Dodge County adopts 2025'2029 capital plan, approves ARPA-funded equipment and human services budget increases

The Dodge County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 15, 2024 adopted the county's Capital Improvement Plan for 2025'2029 and approved multiple budget amendments and purchases, including ARPA-funded equipment for the Sheriff's Office and upgrades to county data storage.

The board approved Resolution 24-38 adopting the county's 2025'2029 Capital Improvement Plan after a motion by Supervisor Guchenberger (the transcript includes alternative spellings of this name in places) and a second by Supervisor Benter; the transcript records the vote as passing 30 to 1. The Finance Committee had forwarded the plan, noting the plan's fiscal impacts for 2025 would be reflected in the proposed 2025 Dodge County budget appropriations.

The board also adopted Resolution 24-39, the county investment policy, which the Finance Committee reviewed on Oct. 7, 2024. The record includes a brief clarification that committee member Nancy Kaye attended virtually; the measure passed unanimously as recorded.

Several ARPA-funded public-safety purchases were approved. Resolution 24-40 authorized acquiring mobile fingerprint scanners from the vendor name written in the record as "Edemia"; the fiscal note for that item recorded a $20,000 increase in 2024 revenues and expenses using ARPA funds. Sheriff Dale Schmidt told the board, "We don't have any of these right now. I haven't had any purchases. We're waiting for this resolution to purchase." A motion to approve the purchase was adopted; the transcript's vote tally for this item was unclear in the record.

The board approved Resolution 24-41 to purchase two radios for the Sheriff's Office using ARPA funds (fiscal note recorded increases of about $18,200 and an additional $36.22 in the transcript), and Resolution 24-42 to fund devices for a mass spectrometer for the Sheriff's Office, with the transcript's fiscal note listing $72,015.57 in ARPA-funded increases to the 2024 budget.

Human Services and Health budget amendments were also adopted. Resolution 24-43 increases the 2024 Human Services and Health budget by $2,370,499 to cover Title 3B home-delivered meals, congregate meals, public health and children's long-term support programming. Separately, Resolution 24-44 added $65,110 for Family First CST and substance abuse block grant supplements, and Resolution 24-45 increased budgeted revenues and expenses by $244,008 for various grant allocations. Each of those human-services items was approved unanimously as recorded in the meeting.

The board approved Resolution 24-46 to award funds for upgrades to network area storage and to use ARPA funds for associated hardware, software and installation services. The fiscal notes state the sales-tax division would be decreased by $400,000 while the ARPA division would be increased by $178,242. Supervisor Houchin asked why the item was moved from sales-tax funding to ARPA; a county representative replied, "we want to commit as many ARPA dollars as we can before the end of the year ... because the ARPA dollars have an expiration," adding that freeing sales-tax dollars would allow that money to be used for other capital projects. That resolution passed 30 to 1 as recorded.

On planning and land-use matters, the board adopted a public participation plan for the comprehensive plan update (Resolution 24-47). When asked how the document differs from the 2015 plan, staff (identified in the record as "Bill") said it "meets the minimum requirements" required by statute and was likely similar to prior materials. The board also approved zoning ordinance amendments for two Town of Lowell properties (Resolutions 24-48 and 24-49) and a land-use code amendment (Ordinance 1154) requested by Woz Investments LLC; those measures passed by recorded votes as shown in the transcript.

Administrator Claffer told supervisors that bound hard copies of the budget were available in the back of the room and that a supplement containing department reports was being provided electronically; staff offered to provide printed supplements on request. Supervisor Johnson moved to adjourn; Supervisor Kane seconded and the board adjourned to the next scheduled meeting the following week at 6 p.m.

The transcript contains several inconsistent name spellings (for example, forms of Guchenberger/Guggenberger/Gueckenberger appear in the record) and a few unclear vote tallies and vendor-name spellings; those items are noted in the provenance and audit sections below.