Good afternoon and welcome to the ERPS Committee.

This is Employee Relations and Public Safety.

I am Ladina Bolton, your Super District 7 Commissioner, as well as your deputy presiding officer.

But I am your chair right now for the ERPS Committee.

And joining me are our other commit committee members, Commissioner Nicole Masaya of District 3, and Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson of District 5.

We also have our colleagues here, Commissioner Patrick, District 1, Commissioner Long Spears of District 2, and Commissioner Ted Terry.

So at this time we're gonna go ahead and jump into our agenda.

It is not very long today, but we do have some exciting things on here to talk about, but we will start with our minutes from the previous meeting.

This is item 2026, 0652.

These are the March 26th meeting, March 26th minutes.

Do we have a motion for this item?

I make a motion that item uh 0652 be approved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Motion carries recommended for approval by the ERPS committee.

We're gonna jump down to fire rescue item 2026, 0532.

This affects commission districts one three five and seven.

It's an RFP, a request for proposals.

The number is 2025-142.

These are for fire stations 5, 16, and 27.

And this is for use by the Department of Fire Rescue to complete the construction of a new fire station in Tucker, Decatur, and Latonia.

It's recommended award as to the highest scoring proposer.

It's Cooper and Company General Constructions Inc.

Amount not to exceed 26 million five hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars.

And I will say I received a call during the break from a community member saying thank you for working on resurrecting a fire station in Latonia.

Good afternoon.

Um as you stated, very excited about this uh agenda item.

Um it is replacing these uh or two replacements, one new bill, uh fire station number five, which is located at 43, I'm correction, located at 4013 Lawrenceville Highway, which was built in 1952.

Uh its new home will be at 4329 Cowen Road, uh Fire Station 16, which is currently at 2750 Pleasantwood Drive.

Uh it also was built, it was built in 1968.

Uh its new home will be at 4242, uh, which formerly known East Side Drive, now Arthur Queen Drive in Decatur.

And to your point, one that uh, although we're excited about all of them, but fire station 27, which new home will be at 7558 Pleasant Hill Road.

That's an area on that um extreme southeast end of the county that definitely uh can use a fire station.

So we're excited about that to provide better coverage in that part of the county.

And I want to reiterate to the community that Author Queen, which was previously East Side Drive.

I know my colleagues want to comment on that really quickly, but that's that's real cool.

Just had the um ribbon cutting now they're getting ready to get a fire station on author queen.

Did you want to say something?

Oh, okay.

Did you want to say something?

Just uh appreciate you, madam chair, just the excitement um being able to share that um along with the other colleagues, um, being out there CEO was there.

It was amazing day being able to celebrate just a momentous occasion for uh epifitting man who did his best to serve his community.

And again, we're thankful for you know his family allowing him, you know, us to have him and for um him to now give us them and to be able to name rename now author Jay McQueen Tribe and so you know great ICs, great celebration with the community and more of the businesses that we need, legacies we need in our community.

So thank you so much and I appreciate you allowing me to share that um chair and um commissioner Davis Johnson.

Thank you.

Were there any questions or comments from commissioners regarding item 053 2?

I'm assuming it's going to audit.

Yes, ma'am.

It has nothing to do with the road.

The renaming of the road is it has to do with the contractors.

Yes, but that's the all it is for.

Yes, ma'am.

And Shakara Johnson was there too.

So Commissioner uh Shakira Johnson as well.

Commissioner Terry.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, Chief, I was just looking at the uh the bid evaluation sheet and um so Cooper and Company General contractors got 84 points.

Um, however, they only got two LSBE points.

It looks like their LSCB L SBE decab was zero, LSB MSA was zero, but then the GFE was two percent.

What is the GFE?

The good afternoon, Commissioners.

GFE stands for good faith effort.

Gotcha.

Good faith effort.

Okay.

Um and then do you happen to know off the top of your head?

I I see that one of the vendors, even though they score pretty low, they had a 20 percent LSBE decab.

Is that because they're in decav?

So it's not 20 points.

Yeah, so there it's points.

So the max points is 110 if interviews are included.

If there are no interviews, it's only 100.

LSB participation has a max of 10.

If you can either be allotted two, five, or ten.

Two if you demonstrated good faith effort, five if you're using an L a certified LSBE MSA, ten if you intend on using a certified LSBE decap.

So when you see the two, five, and ten, that denotes that for those different vendors.

Okay, understood.

It looks like one of them um did have a 20 percent LSBE decab, but they only got two points.

So maybe there was something wrong with their paperwork.

Um give me one moment, let me see what you're saying.

Well, it's okay.

It's just it was more just for the program um in general, but I mean they they got the lowest points on other things.

That's okay.

I won't I won't gripe on it.

But um I was just curious, um in terms of future fire stations.

Um, how many more do we are we looking to build?

So right now we have uh station 14 and hopefully we'll have 28 black barn black barn park is another that we're looking to build as well.

Um Chief, would it be possible to just identify um because I would love to find a way for more LSBs in DeCAB to be part of the fire station, you know, build outs and there's like a lot of components to it, I know.

So is there would you mind thinking about strategies to make sure that we're communicating with LSBs and decabs so they understand you know, here's your opportunities because I don't know, sometimes I feel like there's I've heard there's like paperwork issues or maybe just maybe confusion about sort of how how's the best way they can participate um just for future fire stations if that's something y'all could think about um and you know just help promote.

Thank you.

Zach, you wanted to speak to that?

If I may, and then thank thank you, uh Chief Carter.

And to the commissioner's direct um question, yes is a simple answer.

We can find ways to promote uh signing up for LSBE opportunities, uh, but not only in uh SPLOST and fire, but SPLOS broadly speaking, as well as all the monies that we're spending in um in the consent decree.

You know, so um we have been talking uh a lot lately, and we are looking at our LSBE program, and we will be coming back with ideas as how we can uh better promote the program, make it easier for people to sign up and stuff for the broad array of projects that we're doing and um for the broader community, there is a strategy.

In fact, last year, District 7 co-sponsored businesses to participate in the program called the supplier academy that's done through PNC decide to cab and then the UGA extension where the businesses go through a class, become certified, understand how to get contracts with the county and get on our Rolodex so when opportunities become available, they're made aware.

So it is something that we're doing.

We would love to do more of it, but the opportunity is available to everyone.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you very much, madam chair.

Um, you did briefly bring up Blackburn Park.

What were you saying related to Blackburn Park?

That we were just talking about future bills that we're looking at, and so that's just another area that we it has not been solidified, but that is another area that we're looking at to uh possibly build another fire station working with Brookhaven on.

Oh, yes, I um very fairly familiar with that, and so was Zach.

And super excited about it.

When we have our offline chat, that'll definitely be something I was gonna ask you about.

So and I'll pull all the information I have from my end.

As well.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yield back, ma'am.

And because you did mention 14 and uh I forget the other fire stations that you said were coming about.

Are any of those in Doraville or have there been conversations for one to support Doraville?

No, ma'am, not right now.

We haven't looked at anything in Doorville specifically.

Okay, no, understood.

I just had that inquiry recently.

You had something, uh Commissioner Patrick.

Uh yeah, madam chair.

Uh my understanding um the idea of the uh fire station within Doraville was intended at the uh OGM site.

Uh but that was also predicated on the notion that there would be a heavy residential component there.

Uh and and um most of that was built out as studios.

There are residential components up there, but I don't think it reaches the threshold for the fire station relocation based on population or residence and housing units that'll be in that area.

Understood, thank you, sir.

I appreciate the clarity.

So with no other questions or comments, do we have a motion for this item?

Um yes, do we have a motion?

My motion is to approve agenda item ending in 0532.

May we since it hasn't gone to audit, I'll be depending on it.

I'm sorry.

What did you say?

Pending audit.

It's pending.

Yes, what I was going to offer to the chair is you may want to approve it pending audit since it has not gone or we hold it, whatever you prefer.

But I just wanted to make sure that that component is in there.

Any audit or even right?

I would prefer a yeah, deferral since it just went to audit.

So I am in my motion.

Uh my motion is um to defer agenda item ending in 0532 for two weeks, um, so that it has an opportunity to completely go through audit.

Uh-huh.

I second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries recommendation for deferral two weeks.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

We're gonna jump down to police services item 2026 0592.

This is all commission districts.

It's to amend the fiscal year 2026 Metro Atlanta multi-jurisdictional DUI task force grant, which is the Heat Heat grant to include a county match of $30,194.81s.

All right, Chief, tell us about this heat grant.

Good afternoon, ma'am.

And this grant was uh previously approved by the board.

However, we had to come back to amend it based on the grantors uh award document.

It did not complete uh the match funds that are required by the county.

Uh so we are asking for this amendment uh because it was originally accepted at uh 120,000 uh roughly actually it's 120,779 and 36 cents, but it required a local match of $30,194.84 cents.

Uh so we're asking to amend it, and we do have the uh local match funds budgeted.

The heat grant is for our multi-jurisdictional task force, our our DUI task force, and heat stands for highway enforcement and aggressive traffic, uh, and the funds will be used to uh perform uh those operations and salaries in our heat unit and DUI task force.

Okay, wonderful.

And I see here that the grant award, like you said, is 120,000.

We have the 30,000 match, so your total would be a hundred and nearly a hundred and fifty-one thousand.

Okay.

Thank you for the clarity, sir.

Any other questions or comments from committee members?

No, okay, commissioners.

I make a motion that this item be approved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Congratulations.

Motion carries recommendation for approval.

Next item 2026 0635.

This is all commission districts.

It's a collection and analyzation of pawn second hand scrap metal recycler offer up and eBay transaction data.

It's a multi-year purchasing policy exemption for use by the Department of Police Services to obtain a subscription to leads online power plus investigation system to search for and identify stolen items, potential suspects, and criminal activity patterns awarded to leads online LLC amount not to exceed 239,484 and 96 cents.

That is a mouthful, and what is it talking about?

Yes, ma'am.

So this is an investigative tool.

It's a system that allows us to search nationwide.

So for example, if we have uh stolen uh scrap metal or or any items that are stolen, we can enter the information into this database to see if that's those stolen items have been uh sold at uh pawn shops or other off-market locations, and it is a nationwide search, and a lot of times we can tie in different investigations not only throughout the metro area but the southeast or across the nation with um organized retail crime and things of that nature, but it's an investigative software tool.

Have we used this tool or something similar previously?

Or is that yes, ma'am?

Okay.

This one in particular.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, okay.

And is this $239,000?

I see it's a multi-year subscription.

How many is that?

I was gonna say two, but five years.

Five years.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments from committee members?

Nope.

Commissioners?

All right, seeing none.

Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Congratulations.

Motion carries for approval out of ERPS.

You're welcome, sir.

All right.

So we have two items of interest that has to do with our pets, our furry friends.

We'll start with the item out of district two, two zero two six zero two seven eight.

It impacts all commission districts.

It's an ordinance to amend the code of DeCab County, Georgia, Chapter 5, to regulate the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet shops.

Okay.

And um, Commissioner Longspears, did you just want to give a briefing on this item?

Sure.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to introduce this to the committee members, uh, my other commission colleagues and the public.

First of all, um I want to thank the law department, uh, our interim county attorney Phillips for helping us to do the work in the background to create this ordinance and working with Laura, um, one of our uh deputy county attorneys.

So the spirit of this new ordinance is to um ensure the health and safety of our furry friends, promote responsible pet ownership, prevent inhumane breeding conditions, and then promote community awareness around animal well-being and a humane environment.

What is a humane environment?

And so our hope with this ordinance is to prohibit retail pet shell pet shops in DeCab County.

And again, this would only apply to unincorporated DeCab County.

Currently, both Doraville and Dunwoody both have ordinances on the books prohibiting um pet shops within their city borders.

Um right now we're still in the midst of the research and fine-tuning what my office has worked on in partnership with other groups, including the county attorneys.

But per our interim county attorney Phillips, we're not quite ready yet.

And so, Madam Chair, if you are open to this, I'm suggesting a two-week deferral so that um our interim county attorney has the opportunity to speak with Laura when she returns.

She's not in office now, is that correct?

Okay, yep, she is not um here where we can ask her what the status is.

So if we could please defer this item for two weeks.

Thank you.

Yield back.

But before we call the excuse me, before I call for the motion, I did just want to ask a quick question, but I know we can deliberate more later.

With the pet shops, is the goal to ensure that if folks are selling um furry friends, it's on maybe a pet farm or a pet campus, something different, or is ideally you're looking to eliminate sales altogether.

So we are looking to eliminate retail sales.

So, like pet stores that you'll see, like we used to see in the day in the mall.

Um, there was one for a long time in the city of Dunwoody across from perimeter mall.

That has since closed down.

Um there's just been a lot of challenges around the country with these retail shops and the conditions that the animals live in, how they come to even acquire the pets in the first place.

And so this one in particular only does relate to dogs, cats, and rabbits, but uh we'll share a personal story of walking into the pet shop across from perimeter mall, and there was a turtle about this big, it was huge, in a kiddie pool, about that big, and it was $1,500.

I would have bought the turtle had I could have done it.

And it was so upsetting to see this wild animal yanked from its environment and living in a kiddie pool in Dunwoody, Georgia.

And so thankfully they closed down, but it's really in an effort to prohibit that happening with dogs, cats, and rabbits.

Okay, thank you for the clarity, ma'am.

So at this time, do we have a motion for the item?

Yes, I make a motion to defer this item for two weeks.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Okay.

Motion carries for deferral two weeks.

Yes, ma'am.

And then we're going to jump down to the next item that has to do with pets 2026, 0596.

It impacts all commission districts.

This is also an ordinance, but to regulate the restraint and transportation of animals and for other purposes.

Go ahead.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, ma'am.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this item as well.

Um this item is uh particularly related to strengthening our current tethering ordinance.

So DeCab County does have a tethering ordinance.

And again, shout out to our law department, um, our county attorney Phillips, as well as um deputy county attorney Johnson for their work behind the scenes with it.

We've also worked with the Georgia Pet Coalition around strengthening this tethering ordinance.

It's still um in the process of being fine-tuned, but again, I would um request of Madam Chair and the committee a two-week deferral just to finalize and speak to Laura to ensure that this is ready to be deliberated on by this body.

Understood.

All right, thank you, ma'am.

Do we have a motion for this item?

Motion to defer this agenda item for two weeks.

All in favor, aye.

Motion carries for a deferral two weeks.

Thank you all.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you for your time.

So we have one more item on the agenda and then some items for discussion.

The next one is out of district one, 2025-0683.

It impacts all commission districts.

This is to approve a resolution to address egregious littering and the illegal dumping of scrap tires.

Um, Mr.

Allen isn't here.

I know he normally helps guide us through that conversation, but I did want to ask Commissioner Patrick.

Did you want to go ahead and get us started?

Uh yes, uh uh Shannon uh with central staff is handing out uh I guess the most current version of the uh proposed text amendments to the ordinance.

Um and uh wouldn't want anybody to make a decision on the fly, so please uh take these hard copies.

I believe electronic copies will be emailed out if they have already been done.

But um, please review what's been proposed and uh take a look at it, and then um when Marcus returns, as well as once we've had some time to review this, we'd love to be able to get a positive vote out of committee and then get this to uh get this to the full board for adoption.

I believe the uh CEO's office also has some uh work product they've been doing on this, and that's the appropriate time.

We'll be making a presentation to sort of dovetail with these proposed changes.

Okay, and do you have a recommendation?

Is it two weeks you're looking for?

Uh if two weeks is sufficient, yes, two weeks would be the recommendation.

Okay.

Do we have a motion for item two zero two five zero six eight three?

I move to defer this agenda item for two weeks.

Second.

All in favor, aye.

Motion carries recommendation for deferral two weeks.

All right.

God bless you.

Okay, so we have gotten through all of our agenda items, but as I mentioned previously, we do have some discussions.

Are you ready for us, uh, Mr.

Jacobs?

We do have an open enrollment discussion.

Thank you, madam chair.

And good afternoon.

Thanks, madam chair.

And uh, we're gonna go just briefly over our marketing plan for open enrollment, which begins on May the 8th.

I'm sorry, May the 4th and goes through uh the 18th.

So we give uh employees a full two weeks uh to think about a lot of material that they're gonna get over the next few days so that they can make an informed decision.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

So we're gonna give you a preview uh with uh for mailer that's gonna go out on the 28th of this month.

And the preview is going to essentially uh get the employees thinking about open enrollment, which will be starting just a few days hence.

And in this uh mailer, we try to focus on uh the website.

Uh we understand that not all employees consume content through a website, but uh in CB 360, I think it's the first or second tile that you see once you log on to CB360, you'll see the micro site.

And this employee benefits uh website is a comprehensive site.

It contains everything that the county offers in terms of uh employee benefits.

It includes not only the different coverages and the plan types and the details, but also the rates.

So that's the first thing we that we want to put in front of uh employees so that they can start looking at all the benefit types that the county offers, and then when open enrollment starts, they're ready to make informed decisions.

A few weeks ago, we had a consultant from uh Gallagher that came and uh gave the uh commission kind of a highlight of some of the things that are are changing and that are new.

That includes a hospital indemnity policy, pet insurance, as well as indemnity theft and cyber protection, and uh we will have a special rider for constitutional officers, and we'll talk about that offline.

We also are uh offering some of our old familiar benefits, but with some enhancements.

We've always offered accident insurance, critical illness, uh, legal and short-term disability.

But since last year we did an RFP and those same vendors came back with uh modestly lower rates and enhance the coverage.

So doing an RFP every four or five years is usually a good thing, better benefits, uh lower prices.

What do you need to do and know to be ready for open enrollment?

Um we often try to promote very very carefully that we normally have a passive enrollment, and that'll be the same this year.

But a passive enrollment uh still requires action if you have a health savings account, a flexible spending account for uh medical or for child care.

Action must be taken to update those deductions from your paycheck.

Otherwise, if you don't have an FSA or transit uh or an HSA, your benefits will just roll over.

Uh we still want employees though to take a careful look at their benefits to make sure that it still matches their needs compared to where they were a year prior.

Um also we ask employees to take this opportunity to update their dependent information, which would include uh names, dates of birth, and social security numbers if they've added to their family since uh the previous open enrollment, and perhaps most importantly, uh updating the life insurance beneficiaries.

Uh a lot of our younger employees that come on board for whatever reason, that's the last thing they think about until they need it.

So this gives individuals a chance to update those all important life insurance beneficiary information.

And once again, uh we start May 4th, we end uh May 18th, and we're going to offer a number of uh enrollment options.

Um this uh display here shows uh our efforts to reach individuals who don't necessarily consume information using a phone, a smartphone or computer.

So we've scheduled uh actual in-person open enrollment dates for watershed, sanitation, for um roads and drainage, and also the sheriff's department's employees because their employees uh aren't really at liberty to go about as freely as you and I do.

And we're also going to have a special concierge service uh for employees in the Maloof building, uh which would also serve the courts uh next door.

And uh as you can see, we have several dates, uh several time slots, and employees can show up uh on that particular date, which we're gonna advertise in advance, uh, get an appointment with an enrollment advisor.

Uh these enrollment advisors are professionals, they've been well versed in DeCab County's policies, uh, they understand all of our benefit offerings, and you can take a 20 to 25 minute session to discuss your own unique needs with the enrollment advisor, and they can help you with your enrollment selections.

So, this is a service that we really started for uh the guys out in the field, sanitation, road strainage watershed, but we've expanded it also uh to folks most in the downtown Decatur area so they can get a chance to have face-to-face uh with an enrollment advisor.

And then uh let me go back.

We uh there's a handout that we just put in your hand that is really just a sample of some of the marketing materials that we're gonna use.

And uh the first one says it's time to review your benefits.

Uh this will go out not only an email blast, we're gonna put it uh on bulletin boards.

Uh we're uh having some of these uh they call it sandwich boards uh designed to put at the entrances uh of the uh public works departments, and uh we also are going to uh have a special partnership with our payroll coordinators.

Payroll coordinators, as you know, are really an extension of of uh finance and and as well as human resources.

So we're gonna have special communications with 120 or so payroll coordinators.

Each department has at least a few, and we're gonna make sure that they're well up to speed on open enrollment so that they can assist uh the employees in their different departments.

And finally uh just to review, we are going to support open enrollment uh with face-to-face uh benefit counselors.

Uh you can also enroll by calling an 800 number if that's your preference, or you can just do it all through C V 360.

So uh we have three different primary forms of updating your benefits based on the way that you are most comfortable with, and uh we will start those email blasts uh on a three-day cadence starting on May the 4th, and we'll go right up until the last day of of open enrollment until it closes.

Uh and I will say that we we often have most of our folks, probably 80 percent of us enroll on the last day of open enrollment.

Uh I'm often guilty myself, but this uh system does slow down uh when we have that many people trying to make their election on the last day.

So the sooner you you enroll the better, and uh we usually have a little ticker that uh tells the percentage of employees that have enrolled as the days go by, uh just as a reminder to not wait to the last minute.

So that's a quick high view of our marketing efforts for open enrollment, and uh happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, sir.

I want to say to you and the team, we really appreciate the work that you do.

I love that you have the schedule where you're gonna go in person and actually support all of our employees or those who need it the most with their participation in open enrollment, and then you know, from the presentation last visit that you guys had, how you do a great job of keeping our pre premiums static.

That's not a major issue that we have to deal with regularly, even though economics lately have been fluctuating extremely uh just it's been crazy.

Um and I wanted just to ask, with all of the efforts that you guys are putting in, about how much do you normally have to budget in order to remind us, encourage us, support us just to participate in open enrollment, something that we all need anyway?

Yes, that's a great question.

And uh to be very transparent, when you are uh living and working in the insurance space, there's a lot of commissions involved.

And so we have something called permissible commission dollars that we can use to help us promote open enrollment.

So when uh we partnered with companies like AFLAC or Colonial Life in the past, uh part of their bid submission says we'll give you X number of dollars of credits to help you promote open enrollment.

Okay, so we use those credits through uh essentially commissions from the insurance company uh to pay for these open enrollment services.

If we were paying out of pocket, we would be looking at $70,000 to bring in these, because these are probably about 30 individuals that we're gonna bring in for two weeks, uh very professional individuals, highly qualified, and they will spend two weeks at the various sites, plus uh manning a uh call center.

And I don't know how many people are gonna be in the call center yet, but it's based on our volumes.

Uh, but it we would be about 70,000 dollars where we're paying for it directly.

Well, we appreciate you.

Are there any questions or comments?

Come Commissioner Mossai.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

And so um just related to the uh permissible commission dollars that we receive, you said roughly it would cost us about 70,000 dollars in order to make our employees aware of the open enrollment.

Um do we put any additional dollars to that, or does do those dollars actually cover what's necessary to remind folks that we are in open enrollment?

Uh yes, Commissioner Masaya.

So that allotment uh coming from commissions has covered all of the cost of our efforts to uh really market our open enrollment efforts, and uh we do put a little bit of money in the budget just in case, but I'd say in the last three years we haven't had to use it.

Fantastic.

You know, if an employee presumably, you know, there's access to um you know emails, even though I heard you say that there are some um employees that don't regularly use their phone and mail, but where we're mailing um out, you know, documents or sending out mailers, just wondering whether or not you know um we should go that route.

But to the extent that it's being covered by commission, then all the better.

Um my last quick question is as it relates to the different departments, just seeing here we got the sheriff's department very necessary and wondering um what specific um open enrollment uh presentations that we provide to our marshal's office and to our judges and our courts that of course uh need to be reminded of the open enrollment period as well.

Do we have a in-person um session scheduled or what are the thoughts there?

Uh we did get uh uh a rather uh a recent call from the clerk's fear court, and uh we are gonna try to set up uh an individual or two to uh address the needs of that building since they're right next door to us.

Uh they have a lot of employees in that building.

Right.

And so uh just as of the last few days, we had an outreach, and we're gonna try and make sure they have resources as well.

And very important, especially if we have a couple of coins left over to be able to do that.

I think that's important.

So thank you for you know um updating that.

Uh with that, I yield back to you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

All righty, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

Um, so if um an employee does not enroll during the open enrollment period, will they default to what they already had?

And um, that's pretty much it.

Will they default into what they already have?

Really want employees to hear, if nothing else, if they take no action, they will retain their current benefits with a couple of very important exceptions.

If they are one of the, I think we have about 1,500 of our 6,000 employees that prefer the health savings account.

If they don't take action, then they'll still keep their anthem benefit, but they will not be able to contribute uh to the HSA themselves as they perhaps previously did.

So if they're contributing out of their paycheck, $100 every uh pay period, if they don't make that election, that deduction stops, and they won't be able to make that deduction until the next plan year starts.

But the monies that they have in that account will remain their monies.

It it will.

Okay.

In fact, those dollars are are portable even when they leave our employment.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And to clarify the death benefit that we voted on in the budget, how will that show up?

Is that something that will have to be opted into for public safety, or what will that look like?

Yes, and so that is actually um connected to the pension plan.

And the death benefit connected to the pension plan that was proposed and the committee approved, allows for any employee, whether public service, safety, uh public works, any journal employee, if they die in the line of duty, then they immediately get uh, and I wouldn't use the word life insurance, but they would get the equivalent of their pension benefit had they worked for 30 years.

So uh that's still gonna be working its way through the legislative process through a homework amendment as long with other uh potential proposed pension changes, but uh that one I believe has already been approved.

Um and let me circle back because you did ask ask specifically about life insurance.

So about five or six years ago, uh the county realized that a lot of our younger employees were not paying the small premiums for life insurance, and so working with administrations, you know, Williams and others, uh the county agreed to pay the entirety of that premium for all employees.

So if an employee uh dies under any circumstance, if they happen to pass away while an employee, they'll get two and a quarter their salary uh at no cost to them.

The county's fully covering that uh premium, and that's been in place for about five to six years.

Wonderful, wonderful, and we'll have to reiterate that every year so everyone knows that they're receiving that, even though we're not paying into it, opting into it, we don't want to lose sight of that.

Absolutely.

And I should mention that um folks should still uh consider that.

If your annual pay is $30,000 a year, that's just over $60,000.

It's well than more than enough to take care of uh final expenses.

But if typically if you're younger, you may have young kids.

So every employee has the opportunity during open enrollment to buy additional coverage, which they will pay for, but that would be uh over and above the two and a quarter times pay that the county is picking up the premium for.

Wonderful.

Any other questions or comments from committee members or commissioners?

All righty, thank you, sir.

We appreciate you.

Okay, so we're gonna move into committee goals.

We have about 15 minutes left.

Uh so we could just talk through some of those and we can get an idea if committee members want to add to or take away or just target a couple of things for the remainder of this year.

And for those of you who are watching or engaging in the meeting with us, the committee goals, many of them are items that have been discussed last year, some of them carried over from prior to us new commissioners coming onto the board.

So we just want to come back through and see if there are any items that we want to continue to target, others we want to remove, expound on, make some changes, but make sure that as a committee, we do have some goals for the year that we're going to work towards so we have a track record of what it is that we are doing, have done, and look forward to achieving.

So Shannon, if I can have you just come up to the podium, please and kind of talk us through it as commissioners continue to review the items.

Absolutely.

Um I will say I'm no substitute for Marcus, but I will do my best.

We have three categories of goals outlined here.

Um recommended discussion, quarterly and periodic periodic updates from animal enforcement and services and um other departments under the ERPS committee.

E911 fire and rescue.

Oh, I'm sorry.

This is pertains to the operational assessment and departments under the ERPS committee related to that.

E911 fire rescue medical examiner's office, emergency management, human resources, and police services.

We have some proposed commission-led initiatives.

Looks like this item was discussed in committee at the beginning of this year.

It seems as though several of these have been discussed at the beginning of this year in committee.

So I'm gonna jump down to county pension changes.

So next month.

Um, an item we just briefly went over in committee.

Um, the illegal tire dumping policy related related to item 0683.

Shannon, it was just pointed out, and I should have been the first one to say something.

May 19th is election day.

Oh, yes, ma'am.

Yes, so we will we'll reschedule that.

Yeah, absolutely.

I believe that yeah, we'll we'll confer because I don't believe we have anything scheduled that day, but we'll confer with the schedule.

Okay.

Um the next on the other side of this page, administrative and departmental initiatives, the budget review.

We have already completed and done for this year.

Um, I believe we the ERPS committee did hear the police annual report for 2025 in March of this year, and another proposed initiative is scrap tire abatement strategy.

Uh, and that is marked for a discussion in June of this year.

Okay, so it looks like we have a couple of conversations or discussions we'll be having as related to tires because we just had item 0683 on the agenda, and so we yeah, we'll try to schedule those uh in tandem potentially.

Oh no, that's June.

The 068 theory will get sooner.

Um, so that obviously is a priority.

We want to get through some of those, especially because it's been on the agenda for some time now.

I did want to go back up to where it says quarterly and periodic updates, operational assessment update.

Um, because Commissioner Masaya is new to the ERPS committee for 2026.

I just want to make sure to go back and communicate.

Last year, we did uh Marcus did a really good job of make sure making sure to schedule with each of the operations to come in and do their review for us quarterly.

This year, so far, we focused more on reports from the momentum firm, make it so that we had an opportunity to see where some of the gaps were and how they were being filled.

So we do have to get back on track with doing our quarterlies, of course, with E911.

We made that major investment last year.

So we want to hear how that's going.

Actually, district one held a town hall on Saturday, and I joined, and some of the residents in Embry Hills did have some questions about it.

So it would be a good good to probably start off with E911.

Also with FIRE, we made a major investment last year, so it's always great to hear what's happening with AMR.

The medical examiner's office.

Um, we gave funds through the opioid uh settlement.

Yes.

Okay.

So a lot it seems like we have lots of exciting things to hear.

Essentially, just getting back to the fact with all of the investments that we made, grants and awards that were received.

We're gonna get back on track with the quarterly updates to see how things have been going and if there's um any areas where we can support or gaps that need to be filled.

Uh, with a lot of these also, you guys remember we have new leadership.

We have a new public safety director, we have an acting fire chief with human resources, new leadership there.

Chief, I don't think has been here for a year.

Chief has Chief Pedrick been director favorite, uh Chief Adrian.

No, not a year yet.

Yeah, we have a lot of new leadership here, even uh Dima.

So we had DEMA um, yeah, and this gives them an opportunity to get comfortable with the Board of Commissioners, how to communicate to see how we can work together and even how our role impacts what they do and vice versa.

So those quarterly meetings are gonna be very important, but I would like to know if you guys did have any in particular that you wanted to prioritize and get to earlier rather than later, please let us know, and then we can work on those.

You have something, Commissioner Davis Johnson.

Yeah, I think that since animal services is coming out of ops, since the animal services is coming out of ops, going into ERPS.

Uh, you may want to give a brief update on that as soon as possible.

Okay, that was a good one.

And you know what?

This hasn't been updated yet because we just voted.

Oh, we just talked about that this morning.

Yes, so we need to update this committee goal sheet.

Yeah.

Did you have something?

Go ahead.

I did.

Thank you so much, madam chair, the medical examiner office.

So to be able to get an update from them.

Um, you know, I think that in large ways they're um sometimes overlooked.

Who wants to think about that sometimes, right?

But um I appreciate that they were also um able to be the recipient, my understanding of some of the opiate settlement funds.

Um, we have some additional funds that are gonna be coming in.

Just want to be able to evaluate their needs, and especially with technology constantly changing and them needing to um you know be updated and their tools be updated, just wanting to make sure that they have what's necessary to work as efficiently as they um as they can for uh the community and for the county.

So it would be great to be able to get the medical examiner's office in here as soon as we are able to as well.

Thank you so much, madam chair.

I yield back to you.

Awesome, thank you.

And just to reiterate, Shannon, we did get animal services and medical examiner, we're gonna make those top priority.

Yes, I'll make a note of that, and we'll see if we can get them on the schedule.

Okay, awesome.

So just the other two things I wanted to point out before we go ahead and end the meeting because we don't have a whole lot of time remaining.

Uh, I got a phone call today about the blasting ordinance from residents in the Stone Crest Lethonya area, and they're excited about it.

They've said thank you to that.

Even though we haven't passed it yet, it looks like soon we would it will be ready to go.

But if any commissioner has not had an opportunity to review it or talk to those community members who it impacts the most on the east side, southeast side, please take an opportunity to do so because they're really looking forward to having this in place.

They said it's been a long time coming, and we're more than happy to do this with them.

And then the other thing that I wanted to point out is the county pension changes.

Just letting you know time is winding down.

We're gonna be pushing forward.

Yeah, I'm gonna be ready to share some numbers with us.

Well, we remain meet till the first week in June, but we're working on it.

We're keep our fingers crossed.

Okay, that's fine.

We'll work with you on the time.

We just want you to know it's still top of the radar.

Okay, wonderful.

I know a lot of folks are gonna be excited about that.

That's gonna be a huge win for everyone.

So we're gonna work together to make sure it works for us all.

Those were all of the priority areas for me, things I wanted to emphasize.

Uh was there anything else that committee members may wanted to add or talk through with respect to the ERPS committee goals?

All righty.

Well, if there are no other comments, requests, or questions with respect to anything having to do with ERPS at this time.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Alrighty.

Thank you.

Have a good afternoon.