Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

uh first is the approval of the agenda i'm going to approve the agenda that's provided

All those in favor? Aye. Manage to the June 16th, 26th board meetings. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Public hearing chapter 31, private sewage disposal system.

Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Written or verbal comments? All right. Anybody in the audience got a verbal comment? All right. That's all about it.

This is an ordinance that Jeff and I have been working on for probably about the last year or so. A lot of counties have had a private sewage ordinance and Waukelo County has not. So we've been working on one, just trying to help smooth the process down, what is expected of the homeowners, what's expected of the contractors. As you know, the Board of Health has given planning and zoning the authority we're acting as their authority to enforce chapter 69 of the Iowa code. So this will kind of help us guide everybody as we move forward with their septic systems, if they've got wells, what's expected, you know, not hooking up or when they hook up additional dwellings, if they can, you know, the procedures. So. This went before the Board of Health on June 9th, and they are recommending approval. So that's just finishing our process for the ordinance.

This also went before your board too, is that correct?

The Board of Health, yes.

Yes, the Board of Health.

Yep, yep, yep. Because they are the- By code. By code, yes. Yeah, and then Jeff also worked with Scott Hastings at the county attorney's office as well.

Questions, comments from Haley? Motion to close the public hearing? I'll make a motion to close. I'll second. Those in favor? Aye. Motion for approval?

I'll make a motion to organize.

And I'll second. Those in favor? Aye. And we want to waive the second, third.

I'll make a motion to waive the second and third.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Public hearing for fiscal year 2526, budget amendment number three. Motion to open the public hearing. I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Written or verbal comments? Aye.

I have a comment myself. Okay, yeah, go ahead. Okay. I understand most of this except the conservation. Did you have any information on that? Did you see anything that justified it?

I did, but I can't remember what it was. It's still something to do with the campground. Okay, thank you. That's good enough. Thank you. You're welcome. I believe it was all the electrical grid system there. It screwed up. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Motion to... I'll move to close the public hearing.

Second.

Those in favor? Aye. Resolution 24-26, Budget Amendment No. 3, Fiscal Year 25-26. I'll move to approve. I'll second. Those in favor? Aye. Fiscal year 2027, annual allocation. Food Bank of Iowa for food boxes. This is a purchase the county makes for the food bank. Been doing it on a yearly basis for quite a while, so.

I'll make a motion to approve. 25,000.

Before I second, can I comment? Sure. And then I'll do that. I checked into this a little bit. The last three years, we paid them $20,000. So the $5,000 is maybe a little bit of an increase over the 20. But on the other hand, it's been $20,000 for the last three years. And we could have probably increased it in smaller increments. Therefore, based upon all that, I'll go ahead and second the motion.

All right. All those in favor? Aye. Resolution 26-26 set in court for administration rental. We have to house state employees for the court administration. And I believe we share with 13 counties total. So this is the allocation of rent between the 13 counties splitting up.

I'll make a motion to authorize.

And... Before I second, I would like to ask, what was the dollar amount the previous year? Does anybody know? The same. Same, okay.

I will second it. All those in favor? Aye. Resolution 2726, authorization to pay payment of group insurance premiums for fiscal year 2627.

I'll make the motion to approve.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Resolution 28-26, authorize auditor paid claims for fiscal year 26-27. And just going forward, I believe we will have ACH set up and ready to go. I think we're just ready to complete that. So we're going through the Iowa State Bank and be able to do immediate payments and not before that issue and so many checks. Hopefully making things a little easier now. So all those in favor? Aye. Resolution 29-26, authorize auditor to pay salaried personnel for fiscal year 26-27. And we have going to be off just a hair because we caught some salaries that weren't paid correctly. weren't figured in correctly in one of the contracts. That right, that foreman, there's three foremen at the secondary roads. That wasn't. No, that's right there.

So the working foremen are going to go to 33, 3314. I think, yeah. They'll just need to adjust this form. Yeah, it's going to 3314.

It doesn't matter a whole lot, just very few dollars, but one of the correct. So all those in favor, then everything else was correct.

I'll make a motion to approve.

And I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Resolution 30-26. Employee salaries for 26-27. That's probably where that would be. Yeah. I was one ahead, yes. Thanks for catching that. Motion to approve on that. No move to approve. Okay. County AI policy for Hamburg. We've been keeping Andy busy with Electrifying policy is here for a little bit, so trying to get everything current. It's hard to keep up with technology. It seems to be current up to date. We'll get that out to all department heads to get it signed by their employees.

Is that not included in the updated handbook?

When it comes out, it will be attached at the back.

Oh, okay. We're going to do all the policies. All the policies. Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Yeah, all those resolutions, except for digging them all up, making sure they're all there. So saves us time having to find them too. Approval of the AI policy.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. Those in favor? Aye. Spirit Financial Incorporated Financial Agreement for the Jail Expansion. Don, you want to speak a little bit?

This is a group that's worked with several counties and cities and other community colleges across the state of Iowa. Talking with Samuel's group, this company will, if it's approved by the board and then approved by the voters, they'd be responsible for slowing bonds. The reason we're looking to get this in place now is we want to see what kind of benefits

Financial impact it has on property owners across the county so that we have that information to present you guys a study on July 14th on the jail expansion So that was my question is this is more at this point the category of investigating the potential as opposed to a Plan that we're proceeding with for sure

this is just to provide you folks as well as the public information on the kind of impact it's going to have with the expansion. So that's, yeah, it's not that anything to do with the bonds or anything at this point, but.

And this is a totally free thing. It doesn't cost us anything unless we go, unless it goes.

Well, and that's what, that's what, um, when I talked to Samuel's group, that's how they kind of alluded to it, but I don't see it in there anywhere where it says that's pro bono. So I don't want to say, um, it's free.

The fee schedules here for non-issuance services.

It's like I, it's, uh, like when I talked to Samuel's group, you know, and talking with them that, I mean, just to figure out the, the property, uh, tax impact of this, uh, potentially would have, I mean, they're not going to have, they ain't going to have a few hours into figuring that out, Morris. They're not going to have, like, you know, thousands of hours in figuring this. It's going to be very quick, I think. I mean, I think it'd be less than a thousand if they were to submit an invoice to us, but, you know, that's how they kind of, I'm talking with Samuel's group, they said, well, they may just do it pro bono and not charge you, but I didn't see that in the contract. I don't want you guys to think that it's free and turns out it's not.

Questions, Chad? No. You're sleeping? I did.

I did have the county attorney's office review that. I didn't see anything with any issues in there.

No, from my understanding, we've Just have to have one on board, so. Yeah.

I'll second the motion.

All those in favor? Aye. Personnel request, payroll approval, change of employment, and recorder's office.

I'll make motion to approve.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Request for payroll approval, do hire planning zoning department. I'll second. Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Request for payroll approval, new hire, secondary roads.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Any other business come before the board? Yeah.

So just kind of curious where you guys are at with any kind of data center discussions since Mark came in here about a month ago to talk about you know, when you guys had suggested a moratorium on that with the solar, the battery and the wind stuff. Um, I know there's, you know, in the news, Jefferson County's kind of started to do some things trying to create an ordinance and then a moratorium to study it. Mahaska County, I believe last night had some sort of committee meeting on data centers, whether or not they, you know, if there's any interest there, people want them or if they don't, um, Just kind of curious where Wapello County is right now. If you've had any discussions since Mark was here, what kind of path maybe you guys see going forward? Not that there's anything imminent, but just to maybe get, you know, something on paper so you can start to explore maybe what the positives and the negatives would be for any kind of data center development in the future.

I'd say about all that's on the table because I got to meet with Mark tomorrow. And I know Miranda's been giving us information on the other counties doing temporary moratoriums to allow time to research it because it's all new and I haven't dwelled into it hardly at all.

Yeah.

So tomorrow's going to be a FYI learning with Mark to see what he's looking at.

Are you going to be there as well? Are you going to be before noon or after noon?

At this point, I mean, do you have any, like, real thoughts one way or the other on data centers, or is it, is there too much unknown that you would really have to, you know, educate yourselves on what they are, what they do, the kind of electrical and water, you know, utilities that they use at scale to, to kind of see what they really are all about. I don't know. It's a lot of learning for me. Is that kind of where you're at, Carrie? Yeah.

I would certainly like to have a little more time to do some research on it. I have several meetings that I'm planning to get scheduled here soon to discuss it with people that have input into that process. I would actually like to see an ordinance that we put together. I think the ordinance could be very, very open-minded or encouraging to data centers, but one of the things that could happen there is that we could limit the size. Like sometimes where you get in trouble is where they try to build these huge facilities

some investigation on. What about the community involvement aspect? Because that seems to be what a lot of these counties are doing. They're really kind of taking the pulse of where the residents are at. Because again, you're talking about thousands of acres that it would take to build a data center. A lot of them, certainly over in Jefferson County, seem to be opposed to them. but I know their supervisors are kind of keeping an open mind because they want to kind of do their own fact finding and research. Do you think those discussions need to be happening, you know, sooner rather than later with the community, with community members and, you know, at large?

I want to put the cart before the horse until we find out three of them interested in looking here and what entails. Cause I just came out of your mouth. I never heard anything about thousand acres. I heard 10 to 15 acres.

No, they they're well, I mean, I should, let me get that right. So the square footage is in the thousands square footage, not acres square footage. Sorry to confuse you there, but they're, they're large facilities, you know, mostly regardless. I mean, be quite a few acres anyway. Travis, did you? I think there was also kind of a question on whether a data center would be considered new construction under the new property tax law that the governor signed. Lee Dimmitt over in Jefferson County didn't think they would be, but I think Travis has a couple of the different

So Chad had emailed me last week and asked me about that. I called some of the leadership this morning for our State Association of Assessors and talked to them to make sure I was understanding it correctly. It would be considered new construction. Where it gets confusing is if the county or city would give them an industrial exemption It would still go in as new construction, the full amount, however, the exempted amount. So this is incredibly confusing to explain. So the full amount would go in as new construction for your budget increase purposes, right? Because you're 2% plus new construction. So the full amount would go in to the new construction for your budgeting purposes. If they have the industrial exemption or some kind of exemption, that's still allowed in your budget increase, but they're not going to be paying the taxes on it. So it's going to get spread out to everyone that is paying taxes. Am I making sense with that? So you would be allowed to realize that they won't be paying for it. Everybody else will be. Everybody else is going to pay their bill. Pretty much, yeah. If they're on an exemption, that's kind of my understanding of how this new legislation is going to work with about anything that's on an urban revite or... any sort of exemption like that is if it, if it can be realized as new construction, but there's no taxes on it, it still is allowable to increase your budget off of it, but that it's going to get distributed out to everyone else for that to be in your budget.

When you say everyone else, like including the school districts and everybody that's on the tax list.

I mean, homeowners.

Okay.

Okay. I'm saying like, So if I'm paying taxes as a homeowner, if there's, you know, let's say a data center adds $10 million of new construction value, but it's on exemption, that $10 million of assessment would be able to be realized in your new construction budget, the portion of your budget that falls under new construction. So you could add in your budget for it but everybody else is going to have to pick up the tab on it until it comes off the exception.

Does that make sense? How long is an exemption for, typically?

Well, the industrial exemption, if I remember correctly, might be a seven-year. I think at the seven-year step-off, I'd have to look to see what the current industrial exemption is. That might be a state one. I'd have to look because a lot of like the autonomous city, they're residential. They just changed from a three year to a five year, a hundred percent. So I would have to do, I'd have to do a little research on that to see what exactly that is.

When you say it would apply to all the taxpayers, that's by choice, not by have to. It's not a have to type thing. It could be depending on what we do with it.

If they are allowed an exemption, then it would go that way. If they were not allowed an exemption of any kind, then it wouldn't fall on anyone else. So yeah, I don't know how that works with not, not allowing stuff that if it's, if it's in their, their code, you know, obviously there's nothing, the County doesn't have anything that would fall under that. If it was within the city limits, they would have things that if it fall under. So I'm not, 100% sure. I know Monroe County has special things set up for where Cargill is to get exemptions on stuff like that. I don't know that Wapello County has anything like that. I've never seen anything with that. But I'm not sure.

And then one of my questions, and this goes back to Miranda, is that perhaps MSA could be involved in doing some research for us on the data center ordinance concept.

MSA just got done with Linn County, helping them write their current ordinance. And like Darren said, there's been a number of counties passing auditoriums right now, and I can keep gathering information of ordinances that have already been approved if that's something you'd like to.

It's something I would like to do, but you're welcome to. I mean, I see what everybody's doing, so what they're encountering.

I know the Linn County. They're just kind of taking a step back, you know, passing the moratorium, gathering as much information as they can. And so we're not alone through this.

I know a lot of people have been pointing toward the Linn County ordinance. I think they passed it either earlier this year or late last year. and I have it on my desk at work. I didn't bring it with me, but it, uh, it's pretty comprehensive as far as setbacks and, you know, wastewater, uh, you know, provisions or, or whatever. I mean, it's, I would encourage you to look at it if you're anywhere near considering an ordinance, because it's, I think it's what Jefferson County is kind of looking at. Um, like I said, it's pretty comprehensive. It's, uh, I mean, it addresses pretty much everything that you could think of when it comes to building something like that, I think.

That was all I had. Yeah.

Nothing else?

I have something. Yes? Brad, I'd like to talk about some gravel roads. Have your road graders been out? I kind of took a tour of roads. We got a phone call last week, Karen did, from a resident. So I took a drive, and he sent me some pictures out in a couple different territories. So I have some pictures that I'm going to give to you. I was given the excuse that employees have been on vacation. Yeah, for road graders.

Common this time of year, yes.

So can I ask the working foremans, are they out in the road graders when employees are gone?

I know Mark has been, because he's primarily managing the roads, the rock roads. So I know he's been going in routinely. give you an exact number of how many hours. I remember seeing a statement from Mark that he'd been out for 15 hours mowing, but I can't remember if that was over a pay period or a week or what time span it was.

I think the email said he was mowing for 15 hours.

Okay. I'm getting that confused, but yeah, they are doing a lot of mowing this time of year because the roadsides are growing up quickly. They should be out on addressing washes, secondary ditches, that type of thing, from the heavy rains that we had until, what, about 10 days ago? We're going to have 10 days to go.

Well, I want to tell you, some of the washouts that I've seen, they're not from single rain events or the rain that we had. So this is like an ongoing thing. I know I've been receiving calls. I don't know if you guys have been receiving calls, emails.

I've had a couple.

Yes.

And there again, that's one of those examples of where if people are contacted the board directly, it takes longer for it to get communicated to us so we can get to it. So if you can encourage the citizens to notify our office of issues like that.

So that's where you want to differ. Like we're elected and we're here to represent people. So if these people feel like they need to contact us, then I'm not going to tell them to contact your office. They can contact me and I will contact your office, which is what we do.

And that's fine. And if they call you, obviously I would ask that you contact us with as much information as you can. But that's one more link in the chain of communication, which allows for, it slows things down. We get, sometimes we transcribe information incorrectly. It just complicates things, so it's most efficient if they contact us directly.

I don't think it complicates things. I think when they send me an email or call me, I directly send an email out to you and Robin you're working for directly that day.

Yeah, and I agree with that. I've seen that frequently, but my 30 years of experience, it commonly slows things down, and sometimes we get all the appropriate information, but More often than not, we're not getting it.

So I guess where I'm at is, you know, last meeting we had, we had residents here about a little sober. We've gotten calls. We've gotten emails. And since I've been elected, I have been, like, asking to be proactive instead of reactive on our roads. And for some reason, we're still being reactive.

I sent an email out.

I went on the roads that we talked about at the last board meeting, all but little soap has been fixed. So what I'm getting at is why does it have to come to us and us to come to you or Rob or your working foreman to get it fixed?

As I mentioned, it appears as if they're calling the board first instead of contacting us.

And again, I relay that message directly to you guys the same day, the same day.

Yeah. And I do know that the work informant are checking out those individual calls. In many cases, they're able to take care of a small edge rut or a pothole.

So with that being said, why do our roads look the way they do? Why are these washouts the way that they are? How much money did we spend on Boyd and Isabelle?

Those washouts should be getting fixed. You know, for an Isabelle with the reshapes out there, I'm sure there were some washes on that, especially on the four slopes.

Have you been on that road yet?

Oh, I've been on it many times this year, but as far as the last week, no, I haven't been back out there.

Please take a drive on that road today.

I can find time to do that. We need our staff to Generally speaking, provide the snow removal services that is expected by the board. You set the funding and so forth. So our staffing numbers are set to accomplish that. During the rest of the year, we do as much maintenance activities as we can. We contract out some and so forth. But we're limited with the personnel numbers that we have and With the snow removal processes, typically our wintertime vacations and so forth are minimal. They're limited, which means they end up focusing vacations this time of year. So our numbers are down compared to what we have for wintertime.

How many road graders have you had on vacation in the last two months?

I would guess all of them at some point during the last few months. I can't remember those numbers. We can check on that. I don't have to talk about that.

All I'm asking is for our roads not to be in this condition. It's very simple to me.

I would like to interject. I've lived on gravel roads in Wobble County for several years, a lot of years. And I would say that they have really never been better than they are today. So I disagree that they're terrible.

I've been on your road. Your road is a nice road. Your road is a nice road. I would suggest you take a tour of the entire county.

I do regularly. I know what I'm talking about.

My picture is going to tell different.

It's always easy to find a picture of a problem.

Okay. I would suggest I'll pick you up one day and I'll take you for a tour.

That'd be a violation of open meeting laws.

I will not go with you.

We're not going to do that.

All right. Anything else? Okay. All right. Motion to adjourn.

I'll make it.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Willing. Don't run off.

I'll.