LEEM Minutes 03-04-2026

-Buffalo County Public Meeting Minutes Committee/Board: LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Date of Meeting: March 4th, 2026 1/2: Call to Order/Roll Call: In person: Mike Taylor, Nathan Nelson, Robert Sendelbach, Carol McDonough, John Hadley Others present in person or virtually for All or Parts of the Meeting: Sheriff Mike Osmond, Chief Deputy Jake Laehn, Kassie Serum, Emily Scholl, Coordinator Lee Engfer, Emergency Management Steve Wall. 3: Public Comments: None 4.: Review/Discussion/Action: Minutes of Previous Meeting: John Hadley asked how much it cost per K-9-unit, Sheriff Osmond stated we have to pay them a ½ hour a day, dog food, and vet bills. Osmond stated it is hard to put a figure on it. Nathan Nelson made a motion to approve minutes, seconded by Carol McDonough. 5: Review/Discussion/Action: Emergency Management Expenditures: There were no questions about the expenditure. Carol McDonough made a motion to accept the expenditures, Robert Sendelbach seconded. Carried. 6: Review/Discussion/Action: Emergency Management Report: Steve Wall stated he passed his certification but still needs to take one more class in April. Wall stated there will be construction on the County Road P bridge, they will be doing a temporary bridge with no weight restrictions so Emergency Personnel can go on it. Grants were submitted. Wall stated he is working on the La Crosse Milling offsite plan. Wall will be hosting a damage assessment class March 25, 2026, at 10 on the 3rd floor in the Courthouse. Wall advised we will be getting rid of Nixle at the end of the year and the cost kept going up. The new software is half of the price and offers more. 7: Review/Discussion/Action: Law Enforcement Vouchers: Kassie asked if there were any questions on the vouchers. John Hadley asked why we paid Lucas Lisowski? Kassie advised when he started his training, he used his personal 1 card, so he got reimbursed. Hadley asked if that was part of the agreement? Osmond stated that it is a County Policy to pay for meals while at training. Robert Sendelbach made a motion to approve expenditure, seconded by Nathan Nelson. Accepted. 8: Review/Discussion/Action ~ Law Enforcement Expenditures: Mike Taylor asked if there were any questions. There were no questions. Carol McDonough made a motion to approve Expenditures, Nathan Nelson seconded. Carried. 9. Review/Discussion/Action: Law Enforcement Revenue: Kassie advised this is just for information on what we have brought in. John Hadley asked if the City of Alma was happy with the services we are providing. Sheriff Osmond stated he hasn’t heard any complaints. Nathan Nelson made a motion to approve revenue, Carol McDonough seconded. Carried 10. Review/Discussion/Action: Public Nuisance Ordinance: Sheriff Osmond asked if anyone had any questions about the ordinance. John Hadley asked if the fine goes to the landlord. Osmond stated it can either go to the landlord or the tenant. Osmond advised this stemmed from getting approximately 100 calls at an apartment complex. This was created by our new Corp Counsel; the process went really well. Lee Engfer advised that this is common to do. Hadley is concerned about having a troubled tenant and trying to evict them and still getting fined. Osmond on stated you can do a 30-day eviction. Osmond stated they are willing to work with landlords. Osmond stated that the fine amounts get picked by finance. Engfer thinks we should do a range on the 3 fines. Lee advised that the cost adds up fast to have a deputy respond and it takes them away from other calls. Hadley asked what happens if there are multiple incidents in a week. Osmond stated they have 10 days to respond and come up with a plan and meet with him. Osmond would like to see an amendment to the $500 amount that is in the ordinance already. Osmond stated if we increase it to $1000, we would work with that more. John Hadley made a motion to pass to finance with the amendment for the fine amount up to $1,000, Carol McDonough seconded. Carried 11. Review/Discussion/Action ~ Jail Update/Changes 2 Emily Scholl started off with the Jail project is complicated. She has had two times this last week that Trempealeau called and stated they had to come get inmates due to them being full. Scholl advised it has brought a lot of stress on staff. They are having to call staff in the middle of the night to do transport. Scholl stated that if she could have the inmates back tomorrow, she would. Scholl stated that in February the cost of transports was $7,600 and that is only for transports and nothing else. Sheriff Osmond stated they have been looking for my options, but they are limited due to their location. Osmond stated that they are committed but he wants them to know there are issues. Mike Taylor stated that Trempealeau County is housing Jackson County as well and other jails are struggling as well. Osmond said that they had one inmate that had court 3 times and wanted to appear in person, so they had to transport. John Hadley asked if we have a contract with Trempealeau for so many beds. Osmond stated that Trempealeau did not want to do that. Osmond stated if an inmate wants an ibuprofen Trempealeau bills us rather than bill the inmate. Hadley asked if we could house our female inmates here. Osmond stated we will be short due to one female going on leave soon. Osmond stated there is a lot of extra work. Mike Taylor asked how much we have budgeted, Osmond stated $275,000 and we are on track. Osmond stated we will try and house inmates in Pierce County and maybe long-term inmates in further away jails. Jake Laehn advised we have 3 of our part-time staff doing the transport. Hadley asked about transport and medical, Osmond stated that they come out of different accounts. Scholl advised that the cost would go down from our medical providers. Mike Taylor thanks them for everything they are doing. 12. Review/Discussion/Action ~ Acceptance of Donations Sheriff Osmond stated we received a $12,000 donation to purchase out last K-9 dog and a $6,000 donation to cover the new K-9 dog training. Osmond stated we also got 2 fire suppression units which are nonmonetary donations from the Bufalo/Trempealeau County Tavern league, Osmond was advised that we would be getting two more. Mike Taylor asked if there is any training that comes with using them. Osmond stated you can watch a video. 13. Review/Discussion ~ Sheriff (Verbal Report), Chief Deputy (Verbal Report) and Jail Administrator Monthly report: Emily Scholl started off with her January report that was included in the packet. Scholl then went over her February report which there has been 29 booking in February and year to date is 51. Scholl discussed transport, medical, housing and meals for the month. John Hadley asked what other meant on the timecards report, Scholl was not sure she advised it is a report that she ran off of Time and Attendance, she will look into it. Scholl advised that the overtime is from people vacations, and being short staffed. Scholl advised they received one application and they require people to observe; they are waiting for the applicant to reach out to do that. Scholl advised that dispatch is about 85% complete, their cut over date is May 5th. Scholl stated she had to write a few amendments to the 3 grant and they were approved. Osmond stated that one of the amendments was to add the live scan machine which needed to be replaced. Chief Deputy Jake Laehn handed out his report for January and February. Sheriff Osmond started off with that we currently have 3 K-9’s but will be back down to two at the end of the year when one retires. Deputy Buck’s K-9 Willow will be the one retiring at the end of the year. Luke Lawton is off of field training and Lucas Liswoski is currently in field training. There is currently one spot open, and there is one interview set for Friday. Osmond pointed out that on Jakes report it shows four of the deputies have less than a year of service. Osmond said he applied for a grant to get a money counter for the jail, it will record the serial numbers on the cash, a trainer will come on site to train people how to use it. Mike Taylor asked if they are doing the grant to get them in smaller jails, Osmond stated yes. Osmond that if we scan the cash and there is a hit then an alert will go out. Osmond thanked Hadley for all of his questions and recommendations, it has made us better. 14. Review/Discussion ~Committee Chair Report: None 15. Public Comment Not Related to Agenda Items: None 16. Review/Discussion/Action ~ Next Meeting Date and Time: A meeting on May 12th at 9:00AM. was scheduled. 17. Adjournment: Adjourn at 10:15 A.M. _______________________________________ Kassie Serum, Secretary 4