheets and the revenue bills, because that's going to be really critical for me to leave that in place. I don't think you want that not to be in place.

So Michelle, if the next regular meeting, if the treasurer deems we need a forensic audit, can that be on that next regular meeting? Well, I think you guys need to have a conversation.

I would love to be a part of that conversation, but I just don't have that time. I think that's why I wanted you guys to know.

Well, it sounds like time is of the essence, and this is something... Absolutely, and that's why you said... And I'd rather not wait two weeks.

Yeah, I mean, that's fine. So I'll give Michaela a chance to train the new...

I don't think it's necessary.

Yeah, so that's why I said she does not think it's necessary.

I told Michelle that.

Necessary for what?

To have a meeting? You'll just call it and we'll do it?

No, I don't think it's necessary to have a phrase about it. Oh, okay. When I do think it's necessary, I will come to you and I will talk to you. And if you guys want to know my reasoning, I sure can tell you that. Okay. But, um, I... Okay. Well...

Thank you, Kylie. So we'll work it out and we'll figure it out. And if any of us have questions, we can ask Kylie.

And I had that conversation with Solutions as well. I talked to Hannah and explained it. Okay.

All right. So do we know when the accruals will be done?

Right. That's something I'm working on. And I promise I'm working on them very diligently. It's not an inability or anything.

It isn't. It's a mess. So I just want to make sure that we are giving you the resources that you need to empower you and your staff to get things done so you're not frustrated up to here.

No, I completely get that and I appreciate that and I'm really finally at that point where I have staff. I have staff. I have staff and trained staff and so I'm actually going to be able to pull my first deputy over to help me and so that's why I don't want to have that. I don't want to have that Because I don't want to spend money that this county doesn't have. So I want to use him and my resources first. And then once we get through that, if I feel that we do need that help and we do need that extra, then I will for sure come to you. Okay. For sure.

Well, just know that it's in the budget because we put it in there. $100,000 in there. So it's a little less now because we had those bills come in. So I think it's like 60. I'll have to check that out because that was a different line item. That was a different line item. It was. So check and see where things posted. But anyway, I know money is in the budget for it. So you just keep us posted.

And that's kind of my purpose is I'm stepping out now. And it's you guys. All right.

So if you're comfortable, you just keep us in the loop. And if we need a special meeting, we'll...

yes for sure thank you anything else jessica thank you thank you next one is mike good morning board good morning everyone good morning

This is a rare time that I actually don't have a resolution. Maybe it would be a good time to just talk about funding and the five-year program since everybody's here. And put everybody to sleep. I'll make this very short since I don't have a lot, but I still want to keep you informed on what's going on. uh there's been a social media release there's a resolution here oh about a month ago maybe in december let's say december ish to uh put hollow well covered bridge as designated as the 2026 most endangered properties um i have email now that's official it says if that is happening there's a little bit more stuff coming to the uh engineer's office in regards to a press release but So what that means is it gets a little more advertising for maybe a future project and maybe some grants. So that's a good thing. With kind of the colder temperatures in the road department, there was a few days that both for equipment and people, we chose to not all rock or be outside those days and did equipment maintenance. But we're back on that again since it's warmed up and it's a balmy routine right now. So that's kind of what's going there. So a little bit of rock hauling, some brush cutting, that type of stuff's going on. And we're not doing snow removal, which is kind of nice not to have a lot of snow removal. Some people like the snow. I see dollars. Just so you know, it costs about $30,000 to run a day for snow removal.

Was it more than that last year when we had that big snow?

Bigger snow, that's typical snow. So every time you see a snowflake, that's 30 grand. So I guess we're lucky we just got the cold and not some of the ice and snow that's happening in other parts of the United States. The other thing that's going on is that, as I know, as I've talked about before, is we've had some staffing shortages. We're at the point where we're advertising, I believe. We have some interviewing coming up for some of that. If anybody is interested, check the website. There's those things out there. We'll try to get as many as we can. Hopefully we can get staffed up as we come into more of our outdoor maintenance and that type of season. Otherwise, I don't have very much of a yield to the next people

Thank you. Thank you. So far this month, we've had 93 calls.

It's about average. We're doing about three and a half, four calls a day. Of course, some days are more, some days are less. So on the night, I had a meeting in Michelle's office for the FEMA GO. I think we kind of got that figured out finally. That was for the $59,000 grant that we got for the power of the systems for the ambulance that we've been working on for two years to try to get that paperwork all figured out and finalized. And we got an email that said we did it. Yay!

No fallback.

So hopefully that'll work. Also on the 9th, we had a CPR class. Again, working with, gonna get, reach out to some of the departments, get some CPR classes when they got some time. On the 14th, we had a meeting, I had a meeting with the hospital, talked about some transport stuff. The 15th, we had a Central Iowa Healthcare Coalition meeting, kind of go over, they go over a whole bunch of stuff, anything from, oh, from Supply chain issues to alert Iowa testing, to incident command 2200, just all kinds of different scenarios with the state going on.

Are you having supply chain issues?

Not too bad. Once in a while, medication, we have some medication issues. We're working with that with the pharmacy. Montrose takes pretty good care of us. Some things, if it runs, if there's a supply chain issue, we can get extensions. On medication, even though the medication's expired, we can get extensions from the manufacturer, our medical director, and the Board of Pharmacy. All three would have to be in agreement. We can extend the life of that medication. We'll keep it on the drugs. It's still potent. It still works. It doesn't go bad just because it expires. They want us to buy new is why it expires. So as long as everybody's in agreement, we can still use the medication. 21st to give you another CPR class. 23rd, we had an Iowa trauma systems class, which was very good, talking about the trauma system in the state of Iowa, how it works for the hospitals. Tonight, we're actually having a Madison County Hazard Mitigation Plan. Mitch is putting that on. It's going to be at the EMS building. There's going to be a whole bunch of people there working on the county's hazardous mitigation plan. One of the guys from there is going to come up and kind of, it's our first meeting we're going to have, so that'll be good to work with other departments. And then on the 29th, we're going to have our opioid task force meeting. So far, that's all we've got. We haven't had too much with the cold. We've had some, we've had a few incidents, So most people are bundling up. We haven't had any real cold issues too bad. All right.

Thank you. All right. We have Mitch.

Good morning, you guys. Good morning, everybody in attendance. Hello, I'm Miss Johnson. I'm the emergency manager for the county here. Brady just gave a quick update that we are just getting the ball rolling on our hazard mitigation program and I think it's really great because like I said we do have a lot of different people and networking together, different entities. We're bringing a private industry. We're, you know, getting other department heads. That's not necessarily what we're going to talk about today. I've been working pretty extensively John Stetzel got a hold of us last year and let us know that we were not in very good standing with our workman's comp. We've had some claims that we haven't necessarily handled right, we haven't investigated, we haven't figured out how to do it. So we started digging and finding some root cause, what's going on, but we don't really necessarily have a working safety committee that had been working up until Jess, Kylie, and Kelly really took a lot of initiative and they wanted to be aggressive and work on it before there's no chance to come back. So John got us involved in contact with Scott Smith, who's a senior safety risk improvement advisor for Iowa Municipalities Worker Comp Association. That's who we get our workman's comp from. We met him in December. We met him twice in January. He's meeting with our small steering committee, which is the four of us, myself, Jess, Kylie, and Kelly. where we will do initial reviews of anything turned in, anything coming on, any potential upcoming, you know, and then how can we train on this so people don't know. But there's certain things we need to know. How do we let people know what happened without letting them know who it happened to and what happened. So there's a lot of little legality things that we're trying to make sure that we don't get ourselves into bigger trouble by trying to do the right thing but doing it the wrong way. So he's come down. He's gonna continue to meet with our steering committee and he's teaching us some things that we need to do, like get with department heads once a month, go over any claims that we've had, kind of talk about things. But then we also had Steve who showed up to a meeting and Steve's like, we need to have an agenda, we're gonna have a meeting. So it's really neat when there's, no, because we get a lot of departments that are working together great. And believe it or not, there is a lot of people in this county that are willing to work together great. And it's been fantastic. I mean, the way that, Scott has really taken to, Jess has really taken this serious. So he has had a great couple meetings with us. Kylie noticed this thing she doesn't need to know. She pays attention to a lot of things. She brings it to attention before it happens. So they think we have the right foundation to get back on track. He is just going to teach us with how to do that. And that is by, we're going to actually be the first county we've ever had to volunteer. to enroll in what they consider their high-level risk management action plan. That's to help people who have gotten out of control, help people who don't have a real safety culture, learn how to build one, learn how to wrangle them. So they're just little tips, little things. And the fact we weren't going to be forced to go into that, because we eventually would have been forced to go into that. But we are willing to, and I'm willing to do whatever we need to do in the next couple of years to get through this, to get us graduated, to get our rates back to where they're supposed to be. What Scott seemed most impressed about was that we weren't doing this just to get our rates lower. We were doing this just to make sure that none of us had to call somebody's wife or had to call somebody's kids or say they're not coming home or to be at the hospital. So we have to find a better way to look out for our employees. And seeing the dedication that the other people in the steering committee have had and then working with Scott has been doing great. Um, him and his boss are gonna come down, they're gonna actually meet with the Board of Supervisors and they're gonna present this. Just to see if that is something that we can all be on board with. I'm more than willing to do this to be able to help anybody so that way we never have to make a call. So that way all of our employees can go home in at least the exact same shape that they showed in every day. And we can bring a strong safety culture. And we can work together. Because once you get it in your mind, then it's easy to look out for other people. You know, it's not just everybody looking out for themselves. I saw somebody slip yesterday. Nothing happened. Did they turn it in? No, they didn't. Well, then we can discuss why they slipped. Is this something that could have been an accident? That's the best thing we can have is somebody almost got hurt but didn't, and then we can learn from it and find ways to improve and mitigate. So that's going to come from our meetings. It's going to come from things being turned in. But it also is going to come, we have to establish to people that we mean it, that we're serious. we want this to work. We want you to turn in near misses so we can learn from this, so you can protect your other employees. So it's going to be a bit of a long road, but we are working together on it well. Seeing the buy-in that we have, I mean, it's kind of so impressive we actually have a board of supervisors on there, because that doesn't normally happen. So then the toughest thing for them to ever do is to get buy-in. And the way that he's walked in with Kylie have stories that she saw somebody almost getting hurt or thoughts of upstairs, you know, and you could see the emotion in her eyes. So he knows it's serious. So they are more than willing to work with us, but we've had people get us on the right track and it's going to be a road working together. Um, I more so wanted everybody to know that there's a lot of people working together on this and it's pretty neat. It's not partisan. There's nothing like that going on. Everybody's working together for the same cause. And maybe if we start to work together that way, we can have other aspects of the county that'll work together too. So we're at the very infancy. I'll be more than willing to come up and speak with anybody anytime they want on this. Scott will have a lot more answers for everybody when he comes to speak here in a week or two. But we've met, I don't know, several months in a row. We're figuring out how to do it. We had, like I said, with Steve over there, we had to learn a little trial and error, be like, all right, well, that was kind of a waste of everyone's time. Let's not do that one. Let's do a better agenda so that way we can have something, you know, that we know for sure what we're doing and what we're talking about. So we're in the infancy of it, but we're working towards it, and hopefully in a couple years we're going to be just one of the beacons of what our county can be and when we all work together and when we don't do partisan things and when we just come together for the great good. So I don't know if you guys have any questions or anything like that.

I just have one. Is this something that, because in the private sector, we did this all the time. We had training every year. And after you do it for like two or three years, it's almost automatic. You see something. Like, for instance, a rug is curled up. That's a safety issue. So if you trip on it, I don't even think about it. I just go and I fix it. But that's because of the constant... Is that the thought that they want to do?

Yes. We need to prove that safety is something we're serious about. We're not just trying to check a box so we can get our rates lower. But that's going to come with, we're going to start discussing it at meetings. We're going to start bringing it up in other aspects. We have to make sure that we can document the training we're doing. You know, if we go full board, we're doing all this stuff because we think we're doing it right, and we just waste more and more time. We're going to be in more trouble. Right. So if somebody's going to be willing to kind of walk us through how to get in and compliance, how to build your structure, how to prove to your employees that you're serious about it, and then we just maintain it. Then we can pull that safety culture moving forward. It needs to be involved in everything. It needs to be involved in everything we discuss. There has to be a safety spotlight or a safety discussion just so that way it never gets forgotten. It can't be the least important thing because once somebody gets hurt in a way that we can't fix them, there's no undoable. And it's something we have to live with. And we let that happen to that employee, because we didn't take it serious before it happened. Ideally, we need to take stuff serious before things happen. And then we can really avoid the horrible mishaps. I mean, seeing that person at the manufacturing plant that was cleaning a mixer, somebody came across and turned it on. And then he was stuck in there for five hours until they got him out and then died immediately. There's certain things that we need to learn. I mean, all the equipment that they have in secondary roads, which I do have to say, Secondary Roads actually has a really, really good safety culture. I went to their safety training, their safety rodeo that they had. They brought in a state patrolman and they discussed everything with the roads and how to tie down and how to strap your loads and how to double check that your truck's in good condition and to hear how knowledgeable his employees are. Mike really challenges them to make sure that they're actually reading the stuff that they train on and that you're paying attention to it. So we do have one beacon, but we can run ours like him, but we've got a lot of other office staff that aren't going to necessarily relate. So he wouldn't have to necessarily change his program, what he's doing, because he's in compliance. We need to bring everybody else into compliance and try to mirror one department that has so far a really good structure going and proven like they're taking it seriously. You can walk in secondary roads, you can see as nearly calendar-like training is. So you know it ahead of time. So things like that are where you keep it always on your mind. And we can do that by having meetings, by having little safety talks. Like you said, noticing a rub, noticing something wet on the ground, not thinking somebody else is going to clean it up. You know, grab a paper towel and dry it up for someone to slip on. You know, we also have a lot of citizens coming into our building. So we want it to be safe for all of them too. So just, we need to improve our safety culture, but we're working on it. They got us to hold the people. that are willing to help us learn the structure. And he's very impressed by the people that I have on the steering committee. I didn't set it up. I'm just part of it. You know, it was all kind of just got together and decided to do it. Just being able to work with them gals is great because they take it very serious and they're very dedicated. And I think we're gonna head in the right direction. We have the right attitude. We have the right people involved. I think we're gonna see a very, very nice

result for our county out of this it's going to take a while it takes some work but we have dedicated people that are willing to do it have you looked into i know kelly has into the neogulf trainings those are great yeah you could do that on a quarterly basis wherever i've worked you had to take those you just take them on a computer and then And we make the tape film.

It's very helpful. But we have to know that how are we documenting who took it.

Well, we just had to print off the certificate and they put it in your file. OK.

But then does that go on the time card, the sign that they did for it? There has to be certain ways.

If we don't document, if we can't prove that it didn't happen. Well, we just printed off the form that you took for class.

OK. Kelly's going to need about 50 more final accounts. No, please don't.

At my previous employer, we had, to Diane's point, it was online training. And then you check a box and it automatically sends a notification to HR that it's taken and what time they passed. And that way it makes it a little easier for her. and we actually had to do every every we did weekly reports and there was actually section on there for safety what do we do about safety so we had actually give reports to our manager every week as part of our weekly report i'm not saying that something but that's exactly keep it in mind so thank you very much for all of you doing that kylie ellie Jess and Nick. Yeah. I think that's great.

It's our pleasure. I appreciate everybody I work with. I appreciate everybody I've met down here. And I want everybody to be safe in all of our grounds and buildings and at their work because they were when they came in.

Thanks, Nick. So, yeah, we've made some progress. We've evaluated different e-learning tools in that regard. Yeah, and hopefully we'll be able to stagger, you know, between in-person and online training. But you didn't tell them the best part.

Oh, yeah, with Don Kinney's training last month. So that was one of the first reasons that Kylie kind of got involved with us, because she was noticing that we have some safety risks and some thoughts of what would we do. So we also do happen to have a lot of very highly trained people that are very, very good at what they do. And we have some deputies and some local police officers that can give workplace violence, active shooter training. It's nothing anybody wants. I mean, kind of brings some feels and gives you a little tickle in your spine. It's something we're living in more and more of a world where we need it. And once you take it, it's something you can use in every aspect of your life. You can use it when you're shopping. You can use it when you go to the gas station. You can use it at a movie theater. So to have those resources that we don't have to pay to bring in because we already have them on hand. And when we've got employees that are really good at that, they like showing off their talent too. So why not let them show off their talent and then get another person to buy in? So he's asked to come to other meetings with us. He's taking notes. He wants to be involved. So the more people we are asking to get involved, you probably know they want to be involved. People just like knowing their input matters. And then they also want their other co-workers to go home safe.

So yeah, I did forget the best part. Well, I was going to talk about the fun we want to have and to let these ladies know that we're going to be asking for a budget. It's not going to be big, a little tiny, a little tiny little budget for a safety committee. So we can work in some... We used to have a budget.

Yeah, we kind of got off course. But we're trying to work to get back on it. There was a very strong culture, and we just needed to rebuild it. You know, when we were having meetings in here, there was a lot of people said, that was the first one they've been to, or they haven't been to one of these in five years. You know, so we have a lot of work to do to get it rebuilt, but we have people that are dedicated and want to.

And you got good progress, though. Yeah.

And Jess is doing a great job. She's got good leadership. I appreciate Kylie and Kelly more than I can say.

Thank you.

What was that?

Oh, gosh, whatever. I was like, uh-oh. Before the meeting started, I was like, all right. So I'm here. just to give you a quick update on some stuff here so kind of working top to bottom if it's if it's kind of got a highlight on it it's where there's been a little bit of movement or there's been some change since last time so on the strategic plan we did kind of so to for filler we did contract with the university of northern iowa to do a strategic plan for organization we hadn't had one uh that i could find anywhere it seems kind of bad so uh we have a contract with them and we Executive committee has finalized a survey, sent it out to you, we'll see that in your inbox at some point, a link to a survey to fill out. It's just, they're fairly open-ended questions, it's relatively short, probably doing 15 minutes. Pick your brain, pick what you want, we'll also send that to other electives as well. There will eventually be a committee that will need to discuss a lot of that. We did receive a $3,000 ripple effect grant from the telcos, so this process should run a little over $6,000. We're going to get half of that, approximately half of that covered through this grant. We are, one of the more consuming things we've been working on recently is we are working on a multi-unit commercial development, and it's in Winterset right now. It's early, we're still in due diligence period, so I'm not gonna give you too much there, but there's many infrastructure components, and we're trying to kind of hash that out, and that's a particular time where TIFF makes a lot of sense, including the developer probably picking up the tab for infrastructure components. part of the discussions around that. Think of it like fishing. We've got fish on the line. They're interested. We just slowly bring them in and try to get the information in front of them during the due diligence period on the project to get them to a point where they can make a confident decision to go forward or not go forward with it. So looking at our revolving loan fund, we currently have $85,000 in the tank with $90,000 in active, five active loans. We have two loans that look like they're going to go forward. One of them is going to be, should be pretty straightforward. I think it's going to be kind of done for the committee. We're going to put that packet together and give that to them. Hopefully we'll have that approved by our next board meeting in the middle of next month. The other one is a lot trickier. some collateral issues and, you know, looking at cash flows and trying to see if we can make it work or not. So we're kind of in the scrum on that one. We'll see how that one comes out. We did have a revolving month, I mean, with a center business, which kind of bloomed into discussion about new construction or large-scale remodeling. So we're early on in that project. We're here to support them as they assess their options and we try to help them with financing or however we can get in there and assist them as they assess their path forward. We did discuss during the budget meeting the industrial site in Earlham. Did you guys have any questions about certification and what that process might look like? It's probably a multi-year process to get to certification. And so if you had anything that you wanted to talk about with them, I would definitely elaborate now. But that's still kind of high of mind in terms of getting that to a point where we can get the large capital investment that we want to see on a project like that. I think we discussed in that meeting that we would like to see a build out of at least $250 million on that site when we get certifications. So that's kind of the target on a project of that size. On the foundation side, I think, we have five new board members up and running. We're trying to get them onboarded here. We'll be doing that next month.

What are their terms, Ryan?

So the foundation board members are three-year terms up to three terms. So you can serve nine years. And then you have a mandatory one-year siesta, which most people don't come back to the siesta. It's pretty light work, but you know, usually, you know, it's like, you know, you've served your nine, give you a little, throw you a little party, and send you out the door. So, I think we had four people last time that served their nine years. Jerry McDonald, Potomac, Pat Sullivan, and I can't go back. I can't think of who's who. Susan McDonald. Yes. So they had served there nine years, and they rotated off the board. And the representation board is pretty well spread. We added a member from Toronto, and we had one from the, we did kind of net lose one from St. Charles in the process, but we tried to say we could pick that up next year. The foundation has $135,000, up to $135,000 in grants going out the door. That application window is open until March 4th at 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 4th, 4 p.m. We have three grant applications in right now, and we have about eight others that we've had conversations on. So typically we see anywhere from 25 to 35 grant applications come in a year. That's what we have going on. Do you have any questions?

Thank you, Ryan.

I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, take care.

All right, we have come to the time of public comment. Oh, I'm sorry, public hearing. We need a motion to go into public hearing. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All right, we are going into the public hearing for Beth Lane's Nirvana Subdivision at 1016 a.m.

Good morning, board. Good morning, everybody else. Ryan Hobart, zoning administrator. This morning we've got a public hearing for Betty Lane's Nirvana subdivision, which is three lots. I've asked Michaela, thank you, to pull the property location up on the TV there. So we can all see whereabouts this is at. The red line that you can see there is the city of Truro. Roughly by road, this is just over a half a mile from the incorporated limits of the city of Truro. Lane and Emily Sturtz are the applicants and property owner. Requested action here is for the board supervisors to approve said class. since section 22 of Ohio Township. It's currently zoned agricultural and future land use plan or the comp plan shows it as transitional agriculture. It is the understanding of staff here that the owner or developer will construct their personal residence on lot one and will market lot two and three as buildable lots for single family residential homes. On the 2024 aerial imagery, you can't quite see it because we're so far out right now, but there appears to be a 20 by 32 barn constructed in the northwest corner of Lot 1. This barn may or may not have been removed when it transferred from Betty Van Gundy to Lane and Emily. The remainder of the track appears to be pasture land or prairie with a mixture of tree species in there. Looks like a lot of eastern red cedars from what we can see here. Staff's aware that there has been a pond constructed on lot one. The pond has been recently constructed, therefore you cannot see it on the imagery that is up there. It is undetermined how or if the new pond will affect lots 2 and 3, which would be downhill to the south or below the dam of the new pond on lot 1 without any engineering review. By brief search of the documents recorded within the Madison County Reporter's Office, a court officer deed was recorded on May 9th of 25 transferring this tract from the estate of Betty L. Van Gundy to Lane and Emily Sturge. skirts with the value associated to the transfer being 145 000. i believe that betty van gundy was a grandmother to lane and emily or lane uh no portion of this track is within the 100-year flood zone defined by fema staff has determined the csr2 of this track to be 46.06 pretty unproductive ground Subdivision request is located within the two miles, obviously, of the City of Truro and was subject to extraterritorial review. The City of Truro has provided a resolution that is to be recorded with the subdivision documents and the resolution states, now therefore, be it resolved the City Council of the City of Truro, Madison County, Iowa known as Betty Lane's Nirvana, Madison County, Iowa prepared in connection with said plat and subdivision is hereby approved. Each lot within the proposed subdivision has its own driveway off of Wildrose Avenue. This is a hard surface road. It's a seal coat. It's a seal coat. It's not a pavement. But it is a seal coat road. And the engineer's office has provided three permit numbers for those three driveway locations.

Brian, are those two big draws in the top of the north part of this? It goes into what?

South River? South River.

So it's two big draws? Is that what I'm seeing?

Yeah, there's... There appears to be one, and I'm assuming that might be where the pond was constructed to...

It's really just a giant ditch is what it is. The routine.

The whole property. It appears like draws, it's just a giant ditch.

It's a giant waterway, that's what it is.

Is the pond, would it meet like NRC expects? Does it have an emergency spillway so the dam would go into the...

It's all done right. Okay. Actually over right, it's rip-wrapped, a lot of it. It's really nice.

Okay, so to staff's recommendation, I'm going to recommend approval of Betty Lang's Nirvana, but I do have some hesitation with respect to the county conservation's department comments. Those were related to potential prairie developments and wetlands. The comp plan depicts the future land use of the proposed subdivision as transitional ag. That land use district represents an area of the county where agricultural is protected but limited. Transitional agricultural land use is intended to provide a location where agriculture can continue to thrive but may at some point be influenced by growth in adjacent communities. Listed as an incompatible use for transitional agricultural land use district is large-scale residential development. Staff's opinion that with the lot sizes per each lot being 10 acres, that that would not constitute a large-scale residential subdivision. Just to talk a little bit more about conservation staff. They provided comments expressing concern for the proposed subdivision in regards to potential for prairie remnant and wetlands. Zoning staff greatly appreciates the extensive research that the conservation department does provide for these subdivision reviews as it obviously takes time for them to put those together. So I think the board should give significant weight to the report while making its decision. Without the environmental impact statement, the conservation department is recommending it is not feasible for zoning staff to determine whether or not the development will significantly or negatively affect the current ecosystem on the track of land being proposed. Staff has given consideration to the Madison County zoning ordinance. subdivision regulations and comprehensive plan and determine that what is being proposed for the most part aligns with the goals and objectives of each. Do you have any questions for me?

I did read the conservation board determination and I did some research last night. It's kind of my neck of the woods, but if there are prairie remnants, it has been so smothered out by eastern red cedar so because it hasn't it's not been harmed since i want to say the 30s at least And it's never burned off, so the very remnants, I don't know, have been so smothered out, which is a sad thing. I do have a concern about three driveways. Why aren't we recommending one driveway and sharing as you get into the development? Because three driveways, if you go into other states, some states, Wisconsin and Minnesota are really good examples of There's a long spread between the driveways. Several, several hundred. But it still goes on to the road. They're 100 feet apart. I don't know how they could do that. Yeah, I know. It's too narrow. I don't know.

I mean, it doesn't cause a bunch of people to fight is what that'll do.

Sometimes that does. Sometimes.

So, I don't know that there's anything within our regulations or within Mike's wheelhouse of being able to say,

you're only allowed one driveway onto a piece of property at this time and you're so far you said 100 feet from each driveway okay then you answered my question all right we have uh we now are in the public hearing for members of the public that want to speak to this subdivision please come up and state your name and where you're from you have 10 minutes

good morning my concern is that the conservation board has given significant talk to this if there's any chance that there is remnant prairie diane's comment that seemed uh excuse me shaded out by cedar trees might in fact mean that the main plants and the quality of the of the prairie would be worthless or not worth saving. That is actually not accurate. Prairie plants are in a significant seed bank and I have had over the last dozen years experience with prairie plants reemerging after life has been permitted to reach the ground that have not been seen for again 30 years because I have the same aerial photography about what the land looked like 30 years ago. Actually, cedar trees are in fact a refuge for native plants to persist despite otherwise very adverse circumstances. I recommend as someone who supports prairie and supports native biome, I recommend that there be a plant inventory taken prior to any change in the landscape in order to determine whether or not native prairie does still persist. It is not a difficult process to do an inventory And it would be good due process for this board to demonstrate. We have previously lost high quality native prairie because the board and others did not make a good decision. I plead with you to at least ask for the inventory staff. Thank you.

Nancy, what part of, was it 89% of Iowa was native in the beginning? Yeah, it's closer to 90-some percent. Was all high tall grasses, because they called it a desert. They didn't know what it was.

We now have 0.1% of native prairie remaining. Thanks, Nancy. Thank you.

Hello, I'm Steve Pearson, director of Madison County Conservation Board, and I'd just like to reference our report that was submitted to Ryan and also the Board of Supervisors. And I'm going to reference it and tie it back into the comprehensive plan. But the piece of property that we're referencing, we get requested by Ryan to submit a report. Our staff does extensive research on it. I'm 100% confident in our report and what we've reported on this particular property. is a very very high probability that there's native prairie remnants on it and also other conservative species. Both native remnant prairies and wetlands are sensitive ecosystems to our state and the county has deemed them sensitive habitats of great importance in our conservation around the comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan also notes that these habitats should be identified and preserved. I know we don't have the ordinances in effect yet, but our department would highly recommend an environmental impact assessment. I mean, really, it's no different than like a soil loss assessment. We understand that it's still on private property, but we understood and agreed that we did not want to impose on private property landowners. We are only suggesting an environmental impact assessment to be done to determine what the impact of this will have. This will educate both the landowners and the Board of Supervisors on what the property has to offer and the impact changes we have. With this information, other options could be explored. For example, the property could be a great contender for conservation zoning, which is referenced on page 152 and 153 of the Comprehensive Plan, or a conservation subdivision discussed on page 139 of the Comprehensive Plan. It's almost the exact same scenario. on how it will be implemented using the planned urban development as discussed on page 152 of the comprehensive plan. All we really want to do is just to take a look at the property before something is done that cannot be undone. We as stewards of the land owe it to at least that to protect the soil, preserve the water, and make choices that sustain future generations. Take that into consideration.

Anyone else here wish to comment? Otherwise, I'll move to the phone. I'll just say it's my property. Did you want to come up, please?

This is my property we're talking about here.

State your name and what the town is.

My name is Lane Sturtz and what the town I'm from. Currently renting in Truro because we sold our house and we've been waiting to get this done to build, so it's been a process. Anyways, I grew up right near this property. Like you said, it's been overgrown and it's, it's, I have tremendous respect for it that, you know, keeping a hold of letting the high CSR properties. Don't disturb them. We need them. respect for all of this. Like this is a big dish that's been overgrown for a long time. I grew up right next to it. And you know, you have two and a half, 3% inflation every year. We need homes. Like there's, we need them to keep doing what we're doing. That's the way we live. So if, as far as property goes that could be developed and be beneficial in a lot of ways for the communities, all that, this is one home right here. If you come look at it, it's great for homes. Not great for cattle.

can't grow anything on it it's just very simple you know so that's about all i have to say super simple thank you thank you all right anyone on the phone that wish to comment please hit star six down mute yourself all right we'll go ahead i'll entertain a motion to go out of public hearing Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we are in the time for public comment now. I'll ask folks to, we'll have the folks here do comment, and then we'll have comment from the phone. So those on the phone, please be a little patient. If you wish to do a public comment, please come up and state your name and where you're from. And you have three minutes. I'd like to say something. Oh.

My husband and I agree on stuff probably 40% of the time. We've been married 50 years. We just agree to disagree and we compromise. We have a disagreement right now. We have a possum that likes to hang out by the back door. His inclination is to shoot it. Mine is to feed it. We compromise. We now feed it away from the house and it shares the cat food with the barn cat. We have to agree to disagree. We have to remain civil. We have to be kind to one another, and we're getting out of control. We are so uncivil, nasty to each other, and this has to stop. If you shout out or yell out, I would like the sheriff just to remove you. We can't act like this. We can agree to disagree, and it works fine, so please be respectful to one another.

All right, would anyone like to speak? Please come up and state your name and where you're from.

Sandy Gotti. And I knew I'd get a frog. Excuse me. Winterset. Before I start with my comment, first I would like to thank the county attorney, the county auditor, and the county treasurer for all of their hard work trying to dig us out of the hole that we're in. And I think I speak for myself as well of a lot of the citizens of Madison County and that we are very, very, very appreciative. From there, I'd like to make my comments, starting with hypocrite. And I think we're all pretty familiar with the word hypocrite, but I will share this definition anyway. A hypocrite claims to have virtues, morals, or beliefs that they don't actually possess or follow, essentially saying one thing but doing another, often criticizing others for actions they themselves commit. I find it now so hypocritical that Chairman Stancil and sidekick Supervisor Hobbs continue to profess their Christian beliefs while their role model, Donald Trump, fully extraordinaire, convicted felon with 34 felons to be exact, convicted of defamation and sexual abuse, fascist to the core, whose cruelty knows no bounds, who incited an insurrection at the end of his term when he didn't get his way, and is currently terrorizing Minneapolis with a paramilitary invasion, has no morals or ethics. Let me say that again. Chairman Stancil and Supervisor Hobbs' role model has absolutely no morals or ethics. Now, the big bombshell has dropped that Supervisor Hobbs said was forthcoming, and it turns out that County Attorney Swanson has, wait for it, a misdemeanor. OMG. Are you people for real? Do I need to remind you again of the definition of hypocrite? Truthfully, Supervisors Stancil and Hopps don't care if County Attorney Swanson has a misdemeanor. Their only goal is to oust him because he did not become the doormat that Chairman Stancil had hoped for when she pushed through his appointment. So, where do we go from here? At this juncture, it appears that Chairman Stansel and Supervisor Hobbs should fire their outside counsel and foot the bill themselves, and this is not in the best interest of the citizens of Madison County. Second, a mediator should be hired.

You can submit them if you'd like to the records. I will move the receiving file.

I'll second.

Any discussion? All in favor please vote aye. Aye. Okay, next person who would like to speak.

My name is Josh, I'm from Warimer. Good morning everyone. I came here today to talk about transparency. over the last week information has come out related to the behavior of appointed and hired people within our local government news articles covered an application for appointment that was not filled out truthfully and the truth is important the board has been elected to represent everyone in this county the best representation to the board isn't just an attempt to deceive the board it's an attempt to deceive and defraud the people of this county to make matters worse The party that deceived this board was our county attorney. A person we have all entrusted with upholding the law, justice, and truth. There is no defense for this behavior. Only attacks on the process and attempts to attack the messengers. We brought copies of documents supporting these claims and a copy of the application that shows exactly where this happened. I'm requesting these documents be entered into the public record. Thank you.

I have a motion to receive a file. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor please vote aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to comment?

I just want to thank Sandy for her comments, exactly how I feel, and a lot of other Madison County residents.

All right. Anyone else wish to comment?

Yeah. Brent Sharon . This past nine months, I've seen the interaction of Mr. Swanson with this board. They commented weeks ago about the outbursts and uncontrolled behavior. Literally minutes after, Stephen called in and screaming on the phone at Heather Stansel, some things you just can't make up. Recently, reports came out where he was not truthful on his application about his arrest. The report shows that he appears to have an enrage he cannot control, shoving a patron off his seat and cold cocking him while he's on the ground. Removed from the bar, once outside, he attempted to instigate another fight with a patron waiting in line, repeatedly lying to the officer about an Uber. This is an ongoing pattern that is troubling, consisting of lies and outbursts. From the Des Moines Register article in 2018, Mr. Swanson's termination notice in Wapello County, it noted the following. He was forced to resign for failing to follow standard court deadlines, resulting in multiple cases dismissed. At least two to four cases were dismissed in each of nine months because he failed to prosecute them within one year. He additionally had 15 cases where the one-year deadline has been waived. Swanson's cases were dismissed, including charges of third offense, drunk driving, assault on a police officer, and carrying weapons. So much for backing the court. In this time, he was suspended without pay, multiple counseling sessions explaining the corrections he needed to make. Swanson did not sign the notice, but submitted his letter of resignation that day. The Boone County attorney stated, this history is troubling. especially for somebody who wants to be in the chief position. Steve said to the Des Moines Register, I resigned. I was never terminated. I said that about ten times now. That is 100% truth. Anything other than that is 100% fake news and a lie. This time of statement mirrors the actions here, where he repeatedly yelled at the board about the removal of Matt Schwartz. Stephen was also not truthful about this on his application. Frequent guests, Vicki Brenner and Katie Kaplan, pride themselves on investigative reporting. What do you think the odds are they both missed this article that provides context to Stephen's lack of professionalism? That takes willful suspension of disbelief. In 2014, Stephen posted on his Facebook that him and the sheriff really tore stuff up in Palo Alto. It appears that's what's going on here now. but it takes time from his actual responsibilities. That showed in McCulloch County. Recently, Stephen provided a statement in the TVA interview that only legal fees involved with this, regarding outside counsel, are related to Heather Stanzel's lawsuit against myself and the sheriff. At the same time, he's saying he needs to find out what those fees are. Four, this is contradictory and a statement for propaganda media without facts.

All of this indicates a strong concern.

Yep, I'm introducing this along with some statements online by Ms. Brenner and City Councilman Fletcher's wife conceding as well that that was not...

James Phillips, so I'm here to raise concerns on behalf of Madison County taxpayers and ask questions that deserve clear answers on the public record. First, this board has incurred charges to a private attorney with reported costs already exceeding $20,000. If litigation proceeds, that figure could reach over six figures. But those costs do not remain or exist in isolation. Any legal action initiated by the board against the county attorney who has been nominated by Stan's fourth position, would almost certainly require the county to also fund outside legal representation for the county attorney. That means taxpayers are not only paying for one outside attorney, but two sets of outside attorneys to fight each other. Now considering this would cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars, how are the taxpayers in Madison County served by an escalating and duplicative burden of legal fees generated entirely by internal conflict? What is gained? If the county attorney designs because of this or is somehow forced out, there would be a cost of a special election because no one trusts this board to appoint another county attorney. Next, it has been publicly stated that the reason the board's outside attorney was selected is that they were not the lowest bidder because, quote, you don't want the cheapest attorney. This raises an obvious double standard. How many times has this board selected the lowest bidder for county services that directly support county residents, often sending cost patrol as a justification. Why is lowest cost acceptable when it affects public services, but unacceptable when it serves the board itself? Further, the chair of this board currently has a personal federal lawsuit against the county attorney, county sheriff, and two county employees. At the same time, the board has retained outside counsel who, according to Supervisor Hobbs, may be pursuing legal action against the county attorney. a prospect that Ms. Hobbs told the media she would relish making public. How can a chair maintain a personal lawsuit against a county attorney while also using the authority and resources of this board to engage additional legal action involving the same individual? Even if this is technically permissible, it creates a serious appearance of conflict. And it's difficult to not notice that two of the four individuals that Supervisor Stancil is suing are simultaneously ongoing online smear campaigns. So I'll close with this. If this board believes it is appropriate to spend conservatively over $100,000 of taxpayer money to bypass and litigate against a county attorney, who do the residents of Madison County get to hire to bypass board members who know your act in the public's best interest? We deserve a Board of Supervisors that fights for the residents of Madison County half as much as Mr. Swanson allegedly fights for nachos twice as much as this board cosplays as public servants.

You quoted me and that's certainly not anything I've ever said or written anywhere. So if you could research that a little bit, that'd be great.

And let me know where you said this was all about Swanson.

Well, no, you just added, you added it. So I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about it. I'll find it.

Any other comments? Otherwise, we'll move to the phone. Any other comments? Otherwise, we'll move to the phone.

Rachel Terhar.

Rural Winterset. And I am here because, thankfully, there's a maps and report that allows for the public who can't attend things to be able to view online different meetings that are going on. So I was able to view the compensation meeting that just happened this past week where that compensation board met to consider the request by County Attorney Swanson. And so I want to just voice my opposition to that because in that meeting, He asked for a 13% raise, and apparently they wanted to approve that for him. But my concern is not simply the amount of that increase, but the way that the recommendation is reached and the information that was presented by Mr. Swanson to justify it. So during the meeting, for anybody who didn't get a chance to watch it yet, county attorney did state that it was unusual or possibly unique in Iowa for a county sheriff to make significantly more than a county attorney. Well, that assertion was not supported by statewide data. A little bit of digging can help us determine, and that's what I was able to find out, that there are 17 counties in Iowa where the sheriff earns more than a full-time salary of a county attorney. However, the handout that Mr. Swanson provided to that compensation board that night indicated only six counties, thereby omitting the majority of relevant counties and creating a misleading impression. Additionally, the salary comparisons we're focusing on surrounding Polk County. And those are counties that have larger populations, larger tax bases, and a cost of living that's different, certainly, than Madison County. So equally troubling to me was that the compensation board received this manipulative data on the same night that the recommendation by Mr. Swanson was being made. And from what I understood, just trying to tune in to what I was hearing there was a request that had come to them earlier. In the recording that I listened to, one board member is very openly stating that there was an awful lot of information to absorb and Making a decision on it was maybe going to be hard, but no response was offered to that person's concern. And finally, much of the justification that county attorney Swanson proposed centered on salary parity arguments and internal office concerns, but not on prosecution outcomes or public safety metrics or performance of his own job duties. So from the publicity, maybe just from my perspective and maybe some of us in the public, it appears that the county attorney spends significant time in political squabbles rather than focusing on prosecuting crime. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

All right. Anyone else?

Thank you, Brenner. Winner's cut. How? we guide this conversation forward with respect transparency and accountability discussions regarding potential action against a county employee demands strict adherence to verify facts and procedural safeguards failure to do so invites chaos and liability supervisor stancil bears direct responsibility here her admitted conflict of interest from her personal lawsuit against county attorney Swanson, the sheriff, and two other employees, compels her immediate and total recusal from any discussion, motion, or action on related agenda items. Public trust crumbles when elected officials blatantly prioritize personal vendettas over duty. Her continued participation isn't mere oversight. It is a deliberate ethical violation of Iowa Code 68B.2A, which explicitly prohibits local officials from engaging in matters where personal bias or the appearance of impropriety taints judgment. County policies also reinforce this. Refusal is mandatory for conflicts, especially with agendas declaring, quote, discuss wants and matters of possible motion or action, end quote. Sancil's refusal to step aside directly undermines governance and, more importantly, exposes the county to litigation. Over the course of the past year, we have seen some behaviors by more than one elected official that are unacceptable. Badgering Supervisor Fitch, so she left the meeting in tears. Being caught on a hot mic, disparaging our veterans department. Stancil accused me of spreading lies after a public health board meeting when she knew I had evidence to present. She is the one who brought Bergman in as a consultant because she knew Kaczynski didn't know how to do the job, she panicked when she found out that they hadn't vetted him properly, and that Kaczynski shouldn't have signed the contract without board approval. All those involved realized they could be implicated in misuse of public funds or fraud. This toxic behavior is damaging the reputation and peace of Madison County, and it needs to stop. Citizens deserve assurance that taxpayer funds support legitimate public interests, not private vendettas. True leadership means stepping aside when personal bias threatens impartiality. Stancil must recuse now, no exceptions, no debate. Anything less makes every official complicit in eroding public confidence. You need to act decisively because the integrity of this county and public service hangs in the balance. And I would ask that you would receive and file my comments.

Do I have a motion to receive and file? So moved. Second. Second. All in favor please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carried. Thank you.

Anyone else in here wish to make a public comment? Otherwise we'll move the phone. Do we have a hard stop at 11? We do have a hard stop.

We have a lot to table. We still have resolutions we have to make. Well, we will allow two more comments. Because we have to do it. We didn't specify that in the beginning. All right, sir. Go ahead. Your name and where you come from.

Doug Jurgens, Winterset, Iowa. I have something I'd like to share with the people.

I'm sorry, can you say your name again?

Doug Jurgens, Winterset. I have something I'd like to share with the people that I believe is very relevant to the situation that we have here. And I'm going to play this and then we will explain maybe what it was.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Because if it's, if you, if you can bring back the connection with your play, it could, it could look like you guys are part of the actor. I know.

Especially if he doesn't have any kind of role in this movie. I know. I know.

I could work up my other top ten, but clearly she said we both had some good ideas about sucking up the anything, so I'm going to go with her. I'm going to put her on that.

In about 20 minutes.

I got a call from somebody that she met at the... We did Aerosmith. Her last name's Aerosmith.

Oh, the... the time guy? Yeah. Yeah! I was talking about last night. Republican. Strong conservative. He used to be a... He was a treasurer for a large company and was a banker for like 30 years. Retired early and is now bored. Oh.

Anybody wasn't sure what that was. That was recording.

Ms. Stansel admitting that she knows she defrauded the taxpayers. She admitted it twice. She said, I know when she was asked if she defrauded the taxpayers. She said, I know, I know. At the end of that statement, she said, this could cost me my position and I could be in trouble. Her words, not mine, right here, that we could all hear.

Anything else to say?

I believe your resignation is adjourned.

All right, anyone else for public comment? Otherwise, we will go. There's a gentleman right here. My name is Roger Waddell.

I am from Earlham. Find my notes here.

There we go. So uh...

I'd like to speak to the raise that the county attorney is asking for. But I'd like to approach it from a little different direction as far as the average pay for like populated counties. And how Madison County actually compares to counties of similar size. To give this the fairest possible comparison, Those immediately above and below mass county population gave an 11-county sample refined by removing two counties whose county attorneys were part-time. Leaves nine counties, similar populations, full-time attorneys. Apples to apples comparison. Here's what the data show. First, when you rank these nine comparable counties by attorney's salary, that's what I want to address. Madison County sits dead standard right in the middle of the pack. Not overworked, not underpaid, right in line with expectations for a county our size. Second, the average county attorney's salary for these comparable counties is approximately $126,954. Madison County's attorney is currently paid $128,016. So he has already paid above the average for counties of similar population. Third, one argument's been raised. The county attorney needs a raise because the sheriff makes more. That's already been addressed today. That's not an outlier for a sheriff to be paid more than an attorney. It is very, very common in our state. uh madison county's attorney is already in the top half of comparable counties and his salary is above the average of his peers as it currently stands given the financial pressures of the county i think the responsible choice is to hold the line and keep that salary where it is thank you thank you thank you all right um i know we have for our

but I want to make sure folks on the phone get a chance if there's anybody that wants to speak. If you are on the phone and you wish to speak, can you hit star six to unmute yourself? And you state your name and where you're from, and you have three minutes. All right, let's go on and move out of public comment and move on to resolutions for board consideration. First resolution is the auto resolution approved. Yes, I'm sorry. Did you need to say something? We are in resolutions for board consideration right now. I'm sorry, we are on a time crunch here because we have folks coming in, so. Okay, all right, go ahead.

Go ahead. I just wanted to remind everybody that if you want change, change starts Monday night. Go to your local caucus.

I believe the Republicans are at 7 o'clock, the door is shut at the Winterset High School. And I believe the Democrats are at the Middle School and Community Center at the St. Charles Library.

Check to see where your caucus is. Change starts Monday night. Thank you.

All right. We'll go on and move on to resolutions for board consideration. Auditor's resolution for approving Al Coulter as auditor's second deputy part-time. Effective February 11th. This is a promotion for him. So I'll entertain a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. The next one is the annual TIPS certification for Madison County Urban Renewal Area, fiscal year 2027. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. The last resolution for consideration is approving the plot Betty Lane's Nirvana subdivision. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Do I have a second?

Second. Any discussion? I have deep reservations because I think native prairies and I think all of that is very, very crucial to our ecosystem, but there is nothing in the ordinances that I can clearly vote no, so I say aye.

I too, I agree with you, Diane. I think a risk assessment would be in order. I don't think it would matter.

What would that, how long would that delay if we do have that? How much would it cost? And how much, yeah. And I don't know that we, we don't have ordinances to do that.

And the other thing too, I'm not opposed to that. The other thing too is for what purpose? So there are some statements here saying, so we'll know. Well, know what? I mean, there's, We can do an environmental survey, but the property is privately owned. What is that going to do? I mean, he'll have a survey, and he could do something to preserve the prairie, but there's no guarantee that he will. So I'm uncomfortable having an owner of a property spend money on a survey that's going to be to one end.

And I think the end will be, my daughter had a possum that came in. She lives in Waukees. Weigh 20, over 20 pounds. There's going to be nothing left, and we're going to have to ask ourselves what we want. But it is landowner rights. I agree with that. We don't have anything in the ordinance. I don't like it, but I have nothing to vote against.

If we do something like this, this might be something we might talk about. Is it fair for the owner to pay if there's no benefit to them?

So it's definitely something we're going to need to talk further about. At this point, we have nothing to stand on.

But right now, yeah, it is what it is. All right, so any more discussion? Otherwise, I'll call the question. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. All right, so we are on to licenses, permits, and cancellations. First one is application for use of the grounds in the Madison County Farmers Market every Saturday from May through October. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Motion approving application for renewal of the liquor license for the Madison County Winery effective March. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. The next one is the motion approving the application for liquor license renewal for Harrow Farm. Pepper Harrow. Pepper Harrow Farm. Pepper Harrow Farm, effective December 25. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved.

Is that supposed to be 25? Or 26? Yes. No. It is correct.

Sometimes they just, it's behind the eight ball. Especially when they can vote it over from the ADD to the new system.

Thanks. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. So in the instance of time, do we want to post phone reports or movie reports? Well, Do you have something on the agenda? We can.

There's a lot of this that we can postpone, but I need to make sure that I'm on the right track regarding elderly services, and so I need to talk briefly about that. Let's just go to that. Okay, let's just go to that. Okay. All right. So where we're at with that is number one is confirming the indoor air quality, that it's safe, and that there's no issues. I've talked with three different entities and waiting on proposals for them to do that indoor air quality testing. I think that's the number one item that needs to be addressed. But then there's also asbestos testing that we're going to have to conduct. There's a matter with this used oil tank that's down under the building that I just learned about recently and I have a message into the DNR and I'm talking with some other folks about that just to get information and data so we know what we're dealing with. But overall I do have one quote back for just updating the space and adding a handicap accessible restroom. I was pleasantly surprised. Now that being said, after having met with multiple contractors on site and reviewing and hearing their thoughts and best approaches, what I'd like to do is just further define the scope so they're all quoting pretty close to what we're looking for. I think this would warrant an additional meeting with the board just to get you both up to speed and make sure that I'm on the right track for your approvals as well.

I reached out to Matura. Their building is too small. Just wondering if they would consider selling their building, moving into public health, put public health, DHS, or not, DHS, Natura, and veterans. Veterans are okay with it, because then what the veterans can't supply, they could walk down the hall and Natura maybe can. The building would be big enough to house all of it, because they could have the whole basement. So then we recharge material rent? Something. They aren't opposed to this because their building is so small. Because in other counties, they make a lot of money on what they sell, but we turn so much away because we're so crowded. building is simply too small it is and there was some stuff that i donated from that this empty space there's a bunch of pulled out clothing and a bunch of warm stuff too but they are they're really crammed for space so i think their food bank is too small so they that would give them an opportunity it would let us allow the county to keep a really valuable asset but That would combine a lot of things that work together, but do you have different functions?

Well, I'm open to all the options, and so I'll continue to pursue. I think either way, we want to get into air quality testing at the elderly services building, not just in the space we want to remodel. I've had it included for the elderly services space as well. I think we need to do that regardless of whether or not we're going to be remodeling and using the space right away or soon or if it's future. I mean, I would like to address that, but I think it would warrant a work session with us so we can talk through it.

I think we need that space for County Conservation Board because they no longer have anywhere after they sell their buildings to park their equipment. So that back garage is what they are going to need. There's no other place. Are they going to need both bays, though?

I don't think so. He said yes. He's shaking his head yes. Do you need both bays?

What? The question for our equipment out there? Yeah, so we have several pieces of equipment that we've got stored out there.

But we're talking about the office space, not the warehouse space.

Yeah, we're talking about the office space. We don't utilize the office space. We use the bays. There's technically three bays out there.

Right.

Well, we used to be far from the ambulances.

Yeah, I know. We're really crammed for time.

So why don't we set another work session and talk about it? Okay. Okay. Next one, ADA reports. I don't think we're going to have to read that. We can table that. I don't know if you guys have read it or not. I have some good information on it. Very good stuff. Fiscal 23-24 audit. I've just put these in the budget as standing items so we can talk about them in a meeting if you never could have brought it up. i've never heard back from the county attorney regarding you said that was the one talk to the treasurer and talk to the county attorney and then we just got two more emails so yeah so we still don't know okay uh and then budget we can table that into a work session if we need to Discuss appointment to the Planning and Development Board under new business. That was put on here because the question was asked if we should repost for the position. I think we should. I agree. Do you need to repost? Do you have a bunch of names in there? We only had two. So we can repost. But the reason why it's on the agenda is I want to have the board decide what direction to give Kelly. So we're back in this case. So we'll refund. So we'll refund. Okay. And the next one is grants.

That was you. Yeah, we did get an ISAC grant. We were awarded for $1,000, so that's great. And I'll get that information to Auditor Brandt and her team so they know to expect a check. What does it have to be used for? It was, we applied it to the horn stroke. something we'd already purchased actually through the courthouse.

The one that went bad. That's almost done. Yeah, thanks. Okay, and the last item under new business is discussed as a matter of motion for action. I know the members of public were speculating what this is about. Their assumptions are incorrect. So the matter in question is we've had several people both online, on the phone to me, and here, express concern about some of the stuff that's come out about our county attorney. I don't think it's appropriate for the board to decide anything on that. He is appointed. So the motion I'm requesting is to refer any concerns the board has to the Iowa Attorney General's office, and they can deal with it. so rather than it being on our plate um we could have um we can direct our concerns to the board attorney and he can forward on to iowa attorney general and then it's off our plate and they can however they want to handle it they can handle it so um and i did ask the onboard attorney if doing that is considered a conflict he did he said no because i'm not taking direct action on him the actual responsible party is going to be somebody else So I would entertain a motion to do that.

I will make a motion to refer the Steve Swanson matter to the state AG's office and the people who have the decision-making authority to address it.

Okay. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Nay. Okay, motion carries. Next item on the agenda is ordinance review and update. Ryan, where are we at with that?

We're meeting tonight at 6, from 6 to 8 to continue as a work session.

Okay, thanks. So have you had a lot of public feedback on the initial draft?

Yeah, and I think it's because it was so far from the ending document. Yeah.

It's kind of like the first draft of the comp plan and then the final draft. Yeah. So, well, thank you so much for continuing to work on that. All right. Other than that, do we want to set a time since we're here before we adjourn for a work session?

Well, let's clarify, Michelle, what did you recommend?

So if you're going to talk about the elderly services building and that, that's fine. The budget, I would respectfully request, again, just be more efficient with your time instead of regurgitating stuff we don't know. Waiting until I'm going to say the third week. I would say the third week. So we go to the 16th.

So we also still haven't met with asking either about the union contract.

Yeah, that can proceed with out meeting, that's fine.

So Kelly, have you had any movement on that or heard anything about that?

Yes, it's coming shortly. He's been very busy, but those that were interested, move forward with this.

And Lance will be shadowing and learning from Mac.

Okay, and that's something you're okay with us meeting?

Yes, because you're just going to be gathering information and it will be up to you guys anyway, so that's fine.

What about, just to clarify, so we have, we've got Assured Partners, an option for health insurance benefit alternative. You probably want to be in on that call. And they're asking if February 12th or Friday the 13th would work. So I'm going to say, based on what you've said, no, that wouldn't be preferred.

Yeah, and we do have, do we have President's Day off?

Yes.

Okay, so the 17th would be nice.

How about if we just... And then you could do your... Oh, I'm sorry, Diane. Well, I think we should just refer to you when you set up the meetings. We know it's the 17th.

Actually, the board chair sets up the meetings, and so probably not on 930. That's our standing.

So that's our standing as we have it open.

And then you've got an evening meeting on the 10th. That might be that afternoon of the 10th, a good elderly services time, unless that's too far out. Yeah.

As of the 17th.

No contempt for elderly services in talking about that.

Is that far enough out or do you want it sooner to talk about that so we can get directions?

I would like a really quick one sooner. As soon as I get all the air quality testing pricing back so we can make a decision on that and get that going. Let's go February 3rd. Just have a workshop. Are you okay with that?

February 3rd, 930. And it will be a special meeting because we have to take action from your direction. So we'll do a special meeting at 930 on February 3rd.

for that and we can also include not just elderly services we can talk about public health too just the whole plan yeah maybe a plan yeah um what about um i know we talked about the handbook that's going to be a separate i think that's going to be a long one so we need to be consistent that doesn't make it quick yeah that doesn't make it quick yeah No. Exactly. So let's possibly, we just put together some dates and we'll exchange some emails and in which topics we'll look at how much time we need for each. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is that fair? And then maybe you'd be the keeper of the...

I'd be happy to, because I'll be online. I mean, I'll be available.

Okay. So the February 3rd is something we're going to be looking at. Yep, 9.30.

And that'd be sold on the 10th. And nothing yet earlier in the afternoon on the 10th?

Nothing yet. So let's hold some time just since we don't have time to talk about it. Okay, so February 10th, we have a meeting. Do we want to do, I don't know, four?

Because our regular meeting is at six. Or do you want to do three? What's this one for, the 10th at four?

Why don't you do the handbook? All right.

Why don't we...

I am available in the afternoon between 1 and 3 would be better for me.

I might need some time before that meeting. Okay, so February 10th. Is this going to be a special or work session? Work session. Okay, so February 10th between 1 and 3. That might be a good union. Okay.

Does it need to be before that? The union doesn't need to be before it? AFSCME? Your AFSCME meeting? Do you need it before the 10 o'clock? Ask me.

It'd be ideal.

Yeah, okay. That might be what you add on to the third, the union.

So we could go 9.30 to elderly service station and we could go 10.30 for asking?

Yeah, that's fine. So elderly, public, and then the closed for the... Yep.

And that'll be a nice practice.

Okay. All right. So nothing on the 17th year.

Well, we're 930 home.

I mean, there's still a 930 home, but nothing. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, if there's nothing else, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So we'll throw a second. Second. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed, motion carries.