just chair of the Metropolitan Council and I will call the August 26, 2026 Met Council meeting to order. As always, we'll start our meeting today with the Dakota Land, Water, and People Acknowledgement Statement. And I will turn it over to Council Member Tony Carter. >> And thank you very much, Council Member Carter. should have had a land water acknowledgement up. [laughter] She did not. And so, thank you to my council member partner here. Uh, 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 our thriving region as part of the Metropolitan Council's commitment 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 public I'm sorry, after the forcible removal of the Dakota Yoyate. The Metropolitan Council is dedicated to instilling land, water, and people commitments in regional policy. These commitments support the Dakotato Yate, the 11 federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, Ho Chunk and uh Ho Chunk Nation and the American Indian communities representing over 150 diverse tribal nations that call the sevenount region home. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Carter. The first item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. All members can see it posted and if there are no objections or changes, we will move on to our business for the day. Uh that brings us to the approval of the August 12, 2026 Metropolitan Council minutes. Can I get a motion for approval of these minutes? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions or revisions? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. opposed. And that motion carries. Next on our agenda is the public invitation for any interested persons to address the council on matters that are not on the agenda. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. When you speak, please state your name for the record, your place of residence, and what organization you represent, if any, and then you can share your comments with us. Uh we have one person who has pre-registered today and I'll call Ann Meslonski Takas Takahashi. Uh straight up here to the microphone. Welcome. Hi. Welcome. It's my honor to be able to come up and speak with you on behalf um of my community. My name is Anne Mazwanske Takahashi. I live in Shore View, Minnesota in the county of Ramsey County. I come here um with you wanting to really listen to what I have to say if you're truly committed to your land acknowledgements that we just listened to. I live in a small de development north of the Arsenal of less than 600 people. We are landlocked. Ramsey County has given an easement which you have signed off on for access for the primer tracer to be developed. We do not know what's going to be going in there at this point. We've been told it'll be 9700 970,000 square feet with 1 to 200 trucks a day with 1,200 parking spots. They are currently lo using the easement access for parkland that's encumbered by Ramsey County Charter with a no net loss um to access that development which because that development that that parcel is also landlocked. It's a very dangerous parcel. We've had a death. Ramsey County didn't listen to us neighbors to make sure that there was increased enforcement to do this. They're now using this to try to accelerate the EIS process. There has been no um scoping or anything done on parcel C, which is parkland. Not only in your plans going out through 2040 and in your 2021 plan. And we have endangered species. We have kestrels. We have eagles. We have ospreys. We've got endangered beetles of bangs. Not to mention that this goes on to County Road Eye where our children walk to school and ride their bus um bikes to Edgewood and Irondale. Ramsey [snorts] County did a traffic enforcement 3 weeks ago just on the Rice Creek Boulevard alone. They made 300 stops and 90 citations. This corridor, if this goes in, will change the neighborhood forever. It will we will not have the migration birds because of the light and and disturbances with that. Um and we it will not we already have had someone get hit and their car total on County Road I which is part of the connector with the Rice Creek corridor for this development. And I just implore you this is an a free accessible open space for our public. It's easily accessible by people both in Minneapolis and St. hall. It is It is unbelievably gorgeous. I implore you to ask Ardan Hills and Ramsey County and and the Water Quality Board and Minnesota Pollution Control, why are they not asking questions that this parcel C has not been environmentally? Thank you. Um, Miss Miss Lansky Takahashi, I I don't I don't I don't believe we meant to to curtail your remarks. Um, and and if we It wasn't me with this. Um, [laughter] >> so if there's something that you'd like to say in closing, just to make sure you're able to >> military background, so [laughter] if there's something you want to say in closing, um, go ahead. I just ask that we preserve what we have in Rice Creek Regional Plan um that we currently have and what you have planned and the vision that you have outlined both into the 2021 master plan and the other plans 20 2040 and also I think believe you're working on the 2050 um and and just to make sure that the community is involved and whether it being the National Guard because the National Guard is using that parcel as well and and I'm just really concerned and I don't want to lose it. It's it's so beautiful. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much for speaking with us today. We appreciate your testimony and um we thank you for wanting to come and talk to us. We um have your contact information. We may need to reach out for just a little bit more information to make sure that even if whatever is in our responsibility, we can try to address and we may need to connect you with others if it's not. But uh we will uh we will follow up with your contact information here. >> I appreciate it. It's in the plan as park. [laughter] So I just hope it stays that way. Thank you. >> Thank you for coming today. We appreciate it. >> Is there anyone else who wishes to speak with the council today? Okay. Um, hearing none, we will move on to joint reports. Today we have a business item. It is 2026-125. It is the preliminary 2027 budget and property tax levies. And I will turn it to council member Morales. Chair, council members, business item 2026-125 and resolutions 2026-10-05 through 2026-11 would allow the council to adopt the preliminary 2027 operating budget and set the upper limit of our 2026 property tax levy payable in 2026. In summary, business item 2026-125 and resolution 20265 through 2026-11 would allow the council to adopt preliminary 2027 operating budget and set the upper limit of our 2026 property tax levy payable in 2027. The proposed preliminary budget has been discussed in transportation, community development, environmental service, and management committee and presented to the council on August 12th. The proposed budget is consistent with the presentation to the council. The preliminary budget authorizes an overall property tax levy of 99.935 million, a 2% increase from the previous year. Council members have received a copy of the 2027 preliminary budget in brief, summarizing the preliminary budget and the accompanying tables. This is the first step in council's adoption of a 2027 budget. In October, we will incorporate the capital budget into the unified budget and along with any additional changes to the operating budget present and adopt the 2027 public comment budget. Based on feedback we received from the public and any additional changes needed, we will adopt the 2027 final unified budget in December. In our final budget, the council could reduce but not increase the property tax levies adopted today in the preliminary budget. Therefore, chair, council members, I move adoption of the following resolutions for the Metropolitan Council's preliminary 2027 unified operating budgets and the proposed 2026 payable 2027 tax levies. The 2026-05 adopting the Metropolitan Council's preliminary 2027 unified operating budget. 2026-06 adopting the Metropolitan Council's proposed 2026 property tax levy for general purpose for certification to the Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue. 2026-07 adopting the Metropolitan Council's proposed 2026 property tax levy for general purpose for certification to the county auditors. 2026-08 adopting a proposed 2026 property tax levy for the livable communities demonstration account in the metropolitan uh livable communities fund 2026-9 adopting a proposed 2026 property tax levy for the taxbased revital revitalization account for the livable communities act 2026-10 certifying a property tax levy for 2026 for debt services on issued and to be issued transit bonds 2026-11 certifying a property tax levy for 2026 for debt services on issued and to be issued park bonds. Uh thank you, Council Member Morales. We have a motion um multiple parts but one motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions? Okay, if there are no questions, I will hand it to the clerk for a roll call. >> Johnson is absent. Chamblas, >> I. >> Dr. Carter, >> I >> uh Barber >> I >> PCO >> I >> Lilligran is absent. Osman is absent. Cameron is absent. Um, Morales, >> I. >> Lindstöm just stepped out. Dr. Cedberg, >> I >> Jenkins, >> hi. >> Lee is absent. Uh, Carter, >> I obain. >> Hi, [clears throat] >> Wolf. >> I, >> and Hutcherson, >> I. >> Uh, that motion carries. Thank you everyone. and we look forward to the continuing process and the eventual adoption of our operating budget. Next, we have several business items on the consent agenda and I'm looking for a motion for approval. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> It was him. He beat me. [laughter] He beat me. >> Any questions on consent? >> Seeing no questions. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? And the motion carries. Next, we're on to non-consent uh business, which includes the reports of standing committees. Uh we have no reports from the environmental committee, but I am expecting a nice report during our updates later. Um community development. We have one business item from community development and I will turn it to council member Tony Carter. >> Thank you, Madam Chair and council members. Business item number 202656 is to award 100 Brit Home projectbased vouchers to five projects. So we're delighted to share that bring it home is a statewide rental assistant assistance program which was authorized under Minnesota legislature in 2023. Bring it home projectbased assistance will be tied directly to a specific unit as opposed to traditional tenantbased assistance which is tied to an individual family. Uh funding for the projectbased vouchers is supported by the bring home rental assistance program through business item number 2025233 authorizing the Met Council to accept a grant of $30,9148 from M Minnesota Housing. This agreement was executed on February 27th, 2026 and it will fund an estimated 900 families through the Brit Home program. Business item number 202659 updated Metro H's administration plan to include bringit home policy. Included in those updates was language authorizing Metro HR to project base up to 25% of the program's voucher allocation. So, council staff issued a request for proposals that offered 100 bring it home projectbased vouchers on May 4th, 2026 with proposals due June 3rd, 2026. Uh, proposals prioritized households with children 18 years of age and under and annual incomes of up to 30% of the area medium income. projects serving other populations such as single adults received second priority as required by state statute. So the five proposals recommended four bring it home project-based awards will support affordable housing and assist in providing increased housing choice for the region's lowincome families. Uh therefore, Madam Chair, I am moving that the Metropolitan Council award 100 Brit Home projectbased vouchers to five projects as shown in table one in the business item and that we authorize the Metro H senior manager to execute the necessary documents with the project owners of the awarded projects. I might just add those projects are Autumn Ridge in Brooklyn Park with 50 vouchers, Belair Apartments in White Bear Lake with 14 PV PBVS project based vouchers. Botnau Ridge phase 2 and three in Maple Grove with 10 vouchers. Maple Pond Homes in Maplewood with 16 vouchers. and Tesman Ridge in Brooklyn Park with 10 vouchers. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Carter. Uh we have a motion. Is there a second? Thank you. Uh any discussion on this item? Um I will just say that I am happy to see uh work on affordable housing progress in such a meaningful and public way today and I congratulate the communities who uh will be benefiting. Uh with that all in favor say I. >> I post. >> That motion carries. Congratulations to community development. Uh, next we have one business item from the management committee and I will turn it back to council member Morales. >> Thank you, chair. Chair, council members, business item number 2026-89 is regarding amendment 4 to contract 22P018 with Turner and Town AMCL, Inc., which will authorize a regional administrator to negotiate and execute an amendment increasing the contract value by 2,800,000 for a total contract not to exceed amount of 5,330,000 to provide continued professional consulting services and support through implementation of the council's new enterprise asset management system EAMS. The council's first contracted with AMCL Inc. via competitively procured contract 22P018 to serve as a council's owner's agent for the procurement and implementation of a new enterprise asset management system which will replace TX base and Oracle WAM due to changes within the EA EMS project and broader ERP program. The third phase of work, system implementation assurance, is ongoing and is expected to continue for up to an additional two and a half years. With system implementations projected to run into 2029, this phase will augment resources for business transformation to align with council and ERP program objectives. The original contract has already been amended to add 10% to its value and extend the term through December 31st, 2026. This amendment adds both value and time to fully cover AMCL's support through the system implementation phase. The proposed amendment increases the contract value by 2,800,000 for a new total not to exceed 5,330,000. AMCL developed the fundamental materials underlying the EM EMS project, including requests for proposal, business requirements, and process flows, and has a unique in-depth familiarity with the council's asset management program and stakeholders that a new vendor could not readily re replicate. A gap in project assurance services would delay the EAMS implementation and would create downstream risk to the implementation vendor contract and continuity of council operations. This agreement is funded through the approved capital budget using local funds. The management committee reviewed this item on August 12th, 2026 and recommended approval. No questions were raised and the motion carried. This action demonstrates stewardship by ensuring ensuring the reliability, resilience, security, and cost effectiveness of the council's asset management systems and technology infrastructure. Therefore, chair, council members, I move that the metropolitan council authorizes the regional administrator to negotiate and execute an amendment for contract 22P018 with Turner and Town AMCL, Inc. to provide professional consulting services and support that will increase the contract value by 2,800,000 for a total contract not to exceed amount of 5,330,000. >> Thank you, Council Member Morales. We have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Are there any questions or discussion on this item? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? and the motion carried. Uh we have one same week business item from the transportation committee and I will turn it to council member Chamblas. >> Thank you madam chair and council members. Business item 2026-151 same week is regarding the award of a construction contract for Metro Gine arterial BRT project. The Metro G-Line construction contract includes work at 32 BRT stations along an 11.5 mile corridor following Robert Street and Rice Street from the Dakota County Northern Service Center through downtown St. Paul to the Little Can Canada Transit Station in the cities of West St. Paul, St. Hall, Maplewood, Roseville, and Little Canada in Ramsey County and Dakota County. The project will also construct an operator restroom and fiber communication infrastructure as well as pedestrian and signal improvements developed in coordination with MDOT and Ramsey County. The invitation for bids for this project was advertised on June 4th, 2026. Five bids were received. Meer Contracting, Inc. submitted the lowresponsive and responsible bid and is recommended for award. A same week council action is requested to ensure timely contract award and construction start. Therefore, Madame Chair, I move that the Metropolitan Council authorize the regional administrator to award and execute contract 26P075 with Meer Contracting, Inc. for construction of the Metro Gline arterial BRT project in an amount not to exceed 20,726,416. >> Thank you, Council Member Chamblas. I recognize uh Council Member Barber. >> I thought you second first. >> Oh, is there a second on the motion? You are right. Let's follow process. Is there a second on the motion? [clears throat] We have a motion and a second. And I recognize Council Member Barber. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Based on my position as the director of public works for the city of St. Paul, I will be recusing myself from voting on business item 2026-151 same week. Thank you, Council Member Barber. Um, you are now recused. Any questions or discussion on this item? Council member Carter. I just want to celebrate this and uh thank council members who have been a part of the metropolitan council for their support of advocacy from Ramsey County to ensure that this line would serve Rice and Robert. Um, we're thrilled that the construction contract, if passes today, will be awarded and that construction can begin so that the service will be able to enhance all of the transportation we have uh, running north and south and connecting our lines as it will. So, thank a special thanks to council member Barber for the work that she's done as transportation chair and to all of you. Um, thank you so very very much for your support. I know that my friends on the Ramsey County Board are jumping up and down right now. So, of course, I'll be supporting this item. >> Council member Jenkins. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, and on behalf of um my friends in Dakota County [laughter] as well, >> who are also thrilled Nope. but they're also thrilled to uh have us make another connection to our network, our [clears throat] transit network uh to Dakota County there. Um we also are thankful for this project. >> Yeah. >> Any other uh comments or questions? >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? And that motion carried. Let's go Gine. Okay, we have no more business items and we will move on toformational items. And our first item today is a presentation on the green line extension project. We'll have an update from Leslie Condaras, Jim Alexander, Brian Funk, Chief Dose, Andrew Brody, and Sophia Guinness to join us if there are enough chairs. Welcome. Uh, chair, council members, good afternoon. I'm Leslie Kander, general manager of Metro Transit. We're excited to have a couple updates for you today, starting with the Metro Green Line Extension update. Uh, we will talk about construction progress, operational readiness, safety, and security preparation, as well as our marketing, communication, and outreach efforts. Uh, and this is one of our quarterly updates that we plan to continue bringing to you uh, throughout the rest of this year into next year as we get ready to launch. Uh, I know we've shared Metrotransit Ford, our strategic framework with you before. Just wanted to ground today's update uh, in this as well. At the beginning of 2026, we set three goals for ourselves. building ridership, increasing satisfaction, and pertinent to today's conversation, preparing for a flawless green line extension launch in 2027. Uh we intentionally set that standard of flawless for ourselves and I think as you'll hear uh from our presenters this evening, we are well underway uh to truly have a successful opening next year. Uh, and for us, flawless really means we'll open service when we say we will at the levels we commit to. Uh, our vehicles and our stations will be clean and safe and well-maintained, and our customers journey throughout our system will be seamless. So, uh, I will turn it over now to project director Jim Alexander to, uh, provide the latest project updates. >> All right. Thank you, General Manager Leslie Canderas. Um Jim Alexander, project director for the Green Line Extension. And uh first off, want to talk about workforce. Uh so we've had a lot of folks working on the project. Uh you we're looking at uh 84% of the counties within Minnesota that have been represented by workers on the project. Uh really good to see and you see the DB numbers uh really strong. Um I also want to put a plug in for the development. You've heard this before, but I'd like to talk about this. uh to office is tracking permitted uh uh data on along the corridor and uh from 20 u 2011 through 2024 we're at 3.3 billion. I would say that's probably higher than than what it is because there are some that went went through uh recently and uh are under construction but uh and about 3/4 of a billion in the planning stage. So, uh, really impressive to see if you haven't seen some of the, uh, stations, particularly out in Minnetonka at Opus Station. Uh, really just going, you know, wonderful. There's over almost 2,000 new units going up around the station at that location. So, a lot of stuff happening. Uh, so just give you an update on where we are with the project. Uh, so we'll start off with Civil Construction, Lacrosse, and uh, joint venture. Uh, we're pretty much done with Civil Construction. We're wrapping things up with them. Uh but um you know the trouble is when we had this challenge on central as well for the green line things look like they're done but they're not done. We still have a lot of work to do with with systems and there's a lot of testing involved that I'll talk about. So the rail u support facility in Hopkins um this is going to house up to 52 uh uh staff working 247 and this is really for maintenance ways. So that means the uh maintaining the signals and communications track uh traction power of those type of elements that uh that uh that maintenance will be in charge of. But that project is wrapping up as well. We'll have uh we're hoping to have move in around the Labor Day time frame and uh getting um getting the full uh occupancy from the city of Hopkins uh here coming up in September. So things are well underway on that and um very very pleased to see that. You can see the top image. uh we work pretty hard to uh you know have a have a nice uh looking facade there. This is the north side of the of the building and uh maintenance area in the back uh behind and you see some interior photos there as well down at the bottom. Uh counter landscaping this got underway earlier this year and um we're about 50% complete on the planting. Still more work to do. This will go into next year in terms of planting. Uh the contractor had taken a little rest bit uh to hold off on planning when it's really hot out there. But they'll start kicking up work again here, but uh really transforming that corridor um back into a uh vegetative state I guess is to say with the uh with the track there uh systems construction. So this is really the primary activity and really in Minneapolis. So essentially from St. Louis Park out to Eden Prairie uh relatively done with things. There's still some cleanup work that we're doing with some small minor contracts, but uh but systems is active in the tunnel, the Kennaworth tunnel that runs uh between West Lake and 20 West 21st Street in Minneapolis. You can see they've installed a couple of the what we call jet fans. This these will be used if there is a fire or smoke incident inside one of the chambers that those fans will get engaged to evacuate that uh the smoke in the fire. So that uh we're we have a total of uh eight uh per chamber and uh we have the east end uh installed and we're in the process of installing the west end as we speak here. So you can see some of their activity uh things are really getting outfitted uh on the on the tunnel and moving along there. So we've talked about uh system integration testing in the past. So just kind of remind you of what how we've laid this out. Uh the red uh area is uh is a what we call phase one testing area southwest up to Louisiana. We're essentially done with the testing on that on that stretch. Um but we still have some reporting to finish up. We're currently in that yellow band area from Target Field uh the existing station down to just short of Binmar and uh we'll look to wrap that up in September and then move on to phase three which really encompasses the whole project but uh really focuses on Louisiana station up to Binmar including that tunnel piece and uh that'll be wrapped up uh wrapped up later this this uh this year here and just some images around the t you know the the uh the phase two there. Uh I do also want to mention that uh you know it goes along with what I said earlier in terms of uh um looking like it's done but not done. Um we have uh over 7,500 what we call pointto-oint tests. Thousands of devices out there we need to make sure we communicate with each other, communicate at the rail support facil rail control center in Minneapolis. We're running over 1500 different scenarios with our vehicles just to make sure we've tested out everything. But that's not all. Once we get through our testing with our contractor, we hand it over to Brian's team and they do their own testing. So, they get into pre-revenue readiness testing and then ultimately pre-revenue operations. So, that's why we have kind of a gap that seems like we should be ready to go, but we're not. We need to make sure that the testing is done and then it needs to be signed off from a safety perspective. So, we work with the safety department, Andrew Brody's group, and the state safety office to make sure that things are safe and sound before we have revenue operations. So, with that, I'll hand it over to uh Brian Funk. >> All right. All right. Thank you, Jim. Uh good afternoon, uh Madam Chair, council members. Brian Funk, chief operating officer over at Metro Transit. Uh good to be here uh for another update. Uh as Jim mentioned uh our teams are working handinand to complete the systems integration testing which leads us uh into uh our ability to operate in a pre-revenue mode. And so this is our time to ensure that all of our people, our systems and our resources are ready to go uh before we are starting to carry passengers out on the alignment. And so you can see here uh this slide I think does a nice job of uh breaking us into kind of those three key areas which is really equipping uh our employees making sure that uh we have all of the people who are going to be required to help us deliver that service uh hired trained uh and equipped to do their work uh and then updating all of the rules that govern uh how we operate out on the system. Uh and then as the general manager mentioned at the outset, uh ensuring that our vehicles and support facilities are ready to go. Uh Jim's team has done a really nice job of ensuring that uh we're well taken care of. Uh he had showed the pictures of the rail support facility in Hopkins. Uh just before this meeting, I got some nice pictures from uh our rail systems management team who was out there to be able to kind of check out um those uh operations and make sure that as they approach movein date, uh things are to their satisfaction. Uh and then finally uh it's that practice time and so we want to ensure that in order to uh meet our flawless aspirations uh as well as do things uh safe in the right way that we have ample opportunity to ensure that uh both our employees and the people we rely on to operate that safe service have an opportunity to uh gain experience in a simulated uh environment where we uh have a high degree of confidence that we can control some of the elements while being able to uh do things that allow us to um maybe not uh exceed or we might make some mistakes, but we're doing it at a lower uh threshold and we're certainly not involving uh customers until we're ready. And then um the pre-revenue operations activities, uh you know, this sort of just further digs into what are we going to be doing uh during that time period before the handoff. And so, um, you know, we need to ensure that, um, you know, by example here, all of our maintenance activities can happen. We're going to be, um, you know, opening in the first part of next year, and we need to make sure that, uh, when winter weather comes, we're able to respond. We can get to some of the stations that, uh, are very unlike our current system, which we can just drive up and park next to. And so, uh, being able to exercise all of that so that we're flawless. um getting service back on track. Uh we just know that operational reality is that uh not every trip that starts uh is completed in the way that it was uh designed. And so what are all of the different reasons why that might happen? Whether it's uh directly happening out on the new segment or if it's something that uh occurs based on um the existing green line right now. You know, we have uh more than a decade of experience. We know some of the things that uh can happen along our existing service, which will translate uh into uh maybe trains not arriving on time into downtown Minneapolis and how that cascades uh out onto the new segment is something that uh we need to prepare for and make sure that we have adequate adequate plans in place to uh keep our customers informed in a high level of service delivery. Uh and then as I mentioned, keeping customers informed. So uh providing that timely clear information uh especially when things are atypical or not working well is really of utmost importance for us. Uh I know that our teams uh spend a lot of time trying to figure out what are the methods that we can reach all of the customers in a very quick manner. Uh it's something that uh the general manager, myself, and kind of everyone in leadership uh holds in high regard and wants to make sure we're continuing to set our teams up for success uh to think through and tabletop those before we uh get into um the real [clears throat] deal with customers. And then uh as we have shown uh before, I want to just quickly highlight um kind of our staffing snapshot. And so one of the things that you'll see here is a color-coded chart. The legend in the lower right is showing uh what those colors translate to and these are showing um kind of a green, yellow, red as it relates to budget. Uh and so we've tried to establish budget uh in these key positions as the um the level where we want to be on opening day. Uh I think last time we were here, uh Chair Hutchinson, you had asked about if we don't quite get there, if we're one short, does that mean that we're not successful? uh and each area has some definitions about what that is. Uh but of course we're trying to hit our budgeted targets and I think uh in this slide, you know, we're tracking these on a you know, very uh regular basis every week. Um but we tried to just show from uh late May until now late August uh that you know all of our areas um you know are really making progress. The traction power maintainers is a very uh hard to fill position right now. the team still feels like there are some opportunities that they're in the middle of right now that are going to pay off. Uh but some of the other areas are doing, you know, really well. We've made net gains uh in train operators and bus operators who support the um the supporting bus network. Uh we've made good gains in the rail vehicle technicians. Uh our public facility workers uh are up by about 20 in that and on track to be completely filled before the end of this year. uh and our trip agents, uh the staff who are out on the uh light rail lines and the BRT lines making sure that we have fair compliance and and reporting and dealing with uh code of conduct issues. Uh all making great strides. Uh and I know the chief will talk about the efforts that they have underway in the police department, but I just want to say that uh these areas are things that, you know, we're feeling confident about the progress that's being made and the the efforts that going into it. Uh and then our connecting bus network. Uh so right now uh the network now uh update uh is underway and we're starting to get feedback. Uh one of the things that we're also testing is uh the connecting bus network with green line. And so you can see on this illustration uh the lines uh on the bottom with the green line of course is showing the green line stations and then what some of those connecting bus options uh are envisioned to include. Uh there's a lot more detail uh kind of behind the scenes, but right now the comment period is open through October 4th. Uh we had previewed this uh with some of our uh city council partners during presentations there. uh that will continue uh at future CMC just to make sure that there's good awareness uh and that if people are uh seeing items where they may want to uh report back and say that um you know the route 38 should touch another station or there's other ideas that people are uh hearing from whether it's constituents or if they're riders that want to provide that feedback uh that we get all of that collected by October 4th so that we can ensure that uh the proper plans are in place and we have uh everything we need in order for that opening day next year. Uh, and with that, I think I'm going to turn it over to Chief. >> Uh, chair, council members, good evening. My name is Joe Data. I'm the chief of police and Metro Transit. And of course, making sure that the Green Line Extension is safe is a top priority for us. We'll hear later tonight our safety security action plan update. And really, when we've been out in community and people are asking what's your plan on safety on the Greenland extension, it's a safety security action plan. So that certainly is very very important. But also work that we're doing at the police department is just really our ongoing partnership with the local law enforcement agencies along the extension. The West Metro has some of the best public safety uh departments in the region. So for us to work with them really it's a privilege for us and actually the summer of 2024 we started our formal outreach which with these agencies. We've always had a relationship with uh the agencies along the extension, but really formalizing that partnership or what we're we started a law enforcement specific work group in the summer of 2024. So, we've been meeting on a regular basis, building those relationships up and doing all kinds of training. So, we recently did a joint SWAT training with the West Metro teams just so they could see what some of the issues, you know, could be. Uh we're working on a tunnel response standard SOPs. There's a lot of questions about how they respond to incidents in the tunnel and then really looking at station familiarization uh presentations not just for our partner agencies but even for our own staff on how they're going to respond to uh each one of these stations. We certainly know that we need to be present in these communities as well. So we're working uh with our teams to identify a police substation. That work continues um to really identify where the best spot can be. Our plan is to have some location along the extension by the time it opens up and then have staff much like our beat model that you'll hear about later this evening to have staff stationed out along the extension so they can build those relationships up with community and uh with the local agencies and supplemental security also is in the early stages. I think they've they've actually finalized their initial projections if we need to put supplemental security along the extension as well. So, there's a lot of work going on with that. And then just us doing like being us, right? Like I love these two photos. The photo on the left there is Officer Czech and Officer Junker at National Night Out in Hopkins. And the photo on the right is Sergeant Tubs and Captain Deetsz at uh Raspberry Days there in Hopkins, too. So, we're out in community building those relationships. Right now, Captain Deetsz is overseeing really as our project lead for Green Line Extension. and she's doing a fantastic job of as questions come in from our partner agencies to get them the information they need right away and Sergeant Tubs uh recently promoted was in our outreach team as well. So making sure that people get to know us because there's a lot of questions of you know what do you guys do, what is going on and ensuring that they understand our service mindset and how we're there to really help. And I tell a lot of communities this as well. You know, when they're struggling or they're nervous about the train coming, you know, you're gaining the resources of the Metro Transit Police Department, the Met Council. We're truly a partner there. So, I can't thank the teams enough out there right now attending these community events right now. It's it's a very big deal. With that, I think I'm turning it over to Andrew Brody. >> Good afternoon, Madam Chair and council members. I Andrew Brody, I serve as the chief safety officer for Metro Transit. Um much as you've seen already and heard already, it takes a partnership and it's it's a lot of um partnering with the different agencies along the corridor. Um you know, my department's heavily engaged not only in the safety operations but also in fire and life safety, uh partnering with Captain Deetsz, Chris Caesar, emergency management specialist, been doing a terrific job with coordinating with the fire departments along the corridor and uh really planning these emergency exercises very well. Um, you know, we've been doing fire and life safety committees probably since 2016, uh, when we knew that this was going to be a project and inviting those agencies to that fire and life safety committee to really understand, uh, light rail operations and bringing, you know, our 22 plus years of experience with light rail to them and um, letting them know lessons learned from other agencies as well. Um, as you probably have heard in the news, you know, we have had a couple emergency exercises uh with our partners along the cor corridor. July 20th, we had emergency response just with uh an elevator uh exercise and some takeaways on there of, you know, if if stuck in an elevator, where does the phone call go? Um those types of things. How is um fire going to access those? Mr. Funk mentioned that, you know, um a lot of these stations are are very excluded. um not like our current op uh operations where you just drive right up to the station. So, uh really ensuring that uh our our emergency partners know where to access, when to access, how to safely access, and then also uh in those winter months, making sure that snow is removed for that access to remain. Uh just this last Monday, we had um a simulated light rail vehicle fire off a station and then brought it into the station with simulated smoke and fire um Eden Prairie Fire responded to that and um bunch of other fire department agencies along the corridor um observed and it was extremely well put together, well very beneficial and again um some takeaways right that we we seen of issues. Um so that's why we do those things. we we partner together and we look for uh things we can do better on. Um it's better to do it in an emergency or an exercise rather than an actual emergency. So, and really building those partnerships um with those uh exercises is extremely important rather than trying to build them while an emergency is actually going on. Um some upcoming ones, September 14th, Shady Oak Station area, we're actually going to simulate a collision versus a vehicle and then a collision versus a pedestrian too. Just talking through that and how that works. um and sharing our experience with um uh the emergency um partners along the corridor. And then October 12th um the chief kind of hinted towards that exercise of evacuation uh working with PD having the SOPs but also um just sharing again the experience that we've had with the airport tunnel and um evacuating that. We've had emergency exercises in that tunnel multiple the airport tunnel multiple times. So bringing those experiences over to that and sharing those and then also um looking for ways to improve there too. Uh safety awareness uh that's obviously huge along this corridor. Um we've done a a huge outreach already but that effort has not ended especially with our shared uh railroad crossings with freight rail. Um so we've done um along with the project office uh outreach staff coordinating efforts uh you know working with youth and families uh along the trails. Um we partnership with Operation Lifesaver here locally um and really establishing events that uh really educate folks on the importance of safety around these around the corridor itself but also around um these grade crossings that you know trains can't stop on a dime. uh they can't swerve. Um and making sure that people are aware. Um we've connected with Eden Prairie, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Minneapolis school districts. Um we have two upcoming uh back to school events here September 1st in Eden Prairie and then uh September 3rd in Britmar. So uh really looking to um grow that more as we work towards opening day, but um certainly welcome any questions here at the end. And with that, I'll turn it over to Sophia. Chair, council members, I'm Sophia Guinness. I'm the director of community affairs at Metrotransit and I get the exciting job of connecting with the people that we are building this project for. So, as Andrew was uh teen up, we are doing a lot of safety communication right now as well as continuing our ongoing construction communication as that uh those activities wrap up. But we're also entering this exciting new phase which is communicating about uh opening this project. And so on the screen before you is just a a a very early preview of the creative materials that are being developed uh for that exciting transition uh to focus our public on opening the line. So uh the an artist uh Maria Coup is in the process of updating a bunch of images uh for us that will represent the green line and we mean the entire green line. So, the extension and the existing green line that'll be showcased in our activities and then launching a website that is really focused on uh helping people get ready to ride and answering all those questions uh about what how do you pay, how do you park and ride uh whatever it might be. and the the uh the we have the overall tagline creative, but they'll be uh and the sub kind of text to it, but they'll be more uh developed that will really work to pull people in and entice them onto our system. And with that, uh I want to make sure that you all have saved the date for September 26th. I personally am like shaking excited for this date because we will announce when the green line will open and it for all of us in the room I think this has been a long time coming and so being able to literally on the web start the countdown clock of how many seconds we have left until that ribbon is cut and we're able to ride will just be a really a wonderful wonderful day. So, your community relations staff have held this event on your calendar. Uh, and uh, we hope we'll see you all all there. Uh, for anybody in the community that's listening tonight, hold this on your calendar as well. Uh, but we will start pushing out public comm communications about attendance after the CMC uh, next next week. We've also been busy making sure our communities are well informed of all of the activities that you heard about tonight. Basically, that we are we are getting prepared to open this line. I want to thank all the council members that are in the room that have come along with us uh to our partners to talk about all of all of um all of basically what you heard tonight. Uh I I think uh showing up together we just really appreciate we really appreciate that and we'll continue to do be out in community. Uh we've focused uh early on uh connecting with our municipal partners but we've also reached out to many organizations in community groups and of course there's the continued open invitation that if any of you uh want us to come to a group that is important to you uh just let us know and this will be part of kind of that building excitement. um as well. And then just wanted to highlight that uh reaching people is our our main uh goal. And so uh while we plan for these milestone activities uh and continue to develop these messages and programs, we are uh ever present in community whether that's open houses or festivals. uh thinking of uh places that community gathers like farmers markets, attending neighborhood meetings, and as we're getting back to school, kind of a focus on our our youth um in the corridor as well. We're really trying to generate that excitement and knowledge about the project uh but also just kind of create that general awareness and ensuring that some of these important messages such as safety uh continue to uh carry through all the work that we are that we are doing. So, a lot more to come on all of this, but uh get ready for uh really kind of a a turning point in some of our our comm communications to really uh full steam ahead to opening day coming up soon. And with that, I will open it up for any uh uh comments or questions from any of the presenters. Thank you to the whole team. That was a a thorough presentation and I know how much we all appreciate having the different sections and I think you've done well to close us out on the artwork communications engagement and kind of a very up message. I'm going to open it now to council members for questions and some discussion. Council member Chamblas. >> Oh, we're not going to be shy. Okay. Uh this is really super super super exciting to see the uh the closing time period to the opening day or that's the opening time period to the opening day. Whatever it is, I'm excited about it and there has been a lot of work for decades to get this project off the ground and so many many people, so many council members and um I'm looking I've got it on my calendar. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there and celebrating this flawless launch [clears throat] that we're gonna have. >> Council member Barber. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to echo that it's very exciting to see this come uh this far. So, I was there at the groundbreaking. It'll be very exciting to be out there um on date to be announced, which drives me crazy because I really want to know. And uh but I'm very very excited. But I think the takeaway for all of you is this has been so much hard work and I think everyone on this side of the table understands that and knows that that it's been a long road, but it's going to be worth it in the end. So really thank you for all of your work. >> Council member Obisaken. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know if I can use the new tag anymore, but um it's just good to see how far from when chief talking about your safety and your plan and just see how you all have just developed. But one thing I just want to echo is just the harmony between all of you the the different stages all the partnerships and [clears throat] you know like my council members the hard work you all working together. Uh it seems it feels um harmonious which is very rare for me. stuff. But this is awesome seeing you guys all smiles and the excitement you I'm with you. I'm having what you're having. I'm excited as a newbie seeing uh this this this happened next month. So kudos to all of you. Well done. >> I will close us out by saying um you know we have a year or I don't even know how long we have. We have until some point in 2027. um the a high functioning team that has worked together over many years will lead us to a flawless launch and I have complete confidence in that. Um, I also just want to take a moment to recognize that projects that seem really difficult and I know this one has at times can turn a corner and that applies to really any hard project that you might be in a difficult moment but that project if it's meaningful >> and the right project will turn a corner and it's so clear that a corner was turned at some point and this has turned into just positive excitement from all of our communities along the corridor. Um recognition of like the many stages of work by people who sit on this council and thank you for all the work and all of the staff and the project and you know I don't want to pontificate for too long cuz I think we're going to get more opportunities to do that coming up this year. Um, but I just I just want to say that uh you know I was around for some of the really really difficult moments of this project in a different role and and had kind of a front row seat. And it's just a delight to see a project that has worked hard and turned corners and come to a spot where we're planning the final stages of engineering and celebrations. So, I I just so look forward to events coming up um in later this fall and in 2027. Thanks everyone. Okay, we have our second presentation for today and I don't I think half of you are up here already uh inviting uh [laughter] general manager Kanderas and Chief Dossith and Carol Grford to join us for the next presentation. >> All right, thank you chair, council members. Again, Leslie Cander, general manager at Metro Transit. Uh and our second information item for you this evening is our quarterly safety and security action plan update. Uh so this is our update uh primarily covering quarter two of this year. Uh as we typically do, we'll start off with a bit of an update on the safety and security action plan generally and where we are in implementation. We're really going to spotlight the action item focused on the transit community response team that Carol will present on tonight. I know last time we were here there were some questions about the work we continue to do to work with community- based uh organizations and addressing some of the challenges that are really visible on our system. So uh Carol's here to provide the latest on our work on that front. Uh and then we'll uh hear from Chief Dosth uh about the latest from the Metrotransit Police Department. Uh, and even though we're the ones presenting tonight, uh, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that this is really truly hands all hands-on deck work at Metrotransit. There are many, many staff across the organization whose work is represented by uh, the really high level summaries we're presenting tonight. Uh, and just want to personally express my appreciation for the ongoing work across our agency uh, to make forward progress on this plan. Uh, you've seen this slide again. Uh our safety and security action plan is one element of our broader strategic framework. Uh it really hits on the experience strategic priority. We hear from our employees, our riders, uh that feeling safe on transit is really essential to riding on transit, wanting to work at transit. Uh and so public safety and our continued work on the safety and security action plan remains uh really a top focus for us at Metro Transit. Uh you are all very familiar with the safety and security action plan. It was initially endorsed by the metropolitan council back in June of 2022. Uh so we're four years into implementing this work. Uh it came out of the work of the police work group led by uh vice chair Chamblas. Uh and it continues to be a living uh body of work, a living document in many ways. We're up to 44 action items that we're tracking through the action plan. uh those are spread across these three areas of work. Improving conditions on our system, training and supporting employees and engaging customers and partners. As noted on this slide, uh we do keep the the plan uh as well as all of our quarterly updates uh on our website for anyone to find and see and peruse. Uh and that uh web page is listed here. Uh when we talk about the 44 action items, that can sometimes sound like a lot, sound overwhelming. Uh but a clear theme that many of those action items are supporting are these coordinated layers of official presence. Uh we heard from our riders, from our employees, how important official visible presence on our system is. Uh this just gives you a snapshot of our current staffing levels across uh those layers of presence. At the conclusion of this quarter's uh report, uh you'll hear more from the police chief about our police department staffing, both police officers and community service officers. We continue to grow our trip agent program. The number on this slide, 197, comprises both Metro Transit employees as well as the contracted trip agents. uh we continue uh to rely on our real-time information center to provide information coming directly from those real-time cameras to help assist with deployment and this work uh more broadly. Uh we continue our supplemental security contract and have a supplemental security presence at over two dozen locations at this stage. Uh and here in St. Paul continue to work with the downtown alliance uh to provide safety ambassador coverage as well. Uh if you read the entire report, uh you can read action item status updates for each of those 44 action items. This is a uh meant to be kind of a snapshot of where we are with uh implementation. Uh the main story here is all of our items are in some form of implementation with the exception of one that's more in a planning stage. Uh so uh this is really meant uh for us to make sure that this isn't a plan just sitting on a shelf somewhere that we're continuing to move these items forward uh and make sure they're actually implemented not just contemplated. Uh and with that I will hand it over to Carol Groport to talk about uh our transit community response teamwork. So >> thank you. >> Yeah. >> So uh council chair council members um again my name is uh Carol Grofor. I'm a senior contract administrator um and the project manager for the community response team project. And then many of you may remember this is actually the followup to the TIP program which recently sunseted. So um so uh earlier this year we actually reported to the to the council that um Canopy Roots was our identified vendor for this project. Um they were selected for their experience partnering with government agencies in particular law enforcement and uh a strong knowledge of working with an emergency response structure. So I'm happy to report the project is live. That is that is why we're here today is to kind of share that news. Um the Canopy Roots actually hired personnel and kind of went through training and worked extensively with us on a planning process. Um and the project went live August 17th. Um so which was last week. And so um I'm going to share a little bit about the program structure that was defined um for this group. Um but before I did that, I did want to highlight that this is a pilot project. So the intent of this uh contract with Canopy Roots is to is to test an an a model that was selected um before we would do any sort of broader implementation across metro transit. And so the project was designed based on a community need. So many of you may be a aware of the behavioral health calls on the system. Um in 2025 an estimated uh it was just a little under 16,000 calls were behavioral health related which represents 14% of all calls for service or 43 calls a day. So with that need in mind um the program is was actually intentionally staffed with behavioral health professionals or practitioners uh people with train advanced training in behavioral health services um and also a competency of working in the community. It is very different to provide behavioral health services on the street or at a station than it would be in a clinical setting. And so the model that we chose was a mobile response. Um, so the TCC, RTCC will dispatch a team in response to a call for service. The target audience is primarily individuals experiencing a behavioral health concern. And so, as a result, it will be a lot of vulnerable adults who are suffering maybe from a serious and persistent mental illness or substance use disorder. So, the services that will be offered will h have uh two levels of service. Um, these will be gateway services. So I do want to emphasize that the primary [clears throat] goal of this project is connection up to county services or private providers of treatment. So these are short-term timelimited interventions. The response team which I already talked about which will be dispatched by TCC will arrive on scene. They'll do a crisis screening and then some sort of immediate triage with the intent to connect up to shelter housing if available or um even transports to hospital when necessary. So um a lot of those services are happening in very late night. So during the needs assessment we did to design the program, it was recognized that most behavioral health calls are coming in in very late evening when pretty much every county service is closed. And so we do need a follow-up support team that will provide very shortterm interventions with again the primary goal of connecting up to county care or private providers. Um but we do just need those daytime hour connections. So they would help with housing applications or actual literal drop offs at behavioral health centers of the county. So I mentioned before it was a pilot project. So it is going to be uh offered in a a limited area of the metrorransit service community. The response team will respond there'll be one response team from 6:00 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, 365 days a year. Um, and then the follow-up support team will be uh providing services from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Again, with the primary intention of making sure they can connect up to county care or private providers. And then the service area that that uh will be served by this program will be primarily in downtown St. Paul and then along the green line up through Snelling Avenue. And then um because this is a new project, I I mentioned it just launched last week. It's not like we have impact data, but what I do want to acknowledge is the extensive work that Canopy Roots put into planning this project. While they have expertise doing an emergency response program, it is very different in a transit environment. And they spent several months working with me, our transit control center, MTPD, the hat team, and then also the trip program to really modify their model unique to a transit program. And so I think that points to the potential of success to have a partner that committed to working um in tandem with us. And so I'm looking forward to maybe in the future being able to report again. So thank you for the leap of faith and investing in a in a kind of a new approach in our layered presence. So [snorts] >> good afternoon council member or chair, council members. Good afternoon. My name is Joe Datith. I'm the chief of police at Metro Transit. And just before I start really thanking Carol, I saw Matt Brton in the audience, too. The initial feedback that we got for our from our homeless action team is they're excited to work with Canopy Roots. So, thanks for putting all that work together. And as Carol said, I think we're going to really be able to share some pretty fantastic updates here in the future. Uh some of my updates here this quarter, uh we'll start out with new promotions and assignments. Uh we have 14 promotions here between captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. So, everybody should have in their calendar. Next week is the formal uh pinning ceremony. I know some some council members can't make it, but we certainly want to make sure that you all are always welcome to our events. So, we're working with staff to make sure that you guys have that in your calendar. Uh what really this assignment or this promotional process allowed us to do was return to a dual captain model in patrol. That's the first time since 2019. It's it's significant. The patrol captain job inside our organization. It's a very challenging job and it's a lot for one person. Captain Amed's been doing it uh really for almost two years now, doing a fantastic job at it. But it's a lot, right? So now that two captains are in patrol, Captain Amed will be doing the special operations, right? Overseeing the hat team, the beats, special events, and then Captain Milan will be overseeing essentially our daily response to stuff. And we're seeing already in the short time that that's been implemented a huge um it's a success, right? because we're able to just uh divvy up that responsibility quite a bit. It's it's a very big deal. This promotional process, too, as I've talked to the council before about our values-based hiring process, right? Honesty, service, and respect. This was the first time that we put that same process in our promotional process, which is really, really fascinating. And so, through this whole promotional process, we asked about those values of honesty, service, and respect. and along with our agency [snorts] uh Chief Hodgeges in Bloomington uh also does that but we're really the only two agencies in the entire region doing this. So ensuring that our supervisors are reflecting those values are very very important. So it's really fascinating to have that be uh part of this uh promotional process expanded initiatives. This is the first time too along with having Canopy Roots here with having more staff in the door and I'll talk about that shortly here. Think of all the fantastic work the hat team has done over the last couple years. They've actually been in the patrol division also taking calls for service. So, we've actually had part-time hat the last couple years. Hat is back full-time. That's the first time since 2020, which is fantastic. So, Sergeant Mau leads that team with two officers right now and we're working to expand that. We're working to also hire a civilian to work with that team as well to to help with all the stuff that they do. So, that is just fantastic news. Our bus [snorts] onboard team is back. It's back on an extra assignment detail right now, but it's very important to have our officers get back on board not just the trains, but buses, including fixed routes, because we're hearing a lot of that, too, from our uh bus operators that we want to see police presence on those buses. So, that's back. Uh a dedicated outreach sergeant, I talked about the earlier presentation, Sergeant Tubs, is assigned to outreach area now. So, if you see our social media and you're following all the stuff we're doing, we're doing a lot of stuff in community because it's very important. And so, Sergeant Tubs will be uh doing a lot of that work. And then our expanded Beats program, the Brooklyn Center Transit Center. It's a photo of us with uh Chief Fles. I cannot thank Chief Flesand enough from Brooklyn Center. He is fantastic. So, he has welcomed our officers. They report right out of his building. There was a transit police car in his parking lot. He sent me a picture the other day and he was so happy that he had all these resources right there at his finger fingertips. So, I really appreciate that. and the officers that are up there um they're doing a fantastic job. So that's very very important. The north side community engagement team that's back on another extra assignment right now on a part-time basis, but we're really hoping as more staff gets in the door. My goal is quarter 1 of 2027 to have the north side community engagement team back uh in Minneapolis which will be a very very big deal including adding a southside beat in Minneapolis staffing. So this chart was done I think here the date says the end of June. You can see there's a 123 cops on that. Four more cops start the academy on Monday. Uh and Friday we're meeting going over double digit backgrounds. Now, not everybody clears backgrounds or, you know, we got to work through that. But there's another class coming in the second week of October. So to think that there are 10 more cops at 133 cops in by Halloween, that's a reality. And we're going to have a class of more officers coming in in December. So, our goal of 141 full-time officers by the end of the year, it's a reality. >> And I've been saying this and people are looking at me, they can't believe it. But we need to start preparing ourselves for next year to potentially be fully staffed for police, which is going to be fantastic. And I say that because those 49 community service officers, seven of them are transitioning from, they're graduating, they're done with school, right? Taking the post board. So, they're going to graduate school. They're going to transition from CSO to police officer. 17 CSOS are transitioning right next year, really almost by the time uh the first half of next year. So to think that we're going to get close to 141 this year, real reality. And to hire another 30 officers next year, it's very likely that's going to happen. So it's going to be fantastic to start thinking about that. Our retention rate is at 91% and then that first year retention rate is very, very, very big as well. But yeah, again, the community service officer program, the job uh posting's open right now. Uh we've been taking it down because we have such a pool. We have we can only go up to 55. So, we actually only have six open spots right now. And so, there's really a waiting list to get in the door. So, and even thinking about 2028 hiring, what that looks like. We might not have an external posting in 2028. We might be hiring all internal, which is just fantastic news. So I can't thank everybody on the chair uh council members uh regional administration all the help and support in HR to make sure this happens and it's all driven based upon I talked about values-based promotional process the same thing values-based hiring is what has changed um police staffing higher this chart here um I literally have this chart printed out on my refrigerator at home I tell people that they all laugh this is fantastic we're the green zone is our goal for hiring. And you can see that solid orange line there. We are way above our target zone. It It's the first time since we've been tracking this measure that we are uh out out of our um uh above our hiring u goals ever. So that's just fantastic to see that our proactive patrol numbers as well. You can see that our proactive police calls for service. And I always say this when I'm talking about calls for service, increased calls for service is not necessarily a bad thing. We finished last year at 112 total calls for 112,000 calls for service. We're going to be well over that this year. You know, well over half of our calls for service are because our officers are proactively using CAD. They're addressing an issue. So to see that increase for proactive police calls for service up 45% from the same time last year, quarter 2, that's that's a significant deal. And [snorts] you can see on the bullet point there under the chart there, this last quarter, quarter 2 of 2026 is what we're talking about. Our agency turned 33 years old this month, right? 1993, the state legislature formally introduced the Metro Transit Police Department state statute. This is the highest lever level of officer activity in the history of the organization. It's fantastic. And that's with this with 123 23 officers that are out there working. So as those officers come in and more officers are in there, those numbers are going to increase, which goes again back to that service mindset. It's very very important. So and then police onboards, that's our presence on the system. It's very, very important. It's back to the what SSAP is all about, our coordinated layers of presence. Having that increase up almost 500% from the same time last year is a significant deal. Ensuring that our officers and our community service officers are on the system, that's a significant deal to make sure that official uh uniform presence on the system. Total reported offenses really from this chart. You know, it's kind of the same story from the last couple of quarters. And really since, you know, Q1 of 2025, these numbers are staying steady. So every quarter we come back, we should be around that 2100 number, right? That's [clears throat] kind of what we of course we want that number to be lower. But when you think of that this quarter, the 2196, 55% of that 2,196 is because again the officer is being proactive on the system, right? And then when you think of the three most uh popular offenses, it's disorderly conduct, trespass, curfew, smoking, uh damage to property is not on here, but if you put that on here, those four offenses are well over 50% of that 2196. So I always like us to remember when we look at this chart and we see that we could certainly always drop that number way, way down, but we don't want to do that. We want our officers to be proactive at addressing. And when you see that 55% of that 2196 is because the authors are being proactive, I think that that's a good thing because they're addressing issues on the system. Uh the top seven crimes, which really are the old part one crimes, they're still at a very very low number, right? So quarter two, we're at 222. Um and so when you think about that number, I always like to talk about this. I've seen different stats this week about how many weekday rides we're doing. You know, I saw one stat, we're doing 147,000 rides a day. One stat's 160,000. I'm just going to split in the middle pretty much and say there's 150,000 rides a day on the system, weekday rides, right? And if you divide that the 222 crimes, right, divided by 90, that's 2.4 things, two things a day on the system. And I really, really believe this. If we were any town, USA, wherever it was, and our population was 150,000, two things were happening, we'd be the safest city in the country. And I think it's important for us to all just grasp that there is serious crime on the transit system is almost non-existent. Do things happen? Things happen and we address that. And we arrest people right away. Our clearance rate on serious crimes are way over 50%. And then our investigative team, as that grows, they investigate these crimes. So serious crime on the transit system is very very low. And think about that number two, that large geographical area that we have, this huge area and two things today are happening. The transit system is very, very safe. What's making up that 222 this quarter is these what we call simple assaults, right? And so that's what this chart is really designed for. This slide is to take a closer look at [snorts] what assaults are. These simple assaults, they're just that. It could be somebody getting pushed on the train, maybe somebody slapped on the arm. There's also a component of simple assaults that has an an act um with the intent to cause harm. So you don't even necessarily um have to physically do something, right? That's where that intimidation number comes. So even when we take that 222 number from the last slide and we think about simple solid intimidation, that's 135. That's 60%. So even those crimes that are that we would call the top seven, assault numbers are what's really driving that, right? And so even inside of those assault numbers, only 20% of the top seven crimes are happening on board the train, right? And then we have about 40% happening on the BRT lines and 30% happening on the bus lines. So we've really handled the train, right? With all that presence on the train, we're working on the BRTs. When you think about that 30% number on the buses, a lot of things are happening in bus stops right now. And bus stops are really difficult to police, right? Because there's so many of them. Uh an incident can happen 10 ft away. It's not in a bus stop and it's the city is probably like it's just very challenging. But what this slide is really meant to be was that the simple assaults are what really driving that number. And again, there's the top seven clearance rate there. It's actually almost at 58% which is a significantly high number. This chart really kind of signifies the same thing that I said. The bottom there is the the the top seven crimes very very low and then the the blue line indicates the the other crimes which we drive that line that number there. Uh we always have this slide in this update too really just to remind uh everybody that when we put together good cases right there's a lot of stuff pending in court which is very normal right now right when we submit cases they take some time to get through court that's all very normal but you can see that things that the attorneys are declining to charge the number is almost non-existent are and I say this every time I'm in front of the council our partners at the city and county are great if we put together a good case they charge it out. So that is 100% happening. And the dismissed items in court, they're generally drug offenses or trespass notices, which some that's what this is. The court dismisses some of those things. What's next in 2026? There's a lot. What's next? We talked about the planning and the extension for the Metro Green Line. Again, Capand is really doing a fantastic job of leading that organization. Um, we're working on the transit employee salt reduction uh program. uh Lieutenant Muhammad is is here with us in the audience today and she's leading that really it really comes in the work that we're doing along with Andrew Brody's team and safety and we're already seeing in some of the work that we're doing and the work with the trip agents and deescalation we're already starting to see a reduction right we want to get more of that together maybe that's a future update for for another presentation but we certainly take that seriously we want to ensure that our employees feel safe and even that uh the assaults that are happening on there. I don't remember [snorts] the specific number there, but like our clearance rate for transit worker assault is like 83%. So like yes, we don't want our workers to get assaulted, but when they do, they are getting arrested and they're getting charged out. We're also going to work on a juvenile unit and outreach and what that looks like. That's really really important to me. So uh it's another project. Thanks Lieutenant Muhammad for [laughter] taking taking on [clears throat] that project as well. So hopefully we'll have a future update about that. But it's really really important that we are connecting with uh the youth. When you think about how many kids are riding uh the public transit uh not riding the yellow buses anymore. It's really important that we consider what that outreach looks like with the youth. So we'll hear more about that. We're also working with uh Andrew Brody and his team at safety, too. You know, we're seeing a little bit of uptick of train uh cars turning in front of the trains. So, we're going to work with uh safety on that and our partners in the region too to do a little bit more traffic enforcement that is transit related so we can cut down on that. And then these expanded beats program actually the airport we've had to be down the airport for quite a while. We're actually going to expand that and there's going to be an overlap so there'll be a morning uh airport shift and then an afternoon one as well. So, not on the slide. Uh we're also working on radio encryption too that really has become an industry standard. So, we're working towards what that looks like. I'm told there's no cost to that. if there is a cost or anything, I'll make sure that that's communicated to the general manager and the regional administration, but radio encryption really is becoming an industry standard on that and not on here. I was just thinking about that when I was going through my notes here. This really should have been that slide like I can't thank council member Chamblas enough for coming out to uh the APA conference in Baltimore. we received this significant award from APA about all the work uh that we've been doing on the light rail which is a significant deal and I mean I think all the council members have been seeing uh those stories come out but I was just on a peer advisory group with the other transit chiefs uh today [snorts] and people 100% notice the work that we're doing and it's really rewarding to see all this stuff come together and just the industry recognize our work. So, not just getting that award, but just to have an opportunity to tell other transit agencies and then see what we're doing and people wanting to model it. It's it's exciting. So, with that, I think that's what we got. >> Thank you, Chief. I I know how much we all appreciate seeing the data over time. It's a great way to share your progress with us. Um, I'll open it for questions. Council member Obsaken. >> Uh, no question, ma'am. Just madam chair uh just to tell Chief fantastic job. I'm big fan of what you're doing. Um you know especially with the with the hat team and Lieutenant Kra I see you back there. Uh just phenomenal what you're [clears throat] doing out there. Um I was at the pinning with my wife and and when she was hearing all the things that you do and the staff, she was stunned. Like the Metrop actually do. It's amazing what they do, guys. I mean, if you haven't been to the ceremony, you should go. Um, I was one of those that told you I can't go next week. I'm in a summit. But just to say thank you for all that you do, Lieutenant uh Kra and your team, phenomenal. And then Carol back there. Um, my colleagues know me. I'm a softy when it comes to behavioral health. Uh, the pilot, I hope it does pull through. Um, it's amazing that the Metro Transit is doing something for, uh, behavioral health and that's that's my bread and butter and and that means a lot to me. Um, I know transportation is important, but also the soul of people that that are hurting and they [clears throat] need help, especially when they can't find the help. Um, and I won't go too political, but the mental health mental health services uh suffered. Um, and I said I won't be political, but just thank you. I just hope this um this does pull through and it's it's a big spot in my heart. So, thank you. Thank you everybody at Metro Transit for all that you do. >> Thank you, Council Member Carter. Okay. So, this is not a question either, and I do feel guilty, but I have to add to the applause. Uh, real appreciation for the work that you're doing. I wrote in today, the train feels substantially different. >> It just does. Um, and I hear that from so many people, but most of all, I don't hear about the train. >> Um, that is very telling. It is. So applause to you. Please continue the great work. Hiccups happen. But we are so thankful for the regular work and for the observation of our community of the same. I have to give big big big kudos for the recognition that the work with youth is critical and that we have to be a part together with all of our communities in understanding how we condition youth to being on our system. and to being positive on our system and the interaction of their behavior on transit to their behavior at school in the community. Uh the county certainly has some work going on that I'm sure you're tapped into, youth justice transformation work and I just look forward to hearing about some of the productivity of those relationships into the future as we plot with them how we manage to the circumstances around central station around you know between here and Snelling and you know all throughout the system throughout the entire region. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. I cannot imagine how things have changed so quickly. And maybe it didn't feel like it was quick. You know, it didn't feel like it in the process, I think, but things have changed. There is a palpable difference. And thank you to you and all your officers. Thank you to um officer Muhammad for all the work that you are doing as not officer it's sergeant >> lieutenant >> lieutenant [laughter] >> I am sorry thank you lieutenant thank you to all >> thank you thanks >> yeah thanks my kudos as well um question about uh for you Carol um >> so this is a pilot program >> and how [clears throat] and you I'm sure you mentioned this, how long is the pilot and how will we know if it's successful or not? >> Yeah, so the contract is for 2 years. Um the planning process was close to 5 months. So it'll be a little over a year and a half pilot project with the opportunity to extend for a year. Um in terms of how will we know, we are working with them to set an evaluation process. It will we did ensure through the needs assessment to set baseline data so we can do comparison data against calls for service. So some of it will be looking at actually calls for service data like police data and then some of it will actually be um their own data system and so sorry I don't have like the measures yet but we will we can report on it in the future. There will be a formal evaluation plan. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um I Oh, Council Member Tambless. Um >> thank you. Um I I really enjoy the presentation and hearing um the feedback as well. [clears throat] I um I really appreciate the fact that um in your presentation you interjected um not just raw numbers but you know the percentages and the scope and the scale and compar comparing it to other metro areas that may have uh some similar demographics and situations um because that's really important as far as um understanding you know what our baselines are and how to improve perceptions. And I really appreciate the incremental changes that have happened over over time because as it's been said, it's a lot a lot of um good things and and you feel it when you do get on um our system. One other thing, oh um I also like the the behavioral health services and the attention to that. So that it's a solution that's really going to help. Um and it's also the partnerships working with uh the other agencies that are really important and looking at this from a social and behavioral in and at the individual level is important not just um simple solutions that really don't stick. So, thank you so much. And I know it's been a a huge effort over a large period of time and then the the continuous improvement is is what's going to make it stick and even better. >> Council member Pekka. Yeah, madam chair, members, I I can uh agree with council member Carter on there there is a difference uh in this last year and how you're how it's being perceived both in you know I drive it ride it every day these days till I get my car fixed but no it's um I'm I'm getting to know some of the fair folks and one was actually worked for move Minnesota uh yesterday he was down that's where he's now doing [clears throat] some things But and there are incidents and this morning there was an argument. It was a it was actually a teenager just kind of acting up and the driver said you got to get off. He said first he said sit down and and that didn't work and he said um you pulled up next stop you got to get off and uh and he said and he didn't right away I'm calling the police said and everyone else was just sitting there kind of watching like me. uh and and they got off and then then he moved uh and it was handled, you know, real calmly. It was no one yelling at anybody. It just and I think again the kid was acting up. Um the other thing is that when you park like the police and the sheriffs, the Minneapolis police, they leave the vehicle there and uh up on the sidewalk there. It's kind of like putting a big dog in your yard uh there. And uh and so it's uh and I I was joking in the meeting the other day is that we're in the budget meeting. I I didn't know how much you spent on those squad cars, but you got more lights than my Christmas tree. How much they But it's kind of cool looking, but [laughter] but I mean they're bottom they're they're you got to see it's lit up well on Henipin Avenue. It fits right in. But so no, I I again I appreciate the work you all do out there. appreciate the way that the the fair ticket takers are handling their job. I mean and and I I said the other day and probably repeat is that you know you go to very few places that when people get off they all they say thank you and they wave and stuff getting off the bus they just came and it's coming from work or going to work. Um it's a different attitude. Uh, and I think and even the the cleanliness of of what the around not just on the car but around it I think's gotten better and it does make a difference that the efforts we put in some of the environmental programs um that we have and cleaning up and the artwork that all those little things add up to make a difference when you're kind of hurry sometimes you sit down and look at the art stuff that it does have a way to calm you a little bit. So, I think I appreciate the work you're doing and I think that does reflect uh when you're looking to hire and how people want to want to show up. Uh so, again, thank you. Thank you. >> Uh seeing no further comments, I just I also have a question. I have two questions. Um my first is for Carol. Can you tell me a little bit about how the community response areas were chosen? Yeah, sure. It was um so I mentioned um during the presentation that there was a need's analysis looking at calls for service data. So we actually cross referenced that not just at the time of day and the type of calls but also the geographic location. And so um there were several I think there was at least six of the top 15 stations were actually along the green line or in the downtown St. Paul area. >> Got it. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Um my second question might be a little bit leading is for the chief. Um going back to slide number 16, is this an indication that MTPD has become the department of choice? >> Chair, thank you for that question. [laughter] >> Pleased to answer. >> Yes. and for a variety of reasons and when you are out interacting I appreciate all the comments and the officers appreciate it too and like I can't when you are all out in community and you say hi to the they know who you are they appreciate you say like they appreciate your support and so the officers are doing such a fantastic job out there every day right and our professional staff too it's we were in a meeting earlier this week and I'm like looking back at everything that's happened over the last couple years, we're in a really great spot. Like sometimes it makes me a little too nervous that it's going like do well, but it's a good problem to have and people do want to work here. Why would you not want to work here? You look at this gigantic geographical area that we cover. We're a very diverse organization. That's our greatest strength, right? And you people do want to work here. When you go back to honesty, service, and respect, and I say that every time in front of my council, the moment we put that in the job application and the questions, it changed the game. It wasn't like we weren't doing that before, but it just changed the quality of officer that we were bringing in and and then it reminded the staff that we were here that already had those those skills and those that mindset that that's what we needed to do. So having that service mindset I I think we are the now we're certainly not perfect right we none of us are right but we have issues but I think we are and when we get to fully staff next year is going to be fantastic and to think that even us sitting here at a council meeting talking about you know within 18 months the job posting is going to be all internal like that's a reality [snorts] like it is fantastic to to see all that stuff come together and that is 100% why I have this slide on my fridge at home because it is [laughter] important and all of these things that we're doing like I can't thank the general manager enough because she's allowing us to do these things. So, the general manager really deserves a lot of credit for allowing us to do these things and providing us that support. And I wanted to do a lot of stuff and Lieutenant Muhammad's going to stress out about this, but there's a lot more stuff that we could be doing, you know, how we're handling, you know, if you are a victim of a crime on transit, how we're handling that and those services. Like, there's a lot more to come from this agency. So, to think that as good things are right now, it's going to get even better. And then all this is just feeding into that. So great question. Thank you for the leading question. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Chief. Um and thank you to [snorts] your whole team. Every I see many of you here. Um you're at least a couple of you back there. I see you. Um just thank you so much for your continued work. I think this is also in the category of um turning a corner after um a difficult time and just seeing such success and I anticipate that it will continue. Uh so appreciate um all of your work and that concludes this part of our meeting. Okay, we are on uh last part of our meeting and it is our reports. Um I only have one and I did this last time too where mine is actually someone else's. Uh but I just want to start and say we had a fantastic event this morning. Um with big thanks to everyone who uh stood this event up for us so that we could celebrate the groundbreaking of the fourth incinerator um at the Metro plant. Uh, so I just want to say thanks and I just I want to report this out as being thrilled to talk so publicly about such an unseen part of our work that is so foundational. Uh it was just such a pleasure to be there and I just I want to thank uh chair of the environment committee Cedarberg and all members of the environment committee who I know have worked really hard and to we were chatting about this just a second ago that uh Bill Walasper who said it's like 10 years of working through it a a complicated contract and it was just such a a pleasure to get to celebrate that with you and I'd love to just turn it to um Dr. Cedarberg to just give some thoughts and further update on it. Well, it was an amazing turnout and it was for me kind of coming home because I started as an engineer working on the project with Renee Heftlin and the staff um doing the environmental permitting and the compliance, the air testing, coming up with ways of making this an incredibly uh environmentally sustainable process for the Met Council as well. So, that was really exciting. And then just to know and you know to borrow the chair's words of of having this infrastructure that is unseen that just is going to work you know and we're adding capacity so we can go back and make sure the other three incinerators continue to work and to generate waste heat and you know nobody hears about it >> and it works and the incredible staff and team and engineers it is just an exciting project and they're, you know, thrilled to work on it and really add um add this uh project to the Met Council. I mean, it's it's for me I've I've had a project like this in my life and it really is a capstone project to be able to contribute as an engineer to the sustainability and and environmental quality of your community. it it really is a lifelong, you know, really passionate goal to say, I've worked on something like that and I've had projects like that and you never forget them. So, um the support of the council for this and the turnout was just amazing and and every and thank you to um Ramsey County who came, Kelly came and MPCA came and Lisa came and so it was a really good turnout. So, yep. >> Okay, that's our joint update. Uh, and council members, any other updates from you today? Council member Wolf. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to pile on on the the incinerator project. I did the tour afterwards, and I've been involved in this for a long time, too. I chaired the the public hearing for the facilities plan. It seemed like an eternity ago. So, really excited to see it actually happen. But uh I toured the the solids plant afterwards and I've been on tours of the metrop plant and some of the other plants around the region many times. But when the metrop plant is so big that when you tour the whole thing, you get sort of just overwhelmed by the magnitude of all of it. And so having a tour of just the solids plant was actually really cool. even though I've been in it a bunch of times, I could absorb it better [laughter] because it wasn't on overload. So, I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to tour in a bite-size rather than the whole thing to to to actually do that >> other reports. Okay, I'm going to go to the deputy regional administrator. >> Uh, thank you, chair. I I would just say the two projects we talked about today, we do some pretty amazing stuff here at the council, the green line and then this incinerator project, it's pretty amazing. So, it just it strikes me you kind of lose sight of that when you're working it day after day, but to see this the culmination of it, it's great. So, no update, just a comment. >> Good words. Uh, general counsel's office. >> No update from the office of general counsel. >> Like it. Great. All right, that concludes our meeting today. I will adjourn it. We'll see each other again at the committee of the whole on September 2nd. And have a good evening.