After a brief public hearing Tuesday, the Sherburne County Board approved revisions to the 2019 fee schedule with very few changes from this year’s schedule.
Administrator Steve Taylor said some of the small increases were due to things like salary increases.
“We don’t change fees to make money. What we’re trying to do is cover our costs,” he said. “A number of the departments don’t have any changes at all.”
Taylor said many of the changes were just clerical in nature. Some line items were deleted because programs were discontinued or changes in technology made them obsolete.
The biggest changes came in the public works department where a new category was created and normal fees have doubled or more for utilizing the time of county employees. Taylor said the bigger amount was required to cover the cost of backfilling positions in the event of a long, protracted legal proceeding.
“There has been a habit of some private (legal) practices coming in and utilizing the services of the engineering department - like the bridge inspector and some of our field personnel,” said Public Works Director Andrew Witter.
“They cases as expert witnesses in personal trials. This item came to be because of that. We wanted to make sure that we were able to cover our costs at that time.”
Historically, the county only included wage rates of the individuals on the fee schedule. But there are more costs involved if a staff member is out during a long trial. Witter said the county may be required to replace the individual with a more costly, private consultant.
The new fees go into effect Jan. 1, 2019.
HHS Grant
The board approved a grant contract with the Minnesota Dept. of Human Services (DHS) to pilot the National Wraparound Implementation Center comprehensive care coordination model.
“It’s an opportunity to expand children’s mental health services across the county,” Supervisor Jodi Heurung with Sherburne County Health & Human Services told the board.
Wraparound is a recognized evidence-based practice intensive case management process. The county will collaborate with Main Street Family Services, which will hire a fulltime facilitator to help implement the program with county case managers.
“For families that are currently being served in children’s mental health, we will pull together their formal and informal support systems and bring them together to develop an individualized case plan for each child,” said Heurung.
“Ultimately, the goal is that families and their support networks will be able to get their needs met and that they won’t need the formal case management services any longer.
The grant of $331,700 will cover staff training, infrastructure development, transportation, family and youth engagement, interpreter services, website development, supplies, technology and evaluation.
Heurung said there was $4.6 million available from the state and requests totalled $7.6 million.
“We were fortunate to receive the grant,” she said.
DHS will provide training to county staff. The contract runs from Oct. 8, 2018 through Sept. 29, 2021.
