 Okay, with that, let's call tonight's meeting to order Tuesday, January 19, 2021 meeting of the Sheboyin County Board. I would ask that if you're not speaking to please mute so that background noise doesn't affect the meeting. Are we certified in compliance with the open meeting law? We are. The agenda was posted on January 15th at 2 p.m. Very good. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Very good. Roll call. No, it was on offer. All right, Supervisor Smith, Supervisor Gruber. I thought I heard him. Supervisor Schneider. Here. Supervisor Montemayor. Here. Supervisor Clark. Here. Supervisor Nelson. Present. Supervisor Procek. Present. Supervisor Koch. Here. Supervisor Schobert. Here. Supervisor Brower. Present. Supervisor Jorgensen. Supervisors Eaglebauer. Present. Supervisor Nenig. Here. Supervisor Abler. Here. Supervisor Kulo. Present. Supervisor Damp. Present. Supervisor Wagner. Here. Supervisor Emel. Present. Supervisor Ojay. Here. Supervisor Hoffman. Here. Supervisor Hilblink. Here. Supervisor Bosman. Here. Supervisor Veldman. Here. Supervisor Gehring. Here. Supervisor Tostruti. Here. And swinging back around just to double-check. Supervisor Smith. Absent. And Supervisor Jorgensen. All right, there are 23 supervisors present. Very good. The next item of business is the approval of the December 15, 2020 journal. Supervisor Wagner. How about Supervisor Abler? Move for approval, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Abler. Supervisor Hoffman. Second. Thank you. Sorry about that, Mr. Chairman. I got some technical difficulties also called human error. You came back quick. So is there any discussion on the December journal? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Consideration of appointment by Chairperson. View veteran service commission, Jennifer Samson of Sheboygan, a reappointment. All right, Supervisor Wagner. I'll try it again. I'll move for approval. Thank you, Supervisor Wagner. Supervisor Procek. I will second that. Thank you, Supervisor Procek. Any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor of the appointments say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Presentations? We have none. Public addresses? There are none. Okay, letters, communications, and announcements? We have none. All right. Tony Administrator's report. Mr. Chairman, and thank you for deferring all that additional time for my presentation. I appreciate that. I'm sure there's a lot of enthusiasm for that. Clearly, there's a lot of enthusiasm for hearing more and learning more about the vaccine distribution. And of course, it's been all hands on deck here. So I've asked Chris to tee up a brief presentation that may look familiar to a few of you if you have been following the Pandemic Administrative Committee action, or if you've been going online to look at the Public Health Division's daily updates, but just a very high-end overview. Next slide, please, Chris. So here's the current situation. I think we should all be pretty familiar. I'm trying to close this. All pretty familiar with the positive tests throughout the state, the number of hospitalizations, sadly deaths now over 5,000, and then specifically focusing on Sheboygan County. Again, we every day show the positive tests, the active tests, the recovered. I'm not going to read through all this. You can see it before you, but the what I find encouraging with this particular slide is to see that our current hospitalizations as of today is at 11. So we have seen a decrease in the number of people hospitalized due to COVID, which is wonderful, which is good news. We hope to see that number continue to go down, though since last March, when we had our positive cases, we've seen quite a number here at Sheboygan County. We continue to see a high level of people contracting COVID, and sadly we've had over 100 deaths. Next slide, please. We've been keeping a real close eye on our hospital data and the level of use, and we focus on the southeast region because our two hospitals in Sheboygan County, they don't necessarily want to provide that specific data or raise sensitivity or concern about the number of beds that they currently have available or don't have available, but they are part of that average for the southeast region, and we've been hovering right around 90% for the last couple of months, and I will readily admit that I've been holding my breath a little bit and praying that we wouldn't get to 100% and see our hospitals overwhelmed like we have been in some other communities across the nation. The good news with this slide is we haven't gone higher than 90%, I think maybe 92% was the highest we were with hospital beds in use, ICU beds in use. We're in the high 80s, but for Sheboygan County specifically, I think we're doing even a little better than that regional number, and then if you look at the trajectory across the state hospitalizations by region, we've been kind of just holding our own right now. It's not growing, I wish it was shrinking, but there's been no significant change. It's also good to see that the ventilator use overall is in that 20% range, so I take this as encouraging because we certainly don't want to be approaching 100% or overwhelming our hospitals. Next slide, please. Someone might want to mute and hear some background noise. Testing continues at our Aging and Disability Resource Center. This is due to good collaboration between our public health staff and the National Guard. As you know, testing was an area we were really trying to improve upon, and I think we've achieved that. In fact, we're seeing our testing at the Aging and Disability Resource Center demand for testing going down rather than up, and of course our hospitals are testing, our clinics are testing, so I think at this point most people that want to get a test can get a test. In fact, what we're seeing and hearing is that there appears to be a little less demand and maybe just a little less interest. I think some people are so now informed about what they need to do if they're feeling the symptoms of COVID. They may not necessarily be going in and getting a test at all, so when we share those numbers of how many people have contracted COVID into Boyden County, many of us think it's far more than that because so many people never get a test, and I'm sure you've all talked to people who said, I think I had it or I lost my taste and smell, but never went in for a test. If you do want a test, you can pre-register all of this information, as you know, was on our website and on our daily updates, and there are no vaccines being provided at the Aging and Disability Resource Center. We can't communicate enough to the public. There's still people who think that's happening or that they can just go in if they're sick and get some miracle drug, and it doesn't quite work that way. Next slide, please. Now I'm going to touch a little bit on the state vaccine information and distribution, and this is what obviously is on everyone's minds. Next slide. Phase one, I think most people are well aware, phase one includes our direct healthcare providers, emergency responders, our nursing homes, our assistive living facilities, and when I say healthcare providers, I would say both direct and indirect, and when I say indirect, if you're doing housekeeping at a hospital or if you're doing housekeeping and laundry cleaning at a nursing home, you also are eligible and in phase one. So that is who we've been really focusing on throughout Sheboyton County, and I'm pleased that all nine of our nursing homes have gone through their first round. If anyone who's wanted a vaccination has received the vaccination, as I understand it, 80-90% of the residents are taking the vaccine, and it's probably closer to 50% of staff. We hope to see that continue to tick up as more people are comfortable and maybe hold off a little bit to see how others are impacted, but it was good to hear Supervisor Dampster just before the meeting started that she got her vaccine and had absolutely no symptoms or soreness, and I think that's the case with most people though, not everyone. Today, just today, the state released a statement that individuals 65 and older are now eligible for the vaccine starting next week Monday, January 25th. The federal government, as you know, shared this information a few weeks ago and caught states off guard, and then it was unclear whether or not states even had the supplies or capacity to provide vaccines at that level, so everyone was trying to, I think, get on the same page between the federal and state government, but just today they did say 65 and older will be eligible for the vaccine starting Monday, and I know our hospitals here are rapidly gearing up to assist with that. I strongly encourage those of you that are 65 or that you have friends and family members that are 65 older to be advocates for yourself. Don't wait for the phone call. Don't think your doctor or the hospital you routinely go to is going to call you and set up this appointment. Be an advocate for yourself. I also think you're going to have to continue to be patient because certainly some hospitals and clinics are more geared up and have vaccine available than others. Phase 1B has to be determined. Seeing a trickle of emails and calls come in regarding who's going to be in phase 1B. As you know, the county does not make these determinations. That's a that's a discussion that happens at the state level with input from the federal level and it's all part of having a rollout and hopefully a more measured and efficient manner. Some have debated whether or not this could have been handled a little better out of the gate, but they're trying to do it in a phased approach so we can help as many people as efficiently as possible without overwhelming the systems in place. Phase 1B, congregate living settings, education, teachers, people working with children, obviously child care settings, and yes mink husbandry. Those who are working on mink ranches here in Chubboyton County and throughout the nation, they've shown that mink can get the COVID, contract the virus, and pass it on to humans and personally for me that's a little disconcerting especially someone who has some chickens at home and horses. You hope that it's not going to be any more than just the mink that can contract this and pass it on. That in fact is the case. I think many of us have probably seen on the national news that some cases I think people's pets, dogs, and cats have also gotten it as well. Phase 1C again similar has not yet been determined. That'll be again a consideration or recommendation from the state. Maybe a little while before we get there but that'll be high-risk medical conditions, essential workers, all the key people that are continuing to work to keep our economy going and hopefully we're going to be able to meet these needs sooner rather than later. Next slide please. So what's that Wisconsin vaccine distribution look like? And this is the part that that troubles me and I think troubles some of you and a lot of people in the state and throughout the country just how much is being allocated and then once it's allocated to the state the communities that order the vaccine, the registered vaccinators. We have 12 of them in Chubboyton County. Aurora, Provea, our clinics, our in-health clinic, our public health office. We have 12 that are registered and they order the vaccine. Once it's ordered the state will ship it and then of course it's administered and when you look at the administered versus allocated I don't know about you but I look at that and think jeez shouldn't we be administering this more quickly getting it in arms more quickly what's taking so long and there's a number of variables in play without question it's taking the state some time to ramp up and distribute. It's taking local units of government and communities and hospitals and clinics time to figure that all out but also keep in mind when you look at the allocated amount to the state though 250,000 vaccines have been administered many of these will need a second shot in three to four weeks so the state needs to be mindful of that hold that supply and then ship that to the same registered vaccinators three or four weeks later and that's in play will be done but I anticipate that's a good reason why we may see a pretty high number for what's allocated but what it isn't necessarily in the community yet they've got that second round of dose that they need to follow up on. Next slide please. As for local vaccine information next slide our pharmacies have definitely partnered and again I'm sure many of you have heard this but really our pharmacies are taking the lead with the nursing homes for example and all of the assisted living facilities. I've known for years that we had nine skilled nursing homes and obviously we all take pride in Rocky Knoll and the work we do there but what I didn't know until just this week is we have 97 assisted living facilities. I think if someone would have asked me that last week how many assisted facility assisted living facilities are there people who call me I may have said oh there's two or three dozen maybe 50 but 97 so think about that that's a lot of residents and a lot of staff that are going to receive the vaccination and that's just getting rolling next week. Why it's taken this long I don't know but these again are in the first phase and are some of our most vulnerable residents of the community and obviously the critical staff that care for them. I mentioned it before and I'll mention again there are currently 12 registered vaccinators in Sheboyin County in our hospitals are obviously taking the lead and will continue to take the lead but Lakeshore Community Health has been administering vaccinations. Our public health division just last week Wednesday afternoon received their first doses and Thursday they set up an area where they could vaccine first responders and other folks and then some of these registered vaccinators they've yet to even receive any vaccine and personally that concerns me you know why haven't they all received vaccine yet and I think it's part of that ramping up process but I also talked to start Grossman today our public health officer and as you know she's just she's just tremendous just tremendous and I was urging her I'm like let's get these vaccines ordered why don't we have more in-house why don't we have more at our in-health clinic and she agreed we got to get them ordered and we need to get them in the county but she said there's only so much supply of course every county is looking for additional supply and one of her concerns that she has yet to receive an answer from from the state and I'll personally be following up on that as well is she wants to know exactly how much is being provided to each county and why would that be important well there is no reason for us to lift heaven and earth to get our public health division to administer more vaccines and let's say instead of asking for 100 a week they get 500 a week if that means aurora or purveyor rather than getting 3000 doses a week would get 250 doses a week now that wouldn't make much sense because obviously our hospitals are better equipped to more efficiently vaccinate people than we are or our in-health clinic is so we need to get that answer but at the same time I'm getting a little tired of hearing about plans and want to see more fire in people's bellies about getting these vaccinations out out to people and implementing even if it's a trickle let's at least get these implemented as quickly as possible next line please good news I think in the next couple of weeks we're going to see a significant increase in capacity capacity for vaccinating people in fact our public health staff talked again star directly about this today she thinks we may see potentially 7 000 appointments per week so I'm optimistic that though it feels like it's maybe been rolling out a little more slowly than some of us would care for I'm optimistic in the next couple of weeks we're going to see that jump up considerably absolutely is limited by the amount of supply the state can provide us and we also have the challenge of just hearing of staff and I talked to the hospital presidents just this week they shared that you know they're they're getting where they want to be but not only a supply and issue but they just said having staffing having the staff in place to administer the shots is more easily said than done when they have all sorts of other needs throughout the the hospital system and caring for people our public health division I think more so than many counties across the state is very engaged coordinating with our local health systems every monday we have that pandemic administrative committee meeting but that's just one probably over a dozen or two dozen meetings a week that occur with with our local health providers schools and I mean the list goes on and on they're very engaged and and I can't say enough about starring her team in public health next slide please current challenges with distribution personally I'm you know we look for the good in one another and I think everyone is striving to do the best they can but I do wish we had a little more clear and decisive communication from the state I feel like we're not getting the answers as quickly as we'd like and if I think if star was next to me right now she would certainly emphasize that I mean they're working with good people but sometimes the delivery of information or the decisiveness of the timing isn't what we want very recently however to the state's credit we were concerned about getting more local data and information and that is starting to to trickle in more and they've updated their websites with more local data that no doubt some of you have looked at but we're pleased to see that I know they're working hard I mentioned the limited supply of vaccine staffing shortages already and then the timing of shipments I'd like to see us improve upon that it continues to take seven to ten days to get the shipments here and again there's varied information on when it will be received and if you'll even receive it I think that's created some frustration and hopefully will be improved upon soon next slide please I'm very pleased with our ongoing communications we have really made efforts to provide frequent accurate transparent information to this community we know how important it is to provide information that people can trust and is credible and our public health staff I think have just been tremendous and they've also been very good about trying to encourage people to take personal responsibility next slide please one of the things that we recently did as many of you are well aware now as we established a public service announcement and that's getting a lot of views locally it's on 32 networks there's been 10 000 impressions it's been aired 250 times and that's just in the first week and the way that works with the network you think of all these networks national networks but they regionalize it to sheboydon county that's why you don't see five million views you see five thousand because they're regionalizing it to our area but we continue to emphasize that the vaccines are on the way we all need to buckle down and and stay in our guard a little longer and protect one another and certainly protect our healthcare workers and keep our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and though there's always room for improvement and we all may let our guard down from time to time I'm so heartened by the leadership of the business community most stores you walk into now you see people being mindful of their of their neighbors and friends they're wearing the masks none of us want to wear the doggone masks but it's the right thing to do and it's making a difference I think it's one of the reasons why our hospitals haven't been overwhelmed and that our businesses schools and places of worship have been have been able to continue operating so thank you again to our public health team thank you to chairman kach who did a nice job with that public service announcement and of course we had three significant community leaders participate as well and they were quick to do so and happy to do so and and I think that sends quite a message as well we've got over a dozen 14 billboards throughout the county different pictures encouraging people to again take some personal responsibility and of course we continue our public health daily updates providing information as readily as we appreciate their good work next slide please all right that concludes the update on vaccine distribution again I encourage those of you 65 and older I think we have a couple on the county board the advocates for yourself for your spouses for your friends your family don't wait for the call uh and and provide that feedback to us about good experiences and experiences where you think our local health providers could do a better job because we're engaged with them and and you all can do better right we always have to strive for improvement speaking of striving for improvement and emergency planning when we started the year we were very concerned about unexpected costs none of you approved a 2020 budget that had any dollars for COVID right none of us knew this was coming we were very concerned about unexpected expenses we were very concerned about revenue reductions we thought our sales tax might take a big hit we thought in fact property tax payments might take a significant hit because of the number of people that are hurting in our community and I can't tell you how pleased I am to share that our half percent sales tax actually went up just a smidge from the budget amount we budgeted 10.5 million and it's looking to come in at 10.6 million so we were pleasantly surprised to see our sales tax revenue continue to come in to sustain our transportation services and the work that's done here we also were pleased to see that property tax payers though we know people are hurting in this community that property tax payments continue to come in overall timely in 2020 so that really was not potentially an area where we are going to get hit we we we thought we might see upwards of five million dollars in revenue reduction between sales tax and property taxes didn't happen so pleased about that and then the other thing that we did is with these unexpected expenditures we didn't know if the state or federal government was going to provide us any assistance based on history I think it might have been a little naive for us to think that we are going to get a lot of help right so fortunately we have very healthy fiscal reserves we thought we might have to tap into them significantly but we took action in May to put in a hiring freeze across the county and we cut about 50 percent of our structural contingency funds meals travel training furniture expenses anything that we could reduce and do so responsibly you know without really kicking that can down the road we did so and between the hiring freeze which is essentially a soft hiring freeze because most of what we do here is essential we have to have police i mean sheriff's deputies and health and human services workers what have you but between the soft hiring freeze and these other reductions we anticipated we would garner savings of about one million pleased to report it came in closer to 1.4 million and that of course has helped us with unexpected expenses and allowed us not to tap into our reserves but the key reason we're not tapping into our reserves is because of the outstanding work by Wendy and her accountants and all of our department heads who have been engaged with with planning and responding to COVID all of our expenses every single penny has been tracked and we have successfully garnered through the routes to recovery program four million dollars in reimbursement or a million and had that program not been there our reserves would be at least three million less in addition to the one million dollars in savings we got so that was very helpful and will continue to be helpful going into 2021 because we all know this isn't over and then finally last week monday um Sherman Koch Tom Wagner who i think everyone is aware is also on the wca board of directors uh wendy myself matt strip modern melody lorgie we met with our area legislators Devin Tyler and terry and we went over the clerk of court's funding disparity and we went over some budget issue papers i forwarded all that information to you no no doubt it's more than you care to dive into but the clerk of court's funding disparity i mean if you look at that what are there like 75 surcharges that have been put in place since 1975 or 80 something like that and almost all of them have benefited the state and we've seen our property taxes double so here's an example of a department similar similar to the register of deeds register of deeds by state law law is allowed to collect what it needs to cover its expenses it's a state mandated program the state allows them to collect and retain sufficient revenue so they don't have to burden property taxpayers with subsidizing their operation clerk of courts could be exactly the same yet we're spending $1.2 million in property taxes to subsidize a completely 100 mandated program area and the state has tools to do something about it but it's been so out of sight out of mind that it just no change has ever benefited or at least for the most part has benefited the county so we we walk through that with our legislators I think it it got their attention and I think they have some opportunities now right in front of them where they can provide direct property tax relief and take some pressure off of our property taxpayers we also discussed our top five of the 20 some budget issue papers we prepared which were prioritized by chairman coch and the executive committee clerk of courts funding county veteran services transportation aids mental health services and child welfare programs like birth the three important programs so with that I'll conclude mr chair but if anybody has any questions on the budget issue papers or clerk of courts I welcome you following up with me anytime or I also encourage you you know to discuss this with your liaison committee or your department head and then as you interact with our legislators and I know some of you serve on committees or forms where you have that opportunity please respectfully encourage them to you know consider these we all know senator lemieux is really busy as majority leader now but talk about in a in a position of influence and terry katzma is on the joint finance committee tyler warpoggle is what leader of the caucus the republican caucus in the assembly all three of our aerial legislators are in a position to problem solve and help not only should boyden county but our taxpayers take some pressure up their shoulders so your encouragement putting in a a good word here and there that's helpful so with that mr chair I'll turn it back to you thank you very much Adam consideration of committee reports executive committee resolution number 21 regarding disallowance of bus claim against sheboygan county recommendation to adopt all right supervisor Wagner thank you mr chairman I'll move for approval thank you supervisor Wagner is there a second supervisor pro check I will second that thank you supervisor pro check is there any discussion okay seeing no discussion all those in favor of resolution number 21 say I hi hi opposed game motion carried resolution number 23 regarding adopting updated county all hazards mitigation plan committee recommendation to adopt very good supervisor gearing we're going to need to unmute supervisor gearing thank you mr chairman I will move for adoption thank you supervisor gearing is there a second supervisor obler I will second that motion mr chair thank you supervisor obler under discussed is there any discussion okay seeing no discussion all those in favor of resolution number 23 say I hi hi opposed motion carried consideration of committee reports finance committee resolution number 22 regarding authorizing human resources committee to enter into labor contract with sheboygan county law enforcement employees association recommendation to adopt very good supervisor distrote thank you mr chairman I move for adoption thank you supervisor distrote supervisor hillblink I second that mr chairman thank you supervisor hillblink is there any discussion okay seeing no discussion all those in favor of resolution number 22 say I hi hi hi opposed motion carried resolution number 24 regarding petitioning the secretary of transportation for airport improvement aid recommendation to adopt supervisor gearing thank you mr chairman I move for adoption thank you supervisor gearing supervisor imel thank you mr chairman I'll second that motion thank you supervisor imel under discussion anybody have anything no okay all those in favor of resolution number 24 say hi hi opposed motion carried ordinance number seven regarding renumbering chapter eight to chapter nine recommendation to enact okay supervisor damp I move to enact ordinance number seven thank you supervisor damp supervisor pro check I will second that thank you supervisor pro check is there any discussion hearing no discussion all those in favor of ordinance number seven say hi hi hi opposed motion carried at this point in time I will hand off the virtual gavel to the supervisor zigaballer good evening to you all resolutions introduced resolution number 25 from the finance committee regarding carryover of unexpended 2020 appropriations to 2021 resolution number 25 we're referred to executive resolution number 26 from the law committee regarding improving intergovernmental cooperative agreement with city of sheboygan for dive team operations resolution number 26 will be referred to executive resolution number 27 from the transportation committee regarding improving intergovernmental agreement among northeast wisconsin counties for transportation department mutual aid resolution number 27 will also be referred to executive ordinance is introduced we have none I will release the floor to supervisor to strudy for the next order of business thank you mr vice chair for adjournment second thank you both who is the second please huffman thank you supervisor huffman all those in favor say hi we are adjourned