Clay County Information Services Director Mark Sloan displays a chart tracking county website visits.

Karen Newman

The Clay County Commissioners listened to annual budget presentations from three departments at their July 14 meeting.

Mark Sloan, Director of Clay County Information Services, says that his department is small with three full-time and one part-time employee. He reports, “The emphasis of our department is handling of information, as it says in our name.” Sloan continued, “Our sister department, Technology Services, handles the technology side. We handle the presentation of information for staff, citizens and partners across the county.”  

 Sloan described his department’s two major responsibilities as maintaining the widely-used Geographic Information system (GIS) and the Clay County Website.

Through GIS, the information department is responsible for maintaining 390 layers of information. In the past year, Clay County Information Service issued 287 new addresses around the county (not in Moorhead) and was responsible for supporting information about an additional 30,000 property parcels.  Sloan emphasizes, “We are doing a lot of work on the GIS side to make sure our data is current, accurate and delivered to the users as best we can.”

The Information Services Department maintains the Clay County Government website.  In 2019, the department supported and edited 2000 pages associated with the county website. The website was visited 517,628 times during 20219. For the current year, Sloan notes that prior to April, 2019 about 36,000 views/month were recorded.  Since April, the monthly views have been steady at 73,000 views/month. The most frequently visited page is the Clay County Inmate Roster.

Sloan told commissioners that the next budget for his department will be essentially the same as the current year.  He anticipates a 3.8% rise due to steps in the employee system and minor software upgrades.

County Commission Chair Frank Gross complimented the information Services Department saying, “Thank you for keeping the budget down.”

 Kirk Rosenberger, Clay County Solid Waste Management Manager, presented his annual ‘Trash Talk’. He notes that this department is the only county department that is run as a business.  Revenue is raised through $42/parcel annual fees, assessed through property taxes.  Commercial parcels are assessed by the amount of garbage generated per parcel.  Tipping fees are derived from landfill use.

The waste management department receives the bulk of its funding from the Enterprise Fund.  Score funding is directed to recycling. Rosenberger explained, “Tipping fees pay for operational costs.  Service fees pay for capital costs.” He noted that with Covid-19, there was a rise in residential garbage generated and a decrease on the commercial side.  Recycling noted an increase in corrugated materials received credited to more consumers ordering online. The Solid Waste Management Department is involved in an ongoing, partially state-funded, project to expand the landfill to add eight to ten years’ use for the site. The addition of a full-time position at the landfill site has been a positive experience.  52,000 tons of garbage were generated in 2019; 12,000 tons of recycling were produced.

District Supervisor, Janelle Cheney, presented the Probation budget report. She says that line items remain at current levels.  Increases to the next budget will come from employee steps and benefits.  Drug testing supply costs fluctuate with demand and regulatory requirements. The Clay County Probation Department staff includes support staff and agents employed by Clay County.

Cheney notes that Covid-19 drastically changed how the probation department operates.  Client visits with probation officers are conducted virtually, if possible.  Face-to-face visits with clients are happening, if they can be arranged while meeting social-distancing requirements. Sentence-to-Serve (STS) client services are slowly being brought back to communities as quarantining standards at the jail are loosened and if transportation while social distancing requirements can be met.  Drug testing is modified to oral testing only to meet social distancing protocols.

County Chair Frank Gross asked, “I notice that jails are doing early release. Do you have more clients because of that?”

Cheney answered, “Yes, we had a huge influx from prisons releasing people early. Our caseloads have definitely been impacted and will continue.”

Cheney described potential sources of revenue which are currently on hold due to Covid-19.  In cooperation with the Department of Corrections, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) supports victim impact panels which reimburse the county for each participant.  Cheney’s staff is working with Clay County Corrections to boost bed availability so clients can take part in local rehabilitative programming utilizing the Decision Point program. Client participation fees help fund this program.