Cache County Council Regular Meeting – 01-13-2026

Woman, I just thought of a thought. Oh boy.

The thought I'd like to share A while back, I had the opportunity to study some of the philosophers of the enlightenment and and those that had influence upon the founding fathers, school of thought, etcetera. So I thought I'd pull a quote from them to share tonight. And the one I decided on was from the, leader of thought, John Locke. And the particular thought goes as follows. This, I think, I may at least say that we should have a great many few disputes in the world fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only and not for things themselves. And, you know, as any thought is, open to your interpretation, but I feel like that's a good thing to carry with us at all times. I'd also like to include a opening prayer. Our father in heaven, we are grateful for the opportunity we have as members of this community to gather to discuss and conduct the business of the legislative body for Cache County. We're grateful for the opportunity it is for we as citizens to serve, those our peers and our friends and family around us. And we're grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in this land to do so. We pray for thy spirit to bless not only our county, our community, and the state of Utah, as well as our nation, and the world in general. We're grateful, Father, for the opportunities that thou has made available to us in our lives and for the experience we have of, conducting our lives as free people. We pray that this will peace and opportunity will continue. We give thanks for the blessings of health and strength that thou has bestowed upon us, and we pray that thou will continue to be mindful of those in our community who are in need of thy aid and could use an extra uplifting moment from someone around them. We pray for the inspiration of others that that will happen. We're grateful for the opportunity we have to gather here, and we pray for a special blessing of thy spirit to be with us in this meeting as we conduct the business of the county. We pray for guidance in our decisions. We say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Finally, will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Beat after me. 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, Mark. You're welcome. Thank you. His words.

K. The first order of business is it's time to elect new council leadership. So I would open up the floor for nominations.

It is with appreciation for the service she has done, that I nominate Sandy Goodlander as chair for 2026.

I second that.

K. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any other discussion or any other nominations that anyone would like to make? You accept the nomination? I would accept that nomination. K. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. Then it is my I will take on the new chairmanship for the year and open the floor for nominations for vice chair chairperson.

Madam chair, I'd make a motion that we nominate Catherine Buse to continue to serve as the vice chair.

I would second that with great appreciation as well.

Thank you. I'll accept.

Any other discussion or any other nominations that someone would like to make? K. There's that's nomination closed. We'll take a vote. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. Alright. Here we go again. And thank you all for your support. We appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Approval of the agenda. Does anyone want to make a motion about the agenda? So moved. Second. It moved and seconded that we approve the agenda. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. What about the minutes from the last meeting? It was the meeting we had on the December 17. Did anyone have chance to look at those? Yep. I moved to approve the minutes from the December 17 council meeting. K. Second. Been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes from December 17. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. Our county executive and our deputy county executive are not in town tonight, so we'll they didn't contact me with anything they wanted to present. So we'll go to the items of special interest. Andrew, do you wanna talk to us about the special meeting that we need to have?

Sure thing. Good evening, council. I would recommend that you all please schedule a special meeting for January 20 at 5PM. This Saturday, there will be a meeting that will select the replacement for Barbara's seat of the Logan number two seat on the county council. And by state code, that has to be ratified by the county legislative body within seven calendar days, and this would meet that requirement. If you guys waited until your next meeting, that time line would have elapsed, and then Bryce would have to contact the governor. It'd be a whole thing. So yes. Hey. You're the good guy. Come on. So I would Are you on your speed dial? So I would suggest that you all vote to schedule a meeting for January 20 at 5PM. And then if you guys choose to do so, per county code and state law, I will need your signatures on this. Do you guys have any questions?

Is is I will not be in town. Are there is there a quorum that will be available that night?

I can make it. Yeah. I can make it.

For the Dave? I can make it. That's three.

We got four. We got did Dave, you said you could? I should be able to be there. Mark, you, and me, and Keegan so far. So Okay. Okay. We got we got Hopefully, Dave. Okay.

Alright. Does someone wanna make a motion then so we can take an official vote on that?

I'd make a motion that we Schedule. Establish or schedule the, special meeting for January 20 at 5PM for the appointment of the replacement for council member for Logan

Two. Two.

I'll second that. K. It's been moved and seconded that we schedule the special county council meeting for January 20. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. Alright. Next, we have our our health department.

Yes. Oh, everybody.

Our slides. Jordan Mathis with the Bear River Health Department. We're here. Trevor Cook with Bear River Mental Health is here with me as well. We're here to talk about behavioral health integration plan that we've conducted two webinars with county elected leaders to review this. Can you hit slideshow there? So it's focused on a cup well, an option that we feel maximizes resources and and moves towards potential better health outcomes in a increasing demand for needs around behavioral health, which is inclusive primarily of mental health services and substance abuse services. So if you'll go to the next slide, that'd be great. We're kind of a unique creature. I if you were on the webinar, you know we're kind of a unique creature when it comes to behavioral health in our area. I call it the barenicorn. It exists somewhere in the mountains here in Northern Utah. If you go to the next, you can there's just a little thing that says baronacorn. But in all reality, we are the only recently, you created the United Local Health Department. We're the only jurisdiction in the state that has that classification. That's where local health department, the local substance abuse authority, and the mental health local mental health authority were all put under one umbrella of a interlocal agreement with the expectation that we would then contract those services working with Bear River Mental Health to provide those. One of the other areas that were unique, as we talked about before Go ahead to the next. Is this concept of Medicaid capitation. The counties are on the hook to provide match dollars for Medicaid for substance use and mental health services. And one of the ways other jurisdictions have have been able to, help to manage and control the amount of of match dollars that are required for the counties to match under Medicaid is to capitate those systems, both mental health and substance abuse. Mental health has been capitated for about twenty plus years, something like that. Right? Thirty two, I think. Thirty two. So several decades, we're still out of fee for service. And so we wanted to as we were looking at trying to bring things together better, we wanted to capitate the the substance abuse as well. And that brought up some complications in trying to figure out how do we kinda work our system, our unique system that we have. And we came to we we focused our efforts on some priorities. I just wanna hit on those, and then I'll show the go ahead to the next. Once again, we we we really stay focused on those health outcomes for individuals and populations. We wanted to streamline the oversight. We wanted to maximize that funding staff and other resources including reducing the elimination of duplication of effort. We really wanted to integrate behavioral health and substance abuse services, particularly for those that have a dual diagnosis. We do have populations that it's like the chicken or the egg. Are they suffering from a mental health issue or are the drugs causing the mental health issue or are they treating their mental health issue with drugs, all those things, and how do we help those individuals. And then increased coordination of care with our partners. We really wanted to be able to focus that and figure out how we can best do that. We went in that webinar, we went through several different models, but the model that we've really landed on was a full integration model, which is displayed here. Essentially, what this would do is it would still put the legal obligation for contracting with Department of Health and Human Services for those authority contracts, meaning the the counties are the substance abuse and mental health authority, but they've delegated that responsibility to contract and oversee those responsibilities to the health department. We would still have that responsibility, but we would essentially look at passing the majority of the those dollars through. And then streamlining the capitation portion. As Trevor said, they've been doing it for thirty two years. For us to try to duplicate and figure out how to do that on the substance abuse side would be difficult and it would be a waste of of resources where they have some economies at scale where they could bring that on and make that happen in our community on the substance abuse side. So they would capitate and and be that single provider. What that means is that, the current providers that are in the system under the health department would move under the umbrella of that provider that would provide mental health and substance abuse treatment in our community, and be that single entry point for those partners and have better opportunity for coordination of care for individuals and be responsible for those outcomes. When we talk about the the streamlining of the the oversight, the oversight is still the responsibility of the counties. To have that oversight, that's where the connection with Bear River Health Department comes into play. We have elected leaders on our board of health. We still have the behavioral health advisory council, which is an agent of the counties, and would be directed underneath the Bear River Health Department, would provide input into the area plan, that would give guidance to to bear over mental health in how those services are to be delivered. So there'd still be the the governance and oversight that's needed under the law, input from the counties on how things are done. But what it would do is it would try to coordinate that and bring it all together. Go to the next slide. It does come one thing that we wanted to I wanna make sure before there's consideration given by the legislative body is we did talk in that about about a quarter million shortfall that's a result of how we've structured ourselves. The health department has a process of allocating some of its administrative costs off of each contract. This would mean we're moving our largest contract to Bear River Mental Health. And so we need to be able to still cover some of those administration costs that we can't get rid of, like cost of buildings and things like that. And so we would be looking, not this year, but next year to working with the three counties to see figure out how we can overcome that shortfall. But we do feel like the added benefit in coordination of care and everything like that and the streamlining of of services and oversight, having one group that helps to oversee and hopefully keep those the growth in Medicaid match in check for the counties is a benefit long term benefit to our communities. So we're recommending this as to you as the substance abuse and mental health authority. We're gonna be going to the other two counties as well. But that's our recommendation for your consideration. If you'll hit through the next two slides. This is just reminding you that I have that responsibility under code. But if it's approved, like I said, we'll take it to the other counties. It will require us to go through a rewrite of the contracts that we have with the Barrow Road Mental Health and a rewrite of the interlocal agreement. Not a huge one, but it will make some minor changes that will have to come back in front of you as the legislative bodies of the counties for consideration. So there it wouldn't be the last time we talked about this.

So, Jordan, I I know some people might have some questions, and we asked some during the webinar. Do you want us to vote on this tonight? Like, are we on time frame where we need to vote on this tonight for you to get this done?

We do have a a pretty tight timeline. I mean, if it were to be on the next meeting, I'm not getting I can't get in front of Rich County until February because they only meet once a month. So if you do wanna table it and think of questions and and have us come back to your next meeting in January you have another one in January. Right? Then then it wouldn't be it wouldn't stall us out. So

k. I don't know how many of you were able to listen to that webinar. If you have further questions, do you wanna ask Jordan some questions? Or do we wanna discuss it and take a vote tonight or table it? You guys let me know. Yes, Dave. The 250,000

is distributed amongst all three entities. Right? What is Of Cache Counties? And then we have the largest

piece of the pie. 65%. Piece of the pie,

percent piece of the pie, by the way? Yeah. It's it's it's distributed based off of population. So we just have to get the ratio of what the current population is and that that'd be your percentage. I think it's closer closer to maybe, like, 75 to

80%. Let's do the recommendation during the summer at Bear Lake, and then they get a bigger report to say this.

That's that's the health and residents. Yes. Do the summer count over there.

And then the these dollars, they will be basically be part of the budget ongoing funding that's gotta remain within that budget probably Yeah. Almost in perpetuity.

Yep. So k. What are the questions?

And so that would be something we'd work into the 2027

budget. 2027.

Yes. Yeah. You you can cover clear till, you know, through this year. Okay.

Yep. I just wanna compliment Trevor and and Jordan and Josh Greer and those at the health department that have really when they first brought this up, it was 500,000 was the shortfall, and I think they've sharpened their pencils and figured out ways to make that work for everybody. And I feel like it'll really improve the outcome the health outcomes in our county, especially for those that are sometimes suffering the worst. So

I wanna compliment how working together is Mhmm. You know, it's it's it's really it's it's refreshing to see how everything's working together, to get it put together right, that helps both organizations, to help the people and everything. It's it's huge. Yeah. It's really I think it you ought to be complimented both both organizations need to be complimented heavy for it. I agree. Thanks.

K. Does someone wanna make a motion, or do we wanna table it? Just had a question. To and this might not be for tonight, and I guess if we vote, then it won't matter at all. But do you have a use case of someone going through the system under these scenarios or a situation that might help us understand how it's being administered now, and how it would be under the full integration?

Yeah. So I think one of the best examples and Trevor, you can jump in. But I think one of the best examples is we have what's called specialty courts. There's a mental health court and there's called a recovery court. We oversee the recovery court, which is for individuals struggling with substance abuse. And they they cover the the mental health court, so the specialty court. And when you have a name like Bear River Mental Health and Bear River Health Department, it's confusing for the public. We oftentimes get clients that come different places. But even for those individuals that work closely with us, it's just going to be a better situation for the courts. And and I thought I saw the sheriff come in. And even for down in corrections, if they have one entity that they can say, we have an individual. We need your help. Whether it's with mental health or substance abuse, it's just so much easier to have one case manager down there that can make a referral regardless of what the diagnosis might be or what the issue is, rather than being like, are we calling the right bear? Right? That's are are we calling the right agency for us to help this individual? And so I think the in justice involved individuals, it becomes a lot easier for the courts, for law enforcement to say, we're we know that we're going to the right we we don't know where to go. That's not their job. But we we know who we need to call. Does that make sense? Yeah. So I'm just wondering with you would you say that that would increase the efficiency of those offices

in terms of avoiding redundancy or having to do another call? I know that was one of the goals stated earlier. Yeah. And then the second part of that question is the individual. What's the impact of maybe someone being able to get help quicker or going through the system sooner? Yeah. So Either financially or just well-being of the county.

So sometimes we've we've had individuals, say that they have the primary diagnosis is substance abuse. And they're on they're on Medicaid. Right? And we're going through the process of working with them through their substance abuse. And we they go through recovery. Right? And now they're fully recovered, but it doesn't mean that their underlying primary mental health diagnosis is completely gone. And before, we were kinda a little bit torn in, like, do you continue the treatment or now do we make the referral over to Bear River Mental Health? Because now it's strictly mental health and we're the substance abuse side of that. Now if you're under on one umbrella, it just says, you continue care with the provider that you're having this success with. And we continue to allow them to to work in that way. And so I think it provides greater continuity for some individuals to continue with the the person that they built a trusting relationship that they've had success with in their overall efforts to improve their outcomes. Does that make sense? Mhmm.

Yeah. I have one more question on, for example, and let me Trevor might be able to answer this even better. I don't know whether with this receiving center that's coming in and with these with this additional dollars, we possibly looking at more dollars? Are you talking about operations of the receiving center? Operations, all, you know, different things like this. Are we talking that this gets us combined and then we're probably gonna have to add some later when the receiving center gets going? Or So the receiving centers for mental health and substance use,

more mental health crisis, but there will be substance code in. It's funded by state. And so for the building, we are awarded through the state the funds for the building. Right now, it looks like we'll be paying for some of it with our own money as well. We didn't get all the money that we needed to make the building whole as far as financially. And then we get ongoing funds from the state to run the staff essentially. And as the years progress, that becomes lower and we take on more of the risk of running that. So, no, there won't be any more money asked from the county to support it.

Receiving center. Well, you're you're telling me that you've looked into all this stuff and these are our hopes and we still may have to evolve into some surprise

possibly. Yeah. Bossway, we've had the discussions with the state as far as ongoing funds that at some point, the state may say we're not funding receiving centers anymore. I think right now that's not the case, but down the road if the budget was to shrink. I know, for instance, Northeastern built a receiving center, but they don't have funds to essentially run it, and so they have a new building but no staff. And so that's kind of up in the air as far as they're concerned, but we were funded statutorily to have the funds for this receiving center. So majority of it's mental health, but there is a substance use aspect. And going back to what Jordan said, having one entry point, one organization overseeing those individuals coming in instead of having a in a bifurcated system where we're trying to coordinate with the health department with substance use. It does make it more, seamless and, I think, easier for individuals who come into the receiving center to understand who they're going to during that time frame and when they leave.

Thank you. Yep. Trevor, while you're there, I was in a meeting with you last week and so I got an update a status update. I know it doesn't necessarily have to do this, but do you mind giving us a status update of the receiving center? So, yeah, if you go and see it's on about 1900

North 2nd West, it's right behind, Murdoch Chevrolet. It used to be axed out. And so they put us so it's all framed. They've got the roof done. They're working on an interior, plumbing and electrical. They've wrapped it. It's not Tyvex. They did something else. I can't remember what they called it, but so there should be sheet rocking in the next couple of weeks. The window should be going in by the end of the month.

Is that the unique colored one right now? Yeah.

No. Well, I told them that we could put turquoise around and call it the health department. But so, yeah, it'll be covered. It's gonna be a rock exterior, like a grayish rock with a lot of windows in it just for natural light into the areas that, you know, the clients will be in. So we're hoping we kinda asked him because we've gotta get staff hired, and that's been one of the biggest challenges I think for the other centers throughout the state. It's hiring twenty four seven nurses and medical staff. And so they said hopefully by June. So we get funded. Our funding starts again July 1. And so they went promises, which I understand from a contractor standpoint, but we're hoping July 1 we're going. That's a

hope. So Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Trevor. Yep.

Be good to get the exact dollar amount, what our share is before we vote on it, if possible.

We can we can do that and take a vote next next time. Do you wanna do that? I think the percentages it's based on population. It's based on it'll be the same as the BRAC percentages, what we pay to BRAC, which I thought was about 65%, sixty, sixty five. Yeah. I don't I don't

I don't know for sure. Is that something you can provide by January 27? Yeah. And we can vote on it in that meeting?

Okay. K. Awesome. We'll take that. We'll continue.

Personally, I would like to at least personally, I would like to at least when they go to these other you'll be meeting with the other two counties before we meet again. Right? Yeah. I just wanna let you know my favorable vote will occur. So I don't know if you can take that to to where we're looking at positively and and just it's gonna just have one question answered and and then be able to move on

it. So k. K. Thanks, everyone. Alright. Diana.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. So bring two hardships from last year before you. They both come with no recommendation for approval as both were information non compliant. You got the PDFs all right? Yep. Yep. And so if you have any questions for me or if you want some more information?

I don't think so. They were both pretty Yeah. Clear cut that they had not provided what you asked them for. Madam chair? Yes. I would move that we support

the recommendation because of lack of compliance on both of them on Last one with 22. And 14. Last one with 14 that we go the the auditor's office and and deny. Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we deny both of the hardship cases that are before us. Is there any further discussion? Okay. Those in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Thank you. And I see you've got your signature forms. If I'll give them to Bryson. And I'll get them from him in the morning. Thank you so much. Hannah.

Madam Chair, I move to set the public hearing for January 27 at approximately 05:30 for the cemetery maintenance district vacancies. The of ordinance twenty twenty six zero one, Dutson rezone, ordinance twenty twenty six zero two, amendment to the Cache County code to update the r u two, r u five zone standards, and the ordinance twenty twenty six zero three amendment to the Cache County code to allow for canal setback, exemption, and increasing lot coverage in the commercial zone.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we set the aforementioned public hearings for January 27 at approximately 05:30. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We are rocking and rolling. Okay. Each of you has a list of the the current this is what what Andrew the information Andrew has about our current committee assignments. And Dave men mentioned some that he thought were incorrect. Let's correct all of them first, and then let's move forward. So if you look at if what's under your name, if there's something that isn't listed correctly Yep. Let's let's get that information first.

There is one that says water consortium. I think that's supposed to be waste consortium. And I don't think we currently have a solid waste committee. I think that's part of the waste consortium that we're dealing with there. So we could probably eliminate that

one. Understood. It has me down as the waste consortium executive committee. That is Dave Erickson at this time now. He's been assigned that one, so that would flow to Dave. When would that happen?

Right now. Right

now. Remember that remember that meeting you did attend?

We're voluntold. So you're still on the waste consortium For the next meeting you did. But not an exec. K. K. So that moves up to Dave.

All of mine appear to be correct.

So we're taking water consortium off. Right? That should be waste. Yes. Should be waste too.

Okay. And then I was looking at the the committees that Barbara has vacated, and we have a new person coming in. And I wanted to maybe suggest that we rearrange some of those and give some of the heavier lifts to more seasoned council members and maybe start our new person in something a little less heavy. And one of the biggest ones I was looking at is the ordinance and policy, the OMP committee. And there are I I who's who's all on that committee? Is it it's Dave and Mark. Yeah. And it was Barbara. And it was Barbara. And Barbara was the chair. And Nolan, Catherine, and I are Appropriations. Appropriations, which is another it's not as big, but it's it's pretty involved, especially around the budget time. And so, Keegan, I don't know if you feel comfortable do if you have time. Ordinance and policy meets quite a bit more often as things come up. I'm definitely interested

with the caveat that I might not be able to attend every meeting. I just don't wanna over commit myself. So if if we're okay with that, I

I would accept that. Just Big decision. Okay. If there's if there's times when you can't be there, if you'll let the the other of us have the option to go Yeah. So that we'll have three people there to Assuming the schedule would continue, we've been meeting Friday mornings. How often? And and it's not regular, is it? Eight thirty weeks. Once a month.

Once a month. That should be doable for the most part. I feel that's doable. Yeah. Perfect.

I I k. So we'll put Actually, we can move it to twice a month.

Amy won at 7AM.

Amy. Amy. Sorry to disappoint you. 08:30.

Or 08:30.

Well,

if we if we could negotiate 07:30 and some breakfast burritos, I'd So, Keegan, is there another one that you would be willing to give up then to in exchange for that? Something that you do that you think could be for the like, maybe the visitors bureau or I don't know. You look you look at it and see if there's something. Because you you have a pretty heavy load, and we wanna make sure that we integrate our new council member. Yeah.

It's gonna say that audit committee hasn't been that heavy.

No. It it doesn't mean it needs very period As needed.

Yeah.

Let me think about that for a sec. Okay. You think about that. I was gonna say, would it be a bad idea that we maybe just postpone this until the twentieth? And maybe with that special meeting, we could talk about it.

If you guys wanna do that. Or Sandy won't be here. We could put this off till February.

Well, it's I think we can talk about some concepts tonight if we even if we don't finish it.

Yeah. Get I'm I'm okay with, you know, putting it off. But, just with the timing, there's a library board meeting tomorrow. So if I'm going to Yes. Continue with that, no problem. But if somebody else was going to be doing it, then they would need to be ready to go for tomorrow. But The the other one that I was going to suggest to to all of you and to see what you think, I currently am liaison with the auditor's office.

Catherine is liaison with finance. They're now combined. So my recommendation would be that that I move the auditor down to Catherine. She just take that she's the liaison with the auditor and the finance, and maybe put the sheriff with me so that as we go through this next year that we have somebody the sheriff's, like, half of our budget that maybe put me as the liaison to the sheriff. I think that's a good idea. And then if Catherine wanted to give the recorder back up to our new person. Yeah. Recorder would be good. That that was my recommendation. And I don't know if you guys wanna think about that, if you wanna vote on some of them, if you want to Write them on here so that we can think about them. I'd like to think about it because there's three that I probably could give up, and maybe the person who

takes Barbara's spot might be interested in one of those three more than another. So and it can be a collaborative decision.

Alright. K. Somebody wants Hardware Ranch. I mean,

they meet Have you ever met? Never. Never had a meeting. Mhmm.

It's funny.

They used to.

K. And I'll go up there on the sleigh rides and see if they need anything. So Who would? The guy that runs it to my neighborhood If we get enough snow. Oh, yeah. We have snow. The county's involvement now

I'm actually on the northern Deer Committee. Uh-huh. And the Northern Region Deer Committee. K. And no. We're talking antler deer. Okay? They're they we do meet, and they're actually the Blair Stringham that came and brought the dollars for the pilt Uh-huh. Money that Mhmm. Is affiliated a lot with the the Harbor Ranch area. He's also on that committee, and and so that could be combined with something that I'm already doing. So it's it's just a matter of just working with them. And, catching

deer, bringing them in, drawing blood. And So do you wanna add that to your like, so that we know for sure that that's your We might be independent of the coast of the trade.

Oh. I thought we were kinda bartering the trade with you. Okay. I was just gonna wait till Nolan didn't attend one of these meetings.

And then vote him as chair.

Yeah. Every give us give some thought to that. Yeah. And then and think about the the the some of the couple of things that I've recommended. And then if you guys wanna wait until the twentieth to vote on that or even the twenty seventh, I won't be here either one of those meetings. I apologize, but I'm good with what the group wants to do. I just I just felt like we wanted to make sure that we don't throw someone into the deep end. And

The County Boundary Commission that I'm on, it has been probably four, five years since we've met. And that's just the matter is all it is is when they have disputes from a city has disputes on Oh. Annexing. They fight with each other on annexing a certain property. The last The last one was Logan City and Nibley.

And so

That's admirable. Firefight work. And so it it doesn't happen very frequent. And it's just a matter when you do that, you that you were in charge of that committee, but you work heavily with the assessor's office in that. So but it's it's really again, most things are usually worked out before then, so it isn't much there. Okay. If someone else wanted to just be ready.

Alright. Somebody take over Barbara's position on UAC, or does that just go back to UAC for them to reassue? On USAC. So they'll have to They'll re okay. Okay. I didn't know if that Yeah. K.

Okay. Are you guys comfortable with that? Then you wanna just give keep giving that some thought and and bring it out and vote next time?

Yeah. Let's look at it soon. Yeah. Some more. Catherine will be in charge of both of those meetings. It is good on the liaisons just that we switch around. Usually, every year, we've kinda switched around to make sure we get into different departments and

k. Alright. That was good on that. Open and public meeting acts training. Andrew's gonna give us a few things from Robert's rules of order just to little snippets as we go. Come on. You you can do it.

Save.

We we do need to I I feel like as a body, we need to whatever structure we're going to function under, whether it's complete Robert's Rules of Order, our county optional plan says we can modify that if that's what we decide on. But to just be kind of loose and not have a clear direction sometimes, I think, is confusing to the public or maybe somebody who is a parliamentarian. And so Andrew's gonna kinda guide us in a few things as we go through this next year. And

So this item, the open and public beatings act training is a little bit different from the parliamentary procedure substance, but, yes, I was planning on talking to you guys a little bit more about that on the twenty seventh, but as it specifically pertains to procedure, I think just making more clear about what exactly you're motioning for and who's speaking when. Just I don't know, you guys do a really good job when it comes to being cordial with each other, and I think that you I think as long as that stays the same, I think that'll keep this body functional moving forward. But always room for improvement. Anyway, on in terms of the open and public meetings act training, so every year, the governing body of every county, whether that's the county commission or, in this case, the county council, you guys are required to go through open and public exec training. All of you guys have already had exposure to this. I've already given you guys some instructions on how to access an online training to go through it. It takes fifteen minutes. It's kinda painless. Anyway, if you guys would like to complete that as soon as possible and let me or Sandy know since she is now reelected as chair and the presiding officer, that would be greatly appreciated. Do you guys have any questions?

Just this one? Yes.

Okay.

Sandy, has Kurt Webb talked to you? He gave me a book on Robert's orders that I'm like, holy flip. I need Yeah. Three years to read it. He ordered one for all of you. They're down in the office.

Okay. Yes. But and and I and I really want to emphasize that we we are not held to a strict Robert's rule of order. But to be less confusing to the public and to be more cohesive amongst ourselves, if there's parts of it that we're gonna kind of be a little more modified on, we should be clear about that so that we are as we move forward, that's that structure. Even, like, last year when we voted for chair and vice chair, we didn't have a structure in place. This year, we did. I think things like that. Like, I had someone from the public say to me, that was kinda confusing. You know, they I I've been in a lot of organizations, and there's an it should be a complete structure in how you vote a new chair. And I thought, oh, you know, they're just just little things like that that I think we can do as a group that'll help as we function. But we don't have that book is not a a absolute absolute.

Yep. No. If I More like a guideline. Yes. If I may so during the final meeting final regular meeting of last year, there was discussion on passage of the budget. And there was motion made and then some sort of substitute motion. And so I made a substitute to the substitute. There's a question on how do you guys proceed. Having that thick book in front of you as a reference guide, that's when it's useful. So it's not completely something that, you know, you pack away in your office and never use. But I definitely think that it is of use. But like Sandy said, the way the optional plan phrases it is the county council shall its proceeding shall generally be governed by Robert's Hills of Order. So take that as you will.

Yeah. And also, I know there are many of you on this council that have far more experience in meetings that are governed by Robert's Rules of Order than I do. And I'm always open to suggestions or a gentle elbow in the side when if there's something I'm not doing right. So please speak up about that.

I have found that the interpretation of Robert's Rules of Order is very different from organization to organization, from Mhmm. County, state, Washington, DC. They can't even spell it. But they they're, you know, they're tick for tack and definitions of every word that go back there to try to catch somebody on something. But it is very different, even with a few weeks ago when we had the substitute back and go. The more simple that you make it, the better it runs.

Mhmm. Yeah. I agree. Let's make it simple and do one meeting a month like Rich County.

Or or one every third week. I'm saying

Sandy's the bonafide chair now, but it's legit and followed and confusion free. We we followed the we followed the regulation. If you ever need to review game film and do, like, a John Madden analysis, if you did something wrong, you can use me as a less effective example. Oh, boy.

That's fine.

Alright. Thank you, Andrew. That's fine. That's fine. K. The special election is January 17. That's this Saturday. I hope we can all be there. I know Joanne is here. She's one of the candidates. Is Jeffrey Wallentine here? Is that you? Okay. I wondered if that might be you. Good luck both of you, and, one of you will be here with us. At On the twentieth? Where? Your location? At Ridgeline High School. At Ridgeline High School at 10:00. Yep. No. It's ten, and you'll and and we don't none of us will get to vote. So unless you because none of us live in Barber's District, so we can be there to support.

You at Day on the Hill, if you are available and plan to be there, I hope you've let Andrew know. I I had a question about that. So last time, I think, Catherine set up some appointments from around ten to noon. Is someone doing that again? Are we gonna try to meet with our state legislators? So I was going to speak to that

because that's what I did last year. It's the second day of the session. Yeah. So it's kind of early in the session, and we had a really productive meeting with them. I don't know. I don't want it to be just a social call with our legislators since we had such a productive meeting. I I was gonna just look to you to what we wanted to do as a group. It's I I wish we I wish this was later in the session. Yeah. That's it feels like it's yeah. It feels like it's very early in the session since February

would be a wonderful one because it's not the weekend. Right. And you know what bills you're reviewing and you can give your opinion on Being the second thing set something up in February to say, okay. We have some concerns. Would you meet with us? And I'm sure they would. I'm sure they will. But yeah. I don't wanna waste their time with just sitting in their office and be like, what's up? Yeah. But I so the there was a couple of committee meetings that I was a part of today with UAC, and I know Dave was in one of them, Sandy was in the other. Maybe I think maybe Dave and I are both of them together. But, in the second one, the natural resource committee, there's there's already some strong opinions formed on some legislation that we might consider having a conversation with our legislators about. But other than that, I mean, I yeah. I'm with you. It's it's too early Yeah. For, I think, the impact that the county's day on the bill will have. Yeah. We don't know. And so I would like to take that back to UAC to say, hey. Let's schedule this next year, you know, at least halfway through.

Yeah. I mean, before it seems like they at least have ten days into the session on the other,

down the hill. So There are a pocket full of bills right now that didn't make the cut on time at their last session. Oh, for the cost. Oh, for the cost. That are gonna be I mean, they were gonna be right on the forefront. They got the early numbers. I think they're gonna go bang, bang, bang, because they were such favorable last time, just didn't make the time cut. Yeah. They do that at the beginning. A lot of times past. But most of those are pretty good. Yeah. And I know we were able to meet with our state legislators in December

Mhmm. In here. And so we did accomplish a lot. I was gonna ask if there's anything on that list, the agenda that we did get through, or maybe something that we had to hurry over that we might wanna revisit. That's the only thing I could think of of why those might be useful.

You know, every meeting that I am in or that I hear people talk about, the the number one priority of the speaker and the governor and everybody is property taxes. And I think we did a really good job of describing to our legislators where we are at and how property tax works and hopefully gave them a perspective that it's not gonna I just don't see a one size fits all for the state. I know there might be some issues in in other places and, you know, issues that affect us, but I hope that that we were able to to convey that to them. And if we need to keep saying the those messages, I think that's what I heard from you, Act, too, is make sure your legislators understand how your property taxes work and how you know, even the fact that last year, we had raised property taxes 12%, and 80% of the people in the county, their taxes went down. You know, that it it just is it's more complex than just a straight property tax increase. So I think that's the message we need to keep hammering to our as things come up, we need to keep watching those property tax bills.

So what's our consensus on

on the day on the hill? On the hill. Do you wanna meet with the legislator? I won't be there.

So wait till February mid February what they suggested?

I I think that there might be some Thursday days when some of us might be down there that we could just get a group and just and and arrange a time later Okay. When there's when I guess things are ramping up.

And I suggested to Catherine that maybe she contact all of them just so that they know. You know, we know this is Day on the Hill, but we just we were so grateful for the meeting we just had with you. We're not gonna take your time. Yes. I think someone would say, well, it's they'd be favorable to say, hey. Yes. They wanna meet with us. Yeah. And if they want to, I'd They invite us. Sure. I'm not opposed to it, but, yeah, I don't wanna I don't wanna take them in line. I think that's good. Jeff Jensen We're here. We're available.

I have to throw an option out there if it's just you guys wanna meet with them. So every year, the sheriff's association, we host a breakfast for the legislature. And then we're gonna do it, like, the February. And our legislators are already coming to that breakfast. So if you guys wanted to set something up, I'm already gonna have him corralled in

Are we invited to breakfast?

Sure. It's those breakfast burritos. I'm telling you. That's what does it. That's what gives people their extra hand kicks. You're

welcome to I don't know the date, but that that's an option that will will at least have several. Yes. Sheriff. Thank you, sheriff. You just kinda know what's going on with the session as he gets a few say to him, maybe there's something that comes up that you didn't know about.

Yeah. And as you as you hear those things too, make sure we're aware, if you will. Things move so fast. There's a lot more coming than just property taxes. I know. Mhmm. And and I think things move quickly. Working on some of those right now, so k.

200 and it's almost 250 bills. Are you ready? Already 250 number. Wow. And I heard about a million dollars worth of mandates on sheriff right now that they haven't even they're in draft Oh,

okay. That's even better. There were several things. They talked about today several things. Were you in the public safety policy steering committee meeting this morning? I listened to it for all the years. Yeah. They were talking about having a cyber security somebody has to be cyber security trained in every sheriff's depart every municipality, every police depart I mean, they're just unfunded mandates that we just have to keep

Yeah. But they're not funding. So we gotta work it out for some of the public safety stuff.

Yeah. K. Thank you, sheriff.

Okay. I'll so the consensus is I'll reach out to him, tell him we'll be there, and see what they would like. If Yeah. Wanna meet with us, then

then at least they know that we're there and available. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. K. Council member reports. We've been off for the holidays. Does anyone have something that they would like to report to us? I know, Mark, you're going to the library board meeting tomorrow. Yeah. The library board meeting tomorrow. Andrew and I are working through trying to get the North Park interlocal

committee established in the or not established, but kick started again. Get them actually going. We have a, you know, a land interest in the ice arena. And, it's been a long time since they've met to have any discussion about, you know, direction in the future. So I think, that's a good thing. So so Andrew and I have been in conversation there. And then yeah. And so that'll that'll happen sometime probably before the next meeting. Was the ice Arena? Yeah. That's where the ice Arena is located.

It's it's They're in a local between They're up to twelve and I can't drive out, by the way.

In Ash County. Well, we can talk about that. No. I mean, that's part of it. They better be drive out. That is part of it because last time they met was pre success the manifestation of the success of the endowment that the ICER unit operates under. So been a long time since they've met.

Good. Look for a update on that. Dave?

You know, wonderful, Chris. I appreciate the break. It was a shorter break, though, this year, by the way,

the date when we met. Oh, I thought it was longer. You're oh, you're being But it's

And too little. But it it's been good. And but I I'm here. It's it's gonna be a, you know, shorter bond dollars at the state, and so I think I think it's gonna be a pretty hot legislative meeting this year as they get together. I think it's things are gonna be wild. So

Catherine, did you I just had that. I jumped ahead with the day on the jumped ahead with the day on the health issue. So thank you. Nolan?

I'll just take this moment to say thanks to Taylor. This is getting close to your last one. Right? We'll still invite you after the others. You're probably looking. But thanks for all you've done. So Appreciate that. I thank you for that side. And in the planning and zoning, you've noticed that we've got the R U 2 and the R U 5 coming for Yeah. And so the planning and zoning worked on that. We are working on the bigger subdivision too. So, I just got an email just before I come in here from Jason Wynn about the wildlife urban interface and what we're looking at there. If you were at that meeting at the planning and zoning when it was debated as to how many we do next to that area. So, they're still debating that, but they did pass it because our moratorium is Over. Over.

Over. So

Yeah. We hope to have that in before long. And I think, in fact, it will be for the January 27. We'll discuss that. But be thinking I'll forward that email from Jason to all of you as well as the planning and zoning so that you can look at what's being talked about there. And other than that, that's all I've got.

Keegan.

I wanna talk a little bit about COSAC and the green belt tax money that's being returned to us. We've talked about in the past of being open to COSAC overseeing that the way that they do with the open space pond, whereupon they hear different, projects and make funding recommendations to us, Talked to our treasurer about combining the green belt money with the open space bond, and that sounds like that's the direction that's going. I think some in this group have expressed interest for putting that responsibility on COSAC. Just to give you an idea, I did request some of the amounts. $20.24, 850,000. Twenty twenty three, five hundred eighty two thousand. 2022, 1,400,000.0. 2021, 1,200,000.0. So this will open up a lot of funding opportunities for those projects. I won't go into a ton of detail, but I just wanna talk high level real quick on that. So I did learn that those funds must be committed to a project, not necessarily spent, but committed within five years. And if it's not, it gets returned to the Leeray McAllister Fund. And then

And then it goes statewide. Yeah. And then that opens up to applications.

Yeah. So we just need to kinda juggle the the money and where it's timing based on the timing. Yeah. Exactly. So, I I think we probably need a motion to make that official, so maybe we can get that on the agenda for the next meeting. K. So, the other thing I wanted to mention is last year, we talked about our goals. I I like that. I think that's some one of the goals was to start the budget process earlier. I know we had a change of the guard with executive and stuff, but that's a goal I'd like to see in 2026. So if everyone's open to it, I think that's something we could do again, state our goals, and maybe revisit those on a quarterly basis. I wanna say thanks to the group. I'm learning how to better conclude my statements because a lot of places I go, I'm used to getting interrupted. This is one of the places I go where I don't get interrupted. So I really appreciate the respect that's been shown to me, especially as a new council member. The last thing I wanted to mention is I got an email about the warming center, and there's a request for funds. I know there's a lot of ways to solve problems besides money. You know, there's volunteerism. There's alternatives. I'd like to look into that, and I'm interested in taking a tour of the facility. And if anyone wanted to jump on that with me, just reach out to me individually, and maybe we can coordinate a visit together so we're not all trying to go at different times. And

that's all. K. Thanks, Keegan. And I think that I I really like the the idea of making it official through a motion that we take our green belt money and put it to COSAC. There's no reason to duplicate an application process or for us to as a body to be trying to figure out what to do with that money where they can bring us recommendations. And we then do still oversee that, so it's not giving up our responsibility, but it I think they're better set up to take those applications. Agreed. So so I like that. I just wanted to say, I know that we had a it's been a few months ago that we talked about solar. I've asked Andrew to put together some things from some ordinances from other counties. And Nolan and I talked about maybe meeting with some people from development services in our planning and zoning and and maybe coming up with something of bringing a recommendation to the council. I know the general consensus was that it was not a great fit for our county, but I think we need to put something in code and we need to, look at what some there might be some options that would be acceptable, but let's let's get that done. Is is I would say by the February, if we could, so that so that as projects come along, we already have some guidance and that we can give an answer to the ones that are already here.

I did provide an example of a county that has Do you want me to bump that to the top of your inbox just to refresh? Would that be helpful? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. K. Madam chair Yes.

No one mentioned some gratitude to to Taylor for his role. But could we review the process now with vacant the vacancy in the attorney's

Oh. Seat? Could you review the process, please? Yes. Absolutely. That process is found in state code for finding a a vacancy for county attorney. And that was in twenty eight dash one Dash509.1. So it has all these different scenarios of whether there's two years left or, or our situation, vacant office has an unexpired term of less than two years. And so when those conditions are met, when the vacancy occurs, which per my letter, I'll be done county legislative body, that's you, Sandy, the chair, will give notice to the county clerk and to the county central committee of the same political party. I'm a Republican, so that would be the Republican party. And the county legislative body will invite the committee to submit the names of three nominees to fill the vacancies. So the county central committee will accept applications for people who want to fill out that year. And if they receive more than three, then they will meet together, and they'll select three. If there's fewer than three or three, they will just direct forward those directly to you. At that point, within thirty days, they'll submit those names to you as nominees. And within forty five days after the vacancy occurs, you, the county legislative body, will appoint one of those nominees to fill out the unexpired term.

Do we need we'll need to do some an interim acting attorney between February 8 and when we actually accept that name. Correct? Like, there has to be somebody that is designated The acting the acting attorney is just the senior repurch. Of the attorney's office. It just defaults to whoever because that's a default. We don't have to designate that. There's a chief tech. Andrew is I was gonna say, according to state code, I believe that the acting attorney between the resignation and the

picking of essentially the three names submitted by the political party. During that time, the county legislative body has the duty according to state code to pick one of the deputies serving as, as a deputy attorney to then appoint them as the acting county attorney, if they're willing, of course, the

So that's in twenty eight one five zero nine three. Until the vacancy is filled as provided with what we just discussed and the new county attorney is qualified, the county legislative body may appoint may appoint an interim replacement to fill the vacant office by following procedures. Appointing a deputy county or district attorney to serve as acting county attorney if there are at least three deputies in the office as a vacancy. So our office does have at least three deputies. So county legislative body will just appoint one of the deputies that are currently in the office to service that activity.

And that is consistent with what we've done in the past. Correct. That's in the state code. Yeah. So we meet on the February 10

as our first That would be a great opportunity. Yeah. To on February 10. So February 10, we meet to do an

interim.

We'll just we'll just name an acting. The acting. Yeah. And then we would

receive from the from the central committee. The first meeting after March 7. The first meeting after March 7, we would receive from the central committee three names. And we would And we would appoint from those three names. And enter Is that an open and public meeting?

Yes. That's so it's It'll be during our council meeting. Yeah. Just wanna write in our council meeting? Uh-huh. Okay. There you go. K. Cool. Thanks. Thank you, Taylor. And thank you again. We appreciate you. Okay. Anything else that anybody needs to talk about or say? Accept a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

I know. Did you wanna stay, David?

No. No. No. No. Sorry.