Cass County Board: County department heads deliver annual reports (2024)

DEEP PORTAGE — Cass County department heads met for the county’s annual planning meeting Thursday, June 20, and shared the market trends of 2024, a legislative update and foreseeable issues for 2025.

The topic most department heads spoke about was even though this was a bonding year for the Legislature, no bonding bill was passed. Therefore, the county will not receive any money to assist in any large projects needing to be completed.

The following are departmental reports:

County Administrator Josh Stevenson’s update on the 2024 budget noted the county will be spending about $75,919,977, which is $4.5 million less than 2023. Stevenson said the property tax levy increased 13.25% over the previous year due to the market study on employee salaries and the change in the employee health program. Stevenson also said this is the last year for all COVID-19 funds to be used, which began in 2021.

Administrator

Stevenson said the county is continuing to experience an influx of growth, however, Cass County is no longer the fastest-growing county. Along with the growth, attracting and maintaining staff improved significantly, he said. Stevenson also mentioned no special session is anticipated this year in the Legislature, so there will be no help from the state on any capital projects.

Issues for 2025 Stevenson discussed were the newly passed Family Medical Leave Act and the increased cost the county will see with this and the lack of funding for ambulance services in rural areas.

Assessor Mark Peterson reported property market values are beginning to level off with the county’s overall estimated market value up only 4.32% excluding new construction.

New construction value is down 6% for a total of $151,476,400, while new home starts are also down 27%. Real estate sales are up by 32% for the first quarter of 2024, however, foreclosures were down 38% for the first quarter with a total of five.

Peterson said the Local Board of Appeal and Equalization appeals continue to decline as values level off. In legislative activity, it was mentioned there were no property tax changes passed this year.

Staffing remains one of the foreseeable issues for the assessor’s office. Currently, the department has three fully licensed appraisers. Also, the department will need to begin new education for the staff as education is on a four-year cycle, which is up in July.

Peterson also said a future issue will be upgrading technology. Currently, the assessor’s office still utilizes paper when in the field, where most neighboring counties have gone mobile. Peterson stated he feels the mobile devices don’t seem to save any time or money as staff still needs to enter information into the system when they get back to the office. Therefore, he doesn’t feel the need to invest in the technology for the foreseeable future.

Attorney Ben Lindstrom reported the department is now fully staffed and currently has a certified student attorney on staff. He feels the market study significantly helped make the county more competitive. Lindstrom also said the department reduced the number of legal secretary positions from four to three due to increased efficiency and court cases.

A current issue the department is having is with the legalization of marijuana and paraphernalia.

An issue Lindstrom foresees in 2025 is with truancy among area youth. He said with the Zoom option for court hearings nobody participated in any in-person hearings and there was actually only one who participated via Zoom. Therefore, Lindstrom said he is not going to pursue truancy cases but will let the schools continue to handle them.

Director Tom Buhl said network security still remains a top priority and staff is continuously monitoring the server and upgrading the firewalls to make sure they are not compromised. With increased use of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (anything you hook a mobile device to such as Alexa, Siri, Thermostats, etc.), he said staff needs to be aware of applications they may download onto county devices.

Legislative activity pertinent to the department was the passing of the cyber security incident reporting bill, which requires the reporting of cyber security incidents impacting public-sector organizations. Also, the Legislature discussed how to regulate AI but did not pass the Computer Science Education Advancement Act.

The issues for 2025 Buhl foresees involve the increased costs to secure and maintain the network infrastructure and maintain and upgrade older county buildings and the increased need for space within county buildings.

With just over three months in the position, Chief Financial Officer Becky Toso said she is working on catching up after the position was open for six months and making sure nothing is missed. Toso said money received through the American Rescue Plan Act is wrapping up with everything expected to be distributed by the end of the year.

With no bonding bill being passed, Toso said issues for 2025 will be the county needing to evaluate capital needs assessment items, such as the transfer station and improvements to the Walker Courthouse and Annex.

Krista Smith, court operations supervisor, said with the small staff within the department they are beginning to specialize in areas and do some cross-training with neighboring counties. This will allow staff to take time off and not fall behind on work, she said.

In legislative updates, Smith talked about a few new laws, one being a competency attainment statute, which will connect people with assistance to help them stand trial. Another item addressed is offering services to jurors to assist in trauma they may suffer from when sitting for a trial. The final item Smith covered was the Legislature passed a law allowing courts to serve citizens with orders for protection and harassment cases by certified mail rather than a sheriff. This will allow the order to be served at a faster rate as sometimes the offender cannot be located.

Issues mentioned for 2025 were staff training and retention, Smith said, as some staff are looking for promotions outside of the department. Also, the courts are looking at getting people back into the court and are recommending the discontinuation of remote trials. Resuming trials in person will require some calendar adjustments within the department, Smith said.

Director Jeff Woodford, along with County Planner Scott Wold, reported that although there was a decrease in building permits for the period from July 1, 2023, through June 17, 2024, compared to the previous year, building permits being issued are still near an all-time high. Solid waste activity also continues to rise with the department seeing about a 9% increase for the same time period.

Wold said the department is receiving numerous complaints about short-term rental property, therefore the county is preparing an ordinance to outline some regulations in hopes of resolving disputes between neighbors.

Woodford said the upcoming issues for the department will be pressure for more government zoning and control, however, they do not want the associated additional costs. The department will also be working on various ordinance updates during 2025.

Director Brian Buhmann reported the department is nearly fully staffed and only short a couple of positions, one being a Statewide Health Improvement Partnership coordinator.

Currently, the department is also having the challenge of addressing local opioid, cannabis and other substance use disorders. Buhmann said they are addressing product placement for tobacco products to not make them look appealing to kids.

Another item discussed was the lack of affordable housing and day care providers in the area, which is making it hard to hire staff. In the legislative update, Buhmann said there is one-time funding from the state in the amount of $5.4 million for food security. It will be split up with approximately $2 million allocated to food security, $2 million to area food shelves and banks and $1 million to American Indian food sovereignty. Even though the funding will help out it won’t be enough as there are approximately 400 food shelves that will be splitting the $2 million, Buhmann said.

Amongst the 2025 issues are recruitment of service providers for locally needed services, the modernization of state technology and a transition to a new Department of Children, Youth and Families.

County Engineer Darrick Anderson reported the 2024 county state highway funding program had an increase in funding of $366,000 for construction and $244,000 for maintenance. A current challenge the department is seeing is a delay in delivery for equipment purchased. Anderson also mentioned the cost on maintenance program contracts increased 30-100% with striping increasing the greatest due to only one company currently offering the service within the state.

In the legislative update, Anderson said with no bonding bill in 2024 the bridge bond funding will run out this month. Also, there will be increases at the state level for all special projects and earmark funding.

One issue for 2025 is the possibility of monarch butterflies being put on the endangered species list and causing an impact to construction and maintenance programs. Anderson said if the department enters into a preventative program before they are placed on the endangered species list they won’t have to follow all of the rules set forth once they are placed on the list.

Allison Magnus, payroll and benefits and human resources official, said she is focusing on employees and trying to enhance recruitment and retention. The county is also working on a work model that will work for all employees. They are currently trying to get all employees back in the office, but some still want a hybrid option, which is causing conflict in some departments.

Magnus said with the new Family and Medical Leave Act benefits to begin in 2026, the county may see employees wanting to take more time off.

Issues for 2025 included preparations for labor negotiations and various staff training.

Land Commissioner Mark Gossman reported timber markets are stable and slowly catching up on harvest after the lack of winter. He said there is an increased Geographic Information System need for server space as currently, this is on a separate hard drive.

Gossman discussed the recent ruling regarding the tax-forfeiture lawsuit and the effects it will have on Cass County moving forward. The state Legislature did allocate $109 million to a hold county’s harmless fund for a look back on all tax forfeitures.

An ongoing issue is that the northern long-eared bat has now been placed on the endangered species list. Also, the Forest Stewardship Council is looking into possibly viewing contractors as employees.

Director Jim Schneider reported there was a decrease in the number of pretrial bail evaluations and also there has been a decrease in violent juvenile offenses.

In the Legislature update, Schneider mentioned the juvenile delinquency age has changed from 10 years of age to 13 years of age.

Issues Schneider foresees in 2025 are continuing the collaboration with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe’s probation department, standardized supervision levels across the state and staffing levels.

Auditor-Treasurer Lisa Shadick reported with the retirement of Katie Norby, it was decided to combine the recorder’s office with the auditor-treasurer office. Shadick said she is still fairly new with just six months under her belt and is also getting adjusted to the job. The department saw an increase in online payments for taxes and fees. Shadick said it seems citizens are OK with paying the extra fee as opposed to driving to the courthouse or mailing their payment. Also, there was an increase in electronic recording of documents.

Recently the state changed the state flag and seal, which is going to require all notary stamps, forms and documents to be replaced by Jan. 1, 2025, at the expense of the county.

Some issues for 2025 are an anticipated retirement this year and another one in 2025. With those Shadick is looking at implementing cross-training within the department to help create greater efficiency and increase customer service.

Sheriff Bryan Welk reported as of June 1 the partnership with Itasca County to house some inmates began and seems to be going well so far, although there has been one incident where an inmate broke a window. Staffing is near capacity with only a couple of positions currently vacant. Overdose calls continue to be a constant concern, Welk said, with the department responding to 80 overdose calls during 2023, many of which were the same offenders.

Issues and challenges Welk foresees for 2025 will be the increased cost of goods and supplies along with availability. The planning for a storage/evidence/training facility, as the building in Backus will not be sufficient for the needs of the department, is another challenge. A final challenge the department will face is to monitor the effectiveness of the new all-terrain vehicle county ordinance.

Cass County’s five citizen appointees and two county commissioners who make up the budget committee will receive departmental requests and prepare a proposed 2025 county budget and levy this summer.

The county board then sets a preliminary levy in September before the budget committee makes additional budget changes in October. The board will have a public hearing before adopting a final budget and levy in December.

That schedule is as follows:

• July 7 — Preparation packets released.

• July 26 — Departmental requests due.

• Aug. 16 and 30 — Budget committee reviews requests and prepares the preliminary budget and levy.

• Sept. 3 — County Board sets preliminary levy.

• Oct. 4 and 11 — Budget committee makes additional budget changes.

• November — Truth in Taxation notices mailed to taxpayers.

• Dec. 3 — Public hearing on proposed budget.

• Dec. 17 — County Board sets final levy and budget.