The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning in the Polk County Government Center.
CONSENT ITEMS
After the Call to Order, the board began the meeting by approving the Commissioner Warrants and Sign Audit List. It also included approving the minutes from their last meetings on September 27 and October 4 and approving a payment to the US Bank in St. Louis of $104,442.52. The final items on the Consent Items included accepting final donations on behalf of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office from Red Lake Electric Trust and on behalf of Polk County Social Services 2022. The board approved the items unanimously.
HIGHWAY-RICHARD SANDERS
The board first heard from County Engineer Richard Sanders, who came forward with a resolution to request the release of Disaster Assistance Account (DACA) funds. Sanders explained that from 2018 to 2020, the state declared four state disasters that affected Minnesota Counties that needed federal assistance to repair county-owned roadways and bridges. “Whenever there’s a federal disaster in Minnesota, FEMA or the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Emergency Relief Program comes in and pays 75% of whatever damage we have, and the state picks up the other 25%,” Sanders explained. “The resolution today is requesting that the governor and legislature fund the account that pays that 25% because there are 15 counties that haven’t paid from the 2019 disaster yet, and Polk is one of them. So, we’re hoping to get our remaining funds from the state due to that disaster.” The board approved the request unanimously.
Sanders then heard a complaint from Juan Larson, who asked if they were looking to make repairs on County Road 60. Sanders reported that it was on the schedule to be repaired next year but would be completed.
SOCIAL SERVICES-KAREN WARMACK
The board then from Social Services Director Karen Warmack, who requested the board approve the replacement of a social worker and any subsequent position vacancies that may occur. The board approved the request unanimously.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS-LEVI WEBSTER
The board then heard from MIS Director Levi Webster, who requested that the board approve him filling his old position of Systems Administrator. The board approved the request unanimously.
ADMINISTRATION-CHUCK WHITING
The board was then approached by County Administrator Chuck Whiting, who first came forward to report that the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) policy committees had met in September and gave the board a list of the top priorities that had been set to determine the top five legislative priorities for the coming Legislative session in Mahnomen on Thursday, October 20. They were 18 priorities they could choose to put in any order thanks to voting at the MACA Fall Conference. Those options were;
Environment & Natural Resources
- Allocating 100% of the revenue generated by the Solid Water Management Tax (SWMT) to state and county waste management activities, including increased funding for SCORE grants to counties.
- Clarifying state statutes enforcing public waters regulations to waters that have been properly designated on the Public Waters Inventory.
- Adhering to the requirements for public notice of drainage work and hearings according to MS 103E and the Minnesota Drainage Manual.
General Government
- Supporting additional state investments across the housing spectrum, including workforce and affordable housing, senior housing, and emergency housing
- Supporting legislative efforts to address state and county-specific workforce shortages
- Strengthening Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding programs to address regional inequalities and guarantee full property tax loss replacement.
- Supporting the state fully funding out-of-home placement costs for children under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) along with a revisioning of ICWA to place more of an emphasis on tribal-county collaboration and family strengthening opportunities.
- Legislative action to provide comprehensive property tax relief through an increase in County Program Aid along with expanded benefits in the state’s homestead, property tax refund, and targeted property tax refund programs.
Health & Human Services
- Supporting state investment in local public health to increase capacity to assure all people in Minnesota can expect a baseline of core services.
- Developing Minnesota’s mental health and developmental disabilities continuum of care so it appropriately serves high-needs and hard-to-serve individuals throughout the state.
- Supporting long-term, sustainable, and equitable funding regarding Family First Prevention Services Act Implementation and state resources investing in developing Family Resource Centers.
- Major state investment in systems transformation and modernization to achieve efficient service delivery in health and human services.
Public Safety
- Changes to the community supervision funding model, so state fund allocations are transparent, needs-based, and equitable among county and state supervision providers.
- Supporting sustainable, ongoing state funding to update and maintain Minnesota’s emergency response systems, including Allied Radio Matric for Emergency Response (ARMER), Next Generation 9-1-1, Public Alert System (IPAWS), and others to promote interoperability of emergency response communications
- Creating a stable ongoing revenue source to replace declining fine revenue for Regional EMS Boards.
Transportation & Infrastructure
- Equity in transportation infrastructure through continued comprehensive transportation funding, which includes new revenue for roads, bridges, and transit
- Supporting a bonding bill that includes funding for transportation-related programs
- Supporting equity and access to affordable broadband service and infrastructure in Minnesota
After reviewing the policies, the board said they would look over the ballots and chose to cast their votes as individual commissioners at the meeting on Thursday.
ARPA Status
Whiting then came forward with an update on the status of the ARPA funds for the county. He reported there was a new request from Polk County Public Health raising their request to add a nurse for virus prevention in the Tri-County Corrections Center jail. from their request in 2022 from $19,200 to $40,000. Another was for $269,743 for two 800 MHz mobile radios for the auxiliary dispatch centers in Fosston and East Grand Forks. Another was a $600,000 request for installing a Geo-synthetic cap. The final addition was a $1 million request for the purchase and implementation of Enterprise software. He also reported that the UMC request of $149,000 for their cohort programs’ tuition and staff position had been approved and sent to them. This gave them a new grand total of $6,814.654, which was $722,565 over the allocation they received.
2023 Budget Status
Whiting’s final item was to give an update on the 2023 Budget. Whiting reported that he had made some progress but couldn’t do much due to three bonding projects needing to be balanced out. He also noted that the Tri-County Corrections Center had met last Monday and that the county was covering $5,916,136 of the jails Tri-county share, which was a $400,000 increase from their payment in 2022, due to their population in the jail. “The funding formula for Tri-County is a set formula based on the number of inmates generated by each county. For whatever reason, Polk County is seeing a larger increase than the other two counties, while the other two are seeing a lower increase,” Whiting explained. “The increase to Polk County is about $400,000, which is on the levy, and I wanted the board to be aware that that’s the highest it’s ever been that I’ve seen. I don’t think it suggests anything that’s been done wrong, but it impacts our ability to levy.” Whiting then compared the county’s 2023 Estimate and the 2022 County Budget, which had increased from $593,711 to $1,197,575, which was an increase of about $603,000.
DAVID DROWN ASSOCIATES-DR. TESSIA MELVIN
The board finished the meeting hearing a review of the Employment Market Study from Dr. Tessia Melvin of David Drown Associates, who had done a market study of the county’s wages and the increase it can have on the current 2023 wage projections. Melvin reported that their current pay grid had 26 grades with nine steps that take about seven years to reach the maximum amount, with a benchmark average of 8-10 years, with a 3% difference between steps and 6% between grades. Polk County has a spread of 27% between the minimum and maximum. She reported they had found the county had a 99% market average on their minimum rates, a 95% market average on maximum rates, and over 10% of their positions below the market average.
Melvin then gave a proposed grid to move the benchmark minimum average rates to 107% and the maximum to 101%. It would also make it 22 grades with nine steps. Their grid would go into effect on January 1, 2023, where they’d get a 2% COLA to all employees and the step closest to their current wage with an increase, with a 1.25% COLA increase on July 1, where their wages would increase as they moved up the grades. This would give an estimated cost of close to $900,000. The system will require adjusting for their 2023 budgets, but they will have MOUs drafted to help them understand the changes.
Whiting recommended that the board accept the proposal and allow him to begin the work to communicate to the Department Heads on the adjustments and begin working on its impact on the 2023 budget. “To work backward from the end, we’ve got to come up with about a $900,000 adjustment in wages for the whole organization and squared away with our eight unions to get it into our budget for next year,” Whiting explained. “Not all employees are on the levy, so some of this still has to be calculated for what this will mean for the budget and the department budgets.” After much discussion, the board unanimously approved the market study’s results and allowed them to direct staff to proceed with the appropriate steps to implement the plan.
The next Polk County Commissioners meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 25, at 8:00 a.m. in the Polk County Government Center.
