Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Okay, now you won't stand up and tell the pledge of allegiance here. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I get a motion to approve today's agenda. I will move to approve a I'll second that. Call for a vote.

I Okay, the minutes I move to approve the minutes. I have a second. Call for a vote on that. Chippet I perfect. Now Ray, there's no time to item. So if we want to jump around if you want to do the alliant deal first or you want to finish up with that? I finish up with I'd like to take on um donated leave first. Okay.

Um a couple years ago we made a number of changes to the handbook and donated leave was part of that um process. Uh Alicia and I have been working on handbook changes um and it became it's become pretty apparent that this particular provision is really burdensome to department head and and cost us a lot of money and I mean one of the reasons we're here is this chain has the potential to save quite a bit of money because it stands if you have maximized the amount of sick leave you you can get you can sure get another 960 hours donated to you. So, you know, potentially you could be out almost a year paid and that department would you have to pay you plus they wouldn't have a person to do the job. So, um, we tried to strike a middle ground or a ground that at least still recognize that this might be important for people to have and be more reasonable cuz the the big difficulty is that if um I have somebody sick in my apartment and somebody else from secondary roads donates their sick leave, I pay that sick leave, not the secondary roads. And if I don't have, you know, if I have to replace that person with temporary help, I can't do it. So, this is an attempt to bring this into a little more reasonable amount in terms of available leave. I don't know if there's a right answer, but 960 hours seemed like an excessive amount to me and Alicia. So, that's where this first issue was coming from.

How many hours? What? How many hours? No, you can get 960 hours or 6 months essentially 120 days 120 days donated to you.

So that varies for employee work hour day but still it's a high amount when they already receive I know different situations they might not have been here that long but we can max out at 750 800 hours of sick leave already and then they're able to get more than what we can even max out at. It's creating this, you know, it just keeps they get down to two weeks and they do it again. I mean, you know, they it could go on for you never know how long depend, you know, if they're younger and something happens and so it's just creating a financial burden on the county as well.

Okay. In plain English, what are you recommending? 240 hours for 8 hour workday people and 220 225 for 37 half hour people.

So it goes to 30 days but then it would be per employment lifetime. So you have something major you can do this once you know you're out of time with FEMA. You have to be on FEMA to receive this anyways. But uh and then say like okay something happens you do this and then 10 years later you're in a car accident. The department head can obviously override that and let you get donated time again. But it's just try and keep it from the snowball effect of Yeah. Like Ray said, he's coming from a different department now. He's paying it and he has no he's still paying his employee, but yet he's not getting work done. He's having to either replace and you're doing budget amendments or you guys understand what's going on or you're still all fuzzy?

I I understand what's going on and and I definitely understand the the one the financial burden, you know, especially when you don't have that in your budget. Uh thank you. So you're doing away with the donated time. No, just just you're just going to cap it at You're going to cap it at 240 and 225. So cap it essentially for a 40 odd person 6 weeks instead of 6 months essentially. Okay. Now is that a one time lifetime thing or is that per year?

It would be a lifetime unless the department had intervened and authorized additional because right now it's as many times as you want. Yeah. Yeah. So if you come back to work for a few months, all the conditions reoccur, I can get more donated sick. Somebody I don't want to be heartless, but 6 months in the top of all your all your earned leave, that's a lot. Especially if somebody like is a new hire or something. M

when we increased all the vacation I mean the amount of PTO that employees already received like I said I know it varies if they been here haven't been here very long and this happens and and this cap it's just what we came up with. It's not set in stone. or do you think something else is more fair or appropriate? I think something needed to be done.

Well, I agree with it because if we're and kudos to everybody who's willing to donate their sick time because they then won't have it if they need it. And I think it's awesome that people are willing to do that. But um if you don't need sick time and we don't have to pay it, then that's just money we haven't spent. Whereas if you donate it, it's being spent. Yeah. It's not paid out. So

So that's that's a that's a big responsib. So yeah, this is definitely needed. My my thought is should we have our elected officials and department heads look at this and see if they believe this is workable for their people. I we did that. That's how we got to where we were last time. Have a huge committee that

you know I just think you need to make a decision whether you like it or not. You don't like it then we'll go back. And I think there was a department head involved in this already because it's the sheriff and I have talked about it. Um he's very much in favor. Uh in fact he favors no simply I've worked in places that allow it but it's usually like a day or two here and there.

I've never seen it to this extent. Um, this that's I know one county that we had talked to some time ago, they had a call a countywide bank. If you want to donate some time, it would go in this bank and if somebody needed it, they could use it out of there. But I don't know if they had a cap on how many hours they could use or anything like that.

There used to be caps on how much could be donated, too. like I don't remember what it changed a couple times on the vacation how much you could donate to that or the sick leave or now there's no cap on how much you can donate even it's just how much they can receive but there's no numbers in here. No, that's what I mean. There's I can donate as much as I want, but they can only receive well 960 hours if they're 8 hour employees where it used to it used to be like 20 hours of sick leave remember the exact numbers but but what I'm getting at is that you want to change it to 250 right 240 30 days

okay you don't have it it's not it's in 30-day it says so program require experiments. D I just changed 120 days to 30 days, which equals it's based on your normal work day. Okay, that's where if they work 7 and 12 hours versus eight hours, I'm sorry. We started talking an hour days. Okay. Okay. Got it. 30 days is still generous and they can still use the uh FM already. Yeah. So, they have to be on FEMA in order to uh qualify for this and

receive this be down to two weeks of their own paid time first before they get any donated time.

So, I mean they've already when they come to this part, you know, I again varies how long they've already been on. But female they get up to 12 weeks in a year, but they use their time their time first. So even after they get the donated 30 out for 30 days or whatever, they would still their job would still be held as long as I'm just wouldn't have the paid time off after that. And he states that if I give up 10 hours of sick leave and all a sudden I need it, I don't have it. It's gone. It says uh all unused leave is forfeited. Um

once you cough it up, it's back to use it. You've already given it. It's done. It's not available for you. Very good. It's gone. It's gone. Well, then with you know like the 120 days from a payroll standpoint say say they were to get that much and then come someday they quit retire how do I determine which hours were donated and which weren't to pay them out whether you know if it was vacation and they get paid out how do I you know go back and determine all that versus somebody new comes in to do payroll and you know they wouldn't know that. Yeah, you record keeping them at all.

You would know at that point they've used all theirs and this 120 hours uh for 240 hours is definitely donated to child once they used all and they hit their anniversary and get their own vacation, but all that's on the books. So, how do I pay out if they quit the next day? Yep. once they're back to work from I did tell Haley I want to we have our leave codes in our system and right now we just add it whether they got vacation sick leave donated I want to do an actual donated leave pay code

leave code so then it's all separate so then it would be easier to keep track if gets paid or not if they were to leave or So you can donate vacation now. Yeah, right now you can donate vacation personal days. It should be by the day and sick hours. So we're trading hour for hour. Sorry basis. It's on an hourly basis. Yeah. I mean personal days have to be donated by the day. eight 7 and 1 half hours. But

you two understand it? I understand it. Okay. Can I get a motion either to approve or disapprove resolution 2626, the minute resolution? I would move to approve resolution 2626 which is amending resolution 2522-25. I'll second that motion. Okay. Call for a vote. Chet I will make this go into effect at the end like the start of the new paper or Yeah. Yeah. Maybe make that in the motion make it when it's effective.

Okay. I would amend my motion to have this uh resolution become effective the beginning of the next pay period which will be Saturday. Yep. This coming Saturday. So it'll be May or April 18th. April 18th. Second. Call for a vote on the amendment. I

Okay. And uh the next issue was also aimed at cost saving for the county. Um it is a resolution to approve a return to work policy. Our insurer has really pushed for this. uh and applies not only workers comp injuries but also apply to nonwork related injuries but it's primarily targeting workers comp injuries because right now we don't have anything that requires them to return to work on a transitional basis um so they can sit at home and collect uh depending on whether they can do a different job whatever. So this one thing this policy does it it puts in deadlines and procedures. If you're injured, um you once your injury is established, once you have it, then we send a new policy, we send an evaluation form to the doctor along with the job description so they could um provide us a letter saying yes, they can or can't or they can do the job with these changes or they could do maybe do this other job. If we can't accommodate that, then we would send them essentially an offer letter for this other job pending their full recovery. While they're out on leave, they uh would have to contact their department head once a week for updates and we would require medical evaluations every 30 days or at each doctor appointment whichever occurs more frequently because right now we don't have any deadlines when they have to update us. We don't have any requirement that you stay in touch with your department head on a regular basis. Um the policy defines the different types of of leave disability temporary total temporary partial median

period leave. So based on which one you have kind of triggers what opportunities or options are available to both the employee and the county. But um insurance company want this cuz they want to see people getting back to work in some capacity as soon as they can. So that's the purpose of this policy. And again, it saves the burden on the other employees filling the gaps too and and pay more with the overtime or filling shifts, etc. on the insurance pool. Ben County is the only county that does not have this type of program. We're the only

and we know where we sit on the workman's comp ladder because some of them with that supplemental they they get more they make more on workman's comp than they would on a normal paycheck.

Pay homes more sitting at home when they could be doing something. I also like the writing in here where if they refuse to come back to work, they don't get paid anymore. Right. That's I like that wording. I like that a lot. Yeah. the uh form for if they want to supplement their work comp benefits that was taken from Cedar County, I believe that Judy had given me.

They don't supplement automatically. These employees would have to use their own time to receive a full paycheck. Otherwise, they're just getting the work comp benefits, which is like 80% of their past 13 weeks average. Right now, the county just supplements them until they receive their full paycheck. So, any work comp pays weekly and we pay bi-weekly. So, I have to hold on to their checks until I can take them out of their net pay because of all the deductions, health insurance, that stuff. Can you clarify this strictly with injuries not illness for a set period?

Okay. Injury only. Yep. This is work comp injury for on job and then off job is a little less detailed but like we have these forms for to send back what can they do that you know you're not bringing back too soon that they're going to now create a work comp claim but the big advantage is we're going to actually have more information about our employees you know injury situation because now we aren't getting just kind of updating, you know, sort of going to step up the game, I think.

So, we've also had concerns like, you know, another department head was emailing out. Does anybody have any work for the so and so to fill the gap for them? if you want to address anything on that list. Well, like light duty like if like say my office during election. Okay. Yeah. Somebody can come and stuff that you know if they're not able to go physically do something but they could sit at a desk and stuff envelopes or something like that.

Yeah. I mean I don't see anything wrong with reaching out to all the department heads and saying do you have something this person could do? You know, years ago, my dad was the weed commissioner here in David County. Wait, you can't cut weeds. He would come instead of, you know, just pending. He would come in and help the generous in the courthouse by polishing grass and everything else. So, we need to get back to that, I think.

So, in that situation though, this the say it was a secondary road employee, those wages would still come out of secondary roads even if they were in my office doing something, right? So what does the statement here about us picking up the difference between workman's comp and the regular wages? Is that

the second part? Um letter L four employees will receive pay directly from Benton County insurer employees have the option to supplement their pay by using their paytime off see your tax form.

Very good. Thank you. Was the mileage always been there? Reimbursement to their They have always been able to. Um I did have one recently and she just asked if they use their form. So, I put that in there that they can they have to create a risk form, but they have to either turn it in directly to their worktop case manager or I can submit it for them. Do you think we should put something in there at the current rate for mileage? It is in there. Well, they figure that out. Okay. The work cup.

I just send it to them. I don't do anything with it. So, they do that. So, we wouldn't have to. Yeah. Cuz you know how that changes your Right. Right. I agree. This is definitely needed. Cost us a lot of money. Just one thing we probably should have added if you were to not do the sub supplementing anymore, how that would work for their benefits. They have to pay their premium. Yeah. Because we paid the health insurance a month prior.

Oh. So that is a good point. That's why when I do take the work comp checks out of what we pay, I have to do it off the net instead of the gross. So that's all taken out. And that would same would go with the donated leave. If somebody was out on medical too, if they're still on FEMA, they would have to pay their their premium share, right?

I know it's a lot to throw at you. It's really something we need. It seems like we've had a cluster of these issues come up lately. Absolutely. Want guidance for sure. Make her insurance happy.

Judy was at the last safety meeting and we talked about it a little bit. She had set an example that Ray took this from and I just kind of added the uh nonwork or yeah nonwork related injuries just to kind of have it separated. Had a visit with Judy quite a bit about it as well. Not the last year. Would it be smart to send it back to you, Ray, and add that in somewhere on the insurance? It's in black and white. Yeah, I think so. I should have thought of that. Sorry. Put it in

put it in with that pay. We need to put it in the other. Well, that I believe is in the FEMA. That's covered under fem. So, but I do Yeah, I think needs to so that those employees are aware that if they're unpaid or didn't accept that they're responsible for just their portion. That's my opinion. It should be in writing. Okay. That's the only thing I would have. Oh, I said you can still approve it today. It can just be like so long as this is added. That's right. That's take up more time doing that. No. Yeah. So like you can just put in your motion what you want to happen with this addition. Yep.

And when it's going to go into effect again. Yeah. And I I assume those that are already on it they'll be grandfather. Yeah. Put it into place say similar to the 18th again start a new but that won't affect the ones that are right. I don't think you can't change the ter can't go back because they didn't agree or know this was they yeah they weren't told that this is the situation they're going to be facing anymore. So now when we're done, we need to publish this to department heads uh along with the other policy too to make sure they distribute it to their employees or just do all users countywide and send it out

or payroll number. Yeah, something like Yeah, I had an employee ask because they what if we don't have internet we have it on the website the handbook and stuff but so I thought about getting all these changes if you do them in there all actually corrected update the effective date and then ask departments not everybody has emails either like at road and stuff I don't have everybody's email say can you get a list of how many hard copies you need and we'll just print them off so why not just print one copy and give it to the department head because every one of the employees ends up around the department head's desk and they can ask to read it

sometime. Yeah. Maintainers out. Well, I just don't want anybody saying, "Well, I didn't know about it." So, I just And I think this is something we can reiterate at our all employee meeting. Yeah, we're going to go over the employee meeting for sure. both some something we can have them say read and signed it and and have that they did that actually say they read it well this particular one doesn't it have a sign on it does it yes well

it just says for the handbook the handbook one if they sign then we have a copy cuz we added the safety footwear policy in there. That could actually be up to the heads of the department again too if they have a department meeting. Yeah. Right. It be up to them and the department to make their employees sign it. And we had that brought to our attention today, too. So, I think we need to go back to that footwear says up to $150. Yeah. But it doesn't say is that one pair or what can they get two pair under the $100 to get their well $150 used towards

but it's notified in there. It was talked about but it wasn't specified just one pair. So this person had got two pairs like tennis shoe ones and it was changed and he didn't get his full 150 and they got paid for the one pair. So, but what if somebody went out and bought a more expensive pair? Then it's that's not fair. They got more towards theirs than what I did. So, always something. Trust me, we hear all that. My thought is you get $150 worth of use around. It's up to you. Yeah, that's my thought.

If you wear a $80 pair of shoes and the next guy buys some for 150, you get the 80, they get the 150. That was your choice. Yeah, that's my answer. All right. I want to fix that. That's the way I understood it. So, just leave it as one pair. Yeah. You have up to $150 you spend. If you spend more than 150, you get 150. But that's what I'm saying. He didn't get 150. He only got however much the one pair was. It was on the same we appreciate spending the same money.

But he didn't it didn't say one pair. It says for footwear. We might need to just specify that to one pair. We're gonna get two pairs. Yeah, we've got some lesser changes that we've been discussing in the handbook. When we come back with those, we can, you know, insert that wording. A pair. Okay. But these these two I think are important that we didn't want to wait until we had the complete, you know, list of other changes. None of the changes we're talking about are significant. Just kind of cleaning things up. Again, the wording,

one person interprets it this way, interprets it this way, just clean it up so everybody's on the same page and making my job easier. Alicia, every department's handled the same this way. Yeah, she's done an excellent job of bringing structure to a lot of these issues and and I'm really grateful she's helped me with some of this really it's daunting. Yeah. Okay. Getting back to the return to work policy and resolution

looks like 2627 adopt the Bent County return to work policy. Can I get a motion to either approve or disapprove the resolution? Approve with that one change. And then then add that in. Yep. Just do that in that motion. I would I would make a motion to approve resolution 26-27 adopting a return to work policy with the addition of the wording as it was discussed and effective April 18th. Effective April 18th. I will second that. Yeah. I came and I bull's eye.

All right, let's turn to the power plant. Um, as you know, I've done some research. And our intern has really been helpful, too. It's really something. What we're looking at is a a proposed power plant with a natural gas pipeline to support it. These projects are regulated by the uh Iowa utilities commission uh and it's an administrative process. So to understand when an application is filed with the with the utilities commission then affected parties like joint land owners are given notice and then once you get that notice you have um the opportunity to file as an intervenor. uh you have to you have to meet certain criteria being legal terms you have to have standing which means you have to be directly affected by the proposed project. So the Iowa insurance commission once they receive the application do the notices um accept or deny intervention request then the discovery process begins where they send out to all the parties you know the application any attached reports uh if you file resistance then the other parties get it and it's just like in a criminal case essentially to ensure everybody has all information about what is being proposed and how it is expected to play out. So once the discovery process is completed then um there'll be an administrative hearing

from the administrative law judge uh and these can last quite some time and there's a lot of people involved in coming days or week even two weeks. The initiate law judge will then issue a ruling um approving or denying the project and then those parties who don't agree could go to district court and try to get the court to reverse or mander um the findings. the standard when I say standard I mean what the law says they have to to show um and the insurance commission will have to decide if this meets the the convenience and necessity of the public. So this convenience and necessity standard essentially is a balancing test whether the benefits outweigh the harms to put it really simply and I'm really simplifying that. Um so they will make this balancing decision this decision on this basis balancing test. The courts have interpreted that their job is not to second guessess the balancing that they go through and the conclusion they reach. Their job is to determine if the commission followed the proper legal steps. So in in legal terms, great difference is granted to the Iowa Utilities Commission on these issues. They're not going to second guess it unless there's a constitutional issue that arises and those are always reviewed denovo or in whole or in totality. So this battle really has to be at the utilities commission level. Uh that's your best shot at fighting this thing. Now,

different people have different interests and and that's going to play into this quite a bit because the joint land owners has strong claims. You know, they're affected most directly the effects on their land, their air quality, water potentially. So, they have in that sense the greatest or as good as anybody are going to intervene at the IU level and fight this. Second to that is Atkins is on a a a good fight, a good footing to fight this, but they've got to do it. They've got to they're directly affected by the offset in the ordinance that Lyn County passed at 1.9 miles because they are what's called a residential um zoning area. So, and that ordinance targets residential zoning areas that's offset. So, they've they've got a good argument. Um the counter argument is going to be that well ordinance only applies to within our county trying to research to see if there's any overlap where counties and picking counties doesn't seem to be anything out there on the issue. So I think that's it's a fresh area for Atkins to challenge this thing. Our situation is much more difficult because we have to have standing. We have to have Ben County has to have an interest specific to Benson County. So while it might affect the air quality of the three neighbors, that's not Ben County. We don't own that land. We don't have the right We have the right to control the types of land, but we don't have the right to control, you know, those sort of things. Um,

to clarify, it's like legal interest. Yes. Of course, we have interest with the public, but we we're talking legal interest that separates everyone from every, you know, just like when we like talk about cities and like separate obviously from unless they have a separate code section. It's no different like say a government entity from a private or a private land owner or a private individual, you know, legal interest versus public interest. Make that make that difference. is uh Ben County legal. What legal interest can it be? And and let me say I'm opposed to this project. I would like to see nothing more than to have it fail,

but I have to advise the county on what they can do. And the best arguments lie with these adjoining property owners in Atkins. um you know if there were potentially some conservation area that might be affected the problem with that is and I'll get into this morning in a bit is that just to say it might be affected is not enough. You can't and we all we all know the bad effects from this but that's not enough. So the interest that the county does have though is in infrastructure and roads and 32nd Avenue is or the Benton line is a boundary road. Currently, there's a 28 agreement in place with Lynn County, and it just so happens we under the agreement are responsible from Highway 30 South on the Lyn Benton Road. So, we control that. That's our road essentially of the agreement. I talked to Myin, I said, "My what kind of effects are we going to have this thing goes through?" He said, "Well, the daily traffic isn't really the concern." He said, "The concern is the construction traffic. it's really going to tear this road up. And I said, "Well, let's say that that the project's approved. Will Link County, since they've sort of caused this thing to happen, will they take the road back? Will they cuz Link County, they they maintain Wind Road going north from Highway 30?"

South. No, we have it south, they have it north. Oh, okay. We have it south and parks right south of the

Okay. So he was going to talk to his counterpart and see if worst case scenario happens that they would take that back and give us the north half so we wouldn't have to pay for the cost of that you know maintenance from the construction traffic. Um in addition to the things I've discussed what's probably even a bigger concern is the natural gas pipeline it's going to take to feed this uh facility. Uh there's several cases uh in the Supreme Court. One's Pente versus um the the code access pipeline which really really covers this whole scenario very thoroughly. And what it says is that inland domain can be used to take land to run this pipeline and that of course it again it comes down to this determination of convenience and necessity. But in in the Dakota Access Pipeline, North Dakota had oil fields that just, you know, were producing like crazy and they couldn't get the oil transported. So they wanted to go to this pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois and it went to I think like 29 Iowa counties or wanted to go through 29 Iowa counties. And a lot of people fought this. They really dug in and fought hard. And the Supreme Court ended up allowing pipeline saying land owners don't have the right to prevent the taking of their land, which I have a hard time with, but they are entitled to have some say in what they're paid for it. But it h the thing that's I think maybe going to help in this situation is it has to be for a public use or benefit of public use. This project appears to be solely for

the benefit of Google. uh not you not public infrastructure or things of that nature. So when it comes time for the IU hearing that will be the argument that this um doesn't benefit the public in the way that this the statute requires. The other thing is that the court said if land owners can come in and propose an alternative you alternative that's less invasive then they have to follow it. So the, you know, along with the a the Dakota Access, there's the carbon pipeline cases, and they're all pretty consistent that if these things meet the public convenience necessity standard, um, then they're got a strong likelihood of being passed. Now let that because to me convenience and necessary is pretty convenience and necessary is pretty broad. What does that mean? The Supreme Court said in in this pundy case that necessity does not mean absolute necessity. It doesn't mean that they didn't go any further than that but you don't have to make it it doesn't have to be absolutely have to have it to be able to build it. So that's kind of a summary and Derek might want to jump in here, but um as as Benton County, we if we're going to read it has to be on something that directly affects Benton County, not it's not its residents. It has to affect the county.

Legal interest. Legal. That's what I'm talking about. Legal interest. You know, everybody agrees this is a bad project. Everybody agrees we don't want it. Everybody agrees we need to fight it, but we have to worry legally where we stand and and and it's going to be tough. It is. And

if we jumped in, it would be um and I you know, like last time when we were having these conversations, uh you know, private land owners have options that we don't. they do and and they might benefit from pooling the resources and get an environmental law attorney who's done this before, you know, because we're only we only have a small box that we can work into, especially constitutional wise. Um, and also what the statutes of Iowa allow us to do. Um, and so that's where it makes it difficult. Whereas like say private you know you have the whole constitution open to you and whatever option is there because the whole point of constitution is the relationship with the government and people the government

question the 2.5 mile orance is that a Cedar Rapids or is that a county? That's a county. Oh, could we adopt something that says three miles and have it on our books and then Atkins go and do something on their own as well? So, here's the thing with that. If we pass an ordinance, we're essentially opening up the door for someone to come in and say and then and then you have to then go by those rules because you can't just be like, "Nope, we're just doing this to defeat. We're we're we're almost a discriminatory use and you just throw that." to our current 70 CSR really helps us more than if we were to adopt this. Correct.

Actually, this 90 CSR argument that's what the land is is a really strong one. It will carry some weight. I don't know if it will be a deciding factor in the hearing, but the need to preserve agricultural ground and and this is some of the best ground maybe in the world, certainly United States. Agree. Yeah. So I think that's a powerful argument that certainly need to be asserted

and it's tough cuz our jurisdictional line it's right on the other side and I mean I've heard people where they grew up say like in Jasper County and Pulk County decided to uh landfill right on the border. So, and the wind just blew everything into Jasper County, you know? It's just it just something that sucks. It's like uh cuz nothing we can do against another county. We can't do anything and and it makes sense. You know why? You know, we're supposed to be agents of state government. If

this was in county, we could stop it with our land use. We could and that's why it's not in Midtown. I was going to say that's exactly why we don't have that. Right. So in the future if legislative would pass something it would supersede our ordinance, wouldn't they? Oh yeah. Then that means we would have it be preempted is the legal term and then we would have to go back and at this time nothing is at that level. and uh and Pisley and and I'm going to be honest, I know I said this last immediately. We might not have a whole lot of options just because how we're classified on the legal side.

On the legal side, so here's the plan. We wait for the application to be filed in the in the utilities commission and then we because until we know exactly what their plan is, what their supporting factors are, you can't really develop a strategy anyway. But once we get the application, we'll look for ways to intervene and if we can, we'll file we'll intervene and file our objections and make sure we're part of the process, you know, and and go from there. and and I know sitting back and because like Scott sent out a letter which you guys had and that's a very well-ritten letter and I think it really lays out like great issues that you guys are facing.

Yeah, just full disclosure, I'm a member of the city council. Jeremy Rondo is a member of the city council here today. We're not here to represent the city. We're interested in Ray's comments today as well as various people in the room. The only thing with the uh county not being able to help us out a whole lot because it's more of a other issue. Um since that's within our fire district and we have sole responsibility going into that fire district into Lynn County, does that give us any more leverage from the uh the county attorney aspect?

Well, I I guess here's here's our thing. We don't really have a countywide fire oper, you know, fire department per se or like EMS. And so that's where cuz like that's something that you guys specifically budget for. You guys Well, back to the budget. We'll be coming back to the EMS budget because we're going to have who knows what dropped on us to support that facility. Obviously, we're not going to go put out a natural gas fire. It's not going to happen for Atkins, right? that's going to be running until they get it shut off if they have a vent there. However, there's going to be un as you're all familiar with unmandied requests and they're going to dump that on Atkins

and we're going to get your EMS fund as hard as we possibly can. You guys are volunteers. Yeah. I mean, you're asking a volunteer to go into that situation. Whereas in Cedar Rapids, if it's the alliance people have told us and they've mentioned at meetings that a lot of us have all attended that will be under the responsibility of the Atkins fire district EMS and fire support. In this in this case, in the Bundy case, they talk about effects on infrastructure, which is what you're talking about, right?

Um that factor, the CSR factor. These are all things that in this hearing should be, you know, given some weight by the Iowa police commission. So, you know, Atkins may want to consider putting together, you know, some sort of documentation to show how it would affect them if or how we're not able to meet, you know, the necessary fire protection requirements that this will this will sell

in Alliant and in in in respect to that though, Alliant hasn't reached out to us. Uh, as much as they've received the supervisors getting those emails, they haven't told us a whole lot of anything. And I think it's because uh that the letter hasn't gone out with the notification. And hopefully somewhere down the road uh we reached out to them. Scott's reached out to him two or three times and they have not yet to come forward to us with any type of information. Specifically, I know about the fire department, what kind of constraints that's going to cause us then we're going to in turn go to the county for the EMS budget to to fund those requests. Um, and and back to the 2 and a half mile buffer or whatever the buffer is, it's really funny. Uh, I I I wish I wish the supervisors would do it for the entire county. Come up with a buffer until the state takes a hold of this program just like they did the capos 20, 30 years ago in respect to where those were landing around the state get an interest and create a buffer. So you don't have to do this all the time in case somebody wants to build a landfill in between PO and Atkins on Lindbenton Road. The farmers are all pretty good there. They that's traditional farmland. Everybody has, you know, generational farms, but you're talking generational wealth there, too. And it's very easy to sell that property. And if Ling County is going to do that, and it's probably going to happen, uh, it's going to happen somewhere else around here. It's going to happen south of Bell Plain. It's going to happen down to Walford as they track down Lindbenton Road with the 160 acres plus or it's going to hit Orbana or Shellsburg. I mean, there's a lot of us I really wish you'd consider putting the buffer up and if somebody says, "Oh, the buffer's there now. We'll build just outside of that." Well, that's fine. Bent County Planning and Zoning can take that forward and the supervisors can talk about it at that time. But I don't think this is really a good idea and interest Atkins who doesn't have endless

deep pockets to take on all lawyers to get this stopped. We can only do so much and I understand your guys' role and I respect that. But we're going to be put in a situation where we're I mean it's David versus Goliath. we can take them on and we can get the media and the sheer family can do show up with 10,000 uh signatures on petitions, but it's still going to probably happen and we're not going to be able to build to the south cuz nobody's going to want to build houses looking at a field goal that emits steam over there or whatever is coming out of there. It's just not going to happen.

I know I emailed you on a moratorum and I don't know what kind of holds that even do if it would be applicable. see the I I saw your email before coming here. The tough part is is like where our line, you know, it's just like jurisdiction like anything else. It's just like where that line goes and so and that's tough. Now, when you were talking buffer, like what do you mean by by that more

something reciprocal around that that to respect those the county line on both sides of the line for each county to be quote the good neighbor that we should be doing. Um, you know, years back when these large confinement areas were being built, whether they were hog or cattle, people were building these lots and they were kind of doing the same game, avoiding ordinances and weaving through the county lines and then people were getting too close. Well, finally the state got involved because they didn't want to have 99 different rules for one thing. Mhm.

And I I just think we should have a buffer out there to protect. We should at least get the f a right of first refusal on something. Okay. That says, "Hey, we being good neighbor, you let us know we really don't want that there and we can go ahead and proceed with the legal aspect of that." We both work for case law and I know there's nothing wrong and I mean literally the Lynn County line from the edge of our city limits on one side of town is less than a half mile. And here's the tough part with with Buffer. It's great if L County wants to work with us. Yeah. And and that's the thing is like I

I don't know if you could just do it so it would at least trigger conversation because I'm sure the three gentlemen didn't know anything about it just like we did when the the hammer fell. They they knew well in advance what was going on in Link County and they they failed to do just being a decent person in a joint meeting between the two boards. I got I don't think they'll show up. No. And I I brought an article that they knew about this for a very long time.

Yeah. I found an article that appeared in the Corridor Business Journal on March 23rd and I'll leave it with Tracy and but uh their supervisor Sandy Sheets uh got up and was talking about the power plan and specifically the ordinance. The ordinance, this is a quote from him. He said the ordinance does an excellent job of the 2.25 mile setback requirement. quote, "In protecting economic concerns and thinking through what potential community growth, whether it's Fairfax or any other Lin County city wants to do in terms concerns related to property values." I think this is one of the best ordinance, if not the best ordinance our local government in the region has passed to come protecting residents. However, they didn't say boo to Atkins at 1.7 or 1.9 miles from the location of the plant. cuz their focus is particularly county res and that's where they're at and that's why they're not

I mean with Tracy's already tried to talk to them in Yeah, we're having the same issue. I mean I'm sure you probably spoken with Dam. Is it Damian? Your guys a city attorney? Uh no. uh Scott hasn't gotten involved into that until we've kind of had this meeting today to kind of get some views and now we got kind of a little clearer path to do things cuz um I mean if like he has thoughts or if he sees something where that might be helpful for us, he can always pass on the information cuz we always miss something.

We engaged uh Representative Gerhold. Uh it impacts him a lot worse than it does actually. I guess he's actually within a 1.5 buffer of the plan. He is right there. Uh Charlie Mcccleintoch uh from Cedar Rapids. We haven't heard much back on that. And I know Tom is busy trying to close up the legislative session down south. And this is on his mind, but it's not the top of his food pile right now. So I didn't mean to Oh, sorry. So, I personally reached out everyone from the governor's office all the way down. Tom's the only ones who applied

and I'm putting it on. They were trying to get through this funnel and Friday night when they all go home then they'll start working with their people is what I'm hoping because Monday I'm going to fire it off again. Mhm. Uh and hopefully someone will respond. But that's on a personal level.

No, I I totally understand and appreciate. I know everybody does around the area, but uh we got a lot of work to do. And like uh the district attorney said, you know, the utilities board is going to be key to this and getting people to uh uh respond uh appropriately on there so that we at least have their attention. Well, contact the consumer advocate because that's their I mean they have their duties to the public, you know, that's part of their duties is to watch out for the public well-being or the public interest. And it's all written out in the code at least what their duties are cuz that's why they're there. They're there to defend the other side. Um unless there's an intervenor

also in Honey, they uh Sierra Club intervened. Mhm. brought them in an organization uh land owners association of Iowa or something. Mhm. Yeah. So there are other other groups out there that you might recruit for help. Um and the only other aspect would be the uh roundhouse area which falls into the conservation area where you guys may get involved if we can actually as the district attorney said uh pinpoint pollution or concern to that area's environmental impact. The difficulty is getting the studies and the expert getting it done.

You're talking out and we would be the ones that have to put those studies. And here's the thing, it would probably it cuz like even if you intervene, you could even saying I have this interest, that interest, whatever. And the and the commission board could be like our legal interest is probably going to be only thing we could really talk about. And and for us, it'd probably be what county land do we have owned over there? They're going to try to keep the focus narrow because they're going to get a lot of responses, a lot of people. So, we got to control it. That's why we suggested from the get-go

go retain private counsel cuz the private individual probably has they have more options and we would honestly that's the honest truth. It would seem that uh it it might be a good thing if we were to direct a letter to the head of this uh the private individuals uh and possibly the same letter to the city of Atkins and say this is what we can do. You folks should contact your legal and go down this avenue. Well, we we got we have to be sure we have to be

I would I would just ask cuz like we did Tuesday at our council meeting, we did pass and have Scott create a letter that was sent and you've seen it uh that it wasn't a resolution, but it was a letter stating uh that we were not in favor or support the current alliant uh natural power gas plant in its current standing to the city of Atkins because X Y Z whatever. I I think the the members of uh ACT or the citizens of Atkins and and Ben County as a whole would probably appreciate something similar uh that you could transmit to the utilities board. Yeah. And and like uh

comes like cuz we can submit anybody can submit a complaint or letter like you that's a very well-ritten letter. Um cuz like that's something you can always do too cuz he can say how you're feeling and stuff too cuz he can say I mean obviously be respectful but um what you your feelings why you're complaining about it the impact that you're going to be feeling and that's different than say us getting involved as an intervenor because that's that's

where would the uh the state and the federal do come in uh we know and getting stuff out there. If this was to go through to build this plant, uh the increased traffic on Highway 30 on and off of that road, I'm told by my once it's up and running, it's not going to be that much traffic, but between now and then, uh it's a huge safety concern with all the traffic and

that road sits right on top of the hill. Whereas the former sheriff knows and most of the people here, uh, it's already a bad corner anyway. Uh, when they go to modify that corner and move telephone poles and whatever else they got to do to widen it, etc., it is going to be interesting to see how that goes. Well, do we have, cuz I haven't heard, any proposed route to this gas line because that could be critical. I think that's been released yet. And I don't think so either the stars. A little shocker. I've heard rumors of 50 miles which puts it at the Marshall Town. So just think of that.

So they're going to cut around. Okay. Now to the to the point of public utility. Is there one group that they sell power to that that would give them at least an argument that wasn't for personal convenience? Yes. But they sell most of their power to Missouri uh from around here. If you look at the Alliance postings, half of that goes down towards the St. Louis area down those power lines. Uh the other third or whatever it's going to be is most likely going to go to the data centers. So

So we don't know if there would be any released out of that for W2. There's nothing currently that shows unless there's other data out there. I haven't seen anything that that was going to be set up for local uh use. I mean, it goes into a pool. So, yeah. And they they sell it out of the pod there, but I don't think the demand for residences and business current businesses aren't there.

If this was just for the data center, we would be on really good footing. So, you know, they're going to come in and say, "We're going to sell some of this electricity, help, you know, expand the public use." Have to. I mean, it's gota it's got to have some sort of benefit to the public or else they're not going to do it. We haven't had any brown outs. We haven't had any blackouts. We haven't had any shortages of electricity. So, what in this equation has changed this big old building? I mean, otherwise, we don't we don't need a power plant. I mean, they shut down Dwayne and Arnold. They're bringing it back up to provide electricity for it's usually a small paying the bills.

And and here's the other part, too. This is a very specialized area. Yeah. the law very complex and um and I I don't I mean you know that's don't know all the what what's the best thing we need report to even ask for any of that kind of stuff you know um so all is the reason we're not getting any information out of them is because they don't have to yet exactly exactly they're not going to until they have to no you know as I do that they They've been following this playbook everywhere they go

and and they they're doing it exactly as they've been told. Yep. Yep. All that. At this point, we wait for the application and then you're up to see to see what and like I said, even if we could interview, we would likely be limited to what we could even talk about. And that's not fair to give everyone the most saving sliver of hope that we can we can argue on their behalf when we legally likely have ours would be very small. Correct. Anybody know what that window is once they apply 20 days

to intervene. They can start construction once they have the approval for you to from the IU. Yes. which doesn't mean that they have to have DNR and all the other community agencies out to do that. They just have to be reasonably sure that those permits would be issued and then they start consulting. Yeah, I saw a case on they really raised an issue that you know this isn't this legal process isn't finalized and they're already digging and court said that's okay which I thought was ironic. It doesn't make much sense. Uh, no.

There's been no no environmental groups looking at this data center because the information is out there. There was going to be a 6 milei radius of that thing. The potential to raise the temperature is 16.4°. You know, on 100 degree day in the summer, 16.4 degrees is that's measurable. That's big. Or in the winter, there's got to be some sort of an environmental group. I mean, they're all over everywhere. They should be juggling all over this like a chicken on a June. I don't get it. Mhm. Private private and see that's where it's that's where it's tough sticky cuz like we just it's frustrating on that front.

What is the name of the 28 agreement that you referred to earlier? The wrote one that wrote I would probably have a copy of that. Yeah, there's another 28e agreement from 2016 for the watershed and we are absolutely included in that. Mhm. And uh which wershed specifically? The middle cedar. Okay. That's when we were doing that cuz all the joint counties were in that one. How far away is it from the site? I because I'm not familiar. The site's all included. I have a copy saved to my phone. Okay. With a map. I mean, they put map in there.

It's a It's a huge area. Mhm. Okay. And they're going to have to get past the DNR on that issue for sure. I'm just saying we have an agreement with Linder County. I mean, they're on board, too. So, they have Oh, so this wershed is with Lynn County as well. Yes. And it's a city of Cedar Rapids. Can you let's talk so I can Yeah.

I don't I don't think it would affect the the WMA. We're sitting right in the middle of the wershed area. I mean, Grey's in there. Yeah, I agree. I'm I'm on that board, but I'm just thinking the factory itself will not affect it if they build it on the hill. The crooked way to the south. I can pull it up. Well, I mean any of your water is going to dump into this waterhed that Yeah, that it gets rid of. Yes. And none of those streams through there are impaired at any level to the DNR at the moment.

No. Fairfax, their most recent city council meeting, they had in their agenda packet and it was like 400 some pages of stuff, but I popped through there and they had a um well study done and that study is in there and it shows the impact on the water levels in the aquifers with and without the data center over there. I mean it does affect the water level water quality and we wouldn't have to pay for that study. I mean obviously it's probably more focused around perex because they have more wellwater and stuff there but yeah I' take a look probably I'm going to ask Ray and

oh Derek so what wait what value does um submitting a objection on the DFS what value goes up if it's on infrastructure or if it's on if there's some sort of conservation base and the CSR those arguments will carry some weight you know they will and and and I think it's possible to gauge though

I think it's honestly if I had to I hate to say guess but like I think it's to also inform the uh consumer advocate too of people's concerns and stuff but I I at the same token that office is meant for the public interest. And I would always I would encourage if you can reach out to the public or the excuse me the consumer advocate and get ask what can be done or reach out what what they would like what would he like to see. you know, that might be more helpful if that makes sense cuz he might be look he might be looking at the problem way different than we are and he might want to say, "Hey, if you have this and so document or if you have this sort of information, provide that, you know, cuz he cuz I mean that's his job."

So, was the county objecting you said obviously everybody knows it's a bad site, but the county has reasons why they don't like it. Would that be a good objection? with the county submit that either for today or we would submit it will but we can't tell you the outcome because we don't know all you know but I think it's it's something yeah of course we will and it's like something like we can draft a letter which I assuming we're probably going to is like draft a letter like say complaints like every other public person

Yep. And then but as far as like when the procedure starts that's where that's more where I guess we were kind of talking on it's very tough for the county to probably get into to like we could our fight would only be limited to our specific interest that we could have if that makes sense. Yeah.

But Ry on the on the disagreement on the emissions that this thing's going to put out. I guess that's where I'm looking to build something on uh for the residents of the county, you know, instead of each individual farmer got to hire attorney or whatever. I think that's where Benton County, I can't speak for you two guys, but I mean I feel like I'm responsible, you know, for the wellbeing and the health of the missions that this thing is going to put out for the Benton County residents and and we'll we'll argue, but they're probably going to tell us that we can't show it affects you these residents directly. Yeah, we

we got to see what their applications, you know, while we can argue how much and what but yeah, I mean it's not going to because the other thing on this deal, it's the same way that Lynn County with their wisdom, they said two and a/4 mile from any town. Okay, Atkins is closer. So, does that mean the residents of Benton County are less important than residents in Lynn County? No, but the ordinance targets a zoned residential area. So that's why it gives them more uh footing to find it. Um and and that's and that again Tracy kind of goes to like it's tough because like our jurisdiction, you know,

I understand the city of Atkins has to have their own attorney. I get that. We don't

supersede you guys at all. No, but I like you're saying though, there's a 10 mile buffer that's been identified that could have fallout from that and that impacts Shellsburg, Atkins, New Hal, and places in between is cuz even if like uh like say a nuisance type lawsuit or whatever, Then it that's where we were kind of talking about like there's a public and private stuff both different areas and uh that's where like it's essentially going to be expert versus expert and at that point that would probably be they would be in the position of building it or have built it at this point where we could even have a legal standing to bring such suit. But then here's where the advantage for them is is like, well, uh, I I said it was okay that we met every standard and here's the reports and all this kind of stuff and and that's that's probably the next best lawsuit. But a lot of that can't take place until the thing's up and running.

And see, and that's tough. Yeah. and and our courts are really reluctant to to find a nuisance where the activity is lawfully permitted. So again, if we lose how you see this, you're not going to do well. But on the same token, the DNR should have a little bit of pull on this. Yes, they will because you know, I can't put a hog confinement up on the edge of Atkins. I can buy Virgo Krug farmer and put a 10,000. I can't do that. DNR would come in say forget that guy. Has has anybody reached out to DNR?

I have not. You have not. That might be a good start to see what their thoughts are, especially on the watershed issue. Okay. Yes. That's that's where that's strongest is through the DNR. Okay. But that has to be done as a personal thing. It can't be done as a No, the DNR could do it as a regulatory. I mean, did the supervisors reach out to the DNR or does that have to be just on You guys especially because like that watershed I mean I have to look at the map to even kind of gauge it, you know, because like the whole idea is what's their thoughts and cuz I know I think with the Dwayne Arnold is it Dwayne Arnold?

Yeah, I think they got involved in that, right? Or am I mistaken? Yeah, my understanding is doo Google is involved with that restoration aren't I may be wrong on that but cuz there was a lot of people who intervened in that one so it's it's tough to keep track of who got involved um so I think we're having a good discussion that everybody knows what's kind of what we can and can't do and and we're not saying we won't help we'll do what we can obviously we're still letting Thank you.

Yeah, I will definitely be calling De Moines to Wallace building and spending some years down there. Yeah, cuz I mean they probably might have a better foot stand too cuz I mean that's literally all they do. We used to take care of the animal for not animal how can I say livestock ordinance now and we pretty well take care of just participate as far as doing the review but it was still ultimately DNR decision with all right

and with this I mean as long as they're being their permits they're not going to have a reason to deny them just like the with the confined animal feed operations as long as you meet the minimums That's typically going to be what's in issued permit. Okay. Anybody else got anything? Thank you. Until we know more. Yeah, that's all we can do. I mean, it's tough cuz like Alliance's not helping out the situation and they're not going to um

No, they're not going to happen. It's not happening. Um, and and I don't I don't think our neighbors to the east are going to be much help either. I mean, I don't think so. I mean, if I lived in Western Cedar Rapids, I wouldn't be very happy about it. Oh, absolutely. Well, yeah. I mean, this one's even closer than the last one because the winds are going to be out of the west more than they're going to be out of the south.

One part of the year is going to blow across Fairfax. Every other time of the year it's going to blow across Athens. I mean the rain coming in the other day. Was it yesterday when it was raining so hard it came in at a slant on the south for today? I think so. Thanks for coming. All right. Right. Exactly. Yes, I do. I'll make a motion to s call for a vote. I close eye.