Commissioner - Regular Meeting

All right. Welcome everybody. Uh this is uh our first budget work session number one of three for the preparation of the county commissioner's budget for FY27 obviously. Uh so tonight we are hosting our our friends and partners at the board of education, the Queen's County Library. They're here as well. uh the department of emergency services and the office of the sheriff. He'll be in that order. So, I just want to lead off by saying that um earlier this week uh the director of budget and finance uh and myself, Jeffrey Rank, uh presented the proposed administrator's budget to the county commissioners and as a starting point to this year's budget um their refinement of their budget, um the county commissioners have directed us to reduce the property tax rate by 3 cents. So, that that has been um uh initiated. So, we are going to do that. So that said, um the summary values and some of these u manuals and books are obviously going to be evolving as we work, you know, through this year's budget work sessions over the next couple of weeks. So I just wanted to be upfront about that. So just as a as a preliminary point, I wanted to make that uh uh point to everybody here tonight. So um moving on, we do routinely kick off um our annual work sessions with the board of education since um they have the largest overall allocation and the commissioners of that each year obviously and that's both from an operating and a capital standpoint and I believe we are in a good place still with the current budgetary aotments that we've um proposed to date for the board of education. So I will say that we our staff and myself have been working with Dr. Kibler, Mr. Watkins and and his team for several months now to determine the level of funding necessary to really hit several primary objectives to maintain operating service levels where they are currently with the board of education or better next year to honor their contracts they have in place for salaries and benefits for all currently employed teachers and supporting staff. That equates to $9.3 million in new

money. 8.7 of that is actually new money and 644,000 of that 9.3 is a state and a shift over to the county for the teacher pension component which we uh we will pick that up for a total overall local aotment of $92.7 million. And lastly, we wanted to fund capital projects for the board of education that would leverage, you know, state shared revenues. And there are four of those which we've already agreed to uh participate in. That would be the Centerville Middle School uh design effort for the new Centerville Middle School, HVAC replacements for Canard and Centerville Elementary School, and a new roof at Centerville Elementary School. We also wanted to address other capital needs and there are many. We we understand that that are identified and we've worked through a lot of those with the with the board of eds team and that would include some of the major ones, the Ken Island High School parking lot repaving, milling and repaving of that uh entire campus. Uh some bus replacements, furniture replacements, new playground equipment. Uh as as I said, those are the major ones. We'll get into some of the others as we get into the details here. Total investment of $23.4 million in capital of which uh 16.4 for is local county money and seven million of that would be state shared uh revenue. Okay. So before I turn it over to Jeff, I do want to, you know, thank publicly Dr. Kibler and his team for working with us very cooperatively over the past several months to balance, you know, their needs with uh within the overall constraints that we have with the county budget with all of our departments and agencies. So

actually, I want to echo that. I want to thank you guys. I want to thank the board of ed, our elected board of ed. Um, I I've been in the belly of the beast across the state and heard some of the nightmares that they're going through. I want to thank Phil and Jim this year, especially with working with you guys to get us where we are today to where we're not going to strangle each other. We're going to sit here and have a good conversation and, you know, have a conversation about the future because we all know this year's just the tea up for next year because we all know next year's the cliff. So, um, I appreciate everything you guys did, Jim, Phil, what you guys did that we didn't have to do, me and Chris and Patrick. So, um, yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

All right. All right, Jeff. Uh, budget and finance director is going to go over a few highlights and then, uh, and Mr. Watkins, you got, you know, I'll jump right in. Any points, comments you want to make. All right.

Thank you. Um, commissioners, in the front of the workshop binder, we've got the budget schedule, um, general fund revenue and expenditure summaries, and list of enhancements. Um, all of which were part of the, uh, Todd's budget submission um, this past Tuesday. So, we'll skip over that for the moment. You can turn to page 11 of 75. Um this is the board of eds uh sheet from our budget systems shows that we uh typically fund four different components. And if you see uh the second column from the far right the variance uh we have our 8.7 million increase for their mean allocation and then a 644,000 increase for uh other charges which is their teacher retirement invoices from the state. uh for a total increase this year of 9.3 million is our current proposed uh amounts for the board's operating budget. From there, um we can go to page 16, please. Pages 16 and 17 are two sheets um from the uh board of education budget book. Um, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the first page, which is page 16, is a sheet that uh details um expenditure increases for uh the status quo for keeping current um keeping uh current items in place. The second page are enhancement lists for uh additional service improvements for the school system. And at this point, uh, between what the county is contributing

and, uh, the state's increase this year of 1.4 million, I believe, uh, I think we've got the first page covered. And they probably got a few items, uh, picked from the second sheet as well. And at this point, I was just going to turn it over to um um, Dr. Kibler and and Mr. Watson to see if they wanted to discuss these pages at all a little bit. Sure. Well, first, thank you all for having us here tonight. Thank you, Mr. Man and and Mr. Rank, for for what you've already provided. Uh really appreciate it. Um as you know, it's been a rough few years for the school system with having uh to do some cuts over the past few years. Someone

that's your key to to talk.

Exactly. um unfortunate had to do the uh furloss last year. We had a negative fund balance. Happy to report that this year we were able to restore fund balance back to about $1.3 million. Um as a new new superintendent, I felt it my uh responsibility to evaluate the school system and make suggestions on on a proposed budget for next year. And so when this budget book was built, it was built before we knew any potential revenue from the county or the state. uh because I wanted just to take a a view of what the needs of the district um would be. And so um you've heard it called cost to doing business, things like that. Uh in my mind, cost to maintain was something that we could all um understand. It was something easy for me to speak publicly with our staff and our families. And so that's what this first page is. The reason that you see two shades is because the the darker gray on the first page are areas that we currently budget for and have traditionally been underfunded in our budget. And we feel like putting this money here really is bringing it up to the levels we need to to make sure that we don't get ourselves into budget trouble down the road again. Uh Mr. Watkins and I and as well as our board, we don't want to be in that place as we know you don't want us to be in that place. And so we're trying to prevent that from happening. But please understand, we're already doing these things. Um we're just hoping and praying at the end of the year that you know, you come in a little bit under another category so that you can fill that gap and and that's that's just not sustainable. So we're trying to build a budget that is sustainable. So that represents that first page, that 9.5 million It is a lot of money. I understand that it costs more um to maintain. I think we feel that at our homes. Um I think other agencies in the district would say say the same thing too. It it it just is more expensive. I go to the grocery

store and I if I pay the same amount, I'm getting a lot less. And that that's an unfortunate reality of where we're at. Um, but I am extremely pleased uh with the allocations where they stand right now that we don't have to worry about having those conversations about cutting and things like that and that we know at the very minimum we are at least able to maintain the program we have right now. The reality of that is um I also wanted to make sure that I was demonstrating the need to our community, listening to our teachers, our families that there has been a real impact on the school system the last few years and the and the position elimination that we've gone through and we are seeing that come through in our student achievement scores. We are the only school district in the state that received a no notice letter from the AIB, the accountability and implementation board that we had um reduced scores in English and math, third grade English, fifth grade math. Um and that doesn't sit well with me. I'm sure it doesn't sit well with anybody here. And one of the ways that we think we could address that are with some of the additions that are on the second page. Keep in mind my staff, our family, our board, we all understand that that might not happen and we are putting plans into place and working hard to continue to maintain with what we do have and anything additional would just be helpful there. But we are making plans move forward. We will not use that as an excuse. We will use every dollar that we do have allocated to us uh to give the best experience for our students possible. And I appreciate where we're at right now.

Okay. Um, I will say the allocation that you gave us does allow us to go just a bit onto the second page. We have not, this is all fresh, happened Tuesday night. We have not been able to publicly share that with our board yet. My recommendation for where we stand right now would be to restore three positions in three schools to make sure we have basically an equivalent program in all of our schools. So that would be adding a guidance counselor back to Church Hill Elementary School which currently does not have a guidance counselor, a Spanish teacher for Matape Middle School because right now we have a Spanish teacher that's splitting time. One semester at Stevensville, one semester at Matip Middle School, as well as a computer lab teacher at Bayside Elementary School. They are the only elementary school um with only four unified arts rotations instead of five like all others. So that would be my recommendation for the first target. in the second page for where we're at right now

and what I'll be sharing with the board next week. What was the Spanish teacher at Matipakei Middle School? Right now they're one semester at Stevensville Middle School, one semester at Matape Peak Middle School so that we can offer the eighth grade Spanish to make sure we get that the students have the opportunity to get a head start on that high school credit high school. Okay.

So, I'll have a familiar conversation. It's not the first time any of you here have heard it. So, I think the number, and Jeff, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Right now, the state, we are $3.4 million under what the state said they were going to give us seven years ago now. Seven years ago, at seven years ago, money 2018 money,

we're 3.4 million under. And last year, we had the same instance. You need 3.869 and the state's underfunding is 3.4. I would sit here and bet these four or five commissioners would give you $500,000 if the state gives us 3.4 and I can't say it enough. We our teachers are the biggest lobbying group in the state and I've challenged them to go down there and get the money they owe from the state. I'm tired of hearing our governor and everybody in Annapolis saying they're fully funding education at the state level. It is a lie and it continues to be a lie statewide. So, like I said, I mean, I'd vote for another 500,000 if the state comes up with the 3.4 they owe us and then you would be whole.

It's all I got. True. That about covers it. Well, I mean, we're the bad guys. We're the bad guys. We're the ones that the teachers going to come out in two months and they're going to sit there and they're going to say, "You got to give us more money. You got to give us more money." But unfortunately, you know, we've got to give back too where we can. And we've got emergency services. uh probably later tonight we're going to spend some money on that. And you know it's and and the other reason too and I know you guys know it um but the the general public probably doesn't know it. We're in an election year. Um so not a lot was going to happen with Kerwan to restructure it at a state level.

At a state level absolutely but next year it's coming. I mean that I was in Annapolis for eight and a half hours yesterday and that is the talk of the town. It's like get through the election. We know we got to fix it. So it's coming next year. So, I don't want to say this is kind of preventative that we give you four million this year and we reset the base and they come back next year and say, "Okay, we're going to pull this back." These requirements come back, then we're going to then when we're in a situation where we go back and say, "Okay, now we've got to give you the real maintenance of effort." You know what I mean? I just I'm trying to avoid that situation where we give it to you and then we got to take it back. So, I mean, that's kind of the other my thinking on the 3 million right now because I have a feeling that's it's coming next year. They all come. So, and talking to some of the other counties, um I know 19 jurisdictions are raising their taxes just to cover education. So,

and to and to your point, that's what happened with the grants. We were getting the grants, hired more people, the grants stopped coming. Mhm. But I'm happy we don't have to talk about furls and all that. We don't have to. So, that's a good thing. That's definitely a good thing. And the budget's not done yet. So, you know,

sure. I mean, what I what I would just share is that any anything on the second page would go directly to student support. And that would be academic support as well as behavioral support um for all all levels. Uh primarily the elementary and middle levels. That's that's where we're seeing the the biggest impact and the biggest need. I think that um if we wanted we Dr. Shrekenos can speak to that as well. We are um going to have a new literacy policy going in place next year that requires if students at the third grade level are not reading on grade level that we would uh retain them, have them repeat. With that comes things like interventions for those students, uh individualized education plans, not an it traditional special education sense, but a a plan for every student on how to get them back in track on track, excuse me. And so, um, being able to to bring back any of the reading specialists would be a good thing, as well as the behavioral supports for really the elementary and middle level. Those are the things we're hearing, um, not just from our principles, but from our teachers as well as families, too. And so, again, that that's that's where we're at at this point. Any any additional dollar is going right right to that place. And any place we find it would go there as well.

So, are these positions directly related to IEPs in general, or is that that's a separate entity? Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So, the IEPs are still whole in terms of being taken care of. Well, I I guess I would say I think when you talk about funding formulas, the state funding formula for special education, everybody knows is is way off in the education world. There's a study going on. I think we fund about 50% more Yes. in special education than what we're actually funded for. So, I mean, there's just another area that's huge. Huge huge impact. What is the foundation right now? um the the baseline foundation without any compet or anything. Uh yeah, it's $9,286 per code

9286. Okay. And then with the state share if you add that back into where are we landing and then does that have that has comp that doesn't have the compads and all that. They're separate. Yeah. Right. So Okay. So this is just Okay. This is just open the doors, put teachers in the classrooms thing. That's right. Okay. But but the other statutes in the blueprint do contribute to the the teachers in the classroom as well. Right. Right. Right. for for the other. Yes, I got it. This is just like the they always called this the baseline when they were talking. This is what you need to open the doors. That was their whole thing. So, okay. What are you doing for that was just a state number contingency on this was diesel fuel buses. How is that working out?

I think I would ask Mr. Pender to speak to that. I don't see anything in here for it. I'm just wondering how you're going to handle that. Fuel for the county fleet we purchased uh with the public works for you. I need the mic.

Go with public works and uh use the diesel contract that they have and then for the contractors there is a increase um every 5 cents that it goes over a certain threshold. Okay. Um so, you know, hopefully those prices go back down. Okay. How about your energy, son? I was just talking about I just heard that Ser Park High School had a bill of like $167,000 for the month of January. We don't have anything like that. I didn't think we did, but I just

luckily through uh Esmeck and Energy Trust, we've been able to purchase our electric, you know, ahead of time. We are going to see a little bit of an increase next year with the electric rates because a lot of the blocks that we've purchased are starting to run out. But um you know comparing to just having the supply and the um distribution to like say DPL there is a savings. Plus we also have the three solar fields um where we've locked in at 6 and a half cents for 20 years. That's good. Wow. You should sell some of that back. You guys be making money on that right now. To answer your question, the fiddle per pupil for foundation is 9226.

Okay. Okay. The the local chair is 5915 and change and the state chair is 3310 and change. It's about a 6139 split. Gotcha. Perfect. Thank you. That's and and that split is true across most of the statutes. Okay. Awesome.

Okay. If there are no other um questions about the operating budget, I was going to jump into their capital program uh which is in your other book. That's the summary. Yeah. And then page.

So on page three is uh summary sheet of the board of education projects about halfway down. Um the columns show um so the first column is prior if there's any prior fund balance. Second column is what was requested proposed. Third column are changes that um Todd made and then FY27 is what uh we're proposing the allocation would be. For example, um the first project under the board of education portables, there's a $50,000 request, but um we were unable to uh it didn't reach the funding priority. We allocated a certain number and uh some projects that uh fell above that number were not funded. Portables was one of them. Uh community based health nurse suites uh they removed that request. Um to kind of jump down to some of the larger ones, I think the fifth project down board of ed capital equipment um 1 million30,000 I think that is primarily for uh I believe two or three buses and uh some pickup trucks that's been funded. Uh the next line 600,000 was for furniture replacement. Um they're they're requesting 600,000 a year for three years to I believe replace a good percentage of the the school um furniture and this will be the second year of that allocation and uh you see 700,000 was allocated for playground equipment. The next page who's doing your security now security clearance I mean who replaced Joe Oh, his name is Sean Richards.

Okay. Uh the next page, um 1,660,000 has been allocated, of which 1.5 of that is for, uh the Cananan High School parking lot milling and paving. Um next one down is HVAC replacement at Centerville Elementary, which is a a state shared project. Um and 389 is the county's portion. The next one, um, HVAC at Canard, 2.5 million, and roof replacement at Canard, 1.7 million. Again, those are two state shared projects that in those are our portions. and then uh school replacement Centerville Middle um the fourth and last state shared project of which uh we're allocating 2.5 million um I believe that's all for uh mostly uh design and then some other miscellaneous items. We got appliances and other school equipment 3.5. If you look on page 67, um, this is our kind of our catch all miscellaneous project which includes a lot of the minor things sinks at Centerville Middle, failing sinks at Graysonville Elementary. Regardless, you can see the list there of all the kind of small and miscellaneous items aggregated into this project. If we can, I do want to point to the one that I think the commissioners would be interested to hear, and that's the last one that's on the list, not crossed out, the Queen Ans County High School replace the welding lab. It's basically what we what we'd like to propose is sort of retrofitting a a CTE classroom every year moving forward just to keep

current. hopefully when we can allowing more students into the program if possible. Welding is one that's going to be diff difficult with that, but just make sure we're up staying up to date in those areas. Is that a capital we can do as an NRC though? Because we can do that off budget if you guys get a RFP out that's comes in. It's reasonable. That doesn't I mean that I mean I think we it's included here. Oh, it is in this one. I thought it said it was crossed out. No, no, I said it's the last one before. Sorry. It's okay. All right. Yeah, we wanted to make sure we funded that. Okay, perfect. But I thought you all would be interested to see that. So, you'll see those moving forward every year. Thank you.

Yep. And this project also includes new Chromebooks for grades one through eight. I actually just had parents asking me about that. Good job. Read your mind. And every every um through 8th will get one, right?

Replacement. Yes. And that's pretty much it of the major major projects that um have funding allocated. But uh also if you want more information on the the very far left column of the summary page, it has page numbers that'll take you to each individual project if you want to learn a little bit more information about it or what funding types they are. So, so we got great news last week with 7525 except that I understand there's a little hole in that balloon and it may be leaking air. Huh. All right.

Uh, my understanding is there's parts of it that only certain things are 7525. Not everything's 7525. So, we're going to design everything at 7525, right? Anything that's a 50/50, we're getting rid of, right? We're just throwing that out. We're not going to do that. So, so you guys didn't get that update. I got that yesterday parts and pieces of the beginning for people who were watching later.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, last Thursday, a week ago, yeah, today, um, the IEC, who is the, um, controls all of the capital money for the state, which this three year, I think they've got 250 million to play with. Um, recognized nine counties as basically being overburdened with the cost for replacement schools. And if you look at some of the things and I told Todd I kind of went back and looked and it's kind of looks like what they did is they took school systems that had not built a new school in many years. Obviously for Queenians I think it's 07 was the last time we built a new school. Caroline's the only one on that list that has one in that time frame. So anyway, we used to be a 50/50 share. Um and we are now Queens County is 7525 which means the state will cover 75% of school construction costs and we will have to get 25. That was all happy joy joy and dancing in the street until I found out that there are certain things in there that will be at different percentages that will get us to somewhere. We're thinking low end. I think 56 to

60 something like that or Yeah. Okay, there we go. Okay. So, uh on school construction, uh there's a lot of formulas that go into what they will fund. Um they they look at current enrollments at a school. They look at enrollments at adjacent schools. Uh so, for example, at Centerville Middle School, they're going to look at enrollment at Slersville and Stevensville as both adjacent schools. They're going to look at current enrollment 6 through 8 at Centerville Middle. Uh currently we're roughly around 150 seats below what the state rated capacity is right now of uh 659 if memory serves me correctly at the middle school. That's part of the reason why we want to bring fifth graders over, but that also does a lot of other things. It gets us up to the targeted 671 that we're going to try to build, which will help bolster that number, but it also uh we're also in the process of um for lack of a better word, we're we're not arguing with the state, but we're we're uh positioning ourselves to get the adjacent schools uh nullified for Southernersville as well as Stevensville because of travel distance, travel times on buses and those sorts of things because we can't really increase those boundaries because then we're going to have kids on buses for really excessive amounts of time. So, we're looking at a lot of different things that right now if if we were to exclude any of these options that we're looking at, worst case scenario, we're going to get around $39 million on a $72 million school. That number can only increase as we start crossing some of these exclusions that the state is using. So, as as

fiscal year 28 comes around where that 7525 kicks in, that number is going to gradually well, it it should increase. It's not going to get any worse, that's for sure. But we're hoping to get that number up. Um, a couple of things that are working in our favor is that that 7525, uh, we are pursuing the new middle school as a net zero school, which basically would mean that it would have renewable sources on site to help offset any uh any of the annual electrical cost for that. So if we are able to design a facility and and bid it and and be able to award it, the state would go another 5%. So that would be an 8020 split.

The other thing that's working to our advantage um is that the last maintenance effort assessment that was done at Centerville, uh it yielded an adequate rating. Uh so when the state gives an adequate rating it gives us an additional 5%. And those stack they don't ex they're not they are exclusive of one another. So with those two we're actually looking at an 8515 split. So th those things are are just all in our favor that are going to help you know continue to keep shedding more of that load towards the state. So,

so when so when it sounded like you said that we would have to kind of redistrict to get to bolster the students at well well what they move students in there so you could get to that number but but I guess my question is when the state planners and I'm I'm going to ask this question at a higher level because I'm curious now that you just said that is the the state growth plans all push all of the growth for housing to the towns that have infrastructure which we're sitting in one right here that school if all the infrastructure here and This is where the housing's got to go. That school's capacity is going to be tested as soon as you start to put those houses in.

Is there no do they do anything? I I mean, I'm just curious because now I'm going to go ask the question, like I said, higher level to find out. Do you look at that? Do they look at that when they're telling us they have a housing bill over there where saying you're going to have to build x number of houses in the next x number of years in these areas, but then they don't care about the schools. They they they do not base any of their funding or or any of that on projected development. Everything is you seement and it's no I get it. It's always the case. It it happens in other districts all across the state that they'll build a new school and within the first year or two of that new school there's there's relocatable portable classrooms on site. All right. Good point, Jack. Yeah, it's a great point.

Really, I mean, it's the shortsightedness of they have these feel-good initiatives, but then they don't think about unintended consequences. And that's Yeah. And this one's right out in front of everybody. I mean, it's Yeah, it's right there. You need good schools. You need schools that have capacity. So, okay. Put that on my list of things to do. Good luck. Yeah, I know. Carry on.

Yes. One thing that I can say though is is that where this 7525 is really going to help moving forward is on some of the systemic projects, roof replacements, HVAC replacements, those are going to be a a straight 7525, but they're also going to have the other ads to it as well. Um the roof project for example at uh Canard is actually going to be funded 5545 because of an adequate rating that we received at at Canard. So those those those little 5%s and and and obviously this 7525 split is going to be a big deal for fiscal year 28 and beyond. So

so does um so when they did the original 50/50 where it became a true 50/50 for some of the counties the stipulation was you had to use MSA as the contract managers stadium authority or whatever is kind that's not in this right so now we can go back to normal contracting right we're not held to stadium authority has to run the projects anymore

correct yes we we are not using stadium authority uh now when we start looking at construction funds for centerville middle school um built tolearn funding will come into play for some of the state state money on that which is all just the pot of money that they're going to pull from to help fund things. Typically, that's where MSA is going to come in through the BTL funds. They're not going to come in and and try to try to manage our projects, though, because that's they're going to come in on the counties that that need the help. Okay, that's good. Yeah. All right. I'll also mention too, the other positive news is we don't have an official uh vote yet, but the impact fee bill that we put forth and it's made it through the first one, right?

It's made it through the first. It's still making progress. So, that would allow us to use those impact fees for replacement schools, right? Yeah. It's out of the Senate, out of the House. So, it's it's crossed over. So, yeah, we're uh it's it's progressing and everybody that has seen it, they got a lot of counties that are just waiting for that to get through really next year. Yeah, they have a flood of those bills next year. So, we appreciate your support and the board's support, you know, as uh as we got letters and and testified on that. Yeah. And I actually testified at the Senate hearing and it went over quite well with the chair and the vice chair and all. They were very supportive. So, it's great. Anytime we could help. Yeah, that was a big help. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

Any other questions? any other highlights on the capital or operating or any other points that uh No, we appreciate the opportunity to be here and um as you all work through your process if if we can be of assistance, let us know. I I hope that we've been able to answer your questions adequately. Mr. Watkins and myself are ready to drop everything to help out when we need it. No, absolutely. Awesome. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. And I've got a couple of parents. Is it like a parent teacher for the lower grades where

mom or dad, you know, once a week and volunteer for a morning to support to support the teacher? I mean, we allow volunteers in schools if they want to contact the the principal or assistant principal to set that up. Okay. Because that's not on that what you just said is what I'm not hearing. Yeah. Yeah. Direct to the present thing. Oh, no. Sure. We have parents that do that, especially at the really early grades. Is it the principal or the teacher that would suffer from other parents? Principal of the school. They should start with the either way is fine, but they'll organize it through the principal make that happen. Just an online application that clears. Yeah. They have to get go through background and they should. Absolutely.

Definitely. There are parents who show up every week to support in classrooms. So, they're welcome. How long is that process to a few months? A couple days. A few days. Yeah. At at the most. Depends on the people that you're talking. We try to be helpful. They have extensive criminal backgrounds or Well, Keith Griffith is always looking for put him in there. Thank you. Bye. Thanks.

All right. I sometimes go to get some quiet time cuz you know Tammy's I mean she's central so she wasn't going in so she was home she was doing um so I was going to

copies for both of Oh, thank you. four people playing check people using that space as little offices we do Scan the bar on the scan my

very Oh my god. She's really messing up. My alarm would go off and I go still here. She's still here. And then when she told me, she said, "I bought because they want us to start check." I said, "So, you going to go in?" Yeah, but I'm not check if she can work Monday around 3:00. Yeah. Age 62. Yep. Unless you want to start on the enhancements first. For the enhancements. Sorry.

Oh, damn. Just trying to call me. All right. Commissioners, our next uh guests are from the Queen's County Library. So, it was nice. Jeffrey, welcome. Thanks for coming again. Thanks for having us. Yeah.

First thing I was going to turn to is page uh eight of your books and review some of the uh enhancement requests that the library submitted. J, I'm glad you were watching.

Okay. Um the first request was for um 3% cola and merit uh for staff for 132,000 which um we we funded. I think um I think what we did there is we recalculated it and came up with 125,000. Um they also requested the fund 16,000 for furniture fixtures and equipment and uh two sta two new staff a maker space library associate and an outreach library associate. Um, at this point we've funded the outreach library associate and uh they made a $4,000 request for part-time youth services associate increase of hours and then they uh there was a mandatory request for 8,000 for state pension shifts which was funded

next on page hold up. Yes. So, uh, the outreach library specialist, what exactly do they do? I mean, I know that you could say outreach, but that's kind of a general statement.

So, they will do outreach, but um they will they will help um Allison, who is our outreach um manager, kind of manage her department, help go out into the community and be at events because we're always being asked to go to this event and that event, and can you be here, there, and everywhere. Um, so this will help with that, but it will also help with the dedicated substitute that we need for our mobile library unit because it's hard to get people at the last minute to go on there and we have to have two people out there when it goes. And it will also manage our kiosk um service which is in Crumpton. So it will do all three of those things in one position making it a full-time position. So So you have one you have one person doing all that right now?

We have one person who is our outreach and marketing person. Um, then we have Carolyn who also is our office manager who also manages the kiosk. Um, we don't have anyone specifically dedicated to the mobile library for the substitute hours. We haven't found that person yet. Um, we did get it funded and I appreciate that. It just has been hard to find one person to do a substitute. Um, so there's actually several different people who do all of those things on top of their regular duties and we would rather just have one person who that's what their job is is to do all of those things. So, okay, that makes sense.

And the youth services associate just helps the kids in the library school when they get there, increase our programming a little. Um, one of the things we heard in our strategic plan survey was that there aren't enough evening and weekend kind of programs for working families. So, increasing the hours for that position would allow us to do a few more in the evening kind of programs for families and children. Okay. And we and we offer that during the day. Uh, no, that the the increase in those hours would be for evening and weekend hours. Okay. So that we only offer these youth services associates available in the evenings only. This particular one? Yes.

Okay. But you have ones Oh, yeah. that work during the day. During the day that people can go to, but if you're a working family, you are not going to be at our programs during the day because you're working. So, okay. So, we funded the out to to the commissioner's point, we funded the outreach library associate. Yeah. And uh I remember last year we talked about someone managing the volunteers. Yes. Our program and volunteers coordinator and that's working out fine. Oh, she's also

Okay. So, how many full-time volunteers and part-time do you have? We have volunteers who do the book buddies and that's kind of like four weeks of reading to children during their lunch hour um at the school. The ones who need it in third grade who are falling behind in their reading. And then we have a group of so that's not really full-time because it's very just like very specific four weeks. But we do have a group of like eight to 10 kind of full-time volunteers who do story time on wheels that go into inhome daycarees and read to children and model reading behaviors and um probably eight to 10 of those.

You have volunteers that go into the elementary school, third and fifth grade. We have a program called Book Buddies and they go they go in for a very specific amount like four weeks. It just ended um so like from mid Mar midfebruary to mid-Marchch and they read to the students who are struggling with reading and they do that during their lunch hour. Um it started out as guys read. We've been doing it for years and that's third and fifth grade. Third and fifth grade. It is third grade. It is not fifth grade. Did I misunderstand the superintendent's point? He said third and fifth. That was math right?

Both. grade reading, fifth grade math. Were you here for that? I was here when he was talking to a go. Yeah. When they got the letter um that they're falling behind. Yeah. Which is why we're trying to help with at least the reading. I don't know that I could do a whole lot about math, but me and Jeff will go out there. Right. There you go. There you go. Well, thank you, Jeff. He doesn't He doesn't have anything. You guys ain't got nothing else to do. Third grade. Third grade calculus, Jeff is do that. Third grade budgets. There you go. I'll help.

Okay. And then on page 62, is there allocation in our budget showing a 279,000 increase this year or 9 9.4% increase this year. Um and that is with uh the uh the enhancements that we identified as funded um input in here as well. So where are we Jeff? That's page 62. Sorry kind of jumping around a little.

The library tab first. Okay. So other than that, I was just going to uh mention should we uh mention anything about Krompton building or anything or

Yeah, sure. Capital, man. Um, I think, uh, the idea is potentially for using the the old Crumpton Senior Center, the Crumpton building for a new, uh, North Branch Library. Um, which we're researching and looking into. Um, I think Paul Paul and Lee are working on that. Yeah. Well, it used to be a senior.

Yeah. The old Crumpton Senior Center building. We were originally going to We have a a $300,000 grant that's available. we got a few years ago from the state and we had about $175,000 in prior year fund balance. So we were looking at perhaps using that for a north library branch where they have a book kiosk and you know we met with the couple of the library folks about it and I think they seem positive about trying to make that for the most part the board was very receptive to the

the idea and had asked me to go back and get more information and I'm meeting with your architects next week um with Lee. So, we'll see what that all comes down to. It It's rather small, but we can make things work. So, and again, that was uh we were going to use a $300,000 grant we got from the state. And then uh with some some existing fund balance that we had in that particular project. I mean, the envelopees solid, but there's really we've been struggling to find a good user for up there without having to sprinkler the building, which we didn't want to do cuz it's not Did our other the other group did they completely fall off the

No. uh Purple Hearts. Well, the problem with the Purple Hearts project, they um they were going to require that the whole building to be sprinklered if they were in that load capacity. And I just didn't feel like another investing another three to $400,000 for um a standalone sprinkler system, mechanical systems and tanks was really um Yeah, that's going to be Yeah, because you don't have any water there. And then the maintenance. So, but we think we can get um the library in there and then allow them to use that space periodically um and avoid that additional expense. So, it's going to be a little bit of a shared space, but I think we're trying to work through those details now. And we are and Jenny's been great to work with. So, I mean, we're we're trying to work it all out. So, good.

All right. Any other capital that was that was the only other capital project I think we had. Uh right. the Centerville which was on project. Oh, so there's no funage page 31. Oh, so not until FY28. Yeah. Okay. FY. Yeah, that's okay. So, I thought, yeah, that was the one for FY27. So, Yep. All right.

So, we'll continue to work on that and see if we can advance that. We we do want to try to spend those funds um soon. I mean, they've been sitting for a while and I did get a a call from our delegation, hey, let's let's get those dollars spent so we don't uh see a claw back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I am still um working with the state librarian to see if I can get the the one capital grant we applied for to see if we can get it switched to Crumpton. So we're still working through that as well. Okay. Very good. Other grants you can be looking at.

Well, we always look at whatever grants come up and um I believe you have consultants that every quarter I get a list of like, hey, here's some grants you can apply for. So when we can, we apply for those. So we try as much as possible to get grants. Any other questions for the library? No, thank you for all you guys do. I I see tons of people at the renovated library all the time for different events and bustling with kids and all kinds of activities. I've seen them in the maker space. So, it's really glad to see that area getting so much use.

And if you could find it in your hearts and budget to give us the maker space position, that would also increase the hours of the maker space. So um but thank you and I do honestly appreciate what I have gotten in my budget this year. So thank you very much for thinking of us as you always do and always thinking positively of the library because it shows and people know that in Queens County we have some really awesome libraries. So we do. Yes, we do. You guys actually had to stop the 3D prints in Centerville for a while because you were so backed up. Yes. Would the maker space associate work in Senado or

No, it would actually be at the one in Island just to open it more um because we're not open all the hours the library is open. So, this would increase some of those hours. It still wouldn't be all the times were open, but it would allow for more projects and yeah, we love more fun stuff in there. So, we ordered the part for that machine. Oh, we did? It was a part. But yeah, when it gets it gets I just this year they've already doubled what they did last year in in Centerville just in 3D print. So it's busy. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. I saw the Department of Emergency Services entourage out there. So they're up next. So yeah, sure. If you want Jeff, round them up. The O's won. Two to one. Great. Two to one. Two one. Sorry you missed it. Yeah. Apparently they were blaming you. I I didn't care Jeff. I'm good. Might be the only game they went all year. So stop. Come on, man. Say that. Got to be a believer. As soon as Angel, you know what? This poor franchise wants to be back to the glory of the Well, he Angela Smith the owner of it. I know. I'm going to sit right part of it.

Does he? Yep. Yep. Him and some doctor, right? Uh some big I don't know. Yeah. No, it's very magic. No, sit here. One of us. Hop on up here. You know, Scott, bring in more people doesn't really do anything. Crowd the room. Just, you know, we're not intimidated. That's what you're going for. It It has nothing to do with intimidation. It has to do with I'm getting old. My memor is not all that great. So, I need them to I was going to say, however you want to spin it over there surround themselves with great I was going to say it looks like you already do that, too.

Yeah. I hope you're not asking for positions because we don't need more chairs about that. Good one. All right. Here's the downside. Bringing the whole crew in. That's right. Last page and just see what we cut. All right. All right, Jeff, you're up again. All right. Can um let's start on page six. I go right to the tab. It's like back to page six. Yeah. So over the front of this book or three. There it is.

There we go. And where is that? So page six, it just says you only need one. And then you go to page seven when ah here we go. So for the Hampton requests, um there is a request for communications captain, which we currently do have funded. On the next page, um set eight positions for a new EMS unit currently not funded. Okay. And then an emergency management senior planner. Make a motion to

special operations currently not funded. That's it for them, right? Yeah, that's all the enhancements just positions for emergency services. And I think we we selected the communications captain as the top funded position that was the priority for um they had identified in their um position requests for this year. There's actually one hidden thing that was a priority when we went over the county administrator's budget and we have a grant funded position. Um, and it's FEMA's basically closed right now and we have no idea if it's that money's coming

if it's coming what we're getting. Uh, our top priority is not losing that position u in our budget was what we communicated originally. Um, so right now we're we've been told that we're getting funding, but we haven't seen it and we can't guarantee it's Which position is it? It is. It's not on this on here. It's an employee that we currently have that's a grant-f funed position and if FEMA retracts the funding from it, that's the one position that we want to hold on to. She's the meteorologist.

What is it? That's not the posi. She is a meteorologist, but her position is not a meteorologist, but she is our CERT coordinator and does all the CIR training, the community emergency response training. She's basically our whole outreach program for for the public. And you guys just had a shirt class graduate, right? We've had multiple graduate. Lori can probably feed you all the information. Well, that's fine. I just was giving you kudos cuz I saw that you guys had posted yet.

But we've got one at both high schools. We've got one at one of the middle schools. They're trying to expand it next year to multiple middle schools. Uh and then we also do community outreach and do community programs also. And she's got like a storm called a storm storm ready class that's coming up that the National Weather Service does also. So, do you do you have any idea um what that sir trainer is going to be if we have to add it? It's in the budget right now. We currently have it in the budget as grant funded. Uhhuh. So, if we don't get that grant funding, it would have to be county money, right? Which at what dollar amount? Do you have a figure or um

but we're not guaranteeing this is a year-over-year backfill, right? This could the FEMA funding could come back and then funds it again. So this is really a backfill till FEMA whatever is going on in DC which nobody wants to take a stab at that. So and the point is we don't know what's going to happen yet. No that's what I'm saying. So right if we had to back fill it for a year chances are the grant would come back whatever. I guess it really didn't matter what it costs. I mean something right? Yep. So it really doesn't matter what the cost is right. So what else you want to discuss? No, I I mean I know what I want to put in there. I mean, Yep. I want the seventh crew. Can we make Can we make uh motions at these budget hearings? Do whatever you want.

Go ahead. Do whatever you want. Commissioner, you can do. Yeah. Yeah. Scott can't make the motion, but you can do it. I can make a motion. He He can He can pull your strings while you're making a motion. So, I don't know if this I don't know if this is just being too gung-ho, but I'd like to make a motion that we go ahead and fund that seventh unit. Second. Call the vote, Jim. Yes, I shall. We got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Where you going to put it? That's an interesting question. Well, there's another part that there's there's another part of that later. We're 8 10 months out. Let's not We don't need that conversation here.

You're talking from the moment you say go, it's going to be possibly up to 11 months to that conversation in future, not here. 11 months. potentially. Yeah, that's potentially. All right. Well, so that was that was kind of what I wanted to float out. Does it make sense? Does is a half year on it? It doesn't matter, right? Because you're going to put them in what does it take them to get up to speed and how much does it help you if they graduate out prior to the end once being on the road or being able to put it on the road, I guess, is the question. Well, the Well, the the fun part of it is it's going to take us at least six months to find the crew, right? So, so if we start in July, we're six, we're going to be December, if we're lucky, January, putting them

just with us. And then you're looking at another three to six months to get them fully trained and operational. The EMTs usually clear a little bit quicker so we can get them on the road quicker. In about a three-month time frame, the paramedics tend, if they're not experienced coming in, if they're brand new paramedics, and that's about the only thing you can find right now, it's about six months to get them from the time that we bring them on. And this is this sort of this this amount of time that it takes to get up to speed. This is all the more reason why I think we need to do it now

because if you think about the traffic, the through traffic that we're experiencing keeps adding to backups, right? And so that means that we get the units are going to get blocked across the bridge or somewhere else. And so we need more units and we can't then wait till we say, "Oh no, now traffic is really bad and we have to react, right? We can't react in the moment because it's going to take a long time." So we we need to get it in place now so that we're we're ahead of the the address it right away. Right.

Well, not to mention the jockeying that has to go on when you have a an incident that requires two or three um 405. Hopefully we take care of that because that actually had four of our paramedic units at one incident there. Um so basically twothirds of the paramedics were in one location. So it's important and we definitely get the seventh one out there as soon as possible. I agree. Hey, Zach. On average, what does the the six units we have right now, how many calls a day on average does each one of them get?

So, on average, call volumewise, you're looking at about um anywhere from 14 to 17 like per the whole county. So, each unit is looking at four or five calls, but your call volume for your turnaround time on that runs anywhere from an hour to Yeah. To two to six. If we transport them to Christian or trauma, by the time they go, drop the patient off, get back, do their report, get the unit restock, get back in service, you can be looking. I thought you just said it was for the whole county. It was 17 calls. H Did you say it was a whole county? Was 17? No, per unit. Was it was that a unit?

No, you said per county. Yeah, that's for the for the total of those. But if you're transporting somebody out of state or to Baltimore and you're sitting in the emergency room, it takes so and you can look at you got multiple call multiple units on one call, right? So that's where your call like if you're looking the numbers that you get those higher numbers those are accounting each individual unit that are running on calls. So we can't one call doesn't equal one unit. One call can potentially have two to three units on it. that go out on the call, but then then the transport could be either one or it could be more depending on the acuity of that. Okay.

And look, we we we can't stop the traffic that comes through and the backups from it. But what we can do as the commissioners is make sure that we have systems in place of their services to respond that the citizens need and that's and we we've been good about getting on top of that and that's something we can do.

Yeah. And I and I'm continuing to push for the state and the feds to take a hard look at the the burden it puts on small counties like us that are 100% volunteer with a paid uh EMS service that you know you start looking at the volumes um caused by state and federal roads not ours um and the and the level of the accidents the severity of the accidents over the last 10 years just from where I live and I see it's exponential and it's straining our services not Not only you guys on the paid side there, but our volunteers. Yeah. I mean, we just had the one in front of the ER last month that

happened in the middle of the night, so fortunately, everyone was in the county for it, but that took five of our units on one incident. All right. Would you uh would you say that the pilot program that the commissioners did for the beach traffic is helpful for the two exits? He's gonna say yes because we're all sitting here.

I I am not gonna say yes because you're all sitting here. I'm gonna say yes because I live on Ken Island. I drove it. I see it every day on a personal level. Uh I commend everything that you have done because I can actually go to a grocery store and I can actually buy products and our units are actually maneuverable around on the on the island. So keep doing what you're doing and the sheriff needs to keep doing what he's doing. But in the and the state needs to step up more. So if you want my answer, my second question, thank you. Is

the coordination I might be poking the beehive here. The coordination between you and Ken Island and Centerville because they have paid EMS. You're working together and it's a good relationship and you're helping with transports and helping each other. So they're included in the system. Uh they're not in service every single day and it's kind of hit or miss when when they are in service and when they're not. Uh they do their best to do every single day like 8 to 5 or something something like that. U so uh when they're in service they are running their wheels off their units

and when they're not in not in service we feel it. like when you see those weeks where we have the depletions, you'll see a lot of the depletions are the times that they're not in service or it's after hours when they wouldn't have a paid crew. Um but those especially if we get a weekend day where they're not in service, we're getting crushed on that individual. See, there's multiple depletions in one day on that.

Well, first off, thank you for saying that because I didn't know that and thank you for having a good relationship with them. And to your point, this is the other reason we need another unit for when they're tied up or they're on calls. You're missing that those two those two other units that we don't really we don't really talk about that a lot, but we're glad that they're there. That's for sure. And they transport so we can stay in service, right? Yes. When they're in service and they transport, it's it's taken that burden off of us. Yep. All right. Jim already called the vote and then we then we got distracted. Yep.

Yes, we did for for a good reason. So, we are voting on adding uh a seventh full-time paramedic uh team. All those in favor? I opposed. Add it to the list. 5. So, I guess that pretty much negates anything else you're going to need in this book. So, and you guys are Thanks for coming in. And you you remember those you remember those ZO units? You don't need them, right? Yeah. You already approved those. I hate to tell you, we cut the PO last night before we left the parking lot out. Better do that before they get over here, right? Good thinking.

Actually, a sales rep watched it on TV. He was out there waiting outside the window last night. He was watching it on TV. He was going, "Yes. All right. Capital, right? Uh, did we miss something? One moment. No, you don't have to flip there. I was just going to notice Dr. Satollah actually cracked a smile.

I just want to note that in their uh in their operating budget, their um increases only totaled about 7% which is uh normal for you know we include inflation and uh health medical insurance increases. So they're keeping they're not increasing the budget miles more than what's reasonable. Then now to the capital they're on page five. And um it's that age thing popping back up. I'll just go through the major ones. Uh for the first one, dees replacement vehicles 990,57

been proposed, approved, which is for one unit, two two two units. One's already been ordered, right? One was ordered and approved last fiscal cycle and then we're trying to get the second one this fiscal cycle. Yeah, we we did has graciously let us do that so we could cut down on the lead time on the the amount of time that it takes to get them in. So that's why we did a one in the queue and then this would add a second one to So this was already in the budget. One of them was one already is right but we the last budget cycle we knew that we were going to do this early because of the time it takes to get them in. There's two there's two additional units that are on the way as well. So we should be getting three new ambulances at least in the next 18 months.

The next Yeah. 24 months we should have three of them. Plus, we're going to order a fourth one then. So, yeah. So, they're all they're all those guys don't build like battleships or fighter jets or anything like that. And be thankful ordering a fire truck. That takes five to seven years depend on your manufacturer. But the unit that you approved us to order early will be actually spending the money in next fiscal cycle, not this upcoming one. Y if that makes sense at all. Yeah. And you canled one in this whole mess too, right? that was that we had remember we had bought one that you had canceled or that was going to come in after one of the ones we had ordered after it or whatever still so we should see that one hopefully this fall is what they're telling us they said it so is it going to be the first one we get or is it

the first of the three that are on order should be the one that we ordered back in FY it's probably going to be out of warranty right it's going to be it's going to be like 5 years old in manufacturer good news is the the Ford warranty is on the chassis so not on the day we ordered it so we'll get our that's crazy the full warranty on that but we could just get stay in business. Sevenyear payment plan to pay it off. I'd be happier. There you go. That's what we basically need. Might as well take that long to get them. That's also why we've got 2009 units still in service. So, is is the biggest reason is the limited manufacturers available to make them or is it is it don't tell me it's COVID backlog. I don't want to hear that. I mean,

I don't want to hear it either, but I tell you that's what they say. That's what they say. Good God. How long can you beat that horse again? Six years ago. But people like to use it as an excuse. Okay. Well, you'll get new technology unless they ordered 2022. Does the vote for an additional unit affect this number for next year? Do we need to Does anything need added or No, you're okay. No, everything's Everything's there. Yeah, it'll just um it'll take the reserve fleet down by one as well. Still have enough reserves, but we'll be okay.

Okay. Next item was EMS emergency equipment, which is uh PPE and scuba gear, radio tower inspection repairs, um EMS cardiac care equipment. I think um we postponed a year or Did you say scuba gear? SCBA. Is that SCBA? Scuba. No. SCBA. Selfing. Yeah. No underwater. There's not. There's no you in there. Phil. I just want to know how you going to do mouth to mouth underwater. That's for commissioner right along. Now, we used that employee that said marine paramedic on. Yeah, there you go. He was in the water, but that was just his name. Greenstone got a grant for that a couple years ago.

Yeah. But they do water rescue though. No, this is all get nothing underwater. It's all forget the water so they can brea breathe in the fire. 200,000 for public safety network, 300,000 for radio subscriber replacement, and then at the bottom u 1.3 million for literal console upgrade. One thing for the cardiac care equipment, the outlying years, we didn't have a chance to update that before you guys signed, but those numbers are going to come down based off of what we did. That's good. So, we have to take the savings out of that. So, those numbers will come down. All right. I like savings.

Year about that. Mhm. The only other little hidden thing, just so you know, if you look at the voice recording system that's on here that was deleted off of here, we're still coming probably at your next commissioner meeting to address that. What we did was we switched it when we met with the county administrator budget to move it to this fiscal cycle and utilize some funding, but 60% of it is 911 board approximately and 30% is going to be county funded

to the hundth of a percentage. Phil as long as that bill over there to leave that lock box open on the 911 fund doesn't get through. Now, it's uh it has been deleted out of the budget proposal. No, I'm talking about I was just there yesterday. We're talking about the 911 fund that they don't want to restrict it. They want to make it so it can be rated by the general fund. There's a bill in there to try to do that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I had heard that. Why not? A fiscal cliff. Find some money. Yeah. And it's a it's a you know, style. and we're still good with our rates that we're charging right now to make sure that we're able to keep up right for the cell phone rates that we use for it and all.

So, thanks to your help, it only took two years to initiate the the adjustment. Yeah. And we probably if you didn't intervene, we'd probably still be waiting for the adjustment. But uh one thing I discussed with Jeff is uh having the 911 board accountant has offered to analyze what what our fee structure is and make recommendations on where we should sit. So uh we haven't had an opportunity to do that yet, but that's probably going to come shortly after the budget process and we'll have that meeting with them. Okay. So we might make a recommendation down the road to increase that. Right. Yeah. We're not maxed out yet. We're about halfway. Is that right? You're not even halfway. Not even half.

No, we're way low, but but I mean we tried to do it. What's it's almost two years now. Yeah. And it took forever to do it. So we are probably still behind because it's been two years since we tried to initiate that one. But we are starting to see the increase like the difference in it and it's a significant difference on what we're seeing. It's almost double which has helped a lot. Yeah. What was that? So Chris was just asking just um Chris voice recording system. How's that work underwater? What the wet system? I'm sorry. Wet suit. You put a tin down to the person underwater and then you can speak into it. So, it does function under water then. Okay. We'll we'll test it out.

Take fellow out on a fire boat. One of the fire boats with some scuba. We got some friends we could talk to. All right. All right. Any other questions, commissioners, or any other thoughts or points? Jeff needs to annunciate. I thought he said scuba. So I did. He actually did say he he led you astray. Okay. Thanks for reeling me in, Jack. You're all right, buddy. And Chris said Scooby-Doo, so I was all out of it. All right. Well, thank you all. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming today. We appreciate everything. Yeah,

we appreciate it. Carry on. Yeah, we appreciate you. the next victim here. Oh, there he is over there, sir. There he is. Let him have it. Let him have it. Now we got to make up. I thought you guys weren't good together. Caught an ambulance. So, we got to cut We got to cut some work. Like, I got all the money. I'm gone. Say, too. Until the school board was in there. And then all of a sudden, now he took our money from I love you, man. I love you, too. He needs a scuba team. Yeah, he does. I know. I do. I have we can put them Hey, isn't the doesn't the isn't the M wrap uh amphibious? We could stick the scuba tube in the M wrap. Run in the water and we'll be good.

Oh, yeah. I think you can. It's pretty submersible. Yeah, I guess cuz uh didn't you guys you guys used it? When is it one of the tropical storms and all? Right. Yeah. And then snow storms as well. Yeah. Thank you, man. It's never been stuck, but it has lost track. Since I seen you say, what what's the difference? Right. Well, I was going to say, but anything that can that's going to stick that been locked up, so good. How are you? Good. Yeah, Commissioner Sheriff. All right, Major. Major, good to see you. Long time no see. Congratulations again on your

years of service. You probably could have got away with that uniform instead of your class A. I probably he nailed it though. No, I don't know. It was Hey, it was it was uniform. It's true. He had his picture taken. It was going to be in the paper and all that. All right. Tell me the page before I even open up the book this time. 74. What happened to six? Look, look, look, look. See, no enhancements. No enhancements for the sheriff. Well, well, so we did save for last. There are some enhancements that the sheriff proposed, but uh that really is relative to the second judge. We talked about those Tuesday. So, there may be some additional positions that

we need to add for the sheriff uh in the in the future attorney and just depends if right now it's not looking like it's going to go through this year, which is good because we're trying to keep up with hiring events. Keep our schools filled, courts filled. Yeah. So, not not much exciting unless you see something in here. I think a pretty status quo with minimal increase.

Yeah. Only a 6.2 uh 6.2% increase which like I said earlier with colas and health insurance going up. That's more than reasonable. Um we try to keep all the departments under seven or eight%. Um sheriff coming in at you know six is well within that threshold. Not really much to he's looking for that gold star isn't he? Like that you guys didn't even have to ask me anything. And I think we need to commend the sheriff's department because they work really really hard on also getting grant money. So, it's not just the county for money, which we're happy to do, but they work really hard to get money from outside the county to make sure that

we've got the best law enforcement there is with the best bang for the buck. Yand of course those homeland security grants right now, there's probably a big question over those right now.

Yeah, there are. Yeah, I think so. But we're we're we're doing good with grant funding and we appreciate the partnership that we have with the county and and our commissioners as well. It means a lot and it definitely is reflective in the quality of service that's provided to the citizens of this county. Um our low crime rate, you know, and response times are good and and all that. So, I think we got a great staff, too, by the way. I mean, our our men and women that are on the street love working for this community. We do appreciate your support through through the budget process and, you know, all that. So,

and I just want to publicly um tell you that I appreciate what you guys did. um after we had our town hall for the 405 overpass when they opened it back up. I saw a lot more sheriffs out there helping MSP keep the speed down. Unfortunately, we're back. Same situation up there, but I mean that's not I know that's not your guys uh job to get that done. So, but we're trying to our speeding complaints are through the roof in the communities right now. I mean, our speeding is out of control.

Well, the major tell you every COG meeting there's not a single town that doesn't say, you know, name off road after road where it's just ridiculous. You know, I think we've become complacent as a community. We're in a hurry to get places here and there a lot of times, you know. So, it's just it's one of those things where, you know, we've seen the tragedies at 405 and 301. We've seen them at different areas through our communities that we've had these serious incidents occur. So, yet we still keep getting zing for the speed cameras. I don't see a number or message address. Siri wants to talk to you. She recognizes me. She did. She did. Is he got an arrest warrant now or something? Please grab that, guys. Hold on. Biometrics.

So, I mean, but all kidding aside, you talk about the speeding issues that we have and then the hopefully the the red light, you know, the the speed cameras in front of the schools will curtail that. Um, putting the the uh was it red light cameras? Yeah. The in the in the high the speed cameras in the high accident zoned areas. I know. I know. And people always think that, oh, it's a revenue grab. And I and I know your position for years and years has always been we're not going to have them in this county as long as I'm a sheriff. But but you know, if we've got Sheriff Gary Hoffman convinced that there's a problem and this has got to be at least one the first step in dealing with you know that the speeding that's taking place.

Our goal like yours is to have zero violations. I mean I we just we need compliance in these school zones. We need compliance at the red lights on Route 8, Bay City Road, the area of Madape. I mean, it's only a matter of time before we have a vehicle into a school bus down there. People trying to beat the light on Route 8. Um, it's only a matter of time before we have a kid struck either in the area of Graceville Elementary School. It's only a matter of time before we have a kid struck in the area of Stevensville Middle School. Um, and the big complaint that we all hear is the area of the high school at Love Point Road. you know, Love Point Road, Queens County, I'm sorry, Ken Island High School where that trail is and the kids coming in and out of school. I mean, these are young drivers

that are then challenged with a high-speed driver, you know, in that environment there. And it's it's only a matter of time before we have this. And our goal is my goal is to collect zero revenue. If we can just and if we can just create awareness, education, and last resort enforcement, I think that's our our goal. And I know that's all of your goals as well. So to change their driving habits. Absolutely. Yeah, that would be the goal, but a whole another topic for another day. Yeah. Yes. All right. I did want to point out real quick that we do have uh a million dollars programmed in uh fiscal 28 uh to start design of the new sheriff's facility.

That's another one of our big capital initiatives we have to think about coming up. Uh detention center, sheriff's office, health department, board of elections building potentially as well. So, we have a lot of larger capital projects on the horizon. So, this is one of them. I mean, sheriff's been uh out there at his current location now for 25. Gosh. A long time. Yeah. What year was it? 200 in the capital book. I I want to say that that I want to say Sheriff Carsley got us that building back in 2003 maybe. Yeah. And it it was never designed as a sheriff. It was a print shop. We're not complaining.

I know. You all take care of our employees, the deputies that are on the street, the staff that works there. We're not complaining. But we got to look to the future though at some point, you know, because that facility is a pole barn that when the wind blows, it moves and the ceiling tiles shift. So, and it does leak. But we have buckets for that. That was good. We have buckets for that. We have buckets for that. We have buckets for that. I'm more concerned about Right on Q. More concerned about a ceiling falling down, hitting somebody. The bucket. We got We got the buckets. Let's step up to the floor. I know, right? That can happen. Put the buckets above the ceiling then. Sorry, I had to go there.

Our floors have been fixed. Thank you guys. All right. Um, yeah, that's all we really had to go over unless there's any other questions. Nope. Appreciate your help. Again, major congratulations on your 10 years. Thank you. Yeah, we appreciate the help you guys provide on the every year on the beach to bridge plan. You just heard uh Director Hos talking about how that helps them with their, you know, their response times and I know it's helped the citizens down there. I know we get some negative feedback from our friends down Route 8 down that way. Uh less and less though, but less and less, right? But I think it's been a positive um impact for the community for emergency services delivery. I tell you what though, we are since we're on the subject

um I know that there's a few businesses there at Duke Street that have concerns. You come down off of 50, if you're heading west and you get off of Duke, it's like they you're stopped right there. And if they could just go to that next road and be able to make a left, they could hit that small shopping plaza down there, the the motor home sales place down there. I guess it's Mr. Meyers, I think, owns it. I guess my question is when they come off Duke Street, they're they have to turn around. They can't come off of Duke Street on Duke Street, make that left. What they were doing before is they would turn down Duke Street, make a left at the shopping center, go down and cut out and come out through Azar's property down there, right? Because it connects down there.

It connects. Didn't used to, but correct. Yeah, it used to be a Now, it's kind of using his private property as a as a throughway. Probably is not. You have like a line of cars just like when they built that temporary road. So, if there was a way if there was a way to stop if there was a way to stop that road down there at the end. So, if they did go down there by those businesses, they would have to turn around and come back out. But that would create another flood until ways picked it up, wouldn't it? It would be one bad weekend there for sure, I would think. Right. Then the shopping center would be full of cars that aren't patronizing the business. I was just going to say, yeah, you have a mess there. We can look at it. Let's look at do something.

Look at to do something. You know, I mean, SHA parks those big huge orange or yellow or orange trucks there and and maybe the county can throw something there and park it and leave it and so people can't make that turn down through AAR's property. We should have a we have a beachto bridge meeting coming up, I'm sure, at some point soon about the project there. So, we'll It's time again. Yeah, it is. So, we'll big old dump truck parked right there and then they can't make that right. But yeah, if we could just take a look at that. I mean, I got some some of the folks that own businesses down there that are saying there's got to be we got to do something different this summer. They said business is just

none of us are here to hurt business. Just I know that I just was bring putting it on your radar. That's all. It's all I have. Everybody appreciate appreciate you. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. All right. Have a good night. All right. Yeah, yeah, that concludes all of the agencies tonight that we had um commissioners. So, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. There's any other discussions or points you want to make. We can entertain the motion and second to we will we will reconvene everybody good next Tuesday so we can release George. Everybody good? Y