County administrator audit delegation and fire station budget

1:36:06Okay, uh County Administrator.

1:36:09Uh thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want to first thank the board sincerely uh for the conversation we had around the budget today. I thought it was very bold, I thought it was very thoughtful, um, and really the focus on the strategic plan and and the uh the other elements of the budget uh will go a long way. I know Amy and the team took copious notes. So I again I thank you for that. It was I thought it was very, very good and very inspiring. Uh again, it goes Long way to providing uh continuous transparency in the process that we've been striving to do uh these past couple of years, and so

1:36:39I just thank you for that. Uh Madam Chair, I have just two items that I would ask for board action on. The first is related to the clerk of the court. We uh we have an auditing agreement with Carr Riggs and Ingram, CRI, you may hear them referred to, and that agreement is dated September 20th, 2022. That auditing agreement operates uh by us signing engagement letters each year with CRI. And so every year they need a new engagement letter to be signed so they can go forward and and and perform our audits. Um

1:37:09in the past uh that was uh delegated um to the county administrator to to execute that, but we only did it for that one year. So what I would like for the board to do is uh request that uh uh under this current contract that if you could delegate uh to the county administrator authority to sign these and all future engagement letters under the agreement with CRI dated September twentieth, twenty twenty two, so we can get these uh get these audits underway and and meet the timelines required.

1:37:38You're talking about the comprehensive Can I write order? Yes, sir. Thank you, Harold.

1:37:42So what? We need a motion?

1:37:44Please.

1:37:44I'll take a motion. So move. Second. All in favor?

1:37:48Aye. Aye. Thank you, Board. Appreciate that. The other motion is you'll notice that on the consent agenda today, item C three was withdrawn. That is for the award of the construction for fire station number two. I was informed that the reason that was withdrawn is because we didn't have a budget amendment in place. Given the criticality of getting fire stations online as quick as possible and alignment, I'd prefer to go ahead and make that award. once we get that budget, uh get the mechanics of the uh of the um uh budget

1:38:18amendments finalized this week and then I can go ahead and sign go ahead and sign that agreement so we can move forward with it. Otherwise we'll have to wait until the next board meeting. Madam Chairman

1:38:28Mariano.

1:38:29uh discussion first.

1:38:31Yeah. Mike on that item, we we had talked about trying to look at what we're doing as far as what we're putting in our fire stations. Are there some savings we can make? And I don't recall us actually going through that Um If there are some savings and I mean I've got contractors that have told me that the way we're set up, these specialty things make only specialty contractors can do it. Drives up the cost, limited supply of people doing it, so I wouldn't I would like to, as I had said before, to take a c closer look at how we're spending our money. If we can bring this number

1:39:01down to what it costs us for fire stations, I think is something we need to do. I th I think the fire station we build are awesome. But if we can save money, especially at this point in time where uh the go bonds are tapped out, I think it's something we need to go take a look at. And I and I like I said I I have asked for this and I've heard I think I've heard support from the board as well to to dig into this try to save money.

1:39:21Okay. Yeah, and I think we've made some efforts there. I'll let Assistant County Administrator Murphy speak to that. Hey

1:39:25Commissioner, uh just wanted to inform you we did meet uh the the fire leadership sat down with Eric's team and facilities and the most cost effective thing would be the twenty twenty doing it at the twenty-six primary or general right would be the time that you'd go out.

1:39:43Well we'll we'll have a discussion on that and see where how the board's what the board's pleasure is to move forward.

1:39:49Madam Chair. Yeah. Just one thing, as far as the budget goes, I want everyone just remember the chart that uh we we saw earlier today. When it comes down to the funding. We're at twenty-eight out of sixty-seven for average total property tax and millage rates. We're at 30th on per capita government property tax levies. On per capita taxable value. We're at twenty at forty-two.

1:40:17I think that one we're climbing up quickly, hopefully.

1:40:20So what I'm just trying to say is I I I'm tired of seeing responses with the Sheriff's Office saying we're ranked sixty-two or sixty-one out of sixty seven for the number of deputies we got. When I look at the way we fund things, once he's got his budget it goes on. But clearly we're not out of much of a pr uh a bad range with what we're doing between collecting what we're spending. So uh I think it is is a good discussion to have so We need to be clear as far as what w what's going on, transparent.

1:40:49Okay.

1:40:53Okay, anything more for you?

1:40:54Nope, that's it.