All right, I will call the July 22nd, 2026 management committee meeting to order. Um, this is the beginning of the third quarter. I'm going to read the Dakota Land, Water, and People Acknowledgement Statement, and we will continue to read it on a quarterly basis. The Metropolitan Council acknowledges that the land we currently call Minnesota and specifically the 7count region is the ancestral homeland of the Dakota Oate who are present and active contributors to the our thriving region. As part of the Metropolitan Council's commitment to to address the unresolved legacy of genocide, dispossession, and settler colonialism, and the fact that government institutions, including the Metropolitan Council, benefited economically, politically, and institutionally after the favorable removal of the Dakota Oate. The Metropolitan Council is dedicated to instilling land, water, and people commitments in regional policy. These commitments support the Dakota Yate, the 11 federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, Ho Chunk Nation, and the American Indian communities representing over 150 diverse tribal nations that call the seven county region home. All right, first we got is the approval of the agenda. The first um members can see the posted agenda. If there are no objections or changes, we can move on to our business. All right. Next. Can I get a motion for the approval of June 24th, 2026 management committee minutes? >> Second. >> Second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor sign say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. [clears throat] All right. First item we have is business item 2026-119, the voluntary vision plan services. I invite Michelle Murray, senior manager of the benefits to present this item before the committee. Good afternoon, >> Madame Chair and committee members. My name is Michelle Murray, senior manager of benefits. Madam Chair and committee members, I am here to present business item 119 for voluntary vision services contract 26P 032. This project is the result of the expiration of our current contract. Approximately 4,800 current employees are eligible for vision coverage. Eligibility is based on benefits negotiated and collective bargaining agreements. Services include eye exams, materials for both conts and eyeglasses, claims administration, customer service. This insurance is fully insured by the insurance company and all premiums are paid for by employees through clarifications. Invest in final offers. The following enhanced services were negotiated effective January 1, 2027, a price reduction of approximately 5% along with rate caps for 5 years and new performance guarantees. Therefore, we are asking that the Metropolitan Council authorize the regional administrator to negotiate and execute contract 26P 032 with vision service plan to provide voluntary vision services for all eligible council employees in an amount not to exceed 2,598,739. >> Any questions? All right. The proposed action for business item 2026-19 in front of us today is that the Metropolitan Council authorizes the regional administrator to negotiate and execute contract 26PO32 with vision services plan to provide voluntary vision services for all eligible council employees, retirees, and dependents in the amount not to exceed 2,530,739. Is there a motion? >> So move. All right. Second. >> Second. >> All right. Any questions, discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have business item 2026-132, the joint powers cooperative agreement with Washington State Department of Enterprise Service. Invite Jody Takovi, the chief procurement officer, to present before the committee. >> Mr. Mr. Chair, good afternoon committee members. I'm Jodyie Jacobe, the chief procurement officer, and I'm here today with a business item for a joint powers agreement with the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services. Bringing forward this agreement as Washington ran a new solicitation and as a result of their new solicitation, uh we've been participating since 2022. This just updates their terms and conditions. And so they sent out a new cooperative agreement which we will be signing concurrent based on your approval. Participating in cooperative agreements such as this is allowed by Minnesota statutory authority section 471.59 authorizing two or more government units to enter into agreements which they're jointly or cooperatively procuring. Additionally, this statutory authority authorizes Minnesota government units to enter into joint power agreements with another state. And that really is contingent upon looking at the state procurements first. That's the office of state procurement. We check that first. And if they aren't available, then we can exercise options and joint powers agreements with other entities. And we've brought these forward before you and we have a number of them that we utilize with our procurement options to help meet our customers business needs that are at a good value and helping them ensure they are moving forward with their business uh needs. So, this agreement was originally approved by you back in 2022 and as I indicated, they ran a loose solicitation and as part of the terms and conditions as someone who's participating, some of the things that changed and we definitely think they're positive changes is in 2022, the original agreement allowed us to use specific transit bus contracts. And this latest solicitation has broader authorization that expands the definition of rolling stock to include uh electric electrification equipment and chargers and other related equipment to the rolling stock not just specifically the rolling stock. It also changed the term. Uh originally it was for a duration of the specific bus contract and this updated terms and condition allows it to continue until terminated by either party with a 30-day notice. The previous agreement required preapproval for each purchase. And this updated agreement has general notification and record requirements but no preapproval. And then the scope of participation formally required an annual purchase estimization by category. And this updated agreement no purchase forecasting requirement. So, I'm bringing forward before you essentially a new cooperative uh with much expanded broadened uh usage to be able to benefit really a lot of the rolling stock needs that we have here at the council. It's been uh approved by the Federal Transit Administration. There are transit vehicle manufacturers that register directly with the FTA and they're incorporated in this agreement. It's one of the only joint procurements for rolling stock that has all the federal terms and conditions in. This year alone, we've purchased 109 buses off it. We find that has given us really significant administrative savings just from the procurement perspective uh with time and with scope. Um, and it gives us a lot of leverage in the market with good pricing. And when there is a concern, we have really a a great bench to work through the issues um with our transit partners. And in the last year, there have been a lot of price increases and changes with tariffs. and to be able to really strategize and leverage some of the other public agency partners to get the best pricing and fair pricing. It has proven to be really invaluable for the agency. So, bringing forward today still same utilization of the joint powers agreement but approving the change of this new solicitation and the updated terms and conditions. and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> Any questions? >> All right. The proposed action for business item 2026-89 in front of us today that the metro metropolitan council authorizes its regional administrator to negotiate execute joint powers cooperative agreement 26040 with the Washington state department of enterprise services dees to allow the council to utilize their master contract for cooperative purchasing of rolling stock and associated equipment and technology. Is there a motion? >> Motion by council member Ligan second. Second. >> Second by Yasine. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to information items. We have the 2027 general purpose levy strategy and preliminary regional admin budget allocation presentation by Ned Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Uh, I am Ned Smith. I'm the chief financial officer for the council, and I couldn't help but how catchy that introduction sounded. That's quite a mouthful. Um so I'm here today to walk us through um at a high level our uh levy for the community and uh for the region and also our regional administration budget and the allocations. So we will walk through uh first just the budgeting timeline uh then we'll do a brief talk about our budget authority, our levy strategy. So how do we allocate and set the numbers that we do for the levy? uh what our preliminary levy will be and how that's broken out and then we'll do the regional administration budget to understand uh where the money goes, how it's spent and then how it's allocated out to the departments. So starting with uh just overall our unified budget, we have an operating budget. We have a capital program uh and the operating budget includes our operations are passed through our debt service and our oped. OPED is other post-employment benefits which is the retirement uh program for some of our retirees. On the capital side, we'll look at our uh authorized projects as well as our planned six-year uh future plans and then what our annual spend is. Um these are going to come at later dates mostly in August for operating and then October is when we will approve the capital presentation and you'll get a preliminary but uh business item on the first meeting in August which I think is [clears throat] the 12th. Um and that's when myself and the uh divisions will prevent their present their preliminary operating budget and then two weeks later uh the council assuming there are no issues will approve it. All of this leads us to a December 2nd. We release both budgets on October 21st to the public and that's when we have our public comment draft budget. Uh we try to minimize our changes between that time and December 2nd so that the uh budget that the public is looking at is the most accurate for 2027. And then uh just it's in red because it's different. December 2, which is actually the first Wednesday of December, is when we are going to adopt the budget and levies. We found that works better for our uh rateayers and taxpayers uh to have it earlier in the month. Um and it also works better with the overall scheduling for the council. So love to say budgeting is not just a good idea, it's the law. Um so this is the statute that says the region administrator needs to make a budget with input and help from the council. Um so confirming our levy strategy, first we have levy givens. Uh we have transit parks and debt service needs. Those bills come whether we like it or not. Uh and then we have a statutory fiscal disparities levy uh and a taxbased revitalization account. Those are required by statute. And then we have some strategic decisions. Uh first is to make sure that we're maximizing the general purpose levy to uh uh operate as the best we can particularly for CD and HA. And then uh we maximize the livable communities demonstration account levy uh which is also statutory limited uh statutory statutoily defined. Um and we roll all that up and plug it up to a 2% increase. We've only increased levy 2% per year uh for as far back as I can remember. Um and then historically we do have the authority to do the highway right highway right ofway program. Um but we have sufficient reserves so we do not charge a levy for that specifically. In terms of our grants, uh we do have the taxbased revitalization account levy and again these are statutoily mandated. $5 million from the uh from regional fiscal disparities pool and that's uh meant to clean up polluted land in the metropolitan area. And then we have our livable communities demonstration account levy uh that's proposed at 16.1 million for 2027 and we want to maximize that to the levy limit. And then it is capped by the implicit price deflator. There's another catchy one. uh it's basically a a proxy for inflation that is given to us by the state and then our local housing incentive account uh we set aside a million dollars every year uh for statutory transfers from the for the general purpose levy. So overall our general purpose levy is going to be at 20.5 million. This is roughly a 3.6% increase uh from 2026. Um this is our most flexible but we do have statutoily mandated uh responsibilities that we carry out. We use this again primarily in CD community development. Um and so that's our community development administration as you can see at 19.5 million. And then we have our statutory transfer to the local housing incentive account of 1 million. Um so what is a 2% consistent rate at least since 2020 2007 look like? Uh it looks a lot lower than elsewhere. So you can see the orange is the cities, uh the gray is uh school districts, the green is counties, and then we are down there in blue uh at only a 2% growth rate. Um we will have more specific uh exact uh estimates. Um, but for when I think of a typical bill, and we'll see that in August with the actual $400,000 plan house would cost, but it tends about $50 to $100 per resident uh on a 10 or5 to $10,000 uh property tax bill. So, but we'll break that out. You'll see that in August. So in terms of our overall uh schedule for uh our levies, you can see the general purpose as I talked earlier, that's what funds CD. There's that 3.6%. This is the one time in our life when we get to root for high inflation. Uh cuz that is the implicit price deflator is that 3.6% is what was handed down. Last year was a little bit lower. So we were happy to see that for just that moment and then I'll not like inflation after that. Um but you can see then the transfer uh for the liberal communities for the demonstration account is 16 million of that and then the taxbased revitalization of 5 million is flat. Uh whereas the demonstration account does grow also with the implicit price place price deflator. So putting those two together you get a 3.1% increase and then we also use the levy to pay our debt service on our parks and transit bonds. Um, and what we do is we take the parks debt service and uh, dollar for dollar. Then we look at our transit debt service that's coming due in 27 and then we basically plug to get to 2% for the rest and that's our anticipatory levy. Um, so that's where we uh, issue a levy [clears throat] up front and then when we do a bond issue in um,7 we will have some of that money already collected that we can pay off against that uh, up against that levy. However, uh the majority of transit debt services are existing uh debt service uh versus the anticipatory. Hard to let a good pie chart go. Our preliminary regional administration budget allocation. Uh this is so we build our RA budget and then uh remember that uh RA doesn't actually get any money from property tax or levies or fees for service or anything else. We completely allocate all of our funding out to the operating divisions. So that is our revenue source is the operating divisions. They in turn build that into their budget. Um so we are indirectly paid by all of the funds sources that the divisions have but nothing's directly out of the levy. So a couple of our key drivers for 2027 in terms of the increase in our uh regional administration budget is continues to have the spotlight. um our software, our cloud license and maintenance uh fees continue to grow robustly and then our cyber security risk mitigation continues to be a focus uh for the council. Uh we are building out our risk and compliance department under Matt Lour. So that's a new skill. Uh he is uh some of that uh team some of the investigations team is moving out of OEEO but there are new capabilities that Matt is building from the ground up. Uh so there will be some additional FTEES for that and then increasing our human resources support. This is entirely in contracts and consulting. It's not FTEES. FTEES are pretty much flat for HR. Um but this is things around compensation and background checks. Um and also our um uh and also on there is our Met culture engagement. So that's work we're doing with employee strategies to improve uh the culture uh here at the council. >> Mr. Chair, >> go ahead. Just briefly, it's, you know, for some of us who've been around here for a little bit, it is so good to see these things showing up because it wasn't that much longer ago that, you know, there were indicators that there are places that need investment and with RA and some reorg around HR, but certainly the risk stuff that we're dealing with and Matt's great work that he's doing in the team and everybody in finance to make it happen and through RA. So, you know, it for me it just feels very satisfying that, you know, I think we're in the right place at the right time. We're forward thinking and um it's showing up in the budget, of course, which is great. So, thank you to everybody on all the budget stuff, but you know, this this this kind of stuff, you know, there there were pieces of it in the past, but I think it's elevated and we've got a lot of focus and it needs to be here, too. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Johnson. Yes, I um I've enjoyed getting fake emails from Phil asking me to go buy burritos [laughter] and so clear uh I didn't mean that as sarcasm. It [laughter] is we are doing amazing things to help improve the security of the council here. Um and that is one of them. That's a minor one compared to some of the other programs we're putting in. So uh definitely good to see some increased investment in our is uh infrastructure and services. So, uh, overall the total region administration budget is 162.8 million. That is a 16% increase from, uh, 26. And I'll walk through what the key drivers were for those increases. But in terms of where the money is going, uh, again, as we mentioned earlier, the line share is information services. It's almost 60% of our budget goes for our FTEEs and our contractors and our services uh, that go with that. Um, financial services is pretty self-explanatory. that's our finance, our budget, our treasury, uh, and then regional administration, working wide. Um, and the way I think about business services, which are things like HR, real estate, central services, procurement and risk management, I consider that kind of the do it group. That's the things that have to happen to keep the council running. Administration I think of as do it right. Uh so that's our regional administration, our chair, community relations, government affairs, general council, civil rights, small business audit, uh small administration, audit, uh communications, risk and compliance. So that's how those are broken out, but again is really a big driver for our registration. In terms of the uses by category, you can see our people are our biggest investment uh at about almost 55% and then our contracted services uh helps us to keep things moving along with outside help. And then other is kind of the miscellaneous. It's materials and supplies. It's rent, utilities, printing, travel insurance, operating capital, and other expenses. So how that breaks out in terms of uh here it is graphically breaking out salaries and benefits versus contract services versus IT maintenance and others. Uh you can see all have grown in the mid to low du single double digits other than contract services and IT maintenance. um those are our biggest growth and that is as we continue to build out our IT capabilities um that is what is driving those and then in terms of how we allocate this out to the divisions. So we have a very thorough allocation method. We break down each individual department and sometimes within that department looking at the services they provide and determining the best way to to spread those costs across the organization. So something like HR is predominantly uh allocated based on amount of FTEES because the more FTEES you have the more HR support you need. Um whereas is predominantly allocated based on the equipment you have the laptops and printers and other lines. Um finance is a little bit of a mixed bag. Some of it's IP and AR is actually based on your transactions. So how much money did you put through? How much money did you pay in bills? That's how we allocate that out. And then procurement is based on contract volume and contract. I'm looking just to make sure I got that right. [laughter] So the point and and this isn't meant to be a quiz especially not for me. Um but it does at least I want you to understand that each department has a different way that it allocates it out based on what the usage uh patterns are for that department. So we can see again overall we're at about a 16% increase. Um there are some pretty um alarming increases when I look at CD and I look at MTS. Those are both pretty large. Um and that is two things are driving that. One is you're looking at a small base. So $2 million to CD is a much bigger change than $2 million to Metro Transit. Um but we're also seeing some changes in some of the allocation. There's some more direct allocations. Um CD has a dedicated FTE now from finance. Um and there's a couple of other things where there have been dedicated allocations uh where someone is a dedicated resource and gets charged directly to or there's a service that's dedicated to that. Um so we're seeing that especially in MTS and in CD where they do have some increased dedicated resources that's creating a small bip in the actual change which then creates a large bip based on a low base. Um, and that is how we paid for RA. In terms of what's happening with our FTEES, you can see our total for RA is just under 500. Um, some of these ads are actually from 26 as we've gone through the middle of the year. Some of these ads are coming in either in 26 or in 27. um probably the biggest ones to call out um enterprise risk and compliance that's the actual growth half of that is the growth of the department half of that is absorbing the investigations unit from uh OEEO and probably the other big one to call out so there office of civil rights and small business there you can see that's the shrink that's the folks moving over uh for investigations and then you can see is uh is growing at 14 that also looks higher than It is because enterprise content management is moving up under is. So eight and a half of those or nine and a half of those are uh enterprise content management moving into is. So it looks like is is growing at 14 when it's really only growing at about um five. General counsel is honest organic growth as we increase our uh legal support for the teams. Um and then we did do a slight slight tweak to our vacancy factor. vacancy factor is we acknowledge that uh as much as I hate to plan a negative number, um I also know that we will not have 496 employees employed for 365 days. I know people leave and it takes three months to backfill them to to to to replace them. And so that's three months when you're not paying salary for that vacancy. So you want to account for that in your budget otherwise we'd be overcharging our regional administration, our divisional partners. >> And Mr. Chair, >> go ahead. >> Not everybody does that in government. I don't know if it's it's probably a best practice or somebody's saying we should, but I can promise you not everybody does that and it shows up at the end of the year. So, >> it's some people like to use it as a cushion so that they've got a little put and take there. Um I when we are charging our dollars out to the region, I would prefer not to charge them if I don't have to uh to the to the divisions and and honestly, we don't charge them until we pay a salary. So at the end of the year, if we had more vacancies than we planned, then we charge the divisions less, >> but they're still they're building their budgets on the assumption that we're all going to be there. And so they're going out and charging their customers based on the assumption that we're going to build on this. So yay, I had a cushion and I got to tell charge you less than I told you I did, but that's it's kind of sloppy budgeting because they're overcharging their customers. >> So we try to work on that. And that concludes uh my overview and I'll take any questions. Any questions? I've got two. The first one's informational. This is I think the first time I've gotten the whole annual budget levy. Um communities when they go through this, their first levy forecast is they're setting the maximum. Are we doing the same thing where we're setting a maximum and we can't go above it, but we can whittle it down if we need to. >> Yes, that's exactly what we do. This is the maximum amount that it will be and this is what will be proposed in the operating budget that goes out or the public comment budget in theory between October and December. It could come down but it cannot go up. >> Okay. Thank you for that. And then the followup is um and you had called out a bit of the increase in information services. My question is is that increase in preparation for our large enterprise project kicking off in 2027. >> Mr. Chair and members of the committee at this time no this is just our operating budget. So um you will see that somewhat in the capital pro project capital budgets for the divisions because they are building this into their capital plans. Um so it is this is just the operating portion of RA which would not include the ERP >> but uh staffing for that though potentially would fall into this group >> at yes uh and that we do not have additional staff for ERP at this time built into the budget. We do anticipate a change in 27th. >> Okay. >> To acknowledge that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. Any other questions? >> None. >> All right. Thank you very much, Dad. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> The last information item on our agenda today is a discussion of attorney client privilege issues related to the 13 pending litigation matters listed on the committee agenda. Uh, may I first have a motion to close the meeting to discuss attorney client privilege matters? Chair, I move that this meeting also be closed to the public pursuant to Minnesota statutes section 13D.05 subdivision 3B and applicable CL case law so the committee can discuss with our legal council in a confidential setting attorney client privileged matters. >> Okay, a second. Second. >> All right. Um all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Uh then we'll wait a moment right and then call it. >> A public body by majority vote in a public meeting may decide to hold a closed meeting under sections 13D.05 subdivision 3B of the Minnesota Open Meeting Law to discuss attorney client privileged matters. Discussing this matter in a confidential setting will permit the council to engage in candid discussion and resolve these matters in a way that benefits the council and the public. Discussion during the closed portion of this meeting to discuss attorney client privilege matters will be confined to this matter. Uh we already had the motions. Those did carry and we will just wait and