All right, six o'clock, we're going to call a meeting to order.
2.0, Prayer since birth.
Father and Father, we thank you for each member here this evening.
We ask that you would guide us through the decisions that we make.
We thank you for the wisdom of this table.
We just ask that you would guide us through decisions.
We can bless each member.
Thank you from Jesus.
Amen.
Yes.
3.0, Approval of tonight's agenda.
Agenda, do I have a motion to approve?
Motion.
And Mr. Didens, do I have a second?
Larry, any discussion on tonight's agenda?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Review and approval of meeting minutes from August 17th.
If you all had an opportunity to review them, does anybody have a motion?
If not, I need a motion to approve.
Vice Cindy, do I have a second?
Second.
And Mr. Didens, any discussion on meeting minutes?
See none, all those in favor say aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries.
Approval of claims, totaling in the amount of cash requirements, $1,242,539 and 49 cents.
Do we have a motion to approve?
34, Sorry.
You're 34.
Just have to see it.
Okay, I'll just say it.
Sure, I'll make a change.
By the way, do I have a second?
Mr. Diddens, any discussion on claims?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Both.
Motion carries.
5.0, Or 5.1, approval of claims report services, pooling in the amount of cash requirements and manuals, $49,407.50.
Do we have a motion to approve?
Won't you make that motion?
Mr. Diddens, do I have a second?
I'll say.
And Andy.
Any discussion on Fort Services claims?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
6.0 Public comment.
Seeing none, moving on 7.0 reports to the committee.
7.1 Simon Brothers.
Good evening.
Good to see you all.
I am here to talk about the benefits renewal.
We will and I'll be talking about the property casualty renewal.
We will have to kick that over to October.
So I will start on page three of the presentation that should be in your board packet and go through a couple of things that's, unless anyone needs it up in the street.
I don't need this.
The EASE Online Open Enrollment System, the system we use to administer the benefits for employees.
That is a software portal that is used to enroll employees for the annual open enrollment period, as well as make any changes, adds, deletes, et cetera.
That is migrating to employee navigator once and for all.
We've been hearing about it for the last three years that will finally happen next year.
We do need to spend some money to have an IT third party build that system for us.
The employee navigator did buy these but he's moving it, migrating it from East to employee navigator has proven to be quite the undertaking.
So there'll be a $700 charge for the county to move that from the student navigator.
And that will be done next spring.
So it is far and away out of the opening moment period, which we'll have, I'll talk about later, which will be later this month, just a hesitant map.
I'm going to talk about the benefits, medical and dental, the ancillary, which is every other benefit they have, the employees have that is on a rate guarantee to 20.27, so I've not done that.
I'm also going to talk about MAPR.
Next page, page four, you can always go out to markets to solicit votes for the benefits and I'm not surprised that we received quotes back that were not competitive based on the Blue Cross, the shield fully insured renewal.
So I will be talking about that in a moment.
Do not expect the local government plan to come back with anything competitive.
I have not received a quote back.
Don't expect that to be anything but shadowed.
Any questions on that?
Page five, this is very difficult to read at the very bottom.
You will see that the Blue Cross Blue Shield dental renewal is the exact same dollar amount as last year.
So I will be recommending later to go ahead and keep that by keeping the dental with Blue Cross Blue Shield, we get a 2% discount on the medical.
And I'll talk to you about it in a minute.
Just kind of highlighting that here really quick.
No changes in coverages, no changes in the deductibles, no changes on the exemptions, it's the same, just good news.
Any questions?
The medical plans, this is a history of the medical plans going back to 2024, we've had $1,000, $1,500, $2,500, $3,500 deductibles back in 2024, you will see the pattern here, the history in that deductibles will eventually start ticking up each year and they started doing that in 2025 where the $1,500 deductible ticked up to $1,800, but that means is Blue Cross does not offer anything lower in that category.
So 2026, you'll see that the $2,500 deductible inched up to 2750.
If we go to the next page, page seven, the 2027 plans, no surprise, the $1,000 deductible now is 1,250.
If you could scroll back one, I'm sorry.
You will also notice that the number of employees on the plans have gone down 193 those first two years down to 173 this year.
And then for 2027, it's projected to be 166.
That has to do with the jettison of the nursing center.
You should have a second document set of documents with your packet that the first page looks like this.
If I could ask you to put that on your screens.
What this 20 page document does is show in detail, side by side, what the difference is in plans.
So not only, for example, the first plan last year, the deductible was 1,000, this year it's 1,250.
Kerry, I don't see that on my table, I have to see this.
Yeah, I don't, I couldn't find it again.
I don't know if there was an issue with that.
So we can look at it on the screen here.
Okay, that's fine.
That's what I'm looking at.
Okay.
In this, on the right side will be highlighted in yellow the other differences in the plans.
So not only for this plan, the deductible goes from 1,012.50, the family deductibles are also taking up.
Not a surprise, this is kind of how things go with these health plans.
I'm just kind of going to scroll through this kind of quickly because there are a lot of changes, just know overall, the changes in the individual plans are higher deductibles for two of them and then some higher code base.
And we can scroll through that kind of quickly.
Also on here in the top left corner, you'll see the pricing.
I will talk about total pricing in a minute, but in detail.
What we will do, assuming the board does approve this renewal and the County Board approves it, at open enrollment, myself and my account manager will have this document and we will send it to all of the employees so that they can digest it and read it ahead of open enrollment.
And then myself and my assistant will be meeting with individual employees if they need to, to talk them through what this means for them and their employees.
Any questions so far?
I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on here.
Just know that there's a couple of hundred dollar increases in all of the cabinets basically for this particular.
There is a plan that has no change and that is the $1,800 HSA, which is this one.
No change at all except for costs.
So I'll let you see that one.
The next one will be the 2750.
Again, that used to be a $2,500 deductible.
Again, 2750 is the same.
Some changes are different co-pays and different out-of-pockets.
And then the fourth plan is the $3,500 deductible does stay the same.
There are a couple of differences in terms of how to comment.
Sorry, I think there's boxes.
You could go back to where I was.
So the good news is that the plan costs only went up 8% this year.
That is a gigantic win for the county.
In the last three years, the increases have been in the teens to almost 20% each year.
Blue Cross to Shield tells us that the reasonings are there in those bulleted points.
That claims have decreased and large claimants have definitely decreased and the loss ratios are coming down consistently.
So therefore the increase that they asked for was only originally 10%, but when we're putting in the glute visual dental, that gives you a 2% discount, but the increase is around 8%.
Any questions on that so far?
This is just a chart kind of showing, again, the biggest drivers of cost are high-cost claimants.
These are just that high-cost claims.
So that amount from last year to this year has decreased considerably.
And so that's what's driving the less, the increase that is not as high as we've seen in past years.
Skip that page, but I'm going to go over here one more time.
I want to talk about MAPR.
I personally think that MAPR is making a difference.
Two things that are the biggest drivers.
One, that's the number of high cost payments on the plan that has been carrying the last two years.
And then around 14 or 15 or 16.
Now that number is down to 10.
So that helps a lot in terms of the cost of claims both on the medical side, as well as on the prescription side.
If you're called last year, you approved the MAPR program.
At the time we approved it, it was RxMAPR.
This is a genetic testing to where you send email campaigns to employees asking, hey, are you struggling with your meds?
Are you struggling with your conditions?
If so, call this number and they're interviewed by a clinician.
So the board approved up to 10 people to participate in the BRS MAPR program.
To date, six members are participating and the savings year to date is $67,000, which we're really, really proud of.
I think that will continue to increase as we get more people in the plan.
A total of eight people have followed the number and six have been determined good candidates and six candidates are in the RX maverick plan.
The RX maverick plan to review is if you're determined you're a good candidate, you get sent a kit where you swab your teeth in your DNA sequence.
And your DNA is compared to, you can look at your profile and what medications you're taking and they make sure that the medications you're on are good for you individually for your particular DNA.
Two people sitting right next to each other can be on the same exact drug.
It might be working well for one and not the other because of their need.
And so this shows that, hey, six people were sequenced and of all the six, they have eight different conditions that have been modeled.
And so that changes in medications and protocols have been recommended and how he's saving six weeks, spending $67,000 less than they normally would have.
So that is about six, seven X return on investment.
Again, we only spent $7,700 here to date for a savings of 67,000.
So really happy with that.
Mid-year mapper came out with DX mapper.
So there's an RX portion and a DX portion because we're paying for this, we get both.
So we just rolled that out a couple of weeks ago in August to employee needs.
DXMapper is a voluntary program to where any employee or their dependent can say, hey, I want my DNA sequenced.
And they have a program that the DNA, there's 11 conditions that are life-threatening that if your DNA shows that you have a propensity to get Bowling Cancer, Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer.
It can identify that way earlier than when symptoms show up.
So this is what I'm really, really, really excited about.
I think this will be a huge impact to the county if we can get as many people on this as possible.
The best quick example I'll show you, and again, if you did hopefully watch the eight minute video I sent, you guys watched it.
If you haven't watched it, I encourage you to watch it.
I am not doing it justice.
They will talk about everything in detail, but I'll give you a quick example.
Medical protocols are people start getting colonoscopies, screened for colon cancer at age 45 or 50, and that's if you need to go.
If your DNA proves that you have a propensity to get colon cancer, let's say at age 32, then your doctor could order a colonoscopy and you can catch colon cancer way earlier than you would if you were at age 45, 55, or 65.
That's just one.
There's breast cancer, there's heart failure, there's diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and they're adding more and more diseases to the list every day.
Once your DNA is mapped, they have it forever and any disease that's added to the list, the automatic will flag it if your DNA says that you have a good intensity against this disease.
The cost is $250 per person and that is born wholly fully right now by the employee, because we have the MAPR program in place that is offsetting that cost, that cost is not worth probably $1,200.
So I just wanted to kind of go through that program here real quick.
If you could slide nine.
Any questions on the MAPR program?
Gary, if back to the Rx program, if they say you could be on a different medication or should be on a different medication, is it up to the employee that, what do they change?
They work in conjunction with their doctor.
So they're going to meet with the clinician of MAPR and they have a portal and they have everything in it and then the clinician and then if it's whatever it is, say, hey, you're If you're on drug A, we recommend drug B.
Or if you're on this dose, we recommend this dose.
They take that report and that information to their doctor and they deal with the doctor.
Their doctor and the clinician can also talk, get on the phone, email, and work together in that case.
So they work in tandem and in partnership.
And so that's the case for six people counting.
So the medical renewal, the premium this year this year will be around $4.5 million, that's that top figure.
Calculated renewals about 4.9.
So a 10% increase is well, because we're implementing Blue Cross Blue Shield dental, there's a 2% discount.
So the total projected cost for the county, sorry, not for the county, for county and input it means it's 4.8 million is changed.
So only an 8% increase in clean foods.
Again, no one likes an increase.
And when I'm saying an 8% increase, it's a good deal.
It is because the last three years, the increases in health insurance have gone up from the teens to over 20%.
So we are extremely happy and we do think that the employees are getting more engaged, getting more educated, taking a little bit more ownership of their health and I do think this Merit of Health will really, really help in the 20th year.
I think we're just beginning to see that.
So I recommend we implement or go with Renew with Blue Cross, which is on both essential and medical.
And also the county contributes HSA money to those who are on the HSA accounts.
I recommend you continue that.
The one thing I did want to talk about is, do we want to talk about for the coming year, perhaps the county kicks in towards that $250 DX Maverick piece for that voluntary piece to encourage folks to go ahead and get mad and have only interventions for these kind of life threatening issues that I think would help.
Um, again, the RxMapper program, if you need the 250 as a voluntary employee aid benefit cost is $2.75 per employee per month, which is about $5,400 a year.
And if up to 10 folks get sequenced, that's another $2,500.
So we're looking at about $8,000.
If you keep the program as we have it structured today.
That's option A. Option B is to kick in some County money to encourage folks to do the deep X portion of MAPR.
And I'm open to suggestions to anywhere from 25, 50,100 or the whole 250 you have in the budget.
If you paid $250 for every employee in the plan, which there's about 169 employees right now, just employee only, that would cost the county $42,000.
So you could look at it in total, or you can say, hey, let's kick in 25,000 until that's eaten up.
So you can structure it any way you want, but I would offer that it would be a good idea to encourage employees to participate, and you can encourage employees to participate I kind of threw a lot at you.
Is there any questions you'd like to take?
So I think I'll break it down here for discussion purposes.
I recommend renewing the group cost per shield for both medical and dental.
Keep it as is, keep all the four plans as is.
The rest of your coverage is life insurance, disability, and all the other ancillary states the same.
We're going to rate guarantee through next year, so we don't have to discuss that.
The MAPR program, I recommend implementing it at least at the same level as we do this year.
And perhaps we open it up for discussion to have county kick in some monies to encourage more people to participate.
We just kicked off the DX mapper here, like I said a couple of weeks ago, it's been out long enough, we're kind of giving it a couple of months, and while we do not have anyone doing DX mapper at it.
Should we wait and do the discussion more towards the rainbows?
So if whatever you decide today will go to the County Board Thursday, you could table mapper.
I don't know.
I don't know how you would structure this, but that's kind of what you guys can structure the approval process.
I meant talking more in depth about it when we get down to the bottom of the agenda for today's meeting.
Yeah, sure.
That's up to you.
I wanted to think about it.
That's good.
Is there any questions that I can answer right now?
That's good.
Is there any questions that I can answer right now?
I was just going to say, just in discussing it, I've had meetings, the feedback that's gotten on the RX map, and the people that have taken part of it are happy with being involved in it.
This just rolled out a couple of weeks ago where they know that there's more of an option.
I would say people with apprehensive not knowing what they know was going to look like as far as committing to it, but I would say, you know, we saw the premiums going in the right direction or the claims going in the right direction for the first time in a while.
And it's six people on that made that much of a difference, and this could potentially show more savings.
I think, yeah, if you want to put numbers to it, the health insurance going up 8%, it comes down to budgeted numbers.
So where do you think the most bang for your buck is going to be?
Like I said, here's an example.
If you decided, you know what, we are going to pay for all employees to participate, but employees only, it's 169, give or take, that's $42,000.
So take that number and maybe, maybe you say, yeah, we don't really want to spend 42,000, we only want to spend 25,000.
And the first X number of people who participate until that 25,000 is gone, you can do it that way.
Justin, it's hard to conceptualize it.
I think you're probably trying to conceptualize well, what does this mean in terms of there's an awesome action.
So we have budgeted for like a $4 billion number.
At first we were expecting around 18%.
So that's what we had budgeted originally.
I had carried a guarantee that would be under five million and she had delivered.
I did.
I think it was more she put a knife to my finger.
So I do think that with our loss ratio going in the right direction, I think that right now we're gaining momentum with our wellness screenings and our walking program.
I feel like just adding things like this would be beneficial and keep us moving in the right direction.
And we can take a look at the budget I plan to kind of address all of that in a little bit.
And the $42,000 numbers, just everybody bought in.
If everyone participated exactly.
All right.
It's voluntary, regardless if it's paid for by the employee or the employer, you don't have to, you don't want to do what you have to do.
So now at all 169 for this program.
Okay, action.
Okay, any additional questions for Curie at this point?
None.
All right.
7.2, Counting motion.
I will be short and sweet with everything we have on the agenda.
Update just from Wilson-Egadot Airport at Edmonds.
And the nursing center court case was continued to October 21st.
There are no upcoming land banking scheduled, but those are kind of when things come up, they reach out to schedule that was set.
And so the Secretary is here to present the audit and I've been working with Carrie on the annuals that will be here this month and next month.
One thing is our county was chosen for an IMRF audit, which has not happened in 12 years.
So it's the last time Stephenson County was audited, but we were randomly selected earlier this year.
And Ryan has been working on that as the authorized agent back and forth with the IMRF auditor since January.
There's been a lot of correspondence back and forth recently and kind of special thanks to her for doing all of that, but it's, it's close to being wrapped up.
So good news on that, um, that animal control, uh, still working on getting the new facility ready for the red, how to get out.
Great.
Any questions for the County Administrator?
Stanley 9, 7.3.
I really do not have a report tonight outside of budget and audit.
I feel like I'm sharing enough with me later.
All right.
7.4 Is the Treasurer's Report.
Stephanie was in the room to make it tonight.
She did send out her email.
If anybody has any questions, please feel free to reach out to her.
8.0 Old business.
There is no old business.
So 9.0 new business, 9.1.
Presentation of the FY25 audit.
We have Lucy here.
All right.
Well, thank you for inviting me to your meeting tonight.
She was to you the results of the audit of Stephenson County for your end of December 31st, 2025.
Looks like you kind of got a pile of different reports in front of you.
My comments will focus on the annual financial reports.
That's the thickest of the reports you have in front of you.
So our audit was conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards as well as from the auditing standards.
And the purpose of the annual audit is to express an opinion on whether to go to county's financial statements were fairly stated and to consider a final result or financial reporting with compliance and laws that I've mentioned.
So flipping into that reports, a couple pages in, you'll come to the independent auditors report.
It's on St. Geth's letter pad.
It's page number one.
Please report that Steve and St. County received an unmodified opinion on the financial statements for the year end of December.
Financial statements for the year end of December 31st, 2025.
And unmodified opinion is also referred to as a clean audit opinion.
So that's the type of outcome that you will want as a result of your audit.
This means that the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects.
And of course, it's generally accepted accounting principles.
Bottom of page one, there is an emphasis of matter that I just wanted to make sure that I pointed out as well.
We did have some prior year restatements as a result of our audit in this year, specifically related to some nursing home accounts payables that dated back to, I think 2023 was one of them, but there was about $130,000 of payables from the nursing home that should have been reported the prior year that were not reported.
So we did, we state our opening net positions for your nursing home funds for that amount.
If you flip forward a few more pages, you'll come to page number five.
So this is another opinion on second to letterhead.
And this is our report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance.
So this second opinion is required due to the amount of state and federal funding that the county spends on an annual basis.
Result of this opinion is that we did report three material weaknesses, which is down from four material weaknesses in the prior year, so one item had been addressed from previous years.
So aside from those weaknesses and internal control, we noted no non-compliance with laws or regulations or Grant Agreements.
So the results of that, again, so no non-compliance, we did have some internal control recommendations and those start on page number seven.
So the first relates to material audit adjustments.
So during the audit, we did propose several financial statement adjustments in order to properly report the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles because as auditors, you can't be considered to be a part of your internal control.
Whenever we report a material audit adjustment, that automatically means that there is some material weakness in internal control because the auditors are making those material adjustments.
So that is a repeat finding from the previous years.
The next relates to capital assets.
We still, we're seeing progress on this one, but still not seeing like a full comprehensive, centralized capital asset listing that's maintained by the county.
And it's been kind of a project where it's been piecemealing different capital assets from different departments in order to properly record the capital assets related to depreciation.
So I will say we have seen some progress on this one.
It is still repeated as a material weakness this year, but we'll analyze that one again next year just to determine, you know, how that should be classified as we consider that to be implemented if we want to repeat it again in future years.
And then page number eight relates to nursing home payables.
So again, just as you're aware, there have been issues with paying invoices on time and because of that invoices hadn't been entered into your system because you generally only enter them into your accounting system once you're going to pay them.
So essentially the nursing home payables were maintained like off book, if you will.
So there were just adjustments required to have your financial statements agree to the accounts payable listing.
And then since we did have that prior year restatement for nursing home payables, we We did repeat this as material weakness again this year, and again, as things are winding down there, this is something that I anticipate may not be repeated in future years, but is repeated for December 31st, 2025.
The next page from there is just your prior year findings.
So again, you have the same three who were repeated from the prior year.
There was one finding in the prior year related to nursing home receivables and how those were accounted for.
Since those operations are no longer being maintained by the county, that comment had been implemented.
So down from, you know, four comments in the previous year, down to three this year, and I do anticipate, you know, a couple of those are pretty close to being implemented in future years as well.
From there, I'll go over a few financial highlights.
So page 13 and 14 is your statement of net position.
So this is kind of a high level view of the county's financial picture.
This schedule, we are not really used in day-to-day operations, but it's required to be presented to get that unmodified opinion, so this schedule includes things like capital assets as well as any long-term debt.
So the focus here would be on page 14, your total net position, so your governmental activities, which is pretty much all bonds aside from your nursing centers one, had total net position of 48.4 million.
Of that amount, you had an investment in capital assets.
So 17.8 million of that net position is just the value of your capital assets, less any debt that was taken out to purchase or acquire those capital assets.
And then you have net position that's restricted for various other purposes, generally due to tax levy or other restrictions on how those funds can be spent, which brings you to an unrestricted balance, which is anything I'm going to flip forward to page number 17.
Page 17 is your balance sheet for your governmental funds.
So you have your general fund, your ARPA fund, and your IMF fund.
We'll consider get turned to be major funds this year just that's due to the amount of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses that flow through those funds.
Things get turned to be major or non-major and then every other fund falls into that non-major governmental column.
Generally the focus is on your general fund because that's your main operating fund of the county.
So general fund ended the year with unassigned fund balance of about $9.5 million.
One metric I look at when I look at fund balance, I compare that to your annual operating expenses.
So if you flip the page to page 19, your total expenses for that fund, so general fund, had about 13.9 million of expenses during the year.
So, you know, 9.5 million of fund balance, 13.8 million of annual operating expenses puts you at about nine months or give or take of reserves there.
So right in the expected range that you'd like to be in there as far as fund balance reserves.
Overall, your general fund did have a positive increase in fund balance of $716,000 during the year.
Your ARCA fund and IREF fund also had increases in fund balance.
Your non-major governmental funds, all of those combined, had a decline in fund balance, but overall, that far right column, total governmental funds did have a positive Increase in fund balance this year of $799,000.
So fund balances at the beginning of the year were $30.1 million.
Fund balances at the end of the year were $30.9 million.
So you don't know funds, didn't see some positive trends.
The next page I wanted to cover is page number 23.
So this is where I was going to talk about the nursing center fund because it's just a little more condensed and easier to read when you're looking at page number 23 compared to the other Fund.
So the Nursing Center Fund information, this is four year in December 31st, 2025.
But as you know, operations were transferred or I don't know the word to say it, but transferred as of I believe September 30th.
So this relates to all of the county's financial activity through that date, but also includes any like legacy payables that are outstanding from those previous operations.
So did show a decline in that position this year, which is about four lines up from the bottom.
So change in that position of about 2.6 million.
So I had a positive 1.1 million that position last year to a deficit of about 1.6 million as of December 31st, 2025.
And again, just the nursing home payables does continue to be something that we focus on as a part of the audit, anticipate that that will, again, get cleaner as as things continue on going forward as this invoices start to be paid.
There.
For Mary, I wanted to do a pension update for you on the pension plans the county participates in.
And that's on page 69 and 70.
So page 69 is for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund or IMRF.
So the main pension plan that the county participates in.
Information is presented as of December 31, 2024.
So you do report one year in a year from IMRF's fiscal your end, which is allowable within government accounting standards.
But the focus would be on the bottom right hand corner of the page there.
So your net pension liability, or in this case, you have a net pension asset of about 2.6 million.
And so how that's calculated in the middle of the page, there's a line that says total pension liability, and that amount is 64 million.
So actuaries will estimate how much money that you need to have set aside to fund your pension plan.
And that's the amount that they, you know, had calculated with all of their actuarial assumptions was at 64.3 million.
That 64.3 million.
And then the next line to look at would be the plan fiduciary net position, which is the second line up from the bottom.
So what your plan fiduciary net position is, is that's how much the county as well as employees have sent to to IMRF in order to fund the pension plan.
So that's 66.9 million has been set to IMRF.
That's your mark for the county invested by IMRF on your behalf.
So that leaves you with more money set aside than what they currently estimate that your liability will be.
Now that could change.
It kind of tends to ebb and flow and go up and down or just depending on changes to actuarially assumptions, market performance and things like that.
But just having a net pension asset Next page, 71 and 72, very similar information presented in the same format for your Sheriff's Law Enforcement Personnel Plan.
So, for this one, you do have a net pension liability for this one, but your net pension liability is $1.5 million.
And that puts you at about 96% funded.
That's the top corner of page 72.
So, while there is a net pension liability there, again, being 96% funded means you're very well positioned for that plan as well.
That concludes my remarks that I had on the financial statements.
So just in summary, you know, the county received an unmodified or clean audit opinions.
We still had three findings that were repeated this year.
One was no longer repeated, but we are seeing progress on those findings.
I just want to say thank you to the finance team as well for all the assistance during the audit.
It's not a fun process, I'm sure, but they give us, they're very quick to give us everything we need.
I just want to make sure that we express our appreciation for that as well.
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Any questions?
We're meeting on Thursday as well, so if any questions come up or if there's anything that you want me to make sure I cover during that presentation feel free to let Georgia or Adrienne know.
Great.
Lindsay, I know you can't really talk about like the impact of the fine and what it could be, but can you just expand on the process that we went through to kind of get there?
Yeah.
So as far as the fine, so that came up, you send letters to all of your attorneys and they send back if there's any, you know, pending or threatened items out there.
And based upon their response at this time, they just couldn't really give us a response or a number as far as what they thought that the outcome could be because it seems like it was maybe newer or a unique situation.
So as of right now, that's not reflected within your financial statements because that is not, we can't just estimate a number if the attorneys can't estimate a number.
So the financial statements note that there is pending and threatened litigation out there, but we're not sure what the outcome will be.
So as of So right now it's not reflected in those non-persons.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks.
All right, is there any questions for her?
Thank you.
Yes, thank you.
All right, moving on, see you in 9.2.
A approval, a renewal, a mapper?
Oh, agreement, sorry.
Yes, this is a little bit late.
Any questions for Curie or any discussions or anything?
Mr. Larson does have a copy of the agreement he reviewed the original when it was approved last year with the title RxMapper instead of Mapper Health, but since it's a renewal he was sent the documentation.
It did change our billing on our original, um, with, man, it was because of our claim cycle, I gave us 45 days.
So that would be my only payment terms.
Two, uh, I don't know, two weeks.
Yeah.
You can just cross through that.
Yeah.
So that would be my only comment on that.
We worked that out with them last, last year.
The way this agreement is written right now is currently how the program is structured.
If you notice in item one, the genomic risk report fee shall be paid directly by the participating member, I. E.
The employee or defendant at the time of enrollment unless the company explicitly the Lex and Ronnie's subsidized with a fee on behalf of some of all of his members.
That's what I was talking about, suggesting kicking in the county, kicking in some of his debt.
Would you like me to go to the insurance fund to kind of get an idea of where we stand?
Yeah.
Okay.
So there is quite a surplus.
So we do have the means to as a matter of program.
Like Kerry said, I don't think all of the employees on the plane would partake.
Just from the general idea that I got, some people would believe, well, I didn't want that information, other people think ignorance is bliss and I don't want to know.
Whatever comes will come and if it is what it is.
So I think either if we budgeted the full 42, I don't think these could be that number, right?
But we do have the ability to do that.
Okay, all employees have the opportunity to do the RX.
Yes, the RX side, think of the RX side is just, it's targeting folks with specialty drugs.
So think of kind of serious conditions.
Is the RX prescriptions there?
So there wouldn't be 150 of them anyways.
No, we've only approved last year.
We only approved up to 10 employees participating in that plan.
Right now, six.
So our budget is 14.
So with the- And six, we'd be spent about $7,000, particularly.
So of all 10, if four more are identified and participate for now, even until the end of the year, we're going to spend all 14.
And that's just for the RX side.
So because we pay for the RX side, people can participate in the DX side for 250 bucks per.
Could all 169 do the DX?
Yes.
All 169 employees, plus spouses, plus dependents.
You'd have to determine who you're going to pay for.
Right now you're not paying for any.
It's a voluntary program saying anyone can do it and pay.
They'd write a check and then they'd get the swabs.
So you could pay for only employees.
You can pay for 50% of everybody.
There's a lot of ways to skin the cat here.
But we are well under budget.
We earmarked $14,000 for this program.
We'll probably end up at $10,000.
It's like 12,000, yeah, we still have 4,000 left over.
Just two more minutes.
I guess I'll just throw it out there for right now.
As I look at this, this is one thing we can do.
We're not going to save any county money.
For the same money, the employees get a little less.
Because they're making the deductibles higher.
So employees get a little less.
We get a lot less, so I'm looking at something for employees.
So then I would look at going to 50% on the RxVIP MAPR program so that we're doing something.
We know that we're paying more, I mean we're paying actually 8.7% more.
Employees are getting less.
So this is one way that you can get some of that back to them, and they can choose to do it.
One hundred twenty-fives.
We'll go up to fifty, if you're going to put that in.
Yeah, I'll do that.
We'll see how that works.
Try it in forty years, see what happens.
Okay, so is that a question?
Is that for employees or for.
I think employees will make it.
Employees will make it.
Yeah, I won't do that.
I'll show how that works.
Try it at 30 years, see what that looks like.
Okay, so is that a motion?
Is that for employees or for.
I think employees will make it.
Yeah, yeah, we'll see.
Just for now.
So I can make that a motion to that effect for now?
Okay, I'll second that.
I move that we renew our plan and that we agree to do 50% of the DXRxMACA plan for those employees that want to participate.
Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
9.3 Review and Approval of a Vote for Inflate Health and Share in Fasting.
I have it that the county is to contribute $125 to DXRX MAPR employees only for the MAPR because I misunderstood your motion was to renew that was what I said yeah because we already said the 8.7% and that was what I stopped.
I was just doing it all the way.
So we were doing 9-2 and 9-1 or 9-3?
We did, yes.
That's the intent of the motion and that's what everybody agreed they voted on.
Is anybody going to have an issue?
I don't.
No, I'm okay with that.
Okay.
So, stock up 0.3.
You need to get a bond.
So, 9.4.
That will be maxed out.
Yeah, we don't have that.
Okay, 9.5.
Approval of sales surplus properties.
So, referring back to Stephanie.
9.5, Approval of sale of surplus properties.
So referring back to Stephanie's email, all four properties are going back to their owners, which is a good thing.
So with that, do I have a motion to approve surplus properties?
And Larry, do I have a second?
DeMeester, Diddens, Any Discussion on Surf Plus Properties?
All right, seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
All right.
Well, she's carried so it's just my vote.
It's just my vote.
All right, 9.6, review and approval on proposed 1057 budgets.
I have something to pass around here.
This is just a tax levy request history.
Before I get started, I kind of wanted to touch on a few things that will impact your decisions probably.
So this is, these are all of the levies that are listed here, up on the screen as well.
So when we, as a county, collect real estate taxes and take a certain percentage of that, this is where that money goes.
As it stands right now, there are four different funds or entities that are asking for a tax increase.
Those are County Highway, Joint Bridge, Mental Health and the BACs.
So there are several options that the committee and the full board can consider.
So we can restructure our levy amounts.
So if one fund needs $200,000, we can take $200,000 from another fund or decrease that levy without asking for more money as a whole, okay?
We are allowed each year to ask for any amount is going to count up to 5% over what we received in the previous year.
So the $10.6 million is what we actually received in our final extension.
So 5% of that is this number right here, the 530,521.
So with that in mind, this is just a straight increase and how that would be broken down if all four funds were to get what they asked for.
I say that, but highway actually wants this amount to be 630,000.
So they're asking for $65,000 more.
But that would mean that we would have to increase taxes.
So you can keep this in mind as we're going through things.
And like I said, if you did not want to go that route, the levies for another fund will have to be decreased.
I did say we don't have liability insurance numbers yet.
There may be some wiggle room there.
If you decided to take it from the general fund, then any department within the general fund would probably have to cut what they ever requested.
So far.
So I just want you to get an overall picture of, there's a lot of moving pieces, a lot of moving parts that you kind of have to consider and what is going to be at the top of your list.
What do you want to accomplish?
Do you want capital expenses to be funded?
Do you want roads to be funded?
Do you want public safety to be funded?
That type of thing.
Does anybody have any questions on this?
Just because Ohio wants an extra $65,000 or whatever it was, that doesn't mean that we can just tell them no or nothing.
So the way that they have their budget presented right now, it includes this tax increase.
Okay.
So if the committee decides to tell them no, they're going to have to rework and we'll probably be able to do half of the work was what they thought they were going to.
Is how I understood it.
For 65,000?
No, no, no.
What?
BAC is requesting 65,000.
This is County Highway and Joint Bridge.
They're requesting, they want their level to be 855,000 for the highway and actually 630,000 for the joint bridge.
So I did put it that way because there are other entities asking for money as well.
And we're very, we're limited to $530,000 total without a truth and taxation hearing.
Truth in Taxation Hearing.
Yes, with an increase.
So as I said before, you can pick any number between zero and 5%.
So if you said we want to increase our levy request by 1%, then you could give you that amount up to the levy.
I did in the green columns just pick the 2.7% increase because that was the CPI that we got from the Department of Revenue.
So lots of different options, but I just wanted you to keep in mind that those requests aren't out there.
The KAC asked for about the same increase last year.
So they asked for $140,000 last year and the committee and board agreed to 75,000.5,000.
So they're asking for the remainder of that $140,000.
So we listed everything on the agenda just to make sure everything was included, but a lot of these, they're not going to be able to be addressed this evening.
So as far as what's on the agenda, did you want me to go through everything kind of like Did you have an overview or did you have an idea of where you wanted to focus?
There are some standalone funds that can absolutely be passed.
So I can just focus on that or kind of up to you.
Standalone?
Okay.
Yes.
Okay, then we will start with, so everything that has to do with the highway needs to be skipped.
Also, nursing center needs to be skipped.
So we're down to the Opioid Settlement Fund, which is Fund 12.
So we receive opioid settlement funds each year.
The money that we collect needs to be used for specific purposes, so we expect to receive around $15,000 in 2027, and we have a cash-grab where we're currently at $380,000, so every quarter I have to file a report outlining what we spent those dollars on, on how it affects opioid use in our area.
So we have a miscellaneous expense and I don't want anybody to think that we're just kind of putting everything there because we have to submit very, very detailed reports and get categorized.
Every dollar has to be accounted for.
So we do kind of have a catch all expense line for those.
So we're just allowing up to 429,000 to be spent and it is a balanced budget.
So I recommend it for tool.
Okay.
Make a motion to approve.
Jogerst and DeMeester, second?
Also.
Mr. Diddens, any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Both?
Okay.
So capital fund is through all of the, that addresses all the supplemental requests.
So I suggest we skip that.
Health department, from what I understand, has not approved their budget, correct?
Oh, we have not.
Okay, so we will skip that as well.
We go down to animal control has not passed out a committee.
So down to fund 17, which is court security and jail inmate medical.
So these are court fees that are collected and need to be spent on specific things according to state statutes.
So this is a standalone fund as well.
So we expect to take around $120,000 in court security, jail, inmate, medical fees and the cash grade forward is 353,000.
So miscellaneous expense, 470,000.
This is kind of structured the same way that the opioid funds are.
So I would recommend approval.
Thanks, do I have a motion to move through?
So moved.
Mr. Diddens, do I have a second?
Cindy, any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Both.
Motion carried.
Okay.
The DAC, obviously.
So this is just to give you an idea.
This is including the $65,000 increase in real estate taxes.
Didn't we get a report from Gary, a financial report from the DAC?
Yes.
Yeah.
So we got an updated one last Friday.
So we will have that information for you.
We'll send that out.
Okay.
And we have a letter just kind of outlining the uses for the increase that we received from Jake.
So probation service fees has already been approved.
So we'll move down to EMA.
So the major sources of revenue here This department is funded by Public Safety, so they did not request an increase from the Public Safety Fund, so it remains $82,800.
There is a EMPG grant.
There was a possibility of either partially funding a new vehicle that has been removed from a supplemental request and is not included in this budget.
So there are just 3.5% increases in salary, some other increases there with a surplus of $2,400, so I would recommend revolving.
Okay, great.
Mr. Fricke, second?
By Mr. Diddens, any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Okay.
So, let me go to the county corner.
So the major source of funding for this fund is also the Public Safety Fund.
That request is increased by 33%.
It was $166,000, now they're requesting $223,000 to cover all of the expenses below.
The coroner did submit four supplemental requests that were basically, you know, boots, a fan, a stretcher, those type of items.
And I said, he misunderstood and thought if they're one-time expenses, they need to be a supplemental request.
They said, well, they really don't qualify as a capital purchase.
So we included those in his budget under operational equipment.
We just put those, I think it was 10,000, around $10,000.
So we increased that request on that line item.
And so that'll, that operational equipment line next year will be reduced by that amount as those purchases will have been made.
So as it stands, does anybody have any questions on the revenue side, and the transfer from public safety.
Okay.
So as it stands now, there is a small surplus.
So I would recommend approval.
So moved.
Still motion.
Second.
Mr. Diddens.
Any discussions?
I'd like to move over to the next motion.
Move over to the next motion.
All right.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
So, just a different question.
Is the lease done with for this vehicle then?
Did we bought it out or did we just.
I just want to talk about that.
You said that last year, didn't you?
Yes.
All right, next one.
Okay, so social security, health insurance numbers, I would kind of like to tweak that if you don't mind, with the passage of the RX Mapper for when we move.
Liability is part of taxes.
IAMROC is part of taxes.
Sentient Education is part of taxes.
Mental health is part of taxes, and so is tuberculosis.
So we'll move down to 9-1-1.
I do believe the 9-1-1 board approved this with some small changes just in names of lines to make them a little bit more accurate.
If quite a large surplus of $1.5 million, I would recommend approval.
So moved.
Do I have a second?
Cindy, any discussion?
So none, all those in favor say aye.
Both.
Motion carries.
So the ARPA fund, all of these funds were required to be spent by the end of 2026.
So we will make that final payment for the HVAC and associated equipment lease.
It might hit, we'll get the check out before the end of the year, before 1231, but it might, I have it in next year's budget just in case.
I do have a transfer to animal control for $100 in case that fund does get in trouble.
There is some money in there to, and obviously we can overspend that one because ARPA is done.
The only dollars remaining in that fund are interest.
And we are free to spend those funds however we want to.
My suggestion is to hold on to them because the mill raise TIF is going to expire in 2029.
And we are making payments until 2031.
So we will need some type of funding source and and Treasurer is doing a fantastic job of investing and getting us great returns on that money.
That's my suggestion, not to touch it.
So with that said and that plan being okay with everyone, I would recommend approval.
We've got for a body member.
You're here.
Okay.
So I'm going to, I'm going to second.
Mm-hmm.
And Larry, seconded by Mr. Bush.
Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Both.
Those in favor say aye.
Any discussion?
So this is the Bond Repayment Fund.
This is where the mill rice debt certificates are paid from.
So this just outlines what is going to be due in 2027.
There is a transfer from the general fund as well as from Millerace Crossing.
The transfer from Millerace Crossing are those real estate tax dollars that come in from the TIP.
So with that said, there is a surplus of $79.86.
I would recommend approval.
So moved.
Mr. Diddens is going to second and Mr. Fricke, any discussion?
So there is a small change in economic development.
I didn't know if it should be kept there and just that kind of a broader term in that line.
We don't have a contract after the end of this year with GFP.
We just talked about Mr. Fricke's committee playing development.
We also changed it in that budget to just read economic development.
I'm not suggesting we won't have a contract with GFP.
That's yet to be determined.
I'd like to have a placeholder there, but I think it needs to be generic in nature.
So obviously this includes the real estate tax dollars that they received in the 10-million and then the bond repayment, which was in the bond repayment fund.
So keeping everything as is, there's a 72-million dollar surplus to the recommended approval.
Thank you, Chair.
Fricke, do I have a second?
Sure, thank you, Chair.
Jones, any discussion?
See you then.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Both.
Jim Carrey.
Zift.
10.0.
I'll stop now, we have to open.
We're on point now with Dermot, and Mr. Bush.
Do we have a second?
Mr. Diddens, any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye.
Motion carries.
Seconded.
Wow.
We're ready for next month.
It's gonna be busy.