Commission - Regular Meeting

Bye.

I will start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners. It's August 6th, 2026. On my far left is Lisa Smith, county clerk. On my far right is our county councilor, Ridge Eckert. On my immediate left is Commissioner Aaron Mays, who represents District 3. Good morning. And on my right is Commissioner Kevin Cook, who represents District 2. Good morning. Good morning. And I'm Bill Rippon, and I represent District 1. Lisa, what's first?

First on the agenda is item two, unfinished business. A, consider approval of contract C2026276, a facility management agreement with YBR Properties, WG Topeka, LLC, to manage the Maynard Conference Center, deferred from July 30th of 2026. Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. Rich Eckert, county councilor. So we went back and crafted a new paragraph, which looks like this. It's the new section six in the contract. This has been transmitted to all the applicable parties on Tuesday. We've had emails and conversations back and forth.

I think we're all relatively OK with it.

But I'll let other people speak for themselves. Mr. Chairman?

Yes. Does this allow the Extension Council to be able to continue to use a space for meetings?

Yes. And the first sentence of the second paragraph, the county shall retain possession and control of the extension space and the extension office may continue to occupy and use the space for its governmental purposes, period.

So does that specifically include the meeting room that they're using as space? Yes. And they will be able to bring in food for food preparation for such as cooking classes and things of that nature.

Yes, sir.

And they're not going to be charged a fee.

Correct. The county. Well, you can charge them a fee, but.

Oh, I see some opposition in the group.

But no, the new lessee of the mayor space cannot.

OK. And then I believe that just as an overarching, as we do this renovation, we'll be looking at the space that's occupied by Extension, the meeting room, and to see if there are higher, better uses and better efficiencies that we can have. And a space for the Extension Council, we are required by statute to have a meeting Well, what are we required by statute?

It's a statutory duty of each county to provide space for the K-State Extension Office and all of their statutory duties. Okay.

All right.

Yeah, and this does say in here, the county intends to relocate the Extension Office to another suitable location when space becomes available. I mean, we'll get started on that right away.

Well, we've already started looking. I mean, we've started. And to note, there's no timeline in here. This doesn't say within six months, nine months, one year, the LLC takes over this space. That's not in there.

OK.

Well, I feel comfortable enough with it, so I'll move for approval.

I'll second. Motion's been made by Commissioner May, seconded by Commissioner Rippon. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Next item.

Next item is item 3, consent agenda.

I would move that we approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Motion has been made by Commissioner Rippon, second by Commissioner Mays. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Next item.

4, new business. A, county clerk. 1, consider all voucher payments.

Commissioners, we have a voucher report this morning that totals $4,367,170.87. The highlights out of the voucher report, we have our payroll that totaled $1,584,927.47. We had a payment to Vital Core for healthcare at the Department of Corrections that was $407,067.96. Holding accounts with the State of Kansas, It's $253,492.30. Health insurance for our employees, $608,758.18. And then under parks and recreation, under a number of items, it totaled $401,777.34. I do not have any questions regarding the vouchers. Would move for their approval.

second motion's been made by Commissioner Cook second by Commissioner Rippon all in favor say aye opposed motion carries 3-0 next to consider correction orders I would move that we approve the correction order second motion's been made by Commissioner Rippon second by Commissioner Cook all in favor say aye opposed motion carries 3-0 Next.

B, Health Department. One, consider approval of contract C2026279, a renewal agreement between Kansas Children's Service League and the Shawnee County Health Department from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, providing access for KCSL to funds totaling $376,132.

Good morning, Missy Middendorf, Family Health Division Manager, Health Department. This is our contract that we bring every year for Kansas Children's Service League. We were here on May 28th, where we received approval for agreement with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Division of Healthcare Finance, to support our outreach, prevention, and early intervention services. And so this agreement with KCSL allows them to have access to these funds that come through the Health Department by this grant. Any questions?

Questions?

I'll move for approval.

Second. OK. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Thank you, Miss. Next item.

C, human resources. One, consider approval to issue requests for proposals for occupational health services.

Good morning, commissioners. Angela Lewis with Administrative Services Human Resources, as the clerk said, is seeking approval to request proposals for occupational health services to include pre-employment physicals, drug screens and post-accident drug testing. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

How long has it been since we bid this out?

More than ten years.

It's good that we're looking at any other questions. No, I would move for approval.

Second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Rippon, second by Commissioner Mays. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries three zero. Thank you.

Deep facilities management one. Consider approval of contract C2026280. with P1 service for an emergency temporary chiller rental at Harley-Davidson in the amount of $103,800 utilizing 2026 contingency funds.

Morning, commissioners. Justin Landon, director of facilities management. As the clerk stated here before you, to get approval for this contract with P1, we had a failure on the chiller at Harley-Davidson, and it is in a non-repairable state due to its age and discontinuation of parts. This seems a little high on this price, definitely. A quarter of that cost was to do the electrical work needed to run this rental. As with the age of that facility, the electrical is just inadequate to run that new equipment. So this involved energy and a lot of electrical setting an additional transformer to make this work. This is for a four month rental. If we were to change the length of that time, the price would go down. drastically. So we need to look at a permanent solution other than renting for a long period of time.

What's our current status with Harley? How much longer?

I've been told by the end of September is when they'll be out.

Commissioner? Yes. So are you asking for us to approve work to be done or are you asking work to approve work that has already been done?

This work has already been done with this chiller down. There was no AC to the entire facility. Okay. So this rental was put in place to get them AC back.

So we're already committed to the 100,000. just to get us to where we're at.

We're committed to the work that's been done. This $100,000 can change if we change the length of time we're renting it.

What would be our cost? I mean, since you've said that the air conditioning is non-repairable, what would be the cost to just replace the entire chiller unit?

A chiller replacement for a turnkey solution, we're looking at $350,000 to $500,000. Okay. And roughly a 40-week lead time on a new chiller.

But this cost that we're looking at for the $103,800, that's a monthly cost, or is that for the four-month cost?

That's for the total four-month.

OK. And when does that start, that four-month?

I mean, when did it start? It started already. A couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago, yeah. OK. That would probably get us past there. Harley Davidson's rental.

Yes. Yeah, this is through November. Yes. Just to.

But we can terminate at any time. So correct. I mean, when they move out, We may not need air conditioning at that point, because we're going to go into probably a construction phase of some kind. And it'll be cooler weather also. So I guess, have we started looking at HVAC solutions long term there? I mean, are we putting out an RFP for that sometime soon? Or are we just waiting until we do a bigger renovation of the building.

Right now, I'm waiting on a quote to come back just so I had a budgetary number to go off of. And then I was going to come to you all for an RFP.

OK. Well, I'll move for approval of this contract. Second motion's been made by Commissioner Rippon, seconded by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Opposed motion carries. Thank you. Next item.

E, public works. One, consider issuing an RFQ for professional design and CE services relating to a pavement replacement project on Southeast Croco Road immediately north of the KTA's bridge over I-70.

Good morning, Commissioners. Curt Nios, Director of Public Works. We've done this twice before. We think this will be the last time we have to do any pavement replacement on Croco Road. This time we're going to be working the north and southbound lanes north of KTA's I-70 bridge. It will involve the intersection with one of those Sycamore or Cypress and Sycamore it is. We'll go in there, remove the, well, the contractor will remove the existing pavement, massage the base, do what they need to do to increase the strength of the base, and then put asphalt pavement back. So we'd like to get started on the design. We won't do the work until I-70 is back open. And because I suspect Croco Road is a way for people to get to and from I-70, and I don't want to complicate traffic control. So this would probably take place in late 27 or early 28. I look forward to any questions you might have. Questions?

And I would move for approval. Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Rippon, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Thank you. Next item.

F, commission. One, consider approval of resolution R2026066, establishing the 2027 holidays.

Any questions? Then I would move for approval. Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Rippon, second by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Next big item.

Two, 2027 budget discussions.

All right.

to the fund you guys got the latest handout here good morning commissioners jennifer sauer financial administrator for shawnee county um and as the clerk just mentioned we are ready to start digging in to the 2027 working budget that was presented from each of the departments independently during the department budget hearings and so i We'll leave it up to you to tell me what direction you want to start with.

Mr. Cook. Before we get started, Jennifer, I received in the mail yesterday a notice from the clerk of the county for a notice of hearing and revenue neutral. Would you mind just starting us out so that those that are in attendance, those that are watching at home, watching later can kind of understand what is this notice that we all got in the mail? What is our budget? What are we looking at? And just just generally starting us off.

so timing wise the the notice that you received in the mail is not in a tax bill it's not a bill yes right it's not your tax bill first and foremost it is a representation of what the maximum amount your tax levy could be and that was based this year on the budgetary requests of all the departments so that is that no greater than number and it does not mean that that is what the commission intends to have as the tax levy but with the law the way that it is written we have to notify the taxpayers of the maximum amount that their tax bill could be and that is what that 52.87 or 52. I can't remember off the top of my head what it said, but that is what it was to represent.

So roughly again, for those watching at home and those in the public that may not know, what is a mill?

Oh, gosh. So a mill, I'm going to totally butcher it right now. Basically, it's the amount of taxes that we would have to based on our current good gravy.

And again, these are kind of the questions I get asked on a daily basis when people look at this. It's not a part of our common language of what a mill is or how now, how much how does this get calculated?

So it's calculated based on all of our non levy projected revenues. And then we can subtract from that any amounts or we take our budget, we subtract any non levied revenues that we have, and that leaves the rest of the budget that we then have to fund. The only way that we have to fund those would be the mill levy. And so we take the assessed valuation and we then calculate that to figure out what the per mill levy would be. And that's the taxes on based on your valuation of your property.

Property tax is a very unpopular thing. I can attest I don't like paying property taxes no more than anybody else does. I cringe when I get my property tax assessment. I appreciate that the treasurer sends it to me right before Christmas. It's like a Christmas present. Our revenues that we use to fund county operations that makes up over 85% is from property taxes.

Absolutely. Yes. So if you look down here, our revenues that we get from sources other than property taxes for 27, we're estimating that to be $35 million in order to run the county last year. It took $155,700,000. So it is a very small percentage. Other than property taxes, we do not get in, as a county, a whole lot of other revenues.

every year has its own twist its own special surprise last year we had the surprise of having an extra pay period yes which we appreciate this year we don't have that extra pay period but our surprise this year is we're anticipating that our revenues will be down yes can you explain that just a little bit

Our revenues are expected to be down in 27 due to all of the coronavirus relief fund money it has been expended so we no longer have those balances left to earn interest on coupled with interest rates going down so that's those are the primary reasons why we are losing revenue in 27. Sales tax numbers also aren't increasing at the pace that they have been in the past.

You've met with all the commissioners. You and I have had a number of discussions. Your staff has been here late at night trying to figure out what we can do. Yes. My understanding in speaking with you is if we as the commissioners wanted to have a flat mill levy. Yes. Meaning that our mill levy was the same for 27 as it is for 26. Yes. We would have to have essentially a zero increase in expenses. Correct. And right now we have a requested increase of $15 million. It's about $10 million. $10 million. Yes. And so we would have to find $10 million to cut in order to have a flat mill levy. Yes.

Well, and let me clarify the reason you said 15 and I said 10 is because last year we used $4 million of reserves. So as far you're correct in 15 million less than arts, 15 million more that we applied against our mill levy. But we use $4 million of reserves last year in order to to try and not have our mill levy go up last year due to the 27th pay period that fell timing wise.

Okay. Now, it appears from the discussions we had, and again, the public can go back and watch all of the videos of every presentation, the reoccurring theme was we've had an increase in salaries, an increase in health insurance, an increase in costs of goods and services.

Correct.

Am I missing?

Nope. Those are the primary causes are helping our health insurance claims have gone up dramatically. The last three years, two years specifically, we have had a a very large increase in the number of claims we have had both medically and pharmaceutically for the county.

All right. That's all I had to just to get started. I think Commissioner Mays had some things. Sorry. Thank you.

All right. Well, I think we've moved on past what I was going to talk about. I was going to sort of explain the mill levy in the in the way that I usually explain it to legislators and that there's there's three components. I always think of it like a teeter totter, like a seesaw or whatever. you know, there's the valuation, the budget in the middle and then the mill levy on the side. And as one goes up, one goes down, but it all hinges on the budget. And so it's just kind of an easier way to to think about it sometime. And a mill is one dollar for every thousand dollars of assessed value. So not the valuation, but the assessed value. So different types of properties are assessed at a different percentage of of their valuation. And so, you know, if you have a a commercial property it's assessed at 25 so a hundred thousand dollar building would be assessed at twenty five thousand dollars their mill levy one mill would equal two hundred fifty dollars so um that's the easiest i can explain it so and lisa and her office and all their calculators calculate what the actual final mill levy is correct based on the information that we've been provided

And not all your property tax is spent by the county. You have a lot of other entities raking in some money. You have your schools, you have an airport library on your tax bill.

That is correct. But that is not included in this. That's right.

It's not included. But just just to let people know, we're not the only ones that spend property tax.

And I'll correct myself. I said 250 to $25.

all right how do you want to attack this you want to go just down the line on this look at uh i i didn't want to point out one thing because so there has been one small change down here at the bottom in talking about our projected revenues i did oh goodness i have no idea what just happened um I did make one small increase of $100,000 in our revenues based on some of the resolutions that have been passed over the last month. So we do believe that some of the resolutions passed should bring in a little bit more revenue for us in 27. So I did recognize that. Unfortunately, that just means it doesn't make much of a difference in the amount that you guys are looking at.

Commissioner, I'm just going to point out if we have any good to point out from this is that our expenditures for debt service did go down from 2025 through 2026 and remain steady at 2027. And our debt service is a relatively small portion of our overall budget.

It is an extremely small portion of our budget, and it is also very low as compared to what the norm is. We have a very low debt ratio for Shawnee County.

One more thing I did want to point out also, probably One of the larger expenses that we have on here, new expenses, is on Department of Corrections. And it's worth noting that is primarily because of the new behavioral health module, which will be complete any day, really. I mean, Brian, you want to talk about that at all?

Brian Cole, Shawnee County Department of Corrections. You are correct, Commissioner, that the we do have basically the keys to the facility. It is finished. We just have the last bit of specs going through and cleaning crews going through to do that. Part of this request was the ten positions new to open up because we have the staffing approved to fill the first two floors. So that is still yet to be discussed. You know, you a good question came up with, you know, are we going to be able to fill the positions we have open now? We have probably I think approximately 30 with the 20 that we had. We have 30 positions. We have over 20 in the in the process. But that is if you were to fund it for the whole year, that's about $950,000. And so I would be more than happy to look at postponing the uh delaying like we did with the others for you know over half the year which would save almost right off the bat four hundred some thousand dollars and i you know i think that would be something you know i'm not here trying to give up the ship yet but uh my deal is is that i know that there's a custody made i no one likes uh property taxes that uh are Budget has been thoroughly vetted with Jennifer and things like this. So if there was areas to look at to start looking at stuff, I'm ready to begin offering to look at those kind of things there. But I don't want to delay any opening or us moving, because with the stakeholders we have and the programming we have, we're ready at the end of this month to move our first floor to be full.

Thank you. Would you feel comfortable with us starting out with reducing your overall budget by 400,000? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I'll make the net motion to reduce the budget of the Department of Corrections by 400,000.

Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Rippon. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

And just to clarify, in reducing your meaning, reducing from their budgetary ask for 27? Correct.

So taking that $400,000 from the $43,559,308. Mr. Chairman? Yes. If we could go down to administrative services, down to the bottom, I would move that we approve our general expenses

Before you do that, can I suggest there is a spot there that we might be able to reduce $250,000?

That would be great.

Included in that amount is a transfer into our risk management fund, which had some expenses last year. The $250,000 would have made up half of what we expended last year, but I believe that it's still sufficient that we would be fine for another year.

You said $250,000?

$250,000.

And which line was that on?

On the general expenses line, the first line under administrative services.

Okay.

So I would then make the motion to approve general expenses less 250.

I'll second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Rippon. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Make a motion we approve contingency at $1 million.

Well, I guess I need to find out, where are we at on this year's contingency before we approve next year's?

On this year's contingency, we currently have, I believe, I would have to go back and verify that amount, but I believe right now we have obligations and expectations that we think that we are going to right now we're at about $600,000 remaining for the rest of the year.

Oh, I usually have things that come up at the end of the year. It always is inevitable as we switch over from air conditioning, a lot of chillers and

Well, we always have a water main break at the jail, so you can almost count on it.

For example, today we did just use, that's why I was kind of doing math in my head, we did just use another $100,000 out of contingency today, as you voted earlier.

But a million has been our set amount for several years. We've stayed within that amount.

OK. I'll second that.

And just historically, just to let you know, what we did with the balance that we had left last year was about $200,000. We transferred that money into the project for the elections equipment. So anything that we're using there is helping us whenever we have that big looming expense coming to.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Motion. Who started it? I started it. Motion made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed?

Motion carries 3-0. I would move that we approve capital outlay at $2,500,000. Second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

If we can go to mental health. You have under mental health, we had two separate presentations. Correct. One from Astra and then one through Breakthrough House. Yes. But we have a total amount of 3,441,000. Is that both entities included? Yes. That is both entities combined.

We only had Astra receiving our money directly, and then they subcontracted through Breakthrough House, and this year they requested that each submit their budget separately.

And Astra themselves last year, well, both entities received last year $2,830,000. $2,800,000 even. $2,800,000 even. And then now we have Astra. Astra is requesting an increase to 300,000. Is that correct?

They're requesting, I believe, I don't have it in front of me, 3,141,000. And then Breakthrough House was requesting an additional

budget and they wanted to have $300,000 and then they also had an alternate request for a much higher amount including the purchase of housing of $1.2 million. Correct.

So that 23% increase, is that included

That does not include the supplemental request of Breakthrough House. The 23% increase includes Apples to Apples, Astra, and Breakthrough House.

So that $3,441,000 is $300,000 to Breakthrough House, $3,141,000 to Astra. Correct. I would move that we approve a increase to 3 million even for both entities, not 3 million and 3 million.

I'm not going to second. I have some more conversation I'd like to have on that. Sure. Um, so last year we have, it was a total of 3 million or was it 2,800,000? We have the, the 200, $200,000 that we gave them for the merger funding last year. It was one time expenses. Was that included in the 2,800,000?

We gave them a total of $3 million, which included one time funding of 200,000. Okay. So

$2,800,000 is what they got last year?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, yes, for ongoing service related.

That was both Astra and Breakthrough House. My motion had been for that we would have $3 million total, anticipating 2.8 for Astra and 200 for Breakthrough House.

You know what the percentage increase would be then if we cut out the 441,000?

It would be a 7% increase.

Pretty good. Compared to most of these line items.

I'll make a

A substitute motion, if that's all right, to go to $2,900,000. Second.

All right. The motion's been made by Commissioner May, seconded by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

I might note, all of these motions, for those, again, that are present, watching at home, watching later, All of these motions are not final. This is as we're working through the budget to get to a final number. So there may be changes before we get to a final amount. Absolutely. Okay. So what was our total cut on this one? $500,000. $540,000. $541,000. $541,000. Okay. Second law.

And just to clarify also, of that, $300,000 would go to Breakthrough House. Is that everybody else's understanding there? Yes. OK.

I'm looking at the conservation district. They have a 50% increase. Seems like a lot.

Just a reminder of what they discussed during their budgetary hearing, or during their departmental hearing. They mentioned that they had lost federal funding. and were able to use some reserves that they had to fund that during 25 and 26, but thought that they would run out of that before they got into 27. I believe that's my quick summary of what they said. OK.

You know, I guess I'll just lament the fact that we can't afford to subsidize the federal government's functions. And it's frustrating. I don't know what we're supposed to do when we're required to fund the conservation district, but then another governmental entity says we're no longer going to pay for it.

The state does this as well. The state will have unfunded mandates that we're required to do, and then we are criticized for having to pay for those expenditures that we're required to do. The health department would be a prime example of cuts that have been made at the statewide level that we're expected to pick up at the community countywide level. I would move to approve the Conservation District for the amount of $57,000, which was the amount from last year.

Second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Go ahead. The coroner, I believe we are contractually obligated to pay that amount, if I'm not mistaken. So I will just make a motion that we approve the coroner's budget.

Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Mays, seconded by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0. So that one remains the amount.

743, yeah.

743 as requested.

I'll move we approve the ambulance as it's a 0% increase.

Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

I'll also make a motion that we approve the animal shelter funding. That is a formula based on the number of animals that get picked up. So I'll make a motion.

We approve that second motion has been made by Commissioner May second by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Opposed motion carries three zero.

I would move that we approve health access. It's a zero percent increase from last year.

Second.

Motions been made by commissioner could second by commissioner Mays all favors. Motion passes 3, 0. Go back up to community resources. They have a 0%. I would move that we approve that. Second. Motions been made by Commissioner Rippon, second by Commissioner Mays. All in favor say aye. Opposed motion carries 3, 0.

Move to approve the funding for the intellectual disability. It is a 3% increase.

That's TARC. TARC. Second.

OK. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

I'll make a motion that we approve the service programs for the elderly. It's a 2% increase from last year.

Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner May, second by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Motion to approve social service grants. It's a 3% increase.

What was there that they have a special is it just a combination of a whole bunch of different things you know we have the list, yeah, yeah.

and social services they include everything from doorstep to youth projects to the ywca legal services let's help so it's a number of different entities that they are funding and assisting through projects

I did want to point out both social services and service programs for the elderly. Last year, when we asked for the departments to look at cuts, both of those entities said hold us to what we received in 25. And so last year, both of those entities received a 0% increase. I'm not telling you what to do. I just want to point out they were a 0% last year.

Yeah. I'll second.

All right. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Move to approve the extension council. It's a 2% increase. Second.

OK. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. What do we have left? The health department there.

I'll make a motion that we approve Safe Streets flat budget.

Second. motions have been made by commissioner may second by commissioner cook all in favor say aye those opposed motion carries 3-0 i'll make a motion that we approve emergency management's budget as a one percent increase second motion's been made by commissioner may second by commissioner cook all in favor say aye those opposed motion carries 3-0 make a motion we approve the drug court second Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Make a motion that we approve community corrections. It's a 1% increase over last year.

Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Mayes, seconded by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Make a motion that we approve the human resources. It's a decrease of 5%.

Second. A decrease of because of the wage study being on there last year.

OK. Motion's been made by Commissioner seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed motion carries three zero.

If we could, I know that we're kind of going through some of the easier things here as we go through, but if we could tackle the sheriff. I know the sheriff and his staff are here today. One of our largest increases is in law enforcement, and I know that the sheriff's office is a part of that. And I know that your office, Jennifer, has been going through with their office on their budget request. How much of this increase is just due to contractual salary obligations? Is that what we're really looking at?

I would say the predominant part of the increase, like in all in all of the budgets is in the MSA one, which was our salaries. Let me define that for weeks. We say MSA one all the time, but that is our it's salaries and benefits. So salaries and benefits is the overarching reason I don't have their specific budget in front of me. But I did look at where their current budget is per request. I took a look to see where are they looking. Their salaries for 2026. um are right at 99 on we're expecting the year to be 99 spent 99 to 100 spent for their department for 2026. um and they do have increases in msas two and three but um they would be able to answer that probably better than i could Mr.

Okay. Sheriff, can you or some of your staff talk about the increases outside of wages and just what we're looking at?

Morning, commissioners. Under Sheriff Hubler, Shawnee County Sheriff's Office. While we do have an increase from 26 to 27 request and contractual services, it's actually a decrease from what we were funded in 2025. The sheriff and our staff got together and we were able to make some cuts last year and move some things around but those contracts still are there they're very useful contracts part of it is hardware and software mostly software that aids all of our law enforcement in doing their jobs investigating crimes identifying criminals that type of thing but the actual increase from 26 to 27 is there, but that's because we took cuts in 26 to those lines. The amount funded in 25 was actually higher than what we're even asking for in 27.

On which line?

On MSA two.

Oh.

In two and three combined. My apologies.

Under Sheriff, one of the things that was discussed during the budget hearing, I think the Sheriff asked poignantly the question, how safe do you want to be? That was in response to cuts that were being made by the Topeka Police Department, reduction of staff with Topeka Police Department, and how the Sheriff's Office is picking up a lot of those responsibilities. And I think we just acknowledge that we're doing a lot of work that maybe otherwise in past years could have been done by the city of Topeka. So just kind of noting that.

The sheriff is probably better to speak to that, but I will say that our real-time crime center is a huge asset. There is software costs that are involved with that, but the amount of video that we're able to obtain and track down criminals and see the crime and actually do our job is augmented greatly by by the real time crime center and all the software subscriptions that we currently utilize.

under sheriff are there i'll be asking as i ask all departments are there any projects that you have on your 2027 list that could be deferred to a 2028 we had this discussion during on monday during our work session we were talking about the radios and how long it's going to take to go out and do the whole project for the radios

The radios is really our our biggest project right now. That is an expense moving forward. It's just maintaining the level of service that we currently provide through software. Are there potentially some contracts that we could relook at that maybe have overlapping? I do believe there are some exactly what that number I With the sheriff's approval, I think we could probably eliminate about $100,000 of those contracts. But other than that, I can bring you success stories. I'd be more than happy to do that at a future time. I have a list of them in my office. But some of those contracts, we're not utilizing that software. think we could cut $100,000 and still maintain the level of service that we're currently providing.

I want to point out also on here looking at their budget. I mean, it's $660,000 of their increases health insurance. I mean, just just to kind of show everybody how extreme these health insurance increases have been this year. And then another $30,000 is capers, an increase in the capers contributions. I mean, it's just the expense of having employees right now, and they've got a large department.

So before I make a motion, do you want to confer with the sheriff about whether or not we can make a motion to reduce by 100,000?

You can step out in the hall for a minute.

I don't want to have you commit to it. No, we actually went through line by line with the captains of the divisions over the contracts and the software programs that we have. And we identified a handful that they were overlapping and we thought we could do just as well getting rid of those contracts. And it was around $100,000. So we had that conversation coming in here. So we could. Thank you, sir. Question. Yeah, sure. Do you have a number of vacant positions right now? We do have a number of vacant positions right now. As you know, we've told you in years past, we've probably had a third of the sheriff's office eligible for retirement. We've had several people hit the eject button, and we wish them well, but we're trying to staff back up. We have lots of applications. I think right now, five or six, we've already hired a couple of laterals. We're trying to get a big class together to go to KLATC, but we're down about 15 deputies right now.

Is that affecting your overtime at all?

It potentially could, yeah, a lot of the operational stuff. It's like dispatch. I know we had a discussion last time about our overtime budget, and I was afraid to lower that number. Even though we are technically staffed in dispatch, a lot of those people are in training, so they have to be with somebody so they can't operate on their self by themselves until they get out of that training, and they're months away. So that's why we haven't really touched the overtime.

So most of your overtime is in dispatch then or.

I think it's a combination. We are at times If you're not aware, we had military deployment as well. So I know we had two people that got their orders, and there's another few that I've been told are on standby that possibly could get orders to leave. Predominantly for us, that's affecting our second shift, just the way the shift bid come out. So when we get down those staffing levels to the minimums, we have to have people hold over to work those slots.

OK. And last question. So the real-time crime center, we talk a lot about that. Has that affected the amount of miles you guys are driving or anything like that? Because I know policing is being done differently now.

It's really affected the solvability and capture rate. Like our fugitive warrants unit have been able to locate people in much higher degrees. The drone testing that we've been doing, that was just a 30-day stint. I looked at the numbers on that yesterday, and there were over 10% of those drone deployments they was able to call the honestly fire trucks, police vehicles, everybody from responding. So as we move forward with that, if we're able to actually put the drones in the air, I think that could impact our driving to and from the scenes. But the crime center itself is not really keeping that from occurring.

Okay.

Does the city share in any expenses with the real-time crime?

They got some staffing that they put forward to that, and we're on the city fiber. They've had some of their people help install some of the hardware that we're utilizing now.

I'll make a motion to reduce the sheriff's budget by $100,000. Second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Can we take up the elections office? It is an 8% increase, but there's an asterisk there.

That is an 8% increase over when compared to 2025 due to the cyclical nature of elections. As you know, every four years there is a different type of election. And so that that translates into every year not being able to be compared to the one right before it. So the closest year we have to be able to do a comparison would be 2025 and then we would compare it 26 and 28.

But if I was to compare it to 2026, it is a decrease.

It is a decrease from 2026. Yes. If I may. So I guess 2025

was a mayoral election, if I'm not mistaken. 2027 will not be a mayoral election. I mean, isn't it safe to assume it's going to be a very low turnout if there's just a couple of city council seats up?

Yes, that is correct, Commissioner. This is the, I guess we'd say, the smallest in a four-year cycle for our office. One of the things to point out as well is the reason that you see the increase that we do have is we have been told very directly by the Secretary of State's office that our ELVIS system, which is our voter database system that we've used here in Kansas since 2005, that that amount that we pay every year is going to increase. We have been told to expect an increase four fold of that amount. It's been 30,000 a year for Shawnee County since 2005. And so with that increase, we've added essentially another 90,000 into our budget. But for that and we would have been under what we had for 2025. So that is the biggest single driver of the increase in our budget, especially when you take out the MSA1, which is salaries and benefits.

And if they don't increase the Elvis? I mean, we're getting a new Secretary of State next year. So if they change their mind on that, any possibilities there? Are they switched to a different vendor or something to that effect?

That is all possible. Obviously, if that happens, that'll happen at the state level. And we will not have necessarily any say in that. That would be communicated downward to us. If that increase doesn't happen or if it's less than that, We have no qualms about having that money transferred back to the county's budget. We've just been told very explicitly about three months ago to plan for an increase, and that was the percentage we were told to plan for.

OK. Mental note.

I'll move to approve the elections as presented.

Second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

I'll move to approve the County Councilor. It is, as I understand, salary increases only as budgeted. Is that accurate? Yes. And health insurance.

I'll second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Rippon. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries.

3-0. If we could take up our district attorney, I know that he's been patiently waiting and I know that there's probably a lot he has on his plate.

Thank you. Good morning, Commissioners. Mike Hagee, Shawnee County District Attorney.

We're looking at an 8% increase as I see on the budget from last year. You made your budget presentation to us several weeks ago talking about the needs of your office. As I understand, this was not in equipment purchases or physical products, but in people.

That's correct, Commissioner. And I'd like to clarify, according to my calculations, it's 7.56%. And I understand why we would round up. It is closer to 8 than it is to 7. And that breakdown is, in wages, $412,681.34. And that reflects a 3% increase over the current payroll. Benefits added on to that are $212,000.

Just for those watching, this is our time to stand as our standing policy so you have some blood circulation to your toes.

And that's an excellent policy. And then the remaining 2.42% of that increase, which amounts to $39,162.89, cover increases in line items such as professional services, fees for services, printing, training, software subscriptions, which are contractual, phone costs, office supplies, equipment leases, and hardware expenses.

Thank you.

How many new positions are in this?

We have three new positions in the budget. One of those is essentially an IT position in our office. But this is someone who focuses on the digital management of evidence. We found after we made significant investments in software that in order to maximize the benefit, we needed somebody dedicated to that enterprise. So this person works hand in hand with IT right now, but they are based in my office. They work directly for me and it's one of the best decisions I've made in the 10 years that I've been making them. The other two positions are conversions from folks who are in intermittent roles as interns who are taking or just took the bar exam and have accepted offers to come back as attorneys in our office.

That's increasing the number of attorneys that you have from last year.

That's correct. i will note we did just lose one of our prosecutors who submitted a resignation and left to go work in another prosecution office for considerably higher pay which takes me back to the theme that we've discussed in this year and years past that we do want to be more competitive at our pay and i do appreciate the initiative that is being shown right now in terms of the wave study. And we've already spoken with the consultants. I understand that's underway.

OK. So you mentioned you've got two intermittents that are transitioning to attorney positions after passing the bar. That's right. But your intermittent employees is going up by a couple hundred thousand also.

i mean wouldn't that go down well that change is already reflected in the presentation some of the intermittent staff include interns who we've talked about we essentially use that as our farm system to develop attorney prospects because we have found that to be the most effective way to recruit attorneys into the office And then the rest of that would be a combination of part-time and former full-time employees who are available to support and provide assistance to the office and support roles, but are not available for full-time. I found that to be an effective way actually to bring back a cost savings because those folks are not eligible for the benefits. And as you mentioned earlier, the benefit cost is significant. So if I can take two people who are working 20 hours per week and do the work of one person in a full-time role, I save money by doing so.

So the three positions that you mentioned, those folks are already hired and working for you?

Well, one of them is, and the other two have accepted offers. They're not currently in the office because they were out of the office for the bar exam. They've taken the bar, and the expectation would be that either later this month or early September, pending the results of that bar exam, that they would begin working as attorneys.

But they're not taking the positions of folks that have left. Correct. You're leaving those positions open still. So we're adding two positions. For three, I guess, if you count the IT one.

Right. So that's the way it looks on paper right now. As I said, one of our attorneys, and this is why we do this, one of our attorneys, without a lot of advance notice, attended their resignation and went to go work for another prosecution office. What that means now is we need to have an attorney to fill that role. And so we have two attorneys conceivably coming on. One of them could fill that role. and then we're back down to two extra positions at that point, or two new positions at that point.

But as with any industry, if you have somebody who's coming in new, it's going to take them a while to get up to speed. I know it always hurts at a district attorney's office when you have somebody who has been a prosecutor for 10 or 15 years, and they leave to go to a different office, and you're trying to replace them with somebody who's been in practice for two or five years. There's just a learning curve there.

That's correct. Thank you, Commissioner. And there's there's just a world of difference between taking someone straight out of law school, even after an intern ship in the office and expecting them to move and process information at the rate that somebody with a decade or more of experience And so one of the things we've tried to guard against is losing folks to another prosecution office for more pay. And so that's something that we fight. Also, I've shared with you, I think recently too, a few weeks ago, that our average case numbers for attorneys in the office are very, very high. If you compare it to the closest comp would be the Wyandotte County DA's office in terms of size. Our case numbers are 20 to 30% higher and every year our operating budget is 20 to 30% lower than theirs. And so I'm not trying to catch them. I don't want to catch them. I want to run an efficient office without any surplus, without any waste. and i'd be happy to bring down every one of my employees to talk to you about how busy they are and how hard they work and all the duties that they carry day to day And we've talked also in the past about how significant the responsibilities are that we're enforcing the law here in Shawnee County. And when you read something on the news, something horrible that happened in the night, we're the ones that are here holding these folks to account. And so we have an exceptionally important role in ensuring the overall public safety and wellness of our community.

I suppose we could put up signs around the county that say, stop breaking the law. Because, you know, between the Department of Corrections, the District Attorney, the Sheriff, Community Corrections, I mean, that's $88 million out of $160 million budget. So half of your budget is just in law enforcement.

I would love it if people would stop committing crimes, Commissioner. Sometimes when I go out and talk to students, they'll ask me, well, what's your what's your dream? I tell my dream is one day I wake up and I have the best traffic prosecution office in the state. That's my dream. I don't think it's going to happen.

So.

All right.

Any other questions for.

I think we might need to table this one for a little bit.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you.

Commissioners if I could I was just looking at my notes as I was going through stuff last night There are a couple of small Reductions to department budgets that I would like to maybe propose We have a couple departments who included in their budget here our departmental budget budgets for proximity readers and Doors and readers to their depart are small cap outlay increases to their department which would be a one-time expense and included in our cap outlay budget as you know we have a small item cip which is for any um small item that's under 50 000 that doesn't necessarily qualify as a project in and of itself. So I would think, and these two total to like $14,500, but it is a decrease to each of those budgets, and I think it's a better fit to have them presented as even small item CIP in 26, which could still happen later this year, or in 2027, which would be towards the end of 2027. And that is, just so you know what I'm looking at, in the Register of Deeds, they had $5,500 budgeted for the prox readers and then installation of prox readers, I should say. And then the Treasurer's Office had $9,000 included in their budget for, so that would bring their budgets down a little bit. Not a whole lot in big dollars, but I did want to point out that I think that maybe that's a spot that things are being double budgeted.

I would move to approve the registered deeds with that small adjustment. I'll second.

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Ripley. All in favor say aye. Those opposed?

Motion carries 3-0. And then I'll make a motion that we reduce the treasurer's office by the appropriate amount, $9,000.

Okay, I'll second. Motion's been made by Commissioner May, second by Commissioner Rippon. All in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

Thank you, and I'll work with both of those departments to make sure they don't forget to submit those requests in November.

If we could take up land use development, it's a 4% increase.

Good morning, commissioners. Joni Fedani, director of land use and development. For the most part, the increase would be salaries in the normal course of business. We did have one position, halftime position that was budgeted for this year that was part of the transfer from environmental health from the health department over to land use and development and that is going away and so i had supplemented that instead by funding an intermittent position that has been in existence with our department for quite a number of years but we haven't funded necessarily every year that would allow us to hire someone part-time in the next year or so if needed to help with permitting in areas where we may have some missing assistance since we aren't filling that other position. Otherwise, it's minimal increases in regards to mileage and some training for conferences and such for staff.

I'll move to approve. Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Mays, seconded by Commissioner Cook. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0.

If we could take up public works. If you recall last year, Kurt was one of the first departments to step forward and reduce his budget. His increase requested is roughly a million dollars from last year, and I would move to approve it.

I'm looking here. Of that, it looks like pulled two hundred eight thousand is in wages.

He had a flat budget from twenty twenty five to twenty twenty six.

Yeah. I'll second.

A motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, second by Commissioner Mays. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries three zero.

Is that enough for one day?

If we could just finish out the law enforcement with the district court and maybe end it after that. District Court is a request of an increase of 6%. Total increase is approximately 200 and some thousand.

Good morning, Commissioners. Lee Welch, Court Administrator. The total increase we're requesting is $174,000. I'm happy to explain what that encompasses. So there's a Let me start that over. We have a number of contractual attorney positions, and $73,600 of that is to provide a 5% increase to those contractual attorneys. $50,400 is to create a new contractual attorney position that will be dedicated to domestic mediation and conciliation. processes and $50,000 is an increase in guardian ad litem fees from $500 per case to $1,000 per case on approximately 100 cases per year I would make a motion to approve second

Motion's been made by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Mayes. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. All right. Got to stop there then.

Return next Thursday?

Yes. It's back up next Thursday. All right.

Could I ask one thing real quick while we're discussing this? I would like to ask all of the departments to please look in quest to cut at the revenue side. That is the other piece of this. Please verify that what is estimated in 27 as your revenues is what you believe is your best guess on what the revenues are looking at for 2027.

Mr. Chairman? Yes. We might just also mention that I hope it's the intent of the commission that we have a proposed budget to present to the public by the end of next Thursday. That would give the public then three weeks to be able to review the proposed budget before we would have any public hearing on it.

Yes. The public hearing is officially scheduled for September the 4th. then our final budget has to be or our budget has to be finalized by um our date is september the 25th i believe that thursday that that is the the last date that we have to work on it we as in the commission have to work on it prior to submitting it to the clerk's office it's due to the clerk's office by october 1st correct

And then, Jennifer, my calculations are correct, which they're always suspect. I believe we've reduced the proposed request by $1,334,023. I'm showing $1,429,000. That's better. As I said, my numbers are always suspect.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. We'll pick this up again next Thursday. Next item.

Next item on the agenda is item five, public comment.

I do have three people signed up. Kim Borger.

Is this on or off? Can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Kim Borchers. My address is 5521 Northwest Timber Edge Drive. And I have to tell you, originally on my calendar, I was here to kind of sit in on the budget. But having sat through a meeting at the library on Tuesday regarding data centers, that's the reason why I'm here. Let me open up by saying, first of all, I'm agnostic on this topic right now. There's a lot of information, a lot of misinformation and disinformation. I'm also not a Luddite, which I didn't understand what that was until about a year ago. I'm not anti AI. I actually use AI every day in my business as a small business owner. I couldn't do the work that I do as efficiently without it. So I want to lay that out here. The reason why I'm here is the last time I saw this level of fear and anger was during COVID. And what's very apparent is that there is a sense, there's a lack of trust, a lack of transparency, and a lack of communication. And we know in government and politics, perception is reality, right, to the voter. So please accept the spirit of my recommendations. I want to give an acronym, TAP. Essentially, it's transparency, accountability, and protection. That's what I'm asking you as elected officials to consider during this process. I'm going to make a few recommendations that you have it within your power to do. They're just suggestions. The first I would say is I do think you could put on your agenda item of Monday next week that you do put a one-year moratorium on data centers. Like I said, if this is good now, it'll be good a year from now because data centers are here to stay and AI is here. We're not going to stop it, but I do think we need to slow down the process a bit. The grassroots group Protect Kansas stated at this meeting that you have refused to allow them to do a presentation to you as commissioners. I'm just relaying what I was told. I don't know if that's true or not. But I think that would be a good idea. Invite them in, even if it means a special meeting. I would have a road show across the community and I would start in Montero and I would have Compass present to answer specifics, not generalities. I know these companies very well and I also know they know what the specifics are. These are businesses. That's how they work. um i would also recommend that you guys work to maybe make some modifications to senate bill 98. this past week i've been in conversations with lots of legislators was rammed through many of them don't like it they think there are modifications that can be made specifically to protect us as a county and last but not least and i know a lot of times you don't want to do this but i think this could be on the ballot for the voters to decide This may not change everyone's mind, which was apparent by being in that meeting. Some people just don't want technology. But I do think it would change the conversation a great deal. And I just want to end by saying this. I don't know all of you personally. I do know some of you very well. And the accusations that were made at that meeting that you don't care about kids, that you don't care about families, that you don't care about Montero because they're the poor people in your district and that they can be railroaded. I don't believe that about you. But that is the perception. And I think there's a way to change that perception by slowing this down and doing a little bit differently. So thank you for your time and thank you for your service.

Amy Gillette.

Hello, my name is Amy Gillette. I live at 5500 Southwest Mound View Drive in Shawnee County in the lower part of Topeka outside of city limits, about two and a half miles from the proposed Compass Data Center site. I very much appreciate your comments and I appreciate people coming in with an agnostic point of view and being willing to see that, yes, there are in fact possible good things we could get out of this. That's kind of what I'm going to get to eventually. I'm going to start with the idea that these are the sort of economic development engines. In my public comments, I don't know, about a week ago or something, we looked at the CUP, which says that they're going to provide approximately 30 full-time jobs. That is not impressive. The flip side to that is construction, right? This is going to bring so many construction jobs. So looking into Compass's website a little bit, what they claim is that they use 85% prefabricated construction. And the representatives at the open house told us this, too, so maybe we did learn a few things. So I'm just going to read a little bit from their bit on their website about the construction. They say they use a consistent, scalable design, and the standardization ensures control over the variables. Basically, they're building most of the components in a factory and then delivering them to the site to be assembled there, kind of like IKEA furniture versus hand-built They say they use off-site prefabrication for this faster, more predictable delivery. With 85% of each data center manufactured off-site using a standard kit of parts, Compass removes the risks of stick-built construction. The result, faster, more predictable delivery with fewer surprises and the ability to redirect resources between markets, so on and so forth. Great. So they're saying, yes, I mean, I'm sure this is safer. I'm sure it's more efficient for them. But this is what Compass does. They do this sort of modular data center building that truly is not going to bring the sort of construction jobs that I feel have been thrown around and promised in certain situations. So moving on a little bit from that, Just this morning, I saw CNBC did an interview with the CEO of Compass Data Centers, published about 15 hours ago. He's not going to listen to my demands. You are the ones responsible for making the sort of demands because so far, they have not really promised us anything. To quote him, he says, I say don't ban, raise the bar, ask for more. We can do all kinds of things. So the host then asks them, so in other words, when they get up and say moratorium, no new hookups for a year, no new data centers for a year or two, you would say, no, turn around and ask us for anything you need. I mean, is it a blank check? How far are you willing to go? And the CEO says, I mean, it's like anything else. It does stop at some number, right? But when we look at the analysis of what we can do and the scale of the investment and billions and billions of dollars to take $100 million in the community and be able to redo water and put a school up and buy fire trucks, do the type of things that are necessary for a community, that's something we can do. And then we pay the property taxes that then maintain that. I can't see a little bit of my transcript. I'm assuming it says infrastructure. He also, though, says in that same interview, quote, we've not used water since 2011. So I don't really know if we can trust a whole lot of what he says. I mean, I'm hoping that's just a misquote of some sort. He's asking you to demand things of him. He's saying that we can. He's saying that if you are going to go barreling towards this, there are ways that we can protect our community and get the money from them that we deserve if we're going to put up with the consequences. I also advocate for a one-year moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you. Carol Marple.

Carol Marple, I live at 10249 Southwest Wanamaker Road, Waukarusa, Kansas. I came this morning because I wanted to ask a question, and you gentlemen are all voting members of JADO. I would like to know what the plan is for the 40 acres that is currently controlled by JADO and Go Topeka, if you would answer that or not.

Could you say that again?

What is the plan for the 40 acres that is currently controlled by JADO, Go Topeka? Is that going to be given to the data centers? Is it going to be sold to the data centers? Because that seems to be part of their plan. I don't know.

anything like that would be a presentation to Jato and voted on by the Jato members made up by 4 City Council or 3 City Council the mayor and then 3 County Commissioner so I will point out that that deed is only in the name of the growth Topeka organization is not in the name of the city the county or Jato

Well that's hard to ask that question since you don't meet again until September but I'm going to move on with that and say we talk about economic development and the data center as far as we're able to learn for sure is they might have 2040 positions are going to be entry level jobs so they would probably come from people already existing and living in the county. The prefab buildings we're not going to have a lot of building But at the end of the time when they're ready to retire the buildings and leave, we're going to get 9 or 10 buildings that don't have any windows and 607 acres of probably unusable land. On the economic development or what will happen to us that I currently know about, is if, as a farmer and rancher, you're probably going to put us out of business. And I'm speaking for all of them. You raise the temperature 10 degrees in that small area, and our corn is pollinating. Everybody knows excessive heat means less pollination. I don't know that that would be covered by federal crop, because it's a man-made problem. quote, disaster. I don't know. Property values and house values are just going to plummet. So we don't need any realtors because nobody wants to live here. And then I think a big question is, what is this going to do to our relationship with Mars and Walmart? They have climate controls, I'm sure excessive heat. and chocolate don't mix. So their bills are going to go up. They're not going to find a workforce because I can't imagine that somebody is going to want to move in here. I have a map that shows the county and the 10 acre or 10 mile radius. And that takes a lot of the county. You think you have budget problems now. What if we don't have any growth? What if we lose people? And we are going to do that. But most importantly, what I think is I'm not willing to risk children. You know, I have my grandchildren go to 437. I have some in the high school, some in the middle school, and some in Auburn grade school. I don't want to take a chance with their health. And I believe a one year moratorium would certainly be something that should be looked at. And I'm going to stop now.

Thank you. All right. Next time.

Next item on the agenda is item six, administrative communications.

Anyone? Alright, uh, Commissioner Mase, do you have anything to add?

Nothing for me.

Commissioner Cook, not today. I'm going to say that we have a work session next Monday. We're going to be doing our second quarter anniversary's retirement recognition. And so that will be Monday at 9 o'clock. That's all I have to add. Next item.

Next item on the agenda would be item seven, executive session.

I don't believe we have a need for executive session today, so we're adjourned.