Lincoln County Commissioners Approve Tasers, Promotions, Jail Consultant

[0:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: 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. All right. We have next on the agenda, public forum. Walt, you want to say anything? No? All right. Thank you for being here. All right. Right after that, the minutes for September 15, 2026. I move we approve the September 15, '26 meeting. Second. Minute. Okay, it's been moved in second that we approve the September 15, 2026 minutes. Any discussion? There are none. All in favor say aye. It passes three nothing. September 17, 2026 budget public hearing minutes. I so move we approve. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the budget public hearing meetings. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. Now, Michelle, you can sit down. Good morning. [1:25] Finance/administrator staff: It's 76 in the sum of The big ticket items were the credit card payment, installation of equipment into a sheriff's office vehicle, and a biweekly payment to the main start apartment system. [1:46] Commissioner: And move we approve AP Warrant 76. Second. [1:50] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve AP Warrant 76. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [2:01] Finance/administrator staff: Moving on to Warrant 77 and the sum of $517,652.29. This includes the monthly jail payment, monthly health insurance payment, the Maine PERS pension payment, and $40,000 of ARPA funding to Great Salt Bay Sanitary District. [2:20] Chair/presiding commissioner: I move we approve the Warrant 77. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve Warrant 77. Any discussion? I thought the $40,000 was going to go to the town of Danvers Scott, and then they needed to process it. [2:38] Sheriff's office representative: It's through the town, and Great Salt Bay is going to be receiving the funds to be the contractor. [2:46] Chair/presiding commissioner: All right. So there's sort of a collaboration there instead of effort. Okay. Any further discussion? Fair or none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [2:59] Finance/administrator staff: Payroll warrant 2026-19, a sum of $288,725.44. This includes reimbursement of $2,500 to staff and reimbursement grants of $2,800. [3:16] Chair/presiding commissioner: I move we approve the payroll warrant. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve payroll warrant 2026-19. Any discussion? There are none. All in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [3:34] Finance/administrator staff: Moving on to payroll warrant 2026-20 in the sum of $329,475.61. This one is an increase over the prior payroll because we had our quarterly health and loop payments of $31,575. [3:54] Speaker E (unidentified): I move we approve. Second. [3:56] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve payroll warrant 2026-20. Any discussion? The health and lieu, those are folks who just are taking the health insurance to us, so they get a stipend back. And you said that's quarterly? Quarterly. Quarterly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. Next, [4:25] Finance/administrator staff: I have a purchase order in the sum of $6,454.76. This is an order for two rounds of bailing wire from New England Bailings for the Recycling Center. [4:43] Commissioner: Move we approve the purchase authorization for New England Bailing Wire. [4:48] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the purchase of recycling bailing wire for the recycling department. Any discussion? Do they just use two rolls a year as sort of the last that I remember this was about the same cost and about the same time of year? Is it like a yearly thing? [5:13] Finance/administrator staff: We order once a year typically, and it depends. It depends on if the line breaks as they're tying. It depends on the volume of material we get. We will usually average between two and four a year. [5:25] Chair/presiding commissioner: Okay, well depends on how well. Why are there, let's let the notes reflect mission response logics humor. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. It passes three nothing. [5:47] Finance/administrator staff: And then also a purchase order in the sum of $2,619.39 to Maine Equipment Company for a hydraulic oil tank that failed on the 2019 ChemWorth. [6:01] Commissioner: Would you say $2,639? We approve the fitness authorization for the hydraulic tank recycling truck. [6:15] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the cost of the hydraulic tank on the recycling truck. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. You're welcome to stick around. Just don't be disruptive. That's I sort of wondered. I think it's from Massachusetts, the wire. [7:35] Speaker E (unidentified): That's the one that's going to be significantly more. [7:39] Chair/presiding commissioner: Because we have more recycling? [7:41] Finance/administrator staff: No, because their prices have increased over their suppliers. [7:48] Chair/presiding commissioner: Are they subject to tariff? Is that? [7:51] Finance/administrator staff: No, non-galvanized is going up at least $2, and galvanized is going up at $4. But that's an extra problem. Yes. [8:06] Chair/presiding commissioner: How was the, they were working on the machine, one of the machines, one of the compacting machines up there, I thought. Yeah, making some replacement work. I was wondering how that went along. It's going okay then. [8:27] Sheriff's office representative: It was a while ago. Yeah, it's up and running. The new bailor has really made a complete difference. [8:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: Is the sheriff or chief deputy maker available? They thought she was going to take more of her time than I. [Speaker E (unidentified): Feel the suspense.] You must have had second thought. [9:10] Jail administrator: Sorry I'm out of here yeah running away thank [9:18] Chair/presiding commissioner: you sir thank you thank [9:24] Speaker E (unidentified): you hey start with [9:34] Jail administrator: the jail mount today the number as it lays out according to two bridges it's 27 Lincoln, 12 with SAG 50 with Knox, 53 Penobscot and 4 Oxford. I assume those Oxford are borders usually if they're there for just a warrant or something it's one or two to get four of them. That must be a case where Oxford's trying to find a place to place some [10:02] Chair/presiding commissioner: people. There's not very many today then. It's actually [10:06] Jail administrator: from the count that I provide I think I was not last meeting so it was a month ago it's actually about 10 people higher yeah so much a little higher a little higher any questions about the count all right next thing I have for you is and I promise we're getting near the near the end but we're not there yet this is for one of the new vehicles it's the equipment and labor for our dodge the unit that's assigned to the patrol division, it totals $13,480.85. [10:54] Speaker E (unidentified): I move we approve, I assume we approve the purchase. [11:00] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. I move and second that we approve the payment of $13,480.85 to Island Tech Services. services. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [11:22] Jail administrator: The next item is looking for your hiring authorization for a reserve transport core security officer. Her name is Martha Burnham. Most people know her as Lydia. we're not we were actively advertising for reserve people but when people show up and they're interested they help us fill gaps here and there in our schedule and help us provide coverage she comes with experience from the department of corrections knox county and currently she works at two bridges she's also certified she meets all the certification requirements we have for our for our core security officer our transport officers she would need some core security training besides that she comes all equipped and trained this is really she still has to complete the background check and portion of the of the hiring process but we just wanted to move this through so that when we're done with it if but she's successful we can just use a resource does she live in lincoln county she does not she lives in camden well that's quite a hike down there well she works in two bridges right now [12:44] Speaker E (unidentified): and is [12:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: this budgeted or does it 's just fill in right so somebody not it's just [12:57] Jail administrator: That somebody could help us out, either some jail transports, some screenings, some heavy [13:05] Speaker E (unidentified): four days, things like that. Thanks. We have budget for we're going. Thank you and [13:18] Commissioner: will that we approve the hiring of Martha Burnham for reserve transport port security detail second. [13:25] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve the hiring of reserve transport court security person, Martha Lydia Burnham. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [13:51] Jail administrator: The next item is a request to enter into a contract with Axon Enterprises, and they're the provider of the tasers that we carry. You'll see most of our guys, all our uniformed guys have these yellow tasers, and if you're are familiar with what they are, they're a they're a projectile device, electronic control device is how we talk refer to in our contract, that is a is a portion of our use of force where if necessarily we can, it releases a couple probes, the probes duct electricity between the two of them, and it disrupts people's muscles to the point where we can take them into custody, you know, the cost I'll tell you is 29,071 cents for a year and this is a 10-year contract with them i'll explain to you that part of our motivation for this is we're right now running a taser 6 x26 which is three generations behind the most latest model they have what this what this contract will allow us to do is if we enter into it with them is during the life of the contract if newer versions come on the current casers we have now are seven years old if new versions of the device come out then we automatically get the new version at no additional cost. $29,000 in 2026 I argue will not be what $29,000 is in 2036. It allows us to stabilize those costs, allows us to get the most current equipment. The differences, some of the differences between the model we have now and the model we're proposing to get in this contract is one distance. Currently our current tasers has a has a length of 25 feet, and the and the newer ones have 45, so it's more separation from a potential threat. The other difference is the technology. There's a lot of discussions about taser and how they may impact cardiac events with people we deal with that in training on target location and things like that, but this model has a different, has a lower level of electricity compared to the x26 that we have now, and it's looked at as a safer alternative. Obviously there's risk with any of these weapons, and I can tell you we probably deploy these weapons once or twice a year. It's not a high use. It's, it's a seat belt, right? We wear a seat belt every day so that when we're in a crash we have it. These are a de-escalator, whether it's the fact that the guy or girl that's wearing it has them, or if we, begin to deploy them. They have a laser dot. I can tell you experiences is when the laser dot is on somebody, clients has generally agreed upon, but not always, right? But it's a tool that's pretty much used across law enforcement, and this is just an attempt to keep our units. This will, this will give us more units on the field than we have now. It'll also guarantee that we have the most current version. Also it pays for the, during the life of the contract, it pays for all our training cartridges, it pays for the duty. Cartridges, it pays for the software to store the data from the devices, it actually pays for our instructor. We just had to send our instructor to training, and if we had a contract it wouldn't cost us anything for the training. It's all just is part of the bundle, if you will. Why Michelle's here, I talked with Michelle about financial. We easily have enough money in our capital line this year to fund that, and moving forward she's confident she can manage that into our, in our budget year to year. So is. There a. [18:36] Chair/presiding commissioner: Battery that goes in them, and that's what when the ends connect it makes electricity, right? So are the newer ones lighter as the battery involving? Or are they, I mean, I'm not sure how heavy they are. [18:52] Jail administrator: Yeah, I've never really had a Taser 10 in my hand, so I don't know. But I will tell you, they're totally different devices in that the current item we have now has a cartridge. It's probably about the size of the circle here and snaps in the end. That when you activate the taser it shoots two projectiles that stick into somebody's electricity ducts between those two spots in the cartridge. It's one and done, right? So. [19:24] Chair/presiding commissioner: If you deploy it then you next time around you're going to have a different cartridge, right? Exactly. [19:30] Jail administrator: and we currently keep a spare in the handle basically of it so there's two okay the difference between these the tech x10 is because inevitably right winner big close you miss somebody that kind of stuff you inevitably when it's like anything you know the farther away you are from somebody that the separation right so inevitably if the current the current items we have now if you deploy them and one projectile goes in and one doesn't you have to disconnect put another one in and try again if you have the opportunity, the X, the, I'm sorry, the taser 10 has an ability to store 10 cartridges, if you will, inside it. Just, they're single cartridges. So basically you pull it, you pull the trigger twice, right? You pull one once, you get a connection, you pull two, and then the good thing about that is if you miss on number two and you try number three, is if number three connects, you have one and three, it works. I think I did, I just make that understanding. So it has that, it has up to 10 rounds in it before you run out. And I can't imagine going all 10, right now, I mean, just when you say you can't imagine, you do, but I just don't think that's a likelihood, right? But they're a tool that it's invaluable to the safety, I would argue it reduces the potential harm to both the public and the deputies. But I will tell you, it is not the first tool out of the toolbox for us, right? You know, we choose the escalation, hands-on, if we can reasonably, right? If you got three deputies in one person, we're not going to tase them in most cases, right? But if you got three people in one deputy, someone might get tased, right? Those circumstances. So, it's a, it's a program that we looked at that's beneficial to us long-term, keep us up to date with what we have for devices, allow more devices to be accessible and available to our staff, and stabilize that price over 10 years. [21:57] Chair/presiding commissioner: So how many do we have now? [21:59] Jail administrator: I would say that was a great question, Commissioner, which I knew you'd ask, and I didn't find out exactly, but I would tell you roughly, I would say roughly 20. [22:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: money. Okay. And then under the new contract, that would just replace what we [22:12] Jail administrator: have or... Those would all go away. [22:14] Chair/presiding commissioner: So those 20 go away or whatever. So 20 more come in or plus or minus, depending on the need. [22:22] Jail administrator: 25 maybe, because this will allow us to make sure all our uniformed staff has them. It's likely that our port security and those people would have them too, available to them. We'll deploy them where it's, it's most likely or most beneficial to our staff. [22:43] Chair/presiding commissioner: Can you tell me more about the training that they'll have when these new ones come in? [22:48] Jail administrator: Yeah, well, so it will be, to tell you what exactly the training will be, I don't know, I haven't taken it, but I will tell you there'll be a sum of a learning curve because again, I've been around here, this is probably the third generation, we're probably the third different type of taser we've had. All of them have been the same I described where you pull the trigger and two probes come out. This is a little bit different in that you're going to have to train yourself to understand I've got to pull my trigger at least twice. And so I'm sure that the training obviously talks about use of force, when to use it, deployable. And then we also talk about targeted areas, right? We avoid, I just told you that the electricity is lower, but we avoid face area, groin area, chest area. We try to get meaty parts of the body, legs, back, things like that. It's all part of the training. [23:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: But there is, the training includes the de-escalation or the sort of the waterfall to get to that point where you... Yes, okay. Yes, sir. Super. You said this is a 10-year contract. Yes, sir. Is that so we won't get, we won't have another contract? [24:08] Jail administrator: We'll be paying 29 000 every year. Oh, every year. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. One of those blasted subscriptions. Yeah, I don't, I feel like I should just put subscription. I know it's like it's really, you know, again, it puts us in line to keep the most modern, you know, again, I hope, I know I won't be here in 10 years, but maybe I'll come back in 10 years and what a taser costs us in 10 years is going to be far cheaper than the 29 000 that we're paying. It just allows us to stabilize, plan, and keep the equipment. Current, it helps that all the training and the cartridges used and they do, the cartridges do expire, everything expires, so that those will all be, those are all costs that we'll get covered again. It allows our training to be covered, our, the person who trains us to be covered, that kind of stuff. He just allows us to stabilize the price long term for a tool that, like I said, outwardly admitting is not a high use, but it certainly is a high valued tool that we use out there. [25:26] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's very possible you'll have more than the staff, the number of staff you have now. Eight years from now, will you get another one within this contract? [25:37] Jail administrator: You know, I don't know that, Commissioner, what it would take to add an item to the contract. I know that one of the things I read in here that, you know, the contract comes up every year, so to speak, and they're in business. I doubt they're going to say no, right, if we come to them and say we want to add an item to the contract. So I don't know the answer to that, clearly. What [26:11] Commissioner: would you guys like to do? Move we approve the purchase authorization with Axon Enterprise. [26:16] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the contract with Axon Enterprise for modern day, more developed tasers. Any discussion or further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. Yeah, you're okay, but [26:59] Jail administrator: yes, I sent it over to him, yes [27:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: so I forgot to ask, it's we'll be doing this every year for that contract [27:16] Jail administrator: it's like I come back to you for the body cameras [27:19] Chair/presiding commissioner: the renewal, yeah, yes, they don't have those gloves, yeah, have you or in the training does [27:33] Jail administrator: people do they use it on, you know, so the answer to that is it's optional. I remember at the initial trainings it was it was mandatory, it's not that now, it's optional. I personally, there's benefits to that for a number of reasons. One, I think it gives you a bit of awareness of how it impacts somebody, right? So, you know, and because one of the things they tell you to do, one of the things you have to avoid is becoming a bystander, meaning when you, if you chase somebody, they really want you to move in at the time that they're disabled, that they run for like five seconds and turn off automatically. They just don't run forever. right and they really want you to go in there and doing your handcuffing restraint immediately, not waiting till it's over and then giving them another chance to the fight, right? So that one gives you an idea of just how impactful this is and you can always turn them off, you don't have to, they don't, they don't stay on for five seconds a little, you could turn them off earlier if you had to if you get the compliance you want and then number two, honestly, it's it's important for me to know if somebody, you know, someone I was met with somebody with a taser was threatening me how it can incapacitate me, you know, and I have a firearm and all the bad things that could happen with that. So but the bottom line is no, people aren't, people aren't [29:07] Chair/presiding commissioner: mandated to do that, okay, but they can't, right, and after somebody is tased, do they need medical [29:14] Jail administrator: Attention at all to often, the answer to that is no. Okay, but again, within our policy, we, if we take somebody, we ask them whether we, if we feel they need medical attention, we're going to do it. Okay, if they feel like they want medical attention, we'll do it. Okay, but often it's a, it's really just a fish probe, right, that you pull out, and sometimes it's a small, like a small amount of bleeding where the barb is had entered their skin. But again, part of this, part of what we train on is how to pull them Out that kind of stuff, and obviously again, if we have any idea, if we hit them in those areas that we tell, we try to avoid, or if there's obviously some sort of distress, then it's a need, and that's all great. Super. No, don't, no. I need to send that in to them. And I have that agreement. You can keep the green one. Let me photocopy that and I'll bring it all up, whatever you have. [Chair/presiding commissioner: So transportation MOU.] Yeah, so this is a contract between Saginaw and Lincoln County to just sort of memorialize, you know, some of the expectation that, quite honestly, we may do already, but also set up a situation where we, if we're called to back up Saginaw or step in and do some of the duties that primarily it should be theirs, that we can, we can bill them for it. Sagat Hawks model of transport is a little bit different than ours, and because of that, they have different numbers. The model we have where we involve our transport guys doing not only transport, but programs, and also port security and entry screening, allows them many busy hours, right, whereas the day, of moving prisoners from court to jail and jail to court just doesn't happen anywhere as nearly as it used to. Most of, most of the jail arraignments and court appearances are done remotely that in Itself still requires some staff to help out with two bridges. Most of our transports around jails are centered around medical type calls and maybe transports, final transports in some case for felony convictions to the state prison, you know, that kind of stuff. So this really is just an opportunity for us to agree with Saginaw Hawk that, yes, we got your back. If you need some help and you give us reasonable notice, we'll provide the services that you can't, and we're going to bill you for it, whether that's hourly or overtime wages or mileage, that kind of stuff. So it just memorializes, you know, if Saginaw Hawk or we asked Saginaw Hawk today, I'm sure they would help us. This just kind of steps in if Saginaw finds themselves in a deeper hole because of staffing needs, if they have people either sick, on vacation, things like that. Just puts in place a more formalized process where we have knowledge about it, we can plan for it, and then more [33:05] Chair/presiding commissioner: importantly, we can bill for it. So what prompted this, other than, I mean, is it happened more frequently? So yeah, you have to sort of formalize it, or I mean, if it was working [33:18] Jail administrator: I think some of them are operational changes at Sagat Hawk where they may be, the amount of people that they have in their transport division has shrunk. I don't know if they have any immediate plans to bring those numbers back to the numbers they have, they had prior to some vacancies. So this allows us to, if we're asked to step in and cover, to recoup those costs [33:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: associated with it. Do you have the capacity to fill it? I'm just wondering, is Sagerhawk going to look to us as sort of their temp service or something, you know, instead of hiring? The answer [34:02] Jail administrator: is, I don't think I'm going to ever guarantee you anything, right? You know, there's always perfect storms. You know, I should tell you, even at the prior staffing between our level and Saginaw Hawks, sometimes these medical events that require us to staff at the hospital for 24 7 can become a heavy lift for any one agency. But in recent times where Saginaw Hawks has had and changes in their structure of transport, it has left some vacancies, and this allows us to still support them but get reimbursed for that time. It reimbursed that cost, or do we get a little bit of, yeah, fringe is all in there. And then the other thing too, commissioner, like any contract, any good contract, you know, 30 days, we can give 30-day notice and say this [35:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: isn't working. So but this isn't intended to be a hospital care type of thing primarily, [35:18] Jail administrator: it's for actual transport. Well, it's really any transport duties that they have, commissioner. And I would argue that, again, the number of actual transports, like moving a prisoner from one place to another, outside of medical transports, are far in between. There aren't a lot of, the days of bringing prisoners, six or eight people over here to be arraigned, just doesn't happen. What happens now is those prisoners are arranged electronically, you know, virtually. It still requires staff, and right now we cover one day a week, and Saginaw is covering two days a week. You know, so it might, depending on their staff, there might be a day that we need to help cover those. Or, but I can tell you the ones that are most pressing, the ones that eat up a lot of staff hours, are hospital stays. So I'm not going to tell you that this isn't going to be used to help with a hospital stay, because those are the ones, you know, even at our current staffing, often sometimes requires us to dive into our patrol division and other people to help staff that. Because if you think about it, if we have somebody at the hospital during a work week, our guys still have their normal duties, court security screening, that kind of stuff. And so that, to add on watching somebody at a hospital, can push and stress those people out a little bit. So [36:58] Chair/presiding commissioner: Well, there's no, I'm not asking that you have a time in the hospital, but I can picture some of these hospital stays can be for several days. Certainly we have, we have, we have processes [37:10] Jail administrator: to try to avoid that happening, but sometimes that, I'll tell you that is, if you jinx to me, commissioner, if tonight we're sitting at a hospital for a week, I'm going to hunt you down. All right, so but you're right, some days, some, most often though, again, most often it's to the hospital four or five hours, back to two bridges, that's the most common. But that takes time, but that takes time, but those are, those are easy, those are generally workable. We have people on call and that kind of stuff, and so if that have that happened while we were doing, if two bridges reached out, they needed help doing something like that, 's the easy stuff. It's the stuff that somebody is in a hospital for three or four days, and often that, often that person is probably at mid coast or possibly even Portland. So then, so now you're going to add an hour in between travel time and that kind of stuff. It happens, it happens. There's certainly times when even at the prior level of staffing at Sagat Hawk, where we had somebody in the hospital and they would help us out and us vice versa. This just kind of puts in a place where we're going to just cover our costs and [38:29] Chair/presiding commissioner: it's, I'm like I say, are we different in that we have a jail authority? Isn't transport or shouldn't it be a function of the jail itself, as opposed to the sheriff's department? Or do they just, once it leaves the facility, it's the responsibility of the sheriff's [38:54] Jail administrator: Department as opposed to the jails. Well, everything's different about Two Bridges, right? Everything's different, right? There's nothing else like it in State of Maine. Every other county that it's run by the county, so last I knew these men and women are sentenced to the custody of the sheriff from for each county that puts them as our responsibility. And there's pluses and minuses, one that I think we're looking at right now about whether you house it through True Bridges or through the local sheriff's office. I think there's a number of questions about ability to staff the people you need, train the people you need, and costs you need. And I think we're looking at that to see exactly what's going to be most beneficial for the taxpayer. Right now, in our county, it's working for us, especially because we have those dual roles, right? Where our staff is tasked to do that is also doing court security, is also doing entry screening, is also doing jail diversion programs. I think that's where Saginaw is trying to figure it out right now. [40:12] Chair/presiding commissioner: But if they did that they would have a bigger need for the transport unless they built their [40:19] Jail administrator: staff out I guess. Yeah, well like I said I think they're in a question right now whether they've had some staff leave and I think they're trying to determine whether they're going to reduce their staff maintain their staff I don't know and this is this is sort of what helps them [40:37] Chair/presiding commissioner: short term while they figure that out and when there's transport does the jail authority pay the transporting agency or the transporters that strictly the sheriff's responsibility? Yeah no [40:52] Jail administrator: we 've never built Two Bridges our instances where some of the borders you know and Penobscot, where if we are in one of those hospital stays, Penobscot just does not have staff to watch people in the hospitals. [41:09] Chair/presiding commissioner: So we're guaranteed of a job in a hospital if it happens to be from Bangor or Penobscot. [41:17] Jail administrator: Right now what happens is Saganhawk and Lincoln switch month to month. We're always responsible for Lincoln inmates. We are Sagat Hawks always responsible for Sagat Hawk and then often month to month we'll we'll take on the borders and then the next month Sagat Hawk will and so those instances with Sagat Hawk I mean with Panopscot we always call them they always say I don't have anybody and we always send them a bill and they always pay it Sheriff Morton doesn't like it [41:57] Chair/presiding commissioner: but he pays it well he has a choice if he wants to send his people I mean reasonable time [42:05] Jail administrator: Commissioner, you know, you know, if it's one of those shorter stays to the hospital back, we probably don't bill them every time. But if we're, if we're into the point where we're scheduling staff to watch their inmate, which again, technically they're scheduled there's, they're, They're in the care of the sheriff of Penobscot County. We'll help them, but they're going to pay, and they do. [42:27] Chair/presiding commissioner: Well, that's the price of doing business. Yeah, exactly. And with this agreement, it seems like you may be doing that more if Sagatok can't, on those, every other month, meet their responsibility for the other counties if they need to lock their prisoners. [42:44] Jail administrator: What we're talking about is, you know, I see those timesheets every week. Right, so these medical calls, which are really the eaters of time, they're few and far between. They just don't happen, whether that's because we got healthy inmates, whether we got good medical staff at Two Bridges, I don't know. But you know, it just doesn't happen, it's not a weekly event, I can tell you that. Right, and then the long stays, maybe, I say maybe a monthly event, maybe a monthly event, may happen once a month, and you know, you flip the coin whether it's a Sagat Hawk or a Lincoln month, you know. What I mean, most of the, those medical trips, like I said, are shorts to the hospital. I mean, when I say short, four or five hours, right, I don't know if you had the pleasure of being in an emergency room, but that, nothing's in and out, right, you know. And we can't take these guys to walk-in clinics, that just, it's not going to work, right. So,, but those, most of them are short stays. It, 's the ones that prolonged that I think you're going to see more impactful. [43:57] Chair/presiding commissioner: Here. So we just approved a, reserve, officer for transport. Are you going to be relying on her a lot for that? But it's, filling in for Saginaw. [44:10] Jail administrator: Well, I mean, that wasn't really why we,, we hired her, because she came, she, came to us with an interest of getting involved with us. She has a training and experience that likely she would be beneficial, and certainly she comes, we require all our transport officers to be sworn, meaning law enforcement powers, can carry a weapon. She comes with that ability. I guess I. [44:34] Chair/presiding commissioner: Would ask it another way is that, are you going to rely on reserve officers where you already have your full-time people in the court or already doing transport, regular transport, definitely is a. [44:45] Jail administrator: Tool, right? You know, it would definitely be a tool. It would be silly not to if she's, if we know she's on a day off, right? If she's interested in doing it, would be a tool, but I don't know. So usually I, it will have to cross that path. Otherwise I'm just wondering, are we putting [45:06] Chair/presiding commissioner: putting people on overtime to sort of accomplish what Sagerhawk would have accomplished right away? [45:13] Jail administrator: Sagerhawk's pain. That's the best part, right? I'd rather us come back. I don't envision it happening. If this comes back, this comes back to a situation where, you know, I like to keep our staff busy. I think realistically, they want to be busy, and so if it increases our workload a bit, I'm comfortable we can manage that. If it comes to where it's unrealistic and I feel like we're being taken advantage of, we can have those frank discussions with Sagat Hawking. Like I said, we have that 30 day album [45:51] Chair/presiding commissioner: Okay, are you going to look at it quarterly or in the next six months and see how it's going to go [45:57] Jail administrator: or just? I think, I think what we would do, Commissioner, is look at it even monthly, right? Because we have to build them monthly in the contract memorandum, is look at that monthly. And if it's something where it's, you know, five hundred dollars in the first month, a thousand the next one, fifteen hundred, now we're starting to see a trend, right? You know, you know what I mean? And then we have to look at what caused that cost. If it was, like I said, one inmate that was, that was in a facility for seven days that's going to eat through a lot of money quickly. And some of that money might not be overtime, it could be just straight money where they're just reimbursing us for our staff. So we might county-wise profit a little bit from it depending on the time and the hours. What's the term, one year, September 1st? I just apologize, I keep talking about it and I have my head in the September 1st to the 31st of December [47:14] Commissioner: not a, not a year [47:16] Jail administrator: Well, is it, is it December of this year or December 6th [Chair/presiding commissioner: and so perfect] We'll be back in January [47:25] Chair/presiding commissioner: That would be a good test though. We get some data, maybe they'll support it or not. It's up to you guys. I move we approve the transport service contract with Saginaw. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the memorandum of understanding for transport services with Saginaw County Sheriff's Office. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. So I look forward to hearing how it does work over the next four months. [48:14] Jail administrator: Well, we can definitely do it. we come if we come back in december or whatever to renew that we certainly can come back with what the impact has yeah that would be great yeah what's going particularly the effect on the staffing and capacity here right yeah all right let's talk good news it's sort of money it's promotions yeah so just to put the back story you guys approved sergeant ronnie rollins leaving our transport our criminal investigation division to work in with main drug and i will tell you he's working i'm getting, I we can talk more about that, you know, probably when we come time to renew his stuff, but there's his presence in that Mid-Coast office is making a difference. I'm getting texts and calls from him about some of the activities doing, so great. Unfortunately, there's a need. Yeah, so it's, I'm happy about that. So with his absence creates a sergeant's opening within the Criminal Investigation Division. So, and based on the applicants for the sergeant's position within the Criminal Investigation Division, it also required us to fill a detective position because we had a detective, two detectives from that division interested in the sergeant's position, which naturally would mean only one person would get the job. So there would be an opening of a detective, so we began our process and we probably, well over a month ago, where we had an oral board of some professionals. We did some, we employed Dear Go Public Safety from Auburn to come and do some assessments on them. We did what we call a specialty task where we get to, we give them situations of most likely what they're going to have to do, you know, whether it's writing search warrants or affidavits for cell phone stuff, just to get an idea of what they, what they bring to the table, and then an interview within the division, and then finally an interview with the sheriff, and those are all numerically scored and set up in policy on percentage and that kind of stuff. So I'm happy to announce that Jared Mitkus is going to be the next sergeant in the Criminal Investigation Division. Jared's a longtime employee at the Sheriff's Office. He was a sergeant in patrol for a period of time who took the step back to go back into investigations. Investigations does a great job there, and we're looking forward to him stepping in there. What we plan to do is send over to finance a letter that will detail the date of hire right now. We're still trying to figure out how that's all going to work, but we'll put a detailed hour, detailed date, and the collective bargaining agreement will dictate what the pay is. It's all laid out as to what the starting pay will be based on what he makes now. These positions will all be listed as temporary, right? Because as the thing works, if Sergeant Rollins comes back, then we don't need two sergeants so he would go back to detective and we don't need the extra detective so the newly promoted detective would go back to patrol. Ultimately what will happen is we're also going to hire a patrol position which will be needed to place the detective that got promoted and that too will be a temporary position based on those main drug positions so it's something we've done commonly and knock on wood we've had good luck with it so how long is it going to take to fill that [52:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: patrol position it seems like you know you have people moving in the organization I mean we're [52:58] Jail administrator: I got staff going to Bangor to a to a public safety event at Husson College we've got staff going to Norwich University in Vermont to recruit there so the answer to that is when we have it so who fills in the interim time well we if we know us listen quite honestly right up until when Zach Smith who was our last hire until he was hired it was four or five years that we were empty as slots so what we generally would probably do is manipulate the schedule in such a way that we maintain our operational stance but not create 40 hours of overtime you know what I mean right so that's that's probably what's going to happen short term and once we get somebody into that position then we can add those 40 hours back in schedule so that's that's the plan okay so Jerry McKiss would be the detective sergeant and I just have to note that Matt Ryan, another one of our detectives, was involved in that process. They both did an outstanding job for that promotion. And I can't help but think that going through that process is just going to make Matt, one, a better detective, but more likely to get promoted now that he understands what exactly is going to be asked of him down the road. And then we had two staff within our patrol division, Ethan Burns and Casey Doyle, go through that same process for our detective. And I remember having a conversation with one of them. And a lot of times when people have a promotion or hiring process, they tell people, this is, it was really, it was really close. You all did very well. All that is just meant to make people feel good, right? This is not true. Well, it's not. Oh goodness. But in this case, it truly was true. Like, I, you know, it's, it's, it's a great feeling when some of these outside auditors or evaluators that we had from dear ago, you know, when they're done with this process, look at you and say, you know, boy, I don't know what you're going to do. You know what I mean? And I'll be honest with you, I had a little fun with Sheriff Brackett on this too, you know. But he looks at me sometimes, what are you going to do, Chief? What are you going to do, Sheriff? So very good problem to have. We've spoken to both candidates and told them what they've done. But really by a percentage point, Ethan Burns will be that next detective. And again we'll work through finance and operation as to when his actual start date will and collective bargaining agreement will determine what his pay is when it begins again temporary position based on the whole main drug situation I move we well [56:29] Chair/presiding commissioner: We promote are you ready I'm just saying it's listed as an announcement I didn't want to do to approve it well we have to approve it I think [56:38] Jail administrator: Because it involves pay you have to approve it okay so you're asking for approval is what [56:47] Chair/presiding commissioner: I hear what you're saying okay are you ready I move we approve word Mitkus as a be promoted to detective sergeant second it's been moved in second that we approve We approve moving Detective Mikus to the sergeant position. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. [57:20] Commissioner: And we approve the promotion of Ethan Burns to detective. [57:25] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the promotion of Ethan Burns to the position of detective. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. [57:40] Jail administrator: Congratulations for those being promoted thank you seems like they ate up a lot of your time today so that's all right we got good information thank you need me later right [57:54] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah can I get the copies of those letters yeah yes you can call me I'll send you a text all right thanks all [58:10] Chair/presiding commissioner: Right next on our agenda is communication [58:15] Sheriff's office representative: Tarah Doe is at the Central Square training session right now, so she's unable to attend our meeting, and I have her items to present. Please do. The first one is a change of status for one of our dispatchers, Lucy Jamison. Lucy's requested to transfer from her full-time position to a reserve dispatch position effective October 6th. [58:45] Chair/presiding commissioner: I so move. Second. Been moved and second that we approve the status of Lucy Jamerson's position at communications. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. It passes 3-0. [59:04] Sheriff's office representative: The next item is a payment authorization for radio tower repairs. This is a large cost. It represents repairs to multiple towers. The total amount is $34,816.59. The vendor for this is Radio Communications Management, RCM. It's also known as. and they have traveled to our noble borough jefferson and blim hill towers locations to replace antennas there was a climbing fee there was the technician fee and then there were additional expenses the dipole array on two of the towers were replaced we asked is this a result of damage is it a result of weather or is it just simply age and there's a combination of many factors in one situation we had ice fall from another section of the tower onto our equipment and it caused damage to it some of the antennas are just aging out and what was identified are these repairs needed as a result of our annual contract with RCM. They inspect every single tower for us. They give us an assessment of what the condition is and then make recommendations on what needs to be repaired. So the total amount represents all of these repairs that occurred in September. They gave us photos of different things that they had noticed on the towers they took scans of transmission during the process to ensure that what they were replacing really was the you know items that need to be replaced so we'll use our capital funds the communications capital funds to pay for these repairs but they were essential pieces of our 9-1-1 system [1:01:04] Chair/presiding commissioner: system that needed to be updated so we don't expect to have this again for a while i still [1:01:11] Sheriff's office representative: hope not okay it's rather quite a lot of updates that they've done okay in some years we have a large amount and then we'll have off years where there's just an item here or there that is much less costly now [1:01:27] Commissioner: that we approve the payment authorization for 34,816 and 59 for Radio Tower Repairs. Second. [1:01:34] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve the payment for the Radio Tower Repairs in the amount of Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. So if there's nothing more for communication, some Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission. Come on up. Good morning. [1:02:05] Speaker E (unidentified): See, it was, yeah, but I had a speed note question. no, please. [1:02:15] Chair/presiding commissioner: Probably not. I'm just a rent is a recognition. Yeah. [1:02:19] County administrator: That's what I thought. Okay. Let's see. So the 1st item that I have is a hiring recommendation for our newly created floodplain manager position. You'll recall that this is being funded through state annual state funding through this main office of community affairs. And we had a number of qualified applicants apply. We had two really good ones that we brought in for a second interview, which included a mock presentation and panel Q&A. And I'm bringing to you the recommendation of Paige Dolce. See. She is a very accomplished young woman from Massachusetts. She worked with the Mass Audubon Society. She has her degree in environmental science with a master's in climate change with a focus in floodplain management. So this is right up her alley. She has been following the Flood Ready Maine program when this was established through LD1 after the flooding events of 2023 and 2024. So she's been looking to relocate. She has family here in Maine and she's very qualified. So I bring this recommendation to you wholeheartedly. [1:03:35] Chair/presiding commissioner: I so move we approve the hiring of Paige [1:03:43] Speaker E (unidentified): Dulcey. Dulcey. Second that. [1:03:46] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve the hiring of the floodplain manager to be filled by Paige Dolce. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes three. Paige. [1:04:07] County administrator: She should be starting at the end of October or early November. [1:04:10] Chair/presiding commissioner: Please bring her by to introduce her, please. Absolutely. [1:04:13] County administrator: The second item that I have on the agenda is a reallocation of ARPA housing funds. You may recall that we have about $8,000-ish left to spend for the end of the year. And this ties back to the Town of Waldeboro and Volunteers of America Northern New England's project to extend three-face power to their two co-located properties in Waldeboro. That work is advancing. Central Maine Power, the town of Waldeboro, and neighbors in the neighborhood met earlier this summer to go over the three-phase extension schedule and what would be required to do so. Construction work and tree trimming are planned for later this fall, and there are four property owners that are within the vegetation clearing area that will need to have easement paperwork signed to allow for that tree clearing to begin. in. However, one of the things that we didn't take into consideration as part of this was revegetating once those trees are taken off these people's properties. And the goal is to revegetate with low growth native plant material so that it doesn't grow up into the wires down the road, that it'll remain lower growing and kind of fill these gaps. And with fall being an ideal time for transplanting and because the easements are necessary before the work can begin, the town of Waldeboro has reached out to us asking to use $2,000 of ARPA funds to buy the plant material, which would be about $500 in vegetation for each of the four parcels. And then the town's public works department would handle the planting of that. So there would be an in-kind match, if you will, from the town for the work that would go into planting. [1:06:01] Chair/presiding commissioner: So like ferns or something? [1:06:03] County administrator: I mean, what's a low growth type of something that's native and like a bushier plant? So it wouldn't necessarily be ferns, but maybe, you know, some type of hardier local plant, but more than [1:06:15] Chair/presiding commissioner: grass, more than grass, yeah, and you're not less than trees, like, yeah, somewhere in there, so [1:06:21] County administrator: you'd want the type of shrub you'd probably plant a couple, you know, one gallon buckets of something [1:06:27] Chair/presiding commissioner: and are these on, these are on private lots, right, lots right away, okay, so it will be the owner of the lot that has to maintain them in the future, right, the goal is that they wouldn't need [1:06:40] Commissioner: a lot of maintenance, okay, thanks, I move we approve the offer reallocation for the town [1:06:47] Chair/presiding commissioner: of Waldenborough for two thousand dollars, second, then move in a second that we approve the reallocation of $2,000 for vegetation purposes. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes. Great, thank you. That's all I got. Wow, quick and easy. All right, next we have district attorney on there. And I don't see the district attorney here, so that you're presenting on their behalf. Okay. [1:07:26] Sheriff's office representative: So, we have an employee resignation to share with you. This is for the legal secretary position. Our employee, Violet Peristox, has submitted her resignation, and it would be effective October 23rd of 2026. [1:07:47] Commissioner: Move that we accept the resignation and authorize the posting of the vacancy. Second. [1:07:54] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we accept the resignation of the legal secretary from the district attorney's office. Effective 10-23-2026. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [1:08:12] Sheriff's office representative: We've also reviewed the current job description, and the recently hired office supervisor has provided some recommendations that she has to update the job description. She consulted with the prosecutors in the office. I've reviewed it to make sure that it fits within our requirements for HR policy, and the draft that you have in front of you is a result of those changes. They're pretty minor, a little bit of language change and modernization of duties based on what they're actually doing today. [1:08:49] Chair/presiding commissioner: Did the district attorney give an opinion on the revisions? [1:08:55] Sheriff's office representative: I believe it was provided to her and her prosecutors provided information in consultation with the suit. [1:09:05] Commissioner: I move that we approve a job description update for legal secretary. Second. [1:09:11] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve the revisions to the job description of the legal secretary. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. It passes 3-0. [1:09:27] Sheriff's office representative: And just as an update for the department, they currently have a victim witness advocate position that is vacant. And we have received quite a few qualified applicants for the position. We're moving forward with scheduling the interviews that should be happening in the next week or so. I'm hoping that the next meeting will have a recommendation for a new hire in that position for everyone. Okay, the next item that I have is an announcement that at the main county commissioners association annual convention, the risk pool presented their safe driving awards, and Lincoln County was awarded first place in safe driving awards, and I have at the $5,000 check, it was a prize for that safe driving award. We've historically received various amounts, usually not first place. [1:10:22] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's the first time in a long time we've gotten first place. Yes. But it's like the sixth year in a row or something, isn't it? That we've received something. That we've received something. So we have some good drivers. We do. We do. [1:10:33] Sheriff's office representative: I like to remind you guys the efforts that have been made. I know that we've invested a lot of time in making sure that folks are trained properly and follow up on accidents as they happen, and I hope they realize that, you know [1:10:50] Chair/presiding commissioner: their drive-in matters and that it's recognized by the risk pool by that. So if they can keep it up, I wouldn't mind accepting a check next year for that or more if they have more. Thank you [1:11:06] Sheriff's office representative: The next item I have is an employee termination for our HR position, effective September 28th. Jesse Tobia, who is our HR manager, has been separated in employment, and I reached out to Commissioner Lovett to let him know about that and receive permission to post the vacancy. So I just need an official motion from the board to accept the termination and allow the posting, please. [1:11:34] Commissioner: Move that we accept the employee termination and authorize the posting [1:11:39] Chair/presiding commissioner: The vacancy second been moved and seconded any discussion all in favor say aye it passes 3-0 [1:11:49] Sheriff's office representative: And that is currently posted on various channels that we use to advertise vacancies and we have received some very promising applications already. It closes on the 15th of October. [1:12:06] Chair/presiding commissioner: Sort of a critical position and hopefully we get some high quality candidate in there. The [1:12:18] Sheriff's office representative: Next item, I have a draft policy for Title 6 non-discrimination plan. This is a result of our contract with the Department of Transportation, main department of transportation it's a requirement of the federal department of transportation that sub-recipients of grants have these policies in place so it's a it's a lengthy policy and it's reflective of what's required in the federal the federal grant program and it's prepared to make sure that we have all of the necessary steps in place There will be one more policy that's coming. It's not ready yet, but this is the first step in that. We need to have this in place in order to accept our main DOT card. [1:13:06] Commissioner: Move that we accept and approve the Title VI non-discrimination plan. Second. [1:13:13] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we accept the Title VI non-discrimination plan. Any discussion? Question. Carrie, do you have any particular comments on this? I mean, it is what, several pages. [1:13:29] Sheriff's office representative: It's a lot of regulatory promises that we're going to file, follow the laws. It's a lot of language that really don't, I don't want to say it doesn't apply to us, but we don't really have the exposure that a lot of organizations that do work with DOT might have. We're the pass-through to our planning commission. We're not having a lot of interaction with the public, so making sure that we're complying with Title VI for the public in this capacity really is a lot of excess work for us. But it's important that we have it. If we expand our role at some point in the future with Maine DOT, it will be necessary to have that. So I'm getting good at writing. [1:14:22] Chair/presiding commissioner: I was looking at the number of proportion of LEP persons. [1:14:29] Sheriff's office representative: There are very few, very few. Yeah. When I look at other policies that, other agencies that have this policy, their percentage is extremely high compared to ours. The county that I worked at before would have had at least a 30% population that had another language other than English as their first language. So it is necessary. It might not be as relevant to us as it is in other parts of the country, but it's required and we're going to comply with it. [1:15:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: Well, it has changed in 50 years, the requirements along that line. When I think of what I've heard of these reports of people in just the school systems in Portland and Lewiston, I don't know how they keep up with it. [1:15:26] Sheriff's office representative: Well, we're not immune to it. And I'll tell you that. Last week, we had somebody that was here for court that needed to contact her sister. And her first language is Vietnamese. Means so we were able to understand what she was saying to us, but when she was having the conversation on the phone with her sister, it was not English. So it does exist for us here, and we just need to be aware of it and accommodating this as necessary. Do we have a civil rights officer [1:15:57] Chair/presiding commissioner: or you're looking at her. There we go. So you're the designee that we did found out. Yeah. [1:16:03] Sheriff's office representative: Was that a volunteer that you'd like to take that on? [1:16:07] Chair/presiding commissioner: Not, yeah, my day job sort of prevents that, I guess. So as I look through it, I didn't see anything except that of note that necessarily that we're not violating it just by enacting it. But, you know, we can easily comply with this plan. So that makes sense to me. I move we approve the non-discrimination plan for the county. We [1:16:37] Sheriff's office representative: just need to vote now. It's already been moved. [1:16:39] Chair/presiding commissioner: So in the nature that nobody wants to discriminate, I believe all in favor say aye. It passes 3-0. The [1:16:56] Sheriff's office representative: next item is the results of the RFP that was issued for regional governance facilitation and development services. This is our District 6 Jail Collaboration Project. We sent out an RFP several weeks back. We received six applicants. The committee that's working on the District 6 Jail Collaboration identified one person from each county to review the RFPs and then report back to the committee with a recommendation. I was on that review committee. We read through all six of the applications and scored them individually, and then came together to discuss what we had scored. And our scores were very similar, only I think that number three, number four were different for us. All of us scored the top applicant as our top selection. We made that recommendation back to the committee, and we also provided a secondary recommendation if the committee didn't accept our first recommendation. The first recommendation was a higher cost than the second, but it wasn't the highest proposal that we received. And in the end, I think that the relationship that we currently have with this vendor, with all the counties in the state, really solidified our recommendation that we accept the proposal. And that was through Verrill. Jim Cohen is the partner at Verrill. It's a law firm in Maine. We have a longstanding positive relationship with Jim. It was actually Commissioner Gutkowski's recommendation that we reach out and provide the RFP and ask them to consider submitting a proposal. And their proposal was the strongest, in my opinion. I think the relationship that they have at the state with legislators, with other counties, is really going to make this process a positive one in the end. The total cost of their proposal is $81,100, I believe it is. That cost would be split three ways. And our small subcommittee agreed that it should be split equally among all three counties. And the subcommittee agreed that the Vero proposal should move forward and that the county should split it three ways. We then took this proposal. proposal, we met again in our small subcommittee and agreed that we would bring it to each one of our boards of commissioners for their consideration. It's already been approved by the Knox County Commissioners and the Saginaw County Commissioners. One had a special meeting just to address this and the other one had another meeting that they could take it on their agenda. And so what I would propose to you is that you consider accepting the proposal from Vero and authorize a payment of up to $30,000. I know that the total cost is about $27,000 for each county. But if there are any incidental mileage or travel expenses related to this, I'd like to incorporate them all into your possible approval of this on the purchase order. So that I don't need to come back and ask for incidentals. [1:20:27] Chair/presiding commissioner: Aside from costs, what other criteria were on your grading? What did you consider? [1:20:36] Sheriff's office representative: So I don't have the grading sheet, but I did prepare an actual grading document and posed a lot of different questions that we should be considering in the proposal, whether or not ultimately one of the really strong things in Beryl's favor is that they're Maine. They're from Maine. They're local. They know the legislative atmosphere. They're close by, so the travel costs would be mileage and not airfare or overnight stays at hotels. They have worked with county jails in the past. Some of the applicants that we received proposals from had never worked with jails, had never worked with county government. There I think there was there were two other proposals from the state inside the state and the rest were from other states so our number two proposal was a New Hampshire application and the cost was much less but the relationships just hadn't been established already so when we looked at it, we looked at what we were trying to achieve with meetings and negotiation sessions. We were looking at who had experience and know what the jail atmosphere is and what that landscape would look like if we were to consider moving this partnership forward. I can get you the scoring sheet so you can see all of it, but there was six or eight pages of different criteria to consider. [1:22:15] Chair/presiding commissioner: The one I'm really wondering about, which is I think is probably going to be the main thing, is sort of the ability to mediate among three different parties that probably have three different interests and not take sides, obviously, but be able to get the three parties to an agreement. Payment that's the ultimate goal and it sounds like it must be if the three parties got together to look for a consultant to help doing that did Verrill's presentation show that they [1:22:50] Sheriff's office representative: have that capability they do they do I've I've witnessed it myself I think that having a third-party guide this conversation is really going to identify what each of our stop points are and what we need to make this go forward. I know that capital is a big conversation. Capital costs in these facilities, not just Two Bridges, but in the Knox County jail that they have as a capital investment, are real concerns. And that was identified as one of the items that any of the proposals should be addressing. We're going to start off the process by having individual conversations with the consultant at the county level privately, so that if you've got a concern, you'll have an opportunity to air it. And as they have these meetings, they can and consolidate all of the common themes, and then try to provide some recommendations on what path we should take and how that equation might look in the head. Our board makeup at Two Bridges is also a consideration. How do you add another party and then augment that current existing board? [1:24:12] Chair/presiding commissioner: And then get legislative approval to changing things. Thanks. Could you talk a little bit more about the decision to divide the cost equally among the counties? Because it seems like Knox County is coming, asking for entrance into the authority. One may think the first thought is, okay, they should pay the expenses of reviewing that or making that happen. Why did the parties decide to just split the cost? I think if we all have [1:24:47] Sheriff's office representative: a financial investment in this, we have a reasonable commitment to moving the process forward. Word, thirty thousand dollars, I don't take it lightly, but in our big picture of our budget, it's it's a small investment to make into a long-term positive relationship that we could [1:25:12] Chair/presiding commissioner: get out of this. Would it reduce our costs in the future if we brought up in a third party? [1:25:17] Sheriff's office representative: Is that what the thinking is? Yeah, it already is. It might not be reducing. I should I should caveat that. It's not reducing what we pay in, but it's not increasing it. And if we didn't have that relationship with Knox County, we would definitely be seeing an increase in costs. [1:25:36] Chair/presiding commissioner: And we're seeing it now because of the agreement that we have in the interim with Knox. [1:25:44] Sheriff's office representative: We have it as a boarding agreement. [1:25:45] Chair/presiding commissioner: A boarding agreement, yes. [1:25:47] Sheriff's office representative: And we're looking to make it a partnership agreement. So Knox County has a higher population at our jail? But they're also writing a much larger check than we are. Our tax cap kind of stabilized how much Lincoln County was paying to Two Bridges for many years, but that tax cap got increased several years back, and our payment has not increased. Some of the work that's gone into this Knox arrangement has allowed us to keep that cap where it is. Without it, I would anticipate that our costs without the borders would, it five or six years ago we estimated it would increase our costs half a million dollars annually, but that was many years ago, so that I would anticipate that number closer to seven or eight hundred thousand dollars annual, so the Knox Partnership would benefit us by not making that tax cap go up. [1:26:51] Chair/presiding commissioner: And then you're suggesting so our contribution to that is sort of a cost saving strategy for the future or at least to not see it increase significantly right when we first went [1:27:07] Sheriff's office representative: into this collaboration, we individually by facility we engaged with SMRT to provide us some insight as to where we are currently with our jails. When that contract with SMRT was signed, Two Bridges split that cost between the two points. We individually paid for half of that for Two Bridges. Knott's paid for their own. Waldo paid for their own. And now that we're moving this whole thing forward as a partnership, in order for us to be partners and to be on an equal playing field, the subcommittee felt that it was necessary that all of the counties should have some investment in this. [1:27:56] Chair/presiding commissioner: It sounds like if you're going to start acting like partners to end up in a partnership, then it makes sense. [1:28:06] Commissioner: I'll move that we approve up to $30,000 in payment authorization for the Regional Governance Facilitation and Development Services with CERL. Second. [1:28:16] Chair/presiding commissioner: It's been moved and seconded that we approve the selection of Vero as the consultant to, and what was it, and to allocate up to $30,000 for payment of their fees. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Passes 3-0. [1:28:47] Sheriff's office representative: And this is not an amount that we have budgeted in our current budget, so I would anticipate these funds coming out of our contingency account, and there's been no expense out of that account yet this year. Okay, next item is we received a request from the Booth Bay Waterfront Preservation Group. They are, they have a project in East Boothbay currently. They have applied for a grant through the Department of Transportation. They received acknowledgement that they were going to receive the grant. They were anticipating that the town of Boothbay Harbor would be the fiscal agent on that grant through DOT. DOT can't provide the funds directly to a nonprofit profit. It has to go through a municipality or county or such. The town of Booth Bay Harbor has declined being the fiscal agent for this project, and one of the representatives from the group has reached out to me and asked if the county would consider doing this. We've been fiscal agents on projects similar to this in the past. The difference is in those projects, we've been an active partner in helping to apply for the grant. In this case, we did not help to apply for the grant. One of the concerns that I had about this is not knowing what the expectation of the grant funds usage would be. Would we be held liable to make sure that they were being spent appropriately? I reached out to their representative at Maine DOT, and he advised that we would be a pass-through entity and that the nonprofit would allocate the funds and engage the contractor that they have. They would submit a request to us. We would make sure that the math was correct on their invoice. We would create our own billing to the state. They would review it and then send the funds back to us to pass on. I know that there's been a lot of There's a lot of support, and there's a lot of pushback on this project. I don't want to get into the politics of what's happening with the project because I really am not informed enough to speak on it. But in order for us to be a fiscal agent, it's an action that the board of commissioners would need to approve. [1:31:30] Chair/presiding commissioner: Do we have any fiscal liability on this then? [1:31:35] Sheriff's office representative: According to my representative at DOT, T. He says that the county is not the project manager and has no responsibility to assist in project management. It's just a basic math review and invoicing and disbursement. [1:31:58] Chair/presiding commissioner: So we don't. I don't believe we would. Unless we mess up with [1:32:02] Sheriff's office representative: the financial review. And they're not anticipating many invoices. It'll be a couple of invoices that would come to us and we would then funnel the money back. [1:32:14] Chair/presiding commissioner: But there's a cost to us having staff time to do a project that was not related. [1:32:20] Sheriff's office representative: It would just be a matter of processing an invoice and cutting a check. It would be very minimal staff time. [1:32:27] Chair/presiding commissioner: Do we know why the municipality did not decline to be the fiscal agent at all? Is that part of the political issues? [1:32:36] Sheriff's office representative: I think that is part of the political issues. [1:32:39] Commissioner: Okay, I would move to table till we get more information second. [1:32:47] Chair/presiding commissioner: Then moved a second that we table for more information. Just given the hints of some issues that are out there that I'm unaware of, I would agree with that. It makes sense to me. So well, any other discussion? Hearing on all in favor say aye. It passes three nothing. So if you could maybe find out some data points or whatever, like maybe if you know if yeah, why are they coming to us? And you know, I guess a little bit more understanding for me is like, how much staff time would we really use? Do we and in their grant does that allow for compensation to us for our time. And what more information would you need? Those are all relevant concerns. [1:33:45] Speaker E (unidentified): Okay. Okay. Thank you. [1:33:51] Chair/presiding commissioner: Next on the agenda, I have old, business, public safety. I wish it wasn't that old. So after the sheriff's office has been smashed in by a driver, probably it's more of a need than any tape. Just before we jump into that, could you give us an update on that? Is structural, has that been all fixed, the smashed that? So I filed the [1:34:20] Sheriff's office representative: claim with the risk pool in regards to the driver that didn't stop into the sheriff's building. They sent out a adjuster the next day. We've had that meeting with the adjuster. He's encouraged just find a mason to provide an estimate on repairs of the brick on the outside of the building, and whether or not the mason believes there's any structural concerns. If that is identified, then an engineer will be sent out to do a structural analysis of it. At this point it doesn't appear to have any structural concerns. The brick on the building is a double layer of brick, so the adjuster believes that double layer of brick and the size of the bricks, excuse me, that are on that building are what prevented the car from going all the way through. Okay. There is damage on the inside of the building to the drywall, to the heating, there's a register on the [1:35:23] Chair/presiding commissioner: wall, but that didn't break. It did not break. That's good. So the water damage, okay, that's excellent, because that would be really disastrous. And have you consulted a arborist on the tree, because that looked like a pretty good chunk taking out of the tree. So the adjuster thinks that the if we [1:35:43] Sheriff's office representative: Seal the tree that the tree might be salvaged. I did reach out to a mason that was working nearby a couple years back and I had him scheduled to come last week and wasn't able to attend. So I'm actively seeking masons. If you know anybody that does brickwork I'd love to have a conversation with them. Brickwork to do bark work well that'll be a different vendor. Yeah so we're we're moving on it okay. At this point we may need to barricade it insulate it and barricade it for the winter. I don't know if I can get a mason before the snow starts falling. [1:36:26] Chair/presiding commissioner: Yeah well after today we're starting to really think about that for sure so but that does tie into a new public safety building so let's let's go into that discussion. [1:36:39] Sheriff's office representative: So I don't really have a whole update you on. I did take a drive past one of the locations looking to have a conversation with the current owner and that person was not there so I am hoping that I can make connection with him. I did have a conversation at the Sheriff's Office last week about different opportunities and the Chief Deputy had a couple of recommendations that he was going to start having conversations. At this point I'm open to a lot of different possibilities. [1:37:20] Chair/presiding commissioner: Possibility well I would like to stick to the sort of the presumption of let's get to the middle of the county and have better response times for everybody but if that's not realistic because we can't find a place we have to figure out what do we give and what do we you know to get just a space but yeah okay well thank you for that and next on my list is agenda commissioner updates dates. Commissioner Gukowski, do you have any updates [1:37:55] Commissioner: for us? Let's see. We all attended the Maine County Commissioners Association Convention at Sunday River on the 23rd and the 24th and then came back with actually quite a few [1:38:08] Chair/presiding commissioner: new pieces of knowledge. And a $5,000 check. [1:38:13] Commissioner: And a $5,000 check for having the best drivers in the state. It's the other ones you got to look out for let's see on the 16th we have the county budget meeting which will be at the planning commission at 9 00 a.m 9 00 a.m and we have the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission I believe it's a full meeting or an executive committee meeting here remember well full board meeting on the 21st at 6 00 p.m and that's what I have [1:38:47] Chair/presiding commissioner: Commissioner Blodgett, do you have anything you want to know? What was the first date that you had there? 16. [Commissioner: Friday, October 16th.] A week from this problem. And at what time? 9 a.m. [1:39:04] Commissioner: At the Planning Commission. [1:39:12] Chair/presiding commissioner: And that is a real workshop, right? [1:39:16] Speaker E (unidentified): That's the full budget committee. [1:39:18] Chair/presiding commissioner: A cup of coffee, yes, or two, because it's all numbers, right, and policy, and at the planning office, yes. Anyway, okay, you don't have anything. I would just add to Commissioner Gukowski's statement that he and I were at the employment law of session on the first, I think it was, and Emily was there with us, so we learned a little bit about what's currently going on in the area of employment and compliance. So glad to have that opportunity to get there, and I realized when I got there I could get professional credits too so what a boost that glad I went of course I'm not going to count it until I see it on the my printout but that 's a bonus that's all i had to add really there so talk about our board winners yeah might as well since she's here right she hasn't received it yet i know but we could we could we can we can leak it right i don't know you know if i get in trouble i'm blaming you and we're not jinxing anything i know they can't bar it back after they after they announced it but this is the second big award that you and your department have received, it so that's amazing. Can you tell us some more about it, just reminding, yeah [1:41:05] County administrator: that'll look good, I know that's a little tick, no, I think we're okay, but I don't think I'm supposed to be sharing it, so if I get in trouble like I said, oh yeah, I don't want to get you [1:41:15] Commissioner: in trouble, yeah, our planning director was recently awarded the planner of the year award from the Northern New England chapter of the American Planning Association, there we go, we can't get [1:41:30] Chair/presiding commissioner: in trouble for that, yes, and are you going to Manchester to accept it, yes, yep, so we'll be [1:41:35] County administrator: be going down on the 22nd, nice, for a luncheon and celebration with the awards, the issue, very nice [1:41:43] Sheriff's office representative: and our staff will be there also, and one of our planners is a presenter, nice, in the conference [1:41:51] County administrator: which is a multi-year, they Laura was, yes, she was, so this is her second year presenting at Knee Kappa, and the previous year she was on a panel, this year she has 90 minutes all to herself, so she's presenting and also going to make it interactive because in her words she doesn't [1:42:13] Chair/presiding commissioner: want to talk for 90 minutes, good strategy. Well hopefully you all can take great photographs so that we can see sort of what took place, yeah, I'll be back in November with my trophies, I can, and just see you the Michael Phelps type of person, you can't hold your head up because all those medals around you. Well congratulations, the contingency fund for the trophy case [1:42:41] County administrator: Yeah, oh yeah, this is the year I said I at the employee law summit that I have to win the pumpkin decorating contest so I can get the triple crown awards this year. Well, are you counting the chili cookout? I mean, I could, but that was years past, so I'll bring that with me for I don't know. We [1:42:57] Chair/presiding commissioner: should we should have a time limit on it. Yes, but it does go in the trophy cabinet. Does it have to be out there or here? So we often negotiate where that cap goes. Travel. Yeah, okay, I'd go for that. Yeah, there we go, thank you. Well, there we go. If we ever find a place for the public safety building, you walk in, you see the massive trophy case and all it says is LCP. Yeah, I said, well, I have my well, congratulations. Thank you, very honored. Were you talking about any other [1:43:35] Sheriff's office representative: awards, sir? I think, go me, you so work that originated at the planning commission mission through our broadband efforts. Oh yeah, I'll let you take it from here. It was a submitted [1:43:48] Commissioner: article I think in the Lincoln County paper two weeks ago, but the trade publication Light Reading awarded the Lincoln County project with Fidium the outstanding use case for bridging the digital divide. So sort of like a project of the year award, and was up against several projects from around the country and a few international ones, I believe one in India and one in either India or Well, [1:44:14] Chair/presiding commissioner: we really do need a trophy case or more, you know, we got to put all these certificates up on the wall. So whatever. So yeah, you know, really, do we really need that? Come on. We're not gonna lose the map. But come on. That's right. We got it here. You folks have done a wonderful job the last couple of years. Keep up the good work. Very fulfilling. [1:44:38] County administrator: You're too good. You stuck around. I'm just waiting for prints and deeds. [1:44:44] Chair/presiding commissioner: Oh, I figured now you're worried you're going to get a phone call. We heard the commissioners were talking about that award. It's like, Yeah. That's good. All right. Well, next on the agenda, it says executive session. What's your pleasure. [1:45:01] Commissioner: Will we enter pursuant to 1MRSA4056A for discussion of personnel? [1:45:06] Chair/presiding commissioner: Second. It's been moved and seconded. We move into executive session for discussion of personnel. All in favor, say aye. Aye. We are in executive session.