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Cook County Commissioners met Tuesday, June 13, and just like some sports competitions, they needed to go into “overtime” to finish their meeting.
With no time to waste, Administrator James Joerke asked commissioners to pass a resolution of support for a capital request to the Minnesota Management & Budget for $8,700,000 to assist in the county’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).
One holdup, though, was that the CIP is still a document in progress that has yet to be approved by the county board.
Joerke told commissioners preliminary applications from local governments for capital improvement requests were due on June 16. The Minnesota Management and Budget is accepting applications from state agencies and local governments for $1.68 billion in capital funding that will be available in 2024. Because the state does bonding projects every other year, if the county were to miss this application, it wouldn’t be until 2025 that an application could be applied for with money (hopefully) received in 2026.
Among a long list of deferred maintenance needs, the county’s CIP calls for improvements to the courthouse and law enforcement center, estimated to cost $17,400,000.
Plans in the CIP are to convert the Law Enforcement Center into a Justice Center by adding new space that would include a courtroom, office spaces for Court Administration, Probation, the County Attorney, and meeting spaces for attorneys and clients along with new office space for the sheriff’s department and evidence storage and process space as well as a new sallyport used for transporting inmates. By making these improvements, the thinking goes that there would be an increase in safety and security for court and sheriff’s operations. This would reduce the risk of transporting inmates between buildings for court. A second level would be added to the Law Enforcement Center to make room for a new courtroom.
Meanwhile, the space vacated in the courthouse by the move to the law enforcement center would be converted to offices and rooms for county employees that now don’t have permanent workspace.
Administrator Joerke told commissioners he didn’t have any experience with this type of request, so he had called on Bruce Kimmel of Ehler’s & Associates for his advice (Ehlers is currently working on the five-year CIP for the county) before he wrote up a detailed proposal for the $8.4 million capital request to the Minnesota Management & Budget that centered on Option A of the CIP.
If the money is granted, the county will use reserves and general obligation bonds to cover half the costs, estimated to be $8,700,000.
If the application is submitted in time, the county will have until October 15, 2023, to adjust the county’s request, including saying we don’t need the money if plans change.
Commissioner Dave Mills said instead of applying for funding for just two projects, all of the county’s deferred maintenance projects should be on the list, along with the building needs of the Highway Department. But Joerke replied that there needed to be more detail for the Highway Department at this time to add them to the list in the proposal. Joerke also said he needed more time to make all the suggested changes and additions to the proposal that must be sent by Friday.
Commissioner Deb White said she knew the Law Enforcement Center needed some upgrades and new room space, but she wasn’t sure she wanted it changed to the Justice Center with a new courtroom, etc.
White asked, “I am concerned that if we ask for funding for a Justice Center and only get funding for a Justice Center and then decide we don’t want a Justice Center…then what?
“There is a lot of uncertainty here,” Joerke said, “But if we don’t get a place in line, we lose it.”
Board Chair Ann Sullivan favored applying for the money, “Bruce (Kimmel) clearly has the most knowledge. I want to make sure we get some money to save the taxpayers.”
“Nothing’s for certain,” Joerke reminded Sullivan.
White asked about maintenance costs for the new Justice Center. And she said she favored applying for funds to improve “all of the deferred maintenance for county buildings” that needed to be fixed before building anything new.
Commissioner Stacy Hawkins said she favored Mill’s plan to ask for more now and “pullback in the next few months” if that was the board’s decision before the October 15 deadline to edit requests.
Board Chair Ann Sullivan called for a motion on submitting the proposal to upgrade the courthouse and Law Enforcement Center as presented by Administrator Joerke. After a motion and a second commissioners voted 3-2 against the proposal. Voting for was commissioner Ginny Storlie and Ann Sullivan with White, Hawkins and Mills voting against.
After much discussion, Hawkins said she would like Joerke to talk to Bruce Kimmel about the various aspects the commissioners had touched on to see if he could support having the county’s complete CIP included in the request for money rather than just two buildings. Mills followed by asking for a recess so Joerke could make that call, and the board recessed until 4 p.m., where Kimmel joined them remotely.
Kimmel said while the commissioners made many good points, he was sticking with his advice to ask for funding for the courthouse and Law Enforcement Center because they were the highest priorities identified in the CIP.
With that, Commissioner Mills motioned to apply for $8,700,000 from the Minnesota Management and Budget to fund and implement the Cook County Capital Improvement Plan. One thing taken out of the original motion was the term “Justice Center” and a few other words which led to the “overtime” session from 4 p.m. to almost 5 p.m. Mills motion passed 5-0.
In other news:
Lillian Carlson was hired as a Social Worker 1-Family Services Case Manager to fill a Public Health and Human Services Department (PHHS) opening.
At the request of the PHHS, the county board agreed to allocate approximately $18,000 of the county’s opioid settlement funds and use them towards overdose prevention training and supplies that aren’t covered under the federal HRSA grant for Rural Communities Response Program (RCORP).
Approximately 150 doses of Narcan and or Naloxone have been distributed throughout Cook County and Grand Portage since the RCORP program began.
Highway Engineer Robbie Hass recommended that the county accept $543,345.70 through the MVLST bridge bonds appropriated by the legislature that will be used for the Sawbill Creek Bridge upgrade.
Before the legislator approved the bonding bill, the project was funded one hundred percent through the levy, but now local levy funds will pay only $76,054.31 of the cost. The commissioners unanimously passed a resolution accepting the funds. Hass also said that two other projects for 2024 (at Alfred Creek and in Grand Portage) would receive a little more than $2 million at a later date from the MVLST bridge bond funds.
Commissioners set July 25, 2023, at 9 a.m. to hold a public hearing to consider changes to miscellaneous fees. Land Services will ask for consideration for a fee change for the Boundary Line Adjustment program approved at the May 23 meeting, and other departments may request changes to fees at this meeting as well.
At the request of County Attorney Molly Hicken, commissioners closed the meeting to discuss offers to purchase county-owned land that was acquired through debt collection. The county board authorized advertising this land for sale on February 25, 2020. Hicken asked for the meeting to be closed to discuss setting a price for the property.
Following the closed meeting, Commissioner David Mills called for a resolution approving the sale of the property for $34,800, which was unanimously approved.
Land Services Director Tim Nelson told commissioners the county needed to replace a recycling trailer, and a new one would cost $31,640. Nelson said his department only budgeted $30,000, but the difference can be made up from the landfill fund, which he said over the years has been used to replace recycling equipment.
Commissioner Stacy Hawkins asked about the “life” of the trailers, and Nelson said the county usually gets “10-15 years” out of these units.
Commissioner Mills said some businesses in the west end have told him there need to be more recycling trailers in the community to meet the demand. Nelson replied that the demand “ebbs and flows depending on the season.” He also said he hired temporary staff in the summer to help meet the increased need but was still short-staffed.
Commissioner Ginny Storlie said the recycling center in the West End is open three days a week, and the recycled product trailer was well maintained, but the cardboard trailer fills fast; she calls Tim to have it emptied, and she noted it is then soon taken care of.
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