Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

and start our meeting. I believe we have invocation.

Good morning. Let's pray. Father, we the righteousness of God in Christ, we come boldly to your throne of grace for strength and wisdom again today. As we walk in the pure, perfect, and powerful love of God, we stand against the insane rage, evil, and hatred of hell. Thank you that no weapon that is formed against your people shall prosper, and we shall condemn every tongue that rises against us. We plead the blood of Jesus over Madison County, and we break every curse in and on Madison County. Father, we declare that every evil activity against truth and righteousness in Madison County stops now in Jesus' name. Father, cause your enemies to stumble, fall into confusion, panic, and fall into their own traps that they have set for those upholding truth and righteousness. Satan, we overcome you by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Father, strengthen our righteous leaders. Send legions of angels to protect them. Ease their cares and give them rest. Give them clarity and give them your energy, your peace, and your wisdom as they seek you. We call forth the blessing and favor of God on Madison County. We pray for unity, peace, and safety within our community and that everyone who speaks offers only helpful solutions from the heart without malice. We decree these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,

okay let's go ahead and do a roll call please here here

All right, we'll go ahead and review the agenda, disclosure, and conflict of interest. We have two amendments that were requested. One was for receiver file, which is the compensation board report, as well as a resolution regarding naming Highway 92 George Washington Carver Highway that was just a piece just a piece of it yes so we're going to go ahead and I'll entertain a motion to amend the agenda to add those two items so moved second okay any discussion all in favor please vote aye aye all opposed motion carries okay we're now on to The consent agenda, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended with the receiving file item of the compensation board report. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we're going to department head reports and discussion. First one up is Michelle.

Michelle Brandt, Madison County Auditor. I'll give you guys my report.

Is it possible to give these electronically?

Before the meetings or after the meetings?

Whenever you're able, I guess. It'd be great to give them electronically. I can. That'd be great, thank you.

Would you prefer that in lieu of at the meeting?

They most likely will not be prior to the meeting. My update includes a budget process update.

I have updated and you have attached the general supplemental. It was requested to drop the numbers by $176,404. And that has been done. So you're going to see that on the attachment. The next step is to enter this into DOM and publish the levy amounts and publish in the paper within the 1020 guidelines. or excuse me, within the accordance of the code. We have council, what?

So you're gonna lower that general supplemental $176,404. So that lowers that levy, but then what about all our new revenue? So that's gonna put us behind April, right?

That was, yeah, so that was what I was directed to do by the board. So you can see in what I've given you, I just wanted to show you that I did it.

So basically, just to recap, this is so we aren't going to be collecting any more taxes this coming fiscal year? Controls our growth. We will not be collecting more taxes this fiscal year, maximum, as last year, correct? Yes. Yes? Yes.

Anything else with that? Next would be, we've also contacted mail services to ensure that the mailings that need to go out with this, this happens in a timely manner. The annual gap report has not been completed. Solutions is on standby to assist me with the month-end balancing when the treasurer balances. State auditor report update, the last piece of information has been received as of yesterday and I provided you a copy of the email that was mentioned in the last meeting. As the courthouse custodian, we have received information from Johnson Controls. And I guess because I was absent the last time you guys had a dialogue about this, what is it that you're wanting to know? I did give you an information about the difference between digital watchdog and exactivision. Maybe the manufacturing location of Digital Watchdog is USA and Asia. The other comes, which we have in the courthouse and in the sheriff's office we have, it's manufactured in Fisher Indy and in Europe. So is there any other information?

So I think, correct me if I'm wrong, you wanted a breakdown of all the pricing so we can compare and price out different vendors?

It's basically a top-down evaluation of that camera system versus the camera system in the other locations because we have two different platforms serviced by two different entities. And I'd like to evaluate if it makes more sense to transition from the Johnson Controls platform To what? To what is the question? If there's something better?

Well, they do both. They do both.

I did have a question, however. They do both. What do you mean by that?

I got a call from Summit Technologies.

Do we work with them anymore? They're the ones that put the system in here and at EMS building.

Did they still have access? Their message was the cameras are out, Treasure 1 on the west side, also the EMS.

Yes, they maintain those cameras. That's what I understood. We don't pay them anything. I think it's part of their agreement. What agreement is that? When we purchase the equipment.

So we have a vendor that we don't do business with monitoring our cameras.

When I reviewed this almost a year ago now, Summit was the service provider for this building and EMS for those camera systems. I will dive into that.

Yeah, who knows what's happened in the last year? I certainly don't.

So they're the ones that put the cameras in here, and the concern I have from a, not a surprising standpoint, but my concern is from a technical standpoint, Right now, those two cameras are on the same server, so when you log into that server, say our police officers log into that server, they can access it. To get into the courthouse one, it's an actual separate login. Sure. Plus... Oh, I'm sorry. Plus, there's no diversity. So if something happens with that server, it does not automatically fail over. So what I'd like to see is a large enough server that can manage all three buildings. So if something happens in one building, they can still access the building because it fails over to a different server. So currently, by having two separate servers or two separate platforms, they can't do that. So I'd like to evaluate that plus the watchdog you purchased licensing once and that's it. There's no annual renewal.

Are you not concerned about where it's manufactured? I am, yes. Okay, because that's been a thing.

Yes, I am. And that's one of the reasons why we chose the one we did in this building in EMS was for that particular reason. Those are watchdogs? Yes.

So you're okay with them being made in Asia?

They're NDAA approved. Correct.

So we are looking for NDAA approved. As is the equal, as is the other. Correct. Executive vision. Correct.

But we're not just talking about that now. We're talking about the actual technical support. We want to make sure we have diversity because I don't want something to fail at a very inopportune time that doesn't fail over a turnover server. So if we could validate the pricing, which is good to you, for me is the technical aspect. I want to make sure our... first responders can access any camera at any time without wasting time with a separate login. So if you could provide that information, that would be great.

And what I was looking for as well in addition to that was, you know, the investment in this camera system and this platform. We've already invested more into it, and that's why I'm like, stop, let's pause, and let's evaluate if this is really the best fit for us longer term versus investing more into it without having gone through that exercise. Okay.

All right, moving on. And I have placed a call into Johnson Controls for follow-up questions. And again, I don't think we're under contract with Summit at this point. That's not, I'm not comfortable with that. Anyway, okay, so now the vault and the IT room conversion, just as a follow-up. When solutions comes in March, we're gonna work on getting that room added as a resource on Outlook, so you'll be able to book it just like you can this and the third floor courtroom. But please remember that it will not be available during absentee voting periods. Yeah? I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Will that conference room remain unlocked then? How do we get access to it if we book it?

You'll check out a key.

From your office? You know, probably from buildings and grounds. Okay. Because I asked one of the custodial staff members yesterday, he didn't have a key. Correct. Okay, so that will change. Mm-hmm. Okay.

We wanted to wait until we could, we were kind of waiting on the Johnson Controls thing to be finished because the cameras that are in there are new. So that's what we're waiting on and we'll just delay a little bit longer.

Okay? And if you need, so I'm sure if anyone needs the room, they can just contact you and you can say, hey, I need the room.

Well, again, if we're going to be having it monitored, there's nothing to say we can't unlock it in the morning and lock it up at night. Does that make sense? Okay. Next would be data and safety security future. I mentioned this, I can't even remember if I read it last time, but moving a server location presently in the new conference room to the maintenance office was observed and recommended that our server not be in a location where the public could be once we turn it open to the general, I mean, I don't envision having a courthouse resource being available to the public, but we never know. I need to do some more evaluating, but the cages are about $500 a piece, and we can move to a much smaller cage.

So my concern with the basement is the cages.

We're not moving it to the basement. We would move it to the maintenance office. So nothing would go in the basement? There's already a phone switch there. We do need to secure it. It's really not a good situation. So I'm looking into that. So two cages.

Okay. So if it's going to go into a cage, why can't it say where it's at?

It's rear bound. It's really not appropriate if we're going to be having meetings and stuff in there. It's probably best to be in an area where it's not normally publicly accessible. So for me, from a technical standpoint, I think that's a good idea. I'm the one that actually brought up the concern. So we really need to... move it into where so the logic behind moving it to maintenance is locked because it's locked and it's not something the public goes in and out of okay and we don't we don't have color it's a private office yeah it's a private office okay so thank you for doing that you're welcome then um

Again, I haven't done much more with the VPN access. I've heard back from all the department heads, and we just need to finish the audit and circle back to solutions. New law that I referenced last time is an in-house audit of salaries. We have discovered more employees have been affected by modifications made to the pay period salary amounts. And once we've reviewed all salaried employees, I will provide a report and possibly initiate an investigation of why this was done. So they were shorted? Their wages were shorted.

What do you mean by pay period?

So there's two columns. There's the salary, where you enter in an annual salary, and then there's a pay period where it's divided up. Okay, into 26 pay periods. Okay. That's what I'm talking about.

Okay. So it's possible it was misdone? Nope, I don't think so. So Michelle, these townships that were shorted, they're just out, right? Oh, you're talking about South? Yeah, they're just out all that money.

When the township budgets? No, she's talking about salaries. I understand.

I get the salaries, and I know you've got quite a few that have been shorted.

I know of one. too little i know one uh st charles is just going to be out forty thousand dollars just last year for the townships their fires yeah fire yeah and that was our error but that's different than this what you're talking about i understand i just want to make sure i'm trying to make sure i understand so i'm just saying there's a lot of money in the state give me the cliff notes what happened with the township payment they didn't levy for it the township wrote their budget Typically, we oversee that. And last year, it was done differently, and so it was missed. And then, therefore, if the township doesn't levy for those dollars, they don't get those dollars. And it amounted to about $40,000, I think $45,000.

So they didn't submit it? No, they submitted it.

They just missed it. There's a column.

Did they miss it or we miss it?

they submitted so they said townships were um that specific one was on like automatic transfers to the treasurer and they asked about it and were told that they didn't have to do anything so still was an automatic transfers can you say that a little louder i'm gonna talk they were like getting automatic um taxes first moved directly to the city for that levy instead of the township getting it and then them writing a check um and they had you know, the prior office had done a lot more, had a lot more involvement with townships, I guess, and when they inquired about it, they were told that they didn't have to worry about it, so they had certified budget. Without the levy. Without the levy, and then it was. Oh, because it had been automatic withdrawal, so they assumed it was gonna be on there. Yeah, and I guess they were told that. And then a former auditor certified it, no fire levy.

We're sitting in a very good spot right now. We have how many of our townships have their hearings? I think seven. are set, one's already been certified correctly. Yep, and that's out of 16, so we're very, very excited about that.

Is there anything else, ladies, you guys have for me? Jessica? One quick clarification on using the

In rotating the board clerk role and using the board clerk email address, can you ask your staff members to please sign their name if they send a communication from that general email so we know who sent it?

I've got a call into Solutions this afternoon, and we need to kind of reconfigure these meetings. So we'll be sending out probably new meetings, but yes. Is there an example where it created an issue for you?

Well, there was a very unprofessional and rude email sent that we don't know who sent it a few weeks ago. But just for a point of clarification, if somebody sends an email, we don't know who to inquire if we have a question or clarification. We don't know who sent it.

And we really shouldn't be sending emails from the BOS clerk.

That's just where we step in. Did we all get it?

But to her point, if you just so or just maybe just say, Michelle, I just got this email. Can I please, you know, who just sent this?

Shouldn't have to ask.

But if I don't know what happened, if I don't know what happened, I think I'm trying to be very responsive in correcting my staff when they maybe miss stuff or even I miss stuff.

Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. All right. Oh, I do have a question. Just a quick question. I'm sorry. With the state audit report update, so they're good? They have everything they need? If they give us a timeline, we're going to have all that stuff. I'll be following up.

Like you said, they just got the last document yesterday. Okay. And best of luck to us. All right. It's very important to me that it gets wrapped up. I just know that that's very important. It's like I need to move on with my life. Thanks for getting so much done in a short time.

And you've already let the Marlin and Jenkins.

We had a nice conversation last week. Good. So they know what we're trying to do. And did you get the extension from the state auditor? We did. We reported on that last time. Great. Thank you.

You bet. Okay. Mike.

Yeah, we'll see. I just have a ticket number.

You have the link you can forward for now? You just, yeah, you can forward it. You should have it. Okay.

Because I can call it now.

So let's, do we need to call it now?

Yeah, I just need to make a call. Why weren't we, can I ask a question? If a road is, it's called a lane. But it only goes to one home. Isn't that a driveway? It's just the team's living in this, as you say.

Well, that doesn't help at all.

I'll address it. Why don't I address it? I'm sorry.

We need to keep moving on. So why don't you go ahead and do your presentation.

It's quick. At the end, if you want to ask that, if that's acceptable, I'll address what I know about that. I shouldn't do it. We'll keep things going. First of all, my name is Mike Hackett. I'm the Madison County Secondary Roads Engineer. Thank you board members for getting me here to speak. It's a good day today. It really is. I had some travels over the weekend and got to some warmer states as I was thinking about some of this. We've kind of been spoiled a little bit with our weather and then all of a sudden it comes back again. And I will get to a couple things at the end, and I'll make this just as quick as I possibly can. Board members, we have resolutions A, B, C, and D for you today. A lot of this is kind of, we'll see more of this ramping up into summer. The first resolution is we temporarily had to close the road in order to replace the damaged handrail. That work has been completed. The other one, resolution B, is a work agreement uh to remove an existing driveway in preparation for an upcoming bridge replacement project on bennington park road i will get a little bit of that into the end of that at the end and then resolution c and d they could be considered together if you wish but those are hires for a motor grader operator and a working foreman in a drainage crew position just a side note on staffing We still have four openings, two equipment operators, a sign foreman, and an assistant engineer. We're in the processes of those. I believe a couple of those job openings are still open. If you know of anybody, get online, go to our website, fill out an application. We would love to see that. All right, construction projects. This is the million dollar question. Get a lot of phone calls, especially when it got nice. And I don't blame them a bit because it's a long ways around and I'm tired of driving. Again, optimistic April. The reason we couldn't kind of get started on that even though it was so nice is our specifications for earth moving doesn't allow frozen material. Frozen earth does not make good roads. You may be able to pile it up. But once it kind of goes through the process, it doesn't compact, and then we would be seeing, you know, maybe some slope failures or some things. So as the specifications with the plans and part of the contract, there's many things on there that help control environmental things like winter. So, but we are in contact with them, bug them about every day, asking when they're going to get in the schedule, and they kind of tell me the same thing, got to get through winter. Once we get winter, get it open. So just get that out there. Cummings Road, kind of the same thing. We need to come back and finish paint lines, which I'm going to get to that in a second. General road conditions. Again, we kind of got shocked. What's that white stuff? Where did that come from? It's been very nice to have a, how do I say, an open winter and not have to deal with road conditions. We had a little weather over the weekend and the timing wasn't the best on it. Some of the more traveled roads get a little packed down before we can get out there. A lot has to do with just the secondary roads. It's not a primary system. We have an ordinance. We remove snow from 6 a.m. in the morning, excuse me, 5 a.m. in the morning until 6 o'clock at night, and then repeat and repeat until that's processed. That's an ordinance. If you're interested in that, you can contact me. It's also on the website. Read on how that gets done. Now I'm going to move right to our picture up there. That happens to be, I want to thank ICAP and Mitch. wherever Mitch is, he's here. This is part of this $1,000 grant, and we took some kind of low-tech photo to analyze our road system, and actually we bought four cameras. That's from this morning, a picture of the road conditions. That allows us to kind of see our roads. Been doing this a while, some of my staff's been doing this a while, but in order to have a snow removal day, It starts about, Oh, 1130. You've got to drive the 110 miles of road system. There's one person who does that throughout the middle of the night. And then you have to make a decision on whether or not you're going to try to get mobilized forces to come in and go to work. Most of them got to make that call around three o'clock to get people here. Hopefully there, we've got our equipment started and get going on the road by five. So there's a lot that has to go in on the background. And over the years, uh, Trucks get spun off the road because of ice conditions. I've had it in the middle of the night. I've hit deer. Some of my staff have hit deer because you're out checking the roads. So we have four of these camera systems. This is this morning. Can you go to the next photo, please?

Yeah.

Nope, they're strategically located. So this is what happens. We get a good, real, live picture. demand photo of what our road conditions look like. And that's not too good. We know it's going bad. And so where these are located, they're in the four corners of the county. And it's just a picture of that. Like I say, under $1,000 for that grant that we have, there is a fee to it, but it's well worth it. the investment into the fee to have done yearly because of the things that can happen when you send somebody out to drive around in the middle of the night. So once again, I really appreciate the opportunity to get that grant, put those up. So we're using them. Next photo, please. That's it, yeah, next photo. Whoa, that's the first one. Yeah, so that kind of sees what's going on. That lets us get eyes on stuff.

Because the weather can be different from one corner.

Yeah, and this storm was like that. The northern part of this county saw a little heavier moisture up front and actually a little more snow. The southern, not as much moisture, believe it or not, or the conditions were just a little different, a little less snow. So that's another thing when we are driving our 110 miles of paved system, it's impossible to get all over the rock system. To try to say, okay, This corner got two inches. Maybe we don't need to mobilize the forces here today as soon as we would the other one. Yeah, no, this is a great thing. I appreciate that. To be able to get that up there. And then just kind of to circle back around to one of those work agreements where we're continuing, and I will hopefully get this thing. It just takes time. Buying right away takes time. And we are working on the two Bevington, I know I say that every time, but it just takes a little time to go through that process. Hopefully we will bring those contracts and easements to you soon so we can get those in the letting and get those done. I'm taking too much time. Do you want me to address your question? Yes.

If you have a long lane and it goes to one house, why is that called a road or lane? Why is it not a driveway?

Good question, Diane. I was around when they did the 911 rule addressing system, and there are a few unicorns out there that are left that are actually a public road that looks like a driveway, and we were left with those. Many, many years ago, there was a vacation process, but we kind of went through that before. Not always popular to do. So if you see a lane, most of those, most of those, unless there is an air, are an open public road. If you see court, they're private. Private.

There is one over by me that goes, it used to be a through road. It did go all the way through. It hasn't since probably the 50s.

Right. So, again, those are decisions that happened through time where, you know, they vacated portions of the road and maybe some of the agreements were to keep that open. It's just, it's kind of what we're left with some of that. And, yeah, that's where a lot of that comes from.

But if it's considered private, then it would...

Yes, the 911 system is anything that's private is a court. Okay. The other ones are, there is a, believe it or not, there is this kind of a system. Lane kind of means it's a dead end. Avenues go through, streets go through. Okay.

And how did the handrail get damaged? Do you know?

Not 100%. Okay. Just curious. Or not. Yeah. Anything else?

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much. Yep. Thank you, everyone.

All right, Mitch, you are up.

Yep.

Hello, everybody. Miss Johnson, emergency manager here from Madison County. I got up and spoke at one of the last meetings and was given a quick update of where we are, working hand in hand with Jess and working with Kelly and then also Kylie upstairs, trying to form a steering committee to get us going back in the right direction. We're going to have a good presentation later today by Scott Smith, the dean from IMCWA, who they have a program that's going to allow us to, it's going to teach us how to get back on the right track. We are one of the few people they've had that's actually volunteering to do this instead of being forced to do this. The first. What? The first, yes. And I mean, just something that we owe our employees. You know, I feel everybody deserves to know that they're going to go home as safe as they came into work. And we've had a few cracks and a few slips. And this is going to be a way for us to be able to get back online. And I'll let them give their presentation here in a little bit. We're still doing our Monthly meetings, we're going to have one here coming up, and then we're going to start moving forward with the process. I've reached out to State Patrol with April being distracted driving. I want to bring in some training that we can have for our employees, especially with it being more important right now. Everybody's distracted by their cell phones. So I'm going to try to work with them, find out how to run a better process. better committee so that's that's about all i got unless you guys have any questions at the moment or anything thank you again everybody's doing that yeah thank you guys okay um ryan you are up for massachusetts

So Ryan Marquardt, Madison County Development Group. So just to give you a quick update on some stuff, we have a strategic plan at the top of that list that we're working on. We got that window pushed back on the survey until March 1st. So we are continuing to distribute that to some smaller communities and some businesses. We're trying to get that strategic plan survey to help guide that process for our organization. There'll be the public meetings then at the end of March, well, there'll be the committee meeting at the end of March, which will probably extend an invite for you too. You are welcome to come to. You don't have to come to it. We'll also have one in May as well, just to kind of help disseminate that information and kind of refine it into our strategic plan. We did have a very good conversation with the Des Moines Partnership here in the last week. where they're going to help us with some of our lowest listings. So they're going to assist us with Earlham Industrial Rail site and the site that we currently own in Winterset. They're going to help us get those listed. That site, it allows us kind of the industry standard for commercial sites or industrial sites. It's really good at scraping real estate listings, but when you're making one from scratch, we figured we might as well have the professionals help us do that. We've also had some other good conversations. We'll just kind of bounce around on the, like on the Earlham Rail site, we've got Iowa Interstate Railroad is interested in that, and so we continue to kind of look at the possibilities there. Getting it in the lowest will then allow us, Iowa Interstate wants to then put them in there and kind of rank all their sites along the rail line, and that'll allow us to kind of figure out what our deficiencies are by kind of comparing them to the other sites that they have.

Would that take a lot of, what does it take? A lot of electricity and water?

Oh no, just getting it into the, all we're trying to do at this point is getting it into the listing and then they're going to rank them and then we're going to get feedback in terms of what we need. And usually for those types of sites, like if you're trying to market them, you're not, you don't necessarily have to have the services, but you need to have a plan to get the services there or a timeline in which you can provide certain levels of service. So... So nothing is required as of today. It's mostly, do we have a plan for the tour? What does that plan look like? So that if somebody's looking at that site, they have a reasonable expectation of what are the costs or what the timeframe is for their build out, so.

It increases the chances of someone picking the site. Yeah. Because basically there's a manual packet saying this is what we have, this is what we can offer, estimates of what it could cost.

We try to answer as many of their questions up front so that they, you know, so they have more certainty when they approach it. Well, I understand that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The long term is how much.

Well, I mean, well, we just got an RFP on that site, which I think two of you forwarded to me. Yeah, and that one has quite a bit of water requirements on it, so that's something we're kind of evaluating right now. It also has wastewater flow, and that's something that's more, it's not as good a bid as our last one. It's kind of higher water demand, higher wastewater flows, more traffic, and so those Those are things we try to like minimize. No odor, which is still what we kind of desire for that type of site. But those are the types of things we look at when we get options. We only get, especially high quality rail sites, we probably get maybe three or four a year. So, you know, they don't come along often, but they're usually significant build outs. Like this one, the RFP that you guys saw was about, I think a hundred million on the build out, somewhere in there. So.

Just explain for the public the greenfield term.

Oh, sure, sure. So yeah, it asks for greenfield sites, and for greenfield sites are basically bare sites. So it is a literal greenfield. Open land. Open land, essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all good. Yeah, it's all good. It's just nomenclature. It's all good.

Thanks for clarifying that.

Yep, not a problem. So we continue to work with that site, and we're kind of unpacking that RFP. That's typical of RFPs, you have three days to reply. So you have to pack it in three days. So moving on from that, we continue to have conversations with our department developer, looking at options in Winterset. Their preferred site isn't available, so we're kind of trying to give them options that might work. We have a multi-unit business expansion that for commercial that we've been working with for some time and we've had a lot of difficulty with landowners that have high opinions of their property values. So we're kind of back and looking at some additional options right now of where a location that might work. We do have a business in town that is doing So it's looking at an expansion project and that's gonna change the footprint, so it's gonna get expensive. So part of that conversation, working with the bank there too is, are we gonna, is this a new building maybe a better fit in this instance? Or, you know, if you're gonna, once you change a building footprint, you know, the $100,000, $200,000 plus project typically. That's kind of an ongoing conversation as well. We do have a new business that we're meeting with next week, so we're going to have them, they're just forming, so we're having SBDC, Small Business Development Center, and Creston come up and we're hosting on it. We're just kind of working through the paperwork and making sure that they've got all their ducks in a row. It's really easy when you're starting a business to get preyed upon on the internet by people who charge you for services that are free or low cost. So trying to avoid all that stuff to get them off to a good start and kind of give them some pointers and kind of also route them to QuickBooks training and that kind of stuff. So that's all things that you can do with the office. Looking at our revolving loan fund, we have five active loans. We did currently approve a new one at our last board meeting last week, so we are now waiting on documents, and once that's done, we'll get that loan buttoned up. We'll still have, after that loan, we'll still have about $65,000 in available funds in that loan pool currently. I did highlight on that sheet that the Winterset Municipal Utilities, they have a revolving loan fund pool. They opened that... a year and a half ago, and so it's now been paid back to the point of about $30,000 in available funds. So that's about the point where we like, it's available for projects, you know, it's kind of hit a threshold of interest. So that's kind of on our radar too, you know, in terms of a new resource that we have access to. And then looking at the community foundation stuff, we did a major website update. We got a lot of the old grants, past seven years of grants are in there by decreasing value and total sums. Try to go back to the very beginning. I've got that all kind of located in this big, boldly old tome. So we're trying to get that eventually up there on the website as well. So we can go back to 22 years to the original grants. Get those also online. But for that part too, the grant cycle is open. So the grant cycle is open until March 4th at Wednesday, I think it's Wednesday, March 4th, 4 p.m. And, you know, there's $135,000 in biddable pool to be put out this year. So we have a handful, a little more than a handful that we've received. I know that there's probably over a dozen to 18 left out there that are floating around that we're gonna get hammered real fast here when they all start coming in here in the next few days. So, because they're basically at one week to go now. So, well, just over a week, we've got eight days to go. That's kind of what we have going on right now. You guys got any questions?

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

No problem. Okay, Scott Smith. I am the WCA. I believe you're up.

Good morning. Can everybody hear me? So appreciate the opportunity to join in this morning. With me is Dean Shady, Manager of the Safety and Risk Improvement Division of Your Work Comp Pool, IMWCA. As Mitch alluded to earlier, here to talk about the county's safety program, safety culture, and how to maybe regain what you've had in the past and build a robust program so that it will continue in the future. Like so many employers, you've had staff transition over the last five, six years that has had an impact. Things sometimes get lost in translation. While the number of injuries that employees of Madison County has been pretty consistent in terms of numbers, the severity of some of those injuries have increased. That is now affecting the premium that Madison County is paying, and it will do so for a lot. As I met with your agent, John Stetzel, and Kelly, and then some of the folks on the steering committee, it seemed to have hit a critical mass of folks that it's time to grab this bull by the horns and turn that around so people aren't getting hurt as seriously. As we talked about that, we've had some very good conversations, some very open conversations. One of the things that Dean suggested to me to talk about with you was our high level risk management action program. This program was established by our board of trustees four years ago? Yes. Four years ago. Time flies, we get old. And quite frankly, this program was developed for those who are in significant trouble, kind of a last Hail Mary to help turn things around. And it's based on best practices that our pool of cities and counties have found to work. And the difference here is you're on the cusp of that being a mandatory type situation, but you listen to that opportunity. The program will provide me and other resources over a two-year period in return for hopefully dedicated response and taking everything to heart to try and make some positive improvements. I would hope that based on meetings we've had to date that the energy on the safety committee and the steering committee of the safety committee will continue. I think you're off to a good start. The agreement that we have in front of you, as Jessica stated, it's the first time we've done one where somebody wants to voluntarily come in before they cross that line. But we still have the same expectations, and those are laid out in the agreement. The expectations from you are clearly enumerated. our expectations back to yours that I will do some training with key staff. I will continue to work with your safety committee and help you build that core foundation. In a normal program, if you don't meet those milestones, we end up parting ways. In this program, we had to kind of rewrite the agreement because it's voluntarily based. But our expectation would be if you don't follow through on this, then obviously that'll be taken into account down the road with renewals. But if you continue working, and I think, I have high hopes, this will also factor in as we do renewals, discounts, credits, that sort of thing. Normally there's a financial impact when you enter this program, because numbers are usually high. We don't have to worry about this case, financial impact is here already. So what I would hope again is for all the county departments, key staff and employees to kind of rally around the efforts of the safety committee. The expectations that this is for them. This is to help them get home safe at the end of every shift, just like Mitch said. If you can achieve that, if you can get back to where you've historically been for many years, the dollars will follow. Right now you're playing catch-up. but our hope is that through this training putting in to place some good cornerstone elements that you will get past this and hopefully not have to ever deal with this situation in the future any questions that you've You folks have. I know I've talked with Jessica extensively, but I figured you two might have some questions as well. So I want to make sure we try to answer those.

So when we were notified of the increase, it came after budget time. So we were quite surprised at the increase. So going forward, how will that impact? We don't have the resolution on here today, because we had a new presentation, so it'll probably be our next meeting. But should we decide to go forward with this? What kind of impacts can we see in the premium in the next couple of years, if any?

So for the coming year, none. You know, we all have to deal within the sea in which we swim timing-wise. We are government-owned. We're a 28E. So we've tried to align things as much as we can with local government budgeting. We pull the actual, what we call your mod factor number, which is the multiplier of your starting premium, right at the beginning of January. And when we met last October, November, we had a preliminary number where we knew it was going to go up this far. For the following years, again, the expectation is keep your nose to the grindstone and work on this. Many hands make light work, to use a good metaphor. Our hope is that you can dig yourself out of this hole. Plus, as some of these more severe claims drop out of that calculation, Hopefully all this comes together and just like you saw a significant increase, you'll probably also see significant decreases. That's going to be based on effort.

What is the cost of the county to the issue?

You don't pay anything to me. It's part of your premium. So this program was established so that the board allows us, we don't have very many of these on our our radar at any one time so that I can spend additional time. I have around, I don't know, 170 members. I cover the middle third of the state. I have two colleagues plus Dean. So, you know, we're busy, but this gives us permission to spend extra staff time with you folks. The program, I should mention, has been very successful since we implemented it. And one refused. They didn't want to do it. We parted ways. Another was almost done, and they gave up. Parted ways. Everybody else has stuck to it.

So if we strive for compliance, most likely our rates will go down.

We'll get back to where we were. That's the hope. We don't want you to get lower rates because you're lucky. We want you to get lower rates because of effort. It becomes a core value of Madison County that you want your people to be safe.

This didn't happen overnight. This happened over several years. Yes. Just unfortunately... Yes, so we just felt the ramifications last year. So it's going to take several years for us to get kind of back on track and recover.

Yeah, and what we're going to help you do is, I retired from Boone County many years ago. 25 years ago, we were in a safe boat. And people like Dean and other people wearing blue shirts, they helped us eat the elephant one bite at a time and dig ourselves out of the hole. And, you know, for the most part, that has stuck at Boone County after even 25 years.

It's just going to be a culture change and that's going to take time.

Yeah. That's why the program is a two-year program. You know, if you do a year, you get feeling like, okay, We got it under control. Let's move to our next focus. And then that's usually where things break down. So we looked at doing this as a two year. It's like everything else. You have to create good habits. You have to build those habits into where they just become part of your culture. And then even once you do the two years, what we're finding is those members that are in the three and the fourth year, and they really stuck with everything. We just had one county. They were paying around 160,000. They're now down to 70,000. And they're working and we've got a number of those examples where It looks like it's a long-term thing, but they'll tell you once they did it, it's like we should have been doing this. It's helped us with a lot of other communication issues, management issues, and that's why we had to structure it the way we structured it.

And if I recall, there was a very expensive claim that it's not gonna drop off this year, but I think it's two years. Is that your recollection?

Let me see here. So yeah, you have one claim that will come off probably next year, this time.

Yeah, so if we can prevent any further serious injuries in the meantime,

two years we should see some significant improvements to our frames and one thing i want to interject here too you everybody buys into this and they work hard and if something were to happen because of local government we know you know when everybody else is running out of business you know buildings our people are running in when everybody's getting off the road Our people are going out and clearing, you know, we have a lot of exposures. The reason a lot of insurance companies don't want to touch local government. Okay. So let's say that you have something happen and we look at the fact that you are working at this, you're giving it full effort. And the event that happened is something that after everybody looks at it and reasonably says, There's not a lot of control over this. We're going to still stick with you. Okay. I mean, a lot of places would just say we lost too much. We're done. We're going to stick with it if we see that effort. The other thing is we really see effort and why we cannot change the mod calculation. I mean, we have to follow NCCI. but for our members that are really stuck with this we do have some discretionary credits that we can also look at to reward your effort but you know one thing i want to emphasize is you know we're going to be the ones that are going to be helping you judge the level of effort we have some entities they want to sit there and say we're trying to give us the money Well, you're trying to 50% and we're not going to give you money for that. We're going to give you money at the hundred percent level. Okay. So, you know, we want you to succeed. Madison County is a part owner of the pool. Um, you know, if we all work together and this, this, um, you know, comes out positive means your people are going home safe. It means your employees are being productive rather than being injured. And you're going to save the taxpayers a lot of money. And you're also going to help the pool.

And I would like to just summarize. I've been very impressed by the steering committee. They're all very ready to go, very engaged. And I'm not going to ask you to do anything that Dean and former colleagues asked us to do at Boone County. And I've seen the results of all those recommendations. They work because they're tried and tested. So I've been where you're at. I know it can be done. Just take some time.

Number one, thank you both. Thank you, especially Scott, for all your help helping us to define this and then lay out this foundation. Excuse me, I see that the document that was uploaded into our board packet, we have the updated copy that says that we were voluntary, but the date that it must be signed by is still reflecting February 20th. Are you okay with us handwriting through that and putting today's date? Yes. Okay, so we won't need to do another copy then for signature if we- That's just our standard, we go out 10 days.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

You stated that if we have a very bad tornado, which we've experienced, and all of our staff is running into the tragedy, which is what happens, you don't fault us for that because they're doing their jobs. Is that, am I interested?

We look at, are they trying to do it as safely as they can? But yeah, we face some unique challenges in local government that other employers don't. And We have 80 of the 99 counties in the IMWC pool. We fully understand the challenges counties face.

I mean, we're gonna look at, we're gonna sit down with you, we're gonna really look at it. And I mean, if it's something, again, where given the situation that you know, the average person, you know, how would they have respond given the circumstances? But if we see, you know, where somebody just throws caution to the wind and they do stupid stuff, I mean, we're gonna, you know, that's gonna be a hard part of the discussion. Accountability is a big part of this program. And that's probably one where it makes everybody the most uneasy because it's sometimes really hard when somebody's injured and you feel bad for them. But there's times where we've got to look at what were they thinking, why were they thinking it. Same thing with the people that supervise them. I mean, accountability goes right up the chain. And we want to try to help you with all of that.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the opportunity. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. That brings us into the time for public comments. We'll go ahead and have folks come up if you want to speak. Just put your name and the town you're from. You will have three minutes. Whoever would like to speak, come on up to the podium.

Closed door meetings are fine. They're necessary. We have a concern though. Iowa code chapter 21, board of supervisors meetings must be open to the public by default. Closed sessions are only permitted for specific reasons, personal evaluations, confidential, and require a two thirds vote in open session, prior documentation, and detailed minutes recording. Procedural steps. Meetings must begin in open session with a motion to close approved by two thirds of the board of all present. The specific reason for closing must be announced and recorded in the minutes. I have a concern where this board doesn't seem to want to follow state law in having these closed door sessions. Maybe you could alleviate my concerns. You're supposed to vote in front of us that you're going to have one.

I guess I'm not sure where we have it, but you have up to three minutes. We'll let you finish.

Oh, I'm done. I'm just asking. That's the law, and I would hate to see fines levied against this board.

And to my knowledge, we're following it.

I've never seen any announcements about when the meetings are going to be and the vote actually taken to close them. You're supposed to do an open session in front of us. You're supposed to close the meeting in front of us.

Not aware when we have it.

Well, you are now.

Okay. Still not because she hasn't said when we did that. Anyone else wish to speak?

Hello, Steve Swanson, Winterset. See, the last folks from the safety thing, we're talking a lot about expectations. You know, I think we should have expectations before we enter into a contract. It seems like you guys have the agenda today to re-up solutions as contract for IT. I'm only here today because of failed expectations because I couldn't call in. We don't have IT. The bridge isn't working. See what else. My internet in my office was down for five weeks because of solutions being unable to come and fix it. That's pretty impressive. And then, oh yeah, I'm getting shorted in my paycheck. Another solutions product. This is all very positive. I think these are pretty basic expectations when you go to work somewhere that you're going to get paid what you're told you're going to get paid. Your equipment should work. and it should be upstanding. But of course we're not gonna have an annual review of solutions, we're just gonna go ahead and re-up the contract. I remember when we were talking about going to Solutions for IT, it was we'll try it for a year, we'll look at everyone's complaints, we'll discuss it, and we'll determine which way to go. And now here we are, not listening to anyone's complaints, we're just gonna go ahead and plow back into a contract with Solutions. Solutions, which is IT, which if I'm not mistaken, IT is under the auditor's office. January 5th, 2026, there was a meeting, a closed session meeting in which Heather Stanzel and Jess Hobbs both said they had a conflict with the auditor's office and with the entire office and with the auditor herself. I'm not entirely certain how those two people can vote on anything to do with IT when they have a conflict with the person who's the head of the IT department. That's yet another issue that we have here. The most open and transparent people in government, as they ran on, are having a real hard problem being open and or transparent with anything except for their misreportations and fraud. So, thank you.

Steve, could you send the documentation regarding that five-week lag and the issues you had with solutions, please?

I don't think it's your time to talk, Jess, so I'm just not going to answer any questions from you. That's public comment. Great.

I'll send you it in writing.

That's fine. I don't want to give it to you. Don't walk in on people in the bathroom, Jess. Cut?

Cut. Did you have something to say?

This is just coming from my heart. What happened to the good prayers? Because I'm going to say that these prayers lately seem condemning and honestly put such a negative to the room that I feel is not needed. So again, what happened to the good prayers? What happened to the prayers for thanking God for the day that we have been blessed with, for the air in our lungs, for our coworkers, for the beautiful county we live in? Do you know that it's been a year? A year. The end of January. The end of January. So now we're almost a year and a month. since we've been on the news. The news. I understand. I get it that we all have different opinions and there's so much rumors and whatever else is going on. And honestly, I don't know everything. And I'm not gonna pretend like I do. But when is it going to stop? I mean, when are we going to stop? I mean, did you guys listen to the prayer this morning? When are we going to get back to Miss Osborne? I know that things aren't perfect, and I don't live in a perfect world. But like, when are we going to start being kind to each other? When are we going to stop yelling at each other? It has been a year. A year. Life has been miserable for a year plus. I just... People are miserable. We're miserable here. I just don't get it. I don't understand.

Anyone else?

Just to follow up regarding the IT resolution, I didn't talk about it in my report because I don't agree with it being on there. As I had shared with Supervisor Stanzel, we're not ready for that yet. I really want to do a cost benefit analysis as I thought we were going to be able to do. And to Steve's point, I did send out an email to all of the department heads and the participants in our IT solutions. And I also sent a request on February 12th to Actual Solutions just for how much time have you spent have we gone over just things that would really allow us to do a full evaluation that would be it and that's what i shared with you i think it was thursday and you directed me to put it on there because it was your call so i just really want everyone to know that i did not just put that on there without pause. I was directed and I still disagree. We're not ready for these contracts to sign. So it should be tabled. I'm just telling you what I said and how I feel.

Anyone else? I would like the minutes to be left. I agree with Kylie. I think the last three prayers have been hurtful and

Anyone else wish to public comment? Otherwise, we'll move on to the resolutions. Alright, so the first one is a solutions resolution. The reason why it was put on here is because they sent us the annual renewal. As normal process, whenever we get annual renewals, they're normally put on the agenda to talk about. So in the case of solutions, we can't talk to each other outside of a meeting, so that's why it's on here. I did contact Solutions and ask for a ticket report because I've had a couple people express concern. I also directly asked them about the issue for the outage with Steve. I don't know if this was asked or requested, but the reason why there was an outage is because for whatever reason, when they ran ethernet cable, whenever they added things, instead of running a new run, they spliced it, which is completely wrong way. It's wrong. I know, but it's wrong. It's wrong. So it leads to outages. Not only that was the ethernet was not even run in a conduit, nor was it run on an appropriate cable run, it was put on the floor for people to walk on and trip on. So not only was that a safety hazard, it causes damage.

Who's they? Who ran that?

Previous folks who did IT, I'm assuming. I don't know. But either way, it was not done properly. It was inappropriate, so it was only a matter of time. My concern, though, and I ask solutions on this, is if this is the way they did for one cable, I'm concerned they may have done it that way for years with other cables. So we may be seeing other problems with the Ethernet cable going forward. Doing a complete rerun is very, very expensive. You're talking six figures. So obviously that's not something we can afford. So this is going to be something we'll probably have to deal with in the future as it fails. So it is unfortunate it was not put in properly, but here we are. So, and then regarding the report I got from the tickets, most of them are resolved fairly quickly. Some had some lingering issues. Now, to Michelle's point, if we do have an issue with a splice coming up, it's always best to have someone on site. So I suggested to her that we consider contracting with someone who on an on-call basis, so if her office is busy or whoever's busy.

You didn't say that to me.

In the email, I suggested it. I suggested doing an on-call. So, for instance, Summit Solution provides support for Winterset Schools on an on-call basis for that particular reason. They're also the ones that did the ROI between Johnson and Digital Watch Guard, I think you said. So I'm not saying we use them. I'm just using it as an example. I think that's a good idea. So if Solutions needs hands-on folks with IT, I don't know if it's appropriate for us to rely on our custodial staff for that. It should probably be someone who has a little bit of knowledge on that. So that's something we can consider going forward for something like that to where something fails and we have an on-site. The reason why it's on here is because I'm not opposed to going out to bid for something like this, but a fully managed service is not the same as IT support. It took me months, months to get a full inventory of our telecom. It was not maintained at all. That's why we're getting double billed for telecom services. That's why, and I found this out recently, is when we put in the... the fiber node, the TLS node, in public health, Veterans Services was not transitioned over to that. So they're still running off of internet. Higher latency, more problems, they should have been moved to the fiber immediately. That was not done. So that was one of the things. I did not tell them to go do that, because I wanted to talk to the board about it first. But if we move that to that node, it will decrease its latency for Veterans Affairs. And then we could potentially... reduce the services. Or we can leave them where we're at, disconnect the node now, and then just be done with it. It's up to you guys. But that's the kind of stuff that I'm concerned that we're going to find these things as they go on. And to build an RFP, we would have to build the actual inventory. Inventory of network, inventory of IPs, inventory of equipment. We don't have that right now. What we don't want is even if we had it, an RFP would probably be 30 to 60 days. And then there'd be anywhere from normal. My experience in the public sector in the private sector is six months to transition. So now we're going into next fiscal year. So my recommendation is we could table this at the board decides, but, um, to consider an RFP. but take the time necessary to build that inventory so our scope of work is accurate, so we know exactly what we're putting out there to bid so they can make responsible bids. And then we'll actually know if we have a good deal or not. So in the meantime, though, to address the concern that Michelle brought up is I would like the board to consider contracting an IT person for the cases where there is an outage that can be on site very quickly.

Is that going to add to the bottom line then, the cost?

It would add, but only as an on-call basis. So in the case with Steve, he or she could have come here and provided support. Oh, there's a cut cable, we need to run the cable. We wouldn't have to wait until Solutions came out. Now, the information I got from Solutions is that they were out, it did not take five weeks. Now, it could have been a problem with the splice cable going in and out, because what happens is when one of the wireless access points fail, in this case it failed because the ethernet cable failed, it automatically goes to the next wireless access point. Well, that next one was on the next floor, and our courthouse is stone. So it kept trying, and whenever something keeps trying, it increases the latency so it feels like an outage. So sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So that's not the best way to do it. But they got it back up. But in your case, if we had somebody that we could have called and said, hey, can you come out and figure it out, we probably could have figured that out within 24 hours. So I think there's value there. and it's something the board would consider, obviously not today, it's not on the agenda. But this is why I put it on there, is because I don't think we're gonna be able to find somebody between now and June 30th and transition our entire network over to a new managed service.

When this was explored last year, it was my understanding there's basically two entities we could work with. Okay.

At the county level, let's talk about that. so you're you're thinking of the actual license code this is the actual software that the auditor's office uses the treasurer's office uses three quarters office uses that's a completely separate thing this is the managed services so there's two contracts on this resolution the license code agreement which is what the systems the our elected officials use and then the other one is the managed services agreement which is the actual it network that keeps everybody working so um those are two separate contracts and we can use anybody for that yes we can use anybody for that with the with the license agreements for the for our elected officials there's only two there's tyler and solutions so we have no choice right okay so but for the i.t managed services we can put that portion out to bid if we wish And we put together an RFP, but we can't do an RFP until we have an actual accurate assessment of our network. And we do not have that.

I thought that's what the goal was this year to get that with solutions. I guess I must have missed. I thought that was supposed to happen. Well, that was what we kind of deemed our previous IT with not maintaining. We can certainly ask for that.

Yes. Well, we should.

I mean, is there a reason that they're responding to you and not to me then?

I, well, I asked, I sent them questions too. Yeah. So if you want to send, if you want to send them another email, copy me, ask for an inventory. We can do that. It's not something I think we should discuss and share with the public because it's a security issue, but it took me a long time to build the carrier one. And I don't, I don't, to be honest with you, I have no idea what we have for an inventory on the network side, because that that's something that should have been maintained and provided. When the transition to solutions happened last year.

And I thought that that was the reason to go with solutions and outsourcing IT was to have that brought current this year. That was one of the reasons we, no, that is what we wanted.

The reasons why we outsourced was to save money. That was the main reason, was to save money. So, and that's what we're looking on doing is saving money, lowering costs to taxpayers. That's what we like to do. So it's entirely up to the board. If you want to percolate on this for a little bit, we can certainly table it. But at this point, I don't see how that's beneficial. But if we do decide to move forward with it, I do think there's value going out to an RFP and getting this work done. So even if we don't use a different person, we should know what we have. We should know what we have, and we don't.

So how about if we table this and we let the auditor do a cost-benefit analysis and then we write up an RFP and then we'll go from there?

The RFP is the cost-benefit analysis.

All right, let's look into this more and let's get a better inventory. So let's table this for now. So what do you think?

That's fine, but further points of clarification. So any references I've had to IT issues, Solutions has remedied right away. Is there any flexibility with those monthly site visits? So for example, if the county attorney's office has an issue where they need on-site people, is there any flexibility to move that Solutions visit up?

Well, I know we've done it for the honors office before, because when we did the move, I know we did that. So I don't know where, I know you kind of, I think you kind of robbed from a future month for that. No, we didn't have to. Okay.

Just moved the time to accommodate.

They sent somebody, but he was afraid to go up into the attic, so they then delayed it two more weeks to send someone there. Oh, so you didn't want to claim it.

And I just do want to, somebody said something, the RFP, is the cost benefit analysis is exit what we're doing here is identifying what services are being provided versus what services were not provided that's what i look so an rfp is separate from a cost benefit analysis it could be included in it but I don't think they're the same thing.

So when you're doing that, because if you were, I don't know if you remember this, but back when we did have an onsite person, Solutions also did our managed services. Correct. So basically our IT person was basically the front facing person for onsite. The concern I have is a lot of the problems that I'm finding should have been done by that person and they weren't. May I interject?

Just because I'm going to tell you, I would like the ability to actually direct solutions to get our inventory up to date. That's what needs to happen between now and point, I don't know, a month. I would like to get all the equipment cataloged, all of the IP addresses into an Excel spreadsheet so that I can comfortably, instead of keeping it here, so that I can comfortably navigate and answer questions.

I think that's a good idea.

I don't have an issue with that. I would like, and I would like that, I would like to see how they do interacting with me.

Well, I'm assuming they are interacting. The questions I send is for stuff I have. So it's, I don't, I'm assuming each of the departments has a problem.

It sounds like we have to ask for the same thing. It really does. So, again, I'll just...

stop and you guys need to make your decision so um is there an issue renewing the other the license code agreement yes i want to wait let's just do it there's two there's two no i'm okay we're not going anywhere with That would be a pain to transition to Tyler. So with the license code support agreement, that's the exhibit A, that's with the software that the electives use. And that's critical right now. Yes. What's the deadline of when that needs to be approved? There are none. I think it expires, we have to look and see when we signed it last time. I believe it was April.

So we don't have to approve that today, but I guess what would be the reason for waiting on the license code piece of it?

None. Because we're going to need to do it. Exactly. Tyler is, I don't know, 10 days, 12 months out, and there is something called the migration that is incredibly expensive.

And just for the public's benefit, Tyler is the other...

There's two software support for county software systems is Tyler and Solutions.

So let's just, if I can, let's break this up and we'll approve. I would make a motion to approve the License Code Support Agreement Exhibit A for 8-2006-3231.

approve that that needs to be done i'll second that all right and um with the tabling of the yes and what would we do next and then we will table the other i would remove it and bring it back to strike that out right there Originally, I wanted to have two separate resolutions, but that's it. Then we'll bring it back. We'll bring it back as a separate one. Do you have a motion on the table? Motion for that?

For Exhibit A, not for the... And the table, the other one?

Yep.

Okay.

So just strike that in mind. Okay. So any discussion? No. Okay. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Michelle, if you could, if you run into roadblocks with solutions on providing that information, would you let me know?

I will. I will be annoyed about it if I enter roadblocks because I feel like I've been very open and accepting and very communicative with them. So it makes me uncomfortable.

So, and then if you wish, I can send you that trouble ticket log that I requested from them. I have. Yes. It's a month old, I think, but I can send that to you so you have it.

I would like to see that, too. You want to see that?

Okay. And they can send an update, too, if you ask them.

The 12th was my request. The 12th was when I requested the trouble ticket. Just, you know, have we gone over? Because, again, in the past, we've had, oh, you've gone over, so we're going to kind of level it up and, you know, I get that.

Regarding the on-site visits or?

Actually more so the solution software side. Oh, so the license code agreement. So that's separate. Got it. That's completely different. I know that, but I'm saying I want to make sure that's not happening with the support side.

There shouldn't be any. Agreed.

And that's what I'm saying.

And if you get a bill, let us know. But there shouldn't be anything in there. Okay. Okay. Alright, moving on, we'll go ahead and approve. The next one is approving a public hearing for the property tax notice. This is the maximum levy that we're required to do under Iowa code and that hearing is going to be March 31st at 6 p.m. Do I have 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 resolution is approving the Madison County Auditor to submit the maximum levy amounts direction to the Board of Supervisors. I actually put this on here. The reason why is I wanted to formalize what our direction was when we were talking about this at our last budget meeting. So it's clear for her that the direction is coming from us on this, and that is to keep the amount collected the same as fiscal 26, not necessarily the levy, but the amount collected is the same as fiscal 26. And I know you had to, you know, in order to not... harm secondary roads, we had to maximize the general basic and the rural basic and then offset it with the lowering of the supplemental levy. So that's what you talked about in your report. I did. So all this does is formalize that direction for her and I thought it best to do it as a resolution. So that's why I put that on there. So I'll entertain a motion to approve. I'll move. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Nay. I think you're going to hamstring us. My vote is nay. Motion carries. Okay, next one is approving a temporary closure of a bridge. Mike talked about this in his presentation. And a portion of the Irwin Bridge. Gosh, man. Ironwood Trail for bridge handle repair effective February 17th until further notice. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. All right, the next one is approving a work agreement between Madison County Secondary Roads and Joseph Hite, or HIT, effective 16 February 2026. 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? Aye. Motion carries. Next one is approving L. Garrett as a full-time motor grader operator. He said you could do these next two together. You want to do these two together? Yeah, he said we could. Okay, well, let's go ahead.

He did say it. I don't think we should. Oh, all right.

Okay, well, it'll take a few extra minutes. All right, so do I have a motion to approve L. Garrett as a new full-time motor grader operator for Secondary Roads? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. The next one is approving Z Barnhouse for a full-time working foreman drainage crew, effective 2nd June, 2026. 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. Okay, the next one is a motion approving application for use of grounds by the Iowa Quilt Museum for the airing of the quilts on...

Sorry, she did not get it to me, so you have, I should have. You need to table it. Can you please? Sure. I should have called it at the beginning of the meeting, but yeah.

Okay, we'll table it.

Sorry, guys.

No, that's okay. All right, all in favor of tabling? Aye. Aye, all right. Next one, board member reports. I'll let one of you ladies start. No, you go.

Okay, so the decategorization board is There's a lot of uncertainty there and there's legislation that program may no longer be funded, which is unfortunate because they do a lot of great work with providing resources to underprivileged citizens and helping them find the right program and the right fit and to find the resources. The director of that, that entity has done a fabulous job of managing that program, but we did just recently have a board meeting and there's uncertainty and it's not looking like it's going to be in existence soon. So they're managing that and working through that as they get more information and legislators pass legislation pertaining to that. Regarding the public health building and Veterans Affairs building, Diane, I know we talked about there's a copier over there. I contacted InfoMax, and they are actually going to come out. I'm meeting with them, I think, Thursday or Friday. They're going to come out with an inventory with all of our copiers, what we have under contract, what's not under contract. I have that. I met with them already. Okay, well they didn't tell me that. I didn't know that. So if you have information you can share. That's what I asked them to do is to lay that out for us. The one at the public health building is currently under contract, they said. I don't have you this specific share. But I think it'd be a good idea to kind of share. Okay, apparently. Well, we'll get more information on it. and figure it out from there. So I did have, we did the indoor air quality testing. We should have those results soon. We completed the asbestos testing. There is none. I do have that report that I can forward. Smith Sewer is gonna be out, I think Thursday this week to do a scope on those lines and to identify the location of those sewer lines there. So there's progress there. There was, There was an entire pallet of bottled water at that building. I didn't know that water expires, but it does apparently. So what I did is I actually, I pulled off the expired water and I gave it to a vet clinic. And then the non-expired water I took to Azra Health and donated to them. Hopefully that's okay to do.

I don't know what else we would have done with that. That's left over from the tornado. We could have had the Boy Scouts come open it all and dump it on our plants. I mean, really. That's true. If it's expired, I don't know, can you use it for human care? Because it's been hot and cold, hot and cold in there. In plastic.

I don't know. So I donated it. But as far as I did document how much I donated, that and... We have an entire cabinet full of sanitizer. No expiration on that. I think it must be a high enough percentage of alcohol in it, maybe. The question then comes, what are we going to do with that? I know Mitch and I have talked about it. We don't need to sit on all of this. So there's no reason why we can't donate those.

Can that be something that can be shared with the other emergency management regional group?

Yeah, and we can inquire, and I can find out, but my experience has been that all kinds of entities have all this leftover sanitizer and masks, and we have a bunch of masks left over, we have a bunch of bleach. So my experience, a lot of entities are left with a bunch of inventory, but we can sure ask. and see if there'd be a need. I thought we could donate it to the hospital.

Brady's right there. Brady, who would take all those gobs of pallets of hand sanitizer?

That's a good question. We've got so much of that and we've got so much now that we probably never go through.

Yeah. If it's in that building, hot and cold, it's still okay, isn't it? Because it's got alcohol.

It'll be fine. It's just alcohol.

They're just putting it on your hand.

Yeah.

Can you think of somewhere what we could do?

I'll get a hold of HHS and see if I can find out if there's anybody that needs it.

And talk to Mitch, too, because we're part of that regional EMA now. So they might be able to share it across the region if they need it. I'll talk to them.

Get a hold of HHS and see if we can find out.

Yeah.

um just to just to pause mckayla just told me this the resolution for the carver oh yeah i'm sorry yes it wasn't on the agenda but we made it we amended it yes thank you for reminding us do we want to pause on this and flip to that are you going to finish my board report go ahead and use your board report and then we'll go do that okay So I guess my question for the board and regarding that space, it's elderly services building, let's get the, my recommendation of course is to wait for the indoor air quality testing and then I'll proceed with meeting with Ms. Sewer this week. But I guess my question for the board is okay, if we get a clean bill of health with the indoor air quality, then what, do we want to do an RFP or do we want to, As I started to go down the path of finding local contractors, and I have three contractors locally, some referred by our staff, and that's who I originally reached out to. But we need to further define, I can define the scope so they're all bidding the same thing. And that would be what I would prefer to do so we can make sure we're using a local contractor and not bidding it out to a low bid Joe Schmoe from somewhere else. But I'm open to the board's thoughts on that and how you'd like me to proceed from here.

So since we're talking about public health billing, I have an update from HHS on what their needs are. So as I told you at our last meeting, they need to have access to the ICN for the state. So in the courthouse, we already have an ICN note. They can easily jump on. Not a problem. With the public health, with the elderly services building, that's going to be a bigger challenge. So the installation and pulling fiber alone is going to cost them about $30,000. I know. And it takes 60 to 90 days. So I don't think, I think for HHS, the better option would be to put them at the courthouse at this point. So we can figure out the logistics later, but I think we just need to... That's my recommendation to the board.

How often are they there, HHS? How often do they need an office?

They are there about once a week.

What if we took them and the public health nurse and put them at EMS? They're only there one day a week. They could give immunizations out at you, couldn't they?

Well, okay, for HHS, they have to have a private office. And they have to be on the ICN. All right, so they're in the courthouse.

And EMS does not have an ICN note there. All right, so HHS is in the courthouse.

So I think we're kind of stuck, and that's our decision, is putting them in the courthouse.

And then the only private office that's empty right now is the former auditor's office, correct? The elections office, yes. But I'm wondering, just for future use of the rest of that space, they really only need the former auditor's office, right? There's a door that goes...

Right, right, yes. So we can talk more about that, because with those three offices, I'm wondering if we should move out and move into a smaller office and put the bigger offices for the other folks, because we're not there all the time either. So just a thought. We can talk about that later. But anyway, back to HHS. So yeah, so the ICN known is, I think financially, even though technically it's not... Tax, property taxpayer money, it's still taxpayer money and I don't want to have the state spend the money if they don't have to. So I'm just going to, if you guys are okay, I'll just share with them that we're going to put them in the courthouse somewhere and then that would be a very easy move for them. To your point on the printer, they told me that the printer in their office has not worked for several years. What? Yes. So I don't know what that's about. We'll have to look into that. But their printer has not worked. And the same thing with their phone line has not worked. But they said they don't need a phone line. So we don't need to worry about that. But their printer and their phone line didn't work. So we could probably disconnect the bill for the HHS phone line because it's not being used. Is that in the audit that you sent me? Yeah. So yeah. we'll make sure when we move them to wherever they're going to finally land that all their stuff works. So since we're talking about it, I just wanted to talk about that. So I'll let you finish. Do you have anything else to say?

Okay. And then I requested from Michelle the contracts for snow removal and lawn care that we have. I think it would behoove us to evaluate those and see if we could get some more competitive pricing on that. if it's okay with the board. And... Do you want to put that out to bid? I think we should. We've done it quite a few times since I've been here. I haven't seen the contracts yet to know where we're at in those cycles, but I think we should take a hard look at them.

Six years ago, I wanted to hire somebody. I think it would have to be to have the equipment paid for that would be cheaper. Fire a part-time custodian.

Can you work on that? Do you want to cost-benefit on that and figure it out if that makes sense? Because I'd be open to that.

And if you want to do an RFP, we can do that too. That would be pretty easy to do. It's up two years. It's up next year.

So no point in doing anything. All right.

Well, we want to do it now, this year, before we have to go to renewal, because we want to choose somebody different.

Maybe later this year.

Yes. Because whoever you guys are doing it for budget time next year, you're going to want to know and make decisions at that point. So put a pin in that.

Maybe for fall to evaluate that? Yeah, I think that might be good. Okay. And then I did do the walkthrough with the custodial RFP yesterday. Thanks for putting that out, Supervisor Stansel and all that information. We had a great response. My question is, I've got the vendor sign-in sheet. Where do you want me to save that and share that?

So the reason why you have the sign-in sheet is if there's questions that come up, they have to ask them in writing, and then... The auditor would hold on to that. And then when we provide the answers, it's sent out to everybody who was there. So everybody gets the same answer.

So I forward that to Michelle and to the board, just so you all know. It was present?

Yes. And I indicate, and I refer to them on the questions. Send it in writing. Okay.

Yep, and there were two, there was a potential add-on for elderly services, so I went ahead and added that to the site visit walkthrough, they looked at that. And then there's another building for secondary roads, their sign shop, that just has an office and a restroom. But for now, I instructed them to follow the RFP, but they're aware of it, all the people who did the walkthrough, I told them it could be a potential add in the future, But let's just stick to the RFP for now. But they at least have that information or are aware of that possibility to add that. Let me see. I think that's all I've got. I'll go ahead and send that vendor sign in to the auditor and I'll copy the board on it. Okay, thank you. Do we want to move to that other resolution you missed or you wanted to?

I would ask that we let's do the resolution so we don't forget.

Okay, look, could you please read the number of it?

Let's go with resolution number SPVC.

I would make a motion to approve the resolution to take a small part of the Highway 92 to change it into George Washington Carver. Yes, that would be my motion.

I'll second it. All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. All right, it's done. We'll move on to your report, Diane.

I had an interview with the chamber yesterday. I had Seacock annual meeting and I invite all of our mayors and that was, Ryan Marquardt was incredibly helpful. I had aging resource meeting I attended, historical preservation meeting. We had union negotiations, budgets, and I've been at the public health building That's been very efficient. We have a lot of desks and very good stuff, better than a lot of offices have. So the offices come in, they put their names on them. I inventory them, send it to the, I have it all ready to send to the auditor. And then the offices come out and Secondary Roads was amazing. They picked up all the heavy stuff, brought their equipment and then delivered it to the other offices. EMS, you'll have to get with Secondary Roads and they'll help you. They just couldn't on that snow day. They'll help you get your cabinets. There's very, very little left, and I think to be efficient, we just call it a tag sale. Put a tag on it, people come in, pick up the item, pull the tag off, pay for it, and leave. There's just not much left.

There are just a few items you mentioned.

Then some we're going to have to find out what to do with public health. The trailer, Mitch has worked with the state, the other offices, they could use it to haul voting equipment. It could be used for many things. I think Mitch has got the states. I told Mitch, call the state and say we could assort this if you just give us a track. I don't think those states are usually okay because they don't want to mess with it. So it looks like we're going to get to keep that. The small one, I think the sheriff and EMS want it for drones.

So you want to make sure you coordinate with the Board of Health?

Yeah, we are. Mitch is working with them.

Okay, okay. Because I don't want to... Yeah, it's kind of his.

Yeah, it is. And then we're going to have to go from what to do. It's gotten kind of wet in there. And I know Indianola didn't want anything. So we're probably going to have to figure out what to do. The records, the state will figure out, tell us what to do with them. But the rest of the stuff, I don't know. It's been hot and cold and I don't know. A lot of it was COVID.

Well, it should still be temperature controlled. In a... Trailer? Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about the building. So the trailer, yeah.

No, they've taken everything that they need, and then everything else that was left in the building was marked not for human consumption. Brady was in there, human use, so we called the vet clinics. We didn't want to haul it to the landfill and pay. So the vet clinics took the outdated stuff that humans can't use.

So what's left? Dairy middle. Yeah, so do we want to... Did you want to...

Sounds like you've done tag sales before. I think we just need to put a price on it. Some of them are old chairs and things we probably might not be able to give away, but we'll just put a tag on it. And what doesn't sell, I have found in the past, if you haul it to the curb, you've relinquished ownership legally, and they can take it.

We would just have to do a resolution.

And we will, we can. I will inventory what's left. Okay. And I've tried to keep everything really clean and organized so you can see what's, so if they walk through it, it's all going to be kind of together. Okay. All like I was. There's a lot of, lots of printers, a lot of things, small printers for cars. I've inventoried it. It'll all go to the auditor for IT so we can keep track of all that. And there's lots and lots of things in the basement that's going to need IT stuff that's going to need to be disconnected and moved.

Right. So, and that's something we, some of that stuff is ours, some of that stuff belongs to the carrier. So like all the phones for me to come, we don't own those. Those are owned by Mediacom.

Okay, there's a lot of telephones out there.

So we'll have to evaluate. What we'll probably have to do is when we're ready to disconnect the service out there, have the carriers come out there, take their stuff, and then anything left.

We need to also, I think the auditor could do this, change that number because there isn't public health clients with the phone all day when I'm out there.

That's been disconnected. I mean, I'm working with Lumen the box numbers that we have, the ones we're paying for, they still had like Madison County Hospital under us and so I spent last week on it. That's why I'm concerned about the double duty you and I are doing. Really the InfoMap should fall under me as far as that goes.

I was just out there and saw that copier there and I wanted to find out more so I made a call.

Are you comfortable canceling your meeting on Friday then? Since I'm already working on it. Sure. Thank you.

Yeah. Appreciate it. If you're leaving it, that'd be great. So, just so you know, Lumen and CenturyLink are the same entity. I know they are. So, are you saying that there's stuff out there that has possible numbers?

I'm saying that we may be paying for phone services all over with our name on it. To the tune of about $500. Again, I'm auditing, okay?

Yeah. Because the spreadsheet I provided to you is based on all the bills that we've paid.

But I'm talking the analog lines that we still exist. That would still be one of those bills. Yeah. Yeah. They called last week. I'm sorry? They called last week.

CenturyLink did? Or Luminted? Luminted. Okay. Yeah, sorry. Okay. So, yeah, because I've been asking a bunch of questions, trying to figure out all that stuff. So yeah, it should be, those numbers should be on those bills. If you're finding numbers that are not on that inventory, then we need, that's something we need to track down. Gotcha. So, okay. All right. So are you, I'm sorry, Diane, are you done? Yeah. Okay. All right. So for me, for reports, we had a meeting of Madison County Development Group. So a lot of stuff that Ryan shared, Ari had the pleasure of hearing already. MPO meeting. Central Iowa Workforce Development meeting. We had a handbook meeting. I had some calls with solutions regarding tickets, inventory of tickets. We also had the courthouse inspectors out here with our architect, OPN. OPN did agree that there's some things that will need to be replaced, specifically all the cement sidewalks. So what they're happening is they're all flaking. I don't know if you guys have the pleasure of going walking to the sidewalks, if there's actual pieces of the sidewalk flaking off. So, yes. So the inspectors said they'll put some recommendations on what to replace it with. They recommended using the DOT level quality of cement rather than what was used. So I guess they're going to have more conversations on that. They focused a lot on the ramp, so we'll probably hear more about that. So at this point, I don't know what the next step is. We're just kind of waiting for OPN and Fright Homes to get back to us. I've already engaged with Alex and Cooney, letting them know this is where we're at. So we did that. And it already gave the update regarding the outage that our county attorney suffered with. So if you want, I can send you the board and Michelle that breakdown of regarding that outage as well.

Yes.

Okay. So that's my update. So next one, we'll move on to old business sale, the public health building. Was there anything else that... Anyone want to talk about agreeing that?

I think if we sell it, I think we can write in the contract that it's sold to an entity that pays taxes. We could write that in the contract.

We can't. I don't think we can do that.

Why not?

Can you do that? It's an auction. I don't think we can do that.

Yeah, we can't say we could bid on it or not.

We can't discriminate against people.

You want to discriminate against non-profits. Well, yeah, kind of. Potentially. Because we get no tax, nothing.

Oh, I don't know. I don't think we could do that. We could pray that someone who pays taxes buys it, but I don't think we can legally discriminate against anybody.

We could find out legally if we could do that, but I can't see us being able to do that. I just don't think we should sell it. Let's move on.

But anything else? Did you have anything else to add on that?

I guess, no, as far as just, you know, what we want to do on, you know, timing and, you know, the specifics of that and if we want to do RFP or just, you know, quotes for the... Are you guys okay moving Veterans Affairs traffic to the Nome so it reduces their latency?

Since it's there. I mean, because we don't know when they're going to move, we might as well improve their connectivity. Yeah. Okay. So I'll let solutions know that.

Are you in trouble with your computer?

Are you okay?

I'm really in trouble with my fax machine right now. I don't have a fax machine. I was using public health, but I went back there the other day with fax, and it was shut off, so I was like, shoot.

So I don't think, I haven't, I'm not aware of us shutting down any services yet.

It hasn't worked for a long time. Okay, well good to know.

Okay, well good to know. We'll have to look into that. Okay, so if you guys are okay, we'll make sure we move. Might as well put them on fiber. You'll see an improvement.

Will they do that at their next visit?

That's something they can do remotely. They just change the traffic in the service. Okay, so we'll move on to courthouse cameras discussion. I think we discussed this a little bit earlier. I don't know if there's anything else to add. Basically, the direction is We want a breakdown of all the costs, and then we could do a comparison between the server that Johnson, because what we got from Johnson was just the total. It didn't break down the actual individual licensure costs per year.

And that was my cause, was I did get a breakdown, but I didn't know what the impact would be for the annual costs, because right now it's very affordable. But if you add on... A total of four. Correct.

Because there are the four new licenses that we have to add on. So I think that's what we want to compare is what the actual initial capex is and then the operational annual cost. And then we can compare it to an entity, a server, like the digital watch guard. It's just a one-time license purchase and then you're done. So it may cost a little bit up front.

I think you'll note that The very first one, the one that you guys tabled, that was a one-time license with no, that was, did not have an annual, that was a one-time license.

Right, but you would still have, when you add new, for those particular cameras, it's an annual renewal for licensure. The server now, though. No, not the server. I'm saying the actual individual cameras have their own licenses that you have to purchase.

And that's why I'd like to understand more and have more data regarding those two different systems and what that looks like. And so we're future-proofing ourselves a little bit and making sure we're making the right choice on who we're landing with.

And it's not just about the money. It's about, I want our first responders to be able to do one login, Because in times of emergency, they're not going to have the luxury, they may not have the luxury to log in again. And then two, if there's an issue, if something goes down, it fails over to another server, which again, an emergency that can be critical. So I'd like to be able to do that. Okay. Anything else on the cameras? Okay. New business, board meeting rules and procedures. I think you wanted to discuss that.

I asked to add this just for some clarity. I think we probably should have reviewed this in January when we did our organizational meeting. But I'm wondering if there's, you know, just some clarity I think for the public. Typically, you know, public comment isn't a dialogue. between us. It stipulates in the board policy now that citizens address the board as a whole and not individuals. But I just kind of wanted to walk through what that decorum looks like, if there's any changes that we need to make to this board policy. I know we did have someone removed from our meeting two weeks ago, not at the request of the board. I know in the past there's been a request by the board for the sheriff to remove somebody and he did not. So I kind of just want to talk through that with the board of what this should look like, see if there's any changes that we need to make, and also to help the public to understand. I know, for example, at city council meetings, there's no dialogue, there's no back and forth. I've been at these meetings before where the mayor will make sure no one comments aside from him. So I guess if the citizens, they're demanding some responses during public comment, then our board policy is indicating that we should not. So what say you, ladies? Don't respond.

Well, I think you might want to explain the difference to folks between citizens' requests to be heard. I think it's just an education thing.

So there is a difference. Public comment is up to three minutes, but the citizens' request to be heard, if you want more time, you have up to 10 minutes if you request in advance to talk. But I would like to know the board's thoughts on this. if there's something we need to change or reiterate or reaffirm of how we're conducting ourselves during our, especially public comment session and interruptions during the meeting specifically, I guess.

Any thoughts? I think the treasurer said it very well. We're nasty to each other. This whole county is nasty. Facebook, people say horrible, nasty things. I'm glad I don't read it and I wish people wouldn't send it to me. I don't, it's terrible. I agree. And the respect is terrible. We can't yell at them. When they say something and they're leaving, we can't yell at them from this point either. Well, I don't think we are.

Yes, you do. I don't think we are yelling. Excuse me. You're out of order. You're out of order. You just lied. You are out of order. So back to the conversation, I think that, I think we need, at least the year I've been on the board, there was no dialogue back and forth unless it was initiated either by a board member or it was critical enough to where they felt, okay, it's on the agenda, we'll talk about it later, that type of thing. And the reason why, this is how Phil explained it to me, because we have to be careful that we're not talking about things that are on the agenda. So that's why the dialogue is, we have to be very cautious about that. So the purpose of public comment is so the folks can talk to us and share their feelings, share their thoughts and everything like that. And then we can decide, hey, that's a good point. Let's add it on the agenda, future board meeting or something like that, or something they can talk to individually. But the way Phil explained to me when I first came on was that we want to be careful that we're not talking about things that are not in the agenda. And that makes sense to me.

Where I struggle is when, during public comments, somebody may be stating misstatements, inaccuracies, downright lies, and then it just hangs out there. And when do we address it? So what I've been trying to do is make a note of it. important enough or a big enough issue and try to make a note and then address it at my board report time. But I guess I want to make sure we were clear as a board how we were approaching this.

But when you do respond at your board report time, then they cannot respond because in your...

But this is not a dialogue. Sometimes, and correct me if I'm wrong, when I've heard you do that, it's usually to clarify the record. and then, as you said earlier, things debate Facebook, and the public is free to do that, but, you know, if someone makes a false statement or they don't understand something, I think there's value in trying to explain it in some respects, but we have to be very cautious that we're not talking about things that are not on the agenda. So...

Which the public is free to comment on whatever they want in their time, it doesn't have to be on the agenda. Just to clarify that, right?

No, you told them they could only talk about things on the agenda. No, no, no. That's in a special meeting, Diane.

You're confusing the two.

For a regular board meeting during public comments, they can talk about it on a special meeting where we just have a few resolutions. They can talk about and address whatever we're voting on. at that particular point so there's there's two separate things here so we want to be careful about that i think we should do our best to follow the policy and unless the board wants to entertain a change to policy which we can certainly have a work session to talk that through but this has been the policy for as long as i've been on the board treat people with dignity and respect and they usually treat you that way back

Did you have anything else you want to talk about or did you want to put something on?

You know, I don't foresee any changes. I think it's good for us just to refresh our memories on what this looks like, and I'll try my darndest not to reply when somebody's defaming me or others during a public comment, and then I'll address it at a later time.

So, Michelle, do we have the rules and procedures on? We do.

And I'm just going to offer for Jess, would you like me as a part of my report in two weeks just to kind of remind people as the board clerk, just hear the things that when you say this to the board, they're not going to respond because that's not what public comment is about.

I have done that.

I know, but maybe there'll be more people here. We need to continually, regularly do that. I'd be happy to, because I feel bad for them, because they don't understand why you're not answering.

Why we're not responding.

Exactly. So, I mean, it's a legit concern, and if you're okay with me talking about it as an education type of thing, I'd be happy to.

I think that'd be good, since your office is in charge of board clerk duties. That's perfect.

Thank you.

And it may not be a one and done. We're going to bring her in consistently and have to make sure everybody understands us.

I know. It's hard to watch. It is.

It's hard to watch.

It is. That's normal. So I know other taxing authorities have the same frustration when people speak. So it's not uncommon. Okay. Anything else on that, Jess? No, thank you. All right. The next one is ordinance review and update.

So... There was a meeting held last night, work session. Again, they made it to the start of the matrix, which is what's going to show the permitted uses, whether they're permitted in that agriculture, in that district, or if a conditional use is needed. So they've gotten to that point, just starting into that. Long ways to go. Still a long ways to go. We did have, the board did set their next work session for March 31st, which I think is now going to be an issue because you're doing... PD levy, public hearing. Yeah.

Sorry about that.

So I will reach out to them and see if we can figure out a different date or location and go forward with that work session.

Could they meet in the conference room in the board halls? Perhaps.

Yeah, I mean, why not? That sounds good for our team. I mean, I should have it on as a resource. If not, let me know. And so it's just your group, your zoning?

Yeah, well, and whenever it's public, too.

Public, too? Oh, I don't know about that.

And what if someone wants to attend drama?

Oh, that's true.

Do you have room to do it in Mitch's room?

No.

I'm not going to go in there after hours with him not there.

Yeah, and it's also not really big enough for public comment time. And to your point, if they weren't in both, we wouldn't be able to attend both. Sorry, I didn't know.

Can we alter the times so that we're not conflicting? Well, ours is at 6.

And we don't want to limit public comment because they get up to 10 minutes.

Can you change yours?

I will attend to that.

Yeah, okay. We'll try that. Sorry for the conflict.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but they are considering legislation now to strip local control away from county and city governments over renewables. There's a bill that passed the committee in the House this past week. So that means it will be on the floor debate. So I would pass that on to your zoning board and let them know that we need to communicate with our legislators. And it was a bipartisan. So I don't know where this is coming from.

I was aware of it.

But it's going to take a lot of our control away.

Yeah. They're taking control away and operating.

Yeah. So I encourage folks that if you don't want... things like that in our county is to contact your legislators on that. Okay, thank you, Ryan. Appreciate it. Okay, anyone else wish to say anything before we adjourn? I'll make a motion that we adjourn.

Before you do that, can we show you our new Time's Up notification? Oh, no.

You're going to honk that horn. Honk it. I think I'm okay with that. I don't. We're just kind of a little levity.

There's a motion and a second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor adjourn. Please vote aye.

Aye. All opposed?

Motion carries. We are adjourned.