The Fillmore County Board met April 28 via WebEx. The May 5 board meeting will again be held via WebEx due to the emergency declaration regarding COVID-19. The public may access this meeting by dialing 1 (408) 418-9388; access code 969-657-287.
Judge Matt Opat administered the oath of office via video connection to Jason McCaslin, the new Fillmore County Assessor.
Solid Waste
Harter’s Quick Clean-Up has requested a one time 8% rate increase on all hauling costs for garbage and recycling to begin June 1. The county has had a contract with them for three years. The increase requested is well over the contracted yearly increase of up to 4% or CPI, which ever is the least. Harter’s says the adjustment is necessary to cover increasing costs of labor, trucking, and equipment.
Drew Hatzenbihler said the lost value for recycled materials has caused hauling costs to be barely covered. If Harter’s doesn’t get the increase, they may terminate the contract and the county will have to go out for new bids. The Solid Waste Committee recommends approval of the increase.
Commissioner Duane Bakke argued this has nothing to do with increased costs as fuel costs are lower. They are just getting less tonnage, which Bakke suggests is due to the tipping fees which were increased a few months ago by the county. He insisted we need to lower the tipping fee. We need to negotiate to get out of the Winneshiek contract completely. The recycling market has gone away in part due to a fight with China.
County Attorney Brett Corson said the board needs to decide to strictly construe to the contract or negotiate the rate increase. If we do get into a dispute, how much money do we want to spend on a dispute?
Hatzenbihler explained that Harter’s does most of its hauling through a third party and that cost has gone up. We have to deny or approve the requested increase by June 1. Commissioner Mitch Lentz agreed that we have created some of this. Commissioner Randy Dahl added that we maybe should review the tipping fees. Hatzenbihler said last year’s tipping fee increase was to get back on track.
Bakke asked who decided that Solid Waste is supposed to cash flow itself. Our goal is not to make enough income to cover Solid Waste without using tax levy dollars. Right now nothing is getting hauled in. Chairman Marc Prestby said Harter’s based their prices off the Waste Management contract and after a while they realized they were barely breaking even. Hatzenbihler added nobody expected the recycling market to tank like it did. Prestby asked if the board wants to go back to Harter’s to work out a better deal.
Dahl said it has never been the intention for Solid Waste to be self supporting. No action was taken this day. Hatzenbihler and Corson will reach out to Harter’s to negotiate.
The SCORE grant agreement with the state for 2020-2021 was approved after having been reviewed by the county attorney.
Other business in brief
•Memorandums of agreement were reviewed by Corson. The agreements were between the county and Dan-Am Co. and between the county and Kappers Fabricating Inc. The agreements provided for reductions in market valuations for 2019 and 2020 for taxes payable in 2020 and 2021. They in turn agreed not to file tax appeals for taxes payable in these years. The agreements were approved.
Approval was also given for prosecution contracts with the cities of Mabel and Harmony. These are identical to those approved a few weeks ago for the cities of Fountain and Canton. They are one year contracts. Paralegal services will be provided at an hourly rate of $85 per hour and attorney services will be provided at an hourly rate of $110 per hour.
•Bonita Underbakke made comments during the Citizens Input portion of the meeting. She addressed ag and commercial lenders and maintained that monies are not getting to small farmers without employees through the Cares Act. They need to know when they will receive COVID-19 relief funds.
•Orval Sorum and Sons, Bruening Rock Products and Milestone Materials all submitted rock bids. The low bid for each individual road was accepted.
County Engineer Ron Gregg reviewed roads projects for this year. Those started include: CSAH 5 in Wykoff where work on water and sewer is progressing and CR 104 where a box culvert is being installed.
Gregg announced that he will ask the board to consider the five year construction plan at the May 5 meeting. He noted he has received a lot of comments on the plan in the past few weeks.
Barth Construction has been hired to do spring weed spraying in the south half of the county. They did weed spraying in the north half of the county last fall. The effectiveness of the spraying in each of the seasons will be compared.
•An access permit was approved for Trent Nelson, section 22 Amherst Township. Nelson wants to build a driveway access to CR 23 for a building site. The access will be safer, good sight distance north and south.
•County Administrator Bobbie Hillery discussed an e-mail received from Jason Sethre, FCJ, which noted that the county’s financial statement is required by law (state statute 375.17) to be published in a legal newspaper. He explained that the financial statement has not been printed for the years ending 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. He concluded his remarks by asking if there is a government transparency issue?
Hillery responded that it appears we were in error. However, for the years 2015, 2016, and 2017 the audits were completed by an independent accounting firm. The financial statements were reviewed by the county board, submitted to the State Auditor, and posted on the Fillmore County website. The data for the 2018 audit has been submitted to the state and will soon be presented to the county board.
The intent is to publish the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Financial Statements in the June 1, 8, and 15 issues of the FCJ respectively. The 2018 audit is to be published immediately once it is received, based on the State Auditor’s recommendations. The State Auditor’s Office legal compliance department does not feel there was any intent not to publish.
Hillery says Fillmore County does not have a transparency issue. Anybody can come in and ask to view financial statements at any time or receive them via e-mail. She apologized for mistakes that were made, adding, “We go out of our way to be transparent.” A motion was approved to authorize the publishing of the audits in the FCJ on June 1 (2015 at $.50 per column inch), June 8 (2016 at $1.00 per column inch), and June 15 (2017 at $.50 per column inch).
•The hire of three temporary employees (Taryn Raaen, Jacob James, and Timothy Highum) in the highway department effective in mid to late May were approved.
•Hillery gave a brief COVID-19 update. There may be federal reimbursement dollars up to 75%. They are looking into Plexiglas installations to protect employees and the public. Social distancing of six feet is the new normal. The Association of Minnesota Counties is recommending the tabulation of lost revenue due to the shutdown. Jessica Erickson, Public Health, said they are working with nursing homes, assisted living, group homes, and daycare centers that are still open.
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