Ordinance to go into effect on July 1

By Robert Williams

Editor

After weeks of discussion, Otter Tail County Land & Resource Management Director Chris LeClair brought a resolution adopting the new Vacation Home Rental Ordinance, which was approved 4-1 by the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, June 11.

“It is an ordinance to supplement the existing lodging ordinance to give the county some tools to address some behavioral concerns at vacation home rentals,” said LeClair.

District 2 Commissioner Wayne D. Johnson discussed his appreciation for all the feedback the board has received from lake associations and homeowners alike after making a motion to adopt the ordinance.

“In my opinion, this is trying to balance the rights of people who are running a business and the rights of the neighbors that are there,” Johnson said. “Is it perfect? It may not be and we may be tweaking things and changing things down the line, but I think, for now, this is where we need to start.”

LeClair recommended the effective date of the change be July 1.

“It’s only a matter of time before we start getting calls,” he said.

One of two commissioners voting against the ordinance, Dan Bucholz, wanted the change to be held off until January 1, 2025.

“There are people that have permits already and they’re onboard for a whole year and there are some big events coming up and it’s heartbreaking to some people,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair to home owners of the rentals.”

Lee Rogness also spoke on the ordinance and made a motion to amend the starting date to the first of the year.

“There’s a perception that this is heavy-handed and I suppose any regulation that’s proposed could have that tone, and I’m concerned about that,” Rogness said. “I think that the ordinance as it is presented is not heavy-handed, although the regulations are prescribed in black on white, if you will.”

He explained his reasoning on delaying the ordinance’s effective date to January 1.

“That gives us all time to correct our behaviors for the next months and I think that when we institute this at a later date we’ll be well-founded on it and probably give some peace of mind in the middle of this seasonal year that we are finding ourselves in. It’s an amendment, if it fails, I’ll support the resolution nonetheless,” he said.

Johnson had a retort on the amendment.

“Another summer without any ability to correct bad behavior is just putting our staff in a really horrible spot,” he said. “Now we have an ordinance that is not going to take effect until next year. In respect to those people, many laws in Minnesota start July 1 when passed by the legislature in May.”

Johnson also noted the ordinance is not aimed at the vacation rental community at large, more at its less than savory operators.

“I don’t see this affecting 95 percent of the people that have vacation home rentals,” he said. “I don’t see how it would affect them. They’re good operators. Unless they’re bad operators and there are complaints coming into the office, no one from the office is going out to check on people, no one is going out to do anything else. This really is going to be driven by those few, and it is few, bad operators who they’re patrons trample over the neighbors, they’re rude, they’re obnoxious, they’re loud, they’re all of those kinds of things.”

Johnson supported his cause by citing discussions he had in Vergas the night prior with residents during a special meeting of commissioners in the village.

“The good operators, in reality, are not going to notice that we have an ordinance that is going to change anything for them,” he said.

LeClair reiterated that his staff will not be driving around on a Saturday afternoon hunting for issues.

“We’re going to be responding to complaints that we have received,” LeClair said.

He also noted complainers to his department last year were annoyed by the county’s inability to do anything because the lodging standards were met and his staff could not act.

“Now, if we wait until January 1, those conversations are going to be a little different.”

A roll call vote was held on the effective date amendment and the motion failed 3-2 with Johnson, Chair Kurt Mortenson and Robert Lahman voting no.

The same trio was joined by Rogness in voting to pass the resolution to adopt the ordinance beginning July 1.

Elections

County Auditor-Treasurer Wayne Stein presented a list of individuals appointed to the Otter Tail County Absentee Ballot Board for the State Primary Election on Aug. 13 and the State General election on Nov. 5: Ronald Burt Beth Carrlson (Employee), Dawn Godel (Employee), Heather Hoeft,  Desta Hunt, Pamela Johnson, Pat Larum, Joleen Lentz, Teresa L Mann, Kim Mark, Betty Marx, Gary Nelson, Janice Nelson, Lynne Olson, Karen Prischmann and Debbie Smith.

Additional appointees may be added upon need.

Human Resources

The board approved a request to convert a vacant office support specialist position in Human Services to a Social Worker position to perform adult protective services. There is only one full-time Social Worker in that role now.

“The work is becoming more complex and individuals that are served by this program often have additional needs also impacting the complexity and time consuming nature of the work,” said Assistant HR Director, Stephanie Retzlaff.

The position will not create additional cost due to the length of time the office support position has been vacant, according to Retzlaff. The position will be budgeted for 2025 and it will generate revenue through targeted case management.

A Memorandum of Understanding to add the Communications Sergeant position to the non-licensed, supervisory unit was also authorized pending union approval.

Probation

Results from an assessment and advisory committee gave Deputy Administrator Lynne Penke Valdes reason to propose moving to a community corrections system instead of the current county probation system.

Going over the change with the Department of Corrections over the last five weeks helped tune the transition. The Otter Tail County Probation Director will begin facilitating a transition to the CCA delivery system immediately, with the intent to officially provide correctional services under CCA on January 31, 2025.

There was some discussion, led by Commissioner Dan Bucholz, along the lines of why change something that is already working. After passing by a 4-1 vote, Mortenson backed up the change.

“I want to recognize that Otter Tail County, as a county board, and this well predates my involvement as a commissioner, has a long history of making decisions that put the county on the front end of positive change,” he said. “This board for years has not accepted status quo as being good enough and we can see that play out in many arenas and it’s resulted in positive changes, not only for Otter Tail County, but surrounding counties.”

Mortenson cited the Waste Energy Center in Perham as an example of the county improving its own county and others and spoke at length about the process of making the decision.