Waldo County Commissioners Rescind $1,000 Purchase Approval Rule

[0:00] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Commissioner Brie? Here. Commissioner Parker? Here. Commissioner Kelly? Here. Review, revise, and approve of agenda. Any edits? [0:07] Commissioner: Can we add a spot to review our policy around department heads having to come to us for purchases of $1,000 and over? [0:15] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Sure. You want that under new business? Sure. I held that in my finance report. Oh! Okay. All right. Anything else? No. Hearing none. All those in favor? Raise your hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Review, revise, and approval of consent agenda. I'll take chair authority on this one. We're going to table the approval of the minutes for August 13th, 2026, so that the commissioners have time to review. You public comment. Any public comment? Hearing them. Moving on. Reports. Facilities. 2027. That's a tongue twister. Budget update. Good morning, Chris. What do we got? Good [0:58] Department head (facilities management): morning. I just have a, it would be really quick. It's just a couple of lines on the electricity side of it. Since I put in the numbers with the budget in June, I have more updated numbers [1:10] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): We're updated numbers. Got it, Chris. Department number? [1:15] Department head (facilities management): It is, I don't have the number in front of me, actually, but it's over here. What's your department number? So, 1030. [1:20] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): 1030, thanks. That's a start. It's not in this updated packet. [1:28] Commissioner: So. No. It's right here. It's in. It's in the new one? This one. This one. [1:34] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): This one. Got it. Thank you. [1:36] Department head (facilities management): In the 10-30-4303, the electric for the Commissioner's Court building, this building, I'm asking we increase from $9,475 to $10,705. [1:57] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So that $9,475 is going to go to $10,705. That's just due to updated... [2:07] Speaker D (unidentified): I have 700 more information out from AFMG. Okay, thank you. Any other updates? [2:14] Department head (facilities management): Yes, I have two more. The next one down, 4304, electric for EMA. Yep. I'm asking you to go from 1100 to 1510. Okay, thank you. And then the next one down, 4307, for the Sheriff's Department. I'm actually going from $18,700 to $19,500. Wow. I do want to make a note with the Sheriff's Office, with the solar panels, since we've installed in a year's time, we've actually saved over $13,000 in electricity with just the solar panels, just on the Sheriff's Building site. [2:57] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): You've saved how much? [Department head (facilities management): $13,000 a year.] We've saved you the solar panels on the Sheriff's building up on the hill over thirteen thousand [3:05] Department head (facilities management): dollars. Yes, did the numbers, it showed my charge show where the CFP bills really show how much that the credits are generated, so even though we're still asking for all these electricity [3:21] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Excellent point. Thanks, Chris. So on the budget notes, can you on the sheriff's line here put in a short we saved $13,000 with a solar. I can add that, yes. Yes, thank you. That's an important point. What else do you have, Chris? That is it. That's it. Dispatch and stainless tape? [3:42] Department head (facilities management): Yes. Those numbers, because those are not on a solar panel. Okay. So I can kind of just more or less. When do you go before the budget committee? October 17th, I believe. Are you going to have any electric bills [3:57] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): coming in besides before then that you can update? No, I just did my latest one. So okay. All right, thank you. Thank you, Christian. I appreciate it. Yep. I need to report October 1st [4:08] County Administrator/Finance Director: 2026 warrants. Could you make a motion to accept those changes for the budget process, please? Sure. [4:16] Commissioner: You'd like a motion? I do want to put a motion. I move that we accept the electric rate changes on the facilities management budget 1030 for commissioners court, EMA, and sheriff. Do you need the specific numbers in the motion? Yes. Okay. All right. Say yes. Okay. I'm going from nine thousand four seventy five to ten thousand seven oh five commissioners court, going from eleven hundred dollars to fifteen ten for EMA, and going from $18,700 to $19,500 for the Sheriff. [5:01] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Per second. Call the question. All those in favor? Motion carries. You name it. Any other motions you would like right now? No? Okay. Finance report. Warrants. What do we got? [5:20] County Administrator/Finance Director: Before I get to the warrants, I'll present a few things. Audit to give a public update. We received our 24 audit as promised on September 30th. I have not had a chance to review it yet, and I am going to assume that you would like to invite Kevin Edwards at the next meeting, and I can send him an email to come present that audit unless you [5:43] Commissioner: want more time. Will it be, I mean, I think last time we had a presentation, it was already in final form, not draft form. No, it was still in draft form. It was still in draft form at the time of the presentation, and then we approved it. [5:58] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Yeah, I think that's probably that. Yeah, 15th. Yeah, yes, 15th, but I want to review because so there was two drafts that came out, so the second one I'll review and see if they caught a couple of issues that I saw. Okay. Yeah. All right. So if anybody, if any of the commissioners have any questions or edits that they think, just email finance, and she'll get it to him. [6:23] County Administrator/Finance Director: We have collected in town taxes. We have an outstanding balance of $10,107,781.75. [Speaker D (unidentified): Who else paid?] I didn't bring a list of who else paid. Winterport finished paying. Sears Monk paid, Burnham paid, Stockton paid. [6:58] Speaker D (unidentified): It's okay. I accepted the answer you didn't bring the [7:03] County Administrator/Finance Director: West. I'm already good. The Finance Committee is at the tail end of meeting with Department Heads this Friday. They will be meeting with Information Technology, IT, and they'll have... [7:18] Speaker D (unidentified): The advisory committee. The advisory committee. What did I say? Budget committee? [7:22] County Administrator/Finance Director: Yes. Oh, sorry. The finance advisory committee will be finishing up with meeting with department heads. This Friday, they are meeting Information Technology, also known as IT, and they still need to meet with the district attorney's office and review health benefits. We did have a budget committee member attend one of the past meetings and found it to be very informational, and he's excited to see the work that the finance advisory committee is doing. I this is regarding invoices. I have received several questions, and to help reduce inquiries coming to my office, I'm looking for some clarification on the process for invoices over a thousand dollars that require approval. Several department heads have come to me with situations where an item or items were purchased prior to your motion that was made on August 6. In that motion it stated that all expenses greater than a thousand must come before the commissioners, no splitting of invoices, and no excessive use of credit cards, and there was a hiring freeze. Do regular expenses like fuel, electricity, phones, etc., need to come before you? Or do you want approval for expenses such as tires, equipment, repairs, computers, etc.? [8:51] Commissioner: So I was hoping today to put a motion on the table to end the $1,000 approval policy. We have leveraged the second TAN, we have money coming in from towns, these are budgeted expenses. I think that it was important that we did that as a show of like, look, we're tightening things up and things are hard at the moment, but I think that we can go back to letting our department heads use their budgeted money for what it was [9:20] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): budgeted for. So purchases that were made prior to what was it, August? August 6th. Do you have documentation stating that an email or something? In one case I do [9:33] County Administrator/Finance Director: have an email that clearly shows the date of the conversation going between the county and the vendor. And I do have a quote that is dated. [9:43] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Was it purchased before August 10th? [9:47] County Administrator/Finance Director: It was ordered, but received the invoice after. After. Yes. [9:54] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Is anybody, to Commissioner Breed's point, in the 26 budget, if we rescind that, is anybody over any mine items in their budget, 26 budget? Yes. [10:06] County Administrator/Finance Director: We have a handful of departments that are over budget, not over budget, but over specific line items. [10:15] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So they are over budget for some specific line items. [10:19] County Administrator/Finance Director: Yes, but the overall budget is not over at this time. [10:23] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So the question is, should the motion be for specific line items that are not over budget to rescind $1,000 and the other ones that are over budget to have them come before for an explanation? [10:37] County Administrator/Finance Director: So some of these lines that I'm thinking off the top of my head that are over are legal fees. Sure. And then our maintenance due to unexpected breaks. [10:50] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Any other personnel issues, line items, personnel line items? [10:54] County Administrator/Finance Director: Not that I can think of off the top of my head. [Commissioner: And our health.] Our health is, yup. [11:02] Commissioner: I mean, I consider that the biggest driver of both of these. It is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess I expect that, you know, the best case, the best guess that any example of facilities can make about what's going to need repairing and maintenance in a year, it's not a surprise to me that sometimes goes over because stuff happens. [11:26] County Administrator/Finance Director: I think our health is our most unpredictable account that we have. Because you just you don't know. Read the audit. [11:36] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): It's up 46% if I remember that number based on the 24 audit. 46% increase. That's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah and I mean I think [11:46] County Administrator/Finance Director: we 've done a little bit of work and we can gradually see that increase over time with our [11:52] Commissioner: health account. I just I don't really want to punish department heads or defer maintenance on things that actually need to be maintained when it's an issue, when really those are a drop in the bucket compared to our primary financial issue. [12:08] County Administrator/Finance Director: And that's another point that I was going to make is if you're seeking approval from these department heads, my assumption would be that you would want them placed on the warrant after you approved, which would cause a two-week delay, which then could result in additional fees and interest being added to the charge. [12:30] Speaker F (unidentified): May I? Over 20 years ago, the commissioners made a change to the budget from Hambo. When I first came aboard, it was like a line item thing, where we were borrowing from this line. New commissioners came in and changed it that as the department head, we were responsible for the bottom line of our budget. I guess I would ask, has that policy changed? Because Commissioner Kelly mentioned about line items, and did that policy change during my absence? I guess I would like to be sure that the department had to know that. Because for 20 years, I operated on the fact that my budget was not on line items. So, just for a point of clarification, I think we need to really be sure that we're talking about [13:53] Commissioner: This is what is approved, not this, by the regulatory committee, correct? Correct. The summary sheet of when each department has an amount, not every single line item. [14:05] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Well, I think going forward, they approved that sheet, but going forward, you know, I brought this up before, do we spread the budget by 12, or is there any department or line item, is there any seasonality in it that you can put in there, like, let's say for August, we know something's going to hit bigger in August on that particular line item. Because if you don't put in, if you spread it by 12, I guarantee you're going to be over on line items in each department one way or the other. So the budget, once we get on the new software, needs to be spread by seasonality to take a hard pass. Are we going to be perfect the first year or second year, maybe third year? No. But it's a better management tool for the department has to manage their budget. Rather than saving all the money to the end of the year, Edmonds is going to be able to put in there, you know, okay, this month it's $100,000, but next month it's $80,000 for your department budget, and then you can adjust the line items as needed. So, it's just a better management tool going forward, something the county's never had in over 30 years with the accounting system that we have now. So, it's going to be a better tool for managers. So do we want to put a, before we go forward, do you want to put a motion on table to rescind that? [15:30] Commissioner: I move we rescind the $1,000 approval for budgeted items. Friendly policy. [15:40] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Keep the documentation on file that proves that the products were ordered or services were ordered before that $1,000. I think we're splitting gears on this. And the other point I have to make is that when we ask somebody to come before the commissioner's court, they need to show up. Do we have a second? I'll second this for discussion. Perfect. Go ahead. [16:11] Speaker D (unidentified): Not only do I agree with that last statement that you made, the county is so far behind. I'm going to narrow it in to make it less of a broad statement. When we, when the statement that's used of a better management tool, let's also clarify again the why here. The county has not had a county manager ever. There hasn't been someone besides Kevin, sorry, Kevin, who spends his life here and really goes through every single little detail. It as you know we don't have a designated person to do that and it's to the point now where we're as a society going the other way and a lot of these tools are automizing themselves. I'm not going to say that we're in a benefit by not having, can you say that word again, they're automatic, I can't say it, so it's, I actually don't agree with rescinding this unless there is a more clear statement that, like, when we do ask people to come, they should come. I'm not saying that you have to come. I'm not going to tell you what to do. But, like, there's a respect there where we are handling the taxpayers' money, and we're trying to do it in the best way that we all disagree. And I say that respectfully in a fun way. So that's my reason for not saying it, but it's not because I don't agree with the [17:55] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): overall resolution. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, call the question. All those in favor? Motion carries. [18:05] County Administrator/Finance Director: What else do you have? So you are rescinding that motion. And does that include the hiring freeze that was in there? That wasn't part of it. Okay. It no the only other change is Owen and I have discussed it and he's actually going to be presenting the warrants to the commissioners from this point forward so I'll turn it over to Owen. Thank you. Thank you. No [18:35] Commissioner: pressure. Oh goodness. While [18:51] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): we're waiting for the warrant warrants I want to make a special note and I wanted in the minutes we want to congratulate Commissioner Brie on her current birthday. Thank you. So happy birthday. Thanks. So that 40 is not behind me just for the record. [19:12] Speaker D (unidentified): Noted. All right. Wow. [19:18] Speaker F (unidentified): We received no funds we spent no funds so motion to approve zero dollars. Second. [19:26] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): First second all those in favor motion carries your first one's easy that's easy. [19:34] Speaker F (unidentified): It doesn't get any easier from here anyway the JF we had we had invoices in the amount of fifteen thousand five sixty four That's 1-5-5-6-4, with a payroll of $61,899.68, that's 6-1-8-9-9-68 cents, for a total of $77,464.67. [20:22] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): That's the jail. Motion to move the jail warrant for $77,464.67. I'll second it. Mm-hmm. Call the question. All in favor? [20:33] Speaker F (unidentified): Motion carries. Now, on the general warrant, I did have a question and found a discrepancy, which was kind of solved today but we have an invoice for $5,737 so that's the one [20:55] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): that was ordered prior to August 10th but never received the invoice yet but I [21:00] Speaker F (unidentified): pulled it out presented to Kari we did go back and research it and our Kari researched it, and then we talked about it, and we found it to be okay, and we did have documentation on that, but it was all back before it came in, so it kind of worked. [21:22] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Alright, thank you. And [21:29] Speaker F (unidentified): on the general warrant, this one gets bigger. $177,180.81. $177,190.81. That's all of the invoices. There is payroll in the amount of $195,551.19. For a total of $372,742 and no cents. Wow! Wow, 372,742.00. [22:14] Speaker D (unidentified): Motion to move the county board forward for $372,742. [22:19] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Second. No question. Motion carries. [22:24] Speaker F (unidentified): And I'm happy to report that I believe that the county is solid. That's good. [22:31] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Spread the word. Word I always used to ask the finance officer before you step down on the finance you've had the opportunity to go through the credit card receipts yes is there any anomalies [22:49] Commissioner: no not on this one not okay you combine abnormal with anomaly anomalies there we go well the other [22:55] Speaker F (unidentified): thing reset perfectly I've watched two things number one right there's new words number one the thousand dollar limit that we did and then anything that looks kind of out of out of the way you find dining experiences dining experiences and the cost of some rooms anything that just I just see an eye on the top of the carrier. [23:26] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Okay, thank you, thank you all. So there's one other thing on the finance report I want to bring up. Under Title 30-A on the main revised statutes, specific duties of the Office of the Treasurer's cash management, disbursements and payroll, tax enforcement, accounting and reporting, and state costs. I really want to get the treasurer more involved in these five functions going forward. As we get better at this, I think we need to get, you know, we have the advisory committee, its chair of, is that helps take some of the pressure off the finance director and the treasurer. But at the same time, we need to keep cognizant of the fact that there's other duties that the treasurer should be doing. And so going forward, let's take a hard pass at it and see what else we can place on the treasurer's plate. Thank you. Anything else on the finance report? No. Moving on. 6.3 request for approval invoice. The invoice is I.T. Director Jason. [24:30] Commissioner: Do we cancel that? Seems to be, you know, cancel that. [24:45] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Does he want, does he have invoices or not? The Rescinded. Does he need to come forward? No. Okay. Thank you. We don't county clerk. Oh, yeah. [25:04] County Administrator/Finance Director: Start if it's alright. You had received a an updated county government hazard mitigation plan from EMA Director Dale Rowley. I don't know if you've had an opportunity to review that. I have a fresh copy here if you want to talk about it or sign it, and I made sure you each have a copy up there as well. [25:27] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Is this time sensitive? Do we need to approve this? [25:29] County Administrator/Finance Director: I don't know the answer to that. [25:34] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): You had a chance? [25:35] Commissioner: I had given a look through it when it was emailed, but not a thorough, so if we can table it, I'd like to spend some more time with it. [25:43] Speaker D (unidentified): I mean, I'll deal with it, but if you want to table it, 's okay. [25:46] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Table until October 15th. Okay. [25:49] County Administrator/Finance Director: I think he would have indicated if it was. Okay, thank you. Okay, what else, Brooke? I also made sure you have copies the schedules for the for the any edits. [26:11] Commissioner: Nothing that I'm aware of. I noticed that Kevin's availability is noted on here. I wanted to add mine as well so that everyone's aware on 10 16 I'll be participating via zoom. Okay, and I will not be able to participate at all on 10 17. [26:28] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): And on 10 23 I'll have to zoom in. I'll be out of state. [26:34] County Administrator/Finance Director: And that's at Friday night. 10 to 23, the one when you said you were away? [26:38] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah. You'll Zoom? Yeah. Okay. I'll listen in. All the Fridays, I can't make them, [26:47] County Administrator/Finance Director: which was mentioned. It was. Okay. All right. Well, the Budget Committee will march on then. I'll [26:56] Speaker D (unidentified): zoom in. Oh, you will? Yeah. [27:02] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): It's a small budget on the 1023. [27:06] County Administrator/Finance Director: I'm hoping there are no more changes. No big deal. And speaking of budget committee meetings, there is one at this point on a Saturday and I know one of the members brought up lunch. I'm just making you aware that in your food line you have $163.73 left. [27:30] Speaker D (unidentified): In the past, we've had the re-entry center make us something. Are we able to ask them and see if we can do it? [27:35] County Administrator/Finance Director: You can do that, but the invoices come down here. Just be aware. And we'll probably take up most, if not all, of that. [27:44] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Coultery plate, cheese and crackers. Not good. I've had the jail period do something. That's the most cost effective way to do it. [27:54] County Administrator/Finance Director: Yes and no, depending on what you serve obviously. Do you want something hot? Do you want, can you let them know that cost effect? We don't want a three [28:01] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): dollar steak that's that's tough that you want the [28:05] Speaker D (unidentified): three there are 3d printing on that I won't be [28:08] Commissioner: there so see if the jail can do something you can save 20 on my meals okay thank you I don't know it's important that we feed the budget committee when they're willing to spend 9 a.m to 2 p.m [28:24] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): I understand. [28:28] County Administrator/Finance Director: Just very quickly, I wanted to thank you for letting Carrie and I have the opportunity to go to the MCCA convention for the day on Wednesday. We learned a lot. We kind of divided and conquered. One thing we sat in on together was the Title 30A discussion. That's very much in the infancy stages. Sorry to interrupt. No. But we're so overwhelming, they have just decided to start it and do it piecemeal. And then try to figure out where it branches off and touches off. [29:01] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So title 38 is how many pages? [29:03] Commissioner: 800 and something. Yeah, I couldn't print them all, so I just printed the most pertinent sections. [29:09] County Administrator/Finance Director: It's going to be an overwhelming, long-term project. But it seems to be being reviewed very forensically. There are a good range of people, from sheriffs to administrators to, I think, registrants and there were some commissioners there, so that was good to sit in on and listen to. And so was the insurance presentations that were done in the sheriff's ministry. Commissioner Kelly, who was the moderator, I think you were, you the moderator for that? [Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): The health committee.] Yes, did a nice job, and it was very informative. I took notes if anybody wants to do anything. I also, I don't know if we have time to talk about this today, that's fine, but I really think we need to revisit the remote participation policy. It is still vague enough, and with budget meetings coming up, I think it needs to be very clear and consistent as much as possible. So that Jason Bailey isn't trying to figure out who he has to send links to, or whether or not the public can speak, or we just really need to have something that's consistent. Because there have been times when one of you needed to Zoom and couldn't, and it's not. [30:26] Commissioner: Well, there's no public comment at budget committee meetings. [30:30] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Yes, they do hold a public comment, period. [30:33] County Administrator/Finance Director: No. During the public hearing, that is. [30:36] Commissioner: Yeah, during the hearing, but I'm talking about this schedule here. Oh, no. That there's no public comment on those agendas. [30:41] County Administrator/Finance Director: You just have to remember that if somebody does show up in the audience and they raise their hand and say, hey, can I ask a question? We've got a, that same provision needs to be available to people that are tying in remotely. [30:52] Commissioner: So should we just review it before our next meeting? [30:55] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): And that would be- Why don't you send it off to Barbara? [30:57] County Administrator/Finance Director: You have copies, and yes, I will also email it. And Jason Bailey was kind enough to do some research, and so the larger of those two documents is research that he did. I've also put out a request for the other counties to send me what they have for policies. Oh, good. Thank you. So we can build from there. Okay, great. Let's move right on. And now I need to become Tracy. Can I do HR report while I'm up here? [31:28] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Sure. Anything that requires an executive session? [31:31] Commissioner: At the end, yes. Chair, I have a question. Since R3 is here, could we speak with them before we get into two executive sessions? Sure. [31:42] County Administrator/Finance Director: Continue, Bonnie. Yeah. How long do I wait to just do the whole HR report after you talk to them? Is that okay? I think it would be more- That's fine. Easier for minutes, etc. Okay. I'll sit down. [31:53] Commissioner: Thank you, Bree. They weren't here before we approved the agenda, so. [31:58] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): R3 is on deck. Just state your name and the company, please, for the reporting. Okay. Brent [32:06] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction. We were the grant awardee of $36,500 by the Opioid Availability Committee. And I brought some materials for you guys. QR code. You can also be found on the Italy Place and County Commission. It's your approach. Yeah. Here. Right. Feel free to scan the top of that with your phone. [32:37] Speaker D (unidentified): Alright. I already talked to the guy like two weeks ago. Yeah so far let's see is [32:47] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): this 201. Actually, there's probably 203. There's two out there. Okay, all right. I guess we threw those in for free. So first of all, our first priority has been ensuring every town of Maldo County has at least one box in accordance with the conditions of the grant and project contract. As of tomorrow, all of those will be fulfilled. We currently place 40 units throughout the county, but community-based placement, we prioritize high accessible, high traffic areas, including town offices, libraries, general stores, dollar stores, retail locations, restaurants, churches, and apartment buildings, where we found that 911 data has indicated that... Oh, really? Yes. [33:36] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So that 911 has responded to an overdose? [33:39] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): those. Mike Larrabee has been extremely helpful. That's great. Yes. So let me, one other thing. [33:46] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): I just want to have these thoughts. I hate to interrupt, but can we get your dot map on our website? I believe we will. Where the placement? Yeah, absolutely. Good. Thank you. That way people can go and they can actually see the pin drop of the address. Yes. We have the exact latitude and longitude of all the units and address long and lat some people won't [34:09] Commissioner: understand sure they'll get their comments out and go find the nearest opioid but you know [34:17] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): for the lay people that do not vote or do map mapping if we can get the address when you touch that pin that'll pop the address right up yes perfect thank you very much yes so just [34:31] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): for some examples we have covered now reached Monroe we placed two in Monroe we were met at the general store as soon as we walked in they said welcome to Monroe there's not much that's the hub in Monroe I know for a fact absolutely one has been placed there and we actually got a great community interaction but an overdose occurred in the parking lot adjacent to the Monroe County General Store. Oh, wow. It just happened? And within the last year. Within the last year? Within the last year. Wow. So placement there is perfectly strategic, along with the library, considering it's one [35:09] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): of the most publicly accessible places in the town offices. [35:13] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): The next phase of the strategy will begin condensing and strategically increasing placement in high areas where overdose calls have populated from, and we found from the data here that Belfast obviously being the biggest population had the most calls over the last since 2020 and then when our board followed that after really yes over five years one report has received over [35:49] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): 40 overdose calls, yes, that was so in Winterport, it's at the town office, yes, and at the [35:57] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): the gas station, currently we just placed one in the town office because then we were sifting thing through the data, park rules were understood, yeah, we just wanted to make sure that again we're, we kind of have a restriction with just the 200 units, so we have to make sure we fulfill each town and then probably go back and probably including Aliceboro, we'll be on the ferry today, okay, including going back to the areas most affected and then placing the remaining units [36:23] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): there, just it's a smart switch, just as a note, if you're going on the ferry to Aliceboro, make sure you make the return ferry and gas is really expensive over on the island, which I don't know, it was six dollars last year per gallon or something like that, and what their gas cost is going to be probably higher than that right now, logistics, you got it, perfect, thank you [36:48] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): we also place one at the base of Mount Waldo where the hype control begins, so while it's out there remotely there are people who live down that road, but they're again given the restrictions on where we can place them on public utility or anything, but there is a sign with postage there, so one is placed at the base of Mount Waldo, unity, excuse me, after Winterport, Sears Board followed with the most five-year calls and then Unity, Brooks followed with Stockton Springs, Frankfurt, Burnham, Liberty, Knox, Lincolnville, Prospect, and Palermo. We did divide the data. There were 106 outgoing calls when EMS contracted, I believe, with another county to follow up those calls, so we removed those from our data. As of so far, today will be Belfast and Owlsboro outreach, and the community has been more than accepting and helpful, wanting to do something to make a difference, and your staff has been exceptional on helping me, I've spoken to Barb more than most girlfriends I've ever had over the last few months, we like her too, lovely, and been extremely helpful, may I approach, I have these for you, sure, approach [38:14] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So a question I have for you, so if somebody uses the box, is part of the grant, any consumable items in there, part of the grant to resupply the box or? Yes. I know if they don't shoot the QR code, then the grant is to install them, correct? [38:32] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): To install and monitor, however, yes. I designed the QR code so that it can be self-sufficient. What we have found budgetary wise is it would be smart to check quarterly. We also have sites in a contact for each placement within a business. They have our contact information which is on [38:54] Commissioner: there so for example you don't need to physically come to the general store. You have a contact there and you can ask them to see are both doses still available in the box exactly and within the box [39:06] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): on the outdoor placement we it's very simple we just place a red pack through so we know whether the box is part of it is training so if the box is within a business with a lot of traffic and employees we want them to be able to use the training module that's part of it. We've now trained it 35 different locations give or take at least on average one person per site so that doesn't include they have three more employees five employees they're all also being trained on naloxone application so we're going along training each person really yeah absolutely every person so this is the first County to do this in Maine yes note-taking thank you anything else so you are coming out with other products too correct once heat [40:00] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Heat exhaustion, is that on the market yet? [40:02] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Yes, it is on the market. [40:03] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): With cold packs and stuff like that? [40:05] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Yes, cold packs, potassium packets, and electrolyte packets, a blanket for heat stroke. [40:13] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So with the heat swings in Maine now coming, this might be another appropriate thing. And then the other box that you've got is, with the video, is also blood-borne pathogens? [40:23] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Yes, that's in its research and development phase. [40:27] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): It's in R&D? Yes. [40:29] Speaker F (unidentified): Wow, perfect. [40:30] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Our chief of R&D is back there, too, if you have any questions. Nothing soon. Nothing soon. Anything else, Brett? No. We're very grateful for your help. [40:41] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Do you want a photo op after? If possible. After what session will we do a photo op? [40:46] Commissioner: What area are you trying to catch? We're not sure yet. [40:49] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): We're going to go talk to our contacts at the VFA. We'll be around the area until tomorrow. Great. Do you know when this next session will be? [40:59] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Give us probably... I don't know. [41:06] Grant awardee (Henderson, Rapid Risk Reduction): Wow. He's optimistic. Yeah, we'd love to get a comment from everyone. But yeah, we've collected a lot of great citizen interactions as well. We've been documenting them. [41:18] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Twenty-two and a half minutes. Yes. Great. All righty. HR report. Thanks very much, Brett. [41:27] County Administrator/Finance Director: What else do we have? Okay. Tracy prepared me well. You do have a pay step increase that I need to read to you. This is for Patrol Deputy Jeremy Bell. Completed seven-year step on September 25th. Fully burdened rate of pay is $39.95 per hour. May I bring this up [41:50] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): for you to sign? March. Noted. [41:53] County Administrator/Finance Director: I'm sorry. I'm going to sign one. [41:55] Commissioner: Oh, you're good. Does he need this back? That's $201. [42:03] County Administrator/Finance Director: He did say it was a gift. Oh. He said it was for you guys. [42:06] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Okay. Just rotate it. Yes, thank you. [42:23] County Administrator/Finance Director: She also has a number of policies she's been working on and if it's okay to approach I will give those to you as well. One is the technology policy. [42:35] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Is that the AI? That's part of it. [42:47] Commissioner: There's also these are updated from our last conversation. Yes. Review and then maybe approve next time. Yeah. Correct. Okay. All right. [42:56] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So we'll table this till for final approval on 10-15, so that'll be the last review. Any edits, appreciate the commissioners get those into HR. [43:13] County Administrator/Finance Director: Next. This is a group, so I'll pass those out. One is the contract negotiation review policy, and then she is giving you an example of sections for the county handbook okay [43:30] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): this one I'm on a table too because I've already I've read this last night so this will be a table for a final approval on the 15 [43:43] County Administrator/Finance Director: information regarding insurances that have been reached out to [Commissioner: I think I] gave you two. Sorry, one's for the five-year-old. Thank you. Those are for you to keep. And your last item. [44:22] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): So before we move on, I just want to get this in a minute. So these are the carrier responses for health insurance from Cross Insurance dated September 28, 2026, with a January 1, 2027 medical market results for our health plan. So Anthem is unable to quote at this time, it says Anthem is not yet prepared to quote January 1st, 2027 groups in the 51 to 99 size range and advised that the mark would need to be submitted in October. So that one, the way I read it, is still a little pending. UnitedHealthcare, Harvard Program, Aetna, Cigna, and Community Health Options all declined to quote based on our history. [45:10] Commissioner: community health actions did not decline before the middle agenda oh okay i'm sorry thank you [45:16] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): so community health is still the rp has been submitted and is being processed our response is expected in mid-october so we have two anthem and community health so that's one two three four five six so two out of six we're still pending thank you barbara the final item is an [45:35] County Administrator/Finance Director: executive session already ready to go for non-public information sure so [45:42] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Motion to go into executive session under one MRSA 405 a. The first second solicitator let us know when we're up. Record, yeah. [Grant awardee (Henderson: I think just] give us a thumbs up there. Appreciate it. There's no recording devices in the gallery, okay. We're out of executive session. This is October 1st, 2026, Waldo County Commissioners court session. We have some actions that need to be taken. I'm going to make a motion that we do retro [46:42] Speaker D (unidentified): active pay for the two positions, detention manager and jail administrator, correction administrator and the detention manager. The retro to the two and a four thousand one hundred thirty four dollars and per and yeah, and that's the administrative message for the for the administrator, and then for the detention managers can be three thousand five hundred and sixty and those are two and ninety cents 96. Oh, it's 96 cents, 96 cents [47:30] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): to the tune of the 3.4. Okay, so we have a first or a second from the edit that the cola is [47:41] Commissioner: for the 2027 budget reflective of the total salaries that we are doing retro, right? That's to [47:48] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): the two so we haven't you accept. Yeah, okay, so the first have a second with a friendly edit. Any more discussion? Hearing none, call question. Motion pass. Any old business? [48:07] County Administrator/Finance Director: You got old business for budget? Okay, budget, go ahead, make it quick. DA's, I need approval to increase $450 on their... Which one? It is statutes and education. [48:32] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Got it. You want to add plus three? Plus 450. [48:35] Speaker F (unidentified): Plus 450. And what's that for? [48:39] County Administrator/Finance Director: It is an increase in their Westlaw subscription [48:44] Commissioner: that they use. That's it, yeah. [48:46] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): All right, anything else? [48:50] Commissioner: That's it for DAs. [48:51] County Administrator/Finance Director: So we need to, for DAs. So I do need a motion. [48:54] Commissioner: I move that we increase the DA budget by $450 in the statutes and education line item. And the first is second. [49:03] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): Second. Any more discussion? Hearing none, call the question. All those in favor of the motion, carries. Next. [49:13] County Administrator/Finance Director: Sorry, I think I'm fine with the rest. [49:20] Commissioner (chair/presiding officer): You're fine with the rest? Okay. Any other old business? Hearing none, moving on. Any new business? Hearing none, moving on. Motion to adjourn? Second. I have a first and a second. Call the question. We're adjourned. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Are they out in the hallway, Barb? Do they still want a picture? [49:43] Commissioner: Danielle, I am going to leave my budget binder. Okay. I appreciate that. Good luck with it. I just don't want it. I do a question. Any of the old stuff, do you want me to remove it or leave it? I struggle with that because I'm like afraid.