Penobscot County Commissioners Approve TIF Grants, Jail Maintenance Hires

[0:23] Speaker A (unidentified): That's it. Oh, bill meeting. [6:27] David Marshall: To order. 19th stop of the road. [6:33] Andre Cushing: Commissioner Cushion, President, Commissioner. [6:36] David Marshall: crumble yeah chair is here treasurer and the administrator is here approval of the minutes july 15th 20 26 and august 15th oh what's that oh yeah let's do the pledge of allegiance We're not yet taken over by the Congress, and you guys are bad. Would you care to lead us, Brenda, in the Pledge of Allegiance? Sure. [7:10] Speaker A (unidentified): I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for [7:16] Andre Cushing: which it stands, one and only, indivisible. [7:26] David Marshall: Okay. Now we can go to the minutes. We're looking at the minutes of July 15th and August 12th to have a motion. [7:38] Andre Cushing: Move to approve minutes as presented for those three dates. Second. [7:42] David Marshall: It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of July 15th and August 12th. Any further discussion? [7:49] Andre Cushing: Do you want to include August 5th? You said July 15th and August 12th. Oh, yes. August 5th as well. [7:59] David Marshall: All three dates. All three. Any other comments? Okay, all those in favor please say aye. All those opposed carries unanimous. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is Director Boswell and Deputy Morrison. [8:18] Speaker A (unidentified): Bring a [8:21] Andre Cushing: fan base with me. All right, you got one, George. I got a fan base, I do. [8:28] Speaker D (unidentified): Fan base, fan club, something and something, you [8:38] Andre Cushing: guys all know D Williams from me and my aunt Jerry and Craig Hill from Mount Chase. Nice to see you again. Thank you. On the agenda we start with your contracts. [8:54] Speaker D (unidentified): Well, in your packet you will find my contract for the next fiscal year begin September 15th through the following September. Their contract is the same as the last two years. There's no increase in the expense to allow me to continue this work, but it does provide the same services that I've been doing. [9:17] David Marshall: We thank you. No, thank you for the, no increase. That's always well received here in the county. We really truly appreciate all the good work that you do, the value you bring to this, the assistance, and are there any questions? I would say a second to approve the contract. All those in favor please say I'm the administrator. Oh, yes, Mr. Administrator, I'm sorry. No good boy, don't touch the record please. All those in favor please say aye. Scary unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you. [10:03] Andre Cushing: I would tell you that Tina and myself and the whole fifth committee appreciate the work that he does. Thank you. [10:14] Speaker D (unidentified): Is the request for the Bull and then again the Snowmobile Club? So their request, as I stated in the presentation, is for two hundred thirty one thousand eight hundred fifteen dollars, which is the remaining funds needed for the new groomer to be purchased, a jump year groomer with special tracks that will replace their oldest groomer in the fleet that has over 11,000 growing hours on it. The club has presented their request with additional grant funds already obtained, 36,000, plus their club has raised 30,000 for this, leaving the 231 that's requested from the TIF funds for purchase. [11:01] David Marshall: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. [11:08] Andre Cushing: We've got Terry and Craig Hill here. Terry filled out most of the applications. They're both members of and officers of Boulder-Madigan and Stoneville Club, so if you have any questions, this would be a great time to ask them. [11:30] Speaker E (unidentified): Separate from this, George, does the UT collect or get snowmobile registration money from the state? Yeah, and when is that? It goes into our general plan. We've thought about segregating it and using it for the Snowmobile Club. I think there's enough time with this [11:48] Andre Cushing: one in the future. It's a good question. We haven't thought about it. I mean, I think a lot of towns do that. They get the money and say out of that, and they use it for this phone because we have ATV Club money that comes in. It's like five or six dollars every registration. It's not much, so then [12:07] Speaker E (unidentified): oh, again, not just on this specific one, but when we get these in the future, can we also get the breakdown? I know we get different categories that's in funding and what category this is coming from, what leads to balance in that good category, just curious what we're saying. Yep, so I have no, I don't have any questions. Question [12:29] Andre Cushing: question, just my only concern, and we talked about, you know, the extent to which the funds will last. That's my next conversation. [12:39] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah, this application, so this application did resonate with the committee. It took a lot for them to talk through it because of the duplicate request or the secondary request and the multiple requests that come from similar organizations, not just these folks, but there's been multiple requests, and so the committee asked me to present a request to you today. That's part of why I'm here too, asking for you to approve a moratorium on funds that are requested, so putting it in place where an Organization has received 50,000 or less, then they will not be eligible to submit a new request for a period of two years. Anything between fifty thousand and one dollars to ninety nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine is subject to a three-year auditorium, and applicants who have received funding of a hundred thousand or more will not be eligible for additional funding consideration for five years. Exceptions to this policy may be considered only under extraordinary circumstances at the full discretion of the TIF committee and the commissioners. Because the funds coming in are not as plentiful as they were in the beginning, it is important to make sure that we are rolling these out to multiple organizations, not just one, over and over, which they provide a lot of benefit. They provide a lot of economic income to the area, so we understand the importance of it. However, making sure that we are being strategic and in our deployment of the funds so, and that will also change the application I'm asking as well for Google to include on the application a request box that will describe any amounts they have received in the date they received it, because for people that have tenure and within the department they know who's applied when, but for somebody new coming in such as a new person you just it's it's important to have that back knowledge. Not everybody has it so to be able to provide that on the application i think would be beneficial for people going forward to see to see as such so i just think it's important to ensure the distribution of the limited tip funding and to maximize the number of requests we can serve and to make sure that we are deploying as many funds across the area, not just to the same organization. Thank you, Chief. [15:19] Speaker E (unidentified): Sorry, I just wanted to add that when we get to that, I want to just focus on what I was saying. So, [15:29] David Marshall: we have not taken a motion yet. My question before we get at that is if you wish to [15:33] Andre Cushing: address these two issues separately. Yes, I think it should be separately. Absolutely, we need to [15:39] David Marshall: approve the application. Yes, we can approve the application. We'll approve the bulletin that again [15:46] Andre Cushing: it's all Bill Clark. I do want to comment, I appreciate the work that all of you do up there, the broad range of activities that benefit, so I didn't bring this up in any way to reflect [Speaker E (unidentified): We probably] Need another meeting with your team to discuss what the strategic plan is. You made it clear that revolving loans is not something that would be of benefit, but I think we need to look at how we may see the other monies being allocated so that it's not it's not missing some significant longer-term projects that might come up because we 've given the money out in a manner that did not reflect what the end game was now that we know there isn't any. And the committee that's where the [16:43] Speaker D (unidentified): moratorium conversation came in and we felt it was a good start I mean there's obviously work that you can build off of or changes that can be made but this at least put something in place for George to go to people that are requesting funds and say well I didn't want to bring that up but for anybody new coming in to have in place to know going forward this is the expectation right out of the gate yeah and I think it's [17:13] Andre Cushing: proven I did not want to reflect on what Madigan was wrong but no I think it's it's a healthy discussion because some of us all of us really have come into this any when we won't have the best institutional knowledge beyond what we have right so [17:37] Speaker A (unidentified): We need to be thinking yes I just want to share with you that the state program does similar things so it is a good thing to do and they you get Yes, more points if you haven't applied, you get lots of points if you haven't applied in so many years. [17:55] Speaker D (unidentified): And I think, I mean, not that I'm asking anybody to go all over again, but that exception for you folks, if there's an extraordinary circumstance where we need to have a request evaluated, I don't want to say we absolutely cannot, so that's why I'm leaving the exception for you guys to review should something come up. [18:12] Andre Cushing: Yeah and I appreciate that discretion and yes we should move on this and then thank you [18:24] David Marshall: The question has been moved and seconded to approve the Bowling Madigan and Swansdale TIF application all those in favor aye. Opposed, none. Carries 3-0. Congratulations. Later. And we want to go on record and support the TIP application change recommended by the TIP Committee. Any further discussion? [18:54] Speaker D (unidentified): The application change would allow us to add a spot for amounts and received and when [19:04] Andre Cushing: We had a real concern that the windmills are depreciated, therefore taxes are dropping. The bulk of the money we get every year is coming down. This year, last year it was $468,000, this year it's going to be about $684,000. [19:22] David Marshall: So we're not getting the money we used to get. [19:24] Andre Cushing: There's no way we're going to get that money, and we've already given out more than we brought in this year through the TIP program. So we were really concerned that we've had so many clubs and so many fire departments and ambulance services apply and apply and apply that there are so many of them out there who haven't even applied yet who would qualify. Stoneville clubs, ATV clubs, fire departments, ambulance services all out there that service the UT that would qualify for a portion of a grant, and they haven't even applied yet. So we can't keep giving the money to the same clubs over and over without at least offering and saving some of the money in case we get a grant request that makes a great deal of sense to all of us, so we didn't want to spend more [20:08] David Marshall: than we make. It makes proven sense to limit the bites of the apple while other applicants are certainly in line yet to be considered in the area, so I think [20:19] Speaker E (unidentified): that makes sense for two of them. We're gonna get to look, yeah, and that's an [20:26] Andre Cushing: easy report on each of that any time I'm Tina send out where we're at right now with what we spend on each category in the tip and what remains there's no question yeah I think my only caveat is we should set a time maybe this fall all to talk about what the strategic plan would be how long we estimate we're going to continue to receive revenues so and i know that 's going to fluctuate the pay based on appreciation but there's got to be an end to this if i'm not mistaken it's a 20-year it's a 30-year, 10 years [Speaker E (unidentified): deep and] so there is the potential that those may depreciate to a point before the 30-year are. To a point where it's almost non-existent by the end of the 30-year term. Added to which we don't really have, other than the original production in which, in my understanding, the guns have been adapted or modified several times. The application has been modified. The original DECD, the Department of Economic Community Development, approval that they gave us, the original is still the same. It's never been changed. What they're allowing us to do with that TIF money, what we applied to do, and they approved. However, the application process, we've changed several times, trying to hopefully reserve some of the funds as time goes on. We might consider picking sooner any date, and then if there is more money, let's say we figure we're going to get a certain amount within 20. And then if there is money left, there's a chance to look at their strategic plan and say, is it prudent? Assuming that we use some interesting dynamics. Motion [22:47] David Marshall: at this point? Yes, Chair is open to a motion. [22:50] Andre Cushing: Okay, I would move acceptance of the proposed amendments to the application process and tips described [23:00] David Marshall: by Second I guess we moved in second to approve the tip application changes recommended. Any further conversation, any further comment? The [23:18] Andre Cushing: tip application change [23:19] Speaker D (unidentified): Application change, but then this is in your letter, in the letter. Yeah, okay, the director's letter [23:25] Andre Cushing: state the moratorium be amended to include the moratorium. There's two things we've got to change the application, but we also have to, before they sign the application, they need to know that there's a moratorium, right [23:43] Speaker E (unidentified): they need to understand is that the change and what's the change? The change on the application [23:48] Speaker D (unidentified): is requiring an applicant to disclose if they've received any previous funding from [23:56] Andre Cushing: that's where I'll just be from the tip or should we ask for other sources? The tip is what we were going to monitor the moratorium for, the moratorium, yes, okay [24:07] David Marshall: so we'll move in second. Any further comments, discussion? All those in favor, aye. Passes 3-0. So that includes the moratorium again, yes, and the [24:21] Andre Cushing: and the work that was everything. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, before we leave, we should probably sign that document for the extended contract that mentioned, please [Speaker A (unidentified): get up, we'll] get, we'll get it changed and get it signed. Yeah, Marianne can send that document. Yes, thank you very much. So next, George, we have, we have the tanker truck update. Oh, the DOT. [25:00] David Marshall: Oh, yeah. Want to do the DOT? [25:01] Andre Cushing: Yeah. That's standard operating procedure. Any time they repair a bridge, they do a major road job. In one of our townships, we, they ask us if we want to set a bond, for repairs of our road, should they make any damage on it. It's pretty unusual anybody in any town does that. the bridge they're working on, I don't see that there's going to be too much of a problem me us needing a bond, so we will give them overload and over with permits as needed to go over our roads, but I by signing that paper there, it basically states that we'll work with them anywhere we can, but we don't need a bond. They have to find it. Is that, did they ever [25:42] David Marshall: find in the original? I hope so. They are going to borrow them. Okay, George, you will be the signatory [25:50] Andre Cushing: on the D.O.T., you know, the paperwork has to be signed by the officials, by the medical officials. Yep, I would second that. I'm moving in second. Any further discussion [26:02] David Marshall: Go for a discussion. Call for the vote. All those in favor? All those opposed? Three own passes. [26:12] Andre Cushing: And my old adage that no good deed goes unpunished is incorrect here today. We helped the Highland Fire District set up their charter league. The Northern Highlands Fire District? What's that? The Northern Highlands. The Maine Highlands. Central. Central Maine Highlands Fire District. Central Maine Highlands Fire District. Number one, if you want to be specific, we helped them set up that district legally. We paid for legal costs on that, and they appreciated it. They know that we're working with our Hammond Ridge developer Matt Holstein. They know we're working up there. We're at some point need a tanker for that project should it go through, and they volunteered to give us their 2009 international 1200 gallon in a tanker pump. It's in our fire station currently. They took it off their books. They use it every day. And they're buying a new one to replace it, a newer to them one to replace it. And no more fires than we have. It makes good sense for us to have it. But I didn't want to just take it. I wanted to vote for you guys to accept it and understand where it came from. [27:24] David Marshall: Thank you, George. It's very nice to see that this, the outreach to our municipal partners. And it's true, it's a two-way street. We're very appreciative that they have deemed it appropriate to donate that to us at no cost. And as chairman, I want to express my appreciation to the Central Highlands District for that consideration. Any comments or discussions? [27:55] Andre Cushing: So, it currently resides in the Kingman? It's in the Kingman station with our other tanker currently. Our firemen through Matawamke will all be trained on its usage and trained to drive it. And they're all excited to have it because now it's a pumper tanker whereas we have a tanker. A big difference. [28:17] David Marshall: Will it have to be modified to reflect it's a coming vehicle though? [28:21] Andre Cushing: We just changed the signage on it. The signage and the radio is going to be reprogrammed to our print stations instead of the district eventually if the Heron Bridge project goes through. You would actually proceed that moving to that station, one of the two, one of the two trucks that would be decisions made in consultation with Millinocket, East Millinocket's fire departments as to which one makes the most sense for that project at that point. Does the tank remain a key asset still it [29:00] David Marshall: Will be a UTF going forward and our vehicle is in his facility. They're looking if I remember correctly they're going to planning on building providing the funding to build their own appliance that shall shut up their houses right. That's all we're gonna have a public safety [29:23] Andre Cushing: wing on one of those buildings yeah. He's building one of that big they're they'll own the building we'll be we'll be a partner if you will and we haven't worked those that people are about yeah [29:37] David Marshall: All right thank you very much so department I want to accept the donation to accept the move and I would second to accept the kind donation some from the Chinese district of a tanker any further discussion and I [29:55] Speaker E (unidentified): think I'll always see they'll see that except they look at a lettuce on the [29:59] David Marshall: information stake in the district would be a project that will be for coming any for the call done all those in favor all right all opposed carries three oh thank you very much [30:15] Andre Cushing: George and I sorry Mr take a minute one little thing off agenda it'll only take a minute I've been asked we've been asked to change the road name up there in Mount just outside of Mount Jason T6R6 and the chief happens to be here today he's he's one of the people asking for the road change. The locals call it Snowshoe Road and they get upset every time I replace the sign and put up the Shorey Road. It's been Shorey Road since Barbara and I did this 10-12 years ago. In order to simplify things and save the cost of buying signs, the chief has asked that we put it back to what the locals know it as, it's Snowshoe Road, and we just need a vote from you to approve the road name change some does anybody live on the road no I don't think anybody lived on the road [31:06] David Marshall: No you have to use that road to get to the other side of the partnership yeah so I mean it's not an issue with post office no they second wouldn't second it any further discussion No further discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you all. Congratulations. Very appropriate. It's not that true. I did. I did. Put it under the table. First, you've got that body. [31:39] Andre Cushing: He's not done with it yet. [31:51] Speaker E (unidentified): Brenda, please come forward. Thank you, ladies. [32:16] Speaker A (unidentified): We're starting preparations at 25, but we're not quite there yet. We've got some to do to Edmonds, scanning documents, etc., so we're getting ready, but we're not ready to get. And we also have audits in UT for F-125 and F-126 that we need to start preparing for. I've asked the auditors to send me the average list for those. We've got some budgets on the way, and Jason has put together a workbook, so it's going to be a little bit different for folks, so some are struggling more than others, but [32:59] Andre Cushing: it should be good. We've [33:06] Speaker A (unidentified): asked for them to be back this week, and most of the people aren't coming. [33:12] David Marshall: When do you think you'll have the initial budget? [33:19] Speaker A (unidentified): I think we're shooting for next week. But I'm going to need to get with Jason because it's his program, and I'm not willing to run his software. software. Thank you for providing us with this updated status report. Yes, so as you know, we don't have a grant manager right now, so Kate's been helping me kind of look at what we have. Again, Jason did some magic, which is a little updating. I tried to update it manually, so it should be, but it's a little bit tired. It was still paying invoices. And again, we have some more reconciling to do. But the cover sheet looks like this. So it shows that we've been receiving $29.5 million, and we've expended $25.17 million. $4 million, if you go to the next sheet, the colorful, color-coded sheet, you see that most of the $4 million that remains is sitting in the PCHC on the hangar fence. And they are, they're active. I mean, they're drawing down on the HVAC. I've asked for a final invoice from Mechanical Services, which is probably going to drain that. We've been in touch with her. [35:24] Andre Cushing: Green is fully expended. Amber is fund remaining. and they're running [35:32] Speaker A (unidentified): running so [35:37] Speaker E (unidentified): it's not my color but [35:40] Andre Cushing: i messed [35:50] Speaker A (unidentified): with this i messed with this situation pretty [36:01] Speaker E (unidentified): much so and then the first one below the salmon color one this is the county facility track the county capital so is that going to be allocated right now as well [36:20] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, so one thing I need to research a little bit is how specific projects got approved and how you can believe, we gave some little research on this too, but we're a little bit behind the eight ball. Well, if it was an approved project last year, [36:51] David Marshall: Before the December 31 cutoff? [36:53] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, then you can still allocate funds at ARPA. You can't create new projects if you can't move the funds around. So we will be doing that. And that's part of what we've got to clean up is some of the FWAP projects, mostly internally. They were just putting invoices against ARPA and there wasn't really a lot of representing them and we were shocked to hear that. What we have to spend, that's pretty much what we have in the bank. So we're good. Another thing that we're still researching but I just wanted to point out is the last page that looks like this. There's a separate bucket of money that we got and it was under the ARPA umbrella but it's called the LATCF, which stands for Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund. So we received an additional $479,000 and that has not been, all that's been reported to the feds is $45,000. So I was excited at first. I think, oh wow, we have money to spend, but we really don't. I really, so what we're going to have to do is some of the overages on [38:33] Andre Cushing: If I may, that came under ARPA, but it is additional tilt marks. As I understood it, because I learned about this when I went to NAPO, that during the ARPA period, they were concerned that Congress might not approve the annual tilt marks. So you had to apply and they provided two years worth of extra PILT money, but it, to my understanding, was not treated as being to be expended by that date. Now, you may want to verify that, but the understanding we had was you got an extra allotment of PILT money. It was about $462,000. [39:18] Speaker A (unidentified): It was $479,000. So it doesn't have to be spend, but what is it? [39:26] Andre Cushing: So that was the understanding that I received from the briefing. There may be something in the rules that is different, but it was designated as the acronym that you provided. I'm not going to try and do that again. But it was designated as payment in lieu of taxes for the federal lands within your district. Okay. So that may give it a different complexion than what you're considering as RPR. Okay. First of all, it was at NACO. I don't remember the individual, but it was at NACO. And at that point, I came home and advised the administrator. He looked into it because the deadline was pending within about three weeks. We got the application in, received the money, and it was supposed to be put into the same find that we don't mind who's going to say that's the case but it may be a different a different set of rules then yeah thank you [40:41] Speaker A (unidentified): so yeah that doesn't have a permanent my [40:48] Andre Cushing: Understanding is paying the new taxes is a form of tax money that comes to us for land that is designated expediated. And we were, as a commission, when we first started to receive it, we set a policy that 50% of that would be held in reserve each year in the potential case of us not receiving that annual allotment. So we added 50% of our annual allotment of tilt to the general fund revenues. And the rest was held in reserve. That has since been modified as we... [41:36] David Marshall: My question is, no termination date set for the extension of those funds by the county? [41:42] Andre Cushing: By the county? No. I don't know, but I did not read the rules on it. [41:50] Speaker A (unidentified): Okay, so what we will need to figure out is what we can put against that for expenses. [41:59] Andre Cushing: I think we allocated the 25 portion for some of the expenses that were anticipated at the end of last year. Half of it. It was about $126,800. [42:18] David Marshall: The first allocation, $239,000. We [42:34] Speaker A (unidentified): continue to research that. [42:46] Andre Cushing: Has the letter gone out reminding these folks that they've got to the end of the year? I [42:55] Speaker A (unidentified): believe Robin had been in communication with many of them, and they had been sending in, you know, documentations for their expenditures, and it was really only PCHC and PENQIS, and then under the commissioners, who had designated a lot of money, and gave $49,999 to a group called the Camden Garden Club, and they have not spent any of that money. And she had been in contact with Robin, and I talked with her the other day. They were going to use the money to paint the building, but when they started inspecting it, they realized that the attic was in really bad repair, so they wanted to use the money to fix the attic. and when I read a contract it says we need approval from Christian that's what I'm that's what I'm thinking they said it would go towards necessary building maintenance in harmony hall which is this a group repair flashing replacing the plaster window with tear and exterior that's a modified request that 's the current contract so that's what's going to do is roofing the pier so i think it's [44:27] Andre Cushing: I do this as the same one until we get into mill and locket if you're going to modify the [44:46] David Marshall: sub-discipline you just know about it 's the same person just changing the use of the money [44:52] Speaker E (unidentified): if you guys can do that I don't think I'm modifying it anyway then what they want to do [44:55] Speaker A (unidentified): is the only thing you might want to add I'll add it but we have it as building maintenance [45:09] David Marshall: but maintenance will repair we can if that helps to clarify it I have no objection to [45:16] Andre Cushing: Automatically that is the mainstream contract, okay. I will, okay. Well, it's been moved to modify the ending Garden Club grant application to allow for necessary building repairs with the arsenal if that's, that's what it [45:43] Speaker E (unidentified): says, because that doesn't bother us in maintenance, right? But then it gets very specific. Yeah, should we say in the attic, which is all I would [45:54] Andre Cushing: say. I would say the repairs necessary to roof and attic structure, so let me say just the attic. [46:10] Speaker A (unidentified): Are they going to be done this year? Yeah, she knows that, she knows that exactly. [46:15] David Marshall: Second, it's been moved and seconded to modify to reflect to include repairs. Any further discussion? No purpose. By all those in favor, aye. Not opposed, passes three off. Thank you. [46:29] Andre Cushing: I just encourage us to send a letter to those folks so we have something beyond just normal communication, and by that I mean not just can we fight, but we may need recipients so that we can [46:52] David Marshall: we asked them to come in here today because we've received some requests from people in your districts, so we're going to start implementing some type of updates in the commission meeting financially like this are for money so that it brings clarity to the public, the public knows exactly what we're doing to track it so that hopefully we can eliminate these questions that we're getting, and these will be kept, these will be available online. Yes, make that clear to the public, these updated ongoing status of the ARPA monies are available online. Any citizen that cares to check, we would encourage them to do so. [47:32] Andre Cushing: And probably at the top we want to note that the ARPA disbursements period has as opposed, because I've had a couple additional money. [47:43] David Marshall: Yeah, well, I could be all for that. [47:45] Speaker E (unidentified): Johnny, I like it. [47:50] Andre Cushing: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It actually did have one more financial question. OK. As you were giving the report,. [48:15] David Marshall: Next on the agenda, Administrator Tinker. Okay, so as we discussed at the last Commission meeting, there will be a committee asked for the Commission to appoint and fill out the committee. We met a week ago and you have done that. Would you like me to read the names for public awareness? I think that would be appropriate, please do. We have Point of Chief Knapp as the interim member representing the county, Executive director Bob Thicket representing district one, Sale Life Executive director Ashley Mitchell representing district three, serve as members of the opening settlement and then we're still [49:02] Andre Cushing: waiting on one more appointment yes apparently we came with the first candidate i talked to declined because of some other personal commitments the second one had been on vacation around the town so i've not heard back from them i just made another call this morning See if I could expedite that. If that does not work, I had to put it off. So within the next week, I'll have something like that. [49:27] David Marshall: Thank you very much, Beth. But I'll point out that the Overeer Committee now has a quorum to conduct business and going forward. And at this point, I'd like to recognize in the audience the representative of the Overeer Committee from my district, Randy Jackson. And Randy, I appreciate all the good work you do and people who may not know you're quite active in the in the community of Millinocket for the wonderful service of the Boreal Theater which commissioners has a grace before with the opera contributions and I want to recognize you and thank you for your ongoing service. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, thanks. Item next item is the request for two night shift maintenance positions from Promstock County. You asked to table it. We owe you some data that we haven't been able to retrieve from the old maintenance ticket system to kind of highlight the volume of work. But as I shared with you this last weekend, Director McDonald had to deal with three different significant issues within the jail over the weekend, so obviously we're lacking the workforce capability that we need in the directed facilities to accommodate, you know, work-life balance and address the safety issues. So I wanted to continue to emphasize we need this capability. We need the jail needs this capability. We continuously have issues within the jail and you shouldn't, in my opinion, after seven months have been here and should not rely solely on Director McDonald to place all those things on weekends and evenings and that's really been the case for what we can [51:17] Andre Cushing: attest to this for quite some time. So these individuals would be a full-time physician [51:25] David Marshall: but would rotate. They would be, if approved, it would be two people and we would determine based on, we need to do a little bit more analysis of what the work hours would be, as you can see in the proposal, I do two different options and [51:45] Andre Cushing: more depth, but yeah,, we're working [51:48] David Marshall: things, be able to continue to resolve what the, what Director McDonnell's team is doing during the day, and then we would implement all of them on an on-call system to alleviate [52:00] Speaker E (unidentified): Be able to hear Director Donald right from weekends. I can just comment I agree with the last time that this should not fall on Brian on weekends. I'm always to either one coming in all the time, but other than that I don't favor this, especially at this time at the end of August when we're supposed to start the budget and two positions. I think this should be part of the budget discussion and whether we can afford it in 2027. I would fully support the reorganization of the people in that department so other people that are currently there can come to some of these other times and maybe you don't have as many people on their day. Look at the schedule changes. At the end of August in 2026, I do not support this. I may be able to support it as part of the 27 budget, but I don't support it right now, and I do support getting some other people covered for George so I can provide a reason I guess. [53:06] Andre Cushing: My question is we're going to have to advertise to find these people, correct? That's correct. We don't have to do that. We're paying outside contractors. I mean, we do some of these repairs. We were paying over time. Well, yes, it exceeds. [53:24] David Marshall: If it exceeds the facility team's capability, yes, we have contracts in place to facilitate those type of issues, yes. [53:34] Andre Cushing: What is occurring now to cover the maintenance of Farmville Center in the jail on a regular basis? Are current facility crews being passed? [53:47] David Marshall: Do you want to answer that question? [53:52] Andre Cushing: So the question is, if there are current maintenance issues, which we know there are. How are they being handled? Is your crew of maintenance personnel going to the jail to attempt to make any corrections [54:09] Speaker F (unidentified): that they can? We're currently in the jail every day. So they come in around 630, quarter seven, check the work order system. They may be over there by seven o'clock and they might spend half the day over there. Right now we're [54:31] Andre Cushing: spending 95% of our time in the jail. Is it resulting in overtime demands for some of these calls for the jail? [54:43] Speaker F (unidentified): There is a slight use of overtime right now. Some of the items might not be resolved by when it's time to go. So they'll stay for a half hour, an hour or so here and there. More and more I'm receiving calls at 3, 4, 5 o'clock that there are issues that need to be resolved. It feels like we're shoveling against the top. As hard as we try to get on top of it, 's non-stop and as you would expect, the condition shouldn't in the age of the building some of these things are quickly and only going to get worse and the administrator just said just this weekend there were multiple calls on saturday i've been out for a couple of days not feeling well and i had multiple calls over the past couple of days at four or five o'clock a significant portion of the county is 24 7. It's very difficult for two maintenance people to even catch up when we're only covering about 24% of the time, you know, 168 hours a week, and we're working to have an additional crew nice. It's the first of access for everything I like to do is if this were to happen I'd like to get a county phone and so right now with only two people go into an on-call situation because they would be on call one of them would be on call every other week and you can't do anything you can't really restrict their ability to enjoy outside of work which is what I'm hoping this will allow me to do so I don't want to pass an issue on to an already overused maintenance team, if that makes sense. You [57:56] Andre Cushing: did. So based on what we have here in the proposal, it's about $200,000 a year. If we were to start this in October, now that it's here, if we were to go forward, do we have it? [58:27] David Marshall: We're sitting around $1 million in the fund balance at the end of December, so me asking for this was taking into consideration what was in that fund balance and how we could balance it out. Knowing that we can't pay the paperwork, we're going to have to have the TN in place. My goal is to have the budget approved by you gentlemen, and so that we are working. We're working with Oakland Machias Savings to have a tan in place so it's up. Yeah, we don't go through what we just went through last year. [59:10] Speaker E (unidentified): When do you meet today? I don't know. Is it a statutory event? It's a general event in November. Can I meet you earlier than that? It usually meets the week after the election. Okay. [59:33] David Marshall: We have, what did you say, about 90% of our staff time is dedicated to the jail? Okay, so we have 90% of our staff time dedicated there. We have no, currently we have no evening coverage whatsoever, except on call. What are the legal or financial implications of an incident happening that can't be resolved until somebody is in the next day? Well I don't, I don't know the answer to that specific question, Commissioner, but I do know it causes a lot of dissonance with our team over in the jail. Right, they don't want to try to deal with those type of things and manage what the thought was in there, do their jobs, do their jobs as well they do. Often they have to resolve certain issues because you just don't have the capability to address it. This would eliminate that in my opinion. That would eliminate a lot of the dissonance there and this would give us more responsive response to what happens in that old facility. And so in response to Commissioner Cushing's observation, the cost of this would be $50,000? [1:00:55] Andre Cushing: It practically could be $1,000 if we take the estimate of $200,000 [1:01:00] David Marshall: and divide it by 4. So we could move on this adequately with that expectation around $50,000, well within the million dollars we have, and then move going forward with the budget committee on the efficacy of expanding this full-time in the next budget session. Is that an adequate reflection? Well, I think if you were going to go to implement the 27th budget, we have to submit [1:01:51] Andre Cushing: it 50 days is before the end of this speaks to accelerating your [1:02:20] David Marshall: question. Yes, if we can fortify the budget in the next few weeks from the department head recommendations of what they want [1:02:26] Andre Cushing: and then brief you that we can potentially ask, would you approve cf's taking this to the advisory committee before we can [1:02:38] David Marshall: discuss it with you? But the advisory committee is also asking us to alter our approach on how we approach the budget with the budget committee because they think our push is quite antiquated. And so we've got to sit down and have a conversation on how we want to address it. Also we've got to figure out who we want on the Budget Committee. We've got some gaps there, and then how we're going to actually do it this year so that they're aware and they bless off on it. So okay, one challenge at a time. Let's look at the, any further questions or comments? [1:03:19] Speaker E (unidentified): No, I,, I, it's a really uneasy situation. I mean, there's no question about the need for this position. It's just we, I don't know. There's no big news. We don't have any money. So I'm not gonna, I can't support it. I'm sorry. Commissioner Cushing? Even 50,000 is a, seems like not a lot, but when you've only got that many dollars, it's a lot of money. [1:03:56] David Marshall: Chair, one second. Further discussion. The motion's been made. Seconded. Any further discussion? Chair will call for a motion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. Passes 2-1. Thank you. Let's see what we have next, Administrator. Quest for a proposal for 2027 or security capability to manage the security and water flow or what's the terminology the number of people coming through the front door [1:04:45] Andre Cushing: Traffic club did we skip one of your items? Yes, which one can BC create your appointments? Oh [1:04:53] David Marshall: Apologize but it's okay. We brought to our attention that we don't have a commissioner on EMBC. I wanted to bring that to your attention and figure out exactly what that would like to go [1:05:08] Andre Cushing: To at this point I filled that position previously. You know, I don't think I was [1:05:14] Speaker E (unidentified): Not going to finish. I was on there but I don't think I was. Pretty sure is it you've got to talk to the fire about that. I didn't mean to be a positive commissioner. [1:05:24] David Marshall: Yeah, I pulled the bylaws. I had the bylaws in Redmond the other day. Bylaws, they're required to have a commissioner or an administrator before the participating counties. They have been in violation of that requirement by state law for several months. So this is a move to bring them in compliance with their federal, I mean, it's a federal state, federal requirement, because these are federal funds that they're administrating. So in recognizing that, I think the last administrator, Adkins, was on it, but when he left, that position was vacated and not filled, and now needs to be filled for them in order for EMDC to legally deconstitute it to conduct its business. And in fairness to them, they reached out to me. They did. They reached out to me week two of my arrival here. And I declined based on the problems that we had. And it came to my attention last week. And hence, it's on the agenda for today. [1:06:38] Speaker E (unidentified): Do you have [1:06:43] Andre Cushing: Information as to their meetings and dates? [1:06:49] Speaker E (unidentified): They meet on the fourth Thursday of every month around 1 o'clock. They all meet in July. [1:07:04] David Marshall: Yeah, they make their meetings available by Zoom as well because of the disparate membership. I've attended their meetings before in the past as an observer. [1:07:18] Speaker E (unidentified): Do you want to continue? [1:07:20] David Marshall: New I would, I'd be willing to accept the honor to be the commissioner member on the EMDC [1:07:31] Andre Cushing: To fill out that obligation I would make that motion any further [1:07:40] David Marshall: discussion not we'll call for the vote all those in favor Thank you, and I'll be in contact with Lee Alprey and have him update me on what I should know but don't know. Now we go back to the RFP. Yes. So I immediately noticed when I came here the level of traffic, and obviously you're well aware of where I come from. so the amount of traffic coming through the building and around the buildings was very concerning to me from the beginning and then realizing that our administrative assistant in our hr office is the ones controlling traffic flow which has a significant secondary and tertiary effects on their workload on how to manage that and making sure that we manage where these people go and that they're not wandering around the building and that we don't have the inappropriate people in the building doing inappropriate things. So I guess this RFP is to provide capability to secure our facilities during the work week and manage the work traffic flow on a day-to-day basis and it would be in the 27 budget we would ask for it to go to rfp and uncover the cost through the rfp process in your specials again [1:09:31] Speaker E (unidentified): i have a complete opposite opinion when we're out of the county when i got came back on board i always wonder why we've got the doors locked here i think it's about during covert and i think it can alleviate we can alleviate the pressure on hr and the pressure on the other people monitoring by just unlocking the doors but i can't think of another building that you go into from you know a government building from the state house to any municipal building in this county that locks the doors i mean once you come in here every building has a lock on the door you have to be let into the office so i'm not sure why we're locking the doors to this building to start with and then to have this proposal an rfp to ask for security guards outside the building i mean i know there's a you know this there's people there's crazy people in society but i don't think we can lock every building in the world and have every building guarded i mean you have to have a reasonable level of security and once somebody comes in and we've got cameras in the building if somebody comes in that's a problem you call You call the police department, you call the sheriff's department, but I don't see, I don't even know why we're locked in the building. [1:10:55] Andre Cushing: Initially, it was related to COVID, but we had some instances with individuals that are on the street, one of which that came into the foyer with a weapon. To dispute the fact that you'd be getting into the statehouse, there is a security... [1:11:13] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, you go in, the doors are locked, you go in and you go through a metal disaster. [1:11:17] Andre Cushing: Yeah, but there is full-time security. It's manned. It's manned by Capitol Police and a security detail, both the Cross Office building now as well as the State Capitol. There are aspects of getting into the Fanger City Hall that now require either somebody to escort you or approval to enter those areas. The public clerks and the information desk were open, but there are other parts of the building that are closed. So I think it's a difference without a distinction. We're talking about a limited staff here that is having to do security as well as general business of the department. I think we need to reflect on what our responsibility is to our staff here. If we're not going to take the proposed recommendation, then and what other steps are we going to take for offices that may need to be secured? You do have facilities in this building that have to be secured because of information or [1:12:30] Speaker E (unidentified): Crunkers. Are there any offices that are locked in the building [1:12:35] Andre Cushing: that you have to get DA's office to finance? [1:12:38] Speaker E (unidentified): Yes, there's a lot. You can't get in the DA's office. [1:12:42] Andre Cushing: You walk up to the front counter. [1:12:44] Speaker E (unidentified): Right, then you get a glass there. But you can't get in the office unless they let you in. [1:12:48] Andre Cushing: So you've got finance, you've got IT, you've got facilities, you've got the administrator's [1:12:53] Speaker E (unidentified): office, all of which are in the same box that's on the main office where you have to swipe [1:12:59] Speaker F (unidentified): to get in. Deeds is open to the public. Finance is open to the public. All right. [1:13:07] David Marshall: Richard Deeds is here. I'm sorry? You said Richard Deeds? Deeds, yeah. [1:13:12] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah, there's an employee door, there's a swipe card, but the next door is to the public, and that's open. [Andre Cushing: Leaving in] a different world, with my past 20 years experience, the best thing we can do is a potential outside. And yes, it's a burden on people having to buzz people in, but Lawrence is taking a huge step backwards, I think. [1:14:06] Speaker E (unidentified): I'd be very comfortable working in a building. A [1:14:14] Andre Cushing: building professor can come in two or three times a month. It's a different perspective than people who have to work in a specific location on a daily basis. If [1:14:29] Speaker E (unidentified): I were somebody at a position, I would... As [1:14:44] David Marshall: You articulated, Commissioner, you can't get anywhere in the building unless you have a pass and you have an appointment. And they have a couple of incidences where I had no trespassing just the other day because we have people bothering our post office and our neighbors, people we spent time that I don't have dealing with that issue to provide that it would eliminate that issue. We've done that many times. We've had a better walk [1:15:35] Speaker E (unidentified): around. I really have to kill the post office. Why [1:15:40] David Marshall: do we have to do it and we? And we own the property, so we just want to have a lot of control in those types of situations. I mean, if you're talking active shooter, you're talking any type of physical arrest, most facilities aren't opening their access to the public the way you're describing it, though. [1:16:03] Andre Cushing: I was in Lincoln County yesterday for the meeting. I had to go through a security gate to get to any of the offices, and there was a... [1:16:17] Speaker E (unidentified): Was the courthouse there? No. I've [1:16:22] Andre Cushing: gone through the same instance in Kennebec County, secure vestibule with the glass, so to get beyond that public entry point in the building. It's the nature of society as we're dealing with points of interest. [1:17:08] David Marshall: Outside of the security considerations, what has the impact been on our staff and administrators with the additional duty of monitoring the security entry into the building? Well, I can give you a list, but I don't think it's one of the things that we haven't done here in the county that we need to update. Within specifically HR, I'm going to give you that shortly. I'm not prepared to give that to you today. But I identified in the last seven months several things that we needed to fix and obviously you want to cover those as the chair in our interview process and that is my opinion that is a direct reflection of how we've set this thing up and what HR has had to do in order to manage traffic flow and frankly our previous HR director did a lot of what we're describing managing people from the things that we needed to do. So I can get that more specific but we have a list of things we have not done in HR that we need to get done. So do we [1:18:23] Andre Cushing: have another workshop ending that the rest is? [1:18:32] David Marshall: Workshop in regards to HR? [1:18:35] Andre Cushing: These issues that you have on your list. Well you're paying me to figure it out and fix it [1:18:40] David Marshall: And so I'm going to do that. If you want to have an HR workshop to highlight them all, we can do that. One is we haven't done an audit on our files in several years. We don't have our HRs system up and running when we need to. Would you like me to continue to go on now? My question is whether this [1:18:58] Andre Cushing: is appropriate for a workshop. I don't think so. You're paying me to figure it out with the [1:19:05] Speaker E (unidentified): full-time force and we're going to do that. Thank you. So this item is on here to be part of the, that's correct. So it's not an RFP is not going out. We're not going to put something out, you know, right now just to know if you want to see it on the budget. We're [1:19:26] David Marshall: going to figure out the true cost of this is to do well [1:19:29] Andre Cushing: an RFP does not guarantee that we would approve spending in [1:19:34] David Marshall: place, correct. Give us a clearer understanding. It's a barometer of what it's going to cost us. What if and when we make the decision to implement a security procedure protocols [1:19:46] Speaker E (unidentified): What I looked at quickly was, did they get the packet to look like we wanted upside security people, or was it upside security? So I think it's way over the top what we were waiting for. I think we need different levels that they can respond to. Or maybe something with, I mean, some of this monitoring, maybe you can even do that remotely. I mean, there's got to be somebody that really is monitoring who's coming in and out of the building. Maybe they can, people can be let in. Anybody's similar, people that are there. I don't know that to be a fact, but that's a possibility. That is a big rule in itself that they're using. [1:20:28] Andre Cushing: So does that then beg for a different levels administrator to develop an RFP for us over here and maybe by next Monday if there are other points that wish to email to the administrator to consider, we can provide that to him. [1:21:10] David Marshall: Second. It's been moved and seconded. [Speaker E (unidentified): Any further discussion?] Thank you, gentlemen. On that note, we have one more item here. Yeah. [1:21:28] Andre Cushing: I'm going to call it a third. I'll give you the vote on moving it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We always like this. We always like approval. A little approval. I would second that. [1:21:36] David Marshall: Moved and seconded to approve the officer presentation by the Sheriff's Office of $1,468. All those in favor? Aye. No. Zero nays. Passes 3-0. [1:21:51] Andre Cushing: I would like to move approval of the warrants as presented in today's budget. [1:21:57] David Marshall: I move and second to approve the warrants for listed in the August 19th itinerary under item number, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. It's unanimous. [1:22:17] Andre Cushing: I'd like to move we go into two executive sessions if both are still needed. They both are. They are. One a personal matter and the other a legal matter. [1:22:27] David Marshall: It's been moved and seconded one executive, two executive sessions, one on personal matters and the other on legal matters. All those in favor? [1:22:38] Andre Cushing: Aye. Okay. Approved. Second session. Will we return to public session for other business comments, closing comments? [1:22:49] David Marshall: Yes we will be resuming session following those executive sessions any pending action that's required as a result of those and to conduct other business public comment closing comments before Jeremy take a break. [1:23:08] Andre Cushing: We did we started in that we're now in executive. [1:23:14] David Marshall: To your session sure. [2:22:02] Andre Cushing: They've got group of people except for Hannah they've got congressional okay we're back in session the next item in the agenda is other business any other business before the commission now is my only question is have we started to discuss a presentation by these two agencies that you don't feel like yeah they're locked in for okay but if I talked to one of them yesterday I talked to him this morning oh you did yeah Jessica and Brent awesome super thank you. [2:23:00] Speaker E (unidentified): So we have to have a caucus of people to be elected to the budget committee, so we need to schedule that caucus. And it has to be advertised. [2:23:09] Andre Cushing: We can probably do that. It's absurd that we're moving the caucuses. [2:23:14] David Marshall: How I read it is there's a caucus in each district, you do it. Right, but they're held here. All three are held here? We're all we have for them with the help we're only here yeah. [2:23:24] Speaker E (unidentified): But you have to nobody shows up the people that we have become and then I had a question we got I know we got the audience back I think at some point soon we should have an honest command actually talk to us about it I didn't mention that. [2:23:45] David Marshall: Yeah. The commission ought to accept it. [2:23:49] Speaker E (unidentified): Right, we have to go out and do stuff. But they can, so they come in, they present it, we can move it. And we'll do stuff. Yeah. Okay. We'll go to the customer, the laundry, hey, I know his man to wash it. [2:24:04] David Marshall: Okay. Any other business to come before the commission? Public comment. Do we have anybody on the online? [2:24:13] Speaker A (unidentified): No, there's no one on the site. Nobody online. Okay. [2:24:15] David Marshall: Okay, we'll end public comment. Closing comments from the County Administrator. Mr. Administrator, anything to do with the chapter, to do with the county? No, I just want to articulate that we met with the fiscal advisory committee. They were very impressed with the various things that were put in place. Our budget formulation worksheets and really encouraged us to start advocating messaging on what we've done in the last seven months. We asked the commissioners to do that advocating for us but you know we brought them in and showed them you know all the things that DERGO and finance is doing and what we're doing to set us up for the success of the future so I'll be addressing I've been invited to address the old town council my plan is to address them about our fiscal changes or fiscal policy modifications and also on the jail they came on the jail options and we will have a presentation available I think we can present to All of our respective community and municipal leaders a pass out of what Daragois provided that they can take back and digest and help us to, as we get this information out to the public. Commissioner Cushy, do you have any comments? [2:25:58] Andre Cushing: So we are approaching November. [David Marshall: That] Information presentation that Jason put together on Mojio, is that something that we have or could have posted to the website? [2:26:20] David Marshall: We're looking at it. Our review is great stuff. It's just the type of thing, the questions that we get asked. And particularly I think a great value is a four case scenario what we do we do nothing if we tear it whatnot and it sells it is so self-evident that in the hands of anybody this is a great piece of information that will help us carry [2:26:48] Andre Cushing: The message you see it is valuable to reach out to media sources to share that [2:26:54] David Marshall: Yes I do I there is a there is a podcast of the Bangor that my attention I'll be contacting them and they have quite a quite a reach always outside of the Bangor area and I'm waiting for more information on that but yeah there's it's time to begin to reach out and carry the message up the message we got from the fiscal committee they're very satisfied with what they see they understand and they see the clarity they see the objectives they see the goals they see the correctional changes we have Made as it relates to our finances, everything needs to be going forward in good form, and they want to share the gospel of good news with the rest of the county, obviously before the weather. So, with that in mind, we will begin the outreaching, and I think each of us can approach that in his own respective district and take them out of those available courts, I'm assuming. [2:28:08] Andre Cushing: When do you anticipate we will look at that again? Next week, because I get 19 pounds in my district. Yeah, some of them be done the same night, so if I'm going to get to them, yeah, I need a little bit more room. Yeah, and we've got probably 20 some, what we'll see what happens on November 5th then. Yeah, I'm holding, I'm counting on it. Okay Dan, do you [2:28:41] Speaker E (unidentified): have any comments? This guy was at the Holden Town Council meeting this Monday, they had that. Basically they have questions about where things are going, budgets, the jail, the budget, and they start to reevaluate. How was that decision? They were great. They were great. And they said, as we have more information, like you talked about, they'd like to just get the information. So they're great. They only meet once a month. I don't know these days. But what else? [2:29:12] Andre Cushing: It's house or media. Yeah, exactly. [2:29:17] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh, I know you usually mention that about people retiring, but I don't know if you've welcome it. We're going to do what people know about the new HR director as soon as this train has started as new HR directors want to welcome our board. Anybody still tuned in [2:29:32] David Marshall: what do we do with the commissioner's corner? How often does that help when each area is dying? Because I also have what's called the commissioner's corner, but it's fine, it's on the newspaper up north, and I'm apparently I will be using that book, it's the only newspaper out there, so that'll cover all of those. Then we'll have to look at other papers, Bangor and whatnot, and make sure we have reached out to the [2:30:01] Andre Cushing: the media here. We give your line the same support we always have and bring when [2:30:13] David Marshall: they're given the facts and nothing but the facts. Pretty hard, okay. [2:30:19] Andre Cushing: A motion to adjourn. So move to the negative [2:30:25] David Marshall: and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor, aye. We are in adjournment.