Bonnie Anderson, of Wells, was one of the people from Minnesota Patriots 4 America who spoke on illegal immigration at the County Board Meeting last week.

The topic of immigration, or more precisely, illegal immigration, was front and center at the Faribault County Board meeting on Oct. 15.

A group of Faribault County residents who are members of Minnesota Patriots 4 America came to the meeting to ask the commissioners to consider passing a resolution opposing the proposed North Star Act.

According to a website promoting the passage of the North Star Act, as it is currently written, it would prohibit state and local law enforcement from using state resources for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement. This includes sharing or accepting federal funds that would require such cooperation. It does not prohibit collaboration on the basis of investigating criminal activity.

Brenda Baldwin, a spokesperson for Minnesota Patriots 4 America, said in a prepared statement, “The legislation would make the State of Minnesota a Sanctuary State for illegal aliens, immigrants, refugees, undocumented workers, or whichever label they would tag them with on any given day.”

Baldwin shared the resolution they were proposing was based on similar resolutions which were passed by McCloud and Wright counties in opposition to the North Star Act.

The group presented documents which they said has 1,087 signatures of Faribault County residents who supported the resolution the group was presenting.

County Board Chairman Bill Groskreutz said he would like more time to visit with the Sheriff’s Department and county attorney before acting on the resolution.

“I would just like some more information,” Groskreutz said.

Commissioner Tom Loveall, however, said he was ready to take action. “I’m ready to make a motion to adopt the resolution.”

Board member Greg Young provided the second to the motion which allowed the commissioners to begin discussing the matter.

“It (the North Star Act) failed at the last legislative session when the party of the person who proposed it would not support it,” Young commented.

“Our concern is if we are not proactive we are afraid we will have to be reactive,” Baldwin shared.

Loveall weighed in with his thoughts.

“Are we reactive or are we stating a position?” he asked. “This is the time to start stating the principles of the republic. You can not be heard unless you speak.”

Commissioners Bruce Anderson and John Roper also offered their thoughts on the matter.

“I know how you feel. My personal feelings are the same,” Anderson said. “My concern is what the State might do in retaliation in terms of withholding funding to our county.”

“I support this, but I want to be sure I have all the information,” Roper added.

Loveall addressed the question of retaliation by the government.

“If we can’t say we oppose this (the North Star Act) because we are afraid of our government – that is a bad place to be,” Loveall remarked.

Before calling for the vote on the resolution, Groskreutz stated again he would prefer to gather more information and then take a vote on the resolution at the next meeting.

The resolution passed 4-1 with Groskreutz casting the lone dissenting vote.

Representative Bjorn Olson had been at the meeting earlier in the morning and the subject of illegal immigration had also come up during his visit with the County Board.

“I am not in favor of making Minnesota a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants,” Olson stated. “Now, legal immigration, I am all for it. There certainly needs to be reforms in the immigration system.

Olson shared he had been able to help secure about $35 million dollars for the district he serves, which includes part of Faribault County, including the cities of Blue Earth and Winnebago.

“The money went towards roads, bridges and a number of other projects,” he said. “That is part of why I am here to talk with you. Who knows better what Faribault County needs than the commissioners? But, if I don’t know what is needed, I can’t help. I encourage the board to let me know of any upcoming needs in the county and I can see what I can do to get State funding and help out the taxpayers in Faribault County.”

“I am glad you came today,” Loveall said. “It is important to have this communication and I want to thank you for fighting for our county.”

Olson also touched on another matter he felt needed attention by the State.

“Minnesota is only one of two states that does not provide for provisional balloting,” Olson commented.

A provisional ballot is cast by a voter whose eligibility to vote cannot be proven at the polls on Election Day. If, after the election, administrators determine that the voter who cast the provisional ballot was eligible to vote, the ballot will be counted as a regular ballot. Federal law requires most states to provide for a provisional balloting process (states that had enacted same-day voter registration processes as of 1993 were exempted from this requirement).

“We should always be able to vote and be able to register the same day,” Olson said. “But we need to do it the right way. They talk about they only caught two people voting illegally last year, but they weren’t looking.”

Groskreutz brought up the condition of Highway 22 from Wells to Kiester and asked if there was any chance the timeline for reconstructing the highway would be moved up.

“I can’t tell you that. The Minnesota Department of Transportation monitors the road conditions every year. It remains to be seen if things will change,” Olson replied. “But this brings up another issue – getting more money for outstate highways. As an example, those in the metro like to point out that things were equal because 40 projects were done outstate and 40 were done in the metro. However, the 40 metro projects totaled $45 million dollars while the 40 outstate projects totaled $5 million.”

Public Works director April Wellman was at the meeting and continued the discussion about roads when she provided the commissioners with the latest update on construction progress.

“The full-depth reclamation on County Road 35 northeast of Wells is complete,” Wellman reported. “That road will remain a gravel road until it is paved next year. Work started last week on the two box culverts on CR 17 south of Frost. They will hopefully be completed and paved over by the end of next week. There is one more box culvert scheduled to be installed this year. It is located in the southeastern part of the county and the work on it is not scheduled to begin until mid-November.”

Health and Human Services Public Health Planner Caroline McCourt was also at the meeting to get the approval for three applications for using Opioid Settlement Funds. All three applications were for $24,000.

“If you will remember, it was decided to target the money in two different ways with two thirds of the funds being used for treatment and one third towards prevention,” McCourt commented. “FariCARES has been working out of the United South Central School District but plans on also engaging in the Blue Earth Area Schools. They work in the prevention area by funding community anti-drug coalitions.”

The other two groups requesting funding are Healing Hearts LLC and Faribault and Martin County Human Services (FMCHS).

“Healing Hearts works west of here but is looking to expand into Faribault County. They hire peer support specialists or recovery coaches to connect people to services and supports and provide services to those in recovery,” McCourt explained. “FMCHS offers three treatment priorities.”

The board approved all three requests which totaled $72,000 and left over $106,000 which will carry over into future years.

“Remember,” McCourt added. “Faribault County will be receiving more money in the future as part of the settlement.”

Human Resources director Amanda Shoff was at the meeting to address some staffing issues with the board.

“The person we had hired as a full-time assistant auditor/treasurer experienced unforeseen medical issues during his first week of employment which led to his resignation,” Shoff said. “Given the brief tenure, we were able to continue the recruitment process from the initial application pool. We extended an offer to the second candidate in line, Darrel Boeckman, an internal applicant, who has accepted the position.”

The board approved the hiring of Boeckman and also approved hiring a temporary employee to provide administrative support to the auditor/treasurer’s office during the critical end-of-year period.

The board also:

• Scheduled a budget work session for Nov. 22, at 11 a.m.

• Set the time for the Truth in Taxation Meeting for Dec. 17, at 6 p.m.

• Changed the starting time of the Dec. 17 board meeting to 3 p.m.

• Approved the request of Erin Beske of the Sheriff’s Department to attend a Critical Issues Workshop.

• Approved renewing a security camera/badge access software contract for the Sheriff’s Department for three years at a cost of $18,158.

• Approved a gambling permit for Minn-Iowa Golf Club to conduct a raffle on Nov. 30.