Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the meeting to order.

I have a few words.

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

A reminder, before we get going, please state your name and title when you proceed in speaking. Public comment will be allowed to the extent that it's on topic. Persons participating via Zoom are currently muted. have a comment please let mark know via the chat function mark will then inform chairman treacle who can take up the comment in a manner that doesn't disrupt the agenda and if an executive session is needed then we'll meet and turn off the video and when we're done we'll turn everything back on heather are you there i am can you hear me sure can

OK, I've got a few things today. The first is I can't remember if I told you this, but it might have been after the last meeting. I received an email from the Department of Treasury federally about our finally our actual the Pratt County closeout of the COVID funds. So I will file the closeout paperwork and we will be done with all of the ARPA reporting. Finally, in closing out our award, I'd already closed out a couple of the small cities. So that is good news. We can check that off the list. I'll get that done this week. Also, there was another grant opportunity through the rural health money. Darcy reached out to me after the last meeting about the one that I thought the health department could qualify for. The newest grant opportunity is really related around patient transport. and trying to make transport for you know hospital hospital transport more efficient i get forwarded that to sasha so she could afford that to ems i am on the notification for all of these opportunities so i'll just keep forwarding them out and letting you all know if i see something that would apply to the county every grant dollar that comes in makes the amount of local ad valorem tax dollars needed less so those are all these good opportunities The other grant opportunity that I wanted to mention today is something that the state treasurer is rolling out called Heartland to Home. It's a state-funded grant opportunity for communities to try to lure new residents that are making at least $55,000 a year. He's hosting an educational opportunity this week, which I plan to participate in. to learn a little bit more about this program. I've heard about it, but don't know that much. It might be something that economic development would want to take part in on their end, not so much the city or the county, though cities and counties can apply. So just wanted to mention that. And then the last thing that I had was some good news on the Sawyer project. The preliminary final accounting came in and the project is significantly under budget, which is good news. And we have to figure out what to do with that other money and what KCC might allow us to do. They've had tremendous staff turnover at the KCC. um both contacts that we were working with are now gone from the agency and so i don't really know who who to talk to but i will figure that out and figure out what to do with the um funds grant funds remaining they are anticipating connection to the actual natural gas system and getting it pressurized in August, which is also ahead of schedule from when they were thinking when we last met. So that also is getting near completion. The amount of under budget is pretty significant. So we'll need to figure out what to do with those funds. That is all I had for you today.

On those unused funds, Can they be used for psychological trauma that this has caused and we can go somewhere with it?

Yeah, right, right. I'm afraid they are probably going to enact more trauma than less. I'm going to ask if they can be used for anything else that has to do with the natural gas system, if there are any other costs that the city of Sawyer may have to incur or has incurred. If that doesn't work, I'm guessing they'll look to see if the other projects in Sharon or Hartner, if they came in under budget or not. If there is ultimately funds left at the end, that will become perhaps additional leverage. These funds have been allocated and encumbered for this purpose. it will be in everyone's best interest if we can find things to spend them for, for this purpose. If that doesn't happen, then they'd probably have to go back to the federal government. But I'm not willing to assume that there are no other purposes without at least exploring that.

Yeah, well, yeah, it's federal money, so I don't want to make them mad.

Well, we don't want to make them mad, but we also want to make sure that if there are things that our citizens could benefit from that we get full advantage, so. And as a reminder, these are the funds that we've been dealing with for about three years that Representative Hoffman and Senator Stephan and Murphy have been working with us on. Thank you all very much.

Thank you. Bruce?

Thank you. It's an honor to stand before you. membership to the Chamber at the highest level possible. You are what we call the diamond group. There's only five members in that diamond group, and that warrants itself for a face-to-face invitation to renew your level. So that's why we need you as part of our membership. We need you in working with the Chamber of Commerce. And I'll answer any questions you have. Besides that, we had the chamber coffee last week, and gas service was there and said the same things that Heather said about the gas project, natural gas, in our neighbor's yards.

You might introduce her.

Oh. This is the guy you blame. This is the person who knows things.

Megan Fleming.

Megan Fleming.

You guys are all moved into your new building.

We have everything we want, but there's things we don't want that we still have to move.

Oh, okay. I think I understand that. I don't remember what the diamond is, but I'll make a motion to

I did receive an invoice today. It was $3,000 for the current motion.

I'll make a motion that we do the diamond level of $3,000. I'll second the motion. We're moving second. We do the diamond level of $3,000 for the chamber membership. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

Thank you very much. Yeah. Thanks, Bruce. Thank you, Bruce. We're going to leave with that. You're welcome to stay and help us solve all the world's problems. Thank you very much.

John's not here. Well, we're way early, so. Oh.

Everybody writes things different, don't they? I was glancing at it. I'll make a motion to approve a road crossing permit for Kansas Gas Service. Looks like Southeast 30th Avenue. Didn't really say where, but they're going to replace 100 foot segment of 20 inch transmission natural gas pipeline.

I'll second that motion.

They've moved and seconded we approve the road crossing for Kington's Gas Service on 30th, Southeast 30th Avenue. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

Since this is done already, we need to go ahead and sign it? Yeah. OK.

I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion that we fix the water leakage behind Mrs. Clark's desk. That was fixed last week.

And second?

I move and second that we fix the water leak from the air conditioner behind Mrs. Clark's desk in the clerk's office. All in favor say aye. Aye. Oh, same sign. Motion carried.

Thank you. Six, right? Yep.

Got anything?

We'll make a motion we approve in July 29th. So I got June 29th. June 29th.

Did it say July on there? Yeah. I'll fix that. June 29th, 2026. I'll second it.

The move is that we approve the minutes from June 29th. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

Jumped too early. Just a few days.

Not bad. You're too efficient. Yes, if John was here, we could adjourn then.

Yeah. Adjourn.

Yeah. For what day? Yeah. To be honest, we did the- We did the second session of it.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'd like to request an executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss work comp. Five minutes. Yeah.

We'll make that motion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We go into executive session for five minutes for non-elected personnel to discuss work comp. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

We'll be in executive session.

make a motion we come out of executive session no action taken no second we move in seconds we come out of executive session or no action taken all in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign we're back in open session john you come on up if you want to been in a while so i figured i better come get some kind of update

We're finally starting to get some roads sprayed now that we've had a few days of decent weather.

You and me both.

We are pretty far behind because of the weather and everything else. We're trying to get there. We went over Thursday and sprayed a lagoon at the safety building. It rained right after, so I don't think we got a very good drive on it, so we're going to go back and redo it again. And being that we're behind I would like to hire this man, if we can, for part-time. I'd come by for him. I had a gentleman come in. He lived in St. John, but he wants to... He's retired, but he wants to come down and... Does he have a license and everything? He's driver's license. He don't have a spray license. Okay. But as of the way the law is right now, he can still spray under mine until... Great.

What's his name? Sorry, I'm not used to this.

i'll make a motion we hire ron scott for a part-time spray applicator at the weed department fifteen dollars now second that we moved in second and we hire ron scott for a part-time spray applicator at 15 an hour for the weed department all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion carried

A little late in the season, but something right now.

It's been terrible everywhere.

I've talked to other directors and they're having the same problem as everyone. Sure.

You already have that part-time packet.

He's got it, getting everything filled out and we'll bring it to you first thing in the morning.

Love it. Do you want me to send you a copy of this? Sure. Will do.

other than that we're just trying to get along when we can understand since you're here all right okay on your budgets

Looking for weed and solid waste.

I don't do solid waste. Circle 19. Page 11. Okay. On your revenue side, You have $20,000 for chemical sales this year. You're currently at $15,000. You're probably going to hit that $20,000.

I'm hoping to, yes.

Then you have a reimbursement. What is that?

So we actually had this conversation. Oh, did you? Oh, I'm sorry. I went ahead and I called them because that was one of the things that I had listed for Lauren on the actuals. We are going to... We need to get rid of that reimbursement and that LEPP permit. And it's actually, is it LPP? LEPP. It's LEPP. Okay. So because LEPP, nothing has ever gone in there, but that's actually an environmental thing that just needs to come out. And the reimbursements, really those should be being reimbursed back into whatever he spent them out of. So we will probably just get rid of those two lines. They definitely need to be taken to zero because nothing has been reported in there for a while. And then Lauren's notes that she's like carbon copied you guys back into, she addressed that and said, well, can we just move it up to 25 or 30, the chemical cells and get rid of those. After speaking with John this morning, I don't think that's a good idea. I think on a good year, he can do 30 on a bad year. He's sitting at more last year. I looked at last year's actual was 17, eight. So I think that we need to be conservative in my opinion and say 20 tops.

Yeah. So we're taking out the 7,000 and the 25.

Correct.

Okay.

Putting those to, we'll put 2026s in zero to zero on those. So we're not accounting for those in our cash, you know, in 2026 to roll over. And then we'll also adjust those in the 2027 budget and going forward. Okay. But we can just remove those really. And. Because he was.

I was gonna call you this morning on this, but I just ran out of time. But I knew you were coming in too, so. Okay, that clears out. Yeah.

I didn't want to bug anyone over the weekend, so I went until Monday morning to start calling people and bugging them. Okay.

Well, that's one of 10,000 I've got here. All righty, no explain that.

Are we looking decent on the budget this year? No? Just don't even try for a full time, huh?

I'm hoping I found three mil decrease, but I'm not 100% sure. We're having evaluation up for once instead of down the last two years. It sure isn't looking good. Yep. Going to insurance and going to the benefit fund is suffering. So we got to get it back up. Or it's your budget. Your budget looks okay now.

Unless you want to give some of it up so we can help out these other people.

I'll give some of it up so I can get another week.

Anything else for me? No. Keep hanging in there. Try to get by day by day.

Got anything else? No. if you want to take up buehler now sure if you want to build do you want no i mean i've got a meeting with him that's all i was going to say so you're just making a motion on the addendum on the addendum part of the agreement i want to make a motion on to sign the addendum to the buehler consulting Contract, not the actual contract, the addendum. I need to read this whole thing.

I mean, just for the public's benefit, what the addendum does is Pratt County is agreeing to pay the consulting fee, which is estimated at $100,000 plus related costs. And Pratt County does have some rights as a result of that.

I was just going to read that.

One of the rights is the right to terminate within 10 days or 10 days written notice. Also, Pratt County is going to be receiving written reports, the same reports that PRMC gets, the county will be getting as well. And to the extent that the commissioners desire to request an in-person meeting, we have the right to do that as well.

I'll make a motion we sign the addendum. for dealer consulting uh yeah a second motion we've moved in second and we signed a amendment addendum agreement for with viewer consulting all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign

motion carry and that's beeler not beaver excuse me can you go back and fix that i wrote that i wrote that in in while we were in a meeting and then i learned it was healer and i didn't go back and threatened so i got it fixed that way and then just right after the meeting will you pour something to me yeah yeah absolutely get it off to everybody

Yeah.

I'll have more on the president's office probably next week. Just to say that.

Should we dive into the budget? I think the simplest thing is Just to go through it, we'll touch on Sesha's notes and my notes and you guys got any notes?

I did print off the one that had Lauren's responses back to those that I think you guys were a part of too. So we can see her responses.

Oh, on the back page.

No, when she responded back to the email, she just made notes on all of my notes.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She just put those in red.

Yeah, I didn't print that off, but what you gave me over here. Okay.

Yeah, I read them.

So to start, I guess, on the front page, We'll choose our R&R rate down here at the bottom. This one right here. Okay.

That's where it starts on page two. Page two.

Yeah. I was going down through here, and I remember employer benefits. The authority for expenditures in 2025. Or no. It says 3968.

Sorry, what page are you on?

Yeah, page two of what you give us.

Oh, the new one?

Yeah.

The big two or the little two?

The little page one. Got it. Thank you. And I notice it's gone down to

2026 is that why we're so all of this is reflective of the employee they need to work on the accountants need to work on the employee benefits because it's ending cash negative okay so it what that number is wrong everything that's affected in there all right yeah and they've not been we're waiting to hear from us on today to

make some of these changes so after we get back with her on those like the bulleted things they can then go back through that that was one of the bulleted things and um her response on that um is she sent me a separate email i think i know where the money's disappeared due to i'll show you later um Is there, so to fix the negative cash balance, is there some that could be transferred from a different fund, probably general fund, in order to give more cash in the employee benefit fund? Or could the expenses be paid out of the general fund or something in the employee benefit fund? Okay. Or something in the employee benefit fund?

Oh, gosh.

To avoid being cash negative.

Yeah. So I don't have anything on page two. Page three.

Please bear with me. It was late last night. I don't know why I wrote this. Where's dispatch on here? There won't be any.

Yeah, there won't be any transfers tonight. that's in our appropriation yeah and the employee benefit fund again the actual for 2025 was 225 920 and the current this year is 387 291 it seems they've increased it but i don't know so on the schedule on the schedule of transfers that's just like for like special equipment and

things that they're wanting us to like transfer at the end of the year. This isn't like a hard and fast, we're going to transfer this. We don't transfer. I see the employee benefit transfer is from Freedom Claims.

Freedom Claims. Okay. So that is increased.

So you see Receipt Fund transferring too. Yep. And we'll get another draft with like, yeah, but the, and that is correct. Cause we went through the numbers and that's where we added that 15,000 buffer. to stay in the employee benefit because we're only transferring that amount. But, yeah, that transfer will be made.

Okay. Page six, which is the funds with tax levies. I'm curious on the motor vehicle tax. We have $156,714 estimated in 26, and it jumps up to $197,006. Is that accurate? Because you jump down to commercial vehicle tax, it dropped from $13,345 to $8,000.

So these are estimates based off of a report that Amy wrote. Are you sure? Okay. Uh-huh.

I just want to make sure they're correct numbers.

Yep. Yep.

Okay. Okay. uh next page 6a commissioners on the uh okay we have a jump there and that'll explain that in the back creations Okay.

On the commissioner's line item?

Yeah, go to 6B. Okay, for salaries on the commissioners, we have $140,463, and it jumps up to $144,000. We don't get the COLA unless we say we do.

Yes. Nancy is in there, too.

Nancy is the only one in there. Yep.

Yeah, I think they just go through and out.

I think they do. I mean, it's not a lot of money, but it's going to save us a little bit.

So it would be 3% on like 20, 40, 60,000-ish.

Yeah, whatever her salary is plus 3%.

Put down the salary line item.

Yeah. Why did it jump so much from 25 to 26? There were... Because we hired attorneys?

Yep. There were attorney fees. Okay.

I mean, I just asked. Yeah.

25 for rattlesnake creek. Right. Yeah.

And then we hired some attorneys for some other issues. Okay.

Well, I think some appraisal stuff. So that would be why that jump is.

Yeah. And we have an attorney now.

Right. Yep. Nope. I understand.

See what else I got here. Okay. The community service or. down there she wanted an extra thousand that's in there yes and we go down to the register deeds she asked for a thousand i don't remember if it was in contractual or commodities but not both correct well i think that her request was both and i think that i don't know that there was any ever any like i think we when we were going through these we were like oh take sheriff back down take but i don't think we explicitly said

take everybody back down to where they were. And so I think the ones that we didn't explicitly say got left with their request, which is those items that I listed in that email, and registered date was one of them. So do we want everyone to go back down to where they were the year before, except Nancy, the $1,000, because- Didn't she need, didn't the register need that for something? Just increase in books.

No, she bought books since last year.

Well, you can buy those every year. So, I mean, her budget is very, very tight.

But I thought she asked for just $1,000. She asked for $1,000 in both.

I think it was. I think it was. It would have been whatever she requested is what they put in there. So, but I didn't know if you guys, I don't think we ever came to a decision whether you guys wanted to give that or put everybody back down to where they were because she is in the general fund.

Yeah. I think we put it back. I mean, that's my thought. What do you guys think?

Or at least knock the contractual back to $4,000 instead of $5,000.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right, because that's $2,000. Yes. $3,000. So there's $3,000. Yeah. So contractual to $4,000 and commodities to $4,000. No, give her an extra thousand. Is that what you guys are saying?

That's what you asked for. Yeah, a thousand.

Well, that's what I thought.

Yeah. So.

District court. Contraption went up $2,000. Do we know why?

Um, we're, we're just a flow through for them. They, I think they set their budget. Yeah.

We don't touch that.

Yeah. They get it.

They, they submitted their budget to us and then we, well, normally they put down why, but I, for some reason left my original and everybody judge said so.

Yeah. Okay.

Well, I'm just sure. Yeah. That's all. Okay. Next page. Thank you. Good.

Page 6D. Down here on the ROS payment, we don't have a ROS program anymore. We're still paying out of it, aren't we?

Yeah, for five years, we had the whole, I don't know if we're paying anything or not.

Well, I know, but I mean, the whole program is gone. We're not paying anything to the state.

But I think this just gives us authority because they're grandfathered in. Even though we're not doing it anymore, I think we have to finish out our term in 3D.

i thought they killed all that the people that were part i think the people that are participating in and now get to fulfill their or it doesn't matter we're not making payments anyway we haven't made payments for over five years yeah correct i think that just gives us i don't think there's this actual ad valorem on there that's just giving us authority to pay out well i thought the state canceled that program there's no new participants yeah they did i think they have to follow through with the current one say okay

i know we've got a phone extension service but how come it's as high as it is barbara's got two agents and another person in their office and theirs is only 170 000. well i talked to brian quick the other day yeah do they have their own building that i couldn't never ask i just asked him what the budget was then yeah insurance and utilities and okay all that and i'm i'd have to look it up what the state contributes to i got a problem with the 15 000 of life i have to speak up for that one they give a class to the senior citizens three times a week for a charge and this morning they had 70 people and it's growing that's fine I didn't I don't have a problem with that then I just didn't know uh know that yeah I don't have a problem with that but we cut one we're gonna have to cut I get it everybody right no I did not know that Tom and that makes that's satisfies my hope that if we got down to 25, I see that now we're back up and that's that's helping the community. I get that. Yeah, that's no problem. If you go down here to dispatch, I'm going to bring this up to a page.

You're still going to see it.

I see down there at the bottom. We had 160,000 for this year. It's jumped to 226 and what they sent us, and correct me if I'm right or wrong on this, Tyson, but this is just salaries. This is all the employee benefits, payable insurance. So we're paying this. Half of that number. The 453.44. Okay. I just wanted to make sure there was enough in there.

It was a significant jump from last year.

Well, she says in here.

Did they hire more dispatchers maybe?

Well, they hired a director. What's that? And they did bump their fags so they could get people hired.

Yeah. What did you say? What is the total personnel line?

Right there.

Yeah, so that's right. Okay.

Yeah, I just want

I don't want any surprises later on. Got you. Because I just took the 343 up here.

Okay.

And I come out with 171. I thought, wow, we're way off here.

Right. Yeah, I think the last time we had that conversation, Tyson said to use that.

We're in agreement. We're responsible. Everything that's related to staffing. Yeah. So it kind of fits that.

Well, I pulled this email out. I didn't see that first time, so. Okay. Okay. Next page seven. Don't have anything. AJ, again, down on commercial tax, it's cut in half on the road and bridge. I don't know if we've been overestimating on that or what, but that's probably something we need to watch. And then if you notice on neighborhood revitalization, I just want you to keep track of this. It has dropped $11,328. Okay. That's just it on that. Yeah. That's just on the red funds. Okay. On the next one, this is resources available. And I want to be careful here how I phrase it. On the right-hand column under proposed budget, down at the bottom, we've got $700,000. up from $30,000 for culvert and bridges.

Right.

He's going to take that money out for that bridge out of his special machinery. So he already has authority to spend it. Are we adding another $700,000 to his budget? If you look down at the bottom, we are. And I don't think we need to do that. That would be three mils. Just for that? Just for that. didn't understand him to be using his special machinery for the bridge he's that's not the way he his special machinery is what he used to buy equipment well his equipment fund capital outlay or whatever it is called he has money in there he's going to spend it the government's going to reimburse us for 90 percent and he thought it was only going to be 200 000 But I think what he's done by putting it in this line item over here for 27, you're now taxing for $700,000. That's what it looks to me. I caught that too.

I'm wondering because the amount of ad valorem is 3 million, 575, and it comes out to five. So there's like 2 million there that's not being, that's not ad valorem tax.

There's what? 3 million? Two. So the...

the total of that is um let's see the total expenditures is 5 million 534 357 and then if you go down to that very bottom line on that column the amount of ad valorem tax that we're actually taxing for is three okay well i just want to make sure let's yeah i'll and i'm wondering if they can

that's a part of the ad valorem or if he's putting it in there to have the budget authority that's what i'm saying if it's in capital improvement he's already got the budget authority it's it's not in capital improvement that's what but i mean if you want to pay for it out of capital improvement no i mean it's one or the other i just don't want to make sure we're not taxing for something we already have money for well that we're going to get reimbursed for not yeah yeah uh Because he's got non-budgeted funds. He's got special road machining, special equipment reserve, road projects, but that's that. He's got 500,000 on that. He's got a, I talked to him this morning, he's got

special equipment or whatever he was going to take that out a special road machinery maybe I did yeah it's his I'm guessing that he's saying it is he has a separate special equipment fund yes that's just road and I think he has maybe a million in there or something like that and then if that is his plans to do that he

he can do that but then if he needs equipment there's an overlap in timing where the money that we haven't been refunded but then how what do you want to do take it off capital outlay then and then reimburse and then oh you guys can do you can pay for it out of capital improvement but that's not how this is set up yeah yeah you know if that's you need to talk to Scott about it but uh that's not how he proposed it in his notes to Scott, that's why it's in here the way it's in here.

Well, he wanted to make sure he had the budget authority to spend out of that fund to pay for this period.

So if you're talking about paying for it out of capital improvement, that's a whole different ballgame.

I just want to make sure since he included it on the proposed year that we're not taxing for $700,000. Sure.

If we're going to be reimbursed.

If we're going to be reimbursed. Yeah. That's a big one. That's a big chunk. I've caught that myself. I just want to make sure we're doing the right thing.

I'll add that to the note.

I'm not arguing with he's going to pay for it. But what's the best way forward and make sure we're not taxing.

Taxing for it when we're going to get it.

Because he spends $400,000 for a grader every year out of that special equipment. But it's not listed in here. I mean, he's got a transfer back in 2025, but yeah. Okay. Uh, next page, just want you to be aware of the neighborhood revitalization rebate has gone from 6,607 down to 5,954. Election neighborhood revitalization has gone down there too. Uh, and then on the right hand column on election, we have a $5,000 increase in commodities and tractual looks like you split out between transfer. Is that what I'm seeing there?

So I, so my, my budget went down. I think he put some cash reserve in there to keep it buffed up, but I, um, the, There was 125, and that should be split between commodities and the transfer.

They did that, but you're still $5,000 over in commodities there. It was 15 last year or this year. It's 20.

Oh, I see the special.

Yeah. And then you have 125 for contractual, but they split.

I just always transfer 25. I, if, if I have that leftover, um, I transfer that it can read, it can read 20, but I'm like, they're just, that's the transfer is just earmarking that money. So it's not a part of my, like, so when I'm going and saying, how much do I have in contractual? Where am I on my budget? I'm not accounting for that 25 that I want to earmark and transfer over. So it's kind of like a placeholder.

Did you mean for your commodities to go up?

Yes. Postage is very high.

Postage. I remember that now.

Yes. Yeah. I did mean for that to go.

This is what happens when you do this at one o'clock. Yeah.

And I don't mind moving that back down to 20 and seeing where I'm at. But the amount of ad valorem is is that 152. it's just giving me the authority and earmarking that and everything but I don't mind moving that back down to 20 and seeing where we are at the end of the year yeah I don't know if that's going to make a big difference to be honest with you yeah I don't mind it's however you guys want that in there I'm happy to happy to do I I am I we only spend what is necessary out of there so I always have leftover um so it's I'll still be able to make that transfer even if it's not

part of that budget so i don't mind moving that back down so page 10 employee benefits and please bear with me as you can see at the top we got a negative which can't happen you go down to employee contributions we went from 39 to 140 is that because we're just six months into that first year in 2025 with freedom of claims?

So that is, um, the employee contribution part is the what's being deposited into that line item was Tara's, um, Catherine's and whatever. And Amy last year reimbursed the health insurance premium line with Catherine's and after speaking so you don't see it so this is just miscellaneous receipts like payroll corrections payroll it's it's just miscellaneous so that's why that was only 40 in there so we so it was 140 000 correct it is because after talking with scott and april scott likes that it was like during that meeting that you guys were hearing he was here he likes that it was pulled out because had it had we been just reimbursing it like we did last year We're not going to see that drop like, oh, Tara stopped reimbursing. We just lost whatever in this fund. We wouldn't have caught that because it would have been wrapped up in reimbursements under the health benefit line. So he felt it would be best and April thought it would be best if we just kept it as a like a receding and as part of our revenue. So that's what that 140 is, is Catherine's portion. And I was conservative with it since this fund is hurting. This is Catherine's portion of reimbursement.

yeah talking about it the next line down and this is what i don't understand you know all the other neighborhood revitalizations that dropped had dropped this one has increased and she explains that on that back page a little bit but i don't know why i think it dropped just a little bit nope 73 to 77 000. am i not looking at the right thing i see 72 000. I've got 73-805 in 2026 and 77-935.

Oh, I'm wondering if I'm looking at, this is draft.

This is 77. Let me look at the one you gave me.

Maybe I'm looking at the not, I think I might be looking at the not revised one.

Well, this is the one she sent. Okay. That you sent us.

That she said that she corrected.

Yeah, I have not received anything.

Yeah, that was the last one. I'm looking at just the regular two. draft 77. so it went up well i did see her comment that she um fixed the neighborhood revive and i don't ever remember discussing that well in the back for that email you want to bear with you gee i don't know what it's driving the draft yeah

um there is a draft number three oh no this is it on the very back page

She has some explanations.

I don't know why they didn't turn off.

Well, it's not on this one. Is there a new one? This is the one we got today. Oh, here it is. she says neighborhood revitalization employee benefits adjusted the tax up until it tied out with the budget summer this is what caused us to end at 66.18 mils instead of 66.15 estimated yeah i'm not for sure why she needed to adjust that because all the other all the other ones went down And I'm just curious on that, and I'm sure she's probably right, but I'd like an explanation for it.

Sure. NRP employees. Okay.

Okay. And then if you go down, if we have the health insurance, the 2.3 million, she still has it at 2.3 million, which you've said. But you're saying now it's 2.4 million, correct?

Because of the increase, which, which I find funny because if, if it was 2.3 and we went up 14%, that should be 2.62.

so i what i did to get the 2.4 was to get an average because i don't know what that bill is going to be everything yeah i know you just got one month right i have one month so what i did is i took that one month times 12. yeah and that's what i got so and since that was all i had to work with um it could go up it could go down if you guys think you want a buffer in there for the 14 to kick it up to 2.6 that might not be a bad idea

Well, I'd like for them to get this figured out before they do anything else to it. I mean, we got to get out of the negative before you figure out anything else.

Yeah.

And so dealing with the question.

And if we can get her on next Monday or Scott to work specifically on employee benefit, that would help. Because my next question is on the transfer to freedom claims are actual for 2025 was 225,000. This year it jumped to 387. My question is, was that 225 just for like a half year or something?

So let me think here. We have been, yes, because.

Because we started in 25. That's what I thought. Okay. I got something right. Okay. But yeah, if they could get on so we could discuss this employee benefit, that would be.

Okay. I'll see if they can't run far. and then down on the health department you thought her after was only 188. did you ever hear back from I did I heard back this morning she thought September October November are usually their busy months she thinks that they'll hit that it may be a little bit under so I don't I don't know if we should she's got plenty in there her budget is pretty good okay

because I figured once school started the shots and then it's hard to tell she felt like they were on track but she said you know we may come and go and do that but I think her budget is stable enough that it can then you go down to the neighborhood revitalization and there again another I want to increase right decrease decrease excuse me okay and then you caught we need to move everything back To last year on commodities. Yeah.

Health health department was another one that didn't get, I think, explicitly said to.

Contractual. What does she have? The insurance should be the same too, shouldn't it?

Yeah, I, yeah, I just have all, I have those three things going back down to. What they wrote a prior year.

And then an ambulance. You said there should be good there on their charges for service.

Yes, they thought they would be good. I talked with Lisa on Thursday.

Once again, neighborhood revitalization took a big jump down.

Did you? It's not a lot, but that's about. by like 4 500 on the contractual did you want that move back down on ems they were another one that didn't get moved back down uh yes you don't know why that is do we know why commodities went from 56 to 100 25 and 26.

oh they had the other part of it in contractual i see they got it straightened out that's part of the cleanup process okay uh noxious weed we've already done that one but there again the neighborhood dropped a little a little two dollars yeah Okay, on capital improvement, I know he has that $370 down here for sandpit. There again, I don't know if that's a taxing deal or just authority to... Yeah, it doesn't have any effect on taxes. Well, it's in the proposed budget. That's why it shows down there.

If you look at the very bottom line, the amount of ad valorem tax is zero.

Yeah, capital improvements are subjective. So we're good there on that one. Lake, you think he's a little high on the bees?

Yeah, I think Catherine said let's bump him down. I'm thinking we should be moved down to 15 or 20 for 26 and 27, she said. So we'll adjust both 26 and 27s, if you guys are OK with that.

Down to 15 or 20?

Which one do you guys prefer? I figured when Rick gets done, we just go out around these bullet points and get all of our answers.

Let's see. Set that down.

Yeah.

He's setting pretty good. Well, I mean, on the things. Oh, I don't know. We don't. see that I mean it's probably in there but you know okay I didn't know she had he said the money was coming in this morning I figured with the new lock box it was not gotcha walking away they're probably pretty good yeah last week yeah and then I didn't grab the right copy of my budget I grabbed it oh that's fine first draft but I have it written down there and that's he wasn't quite there so we oh eight um eight eight two five so far

is what he had but he's getting ready to have you know oh yeah busy summers has been the time so yep um but that is a pretty big difference there so she thought maybe we ought to be a little bit more conservative so and I think I know why the contractual down here on Lake unlike went from 16904 to 58 750. So that's when he had that unexplained dip.

Is that the 30 back in there that got taken out somewhere?

Yeah, like if you look at his 2020, his prior year actual was 44, which means his budget was, like we just took him and put him back at what his budget was the year before.

Okay, okay. Well, the year prior actual was only 44, so.

Right, his budget was more than that.

Yeah, yeah.

It just, he only spent the 44 out of there.

And then there's nothing on his insurance when it was 5,424 the year before.

Yep, I did notice that. I have that too, insurance for late.

Okay.

I have a question mark there. I don't know if he's just paying it or if we paid it out of contractual, but it was no.

So you know more about the receipt side from senior services?

know very little amy deals with receipts but i know a little bit she's at 56 halfway through the year so 115 probably too terribly off i don't know if we need 119. she so that was actuals that they used because that's what was on tara's budget sheet that she sent on in was actual so they used actual Um, she said these numbers seem exact. I think this is what the department sent us with the, um, wouldn't be the amount of things stay the same. Should I move down to something like one Oh five or one 10? She said she just used actuals to get that number.

Well, she's 56,000 for halfway through the year. Right. So you're going to be over a hundred. That's 112,000. So I just leave it at one 15.

Okay. Okay. I guess. Yeah. She was asking if we want to move down to like 105 or 110, but if you guys are okay leaving it.

Yeah. Yeah.

There again, our neighborhood revitalization is down. Basically it's down for all of them, but employee benefit.

She mentioned that she uses that to tie out the summary. So I'm wondering if she's adjusting those numbers to make it ...

It's got to go somewhere. It's got to go somewhere.

Right. Instead of taking away from these guys' budget, she's taking it away from employee benefit, I think, because that's a whole different ... Well, no, the employee benefit is, I think, because the numbers aren't tying out because we are negative, she's adjusting in that line item to balance it out.

Oh, okay. I think is what ... Okay. I'm following.

She's using it kind of like a placeholder to balance something out. Yeah. But I'll get in touch with her and make sure.

And then you caught those two need to be turned around. Yeah. But they're not correct.

Yep. And I, I kind of sent her, I sent her a summary of this period so she can kind of see where the budgets were and which is, it's not, that's not a huge deal, but. Yeah.

And then the senior citizens deal, you know, this year's 21, 5 48, but we did pay Preston. It'd be next year. We don't pay Preston. So you got to take Preston's off at 21.

So are you wanting, that's what I, another one of my questions, do you guys want to not with Preston? Yeah. Making sure that.

Yeah. And then you're catching a $30,000, oh, up here on contractual for, it's actually council on aging, correct?

Yeah, I think they're flipped. One of them had a pretty big.

Yeah, the contractual went from 7,000 to 54,000. That's an increase of 30,000.

Well, and I think that's because if you look at, let's see here.

Do you remember?

Because if you look at the actual on the contractual on VSP for 2025, it's at 54. So they've.

That's where the flip.

Yeah, that's where the flip is.

You're good.

Their actual, like how we're paying it and how they're budgeting it is flipped.

Oh, it's flipped.

You see, so that last year's actual was 54. And so they're putting in there.

Yeah, because they got 6,000 for this year and then 4,500.

Right.

So we need to flip all that. Correct. How do we get the $30,000 increase? Right.

Aside from that, there was a pretty big jump. And I don't ever remember, like, I remember addressing it kind of when we were doing this, but then it, you know, this fund is a mystery to all of us, but there is a 30 increase. I don't ever remember discussing that or going over or getting an explanation of why there is an increase there.

Yeah, we need to find that out.

Do you want me to have Tara come in?

Well, no, we just, I mean, she's like, oh, we need to adjust it to last year.

Okay.

what if she needs it and she's in a fund by herself so she she's different than others and that she's in a fund by herself i mean she can't be cash naked but why would she need thirty thousand dollars i mean that's a huge jump that's not a cola that's not a i don't know i'm just saying if she needs it you guys need to find out why so yeah that's why i was wondering if you want to yeah okay thank you

But I think it's just a mistake in arithmetic here somewhere.

It's what she submitted.

I don't remember talking about that, an increase like that. I don't either.

Well, that's...

When we talked today, it was super confusing as to what was going on.

No.

I'm going to grab my two coins right now. you don't want to talk sure we got to be careful too because her grant is based off of what yeah

Sorry, am I boring you, Jason?

I'm just trying to remember the conversation.

be an alphabetical order they are it's next to them mine was an alphabetical order easy to find them after or before the share before they're not on there twice or just your note taker this is the start of it yeah she doesn't have it okay here we go this is senior citizens here so how can we have a nice i don't know thing like that keep going Now I can see why we're all confused. There you go. OK, so contractual went up a bunch.

Commodities and contractuals, she's switched around. And senior services, she's dropped the commodities, dropped the contractual, increased the senior service center. And the Preston senior center, i don't know why she has that in there so she actually went down on bsp this is going to be hard to do because everything's switched Yeah, she's got 37,000 increase in senior services, from 164, 273 to 199, 678. Yeah.

because she's buying a bus no i think the way i remember the conversation she said she was looking at her budget reports that shows her cash and that's where she thought she needed to be that could be wrong we can simply just ask her though yeah yeah she'll have to come in because here on

Your services. Everything's different than what's on here.

Here she has 4,500, 25,000, 1,200 for commodity. i think she's got two different triggers going on very nice did you make this or did she make this so we took everyone back down let's see here

I plugged in her numbers. She actually, no, she sent this. She's the one that sent this. She filled it out after the fact.

Well, because this sheet, total for both is 395,638. But this sheet that she came in with is 310,799.

Yep, I noticed that. I was trying to see where the discrepancy was. I'm wondering, that's why I need a calculator. I wanted to add up her numbers to see if they truly were 310.

So she needs to come in and see if we can work it out. Get to the bottom of that, yeah.

I'll reach out to her.

You might email her and let her know specifically that way we can try to have a productive conversation. Like give her a heads up about what needs to be talked about.

Yep, will do. No specific.

Do you have anything else on that one? No. Special parks and rec, I don't have anything. Solid waste. Looks like he'll meet us on receipts.

Yeah, we need to bring those contractual all back down.

Okay. uh next page freedom claims reserve i think they already answered that that was just for six months it was 172 000 then we jumped up to 300 i thought i think that's just for six months that's for sure we would have started in june yeah june right i think that's all i got you got something right here tom yes tom or morgan do you guys have anything you want to go over i would just the 700 000 in culbertson bridge is what caught my attention yeah because if that's i don't know if it's being tacked we need to find that out because we have the money we don't need to so you're saying if it is you want to pay with pay for it out of capital well or whatever fund he's been doing bridges out of I don't think we need to tax for it.

I understand what you're saying.

If we're going to be reimbursed for 90% of it.

So it's in that fund because that's how it was proposed to Scott. If it needs to be different.

He just wanted to make sure that he had the authority to spend that money. I get that. But he should have that kind of special equipment. I just don't know where in the budget it gives him the authority to spend all of it.

So his special road machinery. Regular special equipment for all the departments and capital improvement are all outside of this. They don't affect the levy.

Okay.

If it's in his fund, it affects the levy. So if you're saying you want to pay for it out of something.

Other than his budgeted fund. No, we're not going to do that. He wants to take it out of special equipment. So that's outside the budget.

And that's not how it's shown right now.

Yes, correct.

that'd save us three meals or more yeah if it's if it's a part of the ad valorem tax yeah it might not be it might not have been added because there is a two million dollar difference in his budget in the ad valorem tax yes and he doesn't have a lot of receipts coming in just as long tax well he gets 400 000 every year out of the sales tax yeah

That's always been, he's always talked about that.

We don't know why. We've searched high and low, but he does.

And there's a statute that says that the county can use the sales tax for the road department specifically. Sometime probably before I was born, they decided to use part of the sales tax for the road.

Yeah, if Lauren or Scott next Monday can get on and help us explain that, that would be great.

I'm hoping. we're going to take that off and lower the middle okay we'll see if it's a part of the levy and go from there right um okay i'm going to go through this checklist here our last state of the 20th to give notice to such a on exceeding the r r so if we're meeting monday we need to pretty much figure it out yes we've got to have we need to know our number so we can do the notice in the session right yeah because i think all this other stuff she can go ahead and do well so the i'm going over our bullet points here on what we're trying to work through here um the beginning cash the ending of 2026 and the beginning cash are negative for employee benefits We need to figure out so her her options that she sent and that other email where you guys want to pay for something out of a different fund to give that fund relief. Do you guys want to transfer some from the general general to there to give us some relief? How are you guys wanting to address the negative?

And whatever you do is then going to affect the numbers on the fund. It comes from. Unless it's capital improvement or special.

It wasn't a huge negative number. What was it? Four.

It needs to not only not be negative, it needs to be- It needs to fund itself. Well over that.

It's $48,000.

So my suggestion would be we talk about this on Monday.

Yeah.

Do did Scott act like he would, I mean, can he be if Scott can't, we need to get make sure Scott's available.

So the last I checked, he was busy every Monday. That's why I had him squeeze in so quickly on July one, because that was his last Monday available. But if we wanted to do a budget workshop on another day, we could make that work. Prior to that, she had given me several dates, but I picked the earliest one because. on the Wednesday. Oh, no, it wasn't that Monday. It was a Wednesday because he had no more Mondays. That's why we did it on Wednesday. So I would say he has no more Mondays. If you guys want to meet and have a budget workshop on a separate day, I can get several dates.

Yeah, just get some dates. Well, it's got to be next week. Yeah. As simple as that. Either this week or next week.

Or are you guys...

The problem is we'd have to call special unless we... Yeah, but we'll do it Monday.

Next week.

I was going to say it can't be this week because we'd have to call special on it.

Not enough advertising.

Yeah, sometime. I mean, it's got to happen because if we don't get it figured out by the 20th, there's no way to notice that we have to do it legally.

Okay, I'll get the dates for next week and I'll text you.

And you can just Zoom if, I mean. Yeah, you can Zoom. You don't have to drive all the way down here. Yep. Okay, and then.

So the big issues, just to summarize, are Employee benefits, Ducks Bridge project, terrorist fund.

Yes, yes. Those are the three big ones I have. The rest of them are just clerical errors.

Do you guys want to increase the grad senior centers? Because it's currently increased as well. It's an appropriation, but it's under Tara's budget.

No, we're giving them the same amount of loans. and we're probably going to get rid of that hopefully sometime next year um because in my book her sheet doesn't have an increase but the other one does so i don't know what she's doing yep that's so

Amy Nunez, Okay i'll ask i'll ask those questions that I think I think we've gone through this checklist for all since got an email and seeing what dates, he has available and then just on that bottom part of that email. Amy Nunez, I after Tyson and I so we went ahead and just I went ahead and pulled numbers to see where our biggest increases are. Amy Nunez, And that's what I sent you where you know what's contributing to us going over is. We crossed bushel premiums, fuel for just those three departments. I didn't look at any other, anyone else.

My next question, you know, like Doug, he says he's going to build into his budget. So we shouldn't be increasing for fuel.

Well, just like a year over a year number of costs.

Yeah.

We take Doug and we say, okay, we're keeping you at the same budget, even though his fuel line might not be going up and it's accounted for and he can absorb it. It's still more money that we're looking to send out for that. And he's not going to have the cash to carry over for next year. Yeah. He would have had, he not been spending an extra whatever.

And it is coming down. Now I can understand it being up there.

I mean, the, Sasha's numbers on the three things she pulled explains directly what the difference between mills is.

Yeah, you have two. What's the third one?

Yeah, it was the COLA, which I was actually shocked by that. I mean, it's a number, but it's not a huge number like I thought it was going to be.

No, it's not.

And I had Tricia double check my math because I was like, that can't be right. So I gave her the budget and had her go through. I literally went, yeah, I would have literally went line by line. and pulled out the difference of that 3% and then checked it and then added them all up. And it's not as big of a number as I thought, but it does contribute. You know, it's an increase on personnel that we didn't have the prior year.

But we went from 65 to 62 or 63 with the assessed valuation.

Yeah.

after she did all this we're clear up 66. and that seems like a i mean change but you know that health insurance right here it's right in the numbers that's right yeah that's that's kind of why we talked about that and it tyson was like it would be nice to see hard evidence on you know not just to see it but i mean when you get people questioning from public it's simple health insurance is up almost four hundred thousand dollars We did keep our property insurance down. It cost us, but we kept it down. Let's think about if we had to.

It was up 160, close to 200,000.

We're no different than anybody else.

Yeah, in all the same ways it's hitting people, it's hitting us.

Sure. And it's at an exponentially greater amount.

Yeah, and these are just literally three items.

Yeah.

That's not accounting for all the other daily costs that we just absorb. And which does affect, you know, as costs go up, what we can roll over and cash goes down.

Yeah. Which is what we've been eating cash on us too.

Right.

That's why we have negatives.

Yeah. That's his negative cash number here. But.

Because we were able to remain R&R last year and use cash reserves.

but now our cash is lower this year and we're having to make up to get to where we need to be what's the devaluation yeah right right we we had less value we actually had an increased evaluation in two years three years a while well it's not going to make people happy it's justifiable right there well

I'm not saying that people are going to be happy, but you have an explanation. Yes. Clearly. I mean, when people say, well, why? Right there.

Right there. Plus, next year, we have, you know, the state keeps giving out tax exemptions. We got one coming on.

Yeah.

What did you say that was, 10 million? What was that? The gas deal that thought they were coming off tax exemptions this year.

Oh, it was 12 with new improvements and assessed.

So, you know, every time they give tax exemptions, it comes down. Orders. Well, that one's going to go back on. That's right. That's what I'm saying. OK, that's what I'm saying. I thought they were coming on this year. Yeah. But that's what tax exemptions do. Okay, so I guess we've got a plan. And make sure Tara's prepared. Because we're not going to have time.

If you can just even get an answer from her before. I mean, she should have an answer as to why. Especially if it's going to be when Scott's available. I'd rather use, I'll talk to you about it afterwards.

Because I've got two different deals in that book.

Yeah, in this one.

I think she presented the one that was on her paper and then submitted.

Then submitted the other one, and it has got an increase. That's why we don't remember talking about an increase.

Well, I do remember saying some of these things needed corrected, and so I think she sent a corrected version to us.

That was based upon her looking at her actual budget use through that timeframe that she submitted.

that was the explanation that I remember right I know it took me a second to go I'm like you know we've all slept since then and had a different budget meeting since then but but I do remember there was like she made some corrections and then submitted that one we need to hear why she went up 30 minutes yeah and I'm gonna I'm gonna pull these numbers and crunch them before I email her too just to make sure that my my brain is wrapped around it and that

Because if she was $30,000, she wouldn't have known about it.

Yeah, she did not. Okay. All right.

Now that I gave everybody a headache.

Sorry. It was necessary.

Maybe I was crazy on a couple of them last night.

Where did this come from?

Over here. do you have anything else well second then moved and second we pay the vouchers all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign thank you snowshoe for all your work on this yes Because I was following your email and then looking at it.

Yeah.

Trying to figure things out.

Yeah.

Okay.

We want to split these. They might be close.

uh that's all right mark i'll send you a new minute email with the correct today okay thank you the the ninth yeah wednesday is that right is that when you're fed

That's what the email that I saw.

And I forwarded you an email.

So she had called, well, they had called me prior to getting that email. Okay. And we worked through that.

Okay. So you're good on that.

So it sounds like this will just be the only thing I'm really sending them. The rest will be like travel expenses. Sounds like what they'll be.

They'll bill against that.

Yes.

Until it's gone. so um in the reporting that we get it'll have the description of the of everything um

Go down the road.

Yes, motion. with that i think actually it's a great idea i think it is too

You got all your fingers and toes over there after the weekend? i didn't even like one one lighter enough was there a lot of people down at layman's yeah do you need a copy of that or is it just go back to that okay thank you

I do have a meeting with dispatch on Thursday.

They are having trouble. I don't, especially with EMS, I could hear them clear today on my pager.

I think so.

okay i think i'm going to take that agreement and i'll bring the original back after i stand The only reason we all stand, it'll make weird things on the document sometimes.

Oh, really? I'll have to go back and look.

I don't know if it's clear. Clean your glass. Yeah.

Yeah, usually it'll tell us.

The last one, it actually probably was dirty glass is what it was, just on the right side of it.

Yeah, I thought you scanned something. I thought, well, look at it.

Like, is it a line or?

Cat prints.

Oh, no. i'd have to show it to you yeah i wonder what the last thing i say yeah i'll go back and that might have been the last one something not a big deal unless it's the area that i actually need to see in there well sometimes if like the paper is folded or it does funky stuff too

Looking at the litigation letter, that one looks okay on my side. I'm not sure.

Almost like it had a black streak mark on the right side.

Like a line. That does come from the pretty glass.

Sometimes if you don't get a good cover over that, the light reflects it.

You're welcome. I'm about done.

You're fine.

Well, that feels like.

OK.

I didn't even see your email until Saturday. I was so busy.

I figure anything that I send after 5 is free game to not respond to.

Well, we can't respond anyway, but just reading your email, I thought, well, she's gone through this.

I did try.

I'll go through it Sunday night. Motion to adjourn.

I'll say it then move in second and we adjourn all in favor say aye.