- CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
- Roll Call
- Approval of Agenda
- Approval of Minutes – Regular Meeting – September 8th, 2026
- ATTORNEY’S OFFICE: Brian Mortenson
- Unanimously approved: National Domestic Violence Awareness Month October 2026
- Underdahl: We just reduced the HOPE center’s budget by 10%. I support this resolution, but I also think we need to follow through on supporting victims of domestic violence.
- Purfeerst: Thank you for your service.
- Peters: It’s an atrocity how victims are treated. There is too much focus on protecting the offenders and money for the offenders.
- Mortenson: They’re increasing funding for offenders and decreasing it for victims, and that’s not a mistake.
- Hoisington: Thank you.
- Malecha: Agree with commissioners, and thanks. Agree with Underdahl, need to talk about this in the budget portion of the meeting. And agree with Peters, we need to put this on our list of legislative priorities.
- Mortenson: Spoke about the serious offenses who are allowed out of prison early.
- HIGHWAY: Dennis Luebbe
- Approved Final payment- Fitzgerald Excavating
- Road and Bridge tour for November 3
- FINANCE: RESOLUTION # 26-028 Setting the Preliminary Tax Levy for 2027
- Unanimously Approved 2027 Preliminary Budget Recommendation at 8.00%
- Preliminary budget recommendation for 2027: $107,795,940 2027
- Rice County Property Tax Levy Preliminary Request: $46,418,805
- Total 2027 Rice County Property Tax Levy Increase: $3,438,430 8.00%
- Malecha: What would it be if we added the 10% agency cut back in?
- Folsted: (Response inaudible due to low mic, but it sounded like Folsted said reversing the cuts would not push the levy up to the next level. Unclear.)
- Purfeerst: Why is our HRA levy going up?
- Folsted: It’s gone up and down based on admin fee. There’s nothing new or added.
- Purfeerst: Were there people hired?
- There was one person added when the “bring it home” program was added — a state of Minnesota housing program.
- Purfeerst: Is that mandated?
- The “bring it home” program staff person is mandated.
- Comments
- Public Comment: My family has been farming here for over 100 years. Here to speak in defense of the library and against the 10% cuts. Always bragging about our Faribault library here. The cuts to the libraries are small compared to the budget over all. Find a way to solve this — the libraries, HOPE Center, serve people who are at risk, looking for a chance. This is what taxes are for. Find a way to tax the rich, if that’s the problem.
- Erica Zweifel, Mayor of Northfield: Advocating for library funding, noting the many functions they serve, including as warming and cooling centers in inclement weather.
- Underdahl: Have never been comfortable with our budgeting process. Lacks public transparency. Confident in staff work on the budget. Would like us to look at outside agencies and see if we can’t bring money back in for those. HOPE Center is one that we don’t give a lot of money but the work they do is very important. And other organizations we fund also do essential work. It’s a difficult budget year, and every year is difficult, and this year there is uncertainty about how expenses will be pushed down to counties, but we have to keep working with the cards we’re dealt.
- Malecha: Totally agree, except for the surgical part. I want to have this conversation soon. The way we went about it was wrong. Should have had the discussion far in advance of making the decision. We have to talk about the Lonsdale library and evening out the contribution to them. The outside agencies are doing work for the residents of the county, and if they’re not doing it, we’d have to do it, and it would cost us a lot more to do it. Start the budget process earlier than we have. The chair and vice chair on the finance committee and meet sooner rather than later with county staff after the first of the year.
- Hoisington: It’s critical for us to know where opportunities would be for us to cut, with all the mandates, there’s not a lot of areas where we can cut. It would be good for all of us to know what is feasible to cut or restrict spending. With state mandates, we’re not allowed to cut most of what we do.
- Purfeerst: When I voted for this, I thought it would be equal across the board, and still believe this. I am excited — I’ve gotten a lot of email and calls, and it’s good to see people involved, and they are listening, I guess.
- Peters: I still stand by across the board 10% cut for outside agencies. I’d like our levy to be at 7%, not 8%, because state average is 7.2%, I think. I got a lot of emails about the Sunday thing, I think it was a lot of misinformation about the county taking money away from highways and putting it toward the libraries. So I did get a ton of comments, which is good, but I still stand by my vote.
- ADMINISTRATION: Sara Folsted
- Consent Agenda
- Extra Time/ Over Time Report 08-21-2026
- Payment of Bills
- Personnel Appointments
- ADJOURNMENT
