County Board - Regular Meeting

HR committee. Um I think I have the green light. We are in the process of recording. Correct gentlemen? Thank you. Um uh supervisors present on behalf of FHR committee are supervisors Miller, Shakur, Wish, Spencer, and Caprillion. and myself. Chairman Troier Neielson uh is excused this evening and the youth and governance um skipper is excused and I'm waiting to hear from Renteria. Um it is 5:04 and uh I am going to um this is a joint meeting with uh government services. So, I'm going to let the chairperson uh chairman Caprillian take over.

All right. Very good. Thank you for that. I'm going to call this meeting of March 10th, government services to order. And it looks like the only excused absence that we have is Supervisor Kelly. Uh but with that, we do have one youth and governance representative here, Scout Winder. I'm going to ask her to read the youth and governance statement.

Hello, we are members of the Rine County Youth and Governance Program and we will be participating in tonight's meeting. This program serves to empower youth in Racine County by encouraging us to participate in local government. We have agreed to abide by the applicable standards of conduct that would govern any elected county board member. While we are encouraged to participate and are allowed to have a non-binding advisory vote on matters before this committee, all formal action taken by this committee will be based solely on the binding votes made by county board supervisors.

Thank you. Uh youth and governance reper. Uh if you would notice, we have one item on our agenda that's taken up by both committee members or both committees. And with that, this is the consideration of resolution 2525 and the numbers will be set later but by both of our committees and this is for the deputy sheriff positions for uh the multi-year agreement with the village of Sturdivan. So with that, Supervisor Trudier.

Thank you. uh consideration of resolution 2025XX by the Finance and Human Resource Committee creating 10 FTE deputy sheriff positions and authorizing the transfer of 1,354,473 within the sheriff's office 2026 budget and authorizing a multi-year 20- 26 to 20 to 30 excrect that 2026 to 2030 30 police service agreement with the village of Sturivan requesting action first reading March 24th uh 2026 at the county board meeting um this evening to make the presentation I'm going to first introduce uh Jim Widner.

All right, good evening everyone. Thank you very much for having us here this evening. So, my name is Jim Widner. I'm the chief deputy with the Rine County Sheriff's Office. And with me this evening, I have Carrie Madreal. She's our operations division captain and also Kelly Gatsky. He's our support services division captain. So, tonight we're here to respectfully request that these two boards uh vote and uh move the resolution to the county board. The resolution is for the engagement in a contract to provide law enforcement services to the village of Sturdivan for the term of 5 years. Along with that is the request for adding 10 FTE deputies to the Rine County Sheriff's Office budget to support the service of that Sturdivvent contract. So we have been uh before both of your boards this last quarter of 2025 discussing uh the development of the conversations with Sturdivvent around centering around contracting for law enforcement services and actually the implementation and currently we are in place with a temporary contract. So tonight, we are looking to segue off of that temporary contract and move into a full-time long-term contract for law enforcement services with the sheriff's office. So just to give a little bit of history um on kind of how this process has played out, um the conversations first began last July of 2025. Uh the village of Sturdivan representatives had reached out to the sheriff's office inquiring about uh what it looked like to contract for law enforcement services. information was provided to them based off of our other contracts. Contracting for law enforcement services for the sheriff's office is something that goes back multiple decades. Uh we currently have eight existing municipal contracts that we provide law enforcement services for throughout Rine County. Um in August of 2025, a presentation was presented to the village of Sturdivan board just with an overview of what it looked like to contract with the sheriff's office. Ultimately, at the end of August, early

September, uh, Sturdivan made the decision that they were not going to continue on exploring, uh, contracting for law enforcement services and they were going to continue with their, uh, their current police department and hiring a new chief. Now, in September, late September, early October, uh, that direction changed. Um, Sterivant then uh reinitiated communication with us and asked us uh advised us that they were interested in uh exploring long-term contract for law enforcement services. Now, this all occurred right around the time frame of our budget hearings. So during the sheriff's office budget hearing on October 15th, in addition to the discussion on the overall budget, we did uh also make the statement to the board that we had been reapproached by Sturdivant and we were having those conversations with them about what a long-term contract would look like. So um once we uh kind of did that in October um we were initiating in conversations with Sturdivate to see what that contract would look like from uh the long-term perspective. And then uh they were uh they reached out again to us and advised us that they were having uh they were at a staffing crisis and they really could not continue to provide law enforcement services internally any longer and they asked if as of November 16th we would take over providing those law enforcement services. So that was really the catalyst for the discussion about a temporary contract. So again, collaborating with corp counsel and finance and uh the executive leadership within the uh county um we put together a temporary contract and brought that to both of these committees and then ultimately to the county board. So on December 9th that temporary contract was ratified at the county board and we entered into that contract back billing to the date of November 16th to cover when we first began putting staff out in that area. So we are currently providing staffing right now in the uh with the temporary contract. So now that temporary contract did not necessitate

any additional manpower to provide it. It was really meant as a stop gap contract to ensure providing those core services uh to the residents of Sturdivan while we continue to move forward on the long-term contract. So, what we're able to do is we're staffing that contract currently with one deputy on overtime on each shift and we're billing at the top step uh overtime step of a deputy. Um so with that um I will turn it over to Captain Magical um just to give a couple comments on how this process has been going. Captain Magical being our operations division is directly oversees all of our operations, all our patrol and investigative assets, including our contract uh for our contracts for law enforcement municipal service, specifically Sturdivan. And she's had a lot of direct communication with the leadership in the village of Sturdivan.

So, uh hello, good afternoon board members. Um so, Sturdivan is very happy with our everything that we have been doing out there. Um, we do have some stats. I don't know if you want me to bore you with those, but on average it's uh about six citations um a day. Um, we've had quite a few owi arrests. If you follow the news, you would see that we had a large burglary case that we handled um just over a month ago. And um they could not have been more happy with how things were handled. Just last Friday, we had uh an incident at the real school. You might have seen that on TV. Um or on Facebook. Uh we had officers there within 3 minutes set up a perimeter. The school was placed on lockdown. Everything was handled u meticulously and um the the members of the certivant board have personally reached out to me. They are very happy. Um, I would hope Supervisor Hoffman has probably heard some positive uh, feedback as well. Um, and we are also getting a lot of comments sent to our mailbox just at the Rine Sheriff's Office and uh, people from their neighborhoods just advising. It's awesome to see the squads out there. Um, they're very happy with the traffic enforcement that we have been doing, especially on the busy roads, Highway 11. uh 90th Wisconsin Street. Um so overall um it's it's been a great collaboration that we've made with them. So um so far so good. They are very excited to get uh the additional staff based on the calls for service and things that we have been tracking since we've been out there middle of November.

um the request that they want to have two deputies on every shift tracks with the number of calls. So, we do feel that that's very appropriate as to what they need. Um so, with that, um turn it back over to the chief. All right. Thank you, Carrie.

All right. So, tonight, um we we talked about kind of how we've got here uh to this point with the temporary contract. Tonight we have continued the conversations with both uh the leadership at the village of Sturdivan as well as corporation council uh finance and uh executive leadership within the county in the development of this long-term contract. Um so what we're asking for is a contract to provide law enforcement services to the village of Sturdivan for the term of 5 years. Now, the necessity for a longer term contract um is really solidified with what we have to do to be able to service that contract and that's going to necessitate the hiring of 10 additional deputies. So, that is a very large investment on behalf of the county and the sheriff's office to be able to provide that service uh to their uh to the the residents of the the village of Sturdivan. And that's why we're asking for a longer term contract so we can have that level of stability in in that municipality. So the contract is to provide full-time service for uh Sturdivant with two deputies coverage of two deputies per shift first shift, second shift and third shift. So when we look at the calculation for making a determination, how many deputies do we have to hire to be able to provide that service? So in any operation that's 247 365, you have to look at what's referred to as relief factor. So you can't just hire two people and they just work all the time. There's only so many hours of time that any employee can work in a given year. And that number is 18 1,800 hours for a deputy. So when we look at a 24/7 365 operation like ours, we work eight shift eight hour shifts and we also have a 5253 rotating schedule. So all of this goes into play when we are looking at our relief factor. So we it basically really just kind of comes down to a math equation. So, we know that one deputy can provide 1,800 hours of

service uh to the community. So, that's extracting their days off as well as their benefit time. So, that's that's the bare minimum. And then we look at what the service level is that the municipal is asking for. And to Captain Madrical's comment, having been out there really has given us a good look since November on what their call volume looks like. How often do they have multiple calls going at any one given time? How often are we requesting backup and the necessity to be self-sufficient within that municipality and not to draw on additional resources unnecessarily? We do feel that the two deputies coverage on each shift is appropriate. So that number comes out to 17,520 hours. If you calculate calculate out 48 hours uh per day for the two deputies times 365 and then we divide it by 1,800 and that's really where we get our relief factor and the number is 9.73. Um so that's the number of deputies we would need to service the contract. We can't have 73 of a deputy. So we round up the whole bodies as we uh look at the the staffing for this contract. And that's where we come up with the number 10. So that's the the rough math on how we kind of get to that and how we when we look at this and that we allocate those 10 deputies over each of the shifts to provide that overlapping coverage and shifts based on our 5253 rotating schedule and accounting for all of their their benefit and off time. So, as we uh have gone through this conversation stretching back to last fall, there's been a couple points of uh that that a lot of questions have kind of like focused in on um and I just would like to address a few of those. So, one was that of liability. So, when we look at the contracts that we have and really any anything having to do with law enforcement, there is a liability line item within our contract. So, our contract, if you want to see the numbers, obviously there's the core core contract and appendix A and appendix B. Appendix B is a spreadsheet and it very clearly itemizes out each of the costs

associated uh with the contract and in there is a public liability line item at 2.5% of the overall manpower cost. Um, and that goes to the county to offset the county's liability um when uh for uh for public liability. Um ultimately as we move forward and we hire these additional individuals, they are county employees. They are going to be deputy sheriffs. We are responsible for hiring them, training them, managing them. So we do own their liability when they are out in the field. And we mitigate that liability through all those components, right? To or appropriately hiring, being very reasonable, being very thorough in our backgrounds. Um the training, we value training immensely, right? It's the largest in it's the most critical investment in our largest resource which is our staff and then critical and effective management of them. And we do all of those three key pieces to mitigate the overall liability that we have whether it's in the village of Sturdivan or overall throughout the entire county with all of our operations that are going on. There are certain components within the contract that do call out certain pieces of liability that do belong with Sturdivant or any of our municipal partners that we contract with. So, anything that would have to do directly with their ordinances, if there was any type of challenge to the validity of one of their ordinances, they would be ultimately responsible and own the liability associated with that. Anything that would take place that prior to a contract with us, they are ultimately uh responsible for. only once we come in do we then you know really uh own or cover that that uh liability. Um and again as we move through this you've heard me state this probably several times already but the collaboration with uh corporation council with with finance obviously contracts are kind of like the you know the coming together of multiple different areas within county government to be able to deliver this. we are the operational arm uh to be able to deliver

the contract, but obviously uh Michael Lansorf from Corporation Council, Gwen Zimmer, and finance being able to come together to ensure that the county's needs are being met from a legal perspective as well as a financial perspective with the development of the contracts. Um so the second area that I'd like to kind of uh uh talk through a little bit is just the cost. So appendix B. So, if you look at your uh your packet in appendix B, that is the spreadsheet that really lines out all of the costs. It's very transparent. It's it's it's laid out very uh uh clearly um and what the costs are when it comes to providing contract services. So, now in there, all of the costs of an individual, their wages down through all of their benefits are called out line by line. Um, also everything down to uh mileage uh on the vehicles that cover uh fuel wear and tear on the vehicles as well as a new line item that we've added in all of our contracts this year, which is an administrative fee. So, we've added a 5% administrative fee to all of our contracts. So, that scales equitably depending on the contract and the overall size of the contract. And that 5% is really meant to assist in covering additional costs that the county bears when it comes to providing law enforcement services. So, as you guys have seen throughout the years, um you know, there's more and more equipment, more and more software that kind of comes into play uh with providing day-to-day operations and really that 5% offsets those costs that are borne uh by the sheriff's office to provide the the services of the the law enforcement coverage in the village of Sturdivan. So really core equipment such as firearms, body armor, first aid supplies, uh things of that nature, and then software uh specifically uh the Axon uh officer uh program. So being able to cover that and then also allocating uh dollars aside for direct supervis supervisory

recovery are all accounted for within that 5%. So with that, I'll just kind of come back around that our respectful request tonight is to move this resolution uh to the county board uh for first and then ultimately second reading. And it is to for the approval of the five-year contract to provide law enforcement services to the village of Sturdivant as well as the authorization for the hiring of 10 deputies to service that contract. So with that, I thank all of you for your time and I'll open it up to questions that anyone may have. Okay, I'll start with Supervisor Wish.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you refresh my memory? At the peak, what was the staffing for Sturdivan and their own police department? 14. They had 14 officers or that was including the chief, the captain, they had one investigator.

Okay. What what happens to their equipment? So internally uh their equipment that uh it all belongs to the village of Sturdivvent. There's actually a line in the contract that states that if there is any equipment as through the dissolving of the police department that they would like to negotiate with us over purchasing or acquiring that would be a separate uh conversation with them and a separate contract would have to be entered into for that. I know the reality of it is is they have uh sold off or liquidated a large amount of their equipment that existed with the village of Sturdivan. We did have conversations with them. There really was not a lot of equipment that was necessary for us uh from an operational standpoint. So their vehicles are gone.

Yes. Okay. And without looking at appendix B, um I understand that there's more expenses involved which you covered some of it. Um what about vehicles and additional vehicles for the sheriff's department because you got now 10 new hires and two per shift. So we are able to accommodate this within our existing fleet. There's two vehicles that will be utilized for uh the for Sturdivant and those vehicles will be staged out of the village of Sturdivan. So those deputies that are assigned there will start their shifts and end their shifts from the village of Sturivan building. Um and it will require those two vehicles. The mileage rate offsets the fuel and then the ultimate upkeep and wear and tear on the vehicles.

Who's maintaining the building? The village of Sturdivan. It's a the police department is a portion of their municipal building and they have allocated uh the use of the existing police department to us. So you'll be using the facility but they'll be maintaining it. Correct. Yes. Thank you, Supervisor Per. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, um, Supervisor Wish answered some of my questions about the vehicles, but are we are we keeping Renee County Sheriff branding on these or are we branding them as a local sort of police department?

So, uh, what we have done in many of our contract areas, uh, we keep the sheriff's office core branding, but then we also kind of personalize it to that community. So, we'll also put their name underneath the sheriff's office logos on the on the squad car. Okay. And the mileage clearly covers maintenance and fuel, but does it does it cover new patrol purchases? I mean, it sounds like at this time we can absorb that with our existing fleet, but I think to supervisor Wish's point, if we have 10 new FTEEs, they're going to need they're going to need something to ride in. Um, so is that adequate to purchase new, you know, new vehicles as these age out? just the mileage alone

we'll have. Yes. So the we were able to absorb the two within our existing fleet. It's only those two vehicles for those 10 staff members. It'll just be rotating uh use of those vehicles and at the end of their life we have a fleet plan that is constantly rotating and replacing those vehicles uh each year uh to maintain where we're at. Okay. Thanks,

Supervisor Hart. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Madame Chair, thank you for all the information. Um, I want you to know that the agreement was well written. Uh, I did it requested and I had a complete copy to go through including appendix B. And so my questions came out. The contract is for five years with a potential to increase another five. Is there an ability for this agreement to because it's a two-part question. Is there an ability for Sturdivan or the sheriff's department to break the agreement or stop the agreement at any given point during the duration? So the the agreement is for 5 years. Um if they would like to modify and enhance their coverage, we could have collective conversations and then bring that back uh for if it was going to be to increase as far as unless it was mutually agreed upon by both parties to to go our separate separate ways. it the the term was five years and we needed that term so that we could have stability with the necessity of hiring the 10 individuals to provide the service. We couldn't have all a turnover in their board and something would happen say two years out and then they would change their minds um and then we would be stuck with 10 individuals.

Well, that's where I was going because if they decided after two years, hey, we'd like to get another go at this. My concern would be we now have 10 additional officers that quite frankly should not be needed at that point. So that's why I was asking if there is any language or corporation council if there needs to be any language that at least protects everybody. I because when I read it, it was not clear to me which is why I'm asking the question. So that be fine however you'd like to address it. just making sure that we as a county are protected in the event probably very remote but that they should decide they want to give another shot at it.

Could I just comment on one thing and then if Michael could could answer that. Um yes, I mean protecting ourselves was a huge piece. We wanted to make sure that we were had locked in for that five years also with these and it's in uh the the memo that was a part of the meeting pack. These positions would be suns set directly tied to this contract. they are necessary to provide the services for the village of Sturdivan. If after the 5-year term, if they decided to go a different route and they did not want to continue service with the sheriff's office, we would then those positions were sunset, we would then uh reduce those positions through attrition. Got it. The second part of the question then was I noticed that Oh, I'm sorry. No. Did you want to uh Michael Answer to to answer on the the fiveyear?

Yeah, nothing different than that. I mean, we did make clear what the term of the contract is, it being five years. Um, and then to the chief deputy's point that if they provided notice, there's a date by which they would need to provide that that they are planning to um create their own police department, but that would only take effect upon the next 5-year term.

If you're comfortable with the language, then that that's fine. Then the second part then is the rounding off the total numbers were roughly 1.3 million for the year for an annual agreement with them. this year that agreement will really only be nine months. Does that mean it's a pr-rated number or is it in fact going to be the 1.3 less the first three months that they've already been paying as a part of their the support that you've been giving them.

The temporary contract has been in play up until now. So once this contract would be executed, they are build on a monthly basis as we move through this. So the overall contract is broken down by a month. So they would only be paying for the months that they would receive the core services under the longer term contract. But that being said, we do have a portion in the contract. We understand that if this is a if this was approved tomorrow, we don't have 10 deputies sitting right here that it's going to take time to hire to train. So there is a clause in the contract that allows us a period of time to hire, train, and to get people up to speed to be able to service that contract. Um, so we we did uh build that into it. So it's 9 months that we we will continue to bill at overtime rate uh to cover. The goal is to hire these individuals as quickly as we can um you know to to make good hires, but to do it as rapidly as we can to get them trained and through the academy and and out and providing services to the village of Sturdivvent. And as we we get to that point, we will transition from covering it with the overtime rates to the standard rates that are in the long-term contract. I I thought that the appendix A was very supportive and helpful to understand and appreciate the administrative fee consideration. Thank you,

Supervisor Shakur, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question. Uh, in regards to the hiring and the training, uh, didn't we hire some of the Waterford, not Waterford, excuse me, uh, the Sturdivan officers to be to to join the police department? Jeez, not police department, sheriff department. Yes. Yes, absolutely. There were uh several uh that did apply uh to us and we did hire that are actually working for us right now. Um not all of them. Um some went to uh different municipalities either in county or out of county. Um some just got out of law enforcement in general. Um but there are several that we did hire. Several means how many? Three. Correct. How many?

Three. Okay. So we got to get five more. Well, they filled positions. They filled existing vacancies that we already had within the agency. So, we were not authorized to hire anything beyond what our what our approved uh budgetary numbers are for our FTE count. This is the ask here for the additional intent that will service this contract. Thank you very much. Yes. Uh, Supervisor Ver.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, couple well maybe one or two questions, I don't know. Um, but the the the uh vehicle side of things has me puzzled a little bit. And by that I mean um having those two vehicles running 24/7 and if there's any issues with stops and you need extra vehicles there, there's got to be times where people show up and the vehicles out on the road, you know, when they come in too. So is two vehicles enough to cover this? I'm wondering is you know and maybe do you have an extra half vehicle or backup vehicles if something like that happens.

Sure. So yes, we believe two vehicles is is uh appropriate for providing that service uh throughout the community. Although that we I mean we understand that there are e situations that would occur or you know we may need additional squads or be if there was some kind of critical malfunction with one of the squads. We have the ability to maneuver within our fleet at any given time. you know, there's a percentage that of our vehicles that are either receiving maintenance or they're down because of uh you know, mechanical failures. Um, so there is an e and flow within the fleet and we have the ability to shift resources around if we need to.

Like basically within your matrices for all your vehicles in the county and how you guys have run this, the way it narrows down is is two vehicles is adequate because of the backup you have. Correct. Um, and the other the other question and I may have forgotten it now. Oh, I know what it was. Um, so did you look back at the history of calls for Sturdivan just beyond the coverage that we've been having? In other words, did you go back two, three, five years to kind of run some of those numbers? As you mentioned, you're running about six citations. Give us enlighten us on that a little bit if you

So, when we initially had the conversations uh with them, we did go back and we utilize RMS system called Pro Phoenix. Uh, we're able to mine data out of there. So, we did look at their call volume. We talked to uh actually because we had some of their deputies come by us. We kind of asked you know kind of like what was an average day with you kind of getting a better feel for it. But we did look at multiple years worth of call data so that um when we had those conversations with the certain leadership um they told us you know what they would like and then we wanted to be able to uh you know like legitimize and say okay this is kind of you know based off your data this is where we feel you should be at. And really that conversation kind of led us to the point where the two two and two from a coverage standpoint. Um and then I to Captain Bandal's point being out there since November now kind of seeing the day-to-day uh operational flow of everything just reaffirmed uh kind of where we're at with the 22 and two and we feel that that is appropriate.

Thank you, Supervisor Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um chief um how will you determine who is going to work in Sturdivan? So that will uh be a picked position. Um so we have a set process that we go through uh when we pick uh positions each year. Um and it it's based on seniority. Um they will go through and those positions will be open to be selected. Um there there is uh one position uh that we are identifying as a liaison position uh to uh the village of Sturdivant. This is a concept that we started a number of years ago with several of our other uh village uh municipal contracts. Um and that individual is selected by resume. So we'll do a 30-day posting um for that position. Uh rumés will be submitted. We'll put a panel uh together that will be uh combined command staff as well as the deputies association and we invite the municipality to have somebody sit on there because that really becomes their go-to person. They will work Monday through Friday first shift during the hours where the municipal leadership is there the majority of the time and really becomes their go-to to address any day-to-day issues. That being said, we also have a lieutenant that's assigned one of his secondary duties is to handle all of our municipal contracts and to leases with them um from a uh a meeting standpoint, communicating with the leadership as well as providing reports to all the municipalities on a monthly basis.

Thank you. Um could you refresh our memory uh what the starting deputy salary is under the new contract? All right, step one is $31.20 an hour, $64,8.96 annually. Okay. So, I see in your calculation then you're pushing the number more to a more senior position. So we we start understand for our contracts are at step five.

So we we start the contracts at step five for contracts that municipalities that contract for more than one full-time deputy with us. Uh there are multiple municipalities that contract just for a a chunk of ours for those contracts we we bill at top deputy rate. Thank you. Final question. Um, so we have the 2026 figure. When you determine the 2027 figure, are they obligated to pay that?

Yes. So that's where each year um the costs they shift and they adjust and they go up every single year for running operations. So appendix B is uh adjusted every single year to refresh and reflect all of that year's costs. Um so we work closely with finance and in the contract it states that we we have that to them uh by uh uh July um uh every year to give to them what the expected costs will be and that's in collaboration with finance. So that's the wage rates, the benefits, all of the rates that are set by the state. Um and then those are sent over to the municipalities and they utilize those to adjust and to plan for their budget for the following fiscal cycle. So we do reflect what those uh costs are that we are bearing and we pass those on to the municipality and there's a statute um that's referenced uh in the contract multiple times. Uh it's and in all of the sections surrounding that and basically what it it states is that the the municipality is obligated to pay the costs of what it takes to provide those law enforcement services.

Thank you. Um, Supervisor um Miller, just to note that in the resolution, it does specifically say on lines 40 to 42, total contract costs are reviewed annually and may be adjusted to reflect the actual increases and applicable wages and fringe benefits, administration costs, and mileage. So, we are reviewed annually and I thank you very much for the um the time and the effort that was put into this. I love the framework that it sets for law enforcement in Sturdivan and throughout Racine County. Um I think uh this will uh send a message to the other municipalities that it may be time to consider consolidation. Mr. Chairman, may I interject with just one comment regarding the language that you read from the resolution. Um, you'll find in the the packet was updated with a slightly modified resolution. So, the substance of what you just read doesn't change, but we wanted to make specific reference to that state statute. So, um, we can make copies available, but it's available on the website as well. Uh you'll find the revised language says that for the purposes of budgeting, the county shall provide to the village the estimated annual contract cost for police services pursuant to a stat 62.13 sub 2G by August 31st preceding the next contract year. So he cleaned that up just to you know rather than calling out the specific items which weren't comprehensive just catchall by making reference to the state statute. Thank you for the correction or the addition maybe.

I just have um before I call on a couple of the committee members that we have in line here, I just want to know are there any special community type policing efforts that Ster Sturvent was doing that we are not doing any longer? So I believe they had started a coffee with a cop initiative um just before uh this all these conversations had had taken place. Um right now we are just providing core services uh through the utilization of the temporary contract um at at the overtime rate. So really it is just going and responding to calls doing proactive policing. Um, as far as like community engaged initiatives, this is this is something that we would like to engage in with uh the village of Sturdivan and once we enact this longerterm contract, we plan on having those more in-depth conversations on how we can engage with the community and I think the liaison deputy is a key piece uh to that that's going to be there Monday through Friday working with them, making sure that they're available and addressing the needs that come up on a daily basis.

Thank you. Supervisor Wish.

Thank you. Um, just out of curiosity, you have to excuse my retail background. Is there any room for markup? So, when we look at the contracts, we look at what our costs are and we look to be made whole. Uh we view the contracts as a service that the sheriff's office and the county as a whole provide to the municipalities uh to be of value to provide very uh professional uh law enforcement services at a very cost-effective uh rate um but while at the same time being made whole uh from that municipality. Um so we do not look at the contracts as a revenue generating item. We look at them as a service that we can we are in a position to provide uh the municipalities so that they can provide that quality service to to their residents through the contract.

Um I don't know just personally I I think you know the county is looking for revenue wherever we can obtain it. Um things aren't getting any easier. Um, budgets are hard to come by to make make the budget. Uh, you guys get pay increases. Um, that's coming through the county. Um, I don't know if that's something feasible or maybe something somebody should look at and maybe making having some kind of ability to come up with more money to finance other projects. That's my thoughts. Thanks.

Could I add just just address one piece of that? Um, I I think it's a fair point to make and it's something that I expect that the sheriff's office will will continue to explore on from the legal perspective. One of the things that I would encourage the sheriff's office as they they explore some of those possibilities to be mindful of is that state statute that we talked about where uh we can charge that the county that is providing complete and exclusive police services to a municipality um shall provide for the full cost of services. Um, and so this being a multi-year contract, if we sought to or the sheriff's office sought to um mark that up that exceeded the actual cost of of services, the municipality would would have a potential argument that we're charging in excess of that actual cost of services, thus providing and and this is unique to a multi-year contract. It wouldn't necessarily be the case for a single-year contract opportunity to potentially to the the question that came up earlier from supervisor try to get out earlier um on the basis that we're overcharging for the services.

So I guess just one comment to to the statement that you made. Um we understand we definitely do understand the fiscal position of the county and the increased demand and and uh and the increasing costs associated with it. So when it comes to the contracts, we are aware of that and we are not in the we're not attempting to make these decisions in a vacuum. We understand the collaborative nature uh of county government and I and engaging in conversations with uh the executive leadership uh throughout the county. And I I know that we will continue to do that and to take a look uh at the contracts and to ensure that uh they are, you know, meeting the needs uh operationally and fiscally and legally of uh the municipalities that contract with us and the county as a whole. Okay. Uh, Supervisor McDonald's, please.

Uh, thank you, Madam Chairman. Uh, Chief, would it be possible to execute this contract with existing staff and maybe five additional hires rather than going full 10?

No, it would not be. So, our current staffing is enough to deliver the services that we currently are providing to the community. So that is a breakdown between area squads as well as other existing contracts that we have. So the ask for the 10 is specifically to service the village of Sturdivan through kind of going back to that relief factor calculation uh that I spoke to to have the level of coverage that they need in their community. It would require those 10 individuals. If there we were to be allocated five deputies, what would happen is that we would have to reduce the contract that we would provide to Sturdivant to coverage of one deputy each shift 24/7 365. That's the standardized relief factor for one individual is five. So, we would do that. But based off of our experience now in looking at their prior calls for service, what we would see is that multiple times each day, they have either multiple calls going at the same time and or needing a backup squad to be able to come over to help provide that service. And what we would end up doing would be pulling on the east area squads to routinely come in and out to of the village of Sturdivan to either assist with taking those calls or to back our staff up. and we would not receive compensation for for those individuals. The the area squads have different assignments than the village or the municipal contract squads where the village contract squads are just to provide those law enforcement services within the village. The area squads have larger geographic areas. All 333 square miles of Ring County are covered by area squads and they have other roles and responsibilities.

Okay, one one more question. Um how many how many deputies are assigned to the I94 corridor right now on per shift? One. It's okay. So we have had to reduce over over the years our strategic patrol unit. Um uh obviously over the last two years we have experienced significant manpower shortage. Now we have we are on a very solid trajectory uh filling a lot of those those vacancies. But when staffing becomes lean, the priority becomes core patrol functions and being able to to address those core patrol functions. But our strategic patrol unit or our I94 unit is not what it was, you know, 6 to 8 years ago. Okay. Thank you,

Supervisor Spencer. Thank you. So, a lot of my questions have been answered. Um, I want to kind of bounce off of what Supervisor McDonald said. Um the 10 deputies. So where are they? They're they're they're used is there rotation or how like if they're on if someone's on vacation and they're needed, but what about when no one's on vacation, no one's on leave, no one's on, you know, how are these 10?

So we have rotate. So we run a 5253 uh rotation. So each shift and it's an eight hour shift. So what we would look at doing is taking those 10 individuals and we would assign three to each shift um and that would cover off group one, offg groupoup two and off groupoup three. Those are overlapping off groups. So when they have off days, there's an overlap between them. So that would cover the three on each shift. And then the additional body that we would have would be assigned to first shift and that would work as the liazison individual that would work Monday through Friday working with the municipality. Do you expect overtime

for normal operations? I I think in general there's always the potential uh for overtime. Our contracts historically have always covered just the core hours uh for patrol. Um so there is not an allocation for overtime within the contracts. We also with overtime we always do our best to manage overtime um when we see that we have more involved calls that are going on. having the incoming shifts take those calls versus uh the uh shifts at the end of their their time frame, end of their shift to be able to cover that. Um so there there is uh we do our best to to manage the overtime but historically when we talk about the contracts there is no mechanism for overtime. So someone who's not um positioned in servant, would someone come in from outlying areas to cover potential overtime situations or are these the sheriff's deputies that are

No, we're still the sheriff's office. So we still have access to all of the resources and the manpower and every shift of every day there is the movement of manpower throughout the county to be able to cover the needs. There's an eb and flow of that whether it's just covering core areas or there's an emergent situation that's occurring where we have to put more resources into. So you're always the shift supervisors and the shift commanders are always constantly assessing that and moving resources around to where they're needed. And then if overtime is needed, if we know we're going to have vacancies, whether it's in our core areas or whether it's in a uh contract area, we have an overtime process that is uh set forth by our collective bargaining agreement.

Okay. I have one more question. Um do you feel we're made whole with this contract? Yes, I I do feel that uh this year, especially with the addition of the 5% administrative fee, I think when we look at all of the wage rates and everything, that is very transparent. It's very clear. this is exactly what it costs for a deputy. And then I believe that the 5% administrative fee that was established this year does a good job of covering a lot of the core non-personnel costs that are associated with providing uh law enforcement services. Chairman Kramer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just when uh we're at we're at step five, what what's the rate on step five? the 2026 rate. Yeah.

Step five is 3775 an hour and 78520 annually. And then I know you and I have had quite a few discussions on this, quite a few hours actually. And I thank thank you for that. Can you refresh my memory what the cost of the the Axon contract for the 10 additional officers is?

Yes. So for the Axon contract for the term of uh it per year to cover the 10 deputies. So it's the Axon officer program it's 37,59160 for 10 officer safety plans. And that would be one per new deputy that we would we would hire. and that over the course of the five years, it's $187,59842 to be able to cover the the Axon subscription to provide those officers with body cams, tasers, and all of the software that we talked about at uh budget time when we approved the new Axon contract. So, those costs are over the f span of the five years. the 5% administrative fee does cover those costs.

And and then in the in the 5% administrative fee, we've we've taken care of the the law enforcement costs. Have we made sure that we're going to have the non-law enforcement services that come with every employee? Obviously, the finance has to do billing and tracking along with uh HR. And then there's the contract administration. I know when we get grants, we have contract administration. we can add that cost into it, you know, and then of course, you know, the overtime, but uh do we take into account that?

So, when we look at that 5% administrative fee, it covers the Axon officer plus program. It also covers the core equipment that we issue to deputies, and that's approximately $4,249 per deputy. Um, it covers that and then it also allocates us approximately 20 hours per month of supervisory time. um from between that are split between sergeants and lieutenants for direct supervision as well as any type of administrative functions that are necessary such as creating schedules, managing schedules, things of that nature. Now, to the point that you're making is that yes, does the county have a lot of the infrastructure um that's needed, right? There's payroll, there's finance, there's a lot of these things. Now, is everyone allocated a a cost associated with it? No, it is not. And this is a part of the ongoing conversations um that I had spoke to earlier. We have had uh conversations uh good robust conversations with a lot of the executive leadership of uh the county. Um and in the goal is to continue to h have those ongoing that ongoing conversation to identify what do we need to do to uh really look out after the best interests of the county with all of these contracts. And I believe that this will be an ongoing process. Um if we uh at the time we move forward with the sterling contract, this will be our ninth contract. So we have multiple municipalities throughout all of Rine County that are engaging in contract services with us and those contracts need to be equitable and the same with all of the municipalities. So as we look at what potentially would contracts shift or adjust in the future, we have to be able to take that into account and apply it across the board to all of the municipalities that contract with us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Supervisor Hort. I'm sorry. Maybe just to help clarify, Chairman Kramer, and maybe you can validate this, but in looking at exhibit A, there are other charges or I should say other expenses which are being allocated um as a result of the costs associated with this contract. I mean, you've got in the sheriff's department $11,800 in wages that are also going to be a part of the $1.35 million that they're going to be build. So, while there's a 5% administrative fee, that's one item, but there's also some allocation as I see here going on as a part of the rest of the operation coming out of the sheriff's department. Am I reading that correctly?

It's on exhibit A, appendix A. I think it's called exhibit here, but if you'd like to call it appendix, I'm fine with that. Thanks.

It says you have 11,800 or 11,800 and change, and then you've got workers comp, social security, retirement, all the additional costs associated with the payroll that's also being allocated. So, I think that's I I don't want to say that's a positive, but that speaks to the fact that you are offsetting some of the additional costs of the operation of the sheriff's department. If I may speak on that, um, my department is the one who wrote the fiscal note for it. So, we took the 60,000 and some change administration cost and we allocated out two wages, two equipment, and two software as indicated by the the command staff. So, I basically just took a percentage of what they anticipated it would cover and applied that to the 60,000. So, we don't have one administration account number. It's going to hit a couple different areas.

Yeah. The key to me was just sharing that if I read this correctly, the 5% is a fee. Boom. That's being charged. And there are other charges also that are being allocated as a part of this contract. That's not correct. No, it's 5% which would be allocated to wages, software, and equipment. Those three things at the very bottom of the fiscal note equal the $60,000. So where this reads give or take I'm rounding off again $25,000 in total costs. You're saying that only 11,000 is being allocated to start. Is that what you're saying?

I don't I'm not sure that I'm following what you're what you're reading. The fiscal note that I show here has 33,000 going to wages, 26,000 going to software, and $1,100 going to equipment. Those three equal the $60,000 of administration. Why don't we do this? I'm looking at it. Yeah, mayor. And I don't see the fiscal notes. Maybe we can talk afterwards. I don't think this should stop the conversation. To me, it was something that spoke more favorably towards the sheriff's department as it relates to the cost being offset this agreement.

Yeah, the fiscal note, just just to note, was included in the packet that Nicole Dwire from my department sent out to the full county board. If you click on the link, it has all of the materials including the contract, all the appendixes, all of the exhibits. Just reading what I'm looking at here. Yeah, I'm very happy to work with you in the

Let's take a look afterwards then. Thank you. If I could just add one thing, this is the first year that we've ever added the administrative 5% cost as well. So, it is definitely something that we've looked at. Not that's not what I'm looking for, but I I'm just saying that we have looked at the equipment and the technology costs, how it has gone up and how can we, you know, recoup some of that. So, that's supervisor wish. One last question. One last question. Yeah, it's a just a curiosity. What were the what was the average wage of the uh police officers and sort of you know I do not know. Would you take a guess?

Less. It was less than what we make than what you guys are making. Thank you. Any other questions from um Can't see your mic. Oh, there it is. Supervisor Rossi.

Yeah. I'm like, is it hiding? Thought that was intentional. Uh, thank you, chair. And, uh, chair, pull up my notes here. Um, just a few questions. Um, so overtime of the training period, although the definition of, you know, how much that is is a little loose, but that's the only portion of overtime that is paid by the uh uh third event. That is correct. You guys covered this. Just wanted to make sure.

Yes. The temporary contract is overtime that each deputy is is covered uh one per shift right now. as we begin to transition into the full-time contract, it's going to take time to hire and to get deputies out there. So, we have a clause that's built in so that up to 9 months, we could continue to charge the overtime rates as necessary to be able to provide the services to the village of Sturdivan until we get those individuals hired and operating on the road. Thank you. Do you know how many hours of overtime on average a deputy works for our department?

No, but get back. We we could get back to you. We could pull some overtime data if you're looking at what an an average is. I don't know if that's going to give you a real accurate number on what a true average would be. We could probably look at like medians to see where, you know, some of that that uh that falls. Um but there's a difference also between

um I guess over time that is a late call. You don't really have a choice. you know, I have a chapter. I have to take someone up to Winnebago. That's not by choice. We have most deputies choose the overtime. So, if there's overtime available, they'll sign up for it. So, I don't I don't know how you would

Well, I I I guess, you know, I'm just doing a quick search and um it it falls in line with a little bit of the research I was looking at before, but I'm going to ch I'm going to go with the very low end and say that um you know, there's 100 hours of over overtime. seeing higher numbers in that, but just for the conversation sake, we're going to say 100 hours of overtime per deputy. That's that's what I'm seeing is reasonable here. And then if we go with um you know, $100 an hour is the overtime rate. I'm being conservative there because I believe 68 is the

base rate. So 68 base rate, go with $100 an hour for overtime. Um 10 officers with those rates is $100,000. And that doesn't seem to be built into this anywhere. So that would our administrative fee is covering uh wages or it's covering software equipment and supervisory time.

Supervisory time. So there's no accommodation for overtime. So just given a standard year, we'd be underwater $100,000 in overtime if we stick to what my minimums are. And maybe it's less, maybe it's more. I'm just not 100% certain at this point. I'd love to hear some followup on that. But uh that's that's one big concern I have right now right off the bat with a $1.3 million contract being a hundred thou having a $100,000 of potential costs here that aren't accounted for as a concern. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Sure. And this these are exact conversations that we've had with a number of the executive leadership of the county board as well as internally uh within county government. So historically overtime was never allocated for any of the contracts. um it is core services that are being provided that are costed out and is uh the bill that the the municipality uh pays. Now it is a conversation that's taking place right now and will continue to take place as we move forward and I you know to the point that Michael made with the statute you know looking at holistically what our our costs are. Um but it would it it will it's not as simple as just providing necessarily like a set rate. Um, you know, we are open to having additional conversations and making sure the county's uh being made whole with those costs uh per statute. Um, but as of right now and historically, a lot of these contracts, and you know, I'm not saying that this is necessarily how it has to be moving forward, but there has never been an overtime allocation in any of the contracts that we've had.

Thank you. And I think this speaks to Supervisor Wish's point about if there is a you know concern about long-term contracting here and us uh you know potentially having liabilities and overbilling underbilling if we're concerned about this item maybe it does become a yearly you know renewable type situation. Um

the only issue with that though as I would see it is there's also language in here that if we don't cover the number of hours or if we don't put on the number of miles for that municipality at the end of the year we have to write them a check. So like I closely monitor you know to make sure that we're getting all the hours in. Now there's also on the opposite end of that statement is if there was no late calls in Sturdivan there'd be no overtime. Right. Correct. Right. Yes.

20 every every day of the year. But if there's no late calls that's that that doesn't we wouldn't charge them anything. Correct. If an officer calls in sick, is there never the situation where another officer fills that position at overtime rates? Not necessarily. If I put staff on, I can put somebody over there at straight time, but it can happen. It can. So then there is a situation outside of what you just defined.

But that's an if every all of that is unknown. I mean, I I don't foresee where you could put something into the contract in the beginning of it versus looking back afterwards, you know? I mean like Elwood Park, you know, we have a contract with you guys if should we be allowed to if we have late calls in Elmwood Park, should we be able to go back and charge for the overtime rates in which, you know, I I don't I'm just playing devil's advocate because I'm like, you know, does you have already done your um budget, but now are we allowed to come back and charge later? I I understand but to avoid a conflict of interest for me trying to represent the county and then also trying to represent

an example I apologize I could have done it for water for no I'm I'm just going to avoid answering that one for now because there is a direct conflict for me on that specific situation but my point being here is that there is a situation a very realistic situation where there's there's going to be overtime on this and I I think that needs to be addressed. Um any other comments or others said I'll proceed.

Thank you. Um um I I would like to discuss the you know we we're looking at putting on 10 officers and I know this is a sore subject and it it is frustrating for a lot of for a lot of people but um the Waterford officers and then the Foxcon officers um I I keep looking at our population has not increased and I I I can only take you know others comments on the law enforcement side for what it takes for policing. I have no concept. I really don't. I'm not a cop. But um you know, we look at those totals and um I'm just trying to understand, you know, was policing ineffective prior to getting those officers because now they're being they're being gifted or they're being explained to us as that was right sizing. And I'm looking at this as an opportunity to to use some of those officers and not hire 10 new officers for the county to to satisfy the Sturdivan contract. Any comments on that? Was there was there a severe issue before the Foxcon officers came on?

Yes. So, the Foxcon and I know this has come up multiple times uh throughout the years uh at budget time. The Foxcon edition of that staffing was to really rightsize us and to be able to meet the needs of the community at that point in time. Um the Waterford contract that you you speak to. So, they had five individuals. So when that contract went away, um those five individuals and that was a discussion between the sheriff and then county executive was to bring those individuals back in and they were assigned to our SPU unit um that we had we had touched on before. Now over time we've lost three deputies. So that's three of the five. We have also uh we have a contract where we have an SRO in Unigrove High School. We did that without the addition of any additional manpower. So that's the fourth individual and the fifth individual was in the buildout for the uh the YDCC uh for juvenile detention. Um there initially was an individual that was assigned there um as uh security and uh that is the fifth individual. Now since then we experienced shortages in our courts uh our courts uh division and we have that individual now kind of goes back and forth between those two facilities. So when we talk about the five individuals that were that came back to the sheriff's office when the Waterford contract dissolved, that's where those five went. And for currently, we have a Waterford contract. We have a small portion of third shift that we provide coverage for that we didn't have any additional manpower allocated for.

That actually does explain those. Well, what about the Foxcon officers then? That got us just to right size. Okay. to address the the needs of the community at that time. The needs of the community at that time when it's tied to new project or new development. So then if the Foxcon development happened, you'd say that we would would be inadequate in policing. I would say that it would have to be readressed the staffing levels if that would have come to fruition.

Okay. Um I I find that interesting as as I as I talked to people that were on the board at the time and that was purely build as you know anticipation for the Foxcon development. So, I wasn't here. So, um I just want to note that there's a there's a little bit of a conflict in what I'm being told from people that were here then and what I'm hearing now. So, just there's really not much to discuss on that. Just want to note the conflict. Um lastly, I would like to talk about the the 5% administrative fee um and and liability. You know, we do have some insurance items listed in the line items for employee coverage, but I'm just talking about the general liabilities for the county and picking up this contract and their civil liabilities that get picked up. And um 5% when I was when I was looking at other counties and maybe you could help me if I could see some other contract that was comparable, but I didn't see anything below 10% and up to 22% when urban areas came into coverage for a comparable administrative fee. And um and Chief Deputy Widner, you and I talked about this. One of the things, one of the most important things for me was seeing this number increased. And um I don't I don't expect you to guess or, you know, try and understand what Mount Pleasant was looking at, but I would like to call it the difference in contract value. There's a 450, maybe more, $450,000 difference between what the countyy's proposing and what Mount Pleasant was proposing. Obviously, the county was the low bidder and Mount Pleasant was looking at doing this with seven officers. So, there's a big variance there. And to someone like myself, when I see variance in in in bidding, you know, there's a difference in scope, difference in service provided, but numbers like this 5% when I'm seeing minimum 10% in other contracts brings me concern. Is there any thoughts right now to looking at increasing this percentage, especially when it this the approval rests on this

board's approval? So the 5% uh when we looked at that we felt that that uh collectively within the sheriff's office ultimately it was uh determined that the 5% was going to be implemented across the board with all of the municipal contracts. So again that we those contracts all need to be kept in alignment. The 5% I feel is a very positive mechanism for us to be able to cover the increasing costs that we're seeing especially in the non-manpower related uh areas. And going back to the point that we need to continue to have this conversation, make sure that we're uh looking at uh as we advance through the years what those costs look like and then if that needs to be increased to be able to cover those costs, I think the mechanism is in place to be able to do that.

All right. Thank you. And one last quick thing, one more item of concern for me is that county agrees to provide additional officers for special events, Fourth of July, any other large events that they would have. So you Would you think that that would increase to, you know, maybe five, seven officers in any active event

potentially? So, this is something that we currently do at no cost to municipalities across the county uh when they have if it's a pre-planned special event, whether it's Fourth of July or whether it's fireworks. Even when Sturdivan had their own police department, we are providing manpower through mutual aid at no cost to them. Um, so really shifting gears and now that they're going to contract with us, turning around and giving them a bill for something we have done and we do for every other municipality if they ask for us there. And this is where part of these contracts, there's kind of an intersection between the roles and responsibilities of the sheriff countywide and the resources that we provide at no cost to every municipality and then also contracting with us for for core law enforcement services just the day-to-day operations because when there is something that is large scale that's above and beyond whether it's a more involved investigation um or I mean for example like the real school uh situation uh that occurred just recently If Sturdivan existed at that point in time, there's a very high probability they would have contacted us and asked us for additional resources or assistance and we would not have sent them a bill for any of it. We would have done everything that we did now currently at no cost. Uh there was a situation uh a couple weeks ago out in on the west end where a municipality asked us for assistance. We sent multiple resources out there from our SWAT team, negotiators, UAVs, um, everything. Um, and our incident management team and they brought resolution to the situation and there was a high cost with it. But this is a role and responsibility of the sheriff's office to assist throughout the county and there is no bill that is given to any municipality.

I I accept that and understand. Thank you very much. I would just like to see if you can then the one follow-up item that overtime data per officer or deputy. Yes, we will follow up with you. Thank you. Uh, Chairman Kramer,

thank you. Yeah, I forgot just a couple of questions here. Um, I know we were down about 17 deputies the beginning of 2025 and you've done a remarkable job bringing the staff up, you know, to to the level you have on the hiring process. Um, how long is it going to take, do you believe, for the 10 deputies to be hired? So, we have made significant progress uh in the recruitment. Um we've always been very strong in retention uh of our our deputies. Um and really we really have closed the gap. We actually we're at five vacancies right now. Um we have interviews with five lateral transfers on Friday. Um so there's a very good possibility that we could uh walk away with five additional conditional offers uh for those five vacancies. So we are sitting very well from a staffing perspective. Now, hiring 10 individuals is a big undertaking. Um, and really that's where Captain Gatsky uh comes in in our support services division, working very closely with HR as well as our performance and data analytics department. Um, really uh implementing we've been working on a more robust uh recruitment initiatives and really expanding out beyond just our region um and pushing a very active recruitment uh to fill those positions. So, we're going to do everything we can. I can't exactly put a time frame on it obviously based on the contract. We would like to get those individuals hired and we want to get them trained and up and running uh prior to the nine months uh so that uh we can get them in place with the village sturdan.

Okay. And then is it a possibility because there's been some concern about tracking late calls for just those deputies that are assigned to sturdivan. Yes. So so we do have some hard data. So when we go back in 27 and say look you know everybody gets bad at the end of shift and we have to go out and spend two hours every day. I'm sure that's not what happens. Yes.

Because nobody want to work 10our days but you know that we can do that you know and then come back and we'll have some data that we say to start look here's the problem. So yes, so based on our conversations, we did have uh internal conversations about putting some mechanisms into place to be able to assist with tracking uh that data specifically uh for Sturiv to kind of really see get a full picture of everything that's going on there. Um uh again historically like one of the issues with kind of getting granular uh with some of our data is just limitations on our software uh for tracking our time and overtime. So we do uh kind of supplement that with uh hand counting um and going through it. But yes, we absolutely will with this contract to get a fuller more more accurate picture of uh the true utilization of overtime. And this this is something I mean I guess the staffing levels how how do we determine not necessarily the 10 officers because that's just a mathematical calculation but we have you know so many deputies on the road and how do we determine how many deputies we need on the road you get how much staff we need.

Sure. So we look at our our areas. So, when we look at our patrol assets, we have area squads, which are just general sheriff's office roles and responsibilities. They're larger geographic areas. We have a total of nine areas that deputies are assigned to every day, every shift. Um, and then we have our contract areas. Um, and those are the the municipal contracts for direct service to those municipalities. And we currently have eight contracts. So, there's deputies that are assigned specifically to those areas. So looking at that that those roles and assignments um that's how we staff our patrol um uh deputies and then obviously we have criminal investigations. We have other um ancillary areas uh where deputies uh play roles that are separate from just the core patrol.

How do we determine the staffing of the sergeants and the lieutenants that and and and then how much staffing we need for sure administration?

Yeah. So uh for our direct patrol supervision, we have three sergeants on each shift, one per off group. They are responsible for their off group and they're the rotating three offgroups. There's there's one three sergeants on each shift and there's one lieutenant that commands the shift. So we have the three core shifts. Carrie is the division captain, but also underneath uh captain magical uh there is also investigations. So we have a lieutenant that runs investigations. We have two sergeants that fall subordinate to him. One runs general criminal investigations, one runs our metro drug unit and our other specialized task force officers that uh work within investigations. We do have some administrative uh supervision uh that assist with non-direct law enforcement functions.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And now, Supervisor Pricer.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Um, I think I I share some of the concerns the other supervisors have about making sure that the county is, you know, fairly recouping our costs for some of the administrative overhead and the increasing cost of technology and subscriptions that maybe we didn't have 10 or 20 years ago. Um, and the overtime, but I just want to make sure I understand this right. So, we're billing at basically the highest deputy rate of step five, but the people that fill the role may not necessarily be there. So if they come in at the step one, which is at close to 65,000, we could be charging basically 13,600 and something more per deputy. Um, which could give us basically a surplus relative to our cost of about 136,000. And then the 5% administrative fee is another 68,000. So, you know, we could be we could be a 100,000 down because of overtime that we're not charging for, but we could basically be up 204 um with the administrative fee and charging more for the deputies at the at the regular rate. Um but that said, if Chairman Kramer is right, and the technology subscription is about 4,000 per deputy for the 10, that's 40,000 of the 68 in the administrative fees. So that's eating up almost all the administrative fees. So then there's not really that much more for some of the other administrative overhead like HR and finance director time and the supervision time. So I agree with supervisor Rossy that you know I don't know what the number is but maybe it's something bigger than five and maybe it does need to be bigger than five across the board especially when the technology part is eating up like 60ome percent of the administrative fee. Granted that it's brand new and I appreciate we have it at all. Um, and maybe we do account for something for overtime. So, if the if the average is 100 hours, we can't guarantee or predict what it's going to be, but maybe we charge a rate that's like half of what the average has been. So, we're at least acknowledging that there's going to be some inevitable

overtime, even if it's just, you know, staying late on on an existing shift, not scheduled and planned overtime that was chosen, just to make sure we're covering our costs, and that could always be adjusted in future contracts.

Yeah. So absolutely I I do and I I do we we do hear everything that uh the members of the board are telling are communicating to us with the cost. We the goal is to provide a quality service and to make sure that the county is made whole. So we want to be able to continue to do that. We will continue to engage in conversations moving forward and looking at the data and finding way and we have the framework to be able to address this as it moves forward as we have costs that escalate each year and to make sure that uh we can build that in good to go.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um I'm going to throw something off the wall. Okay. Um, going back to Supervisor Rossy's question about overtime, and I've been on this board long enough to know and hear the story every year about overtime with the sheriff's department and how you can't budget it and all that other good stuff, but I'm wondering if you came up with an average or an amount, whatever you thought was fair, let's say, in this contract, which you may or may not be able to do now anyway, but let's say you came, this is what we expect, this is what we think it's going to be. Build that into the cont. going to be build that into the contract and say if it doesn't reach that we're going to react and say if it doesn't reach that we're going to rebate you is that a possibility

potentially and I I think this will be part of the ongoing conversation centering around all of our contracts. Yeah. Right. I think the biggest piece is that you know from a very high level strategic view right this is a quality service we feel we provide quality law enforcement services as a sheriff's office we want to be able to provide that resource to the communities and at the same time we want to make sure that the county is made whole so we definitely are open we've engaged with these conversations and the conversations during that were that this needs to continue and we'll continue to have those conversations and the way that the contract is formatted and laid out there is the mechanism in place to be able to address all those costs escalations and uh you know as as we move forward. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Supervisor and Chairman Kramer, just a correction on for Supervisor Pritsker. There's seven seven steps, so we're not at the top. Just Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Uh Supervisor Supervisor Bar,

thank you. Um you mentioned earlier that there is if you don't have enough time on the road there is some clawback from from Sturdivan or rebate dollars going back. Um in talk of this overtime is there the potential to you know build in a percentage whether it's 3 five 10% of the contracted amount to go towards overtime if there is overage. In other words, I guess if if if at the end of 206 the contracted amount is five grand over this because of overtime, could something like that be added to the contract? I think that's that's the goal of having this continued conversations to find ways to be able to address that, working with our partners in corp counsel and finance and uh within the framework of the contract to be able to address those issues. All right. Thank you. So, government services, what we have this evening and hearing the discussion, if we feel comfortable with the resolution presented as is or you know, if we decide to move forward uh making any recommendations to um you know do any adjustments that can be as well. But uh this is an emotional uh this is a movable item. I will ask if there's any more questions or discussion on this item before calling for a motion. Does anyone feel comfortable at government services? What we're going to do is just for our committee, we're going to vote on the resolution. The fiscal piece will come from a motion from the finance committee. Uh youth and governance, do you have anything? Okay. Very good. All right. Committee members, uh this is actionable. So, is there anyone comfortable with making a motion this evening?

I will motion to approve. All right. We have vice chairman uh looking to uh made a motion to approve as is. I'll second. Okay. It's been motioned and properly seconded. Is there any other further discussion? All right. I'm going to go ahead and call the vote. I'm going first ask youth and governance. How do you wish to vote? I. All right. Thank you. Now, government services. All those in favor? I.

Is there any opposed from government services? Uh, one opposed. Uh, that would be Coleman. All right. Thank you. The motion does pass. Now, finance committee. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I chairman Supervisor Miller. for the finance committee. I would move to send this to the county board for first reading tonight with the fiscal note. I have a first and I have a second. Um, Mr. Mr. Chairman, can I interject? Yes, sir. On the agenda, it reflects that the first reading would be March 24th, I believe, and I believe that's what was discussed earlier. Yes. Yes. I amend my motion.

Thank you. I made that clear at the beginning of the of the committee meeting. It was the 24th and not the uh what's listed. And to be clear, Mr. Chairman, that's something that could be subject to change if if that's the desire of the committee. The the intention was really just recognizing the import of this item to afford additional time for the consideration of it.

Great. Thank you for the corrections. Thank you for the additions. Um any last minute discussions about the fiscal note? Okay, I have no youth and governance representative present. So committee, all in favor? Any opposed? This is approved uh by the for the fiscal note. Uh the actual contract was approved at a prior um finance meet FHR meeting. So this will go first reading on the what was that date the 20 24th

24th thank you of March. Uh with that we have exhausted the agenda for government services. So I call the meeting closed and I will also call the meeting closed. Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Just need a deputy. Good evening. I'm I'm going to be calling the racing county board meeting to order. If a clerk could call the role.

Supervisors Kelly and Meyer are excused and supervisor Wishaw is actually on virtually. So if our IT team could promote him to panelist then everyone else is here in the chambers. Can you hear us? Supervisor Wishaw,

can you hear us? Supervisor Wishaw. Yes sir. Okay. Can you hear me? Star six will unmute you. Supervisor Wishawa if that helps. Second we hear. Thank you. I hear you. Mr. Supervisor. Okay. Thank you. Okay. As it's customary, one of our supervisors leads us in an opening prayer. And tonight, Supervisor Horse from Waterford will be leading.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Almighty God, we come before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to serve our community. We ask for your wisdom to guide our decisions, your clarity to help us in the need of understanding our people, and your strength to act with integrity and fairness. May our discussions be respectful, our actions must be, and our hearts be unified in our pursuit of a common good for our community. Bless this meeting and may our work today bring peace, progress, and hope to all that we serve. And let's also include all of our service representatives over in the Middle East and throughout the world that are currently engaged in some situations that are not so comfortable. Thank you again for all of your holy blessings. Amen. And now the pledge.

I pledge algiance 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.

Item number four, public comments. Persuant to section 2-71 of the Rine County Court of Ordinances. Each speaker is allotted a maximum of three minutes. Do we have any public comments? I don't believe we have any public comments.

Are there anybody in the public that wants to make a comment out in the gallery? Seeing none, we'll move on to item five. Reading of the minutes of the previous meeting which is automatically waved unless requested by a majority of the members present. Seeing no objections. Item number six, resolutions and ordinances referred to committee.

Resolution number 2025-85 by individual supervisors requesting that the entire causeway leading to Rine County's Harbor Park adopt the name of Kippy Kawi Causeway was referred to the public works parks and facilities committee. Supervisor Hopkins, I believe you're taking that up on Thursday night. Okay. So,

thank you. Item number seven, introduction of resolutions and ordinance for first reading and referral. Resolution number 2025-92 by Finance and Human Resources Committee authorizing a 5-year agreement from 2026 through 2030 with Uni Solutions for budget procurement software for a total of 411,31 and transfer within the 2026 budget. Resolution number 2025-93 by Finance and Human Resources Committee authorizing and adopting a debt management policy to direct the use, management, and reporting of Rene County's debt financings. and resolution number 2025-94 by finance and human resources committee authorizing modifications to the compensation structures and classifications for non-representative rine county employees.

Supervisor Troutier. Thank you. Uh Mr. Chairman, um the FHR committee is requesting from the board unanimous consent this evening for first and second reading for resolution 2025-92. Okay. Item number eight, communications and claims. Number one, Mercine County facilities management notable project status report for the month of February 2026

referred to public works parks and facilities committee. Number two, application of American Transmission Company LLC as an electric public utility for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct and operate the Elmroad Rine transmission line project consisting of a new 345 KV transmission line located primarily in the city of Oak Creek, Milwaukee County, the city of Rine and the villages of Mount Pleasant and Calonia Rine County, Wisconsin from the public service commission of Wisconsin. Number three, resolution regarding an amended relocation order of the village of Calonia affecting property along the Turtle Creek between Middle Road and the KLMA ditch as part of the K Turtle Creek restoration project in section 17 range 23 in the village of Calonia Rine County, Wisconsin from the village of Calonia. Number four, resolution requesting Wisconsin Counties Association lobby state legislature and governor on legislation for greater local control for Wisconsin counties related to renewable energy from St. Corey County. Number five, resolution for support of battery stewardship bill AB713 and SB72 from Wnebago County. And number six, resolution supporting disaster assistance legislation AB580 and AB581, SB557 uh from Win Wnebago County.

Items numbers 2 through six are referred to the Economic Development and Land use planning committee. Number seven, resolutions from Treelo County, St. Croy County, and Dor County supporting Wisconsin establishing a membership with the multi-state information sharing and analysis center known as MS Isac. Item number seven is referred to the finance and human resource committee. Numbers eight and number nine are foreclosures of mortgage and numbers 10 through 34 are notifications from United States Bankruptcy Court

and items 8 through 34 are referred to the Finance and Human Resource Committee and Corporation Council. Supervisor Wish copy number three, please. Supervisor Horse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um items number one through six, please. Any other requests? Supervisor Cobb. Uh two, three, and four, please. Supervisor Spencer. Thank you. I'd like a copy number five. Supervisor Troier. Um number seven, please. Mr. Chairman, and if I could have four, five, and six.

Any further requests? Seeing none, we're going to continue. Communications from the county executive report number 2025-64 by county executive making a reappoint to the housing authority of rine county health and human development report number 2025-65 by county executive making appointment and reappointment to the commission on aging and the aging and disability resource center board health and human development report number 2025-66 by County Executive making reappointments to the Reine County Human Services Board. That would be the Health and Human Development.

And report number 2025-71 by County Executive making reappoints to the golf course improvement committee. And that would be public works.

Item number 10, standing committee reports containing recommendations on items referred. There are no reports. Second reading of resolutions and ordinances.

Uh we have none on tonight's agenda under majority vote. So under twothirds majority vote, we have resolution number 2025-90 by finance and human resources committee establishing the total annual compensation of the clerk of courts and county sheriff for the years 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030. and resolution number 2025-91 by finance and human resources committee authorizing a three-year agreement from 2026 through 2029 with spectrum for internet services for the rine count or for the rine public health division for a total of $18,000 second motion has been made and seconded supervisor pritsker uh Mr. Mr. Chairman, can we have special consideration for item 202590?

And there'll be special consideration for that item. Supervisor Troutier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, in regards to resolution 202567, this was approved by the FHR committee concerning the sheriff's office and clerk of courts of Racine County receiving annual compensation for 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030 at a 2.5% 2 and a.5% 3% and a 3% annual raise. State law requires counties to set an annual salary for the next four years for these positions prior to the individual pulling papers to run for the offices. The 2026 base salary for the sheriff currently is at 122,545. 27 at 2.5 12% would be $125,69. 28 at 2.5% would be $128,749. 29 at 3% would be $132,611. In 2033% would be $136,590. Now the clerk of courts current base is 96,162 at 2.5% it would calculate to 98,566 for 2027 2028 at 2.5% $11,030 at TW in 2029 at 3% $14,061

and in 2030 at 3% 17,183 $1183. The percentages are in line with individuals in these public positions. Um I'm going to then leave this up to the chairman to leave it up for discussion. Okay. So on your on your podiums, we also have two S resolutions. So, we're gonna start provided by we're going to start with Supervisor Pritsker.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, so, fellow supervisors, I asked um I asked the clerk to send to you some information I got from both Wauaaw County and Walworth County. um the comparisons that they put together for sheriff's compensation and what they're proposing for 2027, 28, 29, and 30. Um I also handed out before the meeting today uh just a one-page sheet with some of the rationale for the substitute resolution um that I'll propose tonight. Um when I looked at the numbers initially,

Could you make a motion to Sure. I'll make I'll make a motion uh I'll make a motion to uh replace what resolution 2590 with 2590 S. And why don't we make that S1? Sure. S1 which which basically changes the salary effective 127. Do we have a do we have a second before we go any further? Got it. Okay, we've got a motion a second now. Go ahead, chair.

Thanks. Um what this effectively does is um is makes a market value adjustment for 2027 to 145,000 and then escalates that um the same as what was recommended before. So escalates it by 2 and a half% 3 and three. Um when I first saw the proposed numbers the the 125609 seems to be an increase of 3% from from the prior year which has been which was basically approved as uh supervisor chairman Troier mentioned before the prior four-year time period. Uh, and that would be fine if if if that period was a fair market rate or comparable to the other large counties in the state and our adjacent counties. Um, so that was that was what I looked at when I first saw the number. I didn't know if it was really a fair market rate or not. So I reached out to some of the neighboring counties. Milwaukee County did not respond. Um, Kenoshi County, we know what their number is because they set their number in their in their budget. So they're not doing it in the meetings, you know, preceding the deadline like many of the other counties are. Um, and what the information I was able to get from them was forwarded to you as I mentioned. So depending on on how you how you look at it, we're seeing county sh salary. We're the fifth largest county. So um, in my mind, we share some of the some of the complexities in public safety as some of those other large counties have. uh we also share them with our neighbors. So the crime doesn't stop at the imaginary borders with Milwaukee County or Wauaaw County or Walworth County uh even though we may consider Walworth count um Wauaaw County and Milwaukee to be much bigger than than we are and they are right. Milwaukee is the number one ranked by population in the state and Wakaawa is three uh Kenosha is eight and Walworth is 15.

Um, so I would expect a fair market rate for us would be to be somewhere somewhere in the neighborhood of five, right? Maybe five, five to eight or so. But as we currently stand, we're ranked we're ranked 12th or 14th. It's 12th. Walworth County throws out Dane and Milwaukee County. So we're ranked more favorably there as 12th. But Walworth um Waka County includes includes Dane and Milwaukee because they're number three. So they're comparing themselves to number one and two uh Milwaukee and Dne. And in that ranking, basically we're ranked 14th. Uh uh we're ranked 14th in terms of pay. Um so I guess the question I have for the for the board is do we think that as the fifth largest county being ranked 14th in the state by pay is fair. Um do we want to be ranked last in pay of our region? So compared to our our adjacent and neighboring counties, Milwaukee, Walworth, WAWAW, and Kenosha, do we want to be dead last? We talked a lot about the last two years of budget processes, how the the sheriff's department controls such a massive amount of our budget on the whole and a massive amount of the part that is paid for directly by property taxes and not other sources of of revenue. There's a staff of about 300. I think there are complexities that that our county has that maybe outstate counties don't have, like being part of the 94 corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago. Uh, and the sheriff's department has has reported on some of the things they do there. I know they're down patrols. Also, complexities of managing Lake Michigan, which is something that not all counties have to do. And then as we discussed earlier tonight, the expanding role of the sheriff's department as more and more underlying municipalities decide to disband their local departments and the and the sheriff's department has to take up uh that slack. So when I was trying to figure out what a

market rate was, I looked at it from basically three different angles. You know, where do we rank statewide and in descending order? Um yeah, where do we rank compared to other counties of our size? And then how do we compare to our adjacent counties? And um as it says there, we're we're 14th overall. Um we're 12th among counties over 100,000. So there are there are some smaller counties that pay more than us. There's there's seven smaller counties that currently pay higher than Rine County. And those are listed here. Rock, Lacrosse, Washington, Oaki, Oaklair, Wnebago, and Kenosha. um for 2027. I think they still have to vote on it, but Wauaasha is proposing 145,683. And that is in that is in the spreadsheet that I sent all you, the more colorful one. Walworth is my handwritten notes on there because I received a call back from the HR director there, Kate Bishop, and she said that they are proposing for 2027 also 145, but 565,000. So, both are basically in the 145,000 range. The other thing I looked at is do we want people to advance and promote from within the department. It's it's my understanding that most of our prior sheriffs have been have basically grown up through the sheriff's department um either as investigators and while that doesn't have to be the case, I I think that the community wouldn't mind that being the case that that would be a natural thing for someone to do. And the current proposal of 125 would put the pay of the sheriff below many of the subordinate staff in the in the department. Uh not the chief deputy. You know, I understand there's an exception for the chief deputy. Um they're like the head non-elected person, but it would it would put the pay below below the current captain. I think below the um below many of the

other proposed positions that I think that are still being negotiated. And then also keep in mind that some of those are also are also overtime eligible. So even if the the base pay may be maybe in line with overtime, they would also make more than the sheriff. So uh 145 is is a one-time increase compared to last year. uh it wouldn't be an increase by that much if we were currently ranked around fifth, which would put the pay of the sheriff around 135,000 currently as opposed to the 122 where it is. So, so yes, the fiscal note seems obnoxious when it's an increase of almost 19% in one year, but it wouldn't be increasing that much if we were at a fair market rate for the last four years or eight years or 16 years. And and we have not been. Um, if we increase it to 145,000 as I proposed, we're seeing would rank around fifth or eighth overall in the state for 2027. We'd still be behind Dayne, Rock, Walkaw, and Walworth, possibly Milwaukee, Lacrosse, and Washington depending on their 2027 approvals. And we would still still only be third third or fourth among the five southeastern counties that we that we border. So we'd for sure be behind Wakaaw and Walworth that are both proposing over 145,000 possibly Milwaukee presuming that that they're going to be in that range. So I guess the question is do we want the person controlling about 66% of our budget to be the lowest paid in the region? Does it make sense to be lower than than lower population neighbors like Kenosha and Walworth County? Do we want to be behind seven smaller counties? and do we think that's a fair market rate for the complexity of the job that we're asking our sheriff to do? And do we want to discourage internal advancement? So,

who would want to take a pay cut to take on the, you know, the extra scrutiny of being an elected official and running the department for for less pay? Okay. Thank you. Any comments? Supervisor Horse on? No. Any other comments? Supervisor Cole. Um just a quick question. Um because I know the when does um somebody have to commit to run for the sheriff? Was that done already? No. If if Corp council wants to answer that.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. the um nomination papers which is the triggering event um for the deadline may be circulated no sooner than April 15th preceding the general election. So with regard to the clerk of courts and the county sheriff um the earliest that nomination papers may be circulated is April 15th. So April 15th effectively serves as the deadline by which the salary needs to be set for that next term. But I'm saying so anybody that had to go out and get signatures, they don't have to start doing that until April 15th. Yes. Okay. So this isn't like people already went and got signatures to run for sheriff.

And now we're changing the salary. I can't speak to what people may or may not have done. The state law is clear though that nomination papers may be circulated no sooner than April 15th. Okay. Supervisor McReynolds.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I I do have um great concern with with this proposal um in some of the uh bullet points that was pres presented to us. Um we we've got a sheriff currently that has been in in office for 16 years. Um and the current uh salary is 122 and change. Um, and one of the bullet points was, do we want the person controlling 66 66% of our budget to be the lowest paid in the region? Um, our our current sheriff again has been in office for 16 years and has done a uh a good job in getting everything and plus um what what the sheriff's department has wanted. And to to take that step to 145 for somebody coming into off elected office for the first time, I think is um just way too big of an increase. Um I I would support a small increase, but uh nothing near 145. I I just don't think that that makes uh any sense. I don't think it's fiscally responsible to our taxpayers to take that position uh to that pay grade. surprise a wish.

We can't afford it. That's the bottom line. I appreciate every all the work uh Supervisor Prriska did with all those facts and figures, but in the this is not the uh resolution that was approved by the finance committee. There were discussions about that. there was actually a proposal to go lower on the percentage increase which we vetoed or voted down. Um, and I agree it it in the years I've been on the board, I don't understand why the sheriff is here and the operations manager, the chief deputy is there and you got captains there. It made no sense to me. I mean, that's not the way it works anywhere else in the real world. But it is the facts that we're dealing with. We just can't afford it as a county right now to to escalate the political position of sheriff to that level. You know, even though you compare it to other counties, um I I can't agree to that. Um I I still go with the resolution that we passed in the finance committee. Um I think that's at this point fair and equitable. Uh you got a chief deputy, he runs the operation. you know, the sheriff is basically a um political position that gets a lot of the credit but doesn't do a lot of the nitty-gritty work. So, that's my feeling on it. I'd like to stick to the original resolution. Thank you,

Supervisor Rossi. Thank you, Chairman. Um, and thank you, Supervisor Price, for all the effort you put into this and the other comments from other supervisors. Um, I would like to point out one difference. We're talking about the pay of the sheriff versus the pay of um other um management or control what is the term for the no the uh so constitutional offer no the higher end staff and the uh the um not well the all the other command staff thank you

but we're comparing that to the other command staff and one difference about the command staff and the sheriff is that the command staff can work in another county the sheriff needs to live in the county that he intends to run for that office. And one thing I like about um a position that doesn't necessarily pay the best is you're going to get um someone who really wants to do the job. There's uh a lot of people in this room who are doing their job as supervisors, not because we're making a fortune because we are here because we care about representing our constituents. And I wouldn't have it any other way. And I think that should apply to this position more than any other position. The sheriff is a is a critical role for the county. And I I wouldn't want someone to really be taking that position just because they feel that that's it's it's good pay for what they're trying to do as I wouldn't want our positions to be that either. Um I would like to point out that some of the comparison counties have excellent financial positions, maybe one or two that could be questionable or they have massive urban areas. is we're comparing Dne County and Milwaukee County to uh Racine County when we should look more towards you know I I will say this about Walworth I mean their financial position is excellent they don't even have debt they buy everything with cash you know I don't know if it's a good comparison to speak to supervisor Wish's point we can't afford these things and if looked at in isolated inst as an isolated instance you know what's $20,000 well when you make you know 500 decisions at 10 $10,000 $20,000 they all add up. We need to watch every one of these decisions. Um I look at Kenosha. I always like to compare to Kenosha on, you know, specific aspects because they do have a lot of comparable metrics to us. They're sitting at 123,000. We're sitting at 122,000. We're in the ballpark. Let's stick with the standard raise. It's already been proposed by finance committee. The work was done at committee level. Let's stick to it. Thank you.

Any further comments or questions? Yeah, super.

Let me go to supervisor Miller here first. Hey, just a clarification in your handout and thank you supervisor Pricer for uh the research but in your handout you noted that the uh budget is about 66% of the property tax and then uh in your um discussion you said uh 66% of the budget that while the the sheriff and jail is only about 17% of the total budget. So just so for folks who are listening want to make that clarifying point right it's the supervisor prer now.

Yeah. Thank you supervisor Miller. Um I just I want to clarify that Kenosha has already approved that for 2027 that it's going to the the base pay is going to be over 129,000. So okay so we are not knowingly going into the proposal being being in line with Kenosha that the proposed is is still being much less than that. would make us, you know, dead last in the region. Okay. Any further questions, chairman? Supervisor Wishaw.

Thank you, sir. Um, I'm going to agree with the majority of my colleagues that have spoke tonight. I'm in favor of keeping the proposal as is. That was vetted by the finance committee. So, that is where I would like to see this move. Supervisor Horse.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, it's it's unfortunate that I read everything that Supervisor Pritsker put in here and I would tell you personally that I agree with all of the comments and all of the items that he specifically outlined. The challenge that I'm having is is that we have a county that has some some fiscal challenges, not only today, but certainly as we're looking going forward into next year and let's call it one, three, five years. And so, it's difficult at this point to send a message that we're going to support something like this when in fact we know that we have so many other areas that are also in need that we're not able to deal with that way. So again, I everything he says here, it makes perfect sense to me. But when you look at our county as a whole and where we currently stand and the importance that we have to look at already, by the way, I'm sure it's not escaped anyone that we're starting our budget for next year in a couple of months. And so when we start thinking of it that way, I I just feel we have to be very strong in how we're trying to establish our fiscal responsibility. So, thank you very and thank you, Supervisor Pritsker, for the effort and the energy. I echo what everybody else has already said. This shouldn't be seen as a slight against you uh or against the idea. It's just I think logistically the timing is not appropriate.

Okay. So, I'm going to roll call. Yes, we had a roll call before. I've got a question for Corp Council. There are multiple S resolutions. Do we take them one at a time or do we there's no one on the other as right but I'm sorry Mr. Chairman I couldn't hear the other comment but to your to your question that I heard only one substitute resolution can be considered at a time. That's what I thought. That's what's presently before the board. Okay. So this is going to be a twothirds majority roll call vote. Why don't you queue us up? Majority majority vote for the motion to amend your substitute.

Majority. Yes. And Mr. Chairman, if we could just clarify what the vote is going to entail. A yes vote means what? A no. A yes vote. You would go with the the resolution. Okay. Substitute the first one here.

Thank you. And that would be the county sheriff is 145 and 27 148 625 and 28 153 83 and 29 and 157 676 and 30. The clerk of courts is 98 566 and 27, 101, 30 and 28, 104, 61 and 29, and 107, 183 and 30. Okay, first we'll I'll have to check in and then I'm going to just um make sure that we have this clarified for the vote that you're voting yes or no to substitute the ordinance. Correct. We're not actually voting on or excuse me the resolution. We're not actually voting on the ordinance itself.

Substitute. Okay. So we all check in. Yeah, we're checking in.

We got this always happens. Okay, try the confirm button again. There we go. There we go. One more time. Okay, so this is the vote. Supervisor Wisha, how do you vote? I vote no. Thank you. That motion fails.

Let me just let me just document this quickly. It won't takes long. That vote fails one to 18 to one with two absent.

Thank you.

Leave Leave this in discussion. Okay, Supervisor Coleman.

Hi you guys. Which leads me to my resolution. Now, if you look at my resolution, it was all the numbers that you guys had already approved minus instead of the 122, we would start at the 128 and then we would end with 139, but it would be what you guys would be paying in 2028, 2029, and then so forth going on. So, I was thinking that if we started at the 128, then we would end at 139. So, that's where I got my numbers from the exact resolution and I pretty much just moved some things around. I took it upon myself.

Okay, just a second. Oh, we have a we have a motion second. You you you made the motion that we have a second. Do we have a second? We have a motion to second. Continue, Supervisor Coleman.

Okay. So, I took it upon myself to take it to the community and I posted the proposed and um the community agreed with me. Um, these are the numbers that you guys are already approving. We're just flopping some numbers around. So, I I think that it deserves respect enough to go through for the simple fact being that these are numbers that you're going to pay anyway. But why not start out paying right fair? I we we'll I know that we're going to fall behind. We'll never be in the top five or whatever, but we'll be somewhere fair at least instead of starting with the 122. If we started with the 128 and ended with the 139, what's the harm in that? These are the same numbers that you guys have already approved minus 122 and 139. I'm just going to keep it simple.

Any further comments,

Supervisor Rossy? Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Supervisor Coleman, for proposing this. Um, I'm I'm just going to take the hard line of let's stick to what was done in finance. Leg work was done. It was workshopped there, and they spent quite a bit of time on it. So, I'm I'm going to vote for the uh initial resolution, not any of the S resolutions. Thank you. Any further comments? And I call a question. This will be roll call vote.

And again, this is a this will be a vote on whether or not to substitute S-2 for the original resolution. It is not an vote to adopt the resolution itself.

So, let me go over this just like I did before. The county sheriff salary in 27 would be 128,749. In 281 132611 29 would be 136590. In 2030 it would be 13970. The clerk of courts would be 730. What' I say? Okay. Clerk of courts is 98,566 and 27. In 28 it's 10130. In 29 it's 10461 and in 2030 it would be 107184. This is vote.

Supervisor Wisha, how do you vote? I'm going to be a no on this one as well. Thank you.

And again, let me record that. But that motion fails. So again that fails 3 to six 16

3 to 16 with two absence. Are there any further comments? Any other substitutions? Okay, then we'll move on to the 202590. Any comments on the current proposal for the county sheriff's office? And I don't have it. There it is. Any comments? Okay, I call a question. Call

Supervisor Wisha. We're voting on the the original resolution. Yep. I'm I'm going to be a Yes. Okay. I think um I think there's been some confusion, so we're going to You start it. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, my apologies. I may not have listened properly. What are we voting on exactly? Voting on the original resolution from the committee. From the committee. Thank you. All right. And this is a twothirds majority,

right? We will have to check in again. Supervisor Coleman, try the confirm button again. There you go. Now we will be voting and I have your vote, Supervisor Wishaw, as a yes. That motion carries. Let me just record that. That was 17. Yes. Two. No. Two absent.

So, Supervisor Troutier 202591.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, resolution 2025-91 does address a three-year agreement with Spectrum for internet services at our racing public health department. It's a three-year at $6,000 per year shown in the fiscal note. These funds are incorporated or included in the 2026 budget and will improve the overall communications within a department. I do have Robert here to address any questions about the financial um about the fiscal note. I need a motion.

Is there a motion? Second. A second.

Okay, we've got a motion in second. There's discussion. Robert, would you like to give a short brief explanation? Thank you for letting me uh speak. So, um this contract is to provide internet services for the public health building. Uh currently they're on a month-to-month contract and we did recheck initially in the FHR meeting. We said it was 700 a month. It's actually $799 per month. Um so we are able to provide longerterm services uh consistent with the speed that they need. So this is the uh 500 meg um sorry it was 100 megabits per second um which is the speed that they have now which is sufficient enough for their use. And by going to a longerterm contract we're able to get that at $500 per month for a three-year agreement. So, this is part of taking a look at our telecommunications budgets and um really trying to lock in longerterm contracts to get our operational cost down. Um so, this one was was pretty e easy. Uh Jeff mentioned that they were on a month-to-month contract. We reach out to our to our vendor and they uh they're able to provide this service and we're taking in front of the board for your approval. Any questions? Okay, so this is a twothirds vote also.

Supervisor Wisha, how do you vote?

I vote yes. And that motion carries unanimously. Now we have the item that was requested for first and second reading this evening. That would be resolution number 2025-92 by Finance and Human Resources Committee authorizing a five-year agreement from 2026 through 2030 with Uni Solutions for budget procurement software for a total of $411,31 and transfer within the 2026 budget and this is also a twothird vote. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Supervisor Troutier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, thank you to the board for allowing this with unanimous consent to be discussed and taken on the agenda tonight. Um, resolution 202592. This will moder modernize our financial and procurement operations. The software will provide large improvements in our procurement, our project management, our budget books, a capital book and real time. These are just to mention a couple of things. It will also help reduce errors, streamline our efficiency, maintain cycles, operational efficiencies, and improve the procurement competition. I believe this is something in the county executive's idea, this procurement, consolidating this. I have uh Byron Dean here. to run over the details of this request this evening. Good evening, Byron.

Good evening, chairman, county board members. Um, I also have Dwayne McKini here, procurement agent. So, if there's any questions that he can help answer, he can hop in as well. So, I did come prepared to share uh similar information as I did last week. So, if it's a little bit redundant, I apologize for that. But uh thank you for the opportunity to present this resolution. Uh it is a very uh important and a little bit of a pressing uh issue. So we thank you for your consideration for first and second reading tonight. Um today finances again is requesting a county board approval for multi-year agreement with Uni Solutions for budget and procurement uh software solutions. Um um supervisor vice chair trier um shared some of the high high level benefits of the solution. So thank you very much for that. But so we may want to consider why now okay and what are the challenges we face. So our we have lean staffing levels in finance. Okay. Um we have two FTE in the purchasing division and two FTE in the in the budget division. U so for example lean compared to to who? Um I heard some comparisons to Kenosha, Walkshaw and Walworth County tonight. Um so for example peers like Kenosha they have five um purchasing FTE and five budget FTE. A walkshaw has six purchasing FTE and five budget FTE and Worth has seven purchasing FTE and five budget FTE. So that's all despite a similar or larger scale. Okay. So um so that's kind of how we kind of compare a little bit to to some of our surrounding uh counties. So we currently also rely heavily on manual spreadsheets and kind of a disjointed little separated tools um which increase risk of error, slows processes and limit reporting visibility internally and externally.

Uh the unit platform will reduce the manual work um maintain continuity of operations which is pretty huge and prevent burnout from our smaller teams. Uh some a little bit of background. Uh the current budget solution we use um is Gravity. This is just for our budget book. Okay? It doesn't do anything else. It just does budget book. Uh there's still a lot that goes into it. Um it's good for its cost. Okay. But it doesn't it just doesn't do a whole lot. Um we reached out to Gravity in November to try to renegotiate uh the renewal that's coming up in July of 2026. Um, and from just going through last year's budget cycle and listening to some of the things that um, seemed to be expected from the county board as far as what they'd like to see incorporated on the financial side of things. Um, we heard just improved capital improvement plan. U, a separate capital well a separate capital budget book just to make the capital piece clear and and easier to track. Data transparency which is huge. Everyone's moving to data transparency. um public facing data that's accessible to them and automated interface also between uh between the software and the county's ERP or financial system. Um and this will just make uh real time uh data updates um a lot more convenient and doable as far as pushing data out there to the public. So the quote for those additional things, not just the budget, but for those additional things from Gravity was $46,000. Um at the same time we were looking for software solutions for procurement um because of some of the direction we've gotten from county leadership. Um so we looked uh for procurement that would spec procurement software that specifically enhance RFP tracking contract management and help the county move toward more centralized procurement process with the intention of cutting

costs and saving money. So saving money might look like, okay, freeing up time, uh, some of Dwayne's time to better provide oversight for vendor relationships and competitive pricing. Okay. And I don't want to oversell something and underdel, but that one area could free up a lot of time for Dwayne to actually do some do more competitive pricing things instead of just processing day-to-day things, taking less time on RFPs and more time on just a different basically refocusing our philosophy in purchasing. And I think this would be a tool to help us do that. The contract management piece would greatly reduce the likelihood of missed contract deadlines on renewals and help identify contracts that are again up for RFP to make sure we're doing those on appropriate basis and following our procurement rules. So through uh Dwayne's contact, professional contact, um Una Solutions was referred to the county. Um so we contact Yuna right away to schedule some demonstrations. Um we liked what we saw. The whole team was impressed especially because they the software seemed to meet all the county's requirements. Uh during that initial demonstration, they also said they have a budget solution tailored to public sector needs. So of course we were um because we were in kind of preliminary conversations with our current uh software provider, we wanted to reach out to get an idea of what else was out there. Uh so we contacted Yuna and they set up some demonstrations for us as well for the budget piece. Um and that was really good as well. And um we were very impressed. Um the solution on the budget side would meet all of the county's requirements that that we could ascertain from county leadership with the improved capital improvement plan, separate capital budget book, data transparency, automated interface, all of that um was

covered. In addition, Yuna is a little bit unique in their solution because what they can do is they can facilitate the entire budget process versus a peace meal approach that we take today. Um so all the collaboration we do between department heads, county leadership, um the finance department, all would be done within the software. It wouldn't be a peacemeal approach anymore using, you know, Excel spreadsheets, access databases and different things. Okay. Um so this would bring the entire um process in under one roof. It would streamline the alignment of county the county's overall strategic goals. Um it helped streamline these with department specific goals and allow convenient tracking using uh performance uh key performance indicators. It provide needed tools um to meet uh the county goal of strategic financial forecasting. um they do use artificial intelligence and they're building this right into the software to do some uh more data driven decision- making using the AI tools which was is pretty impressive and they're building that out and allow for the creation of multiple budget products without being charged additional fees. One of the things that we were a little bit surprised about using our current providers is that they wanted a separate amount basically double for the capital budget book. Okay. And um so it made it needful for us to kind of pivot and look in other areas. So um so under this current under unit solution no matter how many budget books you had it's all covered under that solution. Okay. So if we had a ops a capital other books that might be needful in the future it would be all part of the solution which is very convenient for the county. Um but most importantly and I said this last week too uh the unit platform will ensure continuity of operations by eliminating complexity and simplifying standard operating procedures. So god forbid

something happens to Gwen something happens to me um people retire or whatever the case you know this solution in place would help just ensure that contin of operations. um more and more it's it's getting hard uh to find um people with a certain skill set to do a lot of manual number crunching and calculation and um and this solution would do a lot of that heavy lifting. It'd be within the system which would help free up time for other things. So um just real quick a cost breakdown a little bit on funding. So, um what's before you if you looked at the the um the fiscal note of the total cost for 2026 would be about $122,000. And we know that's a lot. The non-reoccurring portion is 6 about $65,000 and the reoccurring portion um from year to year would be about 68,500. Of that 4,8500 is for the budget piece and 20,000 would be for the procurement piece. there's a 3% escalator built in to the budget side only. Okay? So, it would go up gradually over the course of years 2 through five. Uh the funding would be covered in 2026 uh from a transfer from finance to the IT department. the cost for the software solution lives within it uh it's um software subscription account and uh but in the finance department we um have an account where we keep track of all the uh revenue we collect from cooperative purchase agreements and this just sits in the finances budget. One example of a use of those funds was the Discover Wisconsin um project that's currently underway. And there's more money sitting in there that we could transfer over for 2026 to cover the cost of this. And then

going forward, it would be incorporated into future budgets. We also have $15,000 um that would be redirected from our existing software solution from Gravity. That's just for the budget book. that would be redirected toward the new solution in future budgets. There is expected net savings um from procurement improvements, air reduction and efficiencies. Again, I'm not I don't want to overpromise and underdel, but it seems very reasonable to believe that there's going to be some cost savings. I just can't put a number to it. Um understand that there's some urgency in this request. So, we do thank you again for the consideration for first and second reading today. Um, under county board leadership and guidance, we're aiming to deliver the 2027 budget book about a month earlier. Couple weeks we're moving it up to from October to uh September. Um, so that's one of the reasons for the request. Um, while the shortened timeline isn't ideal, acting now will lock in competitive pricing. um and it ensures a quality budget solution uh for this upcoming cycle for 2027 and for years to come. So just in closing uh the investment modernizes critical financial and procurement operations positions we're seeing county for long-term efficiency and data transparency and supports our small teams uh in delivering highquality services. For these reasons and those previously stated, finance recommends approving the resolution authorizing the agreement with UNI solutions. Uh so we do thank you very much for your support and consideration and we're happy to answer any questions or provide additional details.

Are there any questions? Supervisor Spencer. Thank you. Um I may have missed this but when you started you were comparing us uh to other counties with the FTEEs. How many are seen? We have two in the purchasing division and two in the budget division. Okay. So um so compared to them we have we have four and they have 10 or more. Yeah. Thank you. Supervisor Vance.

Does any portion of this grant include uh working with them for some of their advanced grant research in their their grant exec software? Uh, supervisor, I'm not sure about the grant piece of things. On the procurement side, um, it would help us to do all of our RFPs within within the software and the contract management also within the software. Um, I'm not sure if there's a grant component um, in the software. Do you want to talk a little bit? I don't know much about it, but there is a there is a grant component that is is along with the other different ones. So that would be a separate module, correct?

I'd be curious to know what the cost is to add that module or how that could enhance us because that could be very helpful. Absolutely. Uni Solutions, they do provide a lot of different modules, but we were just looking at certain ones. Um, and well, if if if you have time, maybe it's a good thing to to ask about that. Absolutely. And maybe Travis Richardson Absolutely. Able to evaluate it along with county executives. Supervisor Rossi.

Thank you, Chairman. Um, I'm usually the one providing the comparison. So, I'd like to address one item in particular, the Konosha comparison. Um, when comparing to a a county with a better financial su situation, I'm usually comparing to items of savings so that we can uh realize that, you know, there's there is the opportunity to save money. Um, what I would like to address is the ratios as you're saying that you have between two departments or two divisions of the same department that are assisting with the budget process. You said four and Kenosha has approximately 10 approximately I believe so approximately 10. Well, if you if you multiply that out, Kenosha would have about two and a half times the staff working. I didn't look at their total staff.

Well, it just for the point of this exercise. So um the issue there is that Kenosha does not have two and a half times the total employees of Racing County. They don't have 2500. So they have comparably the same amount of FTEEs that we have. So it's really an allocation of employees at that point when we have comparable employment levels. So it's not like they're dealing with a lot more people that they're able to allocate. They just have different allocations of total FTEES within their government. So I just wanted to address that one item. Um, next, um, was this sent out for formal RFP? No, it was not.

Okay. Um, were you working with the existing vendor trying to renew and they proposed new features or is this something that you requested during that process? I'm trying to understand that. So the new the new features as far as the capital improvement plan and the separate capital budget folk, these are things we requested from Gravity based on what we believed was the desire of the of county leadership including the board.

Um why if if these were concerns that were brought up in the last budget session and honestly I I do remember these concerns being brought up in the uh 2025 budget cycle so back in 2024. Um, well, no, 20 getting my years mixed up with how long I've been here. It feels like it's been much longer, but um, either way, two previous budget cycles. Um, why wouldn't this be looked at then as an opportunity for the the budget to then actually have this budgeted and then, you know, priced and and properly purchased? M

why are we looking why is it an emergency now when none of us have really heard anything about this particular item? So, supervisor, to answer your question, we started looking for new softwares right after the last budget software budget cycles ended in November. Um, we got the initial quote from our current vendor and we thought it wasn't good enough. So, we wanted to, you know, do a little due diligence and see what else was out there. We happened upon this solution from a professional reference and we pursued it and we didn't know where the end would be, but it it seems like it'd be a fit good fit for the county. But I do agree as much as possible that it would have been a good to have in the budget cycle for 2026. It just didn't work out that way this time. We didn't have a quote, so we didn't have a price to put in to request. And besides that, um there was um just a lot going on at the time. and not least of all me trying to fill the shoes of the finance director which are very large shoes to fill and juggling a lot of balls. It, you know, there was just a lot going on. I'm not trying to make excuses, but is just is for myself personally. Now, don't get me wrong, our team pulled together to do a great job and they did a fantastic job stepping up to fill that void, the large void that was left when when Gwen was on maternity leave. Um, and this is just one of the things that maybe it would have been good to think about a little bit more at that time, but we just didn't get to.

I understand and thank you and I can agree. I think you guys did a great job. Even without, I think you did a great job. Um, I would like to say now and this is the end of my comments. Um, I'm getting deja vu to the situation that we were in with the um, previous IT director when we had another emergency software situation. This isn't necessarily an supervisor. I'm so sorry to cut you off, but I never said this was an emergency. Oh, I was just clarifying. I was just clarifying that this is a necessary emergency, but And you also made a comment before and you also made a comment before, supervisor, saying not following the proper procurement rules. We are we are following the proper No, budget. I I mentioned the budget process

earlier though. I meant to touch on that and I just forgot. I'm remembering now. No, to me to me um you know, an RFP process since you wanted to talk about that now. an RFP process then would would be the proper process I would have thought would have been implemented and you said yourself that this wasn't this wasn't bid am I misunderstanding something if I may respond to that our ordinance does not require us to do an RFP for this and we're uh going off of competitive competitive procurement that was already done on nationwide contracts as referenced in our memo sourceful and Omnia are both nationwide um cooperative purchasing agreements and RFP is not necessary because they already did the RFP and we're piggybacking ing off of that that

and again my comments originally I'm focusing on the budget portion of this you know I don't like midyear transfers and as I was midc correction there about this is not necessarily an emergency but when it calls for first and second reading at the same meeting is there a a heightened sense of urgency can we at least say if I may uh the chairman of the finance committee was the one who recommended that this item go for first and second rating I am completely comfortable with it going first reading tonight and second reading at the next meeting as outlined on our fiscal note and in our memo. Okay. It's it's at the discretion and the pleasure of the committee.

Okay. I'll take that. I do remember comments about there being you know we wanted the budget two weeks earlier than normal and I believe those were your comments. So there's there's a a reason to expedite. Yeah. Did the chairman of the board excuse me. Those were my comments. Uh we wanted it two weeks early so we could start the process two weeks early. Okay. Thanks. Those are my comments.

Yeah. The the board leadership um Chairman Kramer and others have received the draft 2027 budget calendar which includes presenting the budget from the county executive to this board early. And you know I of course would love more time to be able to implement a software and be able to do it right for the longevity of the software. If this was a five-year contract, we plan for it to be our our solution going forward. We want to do it right. However, like I said, it's at the pleasure of this board. If you choose not to do a first and second rating tonight, I completely understand and I'm in support of that action. Thank you for that clarification.

Yeah. Um, I would encourage everyone to avoid another situation where we are decoupled from the budget process and making a commitment for a $400,000 software which starts off with a, you know, a 50/50 split nearly of implementation and software cost. This is something that we should look at doing during the budget process. And I understand, you know, there is a desire to improve our processes and we can absolutely do that next year. We didn't have any failures of the budget process last year. Everything's everything went well. I'd like to see this go through the budget process and then be included in next year's budget and then we can get the software for the next budget cycle. That's all. Thank you.

Thanks. Any further comments, Mr. Chairman? Yes, Supervisor Miller. Thank you. And this is the second time I'm hearing the presentation, but I I think I would appreciate just a little more specifics uh on the point of data transparency and uh a better budget process. Could could you maybe give us anecdote or or

Sure. So data transparency um basically having public facing um data and data visualizations on our our website. Okay. The city of Largo is a current client of UNI solutions. So that would be something you could look at to get a little bit of a flavor of what that might be. But basically we can make it whatever we want to. So whatever the supervisor would like to see um at ready access for members of the uh public to have access to we can we can put that public facing right away. And this data also would be refreshed um on a periodic basis whatever we chose whether it was daily or weekly or monthly but it'd be refreshed automatically and made available to the to the public right away. Uh so that's a little bit on data transparency. Um was that enough or did you did you want more information?

That is helpful. Um the process I can talk about next if Yeah, the process and then maybe just a little bit on how if if we're having a revision of our procurement philosophy and practice. Uh I think a little bit on that would be helpful.

I'd like to just speak about the the budget software. The city of Largo in Florida is a good example. is the one that they demoed for us. It looks very similar to our budget book. When you look at it online where you can click on the department, it brings you to it. But there are builtin graphs and um filters and different data components of it that um many of the questions that we received that were included in the budget FAQ documentation were exactly that. Uh tell me more about how many wages are in the sheriff's office. tell me more about the trend of the overtime over the last seven years. All of that would be made available so you could do it at your fingertips, which would save you time and save us time. Um, because we're not downloading it from the system and sending it out. You'd be able to do it all on your own and not only you, but the public as well. So, it would be automatically linked to our financial data and be able to pull it. um on the capital side of it, which is something I've heard highway and equipment are are big um areas of emphasis for this board, we would be able to add um progress to it. So, we've gotten questions before, particularly by super supervisor HT of where are we at currently with that project? How much have we spent? How much have we contracted? What's the status of it? That would all be built into it. It would include a GIS map so you could see exactly what section of the road you're looking at on you know where that that improvement is being made and it would again be built into the financial software. So you click refresh and you would say okay that was at $10,000 and now it's at $50,000. You'll automatically see the payments that are happening for it. And as far as the the budget and software, I would invite the account executive to speak about that if he'd like to, but he made very apparent to me on his first day in the office that he is a big fan of centralized purchasing, which is very difficult to do when you have two people in central in purchasing. Um, so the sheriff's office typically does a lot of

their own purchasing while the documents do come to the finance department for processing. um the the getting of the quotes and and RFPs and evaluating that really is handled a lot by the departments. So this would um give us an opportunity to put that all in one central location with one central oversight so that we can say oh we might have some savings over here exactly like IT director um Valero was speaking of earlier. We would be able to see all of the spectrum contracts all at one point and say we probably can negotiate a better savings here if we move to a long-term contract or be able to run scenarios like that which would lead to savings um both monetarily and time for this board

as far as the budget process as well. Um so right now we do a lot with spreadsheets. Okay. And so for example payroll projections uh that's a very convoluted spreadsheet that has been um an evolution for for many years. Um and payroll is very uh kind of nuanced and it's a little bit complicated. Um so it'll take it replace that the the payroll protection will be brought into the system. So it free up time for that. There's also decision packages that are made every year and we have a smart sheet that we use. Um, but again that's a little disjoint and we keep data in different places, have to move it back and forth between systems. This would all be in one place. So in and for example, if you put a decision package in for a capital project this year, um that would stay there and it could become part of the budgets in future years if it was not approved for whatever reason, whatever workflow step it was entered in because it's from finance to the department to uh the county executive to the county board. So it's kind there's kind of a workflow in built into to the system. Um so payroll projections um decision packages and also just the communication we do with department heads all those all that would be within the system. You can leave notes you know on accounts and various things. There's over 4,000 accounts we budget on. So it'd be very useful to have everything in one place and all that data would be saved from year to year without having to um try to capture it and you convert it to the new year and kind of start over with those templates that we use that we currently use now. So it just make the collaboration between stakeholders a lot smooth, a lot more seamless. It all be integrated in one place and it would save everything for for future years as well. So if there's a special account you had to put a note on, that note would be available, you know, next year for, you know, whoever's whoever's

there. So So all of that sounds terrific. Um, I guess I hate to say it, but I may be showing my age, but when you implement a new software, I think it's a lot of work. And I I have the highest regard for finance staff, but you know, is that going to be a really big challenge to switch over to a new software uh as you begin the budget process?

I'll I'll speak to that. That that was given to me as the sense of urgency if you want to install it this year and make it work for this year's budget process. Um to Gwen's point, I find it very difficult to follow our purchasing and this would centralize our procurement issues and I could figure out what exactly is going on from that standpoint. Um it also my understanding that that upfront fee is them building this process, helping us build it. So it's not all together on the finance team's uh shoulders to put it together. They come in and build it. It's also my understanding that they put years of history into it. So you can look at historical trends and you can also project out financials which is something that we've talked about many many times. Now I understand supervisor Rossy's concern with building it into the budget. It it's up to you how far and how fast you want to go. We last year during the process we talked about are you using AI? There's a component to that that's going to be built into this. Again, how far and how fast do you want to move? That's where we're at.

But yes, I do believe that we can get it successfully implemented in time. But again, that is one of the reasons for the urgency. So, Supervisor Cole, um I got a couple. um who determines what is going to be released um to the public on this? Is that up to the county executive? Is that going to be the finance taking it to the county executive?

So, I think it'll be a collaborative um process, supervisor. So, we're happy to take feedback from the county board as well. Um county of course the county executive, you know, or finance professionals so we have a flavor for what may or may not be useful. But if there are certain things that that we want to make sure the public can see, you know, that aren't currently out there, of course, we will do everything we can to build that out. So really, it's whatever where whatever imagination takes us and whatever we think would be useful to the public.

Does it have you worked with it on how this will be pushed because this is going to go through the county website then? So um so yes, we haven't worked out all all those details, but um it would be links that would be branded like the county's websites, but it would be actually hosted uh on a UNI solution platform. So you know, so it would it it would look like the county's website, but it would actually not be part of our website.

Okay. I just some of this when I got on the board I was always told we don't have a spending problem we have a revenue problem. We got the sales tax and we blew through that and I see a lot of these in budget transferring back and forth and I going back through some of this and this is what gets us in trouble in our budget and I'm coming to be that we do have a spending problem. It's just we're not tracking it right to see it. And I think it's a lot of this in budget stuff that's getting us in trouble. So, I I really like what you're doing. I really like the idea. Um I just wish like a lot of others it would have been in the budget ahead of time because it is a big increase if we're not cutting a position or having an offset somehow. It's just it's a convenience that it comes at the taxpayers's expense. And as much as I like the employees of Renee County and I, you know, I want to help you guys out, it's the taxpayer that put my butt in the seat and voted for me. And that's who I represent. And I'm a lot were not happy with a sales tax and a property tax increase this year. So I guess that I just think this stuff has to be done ahead of time in the budget is I have a question. I'm going to skip in front of just a second if if you allow me to. So we're taking out of the out the corporate purchases

cooperative purchases. Yeah. the what were were the fiscal reason and we get a funding for that. So we're taking the whole balance as of the current balance right now. What do we expect to get from that or what kind of historic historically have we gotten in in the past? So every year well last year was about $450,000. Correct.

I believe that came in 105 was repurposed. the rest stayed from previous years. It's in a non-lapsing account. So, there's still a balance that needs to be carried forward from 25 into 26. So, what you're seeing on the fiscal note is just what's what was in the 26 um field for now, but once I carry forward that balance into that account, it'll be a higher balance than the 122. It' be closer to $400,000. $400,000. So the corporate purchasing paperwork that's in what the what area? Finance. Finance and purchasing. Yes.

So is it possible since it's $400,000 and it's $411,000. it has has has no you know I is it does it work out to be able to pay for this with a corporate purchasing and of course that's just me looking at the numbers and talking here if if that was what the

and I see the finance director shaking her heads and I see the county executive saying that's acceptable. So I don't know what the process would be, but that's maybe one of the options here. So it doesn't affect the levy.

Yeah. Uh chairman, you're exactly right. This would not impact the levy. This is not taxpayer dollars. This is revenue earned by the finance department for work performed on nationwide um third party administrator of nationwide procurement contracts. We get two and a half% of all sales made through Omnia. WCA gets the other two and a half, but that is roofing and HVAC and office supplies. And I I understand that, but this is a multi-year contract. Y and we really need to put that in a non-lapsing account specially put for this project.

Absolutely. you know, and then we get off the, you know, it it doesn't go on the levy. You know, we had some budgeted because we're going to have to renew the software anyways. So, there's some that was there, but yes, absolutely. We can do that, Chairman. Okay. Supervisor Horth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Robert, if I heard correctly, this was you said it was going to cost this year $121,000. 122 about 122,000 this year. How much of that is going to be offset by um grants

there? There's no grant revenue associated with this purchase. Okay. Is Okay. Is there anything that will help offset this other than transfers from another department as far as transfer from finance from from finance or however? Yeah, you'd offset the chairman just mentioned to to it. Um, it'll be partially offset by what we currently pay for our existing software.

Okay. The the reason I'm asking the question that way and and Gwen, this may ultimately come back to finance is that I I I mentioned last year during the budgeting process that this this discussion regarding the transferring of funds to offset expense overages, I'll call it that right now, is very concerning to me. But it it gives me the chance to ask the question and maybe we can look into it. What have we done historically when it comes to the transferring of funds to offset expense variances? And it may not even be a discussion for this topic right now, but it would be very interesting for me to see and maybe the others for us to see how many times we are missing our expense budgets and having to transfer funds for purposes of helping offset that because two things will happen. one, we'll have the chance to see how the budgeting is being done and how effective it is. No criticisms because people make mistakes. Or two, it'll validate that, hey, we now know where we need to budget going forward when it comes to some of these assumptions. So I to me it's hard for me once again and by the way I know you were right Robert the term emergency shouldn't have been used maybe but but it is hard for me to again sitting here on March the 10th to now receive a request for 411,000 122 of it will come into this year into this year's budget as opposed to now saying to myself maybe this and I don't disagree with the sense of urgency. Okay, I I get it all and everything you said makes sense. The problem is once again, we have some fiscal challenges within the county that hopefully we're all trying to help support improve upon. And it doesn't mean that yours isn't important, but just like we did a little while ago to another resolution. Right now, it's a

process of saying, man, maybe this needs to be one we put in the plan for next year. anticipate it, prepare for it, plan for it, highlight it, and then we consider moving forward on it. That's just I I had to say, but Gwen, the topic on transfers, that might be an interesting exercise. I don't want to make more work. I'm sorry about that. There is no there is no work. It's a normal process. It's outlined in our ordinance and it happens every year. Well, that would be wonderful for all of us to see.

Super supervisor, do you have any on the program here? I mean, we understand. Thank you for correcting me, Mr. Chairman. I think you understand where I'm you look at the quotes, you'll have an idea of what they did. So, um, so the the two quotes that were given, they showed what the initial pricing was. And and again, this might just be part of their normal sales process, but um if you believe that it'll be $85,000 for the budget piece next year, and it'd be about I don't want to say more for the about 40 to 60,000 for the procurement piece. So this is this is piggybacked on a a contract

between the between those cooperative arrangements and our own negotiations. So is that with state contracts? Sometimes they're two, three years. Do we do we know? I mean, it's usually in the fine print. This is a fiveyear agreement. It's a five-year agreement, but the contract with the purchasing group, there's two purchasing groups that we that we started with and then ultimately we negotiated even further down from theirs. So, I believe our our pricing is more favorable. That's favorable. It is. Yeah.

But I'm I'm just wondering because they'll change the base price maybe July 1st or maybe January 1. That's just a question, you know, because Yeah, you get what I'm talking about. Okay, I wasn't finished though. That's okay.

Can I Okay, so I just want to say there is a huge amount of work that's done by very few employees in our finance department. And this opportunity to upgrade before our 2027 budget is is um I mean it's going to be it's going to be worth it. All of these things that we're talking about can be done to Supervisor Col's point um on the spending. It's I mean I'm guessing here but that can be tracked easily. So I mean that's an improvement. That's exactly what you're looking for. So to me, this like I'm fully on board with this. Thank you,

Supervisor Rossi. Um, thank you, Chairman. And I just wanted to speak to the What did Supervisor? Well, I

I'll be brief. I'll be very brief. I just wanted to speak to looking at, you know, we're talking about the reconciliation process that happens in I think second quarter. um you know the the overspends and underpins of the county. Um I think that I think that looking at you know comparing a new cost to a revenue account is looking at a situation in a vacuum when in reality we need to look at the totality of expenses that happens in the reconciliation process. You know just cherrypicking a revenue stream and then saying well we've got a revenue stream covering coming to cover this cost when in reality we've got things that are going to be overexpensed. Supervisor Capillian knows. One of those being our overtime and uh you know how that's actually handled throughout the year. Um I forget how many over the last um you know 10 years I forget how many budgets were or how many years were over budget versus underbudget. I can't remember off the top of my head.

Again I don't want to belver the point because I don't think that's the point of this topic. But I will note that our ordinance states our total budget authority is the total expenses within a department. So if a department goes over an overtime but under in another area, they're still within their budget authority. And the resolution that we prepare at the end of the audit, which will be presented to the finance committee at the first meeting of May, will show all of those areas that haven't true up. And for the last several years, we have added to our reserves. So the net expense savings has been an increase to our reserves. But could you say the last 10, how many? I've been the director for four years. So out of four, it's been four.

Okay. Um I would just caution once again and you know we aren't talking about um not a department balancing itself but this isn't we haven't we're not you know omitting costs somewhere else right now. This is purely an ad and I'll take your note on that. I'm not going to belabor it anymore. Thank you. Supervisor Caprellian. I didn't see you behind. We gota we got to put the bigger guys in the back row and the little people in the front just like in a picture because I can't see make your screen bigger on the little mic. I don't have a screen that's the problem.

Oh. Oh, okay. I take that back. All right. Very good. So, I I appreciate the hardiness of this discussion because it is quite hardy. There's a lot of contribution coming in from supervisors and uh there's a lot of info consumption. This is where uh I'm pausing and I'm stuck on. Uh Director Zimmer had mentioned at the beginning I think when Supervisor Rossy made a um comment after the RFP question was asked was talking about the first and second reading why that's before us because we're going off our normal uh path. So it then implies there's a sense of urgency. And I can understand and I'm I'm hearing it. I'm hearing why it'd be helpful to have it implemented early. Uh, and I can state for most everything I do in my life, I wish I had more time. Uh, so and I know this wasn't a request from you, Director Zimmer, and you made that clear. And to me, because the director who uh is overseeing the department who is looking for this to be passed, I would ask for an amendment, I'd make a motion for amendment to strike the second reading and have this be for first reading only. uh due to the fact that because of the hardiness of this discussion, I know it's given me a lot to consume as well and I would like the opportunity to um also bring this back up at second reading. So with that, my I make a motion to amend to strike the second reading and first reading only this evening.

Corp council, could you weigh in on this one?

Sure. So I think to affect what Supervisor Capillian is talking about, there's a couple of different options. One, I just want to kind of set the expectations that so the normal rule um per ordinance is for first and second reading to occur on separate nights. Um at the committee level and then again tonight um there was a request for unanimous consent to allow for first and second reading to occur. Um there was no objection raised at that point. That doesn't mean that it's necessarily a final decision. There is still opportunity for if there's a single objection to doing first and second reading tonight, it could go to a vote and that vote would be to either suspend rules, that's a twothirds vote. Um, and so if there is objection to the second reading this evening, one option is to u take that to a formal vote of a a motion to suspend. The other point I believe supervisor uh Miller was just making this there could be a motion to refer it back to committee. Um so those are a couple of the options to affect what I understand uh your request to be. Uh, could I then just uh change that motion to a motion to suspend to allow my point what I'm trying to get at and what I hear you corporation council saying is that I would like second reading to happen at our next county board meeting to follow the suit of our normal first reading at one and then second reading. If we go back to committee that just starts that process all over again. I don't need to add one extra committee meeting to this.

I I actually tried to pantomime, but he didn't catch it. I I was going to suggest a motion to do exactly what you're saying, that we vote on it next meeting. Perfect. Um, so you can make that motion. Okay. I will make the motion to refer it to the next county board meeting. To refer it to the next county board meeting. Okay. Okay. A motion's been made and seconded to refer to the the next county board meeting. That's a simple majority. That's a majority vote. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. I.

Motion carried. Item number 12, reconsiderations of residence resolutions and ordinances from pre previous meetings and/or action on vetos. Sorry, there are no items. Item number 13, reconsideration of andor notice of intent to reconsider resolutions and ordinances. There are noneformational

reports. Report number 2025-67 by Finance and Human Resources Committee announcing the distribution of sales and use tax revenue for February 2026. Report number 2025-68 by Finance and Human Resources Committee submitting annual claims of $500 or less settled for the year 2025 by Rine County Corporation Council. Report number 2025-69 by Finance and Human Resources Committee authorizing the settlement of the claim of Daniel R. Autumn. and report number 2025-70 by Finance and Human Resources Committee authorizing the settlement of the claim of Progressive on behalf of Andrew P. Draper.

Item number 15, miscellaneous business announcements or all reports. Mr. Chairman, just this I've got one first. Oh, defer to the chair. I'd like to recognize Supervisor Jodie Spencer. She's been awarded by the Heritage Committee the the award for political act activity. Thank you.

And and then and then I've got one other one. On the 24th, I'd like to have a committee of the whole meeting for a for a short discussion so we can set the parameters for our next budget. basically. So the county board since there's going to be a majority of us returning talk about levy debt and property tax relief and we probably can have about a 45 minute to an hour discussion on that for the next meeting for the next for March 24th. Now supervisor Miller.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Um, I just wanted to give a positive shout out to our IT team here who is manning the cameras and the voting machine is back after being trained by John John. But tonight we have Maven too. So let's give him some applause.

Mr. Chairman, supervisor wish. Everybody be careful going home. There's severe weather running right through us right now. They're talking about large hail and severe thunderstorms, so be careful. Supervisor Caprellian,

thank you so much. Um, our next cohort of youth and governance went out, so it'll be soon time to congratulate our new incoming and also um give uh some honors to our outgoing. And with that being said, we have youth and governance representative Anderson here. So about we sat through this healthy discussion. So thank you for being here. I just wanted to acknowledge that and also for the clerk to mark it in attendance. Thank you. And since we acknowledging Coleman Y.

Thank you. And since we acknowledging she has an interview coming up for um going to Japan. So let's wish her luck in that. So yes, that's my we are journ. Thank you all.