 All the Sheboyin County Board of Supervisors meeting to order and we are in compliance with the open meeting law. Thank you. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. We'll have the roll call please. Here. Supervisor Emils here. The rest must be trick or treating. Thank you, John. Are there any presentations tonight? I'd like to have the County Administrator's report and including the presentation of the 2024 proposed budget. Elaine, I'm just got the present. Okay. Here we go. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Elaine. Do you want to know? I will just say before Elaine starts that, do you want to know? Oh, the lectern. Okay. I'm sorry. We're in flux here with the sound system in the room, so if anyone in the third row is ... Good evening, everyone. What Vice Chairman Obler was just referring to for the supervisors is in reference to the email that Chairman Koch had sent out related to the microphones. As you may recall from last week, we're having some technical difficulties and had to make some adjustments. Anyone who's sitting in the middle row, if you need to speak, you can lean to your neighbor on your right or left and use their microphone this evening. So with that, good evening, everyone. Happy Halloween. Thank you for joining us on this blustery evening. I will be going through the 2024 proposed budget. I am very pleased to be presenting this summary to you this evening. The budget development process is a collaborative process across the entire organization and also involves compromise in a lot of different areas. It's not easy to balance a budget of this size, especially when we have ongoing increases for demands and services with restrictions on how much we can increase our revenue. Yet, we are able to maintain all of our programs and services in 2024. So how did we get here today? I will go through a little bit of background. So this slide might look familiar from the leadership forum. This is the high-level overview of our budget development schedule. It's nearly a year-long process, and throughout that duration there are a lot of different people engaged in the process, certainly the entire finance department staff, the department heads, managers, and of course all of you county board supervisors through the leadership forum as well as your liaison committee meetings. As you recall, our goal is to strive to succeed with our existing financial resources and the tax levy associated with net new construction and to maintain our mandated programs and services, improve departmental efficiencies, direct our limited resources based on priorities, and position the county for continued fiscal stability. So there is a lot of consideration and feedback that goes into a document of this magnitude, and I want to thank all of you for your role in that. So with that we will dive right in. I apologize, this PowerPoint isn't what I had thought. No, that's okay. I will adjust accordingly. So for the budget summary, I'm going to step through a couple of the key components. So the operations tax levy, the first line that you see there, that is capped by our allowable increases per the state, so that includes net new construction and TID closures. For net new construction for 2024, it will be an increase of $536,000. As you may recall, this is slightly less than what we had been expecting. We were assuming that we would get something close to our five-year average at $734,000, however that did not come to fruition. In addition, there was a TID that termed out, actually a couple of them, so we were able to get some additional revenue through that to the tune of about $353,000. And so that encompasses the increase to the operations tax levy, that first line for a total of $889,000. The second line is related to the debt service levy. And that is the amount that we can levy towards our debt payments. We were able to levy for our debt in 2024 by bonding this fall. That's the action that the county board took last week. And this was done with the expectation that we would avoid a significant dip in 2024, followed by a significant increase in 2025. So we wanted to smooth our debt levy. So these two lines are the areas that are within our control. However, there are a lot of other factors, as you can see, that go into the final total levy. So then moving down to the fourth line, the two pieces that are outside of our control include the library levy, and that supports the Monarch library system to provide library services across the county. And as you can see, that is an increase of 6.45%. In addition, bridge aid for the municipalities is decreasing by 38% or $23,000. And that changes from year to year based on the upcoming projects and bridge aid that municipalities may need. In addition, there was a change in a rule from the attorney general on how that money can be combined with other funding sources. And so we expect to see some fluctuations in the years ahead based on that attorney general opinion as well. So with those factors being taken into consideration, the total levy is increasing by 1.69% or $891,000. The overall tax rate, so we're at the second line from the bottom, is decreasing by 11.05%, which is also a 48 cent reduction. So that means that based on the county's portion of a tax bill, a house value at $100,000, your taxes will decrease by $48. Now there are a lot of other factors that go into a property tax bill. It's not just the county's portion, such as the local school districts, the technical colleges, and the local municipalities. So the county's portion that we have control over will decrease. However, I can't guarantee that your actual tax bill that you get in December will reflect a decrease because of those other factors. And so then in conclusion, the bottom line there for the total budget for 2024 is $191.5 million. This is a 5.11% increase or about $9.3 million. So next we will go through how our tax rate and our tax levy compared to previous years. So this slide is depicting the history of our tax rate. This is our eighth year that we've had a decrease in our tax rate, and it's the lowest that it's been in decades. As you may recall from last year, Adam shared that the 2023 tax rate was the lowest it's been since 1985. And the tax rate for 2024 is obviously lower than that. And from what we were able to find in our records, it's the lowest that we've been able to find. We haven't been able to go back far enough to see when it was last this low at the 3.89. And the tax rate is calculated by taking the total levy, which was the $53 million and dividing it by the equalized value without TID. And the equalized value without TID for 2024 is $13.8 billion. So because of that significant increase in the equalized value, that's what contributed to the decrease in the tax rate. Next is the history of our tax levy over the last 10 years. This ebbs and flows over the years. And in the last 10 years, the average annual change has been 1.44%. You can see in the fine print at the bottom. In comparison, inflation over that same time period has been 2.62%. So in other words, county services are a bargain. Okay, so next up, I'm going to go through the other two graphs that you're familiar with seeing, that there was a copy of In Your Budget Binders. This is illustrating the total expenditures for the entire county and breaks it up between different departments and operating units. So this is the total budget that I mentioned earlier, the $191.5 million. As you can see in the top right corner, the largest area is Health and Human Services at just shy of $50 million. And that's a combination of levy as well as state and federal funds and fees for services. The second largest is general government that's on the bottom left-hand corner. And that is comprised of all of the other departments that aren't listed in their own pieces of the pie chart, and there's about a dozen different departments that go into it, such as building services, district attorney, HR, veterans, all of the other departments that you don't see listed are under the general government. The third largest that's illustrated here is transportation. Much of that, as you know, comes from the sales tax revenue or fees for services. In fact, the transportation department relies on less than $1.5 million in levy support. The fourth largest is the sheriff's department. Most of their budget is reliant on levy. The fifth is the capital projects, which we bond for. And the sixth is Rocky Knoll, which also has very little reliance on tax levy. Just about, we hold them to about a million dollars in levy every year. Okay, so this slide shows now the tax levy breakout. So it's similar format to the previous slide, but this is specific to the tax levy. So as I mentioned earlier, our overall levy for 2024 is 53.7 million. And that comprises about 28% of the total budget. So 53.7 million is 28% of 191.5 million. Here you can see the different departments and their reliance on the levy. So as I indicated earlier, the sheriff's department has a significant reliance on levy. In fact, 22 million of their $25 million budget is levy. And they encompass 13% of the overall budget, but utilize 41% of the levy. Also two other departments that have a lower reliance on the levy include the transportation department and Rocky Knoll that I just mentioned. I apologize, this is not the correct version of the PowerPoint, so I might have to move around a little bit. All of the information is accurate, it's just in a different order with the slides. So this slide is depicting the change for the departments and their levy compared to the previous year. So you can see broken down by each of the different departments. I wanna make a note here that some of these numbers for the 2024 levy might look a little bit different than what you had seen at previous meetings, such as at your liaison committee meetings. And that's for two reasons. Previous versions of the levy would have just been their base levy. This includes any capital outlay that was approved, additional levy request, furniture, etc., those things that we all roll together at the end. In addition, all of the department's levy was adjusted at the last finance committee meeting of the year to reflect the changes in the health insurance. So as you recall, we had budgeted a higher amount for health insurance. And when that rate came in less, we made the adjustments to all of the departments. So if any of you are looking at these numbers and seeing that they might be a little bit different than what you had seen a couple months ago at some base budget meetings, that's the two reasons. In addition, I wanted to call out a couple kind of anomalies here or some of these figures that might look a little bit misleading. So for instance, the fifth line here, the medical examiner, is showing a 23% increase. But in actuality, it's only $30,000 because their budget is so small, but the percentage is quite large. I also wanted to draw your attention to the IT department. It reflects zero levy. As you are all aware, they do not get levy support because we budget for them through the IT allocation, which is spread amongst all of the departments. In addition, one of the other one that stands out is the register of deeds. The second one that's showing negative, that's because they actually contribute. So I wanted to just draw your attention to a couple of those anomalies. This slide is showing, I'm going to move into a couple of the revenue sources. So we talked about our overall budget. We talked about the levy. Now I'm going to talk about a couple of the revenue sources that go into the budget, some of the bigger ticket items. The first of which is the half-scent sales tax. And so we have had this in place since 2017. And as you can see here, since it's been in place, it's been increasing steadily. And the performance continues to be strong. And as of today, we are on track to outpace last year's revenue. We're about $500,000 over where we were last year at this time. Which is fantastic news, not only for the transportation department, but all of the other uses that we use those dollars for, such as sharing it with our local municipalities. And then putting $1 million towards our debt service for property tax relief. In addition, when the sales tax increases in the transportation department can utilize these funds, we can then reallocate levy to spread to the other departments. So this is good news for everyone, not just the transportation department. Okay, I'm gonna go off the PowerPoint here for a minute. So the next piece that I wanted to touch on is the new supplemental shared revenue. And this is Wisconsin Act 12 that was passed by the legislature. For 2024, we will be receiving just over $1 million in new shared revenue. And as you recall, that is taking one cent of the state sales tax and distributing that to the municipalities across the state. And then every year as the state sales tax revenue increases, so will the share that comes to the municipalities. So to put that in perspective, for Sheboygan County specifically, we currently, through our shared revenue, would receive 1.8 million. And with this change, we will be receiving over another $1 million. So it's about a 56% increase for 2024. And a huge shout out to our legislators that supported this. It is making such an impact on all local units of government across the state. And to be quite honest without this, it would have been very, very challenging to balance the budget this year. So we're very grateful for the additional revenue source that the state has allocated to counties as well as the provision that it will increase year after year so that we can continue to maintain our services. For 2024, we are using those dollars for the Sheriff's Department. If you recall, there were a couple provisions on what those dollars could be used for. And it was specific to law enforcement, public safety, transportation, and the court system. So for 2024, we will be using those dollars for the Sheriff's Department. And we are doing that intentionally to reduce our reliance on the American Rescue Plan Act dollars that are currently supporting ongoing operations at the Sheriff's Department related to wages. So right now we have American Rescue Plan Act dollars that are supporting wage increases for employees at the Sheriff's Department not only in corrections but also in dispatch. And so we will be using this new shared revenue and pulling that back those ARPA dollars so that we have a sustainable path forward for those wage enhancements for those employees. Knowing that this PowerPoint is not accurate, Cheryl, if you just want to end it, then I don't have to worry about flipping through slides here. So I just have a couple more slides that I will just go through verbally. Apologize for the lack of visual for you. In addition, I wanted to just cover a couple of the key components of the budget, some of the aspects that affect all of the departments. For 2024, the budget includes a 3% increase to wages for our staff. It also includes a 4.5% increase to health insurance premiums. This is something I'm incredibly proud of. If you are monitoring health insurance renewals for other businesses or local units of government, 4.5% increase is lower than the average. So we're very happy that we were able to negotiate a modest increase there. In addition, we have our standard $500,000 for the capital outlay purchases for different equipment across the departments. And then various changes that came through from the state body ill budget were of course incorporated. We also continue to rely on the American Rescue Plan Act for a few different areas in our budget, one of which is at Rocky Knoll. There are a lot of dollars going towards Rocky Knoll for different recruitment and retention initiatives for the staffing there. In addition, we are using those dollars for various capital projects and equipment replacements. And so we are strategically trying to eliminate our reliance on those dollars for different ongoing provisions and instead pivot towards one time uses for projects that won't require funding going forward. Some of the major initiatives included in the budget include infrastructure upgrades and renovations, one of the largest being the tuck pointing and window replacement for the courthouse. In addition, we will be building a multi-purpose household hazardous waste building, doing some parking lot replacements and other various building remodeling. We are increasing in staffing and contracted services and health and human services for some of our well funded community based services where there's backlogs of clients waiting for service. We are planning on doing 50 miles of roadway improvements. We're constructing a taxiway at the airport and offering fixed based operator services. And we continue to make investments in staffing in our two most difficult areas to recruit employees where we need people 24 seven. And that includes Rocky Knoll and the Sheriff's Department. And so there are different applications to wage treatments in those areas such as shift differentials, sign on bonuses, premium pay, etc. So that we can ensure that those two facilities are staffed 24 seven. And we are able to do all of that in addition to maintaining the levels of service in our over 200 program areas. So we, there are a lot of different moving parts to the budget. A lot of different components. And it's truly a team effort to develop something like this. We continue to be an excellent fiscal condition as an organization. We have healthy reserves, strong bond rating and clean audit results that you heard a couple months ago. And we maintain all of that while continuing to make investments in our infrastructure, investments in our programming and investments in our staffing. So the budget continues our track record of fiscal stewardship. And it's something that we should all take a lot of pride in. So that concludes my overview of the 2024 budget this evening. I just want to note that all the besides all the county board supervisors that are here, all the department heads are here. And I want to thank you all for your services and working on the budget. Elaine, you've got a good team here, so it's a good thing. OK, I'd like to open the public hearing on the 2024 proposed budget. You notice that the public hearing was published on the 13th of October, 2023 and the proposed 2024 budget is open at this point for anyone from the public or likewise to come up and be heard. Is there anyone that has wants to come up and speak to the budget? I'll ask a second time. Is there anyone from the public that wants to come up and speak on any of the components of the budget? Last time anyone interested in speaking to any of the components of the components of the budget tonight? OK, hearing none. Wishing to be heard. I'll declare the public hearing closed. I'll even bang the gavel. OK, the next order of business. Is the review of the 2024 proposed budget? Our clerk would review all of these going through the budget on a department by department basis. And again, we'll move it from department to department. But if there's any information or anyone who chooses to comment on any of the individual budgets that the clerk will be proposing here, please let me know and we will make any amendments that might be offered or such that. So I'll open it up to John. In your binder under the blue tab, excuse me, blue tab that says level five. That's what I'll be referring to. And I'm going down the budget index. So we'll start with transportation fund summer and page 31. Any comments? Next. Building services pages 38 to 40. Next. Look of courts pages 41 and 42. Next. Corporation Council pages 43 and 44. Next. County Administrator pages 45 and 46. Next. County Board page 47. Next. County Clerk pages 48 and 49. Next. Court Commissioner pages 50 and 51. Next. District Attorney pages 52 and 53. Next. Employee benefits and insurance pages 54 and 55. Next. Finance pages 56 and 57. Next. Health and Human Services pages 58 through 60. Next. Human Resources pages 61 and 62. Next. Information Technology pages 63 through 66. Next. Medical Examiner pages 67 and 68. Next. Non-departmentals pages 69 and 70. Next. Planning and Conservation pages 71 through 74. Next. Property and Liability Insurance page 75. Next. Register of Deeds pages 76 and 77. Next. Rocking Olm pages 78 through 80. Next. Sheriff's Department pages 81 through 83. Next. Transportation Airport Division pages 84 and 85. Next. Transportation Fixed Based Operations page 86. Next. Transportation Highway Division pages 87 through 90. Next. Pressurer pages 91 and 92. Next. PW Extension pages 93 and 94. Next. PW Green Bay, Sheboygan Campus page 95. Next. Veterans Commission page 96. Next. Veterans Service 97 through 98. Next. That's it. That is it. Okay. Thank you. If there are any further motions that we're going to be offered, or did I miss something here? Declare the budget review session closed if there's no other comments or giving everyone an opportunity to speak. I'll declare the budget review session closed. Oh wait, I have someone here. Sure, let me get you turned on. There you go. Should be on it. Okay, my comment, thank you. My comment is I want to compliment you, Alain, for the comment you made about you're trying to find ways to fill financially the slots that we've experienced an abundance of money by way of our box in the last year or two years. One of our previous meetings I identified those are going to be slots or I'll call them holds eventually in one, three, five years from now. So orders are refreshing tonight and good news, not for me, I'm a taxpayer, but for all of the, my district, 20 taxpayers and all of the county taxpayers compliments to you, you said tonight that you're trying to find ways and part of it was by way of the state money that we've got increased in coming to the county to fill those slots because we did get these windfalls of money by way of ARPA. That's the federal government that gave each state in the United States a lot of money and then the state gave it to counties including Sheboygan County. So again, I'm repeating myself, my purpose in speaking tonight is to compliment your effort, Elaine, for finding ways to overcome that eventual one, three and five years from now slots in our budget where we did use a lot of the ARPA money which was significant in its amount. So compliments to you and hopefully you'll continue to do that on behalf of all of our taxpayers. So all said, thank you very much. Thank you, supervisor, none of. Okay, last bit of business here pursuant to section 5.06, parent A, parent eight, the 2024 proposed budget will be referred back to the finance committee which will submit its final recommendation on the budget at the November 7th, 2023, county board meeting. I would entertain a motion for adjournment. Supervisor Tostrodi, is there a second? Okay, supervisor. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I will second that motion. Thank you. Please vote. Supervisor Clark. Aye. Supervisor Emel. Aye. Thank you. It's unanimous, we are adjourned. I'm sorry, what? Oh, I got a vote too. I thought I hit it. Oh, I hit Burns. Burns voted too. Okay.