Council opens public hearing, introduces tax-levy ordinance and requests audit details

The council opened a public hearing to ascertain and set the 2026 tax levy for county purposes and introduced Bill 26-09239, which fixes tax rates per $100 of assessed valuation for general revenue, parks, the road & bridge fund and the sheriff's department.

Chair said an accounting firm performed an audit to validate the levy amounts and the county staff applied state statute guidance when reconciling the numbers. "We did have a public accounting firm come in and validate the amounts of the tax levies," the chair said during the hearing.

One council member asked staff to provide the full audit results to the council so members could verify the calculations before final action; the chair agreed to make those audit results available. Bill 26-09239 was approved on first reading and moved to perfection by a recorded vote of 7–0.