I just want to thank Angie, Alisa, um well, excuse me, Angie Orla um and Orla is the lovely dog that's here and then Alisa from Helping Pause. Uh many months ago, I had sent Alisa a a letter um thanking them for their great work.

It's my pledge to the family. It's my pledge to those kids. I'm Melissa's age. Those kids could have been mine. And so, we're honored to do it. We're honored to do the work. We're honored to change lives through the use of assistance dogs for um those with mobility issues, veterans and first responders with PTSD, as well as facility dogs.

the gifts that they have given by training assistance dogs to benefit people like me cannot be um overstated. Uh these dogs know about 80 different commands and um she helps me when I pick up stuff that I drop.

And there was this bench that was dedicated to Melissa and Mark that I had not known was there. And um I'd like to say that Gilbert is you know who allure, you know, who who brought my dog to that bench. And so, uh, dogs do have a way of, um, bringing a connection emotionally, um, both in grief and in healing.

Um per statute, Hip County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the safe and secure custody of all detainees. Um when the ADC exceeds its approved capacity and needs to close housing areas for maintenance or repairs, um Hip County Sheriff's Office relies on these agreements um to be able to accommodate that.

I have just an amendment um that I would like to offer here. I have language. Um the amendment reads as follows. just an additional resolving clause that reads uh be it further resolved that the NTE amount authorized be only used for the purpose of annexing needs.

I I support this because I think there's been a lot of conversation around the sheriff's budget and this is just making it very clear. I understand this dollars can only be used for this, but just putting it into the document makes everybody held accountable and makes our public feel better about everything.

I appreciate that the R1 reflects the discussion including as you mentioned just for the public to hear because it is different than the published agenda. Um a you know about $2 million fewer being requested.

the budget uh that we will be discussing for the next few months um and the max levy that we'll be voting on soon set a clear direction to protect democracy, preserve public services, and to center our most vulnerable neighbors. And this budget meets that direction.

The 2027 budget is lower than the 2026 budget. However, the 2027 levy is more than the 2026 levy. Property tax is just one part of the county's revenue. Federal and state funding for mandated human services drops by nearly $28 million just next year.

I really hope that the legislature starts to look at this and address this because we need some relief here. And we have seen, like our county assessor said, over the last 10 years, we have seen a real switch from the the business industrial sector to the residential sector.

I again think that looking at new sources of revenue, um looking outside of the box at ways that we can bring dollars in that are not property tax dollars, uh will be beneficial for us as a county to just look at diversifying that portfolio.

the area that is the primary driver of this our decrease in the budget is uh providing health insurance to people through Henipin Health. Um there are going to be fewer people with health insurance that without that coverage there our population is likely to be sicker uh and require more deep end interventions that is going to hit county services more.

This project will implement several safety and operational upgrades across these spaces. In the day rooms, the project will replace damaged cabinets, add secure closets for storing small appliances, and upgrade drinking fountains and sinks.

I know we opened 1800 Chicago with, you know, youth beds now and everything like this and we talked about the contrast of that and how we could move in that direction to make this a friendlier facility for the juveniles that we serve in that facility.

I also think that um the youth behav the youth stabilization center is the model we should be moving towards and should be sending our dollars to... 1.2 million is a lot of money for these upgrades.

I do know just anecdotally there are a lot of times there'll be an admission and then very shortly after that uh resident will be discharged there's um some kids that are there prolonged that are waiting for uh court proceedings to happen.

I'm in support of this, but I am also in support of a larger discussion on what we what we're looking at here um for just you know replacing things I just trying to understand what that looks like.

I'm so glad that we're offering a proclamation and doing our part as a county board to help raise awareness, reduce stigma around discussing mental health, no matter who you are. Um, and and we just really need to continue having the conversation.

The county approaches domestic violence from multiple angles, critical services for victims, and programming for offenders. County efforts include the domestic abuse service center located in the government center, which provides culturally specific and trauma-informed services and has staff who speak at least 10 languages.

I just want to thank every one of our staff who work to support our victims and survivors of domestic violence and I look forward to how we can continue to support and advance this work together. I'd like to commend state lawmakers for their attention to the issue.

I just wanted to uplift a specific organization in in my community in Maple Grove, uh, Maria's Voice, who does a lot of work with education and, uh, prevention... their mission since then has been about educating the public about signs of domestic violence and domestic abuse.

I just we just got another call this week from the office to try to house somebody right away because of a domestic violence. She needed to leave with her children right away and didn't have a place to stay.

Today's request seeks approval of a 2027 maximum property tax level levy of 22,186,537 with an estimated budget of 39.3 million. This represents a 0% change in property tax levy from 2026.

The 2027 HA budget is projected to increase by approximately 13.5 million, primarily driven by the introduction of local affordable housing aid sales tax funding for new production and preservation of multifamily housing, new home ownership opportunities, and sustainable and healthy homes.

LAAHA funds. This is these are the funds that um are uh funded by the Metro Regional Housing Sales Tax and use um that was created by the legislature in 2023. Henipin County receives about $33 million of that per year from the LAA program. And in 2027, we are going big.

Our preservation program stabilizes 300 units of existing affordable housing, allowing AHIFF to really focus on affordable housing new production. Our accelerator program will speed up strategic projects to open 100 units of affordable housing years ahead of schedule.

We have one final item on our agenda, item 4B, which is to approve a lease agreement with Skyidge 2 LLC for rental of a 14.400. Okay, let me rephrase that. 14,400 square ft um hikra property in Minnetonka for a period October 1st, 2026 to September 30th, 2031. Um with receivables of 8.8 Wow. Okay. I was looking for another zero there. Um $8,800 and some change.

The 2027 proposed levy is flat or has a 0% increase. The authorities budget advances countywide priorities to eliminate disparities and advance climate action.

We are actively managing emerald ashbor and other invasive species. In 2025, we planted 1,450 trees supporting progress towards our million tree goal.

We're also continuing the reconstruction of Midtown Greenway bridges and identifying bridge needs surrounding Lake Minnetonka in the out years of the CIP.

The other thing I want to say is how hard the count the county staff and the Met Council work together to get this great green light uh extension going. And to hear the opening date just really warms my heart and I can't wait to see this happen.

first of all, thank you for keeping the proposed budget levy at zero. Um, and that does not mean that a lot is not going on. Um, there's plenty going on with, as you alluded to, green line extension. I feel like the blue line extension is sort of like, you know, dare I say, like standing at prom waiting for their date to arrive.