Cache County Council Meeting 04-09-2024

Yeah.

We got our microphones on.

Doctor, are we ready? Okay. I got my airplane. Go ahead.

Hey, Nolan. I'm gonna hit the gauntlet. Nolan, be ready. I'm ready. Maybe. We would like to welcome everybody to Cache County Council meeting tonight, April 9. We'll go ahead and start with the opening by council member Sandy Goodlander.

Thank you, mister chairman. I'm just really glad to be here tonight with all these fine people that we work with and love this county and the people who live in it, and I'm really grateful for this opportunity. And I'll finish my remarks with a prayer. Our dear father, which art in heaven, we are so grateful for the many blessings that we have. We're grateful to live in a free country, and we're grateful for this beautiful valley that we call home and for the good people that live here that we get to live among. We're grateful for those who serve in the armed forces that that put themselves in harm's way for our freedom and safety, and we ask you to please watch over and bless them and their families and bless them with safety and peace. And, Father, please bless us to be mindful of our neighbors and those in our community who need help both physically or financially and things that we can do to help them. And we would ask you to please watch over us tonight, bless us with the ability to think clearly, to speak kindly, and to take care of the business of the county that needs to be done so that we can take care of the responsibilities that we've been given. And we pray for these things in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ. Amen. -Amen. -Amen. -Will you all join me in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much. Go ahead and accept the motion on approval of the agenda.

So moved.

Second. Moved and seconded that we approve the agenda. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimous. How about the minutes from March 26? Actually, we have two sets of minutes. 03/26/2024, and then the board of canvassers, 03/18/2024. Should I vote should we vote on those separate? Because I know I some of us were not at the one and

I'll I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of 03/26/2024.

Second. Moved and seconded that we approve those minutes of 03/26/2024. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes. How about those that were at the board of canvassers?

I move that we approve the board of canvassers, minutes from March 18. Second.

Moved and seconded that we pass the board of canvassers minutes for 03/18/2024. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I'll refuse myself on that one because I was not at that particular meeting.

Report, County Executive. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'd just like to excuse, County Executive Zook. He's coming back with his family from a trip and will be back in the office tomorrow. In addition, Janine, wanted me to share that the fire district board of trustees applications are open. They're on the county website and in a few other places, and she said she wanted me to tell everyone that that you can go to the public notices spot on the county website, follow the link, and we have one application turned in so far.

How many openings are

there? Two.

Three. Three. Two. Two. Because there's already one. Two. One is the executive, and then two. Yeah.

And that's that concludes my my report. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Let's go ahead and, six a.

Alma. Alma Burgess, Cache County Grants Manager, shares some information on ARPA funds.

Thank you for inviting me back. This seems to be the topic of conversation everywhere, ARPA. So I just want to cover a few things related to ARPA, and, hopefully, it will all make sense, by the end. The main thing that I wanted to come and talk about is, because the end of the year is coming very rapidly, 12/31/2024, we need to have all of the funds, ARPA funds that the county received obligated in projects, and they have to be obligated with contract. And so I'm working very closely with all of the departments, looking at their overages, anything that might be going over, and I wanna keep you as a council, very apprised of that update. One of the things that I wanted to to talk about is from Terrell Warner. She is requesting a little bit u a different use of her funds that she's received, and I wanna explain that. So in April 2022, she talked to the finance staff, and it was discovered that they were talking about on call and on scene response pay and realized that they were not getting this and there were some things, corrected there. And one of the things that the ARPA funds can pay is for critical staff, those who take a very an important part of the response to the pandemic, and they realized that they were were not getting the the pay. And she worked with, at that time, John Luthy, the interim county attorney, and requested that they she was gonna put in a request for some ARPA funding to compensate the employees, and that never came about because attorney Luthy was going to work on some compensation and was gonna go in another direction. Just recently, she realized that that compensation was never provided to the victim advocates. And so what she is doing is she is asking that the funds that she's already been awarded, she's not asking for additional amount of money, but using some of the funds that she already has, to compensate, her victim advocates. As we've been talking about this for the last week or ten days, we wanted to make sure that that she was falling within the correct stipulations, that it was eligible, that and which it is. But there was a certain time frame between 03/03/2021 and 04/10/2023. She had a few hours outside of that, and so we adjusted it. And she worked on a spreadsheet, and we, along with Britney and the and the finance administration, adjusted the hours and everything. And she is requesting $12,700, thereabouts and a few pennies, to be used from her already awarded funds to compensate her victim advocates. Again, she's not asking for additional funds. She's just asking that it be approved that she could pay them that money as they had gone out on call and and helped during the pandemic. So that's what she's asking.

What what had the funds been earmarked for prior to that?

The funds she was awarded a million and 50 or $60,000 in in a lot of different projects. Some were for helping with food, gas, the other individuals' mental health. There was quite a number of things. And and originally, if I can just, refresh your memory, originally, it was put in a a, like, six or eight different buckets of of money, pots of money, if you will. And then we were realizing that some of them were gonna go over and some of them were gonna go under. And so she came to the council and asked that she could just lump them all together and and we could just kind of adjust them. She wouldn't go over her total awarded money, but then she could just move it around and and use that for what you had already approved. And so she was she would just be using that, which would take a little bit away, I think well, the $12,700 away from other things she she wouldn't be able to cover. So she's not asking for the additional amounts, just what she's already been awarded. Did that answer your your question?

Yes. I I just wanted to make sure that something wasn't going to be left unfunded that was a critical

No. There's she will still have plenty of money. Of course, at some point, it's gonna run out. And she's been, you know, letting people know, and we've been concerned and saying you need to let people know that this is not an ongoing process or a service that the county is gonna be able to apply to provide, and these funds will eventually go away. So, yeah, it's it won't take away from any current. She will still be able to provide services. Thanks.

Other questions? I'd entertain a motion to you want to prove that? I guess we could go ahead and do that and we could approve that change right now, couldn't we? I would make a motion that we approve the request for the 12,700

to be moved from various departments or categories to help compensate the victims advocates for call out during COVID.

Second. Moved and seconded that we, allow that those transfers to happen within the ARPA money for victim advocates. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Go ahead if you would. Alright. Thank you. Good for that. Q to go.

I got a few other things and I'll try and really be brief. The applications process for the county departments was opened again, and, actually, that is actually closed for $480,000 or something like that. We received I just wanna give you an update of the next steps. 10 applications were received, and of those 10, as I'm just a brief, overview, There's two of them that are for sure eligible. There's another three three that are probably eligible, and then some of the others I need to do a little more research. The next step will be, these were all, they applied online. And so I've been working with Micah and and I've got the list from for the Appropriations Committee. I will be sharing that link with the Appropriations Committee and they will review those applications. And then they will meet on April 26 and discuss those and then make some recommendations to the council, and then it can be brought to the council as to what awards, what will be funded, and what recommendations they they make. I can also share with the remainder of the the council the applications as well so all of you have applications, if that's what you desire. Just wanted to give you an update on that. Any questions about that process?

K. I do. Yes. Does that use up the totality of the remaining balance? Oh, yes.

So there was 480,000 available. The request for from the 10, if they're all eligible, the total request is, 758,000.

So that that will totally be used up. And is there a way a follow-up question if may is there a way some of these have been coming under the budget requested amount. Is there a way to kinda have, like, these are our priorities for the top amount of money and these are you know, just because it's such a time consuming thing to bring it to us and we have to have these committed by the end of the year is that we could set up, like these are the plan b for any excess money that we could prioritize and for, you know, any overages from any of the the projects?

That's that's the the main reason why I've come this evening. I just wanted to give you an update on these other things is talking about the overages and the under. And so I I wanna before I do that, I wanna just give you a really quick update. I do report quarterly to the US Treasury. So the on this next report that's due by the end of this month, I will report another approximately 400 and or $540,000 and there's still about 9,700,000.0 that needs to be obligated. That sounds like a lot, but I have been talking to the to them, and I I really think that we can do this. But I think we need a you need a plan. So I do wanna talk about that. Let me give you a couple of examples. First off, you were already approved a water line in Richmond. That was with the public works department at their facility West of Richmond. They requested some money to put in water lines and some fire, service lines. And they have been the contractor is in the process of putting that in and installing. So what they did is when they got the bid, it came a little bit over, and so they kinda backed off on some of the things, and they're not gonna put in all of the fire connections and all the water connections. They will be able to complete it. It will be able to get water to the facility, but they're they're looking at maybe about $30,000 short in in the amount of money that they have been awarded that they may need so that they can complete the the project as it was, as it was engineered and and put in. There's a couple of ways that you could handle that. Some of the materials could be purchased by the public works, and they could go as close to the the amount that was awarded. And then they would have those materials that would be obligated to be spent. Money is spent by the 2026, we'll be alright. One of the problems in the US Treasury has made this very clear that once you've obligated the money by 12/31/2024, change orders, which is usually meaning more money and it's usually with contracts or construction projects, change orders cannot take place after December 31. So one of the issues, and and you brought that up very greatly, is if a a project is obligated to pay a certain amount and some change orders come in after December 31, how will you pay for it? Where will that money come from? Wanted to provide a couple of choices that you may have. You do have the fund balance. There most of the money from the standard allowance has been spent, and it's in fund balance. But I want to remind you of another pot of money that is it was funded under the Americans with American Rescue Act for the pandemic, and this is called the local assistance and tribal Consistency Fund. You've received the county has received two of those payments. They are recorded as unearned. They are not in the general fund, and so those funds are there. They were given from the act, ARPA act, but they don't have the restrictions of eligibility, of time lines, and all of that. The only thing that you can't spend them on is lobbying. Any other government services, you can spend them on. Those were received in two payments of $226,288 each. So there's roughly, what, $450,000 there. That's a possibility that could be used for overages. And then, you know, as we look at the the project out here in the parking lot, hopefully, it will be get under contract. They'll get underway, and and hopefully, we'll know if there's gonna be any change orders, and you will be able to have some of that money go into another project or paying for some overages or whatever you want to do. I will try and keep you I've I've shared a a file with you, that we use as for reporting, and, hopefully, that will give you some updates. And I will try and keep you updated either by coming here or through emails, and you can always call and ask questions.

But I wanna keep you updated. Also Appropriations Committee. Mhmm. Yes. You know, that that's that would be the Yes. I could I can make regular Go there and say, here's the status. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. K. That'd be great. We

have until the eighteenth.

Yeah. The

yeah. Unless you wanna always practice your public speaking skills. That's No. I'd rather not be recorded.

I'd rather go to a little smaller room and group of people, but I can give regular updates to the Appropriations Committee. That's a a great idea. So, unless you have any questions, there is one other one that I wanted to bring up. I know this has been on a lot of people's discussions and minds for quite some time, and I am just looking at it from, well, when I was hired two and a half years ago, Cameron said to me, okay. Here's these books. This is all the final rules, the interim final rules, all the questions and answers. You need to to, read these and understand them, and, we need to obligate and spend all of this money. And and so I'm I'm taking this hopefully seriously, and and I wanna make sure that you're apprised of it so that you can make decisions in a timely manner. But one of the the ones that that is it's been a topic for quite some time for probably over a year, and it's a significant amount of money. And as I become aware of other significant pots of money, I will let you know. But this is one that I think we need to have a discussion about. This is on the accounting software. The request, what you awarded was $607,500. It needs to be obligated by the end of this year or or put somewhere else if that route is not. Either way, I just wanted to let you know that that's that's it's there, and it needs to be either spent on that or or moved somewhere else, and we are running out of time to do that.

And we we have some at least I have some, study and analysis that I need to do to determine which way to go on that software. So I'm glad we have a a week to deal with it. Yeah.

I I actually did quite a bit of study today and spoken to county auditors and city finance managers from around the state. And I don't I I think I'd like to compose my thoughts and maybe write them down for the rest of the council, but but I feel like right now, it's it's it's good that we take the time together, all the information we can, especially where we don't have an auditor, we don't have a finance director. There's there's not somebody to say, let me take that and I will make it happen because it's gonna be really complex if we make a change. Mhmm. And so we just need to look at, you know, what are the deficiency of Cassell? Because, you know, Cassell has been working. What are the things that make it difficult to use? And is are those things worth taking more money and maybe a really complex project? And so I just think we all need to make sure we have the same information and that we look at that really carefully and make sure that we I think we still have time to obligate that money. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not I know it's I I know it's urgent, but by a little time, I I think we can I think we can make that choice?

Yeah. I'm not saying that any decisions need to be made. I just wanted you to be aware of that. And I will bring that any other projects, you know, there's the 150,000 from the the parking lot project, the 607,000 here. And as I become aware of others, I will let you know so that you will have sufficient time to to make decisions.

I think it's good that we're starting that conversation, and let's find out what else we need to know.

Yeah.

And thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? No. Appreciate it. K. Appreciate the update. Yeah. Thank you. We really do. Thank you.

Micah. 10 a? Organization introduction format of the policy manual. And by the way, that yeah. That is in our packet. So

Mhmm. Yeah. It should be in your packet. Got it up here on the screen now. So you'll recall at the end of last year, I think it was the last council meeting of last year, the this body passed, resolution twenty twenty three dash 28, which created the countywide policy manual for Cache County. This is not the same thing as the personnel policy and procedures manual, though a great deal of that manual will eventually migrate into the county wide policy manual. The difference between the two is simply that the PPP, personnel policy and procedures manual is, administered by the Office of Personnel Management and, essentially deals with all personnel matters. So anything dealing with personnel and, you know, hiring, you know, the benefits, pay, anything that's gonna be administered by the Office of Personnel Management. Countywide policy manual is basically for all other policies of the county. County wide policies. Both manuals are amended through resolution. And so most resolutions other than budget resolutions from this point will state near the beginning of the resolution whether it amends the PPP manual or this new county wide policy manual. So what this resolution does is it creates just the bare bones structure. Oh, I don't have this is the wrong the wrong file that I pulled up here. Here we go. What this resolution does is it creates just the structure and format of the countywide policy manual. It doesn't actually add any new policies to it. So, if this resolution passes tonight, we will have an empty countywide policy manual, until further resolutions change that. So this is the the, table of contents and I've just this this will be the numbering format. This is gonna be numbered differently than the PPP manual just to make it a little bit easier to distinguish between the two. And we have some sections there. Again, this is a living document so these can be amended. The reason I chose those those particular section names is because we do have, existing policies that were ready to basically migrate into each of those sections. So, for example, I I have, this was provided to me by our attorney's office. This is resolution 89 dash two. So this is a resolution that's older than I am And it, it states that the county office buildings will remain closed on Saturday and that the, office of clerk, sheriff, recorder, auditor, treasurer, assessor, and attorney will be open from eight to five. Dated when? It's dated the 01/03/1989.

That's older than you, That's older than me. Yep.

Yep. Signed by council chair c Dennis Funk. So so that this would go in that section for building ground and maintenance. Building grounds and maintenance. And so I wouldn't just simply insert this into this kind of a policy manual.

Even adding an existing policy will still be done through resolution. So if you wanna make an amendment to this this,

make an amendment to this this, thirty five year old policy, you're you're you'll be free to do so. So, that's all this has. I it does have an introduction to the countywide policy manual. Where did it go? That states basically what I just stated before, that it that this is a a a manual of all county policies other than personnel policies. And so and and it'll be created through resolution. And that's really all that we've got. So that's the resolution. That's what it is. Now we have this

we will have this set up, then o and p can make sure that all these things are organized and are in there so that we have, like you say, a working document Yep. Yep. For the entire and this is the one that covers the entire county.

Yes. Yes. And that that that's important to clarify. Not just the not just the personnel. So Yeah. And and for example, we are working on, like, a whistleblower policy and that will be under the ethics section two, you know, revenue and finance. There are some things that exist in county code even that will still be in county code, but that will then just be copy and paste into resolution in the kind of way policy manual just because I I think employees, kinda why county employees, are probably more likely to consult a policy manual than maybe county code, when they're not sure how to to do something. The the revenue and finance is gonna be a lot of the practices that we've already instituted, dealing with revenue and finance and, expenditures, budgeting, things like that. So

any other questions? Very good. Any other questions?

No. I don't hold it. The one thing I did feel to mention is we are gonna put this online. This will be on the county website. And I'm not sure exactly where, but I'll be talking to Bart to make that happen. And we'll find a home for it.

Terrific. No questions? Alright. Let's move right when we've had. So Let's move right into it is initial proposal. Let's go with let's discuss it or, however you whatever you're in the favor of the council is. We would have to suspend the rules to pass this tonight. I move to suspend the rules and and approve resolution twenty twenty four dash o eight. Second. Moved and seconded. We suspend the rules and pass resolution twenty twenty four zero eight. Any discussion? We're gonna break it. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thinking you're triggered happier. I am. I'm getting ready. No. You act. Any any changes on any of those? Any additions, deletions?

Everyone's names on here has already had accommodations prepared,

unless there's a question mark. Yeah. I didn't. I haven't reserved a room for Dave.

Plan on me.

Okay. Yes. Yes. Everyone except Dave has a has a room. Cool. Yep. And it's at the What nights do you have rooms for? Just

Tuesday? Monday and Tuesday night. Monday and Tuesday nights. Yes.

Yes. The the thirtieth and the first. And so if let me know if you wanna stay the the last night because it does get out at, like, five. It does?

And well We're leaving early. Really early.

It gets over at five. Can you see the agenda? Four four or five, but it's like the last

few items that that from one to four or one to five is like Breakout sessions. Breakout sessions. So I the reason I booked the rooms that way is because that's when the rates were. So there wasn't a UAC rate for Wednesday night. Wednesday night? There wasn't a UAC rate for that night. So I didn't book one. But I can book one if you if you need one. I can understand that.

Which hotel is it?

Garden. Hilton Garden, and it's it's right next to the conference center. I I'll verify that. I'm pretty certain it's the Hilton Garden.

Sounds good. Thanks, Micah. Yes. Okay. How about, we are limited, and I failed to recognize council member Barbara Tidwell and and Mark Herd that they are absent. Sorry for not recognizing them that they are gone. Let's go ahead and council member reports. Let's start down here. Carl.

You know, I don't have anything to report. K.

Sandy.

Just Thursday at twelve, there is going to be a meeting at the Bragg offices in their boardroom regarding broadband. You know, they we got a bunch of money for broadband in the state, and they've been trying to work up those maps. We've been waiting forever. They finally released the maps, maps, and so there's gonna be a discussion. If there's any money to be, applied for, we wanna make sure that we our county is on top of that. So anybody that wants to come, I don't know if you all got that email.

Is there a

a company that's that's spearheading that? There will be I know you told you How many? There will be several they said there would be several companies there to talk about. I don't really understand exactly what the process is gonna be. I just know that that I know Box Elder County already got a bunch of money. There's money to be had. We wanna try and make sure we're not for the county or is it further focusing on the on incorporated or more rural areas? Do you know? Sorry if I'm asking The service. It depends on the areas that need to be serviced. Under served. They're looking at underserved areas. Yeah. And and to see if some of the providers are willing to to help to provide that service. So I don't understand it completely, but I'm gonna go and try and listen. So anybody else that wants to come, that would be it's at 12:00, and then on the eleventh, Thursday.

Yeah. Nothing.

I don't have anything. Thank you, mister chair. Nothing either. Okay. I don't have anything either. So,

I don't have anything, thank you Mr. Chair. Nothing either. Okay, I don't have anything either, so I'll, with that in mind. Look at that. She's over there smiling. She's ready to write down the time. Nothing else, then we'll go ahead and adjourn.