June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass County looks at trends, issues for 2016
County commissioners and citizen budget committee members asked questions. County budget development will begin in July for the 2016 budget.
Chief Financial Officer Larry Wolfe said there is not enough new construction yet in the county to generate enough new tax revenue to offset potential 2016 rising county operating costs, so it is possible the county could be looking at spending down some fund balance.
New state child protection regulations will take effect with some state funding to pay for additional workers, but Wolfe said that funding will not fully cover the county's added cost. Rules to implement the new legislation are still being written, so the total added cost is still unknown, he said.
Enbridge has taken Minnesota to tax court, claiming they have been overcharged for property taxes, Wolfe said. The state sets the value and tax amount. If Enbridge is successful in court, all Minnesota local governments where Enbridge has pipelines could potentially have to refund the overpayments.
The state would determine how the refund would be divided among affected local governments. Wolfe said Cass County and local governments within it could owe as much as $500,000 repayment.
Wolfe recommended the county continue to use the state auditor's office to audit county records, despite new state legislation allowing the use of private accountants. He thinks the state is a more economical and objective choice.
The state charges $60 to $80 per hour, he said, while 20 years ago, private firms were charging $100 per hour.
Federal and state agencies now require more performance accountability with reports required when they grant money to the county, Wolfe said.
This is one of the factors Administrator Robert Yochum sees increasing the stress level for county employees, especially in health and humans services divisions. Learning and adapting to software changes also has an impact, he said. Both also increase work load.
Cass receives few complaints from the public, but the employee inquiries and complaints have risen, Yochum said. The stress level for health and human services and sheriff's office employees especially have risen, he said.
Yochum cited continued improvement in state tax receipts and predicted the Legislature will make a major rewrite of state tax laws to address a rising state surplus in 2016.
He expects a significant number of county employees to retire in the next five years, leading to a major employee turnover.
Reno Wells, health, human and veterans services director, said the stress level in his department has caused a large employee turnover, putting further stress on remaining employees.
It means not only re-hiring, but also re-training, he said. This is not always easy, because the state requires new employees to complete specialized training classes, which are not always available at the time the new person is hired. This, in turn, delays when they can fully do their job.
The state is still writing rules to implement new legislation for child protection services, Wells said, so he still does not know exactly how many new workers he will have to hire to keep caseloads at a level the state will approve.
There is a limited pool of qualified workers all counties will seek to fill jobs, so he hopes to begin hiring some while workers are still available. At a minimum, he expects to need one more case aide and two child protection workers. Cass will get $100,000 to pay part of that cost.
He expects to spend down some of his department's reserve fund to cover the difference.
County attorney and sheriff's staff now are required to meet with human services staff to determine whether a child needs placement outside their own home for their safety, Wells noted. This adds to more work for additional departments besides human services, he noted.
County Attorney Christopher Strandlie said this child protection change, plus additional mental health screenings leading to more civil commitments and guardianships has increased his staff caseload.
Court is being held five days a week, not just two and a half, he added. His department is transitioning into e-filing by July. It takes 37 steps to e-file, he said. What is getting ignored is shredding old documents.
He told the board and budget committee he "desperately needs (another) lawyer and support staff."
Assistant County Attorney Barb Harrington explained that the increase in civil commitments is coming from an effort to move people with mental health problems from jails into treatment.
Sheriff Tom Burch said his crisis for the rising inmate population comes primarily on weekends when most area jails are full. He needs space to book people into a jail until they can appear in court on Mondays.
He is looking at opening the other 28 beds in the Cass jail at Walker at least temporarily on weekends only to handle the weekend influx, especially for weekends when there are major events in the area. It means hiring extra staff.
There also is an area shortage of beds for women, he said.
One new challenge the sheriff faces is people posting information about crimes on social media before his deputies have time to investigate the crime.
Cass County deputies have used body cameras for six years. Burch said he sees this is good insurance.
Like all records not reserved for court evidence, the camera records are erased after 180 days, he said.
Cass can access a drone if needed from Grand Forks, N.D., but has not used one so far, Burch said.
Probation Director Jim Schneider said his goal is to prevent recidivism and to prevent juvenile offenders from becoming adult offenders.
Low risk people self-correct, he said. For those at high risk to reoffend, he said he tries to obtain chemical dependency treatment if they need it and to encourage them to seek out new friends who do not have a criminal history.
He also encouraged employers to hire people on probation. Those on probation are being monitored and, because of that, actually may make more dependable employees as they work to turn their life around. Accountability is probation's focus, he said.
County Recorder Katie Norby reported the county's real estate market is very slowly trending upward. She said the number of documents filed this year had trended upward.
Assessor Mark Peterson said property market values have remained the same the last year.
County Board Chair Neal Gaalswyk said the assessor's values must be accurate, because only four people came to this year's board of equalization meeting to object the values place on their property out of 40,000 parcels in the county.
New construction value is up 1 percent. New home starts are up 10 percent, Peterson said. Foreclosures were down 33 percent in the first quarter of 2015, he said. The number of arm's length sales is level.
Cass's assessing office appraisers are completing new state-required training and certification to all become certified before the 2019 deadline, Peterson said. Education and software costs are rising, he reported.
The assessing employees are learning a new state program for data sharing with the state. Peterson expressed concern that the state in the future could use this data to overrule the county's value determinations by comparing values here with other parts of the state.
Auditor-Treasurer Sharon Anderson reported Cass may have to develop a policy for drainage ditch inspections following a recent court case elsewhere in Minnesota. The county has done little with such ditches since they were installed early in the 1900s.
Retirements in the state revenue department mean expertise support for local governments is no longer in that office. This has made adapting to new technology changes more difficult, she said.
Anderson said her office goes by the day mail could be expected to arrive when considering whether a tax payment is made on time. With the U.S Postal Service now sometimes postmarking mail at regional centers a day or two after it is mailed, it is more difficult to know when a person paying a tax bill actually mailed it.
She reported the auditor-treasurer office is one of those where she expects half the staff to retire in the next five to seven years.
Central Services Director Tim Richardson reported he expects to buy fuel oil for $1.89 per gallon and propane for $1.05 this summer for county buildings, down significantly from last year and the year before.
Mobility add-ons for some widely used applications will become more available, blurring the traditional work space, he said, citing the fact deputies now can access a lot of information directly on their squad car computers and write e-tickets from their squads.
The county's newly revised website is scheduled to convert from the old website July 7, Richardson said.
Environmental Services Director John Ringle reported permits his department issues continued an upward trend all year this year compared with the last three years. There are so many applications for variances and conditional uses, the planning commission will need two days instead of one to view all of them this month, he said.
Inspections for invasive aquatic species are being done at boat landings on 35 lakes in Cass this summer. Three interns are working on the county's geologic atlas this summer.
Cass Soil and Water Conservation District has received an additional $100,000 base funding this year, according to Ringle. State money will be available for the governor's buffer zone initiative for ditches, he said.
Cass will update its comprehensive and water plans in 2016, Ringle said.
Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson reported wood mills are looking for more logs, but fewer loggers and truckers have meant they are not getting as much as is being offered for cutting.
Cass used to see 50 loggers bidding at county sales, Stevenson said. Today, there are 20 loggers bidding. Many have retired. Few younger people are entering logging, he said.
To add to that issue is the fact truckers are having a hard time finding drivers to truck logs to the mills. He said one trucker advertised for drivers. He planned to hire a dozen applicants, but all 12 failed a screening for drugs, Stevenson said.
Stevenson does not expect the county to continue to offer as many acres as the 38,000 offered this year after the next three or four years, because the county already has logged much of the mature aspen. There will be a drastic decrease in acres to log, he said.
There will be a period during which existing stands will need to grow longer before cutting again, he said.
County foresters are noticing that longer summers in recent years have produced two reproduction cycles instead of one a year for some native beetles.
Assistant County Engineer Kris Lyytinen reported Cass stands to gain from the state's revision of their formula for distributing state aid.
This is the first formula revision since the 1970s, he said. The increase will be both in dollars and percent of total costs, he said.
Laura Hadrava, construction design engineer, reported federal funding has remained at current levels without a new federal transportation bill. While the state has made available to counties an option to charge a wheelage or state transportation sales tax, Cass's commissioners have declined to levy either.
Lyytinen said Cass will need $250,000 per year more than the county expects to receive in coming years in order to maintain the current quality of its county highway pavement.
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