November 2019 Edition

News No Spares in New Vehicles Learn the reason behind why many new vehicles—including County fleet vehicles—do not have spare tires. Page 2. Historic Courthouse Wellness Room Mille Lacs County staff now have access to the Historic Courthouse’s Wellness Room! Read the reasoning behind the Wellness Room on page 3. Suspicious Emails and How to Handle Them Have you received an unsolicited email with an attachment or link? Don’t click on anything! Find more information on page 3. Indoor Walking Opportunity Employees can utilize the Justice Center basement to walk inside during their lunch break! Page 4. Online Suggestion Box County staff are encouraged to anonymously submit their suggestions and comments to help improve the workplace. Visit the County Employees webpage for more information. Battery & Cellphone Recycling Options You may now recycle alkaline batteries in all employee break rooms. Rechargeable batteries and old cellphones may be recycled in the Historic Courthouse Breakroom.

Events & Attractions Youth E-Cigarette Use: Clearing the Cloud on Vaping Thursday, November 7, 2019 Elk River, Minnesota

MAC Tree Lighting Ceremony Saturday, November 23, 2019 Milaca, Minnesota

I have worked for Mille Lacs County for six years and I love the opportunities each day gives to build supportive relationships with the families I serve. It’s simply an added bonus to have an amazing team of coworkers here day and in and day out, doing this work with me. I grew up near Richmond, MN on a family dairy farm along with three brothers, my aunt and uncles family and my grandparents. After graduation from Rocori High School, I completed my bachelor’s degree at River Falls, WI. I’ve been working in some type of healthcare or case management setting ever since! I’ve been married for 19 years and together, my husband and I have two daughters. He’s my “Homer Simpson” and he is often away, working in nuclear power plants. The girls and I keep really busy with activities on top of work and school. We’re involved in dance, piano, volleyball and robotics, keeping us running most nights of the week and some weekends! To decompress, I take any opportunity possible to get outside. I love hiking and hope to one day complete all 310+ miles of the Superior Hiking Trail! I’ve completed over a third so far over the past few years. I like introducing new hikers (friends and family) to the trail as well, so I’ve done a few sections more than once. In the winter, I like to get out and snowshoe or enjoy a good bonfire. Our summers are filled with weekends visiting family, often camping. I now own 4 tents, which my family would love to see turn into a camper but

Employee Spotlight

Jennifer Kalis

Social Worker

Community & Veterans Services

County News

A MINI TRAINING SESSION FOR INJURY PREVENTION

Employee Spotlight, Continued

that is not going to happen. I enjoy roughing it! What might someone be surprised to know about me….? In college I cleaned rat cages as a work study job. Most might think I would have no problem touching a rat but I just could not. My dad providing me welding gloves to tackle the task and I still could not do it. Instead, I placed the clean cage on top of the dirty one and slowly turned it so that the rat would just walk on into his clean cage. Hey, I had to adapt to get the job done.

Celebrating Spooky Season

Left: Although the Historic Courthouse did not have a costume contest, it did not deter dedicated staff from dressing up in the spirit of Halloween on Thursday, October 31, 2019! Right: Community and Veterans Services Costume Contest participants celebrating Halloween festivities.

Community and Veterans Services hosted their annual Employee Halloween Costume Contest. There were many wonderful costumes this year, which made it difficult for the judges. Thank you to all staff for their creativity and participation in this year’s event! Congratulations to the following winners: Best Costume: Jenn Fronk Most Gross Costume: Lynn G. Most Creative Costume: Erin P.

Most Funny Costume: Steph L. Most Imaginative Costume: Alicia H.

County News

Mille Lacs County Technology Services is always cautioning staff to be wary of unsolicited emails - especially emails with links or attachments. Recently, Pine County had a cyberattack where a hacker breached their system using a Phishing email. They estimate that around 4,400 people may have had their personal information, such as SSN’s, compromised. As Mille Lacs County employees, we face a constant threat of ‘Phishing’ and ‘Spear Phishing’ attacks every day. With this in mind, I wanted to take a few minutes of your time to discuss and define these terms. Phishing – this is when a fraudster sends you text, emails, or other messages with the intent of tricking you into responding in some way. They will often include a malicious attachment or link in the message. If you open the attachment or click on the link, the hacker can gain access to your device. With this information they can install ransomware, steal your data, install software to track your activity, install a key logger program to capture your passwords to gain access to your bank accounts or credit cards. Spear Phishing – this is a more direct version of phishing. Instead of receiving an email from a random individual, the hacker will send a personalized message appearing to come from a trusted source. It can look like it is from a friend, a business associate, social acquaintance, or even your bank. The email will come with a story to trick you into giving up your private information. This could be in the form of an invoice, which we have seen go around the County fairly recently. Warning Signs – Phishing messages, by design, will look legitimate. The idea is to trick you into thinking they are from

someone you know or a company you trust. Email that ask you to click on a link or open an attachment. Asking for your passwords, bank account information, or other personal information. Fear – pressuring you to act quickly. Threatening that your account is about to be closed or the IRS is

going to arrest you if you don’t pay them immediately.

Protect Yourself – don’t assume that a message is real. Call or email the person or agency to confirm the email is real before clicking on any link or attachment. Remember, when in doubt, don’t click.

Suspicious Emails and How to Handle Them:

Understanding Phishing & Spear Phishing Attacks

By Mike Virnig, Technology Services Manager

Employees are able to utilize the Justice Center basement to walk inside during their lunch break! Staff may utilize this resource under the following terms: 1. Participants must sign a Wellness Waiver form prior to participating in Justice Center basement

walking. Wellness Waivers are valid for 3 years from the date of signature, so if you’re not sure if you have a valid Wellness Waiver on file, please contact Kara in the Administrative Services Office.

2. Due to the isolated location and low foot traffic of the Justice Center basement, employees must utilize the “buddy system” (must have at least one other person with them) when walking in this location.

3. To gain access to the Justice Center basement, employees can check out a unique badge from the Administrative Services Office. Technology Services was kind enough to create badges specifically for this purpose, which will allow access to the main Justice Center basement door (through Court Security & down the stairs) from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. M-F. Employees can obtain one of these badges by signing one out from the Administrative Services Office, and returning it when their break ends so it can be utilized by others. Even if an employee’s standard badge has access to the Justice Center basement, they must use one of the Wellness badges if they are accessing the Justice Center basement for the purpose of walking during their break. This is an added safety precaution and will also help the Wellness Committee track the success of the initiative. Only one badge is needed per group of walkers to gain access to the Justice Center basement.

If you have any follow-up questions or any of the above information is unclear, please contact a member of the Wellness Committee. You may find information on your department’s Wellness Committee members on the Mille Lacs County Wellness webpage.

County News

Indoor Walking Opportunity

Nominate a coworker you appreciate for the Employee Spotlight! Send your Employee Spotlight suggestions to Kara in ASO; include a brief summary as to why you wish to see your nominee featured.

Employee Spotlight Nominations

County News

Mille Lacs County Wellness Room The Wellness Room photos are attached. The room provides a location to support breastfeeding employees, as well as staff looking to find a quiet location on their breaks. The county was awarded a SHIP Grant through Partners in Healthy Living to provide the space needed for Mille Lacs County to apply for a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace designation from the Minnesota Department of Health, and create an all-encompassing approach for the Wellness Room, the Support for Breastfeeding Employees policy recently enacted, as well as the designation from MDH. Staff who may not need the space for nursing can have a quiet place to de-stress during the day. The room features a reclining sofa, reclining chair, breastfeeding resources, a table, and a Himalayan salt lamp with a blue tooth speaker component for staff to play relaxing music if they choose. We also added a bulletin board to this room, which is filled with a variety of Wellness resources targeted for employees looking to de-stress and become educated about various wellness aspects. The room can be reserved using the Wellness Room Outlook calendar, which is similar to car and other room reservation setups. When setting up a reservation, simply title the Wellness Room calendar event as “Reserved” for the time you will be using the room. The key for the room can be obtained from Kara in the Administrative Services Office prior to the reserved time.

No Spare in Your County Fleet Vehicle? Here’s Why. Did you know that the 2019 County fleet vehicles leased through Enterprise do not have spare tires? Instead, a factory tire-inflator kit is located within the new County fleet vehicles. Nearly one third of new vehicles no longer come with a spare tire, as auto manufacturers are trying to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel efficiency. If you encounter an unfortunate situation on the road while driving a County fleet vehicle, please recall that the County has an Enterprise Fleet Maintenance Card for each County vehicle. The Enterprise Fleet Maintenance program allows assistance with any situation you may encounter on the road, whether it is a flat tire, an auto accident or tow. Present your Enterprise maintenance card before any work begins. If, for any reason, there are questions or issues at the service provider, please ask the facility to call Enterprise Fleet Management at 1-800-325-8838. For additional information on the Enterprise cards located in each fleet vehicle, please visit the Mille Lacs County website.

Employee Updates

Image Courtesy of Laura Slaughter

Tommi Martinson Administrative

Financial Officer ASO

Employees Moving

Autumn Glassing, promoted from Case Aide to Eligibility Worker in CVS.

Brittany Johnson, promoted from Office Support Specialist to Eligibility Worker in CVS.

Kailey Lindstrom, promoted from Registered Nurse to Public Health Nurse in CVS.

Tracey Hunt, promoted from Office Support Specialist to Case Aide in CVS.

Carrie Butter, lateral transfer from Correctional Officer to 911 Communications Specialist in the Sheriff’s Office.

Micah Sawatsky, promoted from Correctional Officer to Deputy Sheriff in the Sheriff’s Office.

Employees Leaving

Joseph Vogl, Deputy Sheriff in the Sheriff’s Office, leaving after 1 year of service.

James Reed, Sr. Engineering Project Manager in Public Works, leaving after 1 year of service.

Ryan Milles, Correctional Officer in the Sheriff’s Office, leaving after 4 years of service.

Phillip Bray, Deputy Sheriff in the Sheriff’s Office, leaving after 5 years of service.

Justice Johnson Administrative

Financial Specialist ASO

Makayla Wilcox Social Worker

CVS