At the regular county board meeting held on April 20, 2010, the Todd County Board of Commissioners discussed a proposal to merge the Todd County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) with the Todd County Environment and Land Use Planning Department (ELRM). In an effort to ensure the public has a clear understanding of the process and intent of the County and SWCD this press release is being issued.

The intent of the proposal is for SWCD Administration to take over the Administration of the ELRM Department. Given continued consent of the governing bodies of SWCD and ELRM the plan is to complete the merger in three phases.

PHASE 1 – The county board indicates intent to participate in the merger by resolution, and authorizing staff to begin to make administrative changes necessary for an effective merger.

PHASE 2 – The county board and SWCD’s Board would each enact a management ag reement, whereby the administration of SWCD will begin the process of fully integrating the administration and management of the departments. Reports will be given to the governing bodies of each organization on the progress as necessary. This is the phase during which the public should expect to begin to see structural change, including colocating the departments and interdependent operations.

PHASE 3 – The county board and SWCD’s Board would engage in a Joint Powers Agreement under Minnesota Statutes. The lessons learned and information gained during Phase 2 will be applied to the writing and execution of the Joint Powers Agreement. There should be little if any noticeable structural difference between Phase 2 and Phase 3.

The purposes for pursuing this merger are numerous, but generally fall into three categories:

• Cost Savings – There will be an immediate $20,000 savings in overhead expenses, and additional long term savings in staff costs.

• Superior Customer Service – There are frequent occasions where a customer must travel several times between the SWCD and the ELRM Department. The public should expect that a merged department is a “one stop shop”. It is the expectation of the county board and the SWCD Board that the merged organization be held to an extremely high standard of customer service.

• Greater achievement of positive outcomes – By merging the departments, the resources of SWCD are brought to the ELRM Department, giving a greater opportunity to work with land owners in the county to achieve positive outcomes. ELRM has historically been an enforcement agency and SWCD a helping agency. The goal would be to help landowners to compliance rather than enforce to compliance, a skill that SWCD has perfected over many years of successful service in the County.