The Polk County Board of Commissioners met inside the Polk County Government Center on Wednesday morning to review each department’s draft of the 2023 Budget.
COUNTY ATTORNEY-GREG WIDSETH
The board first heard from County Attorney Greg Widseth on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. He first went into the department’s General Revenue Funds and said not much had changed, but they did have their grant services renewed by the state, with a few other maintenance agreements being made that added at least another $10,000. But other than that, they noted there was no real change from 2022, with their final budget having a revenue of $157,599, with expenditures of 1,472,944, with a net of $-1,315,345.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH-SARAH REESE
The board was then approached by Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. She first went into Health Administration, reporting that there weren’t too many changes from the 2022 budget. One change was MECHV Indirect and Strong Foundations requesting more funds and their public health emergency preparedness making some changes happening with the state. But due to them being state grants, they wouldn’t impact the county’s tax dollars. She then went into the Public Health’s budget with their COVID impact funding, though again, this was not paid with tax dollar funding. She did note that they received $12,000 for Professional Services thanks to a community liaison. She then went into the ARP funds they had received from 2022 and reported they still had $90,000 left over from the funds they received last year. She then went into the Healthy Homes partnership and noted that it had new funding for all of its services and accountants, and they had a new contract with their health plans. She then went into Family Health Department, which also didn’t use tax dollars, but their Family Home Visiting service, which had seen some of their state grants expiring, said the state was looking to combine them as a Strong Foundation for an estimate of $186,787. She then went into the School Health and Outreach Department, where she reported that there looked to be a drop in some of their contracts, but she said they were still discussing terms on them. One was with the Wellness Chemical Health Services with the UCare and their health partners, but she explained this would not cost the county anything since they ended their agreement, which would save about $90,000 and reduce the other roles in the department and some expenses and income.
The final totals of her budget had a net of 1,127,118, which was an increase from their last budget last year by 2.6%, although Reese noted that there would be some more updates, and changes to the budget would be made as their contracts got finalized. “Our funding sources come from a variety of different sources, and there are a couple of different funding sources that we’re still waiting to hear what our final wards will be for next year. Some of them were mid-year or still in that contractual process,” Reese explained. “So, as we refine the financial information, we will update that in the budget so that we have the clearest picture.”
TAXPAYER SERVICE CENTER-SAM MELBYE
The board then heard from Property Director Sam Melbye on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. He began with the General Revenues of the License Center, saying that requests for salaries had gone down by a little less than $4,000 with the hiring of two new people, but their Cafeteria plan had gone up by about $3,000. He then went into their data processing department, noting that they would request $166,800 to purchase some new software. He finished with the Elections department, noting this need for funds here would drop significantly, as there weren’t any elections planned for 2023, so there didn’t need as many resources poured into them this year. This gave the department revenue of $784,400, their expenditures at 2,415,111, and a net of $1,630.711.
TRI-COUNTY CORRECTIONS CENTER DIRECTOR-ANDREW LARSON
The board then heard from Tri-County Community Corrections Center Executive Director Andrew Larson on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. He noted that the most significant budget factors for the center were Personnel Costs, the reopening of the Red River Valley Juvenile Center, Technology Needs, On-going Building Maintenance & Improvements, Food Service Increases, and Revenue Stagnation. He noted that the Personnel Costs, agency-wide, would increase by $813,415 (11.6%), with the Juvenile Center’s reopening costing $461,796 with a $50 increase to their $965 Insurance Contribution. He noted there were a few staff reductions in their transition program and Probation, which would decrease their budget by $135,073. He then went into the Red River Valley Juvenile Center’s reopening, saying that this would have the most significant impact on the budget. “The biggest budget impact for 2023 is the reopening of the Juvenile Center, and there are a couple of reasons for that. When we developed the 2022 budget, we anticipated that the Juvenile Center was going to be closed for about six months. By closing the facility, that caused some significant savings in terms of Personnel costs, meals, and other things,” Larson explained. “So now we’re going from a 2022 budget with six months of operations to a 2023 budget with a full year of operations. That’s a significant budgetary increase.” The full-year operations would have Personnel salaries be $461,796 with Services costing about $27,000, and they had worked recently to use their per diem to help adjust for those increases. He then began discussions about the budget for their technology, saying that upgrades were needed to increase efficiencies and offset some staff reductions. Such as adding an Electronic Health Record with a setup cost of $13,590 and an annual cost of $16,350, for a total of $29,940. Other upgrades would be firewall upgrades for satellite offices for $2,000 and hardware investments like laptops and barcode readers for $8000. He then went into building maintenance, saying that the jail is now 15 years old and things in it needed to be replaced, and this was going to be a much greater increase from their last budget in 2022. He requested $87,200 to repair the showers from rusting out and paint damage (for $15,600), replace their sink valves as they were starting to leak, and hire MetCraft Industries to replace them (for $23,800).
Other maintenance items included repairing and replacing items like their cameras ($10,000), Security System Computer Hardware ($4,100), Quarterly Maintenance Supplies ($16,400), and other Miscellaneous items ($9,500). He also noted that their food services had increased by $56,936 (13.5%) thanks to inflation. Some other items would be an upgrade to the MWRCC Radio System with a repeater installation for $11,500. Larson noted that the budget would not be as high next year with the Juveniles Center reopening, as it would reduce their out-of-county housing costs by about $87,000. Larson noted that there was a way they could potentially limit their revenue increase of $16,000 due to estimated DOC Per Diem needs and another $30,000 in their Transition Program.
This made the Corrections Center’s budget total about $11,047,175, which was a significant increase from what it had normally been at around $10.5 million, but Larson believes that it should return to normal next year after the Juvenile Center opens in November. Larson voiced that he felt that he had cut his budget down as much as he could and was not planning on making any other changes unless he received some direction from the Tri-County Corrections board.
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR-ALECIA HELMS
The board then heard from Human Resources Director Alecia Helms on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. She noted a few changes from last year, with the Gross Pay going up to $164,539 and the Cafeteria Benefits Plan by $6,900 to $45,900. They were also planning on adding more for their advertising to $60,000 due to ad prices rising. She noted, however, that they were lowering their requests on the daily subscriptions to $3,250. This gave the department a net of $454,217, which was about a 6.5% increase from their budget from 2022 at $426,447.
FINANCE DIRECTOR-RON DENISON
The board then heard from Finance Director Ron Denison on a review of the department’s budget for 2023. He noted that they wanted to increase their Gross Pay and other Miscellaneous Audits. He then went into the Central Services department, where he revealed they were saving $37,000 on their services but had slight increases for purchasing office supplies and maintenance agreements. For the Building Debt Service, they raised the interest on a bonded debt to $605,027 but were saving over $200,000 on their Bond Payment Principal for $1,415,000. The final totals were a revenue of $3,198,824, an expenditure of $355,227, and a net of $356,403.
SHERIFF-JIM TADMAN
After a break for lunch, the board heard from Polk County Sheriff Jim Tadman on a review of the Sheriff’s Department’s budget for 2023. He began with their Public Safety Funds requesting $6,000 for a new hard patch radio system so the department can communicate with the East Grand Forks Police Department while they were still working on getting new 800-system radios for the rest of the department. Another request was for their lease agreements, in which they requested a lower amount of $51,000. He wished to add a new 411 Tip line app for the county that will allow people to send photos and videos to the Sheriff’s Department. People will also receive online and real-time messages from the department on information around the county. He also requested $38,500 to help with their property/casualty insurance. He also mentioned that they were dropping the amount for their Law Enforcement supplies to $52,000, as they believed there wouldn’t be any riots or other protests and not have to pay for non-lethal weapons and training, but they were also requesting $85,022 for purchasing a new Boat Lift and Dock out at Union Lake to help them access their boats faster, and five new portable radios and G-Tech mics for their body cameras. Tadman also mentioned that they were looking to add their body camera cloud storage for $9,740 for their data storage. Tadman also mentioned the department was accepting multiple grants from the state for their snowmobiles and off-road vehicles that would not be included on the levy.
His final total was a revenue of $914,444, expenditures of $6,387,238, and a net of $5,482,794. Which was a 5.6% increase from their last total net of $5,192,391. Tadman voiced his satisfaction with the budget and felt that all of the things he brought forward would help the deputies respond faster to calls and help keep residents safe, but noted he could look at it again for things they could cut if he had to. “I’m pretty happy with it, we were just talking about numbers and that also includes our new union contracts, dispatch center, and our deputies and I think it was just over 5%,” Sheriff Tadman explained. “Meeting with the board is trying to come down with the final number and we can look at ours, but these are some of the things that not only assist our deputies but also assist the residents out there with a faster response. I hope some of these things will not be cut, like the 800 radios and everything but there’s always room to forgo projects for when we do have the budget.”
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR-CHUCK WHITING
The board finished the meeting hearing from County Administrator Chuck Whiting with a summary and review of the budget. Whiting said he would call and evaluate each department to learn what their capital items are and what they can cut to keep each department’s budgets below a million dollars. “I have to look at them all, some have issues to look at more seriously than others, but they’re all different departments in their own way. Some are on the levy. Some are not. Some have a combination with some on the employee side. Some are heavy on the project side,” Whiting explained. “We got familiar with all of the issues the department heads see in their budgets and get some back and forth and a good feel from the board on what they see as a need. So, I have to go back and figure out what do I do with each department, and there are a few other things still that have yet to come that we have to figure into the budget too.”
Setting the Preliminary 2023 Preliminary Property Tax Levy
The board ended the meeting by creating a draft resolution of their 2023 Preliminary Property Tax Levy to be ready for their preliminary levy set for their meeting on September 27. Whiting came forward with a preliminary levy of around a 5% increase over 2022 with the understanding of making the final levy an increase of only 3% (the 2022 levy was $25,875,000). He gave the board four options as to what they could do with their levy increase for 2023 and recommended Option 3, with was a levy of $27,250,000, which was an increase of $1,375,000 (or 5.314%). But after some discussion, Whiting wondered if there was a chance of making it about a 5.5% increase. However, Commissioner Willhite asked if there was an option to start below 3% (about $1 million over the 2022 budget). After much discussion, the board chose to have the final budget only increase by 3% ($776,250) to make it $26,651,250 and have it be an increase of 5.4% to $27,350,000 for the preliminary budget. However, the board will continue to discuss the levy further and make a final decision about what the preliminary levy will be at their next meeting on September 27.
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