County won’t help contractor
Sarah Day — Staff WriterBLUE EARTH - A contractor made a plea to Faribault County commissioners Tuesday to assess an owed payment to a property owner.
Bret Osborn of Winnebago spoke to the board on behalf of his father's company, Ron's Trenching.
Osborn installed a septic system at Ben Henke's residence in October 2007, but says he hasn't received payments for nearly $2,000 of the work. Osborn has tried garnishing Henke's wages, but to no avail. Osborn says he took the matter to court and got a judgment against Henke.
The county had issued Henke a loan to pay for a septic system. The county's policy is to pay 80 percent of the estimated costs, which then shows up on the property owner's tax assessment. The property owner is responsible for the remaining 20 percent.
The reason Osborn asked commissioners for help attaining payment, he said, is because he felt coerced into the job in the first place.
Osborn alleged that former Commissioner Barb Steier stopped at three or four of the sites he was working on, and asked him "at least 10 times" to work on Henke's system. Osborn said the prior contractor for Henke's property hooked up the sewer line directly to the drain tile.
"She said she would come after my license even though I wasn't the one that hooked it up," he said.
He said he told her he was too busy working on the Huntley sewer project to install a system for Henke. But he didn't want his company's name floating around at the state level receiving an unwarranted "black eye."
Osborn has been talking with Commissioner Butch Erichsrud about the situation and filed information with the sheriff's office more than a year ago.
"But it's like we've hit a wall with (Henke)," Osborn said.
Commissioner Tom Warmka said he was sorry about the situation.
"I don't know if I've got a solution for you, Bret," he said, "but welcome to the world of business. I'm sorry, but I don't know what we can do about it. You might have an action against Mrs. Steier. I just don't want to sting you here, but I don't see where we've got any recourse for you."
Osborn said other counties he has worked in have a 100 percent loan program and suggested the county look into doing that, or collecting the remainder of the project costs before the loan is approved so that this situation doesn't happen again.
County Attorney Brian Roverud said the county has no authority to assess the remaining amount owed to property taxes.
"The bill is between the private property owner and the private business," he said.
Roverud recommended taking the judgment back to district court.
Commissioner Bill Groskreutz said he wouldn't be comfortable changing county policy to cover all of the project costs.
In other business, County Assessor Sue Wiltse gave an update. She said property values aren't going down, though properties aren't selling as fast as they used to.
In 2010, the county will charge $1 more for what it charges cities and townships per parcel. The county currently charges $10. This will mean an overall increase of revenue for $13,200 for the county. For townships, the smallest increase will be $300 and the largest will be $500. For cities, the smallest will be $70 (Walters) and the largest will be $1,300 (Blue Earth).
"Back in the 1970s, the county board at that time actually passed a resolution that the county be in charge of all the assessing in the county," Wiltse explained. "All of the counties and cities at that time wanted to give up their local assessors."
Commissioners were concerned townships would disagree with the fee increase.
Wiltse said what the county charges is significantly less than what the townships would pay if they hired independently.
"Any city or township can opt out at any time," she said.
The board unanimously approved the fee increase, with Commissioner Tom Loveall absent.
In other discussion, Michele Stindtman of the Soil and Water District informed the board the district has been approved for grant funds for plantings at the new jail.
