New Faribault County auditor/treasurer, Chuck Schrader, is shown at his desk in the auditor’s office at the courthouse on his very first day of work, last Wednesday, April 2.

Faribault County has a new auditor/treasurer after the Faribault County Commissioners approved the hiring of Chuck Schrader for the position at their meeting on April 1.

Schrader is a native of Easton who currently resides in Fairmont. He was previously employed by Kahler Electric.

The hiring was approved on a 3-2 vote with commissioners Tom Loveall and Gertrude Paschke voting against the motion to hire Schrader.

“I would like to have a closed meeting to hear more information about all the applicants,” Loveall stated.

Paschke agreed.

“It’s not about the person, it’s the process I am concerned with,” Paschke stated.

Human Resources director Amanda Shoff explained that the hiring process followed the current board policy which includes two commissioners being involved as members of the personnel committee along with county coordinator Brian Hov and Shoff.

“We received four applications,” Shoff commented. “All were graded with two chosen for an interview.”

“The problem is that if you have three or more commissioners at the interview then it becomes an open meeting,” board chairman Greg Young pointed out. “Some people who might otherwise apply for the job may not do so if the interview is open to the public.”

“My argument is for the board members who are not on the personnel committee to be updated on the process before we vote on a new hire,” Loveall responded.

Later in the meeting, the board voted to schedule a work session for 9 a.m. on Monday, April 7, to tackle this issue.

“I would say the purpose of this work session is to discuss the delegation of management authority,” county attorney Cameron Davis suggested. “It is a complicated process when it comes to privacy and the public’s right to know.”

Prior to the board voting to hire Schrader for the auditor/treasurer position, they voted to accept the resignation of Kari Jacobson, effective March 7, from the position.

“Why did she resign,” Paschke quizzed Shoff. “I understood she planned to stay here for some time.”

“She did not share her reasons why she resigned,” Shoff replied.

Public Works director/county engineer April Wellman attended the meeting and shared that the county had received six bids for gravel crushing ranging from a high of $532,000 to a low of $383,900.

“I am recommending we approve the low bid which was from Ulland Brothers,” Wellman said.

The board agreed and approved the bid from Ulland Brothers.

“I want to share that last week we received Federal approval for the County Road 17 project,” Wellman commented. “That project is now open for bids along with the culvert lining, striping and sealing projects for this year.”

Wellman concluded her report by telling the commissioners that the rumble strips were currently being ground into the county highways and the rumble strip policy is available for viewing on the county’s Public Works website.

The commissioners also held a public hearing on the proposed tax abatement for the property located at 504 East Seventh Street in Blue Earth, with the owner of the property listed as 25 Properties LLC.

There was no comment during the hearing and Faribault County EDA specialist Amber Patten reminded the County Board that the tax abatement was for a period of five years and is transferable if the property is sold.

The board voted to approve the tax abatement.

Faribault County Planning and Zoning administrator Sara Hauskins was at the meeting to present the county’s Feedlot Office Annual Report.

“The report is conducted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA),” Hauskins said. “Faribault County has minimum program requirements to meet through State Statute and MPCA requirements as well.”

According to Hauskins, Faribault County has satisfactorily completed those requirements.

“In addition, Faribault County has earned 82 performance credits for going above and beyond the minimum requirements,” Hauskins added. “This brings more dollars into the county through block grants.”

Hauskins credited her team of workers for the county’s accomplishments.

“I’m thankful for the work Chad Viland and Linda Adams perform,” Hauskins commented. “They are very valuable to our success.”

Commissioner Bill Groskreutz asked if Hauskins was seeing an increase in the number of feedlots in the county.

“No,” Hauskins replied. “We are actually seeing a decrease in the number of feedlots. Some of this is due to people retiring.”

Hauskins was also asked if her office is fielding many complaints about feedlots in the county.

“We have some and we tend to get a few more as the weather warms up,” she answered.

“But, overall we do not receive many complaints.”

The commissioners also heard a report from Jim Karels, who is a Risk Management consultant for MCIT (Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust).

One of the topics Karels touched on was the increase in the number of cyber claims among Minnesota counties in the last two years.

“The number of claims for 2024 continued an upward trajectory,” Karels said. “But the total cost of the claims dropped significantly because there were no ransomware claims reported for the year.”

Karels explained that the combination of technical tools such as multifactor authentication and firewalls along with employee vigilance can nearly eliminate the success of cyber attacks.

The board also heard from John Roper who came to the meeting to discuss possible funding issues with Minitex Library Services.

“I am asking you to pass a resolution in support of Minitex Library Services,” Roper said. “Minitex facilitates access to a collection of more than 10 million resources from Minnesota’s public, academic and special libraries and is available to patrons and libraries in every corner of the state via MNLINK.org.

The board passed the resolution.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved signing and sending a Certificate of Need letter requested by Blue Earth County for use of the Blue Earth County Landfill.

• Passed a motion to set the non-union employee 2025 COLA (cost of living adjustment) at three percent retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025.

• Voted to approve the purchase of a standard upgrade to the county’s website, which has reached its end-of-life. The cost is $5,100 per year plus an additional $3,500 per year to make it ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.

• Approved a cell phone stipend in the amount of $50 for Bryce Werner of the Public Works Department.

• Approved the training requests of Karolyn Bendickson of the assessor’s office to attend the Minnesota Residential Case Study Workshop.

• Voted to approve the request of Sheriff’s Department employee Emily Bonin to attend the Minnesota Fraud Investigators Association Annual Spring Conference.

• Approved the request of Brittney Gehrking of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Department to attend the Dogs for Law Enforcement K9 Seminar.