County Commissioners Meeting - 5.6.22

At the start of the meeting, Sheriff Hollinshead had a helper, a young man in full uniform that was introduced jokingly as the new Sheriff. It was fun and the inclusion with the kids is something that is nice to see.

The cooperative law enforcement document between the Forest Service and Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, which is needed when a federal and local agency need to work together to outline the roles, responsibilities, Jurisdiction engagement and chain of command. These are called Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) or Mutual Aid Agreements. These types of documents are needed with the FBI, Union Pacific, US Military and DEA (for example) looking to work with local and county law enforcement agencies. The motion to move forward passed.

The Department Head update began with County Treasurer, Amber Sloan, as she discussed a new hire and that she’s working on tax deeds. The Primary Election is on May 17th.

County Assessor Josh Dison had a more detailed update. He said that he’s gearing up for the assessment drive and looking at what the new values and taxes are going to be. “Nothing has slowed down in the housing market.” He stated that “there may be a significant property tax increase but depends on property.” 20-30% expectation. Mainly due to the state’s mandates and House Bill 389. We are on the low end tax-wise of all the surrounding counties with the process very similar to last year. According to the county attorney in regard to the 8% budgetary cap on new development, Mitra Mehta-Cooper said “what’s the break even point?” Dison further stated that he had several good meetings. He shared with the commissioners about the annual report on properties that require a tax exemption. He stated that after multiple attempts on phone and e-mails that they haven’t responded to the Assessor’s Office. They are all churches. One of the buildings is owned by non profit “Head Start” program. And in order to receive tax exempt status they need to be a non profit per Idaho code. Property Casualty loss applications, fire losses were the next line items. Bowman Reynolds LLC, The ones on Magnolia and Canyon Creek were complete burns. Duplex was burned but only half of it.

Motion to approve casualty loss apps and motion passed.

EAS/EMS update

They received approval for software that tracks medical records from the state and has capacities for unique patient lookups and repeat patients, and the software will know more about the background. Corbus brought up the billing concerns and the process with A/R. It has been previously stated that the EMS group will be going after the oldest A/R accounts, which are generally considered uncollectible. The warning lights throughout the city are now up and running

Bud Corbus discussed a meeting he attended with Kim Farrell and Christine from Mountain Water Works with Kendra Kenyon Board Chair Ada County Commissioners. Mountain Water Works is a water/wastewater engineering firm based in Boise. The purpose of the meeting was to put together an oversight committee and discuss water and the future of water in Elmore County and wanting to work on “regional water” Corbus stated “It was an interesting conversation and quite honestly kind of caught me off guard. One thing that really stuck in my mind, there are big subdivisions now in Boise County and they are looking to move water into those areas.” The water will be coming from Ada County to Boise County and originating from Anderson Dam in Elmore County. The commissioners then went into executive session.