I'm going to wait till the crowd moves. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the administration operations and budget committee of Tuesday August 25th 2026. We start our agenda agenda item one with there's going to be two presentations. The first presentation um today is our reoccurring 2026 budget update. I'm going to hand this over to administrator wetland to kick things off. Thank you chair commissioners. Thank you. As you've heard at our July update, there are substantial budget challenges that we're facing in 2026 and into 2027. The goal of these budget update presentations is to provide transparency and information to you and to our residents regarding the tracking and monitoring of the county's financial health throughout the year. This is our fifth update of the year and in today's presentation you'll hear about our progress from January through July. Throughout this process, we continue to ground our work in disparity elimination and aligning our work to the mission, vision, and core values of the organization. We remain steadfast in our commitment of service to residents as we ensure the county acts with stewardship of public resources. I'm going to ask Joe Matthews, the county's chief financial officer, to provide the budget update. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. >> Thank you, Madame Chair, commissioners. Um, again, this is a short agenda that we're going to cover here. If we can go ahead and go to the next slide, we'll just jump right in. Uh, one, just want to recap again, this has our financials monthtomonth. Uh, the blue bar would be our spending for 2026. The light gray is the prior year's actual spending. So, you can just see a bit of a comparison. You'll note that in most months, we're actually spending less than we did in the prior year. And the red line from the lower left going up to the upper right is a linear representation of our annual budget for the year. And the solid blue line uh is our actual spend. You can see that we've been consistently below budget all the way through July. That margin has grown a little bit over the past few months, but it's not always perfectly linear as we adapt to changing conditions. And then new this month, you'll see a dotted line going out to December. And that's based on the forecast that we do with our departments at the end of the second quarter. and uh helps us identify where we think we'll end the year. I do want to point out that forecasts this early in the year are always somewhat variable, but we are very encouraged by the fiscal management that our departments have had. And we do expect that we will in fact end the year under budget. We can go to the next slide. This one's also new. This is a similar graph, but just for the county's general fund. The general fund uh takes out some of the I'll just say lumpier financial patterns from our debt service fund and some of our other enterprise funds and shows the core of most of our departments with the exception of human services which is in fund 20 the human services fund. But you'll also note here that this fund is primarily driven by personnel services expenses. You'll see that when you look at just the general fund alone, we do spend slightly more than the prior year in most months. that's reflective of increased staffing costs primarily. I also want to point out that we do have some une uneasiness uh unevenness rather with the the financials in particular. Um in January and 2025 we had some increased spending and again in May in 2025 there's a bit of a spike. Those two are primarily being driven actually by advances in our uncompensated care to HCMC which we normally pay monthly. And so we paid uh in advance in January and then again in May of that year, which is really what drove that spike in 2025. But for the most part, it's relatively consistent with some variation for the number of pay periods in a given month. But again, overall, we are expecting to be under budget. And I want to thank our departments for their financial management throughout the year and as well as your leadership and guidance and that of county administration. Can we go ahead and go to the let's go one more. Um, again, this is where we stand as far as grants that have been terminated by the federal government. Right now, there are four. The total cost that has been cancelled is about $3.3 million. Um, these have not changed since we presented this last month, but just want to make sure that you again affirm kind of where we stand. Uh, these are grants that we had planned to expend. Uh for the most part we've successfully expended the bulk of these funds but there is 3.3 million uh in spending that is not going to be received as we had anticipated. Uh as we move ahead let's go ahead and go to the next one. This slide is very different than what we have been showing up to this point. We have really been tracking the estimated annual impact of a number of federal changes. This is the first time you are seeing a more dialed in expectation for the 2027 budget. And so the first line item that we have is the total anticipated impact from the SNAP changes in 2027. That's $11 million. 8 million of that is for a decrease in administrative revenues. An additional 3 million is anticipated due to uh further reduced revenues from the SNAP error rate. But I want to highlight that that grows significantly for 2028 as those cuts become fully phased in. only a portion of these uh some of these are starting later this year um but again they're being phased in over time. The second one is our anticipated impact from Medicaid reductions and so we had been looking at about $27 million affecting all clinics within Henipin County's system for 2027 based on how we expect that to land. We are anticipating additional property tax needs of about $9.8 million. Um and we are expecting that to continue into 2028. I want to remind folks these 2028 numbers do not include an assumption for inflation. We're really basing it on our current cost and given all of the fluidity in federal and state policy, uh we have not made an adjustment for inflation at this point. There are two other items that I want to highlight that are due to state policy changes that were enacted in prior legislative sessions. Uh both of these were an effort um the the state was going to have a work group look for assumed savings. If those savings materialize, these cuts may have been avoided. We are not anticipating that that group will identify the necessary savings. And I want to highlight that these are mandated services. These are not discretionary. And so these are services that the county must provide and will receive less revenue for. Um again, these cuts uh would become effective starting in the state's fiscal year, which begins on Janu July 1st of 2027. And so we are expecting half of the amount to hit in next year's budget. And then in 2028, these will be fully phased in. So, in short, right now, and again, um it's the very beginning of of putting together the proposed budget process and the the full review that you will all conduct this fall, but we are anticipating that our proposed budget will have $27.7 million in property tax needs due to federal and state changes for services that we must provide that we cannot avoid. um we will look for opportunities to try to reduce costs but the revenues are reducing um to pay for those services. So that will have an impact on the levy that our residents will pay. And then as we go to 2028 I just want to highlight that those costs become very significant. Um and beyond that um you know it'll depend on what uh interventions the state or federal government choose to take or not take to mitigate those. Next slide please. We are continuing uh with our budget management strategies. We've discussed with you previously. We continue to hold very tightly on hiring. Um that doesn't mean we aren't hiring. We are hiring in critical areas. We are trying to make sure that we have staff at our most critical facilities and our our services that really impact residents. And we are also trying to hold other positions open as poss as long as possible um or to review and see if we can uh potentially eliminate some as we move forward. and we'll talk more about that in the proposed budget. We continue to review contracts and RFPs trying to make sure that we're getting uh the best value for our investments. We have largely completed our review of capital projects and the capital budgeting task force will be wrapping up their work in the coming weeks and making their recommendations. And then finally, um you're all aware that there'll be planning that will go on uh for the future of the hospital and there is a task force that was created by the legislature that will start meeting tomorrow and work through um the next two years, but predom predominantly making recommendations for next January. Next slide, please. As far as next steps, just want to highlight um that this is the last meeting that we have dedicated to updates on the 2026 budget. It doesn't mean that we're going to stop managing it. uh but much of your time and attention is going to be shifted towards the 2027 proposed budget and talking about what uh departments are doing to to work through the future. We will bring you the proposed budget. Administrator Wetland will present it on September 22nd and we'll continue to execute on the strategies that we have in place for 2026. I also want to continue to express our appreciation for the hard work that was has been done at all levels of the organization to work towards budget goals while maintaining our commitments to residents. uh the mission, vision, and values of our organization and the work we're doing to eliminate disparities in our community. And with that, Chair Gatel, I will turn it back over to you. >> Thank you. Um I really appreciate the estimated cost shifts uh detail here on the sheet that we have. That's very helpful. I think we always wanted to get closer to a real actual number so we know what the headwinds are ahead of us in this future. I'll turn it over and see if colleagues have questions and comments. I'll start with Commissioner Fernando and then Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, [clears throat] Madam Chair. I also want to express gratitude for the property tax impact slide because especially as we enter the fall, that is how residents will be experiencing this and the numbers here are alarming. I mean these are five levy points when we uh think about it as a levy. Uh so thank you for the prioritization here. I wanted to confirm um an understanding. So for the grants terminated, total grant award amount canceled. So, we are not factoring in when we the county are um fighting in court to be able to maintain funds. Is that I just want to make sure I'm accurate. >> Yeah, Madame Chair, Commissioner Fernando. Um that is correct. These are grants that were cancelled. We have about $107 million worth of federal funds that are under various protective orders. We are pleased that we've seen success through the legal process. Some we've been a direct plaintiff in those cases or part of the the case directly. some the state attorney general's been involved and we have benefited from protections that uh have been won in court through that process but that totals about 107 million. We watch that uh and work with the county attorney's civil division staff as well as grants management and compliance and we are looking at those literally on a daily basis as we go through. >> Yes. So madam chair just a comment on that. Um for those watching at home, there is a larger number that we are seeing reported in the news that is being kind of removed or being placed under threat and u local governments here in Minnesota in partnership with our um our state. We are fighting and seeking to protect the very services and the funds. Uh so that that's not always as easily uh seen um in public and want to acknowledge our partners uh with gratitude. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank Thank you, Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the update. Um, what really hit me was the dollar amounts, right? So, there was a slide that showed the dollar amounts that are broken out via the federal government and the state. And these are all cost shifts that total around $27 million. So, could you for 2027 jumps way up to 51 million by 2028. So, we're seeing cost shifts that we have to account for right now. we've already uh got hit with the 8 million in SNAP. What is the state contributing? Because this is all based on uh error rate. Can you cl clarify that that part? >> Yep. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Connley. Uh for SNAP, I believe the state is funding about $10 million or replacing about $10 million of the lost revenue. Uh that's not the full amount. This is reflective of what we are being asked to shoulder. We certainly are hopeful that as the legislature comes back, this will be an ongoing discussion the next legislative session and I'm sure that uh there will be proposals for you all to consider in your platform this fall related to these topics. >> Thank you. That madam chair that's exactly where I was going. We've got a state platform coming up colleagues. >> Yeah. And so, um, I'm sure with the help of AMC, we all all 87 counties are filling this. And so, um, we will need to do some, um, some advocacy to change what the state is chipping in. That's an entirely too big, um, cost shift to property tax that we can't absorb. Uh, especially if we there's talk at the federal government of a delay. Um, if we don't get that, you that's looking pretty dim for us for 2028. I don't think we've seen this level of disinvestment from the state and feds combined before, at least since I've been here. Can you speak to that? >> Uh, Madam Chair, Commissioner Connley, uh, no, typically we don't see a a disinvestment um at both levels. I will say, um, we're hopeful. The state's financial forecast recently have been fairly positive, and I think there was concern about potentially more headwinds for the state level than we've seen. Hopefully, that will continue. Certainly uh if you read the economic news there's a lot of concern about what will happen with our economy as we move into the future. So far the US and the Minnesota economy have an economy in particular has all been very strong and we hope that continues but uh I I would just caution uh you know historically when the state has financial difficulties counties do typically share in that pain. >> That's true. Thank you. >> Okay, Commissioner Green. Um, thank you, Madam Chair, and um, thank you, Mr. Matthews, for both today's presentation and also to you and the team for this approach that we've had this year. Um, you know, as I said to County Administrator Wentland earlier, like, okay, we sort of we knew this was coming, but to see the figures in black and white is very sobering. Uh, and I want to sort of double down on something that Commissioner Fernando said, which is that there is this larger amount that's still in litigation. And one thing that we sort of all collectively agreed on was we didn't want to have conjecture in these figures. We wanted them to be solid, but as a result, they don't show this additional potential that is out there. Um, I thank you also for naming that we're sort of transitioning now to the 2027 budget process. Uh and the last remark I wanted to make was that I just came from uh at the end of last week from a meeting of the Association of Minnesota Counties and there's shared concern um across Minnesota's counties about these cuts and one of the things that was impressed upon me and I felt it was very relevant for us as Henipin County Commissioners was you know there's this discussion of course in Minnesota about like you know there's Henipin we're just enormous the size of some states Um and other counties tend to be smaller, lower population, smaller budget, smaller tax base. Um and one thing that was highlighted to me was that um in many counties they have a much larger percentage of their population that is going to be left without support by these cuts. And so even if the dollars look smaller than they look for Henipin County, it has this like um sort of a different reverberation, let's say, through not just the budget but through the community. Um, and I thought that was good for me to be reminded of that and sharing with all of you in the same spirit and just a reminder that um that we have so much in common with our sibling counties in Minnesota and as much as we continue to work together, I know that that will be part of the plan at the legislature. Um, [snorts] thank you IGR co-chairs. Um, and so just wanted to mention that. Thank you, >> Commissioner Lundy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to thank staff for bringing this forward as such so that we can see the pain and the potential pain because there's two spots that could get us. Um, because I think it's just being very uh honest with everybody. Um, I also [clears throat] think it's worthwhile to be honest that the federal government hasn't changed how much money they take from us. Our taxes haven't changed a bit. The money they still collect goes to these funds. They're just not sending the money out. So, we're not saving a dime on taxes. And we based on the new forecast for the budget, uh, the debt, we're not saving money there either. So, the hypocrisy of it all is is mind-boggling that they're saving money, but I'm not seeing it. I look around and maybe others are. The counties are actually seeing cost shifts, which causes us to have to raise property taxes if we want to cover this, while our federal taxes remain the same. And so, I think about that. I think about on our efforts on the blue line, the full funding and grant agreement. We're not the only project that's waiting for that money that they're not sending out. And so it to me it's the the double hypocrisy of not saving us any money on taxes and that not sending money out that they're supposed to because this money all is appropriated every year just like ours in our budget and they collect the money for it. It's just not coming out. And so, uh, we have to do what we can to account for what we can control. And unfortunately, uh, that we only have a couple levers that we can pull. So, I just want to thank staff. I know all of Hampton County staff is working hard to save money. And there's also means that people are not getting replaced. That means people are working harder. They're doing things that they haven't had to do. There's more stress. There's more pain. And I I just want to acknowledge that and know that uh on the other counterbalances, property tax owners are looking at cities, counties, schools with the same worry like enough. And so I think we're all in the same boat. And I think being transparent, honest, which what I believe this report helps us do is the only way to kind of proceed. So thank you, >> Commissioner Anderson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, yeah, echo the the thanks of uh of the work that's gone into all of the budget presentations that we've seen so far. Um, and not just the budget presentations, but the work that's gone into like standardizing and showing us the extent of the mandated services. you know, you you mentioned like the the state cost shifts that we experienced as well as the federal. We don't have an option of doing these things like we have to do this and we have a certain amount of work that we have to put into it that is mandated by either the state or the federal government. Um and that is I think really kind of at the center when we say it's a cost shift. It's not just that they're removing money, it's that they're still expecting us to do the work. And um and so the work still has to happen. And uh and without the the funds to uh to reimburse us for the work that they tell us we need to do, um then we have to raise it through property taxes. And I know like at not a this year thing right we've done a lot of work in identifying what is the mandatory and what is the core core set of work uh but I think having some kind of overall evaluation of how much of our property taxes are going towards mandated services. you know, that's uh kind of the next step in kind of this evaluation that I think we should be looking at is um if we're going to be asking and I think, you know, there's it's a legitimate thing to share in the costs of uh of providing services to our residents. And we are, I think, are a wonderful example of experimenting, going above and beyond, finding ways of doing things better and sometimes more efficiently that is outside of the, uh, what is required of us. Um, but I think the more we can capture that, um, the better off we are able to tell our story, especially at the state, uh, when we're advocating at the capital. um and saying, you know, we're doing this work and we think that that is a an overall public benefit that the state should have a a part in in reimbursing us for. So I I want to hear uh a little bit more of like in the in the upcoming years, not not right now. Um an evaluation of like how much of it uh of what we're collecting is going into statemandated services. Um so thank you. >> Commissioner Eden, did you want to speak? >> I don't need to repeat what everybody else. >> Okay. And no, thank you again and and uh appreciate that. So, we're going to move on to item 1B, which is our second presentation for today. It's an annual update on Henipin History Museum from the executive director, John Krippen. Before we jump into the presentation, I'd like to say a c take a couple of minutes to recognize the key role that John played in the county's uh semiquincentennial planning team, helping to design and implement programming aligned with the county's adopted themes of the power of peace and unfinished revolutions. He has been instrumental in elevating the story of Eliza Winston, now featured in an exhibit at the Henipin History Museum. He served as the moderator for the panel that explored Eliza Winston's fight to freedom in Minnesota and the lasting impact of her n uh 1860 court case. Mr. Krippen also served as the Henipin County's host for the traveling screening of all episodes of Ken's Burns documentary the American Revolution presented in partnership with the Twin Cities PBS. Lots of accolades. Henipin History Museum and Henipin County Library. Um, for this partnership, I extend my thanks to you and to the board at the Henipin History Museum. And Mr. Krippen, I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Madam Chair, uh, thank you all for your time. You obviously have a busy day and lots of serious things to worry about. Uh, so I'm happy to be here to show you for a brief few moments some of the value that you're getting from your investment, if you will. Um I think we can well just yeah we can go to the next slide. So thank you all um for your support in so many ways. Uh your annual financial support is critical to what we're doing and we're doing our best to match that with our private fundraising which continues to accelerate. But I really appreciate to a person how each of you have engaged with us in different ways. Um offering me program ideas um uh coming to events supporting the work that we do. Um, really appreciate doing that. Uh, we've had a good few years. It's been a couple years since I've been in front of all of you together. Uh, as I say, we're having year-over-year increases in donations and membership. Uh, we were able to take advantage of some federal COVID relief funds that came in late to jumpstart our uh, reserve funds. And I have to say kudos to Commissioner Gautel for driving us uh in the right direction over these last six, seven years to build up the financial security of of Henipin History Museum. So we're finally in a place where we uh have short-term operating reserves, longer term reserves that we can use to invest in growth in the future. So we're in a much better place than we were just a number of years ago. Um and that's the partnership that we've been doing together. So, I thank you all for that. Um, just wanted to do a few highlights from the last year or so of what we've been up to. If we could go to the next slide. Uh, last year we got a grant from the humanities center, Minnesota humanities center to do, uh, what we called Henipinfest and it was a music festival focused on um, women in the arts um, women exploring history in the present day. Um, and the I think the quote that goes along these photos speaks for itself. It was it was just this great uh experience before a lot of the dark uh episodes of the last year started to unfold um where people came together um as community and we reactivated the park outside across from our um museum. It was it was just a fabulous model for how we can take history and do it in the present day um and activate community action. Uh, so that was that was a lot of fun. If we can go to the next one. Um, uh, Madam Chair already mentioned the Eliza Winston story. This has been an interesting experience for us. We opened this exhibit last fall. I was a little nervous, not too nervous. I knew the story was powerful, but we've kind of made our mark in the last few years talking about more recent history, uh, which I believe is a way we have to do things, uh, people's lived experience. So, we're going all the way back to 1860 and make a little nervous like are people going to resonate with this? Well, it turns out, as I say there, history may not repeat, but it often rhymes. Uh, so we're now delving into with the Eliza Winston story, uh, states rights northern style, where the young state of Minnesota looked at the federal government, said, "We don't care about the fugitive slave act. This woman's free." And a Henipin District Court is going to to make that happen. Um, but it was also on the eve of the Civil War and in our darker times these days, we're talking about this fractured uh world we live in and how are they negotiating that? How did it fall apart the year later? How are we negotiating that? We can use history to help people think about their current uh lives as well. And just focusing on Eliza Winston. uh for so long uh her story was kind of buried underneath uh community activists who said all right we're going to take credit for making her free. This was really a personal journey on her part and we built this exhibit with Chris Layman co-curator. He had written a book about Eliza and we pulled off of that. So just thinking about the personal courage that people make when they're in really difficult times and how they can move on. So, this has led from book to exhibit to poetry and poetry readings. Um, we're now working with community activists down in the Lake Harriet area to commemorate Eliza there. It's just a fun project that's had had some good legs. [snorts] Um, if we could go to the next slide. Uh, but we're living in the present, too. This is a copy of our most recent magazine. And, uh, I think you all got a copy of that, but uh, Graham Faulner's got another for you. So, if you don't need a second copy yourself, please share it around. Um, but, uh, we were living with this as as well as everyone else. As you know, we're in the Woodier neighborhood. Um, so we were dealing with in the the center of all of that. Um, so in our latest magazine, we went out on a little bit of a limb and said, we're going to use this magazine not just to tell historical narratives, but document history as it's happening. And so we did a photo essay, shared a photo essay from photographer Chris Jun. Are working with him to get his photos into our collection so that we can uh document this for future generations. Um I also wanted to point out uh I don't we've ran out of paper copies for now, but this is our report to community from 2025. Uh again, Graham is going to print some out for you and uh share it with you on email so you can look through uh by the numbers, by the deeper dive stories, how we're we're meshing with our strategic plan. Um if we could go to the next please. Um our new best friend at the state level is the community Minnesota Humanities Center. We got another two legacy grants through them in the past few months uh that are really going to do some transformative work for us. The first one was a $40,000 grant to do to create an exhibit that'll open next spring about Dakota women and their perspective on the world. And it's going to be really personal, really direct, which uh we're excited about. Um there are lots of people doing indigenous history right now. It it's had a renaissance in the last 10 years, 20 years or so. Um, but between the history center and Shakapei with Ho Chiakati and Awami Okodapi, there's a lot of big stuff happening which the bigger it gets, the more generalized it tends to get. So, we're excited with this exhibit to bring some personal stories in in ways that some of the bigger places aren't able to do. Um, but we also got a larger grant, $100,000 from the humanities center to do a repatriation project for our American Indian collection. Repatriation being if we identify there are objects that belong to other families or n tribal nations, we will give those back to them. And we're trying to push the envelope on how museums do this work. Um, museums have a bad reputation, I just have to say, for hoarding their stuff and saying this is ours and you got to prove it's not. and we're going into this project flipping that script and saying we don't know why we have this stuff and we don't presume that it should be here. So we're going to ask you do you know about connections to these things and would it be a more appropriate with this family with that tribal nation? So that's going to be work going on over the coming year. Um and I I think we're going to be putting ourselves and Henipin County on the map for some groundbreaking things. Um if we could jump to the next one, keep moving through here. Um just some stats. Lots of these are in the annual report which you can look at. Um and I didn't want to flood you with more numbered slides. Um because you get a lot of that. Uh one of the key success things for us or here it says foundation of our success. 83% of our programming is done in partnership. Uh that's just the way we have to do it with a small staff. We don't complain about our small staff. We actually love this statistic. Um, it keeps us honest. It keeps us doing the right thing. It keeps us available for what Commissioner Gotell mentioned of being able to jump on the county's initiative to do some by some semisquintenial sorry still don't get that word right. Um, so we were honored to be able to participate with with your staff to do work like that. Um, through this partnership programming, we're reaching about a 100,000 people a year, not just in the museum, uh, but with our publications, with, uh, social media and online presence, things like that. Um, and we're continuing to do more. We want to keep pushing the the limits of how can people be more aware of us. One of the fun things in the last couple years has been we were we've been able to participate in the Dayton's holiday market, both here downtown and out out at Southdale. And it's just another way for several hundred thousand people to be aware that there is a Henipin History Museum and we're doing some exciting things. Uh, one of the things that we're working on with this one because it's been been getting a lot of attention is turning this into a poster and seeing how many people might want to um get this for their collection. Yes, Commissioner Connley, I'll make sure you get [laughter] one. Um so yeah it's um it's really resonating with folks when we when we talk about the history that's happening uh in real time. Uh last but not least if we could go to the to the last slide um which doesn't really indust illustrate except this is the core of our mission statement and our vision about uniting communities with everyone represented. A few new and upcoming things. We just opened a popup exhibit, traveling exhibit about the Mexican band in Minnesota. Another 19th century thing that's really cool. Turns out the Mexican National Band played at the Minneapolis Exposition every day for the 6 weeks of the the expo in 1886. So, we're celebrating the 140th anniversary of that feat. um with the Minnesota Latino Museum. They approached us a few months ago and said, "Did you know about this story?" And we said, "We didn't know that much about it." And so we put this quick exhibit together. Um September 3rd, you're all welcome. I'll send you a follow-up. We're doing an open house in the museum about this exhibit. And October 28th, the Mexican consulate has gotten excited about this and we're going to be having an event on October 28th at Orchestra Hall. So I'll I'll let you all know more about that as well. Um, I've talked to you in the past about Haha Wakbadon, which is the Dakota name for Basset Creek. We've used those oral histories we did a number of years ago for uh fueling programming. And what's now become a cherished annual tradition is a water blessing on Indigenous People's Day. So that'll be October 12th at Westwood Hills Nature Center. We're going along the creek to different uh cities. So this one will be St. Louis Park. Um, so that'll be uh great to do again. Doing some more uh political programming because it's election season. We try to stay out of the daily elections, but throw some things in. So, we'll be doing some programming this fall on that. And last but not least, this is just a teaser for what we've been spending a lot of time on. Uh, the board of the museum, as Commissioners Anderson and Gotel know, has finally gotten serious about dealing with our facility. and what do we do about that? So, we worked with a local architecture firm and got a pre-esigned feasibility study done. They answered question one, can it be fixed? Yes, it can. And question two, how much is it going to cost? And they gave us a pretty good number, but that number is going to change and grow as numbers do. So, we're in the process of assessing our capacity for uh capital campaigns both with private funding and public funding and looking what that mix is. So, we'll be in touch over coming months as we figure all those questions out and decide if that's a direction we can go. Um, we're going to figure out something. We're going to stop kicking the can down the road. Um, we're going to solve this problem that's been bedeviling us for quite some time. So, that's that's what we've been up to. It's been kind of a busy time. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Krippen. I really appreciate you being here. And I just want to say how thankful I am for the sustainability that you put under the the bedrock of this uh of this Henipin History Museum. A lot of us really love this and it's find it endearing. I also find that under your leadership that the programming has just soared and so has the participation because of the work that you have been doing. So I just want to say thank you and I'm going to open it up to my colleagues, Commissioner Green and then Anderson. >> Um thank you Madam Chair and thank you Mr. Dr. Kbin for the presentation. I um want to assert um somewhat piggly that you're in my district. >> Yes. [laughter] >> Um and I, you know, you're not the highest profile museum. So, correct. That is not news to you. Um and yet you're always doing something really vital and um and by vital I mean alive and and relevant. Um, and so I really appreciate that and I feel like your presentation today is no exception. Um, so thank you for that and definitely I think let all of us know about the events because um, there were, you know, many things that I'd love to attend and be a part of. >> Yeah, thank you. I I appreciate that comment in part because um it my reflection over the last several years is this is a really difficult time to be a large organization with a lot of institutional weight and patterns and what have you. It's a dangerous time to be a small nonprofit, but it's a time where we can take advantage of the opportunities and jump on them. the Mexican band, we didn't know about this in January, but we were able to say, "Yeah, few thousand dollars, we can just do this." Um, whereas a larger organ larger organization often will struggle with that and say, "Well, we'll see if we can get you on the agenda." So, um, so we try to take advantage of what we what strength we do have. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you for saying yes. I feel like that's the like [laughter] coaching that we all get. Say yes, and you're saying yes. >> We start with maybe and we work to get to yes as fast as we can. Yep. >> Commissioner Anderson. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you so much for for coming and giving the the presentation and all of the work that you've been doing. Um, have always just been since being introduced to the history museum, um, have just always been so impressed with how you've approached the the job of, uh, collecting and, uh, presenting history to to people in relevant ways. and you know, you had so many different great examples of it. Um, and I also just want to highlight the amount of collaboration and partnership that you put into uh to being able to formulate these exhibits. like you have done so many amazing unique things um through this that have told stories about uh what has happened historically in Henipin County and what is currently happening in Henipin County that I think most of us have no idea that uh that these communities are even uh vibrant. you know, I think you there was a >> I I there's so many different examples, but um it's it's just there's always a new surprise. Uh and uh and being able to to find those partners to tell those stories in in new and relevant ways, I think, is just very commendable and applaudable. So, I I I thank you for the work that you're doing for that. >> Well, thank you. You illustrated the core of our mission. We're creating spaces for communities plural to tell their stories and so >> we try to do that create that platform for folks. >> Commissioner Lundy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh just want to you know thank everyone the volunteers for the efforts and uh just ask because I always say don't ask a question unless you're willing to volunteer. Um because I do think there's uh it's Minneapolis focus and I think that when uh you know uh my district has I believe you know 20 to 22% are foreign born. We talk about immigrants and they come from all over. It's not just one area. It is uh as like say the rainbow is very rainbowish. Uh it's it's got everything. We have different tribal things that people have fled here seeking refuge and I think that's very topical. And so I guess rather than complain, I'm going to ask to find time to meet with you because I do think it's a missing story uh that ICE was very active in District 1. >> Yep. But you didn't see that cuz people only thought it was Minneapolis where they were very active, but it was all over the place and people were uh having businesses closed, people weren't showing up for work and uh but most news tends to be Minneapolis. Uh suburbs tend not to hit there. So I would like to find a way to to help with that. I think there's so many stories of uh groups that have come here, M community, Vietnamese like Lao uh you know Liberians during the civil war um you know there are still right now civil war happening and people are living here now in fear of that and their relatives that I think those stories are very resonant and they actually they don't replace history. I think that's people think that they got to replace history. You can do an and you add another chapter. History books get longer. They don't get shorter and they don't get rid of the stuff at the beginning. I think the first people that lived here, then you have people that moved here and you keep having this kind of a refresh uh which is I believe as American as you can get. Um but so I I would like to just ask for that chance to start to talk about that. >> Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. Absolutely. Um I just had a a preliminary meeting this morning. Uh folks at Mallister have been invited to apply for a large grant from the Melon Foundation uh to document this history that's happened in 2026 and they were looking at both Henipin and Ramsey counties, not Minneapolis and St. Paul. And so there's an opportunity for us to put together a package to say how can we step in and help these communities document what they've been through. So the timing is actually really really good and >> and I would suggest leaving the standard Minnesota groups >> to come up cuz you're going to find out that the connections between the Brooklyn's which I think was in the paper being the most diverse in the state. We don't have the same connections to these what I call institutional things that right >> we just don't have them. people will come up to visit so they can put on a grant application. They they were here working with us but they disappear. So I do think it's really important to really reach out. There are churches, there are leaders there that elders that I think really could help with that effort. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Krippen, for their presentation. What amazing work you've been up to. Um I really appreciate how your work is intentional. The exhibits at the Henipin History Museum are very intentional. They're very truthtelling. Um, as you know, I've been a huge fan of this uplifting of the story of Eliza Winston. Um, which led me to a panel discussion at the Henipin History Museum where I got my book, It Takes Courage, signed by Dr. Layman. So, thank you. Um, and it opened up just this conversation about um, history that also impacts today, right? U, my team and I recently visited the marker for Eliza Winston on St. and Anthony Maine learned it the language used was very much outdated. Um and so as you do work in Lake Harriet it sounds like around that area as where kind of she moved to um I know that you and the museum will be very um cognizant of how we use language to talk about these stories um that are just have shaped um Minnesota. And uh something that stuck out from what you said as is as as upcoming is this um this move to return artifacts to where they rightfully belong and how museums do get a bad rap for that. Um there's a scene in a movie that I love dearly that talk that he's in a museum. Folks might know what movie I'm talking about. And he's asking about where all where did all these artifacts come from? Uh and the curator was a little bit you know [laughter] you know what I'm talking about. I don't actually know which movie, but >> Black Panther. >> Oh, right. >> Yeah. The opening scene, right? Yep. >> Anyway, that's So, you knew where I was going. >> That's like the same spirit is that museums hoard and they collect and they collect and they collect, but there's there's whole nations of people that had these artifacts stolen from them and then we just showcase them. So, I think it's admirable, honorable, and the right thing to do to look at how to return um what was taken. So, just keep up the great work. I am a huge [snorts] fan of all that you do. And um I think my adventure into Henipin History Museum started with a conversation around Minnesota being um on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. and you had Alisa there who was talking about her research and that led us to various different places in district 4 that were um a part of this network and it all started by just attending a conversation at the Henipin History Museum. So keep up this incredible work. Uh it's great and I'm really happy to hear about the capital admissions of the museum itself. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? I just want to thank you for coming and doing your update and we'll look forward to seeing you next year with another great >> Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will move on to item two, which is minutes from the previous meeting of August 13, 2025. May I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Any corrections or changes? All those in favor signify by I. I. >> Motion carries. Um, next item three is a public hearing um on the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act local plan. The public hearing will be conducted in person and via telephone. Persons not in attendance today but interested in commenting are invited to call a toll-free conference number now. And that number is 1-855348151. Again, I'll say that number again. 1855 348151. And I think it's displaying on the screen. It is. Um, while we wait for for callers, I'd like to ask Miss uh Nola uh Slagger uh Johnson and Miss May Jang to provide background. Thank you. Welcome. >> Uh, good afternoon, Madam Chair, commissioners. My name is Nola Slaughter Johnson and I am with the Department of Workforce Development here at Henipin County. Today's public hearing provides an opportunity for public review and comment on our proposed Henipin Carver Workforce Development Area 9 WA local plan update. This local plan is required under the federal WA which is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act and serves as our strategic roadmap for our local workforce development system. Our workforce system is where workforce development, education, training, economic development, employers, labor, community based organizations, and other partners come together to align our resources, our expertise and services around our shared workforce goals. It is through this alignment that we can better connect residents to opportunity, help employers meet their talent needs, and respond collectively to the changing needs of our regional economy. This plan builds from a strong foundation of partnerships across suburban and henipin across suburban henipin and Carver counties rather while recognizing that our greatest opportunity is how we align our work. No single program, organization or funding source can meet the workforce needs of our residents and employers alone. By better connecting our our resources, services, data, and expertise, we can reduce duplication, close gaps between systems, and create clearer pathways for both residents and employers. The local plan provides the shared direction for doing that work together. The proposed local plan has been made available for public review and comment feedback through this process will be considered and incorporated into the plan prior to our submission to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and I can take additional questions at this time. >> Questions from my colleagues and everything. I want to thank you for the presentation today and I will ask staff if there are any callers. >> I've been informed that there are no callers at this time. Okay. Um, so is there anyone here in person who would like to speak to this? I would welcome anyone for three minutes to speak on this topic. I'll check one more time for any callers online. >> I've been informed again there's still no callers on the line. >> Okay. So then there's if there's no callers, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor signify by I I. >> Motion carries. The public hearing is closed. We will move on to uh item four. There's a couple of routine items. Item 4 A is to amend an agreement with uh Metra LLC for media planning, media procurement, and limited creative services to advance county strategic priorities extending the end date to 1231 of 28 in um including a not to exceed increasing the not to exceed by 1.5 million for a new not to exceed of 3.5 million. Do I have a motion? >> Move approval. >> Second. Does anybody want any explanations on this one? All those in favor signify by I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Item 4B is approval of the submission of Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act local plan to the state of Minnesota. I'll move this. >> Second. >> Does anybody else have any conversation discussion? All those in favor signify by I. I. >> Motion carries. >> Items for discussion and action. Item 4 C is uh commissioner compensation. Uh Mr. Rogan, I believe. Oh, Commissioner, is it administrator Wetland? Okay. Chair Gotel commissioners, per Minnesota statute, adjustments in commissioner salaries shall be adopted by the county board by resolution prior to a general election to take effect on January 1 of the succeeding year. [snorts] Additionally, county attorney and sheriff salaries shall be determined by the board of county commissioners. Based on that, the three board actions in front of you, items 4 C through 4E, set the salary for commissioners, the sheriff, and the county attorney for 2027 and 2028. The recommended compensation is consistent with historical patterns and notice requesting the adjustments must be sent to the county administrator by the dates listed in the board action. Thank you. I'll take a a motion for items 4 C through 4E. >> I'll move it. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Commissioner Anderson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'm going to be really unpopular. Sorry, guys. Um is there a possibility at least for 4C? I know that we've asked uh staff departments to hold themselves to a 2% uh kind of a broadly 2% increase uh for next year's budget. Um and I'm I would move and if there's not a second, that's fine. uh to adjust the uh commissioner's compensation for next year's to 2% and then adjust the the dollar amount um correspondingly. >> Is that a motion? >> That was a motion. >> Okay. >> Discussion. Um, again, like I said, it was um I know that we are approaching a very difficult budget year and we've asked um every county department to hold themselves to a 2% increase. I know our staff are receiving the COLA increases. Um that is in line with this, but uh you know we are we operate a little bit differently on this floor. And I think part of our obligation is to um is to still lead by uh example and try to match what our workforce is dealing with. And right now they're dealing with um what is effectively a cut um and not meeting the the COLA increases that that their contracts afford them. And so my proposal is to uh have our salary match. >> Commissioner Irene and then Connie. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Um appreciate the a motion for the amendment. I'll be voting against that. uh the 4% matt I hear you on the 2% for department goals. Um my understanding from administration is that the 4% matches the contract and that that the 2% uh for the 2028 year is 2% because the contract uh is not been set yet for that year. So that's why I'll be voting against it. Additionally um because we uh there's a block before us. Um the percentage is uh consistent across the nine positions. Three board actions is what I'll be voting in favor of. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Um, Commissioner Connley. >> Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was going to say something along the same lines, which was, are you motioning to um cuz all three 4 CD, D, and E are four and two. >> Mine was only for this body for our uh for this for 4C. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I I just want to make a comment um that I won't be supporting that motion either. Most likely because again this was a contract thing that we negotiated and for years and years we have not compensated this office and as we look to the future for other commissioners to take into some of these seats as some of us retire and come off. We need to make it it's not it's not an outrageous amount if we look at the colleagues and there was a great study that Commissioner Fernando brought to us about compensation across the nation um for commissioners and we are well below that average and so um I won't be voting that for for that and so for the motion on item 4C only um excuse me >> yeah for the >> yeah for for the amendment on 4C only all those in favor signify by I >> I >> all Those opposed? Nay. The naysay have it. Um, so we'll go back to the original motion which I'll ask for the slate of items 4 C, D, and E. Do I have a motion? >> Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. And that concludes our agenda. I will call to order the Human Services Committee. It's Tuesday, August 25th. It is 3:01. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes from August 13th. If there are any changes, otherwise I'll have a motion. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Thank you. It's been moved and second. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The motion carries. We have four routine items of new business before us today. If I can have a motion to move 2A through D 2D before us, I will read them into the record. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Thank you. Item 2 A is a human services and public health resolution including contracts and amendments to contracts with providers. More information is contained in the board report of 2611. Item 2B is a joint powers agreement with the city of Brooklyn Center authorizing the Henipin County 911 alternative response team program for the period of January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2026. Item 2 C is an amendment to an agreement with North Memorial Health and the city of Brooklyn Park to continue 911 alternative response team services as an update to the agreement to add a federal um addendum. There are no changes to that amount or the dates. Item 2D is an amendment to the agreement with Substance and Mental Health Services Administration to continue a federal grant for Community Crisis Response Partnerships extending the end date to September 29th, 2027 and increasing the receivable amount of uh amount to 749,58 and for a no new total receivable amount of $2,972,821. 1. Uh, with that, if there are any questions, I know we have David Huitt here. All right. Uh, Commissioner Lia. Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Just less of a question, more of a statement. I just want to, uh, highlight the work that the 911 response teams continue to do, um, working in community. Um, I've done ride alongs. Um, I've seen talked to police officers both cities talking about the value that it presents and the opportunities where it makes more sense for a uh alternative response to show up at a house than um than a police officer because a police officer can't bring access to services, cannot set up appointments, cannot speak on what kind of programs when that's the real problem, not because that there's a need for a police officer to show up. So, uh, it has worked well. The officers have talked about how well it works integrated in their systems. They're all connected. So that that initial concern that I heard many times is, oh, you don't want to send people on 911 calls. It, you know, bedum and all kinds of bad things are going to happen. Well, they've worked it out. They know what kind of calls that people are going to get dispatched to. They show up for the right calls. if there's a question, they might show up second or a co-responder model just to say that after the situation is kind of uh identified that then the social worker takes over. And so um I think one of our big challenges is going to be is finding the talent pool who wants to do that 911 response as a social worker to kind of go out there when it is a special calling that you want to show up live in people. um on obviously still not a good day when you're having a 911 response. So I just want to call that out. I know it started be before I joined the board and is continuing and I think it's done nothing but grow and I think it's example when we talk about how can we let police do what police do best and other people can do other things. So thank you Madam Chair. >> Thank you Commissioner Lundy. I don't know there was a question in there but I totally agree with what you're saying. Alternative response has been such a successful program. Um, all right. With that and no other further questions or comments, um, we will move for a vote. All those in favor of approving 2 A through 2D, please say I. I. >> Opposed. The motion carries. Then that concludes the human services committee. We are adjourned. like to call today's law, safety, and justice committee meeting to order. Uh we have a few items on docket, but first up we have a presentation from the sheriff's office. Um I'll turn over to Chella first. Introduce. >> Good afternoon, chair, commissioners. Uh we are going to hear a brief presentation from the sheriff's office directly. I believe that chief deputy uh Pat Enderline is here in response to your request for an update as to the implementation of recommendations related to the overtime study and staffing studies that this board has received. Chief Underline. >> Good afternoon, chair and commissioners. Chief Deputy Pat Underline with the sheriff's office. I want to start by saying thank you for the support over the past two years with for the staffing studies and get that done. And I also do want to recognize the magnitude. We understand the weight of the budget where we're at with the budgets. The update from Mr. Matthews earlier. As you know, we're here today to provide an update on progress implementing recommendations from the independent staffing studies for the emergency communications facility and adult detention center as well as an update with respect to the overtime study. The studies provided detailed recommendations for a variety of areas including staffing, supervision, deployment, training, and workforce management. We have worked strategically to implement many of those recommendations already. Completing the remaining recommendations relies heavily on bringing staffing resources into alignment with the studies. Next slide, please. There are 45 total recommendations within the two staffing studies and 29 of them are complete or in implementation. There were also 22 recommendations in the overtime study with some of those overlapping within the two staffing studies. As you can see, we've made significant progress across the board with twothirds of all recommendations complete or underway. Substantial progress has been made using existing resources and operational changes. Next slide, please. As we all know, data drives strategic planning and decision-making, and we appreciate the opportunity to use what we have learned from the overtime study to collaborate with county administration and the Office of Budget and Finance. Some of that work is highlighted in the monthly reports provided to the board. We recognize that better data supports better workload and staffing analysis. Better analysis allows budget and staffing requests to be tied more closely and directly to documented operational needs for greater decision-making. Ultimately, we will continue to assess staffing requirements so staffing decisions remain connected to operational needs and community realities. Next slide, please. 15 of the 22 overtime study recommendations are complete or underway. Administratively, this included adopting recommendations such as streamlining overtime codes, separating reimburseable overtime from expensed overtime, consistent pay period overtime reviews by all division commanders, formalizing development of the annual overtime budget with periodic reviews to aid in future budget planning and streamlining the hiring process and focusing on assertive recruitment and retention practices. Operationally, this included recommendations such as creating dedicated teams to conduct detainee guard duty and medical transport responsibilities, which has been completed, and transitioning from licensed deputies to detention deputies within the jail facility, which has been partially completed, and I'll cover more on that later in the jail slide studies or jail study slides. Some of the areas we have not been able to implement include incorporating relief factor agencywide and devising a new staffing plan in the jail which is primarily due to the current approved complement of FTEES. In area areas we chose not to implement include assigning a dedicated team to cover the Golden Valley shift coverage agreement as that was intended to be a temporary and reimburseable detail and also splitting our violent offender task force into two separate teams and shifts as that would require additional supervisory positions. Next slide please. Regarding the emergency communications facility, 17 of 25 recommendations are complete or underway. This includes utilizing a ticketing system to track workload, establishing a dedicated training budget, reallocating supervisory roles to better align with specialized functions, and ensuring accurate job descriptions to clarify expectations of roles. Next slide. Next steps in implementation depend in large part on opportunities to resolve the staffing level recommendation. This includes increasing recommendations to increase by 19 telecommunicators for a total strength of 73, adding three new telecommunicator sergeants for a total of 12, adding six new records clerks also for a total of 12, and adding a variety of other positions including a deputy director and quality assurance manager. Next slide, please. For the adult detention center, 13 of 20 recommendations are complete or ongoing. We have transferred most weapon screening and all medical transport responsibilities as well as the needed deputy compliment to the court and field services bureau. We've also shifted detainee guard duty responsibilities and the needed deputy compliment to our public safety services bureau. We've achieved the we've achieved the recommended minimum staffing possible within the currently approved complement and we've implemented the classification staff recommendation. Next slide. Similar to the ECF, additional recommendations become possible once those foundational staffing resources are in place. Specific needs include reaching the recommended minimum staffing level of 303 deputies, which includes licensed and unlicensed deputies, adding six new detention sergeants to attain a complement of 29, and adding nine new central records staff. For additional context, there are currently 196 board approved and funded detention deputies assigned to the jail. At the beginning of 2027, there will be 39 sheriff's deputies assigned to the jail. That totals 235 board approved and funded line staff in the jail with the goal of reaching the necessary minimum of 303. Next slide, please. In closing, we are reaching the limit of what we can of what can be accomplished through reassignment or changes to existing operations alone. Between both staffing studies, 13 of the 15 not yet implemented recommendations are directly tied to adequate staffing levels. We recognize and understand there is significant financial pressure facing our residents, the county, and all county departments and resources. These thirdparty studies are tremendously valuable when it comes to resource allocation, ensuring fiscal responsibility, requesting necessary positions, and considering consolidation of resources. We look forward to continued conversations and next steps to determine an achievable implementation schedule for the recommended positions. I want to thank you again. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Sheriff Wit. >> Thank you, Chief Renderline, and thank you, commissioners, for engaging with our office on the work that we do. We appreciate the partnership with county administration and the consultants who made these studies happen. I want to speak briefly about the areas of our office where we haven't had staffing studies and reiterate that our agencywide staffing study that a agencywide staffing study would be very much helpful to us. The broader reality is that we have more work across this agency than we have historically and the [snorts] workload in many areas continues to increase yearoveryear. Some of the areas of increase include CAD events are up 5.2%. The Henipin County Sheriff's Office recorded just under 350,000 police CAD events through quarter 2 of 2026, more than 17,000 additional events above the 2025 levels. Civil enforcement workload is up 20%. Deputies made 11,675 civil service attempts through quarter 2 of 2026, compared with 9,730 in 2025. That's nearly 2,000 additional attempts. Foreclosure sales are running 32% higher, averaging 45 per month compared to 34 in past. Forensic demands is also growing, particularly around narcotics. The growing workload across this agency is one of the reasons it's generally isn't impossible for us to simply move bodies from other areas of the sheriff's office into the jail. those employees are already doing the work that has to get done and in many cases the workload is increasing as I just um talked about. Moving licensed deputies into the jail is not the answer. In fact, one assessment recommendation agrees that would not be fiscally responsible either as licensed deputies are trained and paid at a higher rate than our detention deputies. That's also why I strongly encourage an agencywide staffing study. It would be valuable as we plan for future implementations, not just while we're here, but for the people that come and do these jobs after us. We appreciate the work that has gone into making sure the jail is appropriately staffed over the next several years, and we look forward to continue to work together and making sure that we increase the services for the residents of this county every day. Thank you. Should I stay up here for questions or sit down? I guess it would depend on the I I just uh wanted to um thank sheriff's department for all the work on this. Uh we've had constant communication about uh I think what I believe is an opportunity to brag. That's what I've said to you as well because when you're getting stuff done knowing that there are steps to be done, there's nothing wrong with progress. And I think that we are doing that. we have to do it together because I think as we get closer we get closer to the where the steps are going to require bodies and so uh I think as we continue to work through that my goal has always been to get less than overtime I'd rather have people in those positions than having us to back fill and I think that's the I don't want to speak for sheriff's department but I feel that's the same thing as we need people to get rid of that overtime hours. Um, I'll just uh say that I think um um I'll just turn any advanced questions. I'll start there. Commissioner Anderson, >> this is maybe like foundational question. You you use some terminology that I was unfamiliar with. CAD events. Um I I apologize. I am just not cheer commissioners. I It's a computer aided dispatch event. So that's when a telecommunicator initiates a call for service for our staff out in the squad car. >> Is now those events uh remind me again how what the increase was on that. It was >> um >> we brought our entourage with you. >> Yeah. Right. >> I'm I'm hearing 17,000 an increase of 5.2%. Increase of 17,000 additional events. And that's that's impacting your telecommunicators or is that your dispatch? Like I'm I'm I want to make sure that I'm putting this in the right context of where the need is. Um so if you could help. >> Yep. Chair Commissioner, we also have one of our uh emergency communications facility supervisors here, Don Kenyon, that can answer specific questions, but that would be a direct impact in in for sure in our telecommunications staff load as far as call takers and dispatchers. just making sure there are enough people there answering the calls and then dispatching them out. >> And is that countywide or is that just the Plymouth or like our our PAP? Um, >> chair, commissioner, that would that would be our PAP. So for the agencies that we dispatch for >> Okay. I uh I appreciate that. I just trying to make sure that I understand the the context of where these are. Um, you also mentioned a really big increase on the number of attempts uh like the the civil um you know the terminology, I don't. Um the the attempts that you made to uh I'm assuming serving subpoenas and and that type of work. Um, is that uh I know when I did a ride along few years ago, um, I I remember very distinctly hearing like we get so many of these and [music] we never get to all of it. Like it's we get to as many as we can and we try to do [laughter] everything as best we can. Um, how does this reflect the total amount of work? Are you making more inroads on the amount total amount that's uh that has been asked of you? Can you can you speak a little bit to kind of how that that's playing out because I know you're always over over asked. >> Yeah. Chair, Commissioner, I can't speak directly to that. I don't know if Major Curts like to answer that or we could get back to the board. Real quick, chair commissioners. Uh, yes, we if a paper comes into the civil unit, we do uh try to we will try to serve that paper 100% of the time. We will not be successful 100% of the time. And and I know like when I this maybe is a historical thing like um it was my understanding or it was just my impression that that there was more papers that you were asked to to serve than you had capacity to serve when I did my ride along a few years ago. Um, are you at a point right now where you are attempting to serve 100%. Um, like you are always going out and all of them have been attempted to be served or are you still just doing a percentage of them? >> Again, any paper that comes into the office, we attempt to serve, but if you go and knock on the door two, three times, you might not get that paper served. Um, I will say with the additional um two deputies that have been moved to the civil unit, that has been a big help in um closing that gap to make sure that if a paper does come in the door, we're at least trying to serve it. >> Okay. >> Sorry. I think it's also important to note that there are some time constraints on some of the papers that need to be served, legal obligations in which things need to be served such as stinko orders, domestic abuse, no contact orders, and things like that. And then when we're dealing with the mental health side of things and then just even going out looking for people sometimes not every resident is on the address on the papers that we have and so certain certain things are more urgent and that takes more resources to make sure that we're doing our part to getting people served in a timely manner. >> Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you, >> Commissioner Goel. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. I just want to say I really appreciate the recognition for the the budget situation that we're all in. And we're all sharing in in the demise or the wealth, however this goes, right? There's such a tug, a pull on what we can do and what we can't do and how fast we can ramp things up, especially now when we're looking at the deficits facing us as a county. And I I feel your pain. I mean, I I heard you talk about the number of evictions that you have to go to and everything. On on the other side of that, those people who are evicted show up at the door of our health and human services and our people have seen increases too and yet we are holding vacancies as best we can and there are more people to serve. So, we are all feeling that workload and I appreciate you working with us on this and working on these budget constraints that we all have as we try to make sure that we are serving public safety in in a good good way. Um, we're all trying to do more with less and I appreciate your efforts. Thank you, >> Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to echo that um appreciation. Uh it's a tough year uh financially, fiscally. Next year is a tough year. The year after that is a tough year. Um and so uh this is I'm seeing a lot of progress in this report which is which is incredible. So keep it up. I think twothirds of what was recommended is complete. That's great. I had two questions. One of them is um there were seven recommendations that were not complete on the ADC uh staffing and I just wondered what those were. It says there were five complete, several that are in process, seven not yet complete. Wondered if you can just give an idea. You don't have to name all seven, but just what are some of the things that um are not yet completed or maybe won't be completed. >> Chair, Commissioner, thank you. Yeah, I'll try to make it concise. I believe they were all directly related to staffing. So, one one is a creation of a flex pool. Um, one is the detention technician position, re-evaluating that. Yeah. uh creating a rover sergeant, assigning a command center sergeant, increase in central record staff, and then another one, a final one was evaluating the jail medical unit business practices, which we we would not do. >> Thank you. And so the ADC is at the required staffing level right now, right? No, the the well the the recommended we're meeting the minimum staffing levels based upon overtime use and filling it with people from other divisions as we can high use of overtime. Um with the matrix report with without a shift relief factor, we would need at least 252 line staff in there just to fill all of the shifts. And that is not with the relief factor. That 303 is with the relief factor. So we're hitting it with use of overtime. >> Got it. And so, um, with that additional that flex pool could potentially be created and then the detention tax that we talked about earlier this year could be something that's implemented as well. >> Chair, commissioner, the the flex pool, yes, we're looking at detention technicians. We have some concerns over that. And part of that, like we've talked about before, is what we do with our staff who are injured on duty, on light duty. Typically they are reallocated to the areas like the control rooms which detention technicians have historically been utilized for. So we we want to have a little more discussion on that. Understood. Thank you. Um second question was just um Madam Chair, thank you around civil enforcement. So, I know that the question I'm going to ask maybe doesn't fall under civil enforcement, but for some of the agreements, I'm wondering if it's overtime that you might have with other cities, Minneapolis specifically, to do patrols in certain areas to where does that fall under? And is that overtime? Is that already budgeted? >> Yep. Chair, commissioner. So, that's not related to civil enforcement. That's our paper service, RITs, evictions. That would be our enforcement services division. We have we have no agreement with the city of Minneapolis to provide any um stability, continued coverage, any coverage at all within any of their precincts. We did with Golden Valley Police Department and we do with some of the smaller cities like Rockford and Handover, but with the city of Minneapolis, we don't have any agreement to provide any service level in their in their city as far as patrol services. >> Great. I'd like to follow up with you on that just from what I've seen uh on the south side. Um so for the civil enforcement being up that doesn't include any other type of uh patrolling that's all within enforcement. So is enforcement itself seeing a rise? >> Um chair commissioners I I don't have that information. >> No I just want to say that we do not have any scheduled times that we are in the city of Minneapolis. We follow the data on where the crime is. We do um once in a while do focus focus enforcement details which often involve uh uh collaboration with um Minneapolis but that can involve people with Henipin County warrants or Minneapolis warrants and I don't know if there's anything that Major Magnus wanted to add there but I think a clear distinction is when we were in Brooklyn Park and Golden Valley we were contracted to be there for a certain amount of squads for a certain amount of hours. We do not do any of that with the city of Minneapolis. >> Okay. As a followup, Madam Chair, I would like to follow up with you on that just from what I've seen and um I know constituents have seen deputies patrol Lake Street specifically and I wondered if it could have been uh as a result of there's a major crackdown now on uh what the mayor calls open air drug use and it was a multi-jurisdictional. So, um I'll follow up because I I think um there's some detail that I'd like to provide you with. >> Okay. No, thank you. And I will say that some of that is a response to constituents that have also reached out to me asking, begging, pleading for help as well. >> Thank you. >> Um, Commissioner Eden. >> Well, I want to I want thank you for this presentation. It's really helpful just looking at this um this deck that you have uh to figure out where we are. So, one of the things I I was thinking about is um what happens with so overtime is obviously I feel like it's like something we've talked about since I've been here and I think everybody's talking about this. It's not just Henipin County in public safety. That's what we're hearing. And then I was I don't remember I I have to read my own chicken scratch notes. I don't even know if I can read it. What happens operationally if we fund minimum staffing versus optimal staffing or ideal staffing is one of the questions I had. You know, in terms of what we're are we if we add staffing is is do we really see overtime going down to what extent like you know what I mean? I'm just trying to figure out where we need to be for it to be to be better. >> Yeah. True. Commissioner, I I don't want to take a solid stab at this. We've gone, we've talked with OBF about this. We've talked with our finance director about this. We've kind of talked about this per this 10% that Greg Matthews alluded to when he did the the overtime presentation. We've tried to pull data from across the country. There's a lot of apples to oranges on that. We would expect to see a reduction in overtime. To what extent, we're not 100% sure on that. Certainly, as we increase staffing levels, we account for relief factor. I I have a laundry list of people that are off on light duty military leave. is it is so once we start accounting for all of that with relief factor then we would expect to see the overtime to go down. I I don't want to project to what extent that would be or what an appropriate overtime is we are having continued conversations with county administration on that. >> Well and it just made me think of Thank you for that. It just made me think of uh Commissioner Anderson to what you were saying is like not that something's not being done but officers are feeling like I need to go. I don't have time to spend time with you. I need to go. I need to get to this next thing. And so it just makes me think like if we're staffed more even so do do officers just and deputies have a little bit more time so they're going to spend more time in the community for I you know it's just this kind of challenging thing where there's always need um and so we have it the same there's a lot of things that are very similar in like a hospital setting um to what this is like doctors only have a few moments with you and then if you know if they have less patients maybe they'll spend more time right it's So anyways, it's I'm I'm just thinking through all of this. I don't know that there have a answer or a question. >> There was a question an answer and an explanation in that commissioner. But no, this is I give you one example that occurred um in the month of July where because we also care for the people that are in our custody and the number of people that we have that are ill um very ill. There are several points in the month of July where we had more deputies at the hospital than we did in a patrol in the streets of Henipin County and that should never be. So when we're talking about getting to that number, whatever that sweet spot is, we don't know what it is. But again, I say that we need to look at the reality of what we're facing right now because we also have to think of the types of calls that these um that our deputies are responding to, things that affect them tremendously. And I know again I with all due respect, we're all under pressure with budget, but it's my job to talk about what we need and I'm I'm trying to explain what we need, not what we want. As I explained to the county administrator, if I said what I want, I'd be asking you for a helicopter right about now. That was a joke. It's okay. Laugh. Um [laughter] but um you know, again, the jobs is simply different now either. Um even with respect to what you said, Commissioner Anderson, it's different from three years ago. Um, but we really need to, that's why I would really like again to say we need that staff and study. I understand we're not going to do it for right now, but we have a responsibility to plan for the future with what we're seeing right now. Um, and that's the best thing for our residents as well as our staff. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Commissioner Fernando. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Sheriff Chief, the whole team who's here. Uh as Commissioner Edson said, we've been talking about this particular subject for quite some time and so mine are more kind of in general remarks knowing that we are going to be doing budget very soon and uh as mentioned a lot of us are tracking uh what's going on here. So uh mine are again more comments for the for the in an effort to be transparent. Uh so first staffing resources in alignment with studies totally hear you chief and our world has completely shifted by way of revenue um over this last year and so uh even offers that we have made to our municipalities offers we've made to providers to partners over the last several years are being um reevaluated and so I just want to express that on the record. uh we the commissioners have asked county admin to re-evaluate and to really look holistically not just at the henipin effect uh but the cascading effect that occurs for municipalities and of course with our county partners. So I want to say that for for the record publicly. Uh second comment absolutely hear you on the staffing study sheriff and um that the workload is up. uh more data on this would be interesting not just for data sake I'll explain why uh these are just Irene's opinions now these are this this following is not everybody's opinion yet um but clearly there is some amount of scope that is being questioned uh for counties we have counties um in other other county colleagues are questioning whether or not we counties should be doing social services there are other areas that are wondering if municipalities should be doing law enforcement and so for the local level. We are being asked by residents and um by our partners to to re-evaluate what work should be going where. And so that data will help to inform, you know, perhaps there's a a scope um when I say scope, you know, our our sheriff's office is implementing foreclosure statewide. Is that up, you know, 50%. What what what might that data show us? Another example of of the data is the medical need. You express medical need. Um you know many of us have expressed a need for consistent sustainable durable dedicated revenue for health. You know maybe there is something that uh the data shows there either in our own facility or facilities across uh the state. Uh so that that's where I think it would be um beneficial. And so when I think of staffing study personally I'm I'm going to invite that it is more broadly and not just one agency. That's a tension point that uh I I'm personally experiencing from resident feedback. Residents are saying property taxes are AC up across all areas. Are you willing to partner with each other and and ask how should that get paid for? So I wanted to express that um you know verbally myself. And then uh my last comment set of comments uh just to keep the comment alive. I've expressed uh intrigue as to why we don't have a JPA with Minneapolis. We have one for the state fair. We have one for Golden Valley. There's one for votive it sounds like according to the verbal presentation here. So, I'll just continue to express that because again, it is property taxpayers who are um offering us this feedback and asking us to look. So, um again, I don't this is not a of course I always welcome response sheriff. This is not a Q&A for right now. This is not a new comment from me either. I just uh wanting to make sure that this subject is the overtime study, but it is of course residing within a broader conversation um among all local agencies uh and our our residents around services, the tension with uh revenue and sustainability for years to come. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you, chair. Thank you, commissioners. Um we do not have a a contract for VODA focus enforcement details again involve both county and city warrants. It's um activities that is built off of data going on um typically within the city and that's is it once a month twice a month? >> Twice a month >> twice a month um focus enforcement detail. Um, the other thing is, um, with the city, I will tell you that I have had conversations with both Commissioner Barnett and, uh, Mayor Jacob Fry regarding some kind of compensation for the work that we do in Minneapolis. It's my understanding that commissioners could also have those conversations with the city council. Trust me, I wouldn't turn it down. I would though say that um the one thing that I do worry about though is going into any kind of contracts that will hinder the work that we can do because the sheriff's office is not under a consent decree and that's not something that I'm willing to work under. Um but with um absent that I am all for being reimbured. We are doing a lot of work there and I've I have started the conversations and I um actually had that conversation with a couple of the council members and I would encourage some allyship and maybe we you guys can help move the dial on that one. I'm not going to be opposed to it. Thank you. >> Um I I did have a few more questions. Um, and uh, you know, sheriff, I didn't mean to tag on to yours, nor did I exchange text message with you, but I have been working with staff to come up with a bar to direct our staff. I can't direct county sheriff, so I'm not going to. I'm to direct our staff to really have a conversation specifically to that point. I think we're all on the same page on that. Um, I will just share with everyone here that, uh, Minneapolis has done some good work on bringing new cadets in. They have a lot to go because they keep losing court cases on their numbers. Uh, one of my concerns is indemnification, which is a core part of our contracts, is if we roll up to a scene where there are um new officers and they make a mistake, which I'm not an officer, but I'm I'm new been new at many things. And where you're new, you tend to make more mistakes. And I don't want us to be caught up since we're self-insured in a situation where we're on scene, something goes wrong and we get sued along with everyone else uh for something that we were not primary responders. So that is a concern of mine because that does get build to taxpayers and I think that is protecting all of us in this room to have that conversation. And so I expect that bar will come in September, but it's really one about I like the sheriff's term allyship that I think we're all on the same page. And I think that just having that conversation will be impactful. I don't know where they're going to get 100 more officers. They don't exist. I mean, there are people who are short one or two and they're happy being short one or two and that's a whole different ballgame. That is a complete Brooklyn Park Police Department would have to be hired by them to make that. they would have to do that. And I So, um, the other things I had was, uh, just is it possible to get 911 calls countywide? I think, uh, Commissioner Anderson kind of went down that path. I'd be curious to see, are they up everywhere? I expect they are. Uh, I'd just, it'd be kind of interesting to see, are we floating ahead or behind? And just to kind of get a sense of that, are we able to do things? um because I think that seeing those other PAPs would be important and um that would be good information I think for myself. Uh a question I had for sheriff's department was um I believe it's mandated at the state level but serving papers for eviction. I haven't met anybody in the sheriff's department who says I love doing that and it also is like the wrong person serving it because to Commissioner Gotel's point that's the point where our other services start to engage and I'm wondering out loud and I think state law says otherwise is the idea of having people who are who come to the door with those services in hand. Um I know a couple years ago we talked about trying to get pamphlets and things like that and that didn't happen. that wasn't under sheriff wit. But I'm just kind of curious. Is it is it like our 911 alternative response? Is it a game we want to try to get out of? And maybe we can't. I'm guessing because of the state. >> I don't think you can. It's a statutory mandate. But um uh sorry uh chair commissioners should know when we do know that we when we know ahead of time that we're dealing with somebody who probably has mental health challenges or something like that, we do pair up with social services to take them to those type of calls for the ones that we know about. Um I think it would be impossible to have them go on all of them with us, but we do try to make sure that we have those things in place when we know that we're dealing with more than just the eviction. And >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I think what I was thinking was we have found other ways to respond with other types of response to replace things. So, you know, having people have to serve papers to a person who's getting evicted. Um, does that require a a police officer? I don't think it does. It does because the state says we do, but I think nowadays that might be a good question to ask. Um, I also wanted to give the sheriff's department credit on I've gone two ride alongs where we serve warrants, which I understand are different than civil, but when we did it, we had five at one and nine at another because the type of warrant and the person who was getting so it wasn't like one warrant, it was I think three different teams met us at one house in uh down at the Lakes, Minneapolis, and then another one in Golden Valley. We actually had the Golden Valley Police was with us cuz the guy was a runner. And so they we had to cover every exit and he sure enough went out the window and met a dog. Um and so those not every number is the same response. And I just wanted to call that out. You can't say one is one equals. So um the the last one I just had and it's a request for staff is I think it would be very useful uh to get a memo. Um, and I'll ask Chella just talking about I'm stuck on this. What when crime is a crime? Because a crime is as a victim. I get something happens to me. I feel like a victim. That's a crime. When it gets police gets called, they show up. It's a crime. It's a response. When the data goes into courts and to our county attorney's office, a crime doesn't always mean it's a crime. If they're a 10-year-old who committed that crime, it doesn't count as a crime. um if they're found incompetent, if they're if it's a stay of sentencing, if it's a uh diversion, is it count as a crime? So, my question is how just to understand how crimes can change depending on something that happens well beyond me calling 911 and saying I got punched. [snorts] Okay? Because I'm really kind of fixated in the fact that our jail is pumpful and yet everybody says crime is down. I'm trying to figure out how can I have these two things going on at the same time where crime is down, but one place that I know you can't say it's bodies in a jail u is a hard number and that doesn't matter. So those things I'm kind of fixated on and and so I'm asking I talked to Chella beforehand so it wasn't like a surprise to her. But just to understand these differences and when data from police goes to the BCA it's it goes one way and uh the county attorneys has it a different way. I just really want to understand how that data is different depending on who collects it and how things proceed through the justice system. Um, and so I'll stop there, but I'm just fixated on that because the jail is full and yet everyone talks about how much crime is going down and I don't see I think there's something else going on. I'm not saying it's nefarious, just how can those two things be true at the same time? And I'd like to know more. So, sheriff, I'll give sheriff first and then general. >> Okay. No, thank you, commissioner. First, I want to go back to the civil um position. I want you to know that that is actually it's it's called civil, but that's actually one of the most dangerous jobs there is because you're taking away people's livelihoods. So, I mean, just the um level of unpredict um unpredict I can't even talk. unpredictable responses is um it's it's very serious and I and I don't think people grasp that but that is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have because you are talking about the livelihood. Thank you for uh bringing up the jail. As you might know our jail population, I believe today was 935. Um it has been high for quite some time consistently. We've been over the 900 mark days. Um so yes, thank you for bringing up. Yeah, everybody's talking about crime is down. I know when I've been out at community meetings and um hearing from some people say that they don't even call because they don't know what to expect or nobody's going to show up or they're just afraid to. That's a real thing and I don't think people are looking at that. Is it down or do we have less people calling? I I'll call it out for what it is. Um, but with all those things, uh, and I'm sure Chella can, uh, fill in with the the request of the other information, but the question that you have is the same question a lot of us are having, especially those first responders that are first to these scenes. Thank you, >> Ja. >> Chair Lundy, commissioners. Uh, good questions. uh questions that I will attempt to answer in a memo to the board as it relates to how crime is defined, how it's measured, what entities uh rely on certain data. So, I'll try to make a nuanced response on some of the the issues or the topics you've raised. Uh second to that, I will also work with staff to uh respond to the 911 data that you've requested. I think that would be informative to the board as not only in light of this discussion as it relates to staffing needs, what is ideal, what is minimum, how are we seeing an increase on the staff here in Henipin. So I will uh work with staff for both of those responses and get it to the board. >> Okay. And and thank you for that because I think calls for service was I don't know about Mayor Gotel, but Mayor Lundy that was often a chart we always got from police department was calls for service. Fire departments measure calls for service. They don't measure the type. It's how often are we being called 911. And so just understanding that and I also know some cities try to redirect 911 to other 311. uh one of my former staffers went through about six weeks of circular just to get somebody to actually uh from her city to show up and do something that only that person could do. Um so it's I think it's informative because I know for a hard number the jail is full. It's the numbers are high. I know it's summer, but we're now getting into summer, but still how can all these things and I often wonder and I'll stop here is just the perception of crime going down lags. So if but if people are saying crime feels high and all these other factors are kind of we can't weight them the same then maybe it is just exactly that that people are actually accurate in their feelings because the crime is not necessarily going down. It's just it's not showing up in the crime data. So, but anyway, so I' I'd asked Chella beforehand if we could get the board a memo on just that. I think it would be interesting for all of us to including myself especially. I'll lead with me uh could use that. So, Commissioner Edson. >> Well, so because I'm a nerd and I looked it up in the statute. So, the statute actually does not say that the sheriff has to do all the service. It's rule 4.02. It it it says that the um that someone needs personal service that they can use as an eligible adult, the sheriff or professional service. But I do know that in January of first of 2096, we moved it from $80 to $100. So interesting that we do get revenue from that. I don't I wonder how much if we are using sworn officers we're getting from that because I do think there's probably some where a sworn officer it makes sense for them to go and then maybe not having a sworn officer for some. Anyways, I just wanted to go on that because I think it's a really good idea. Actually, as you're like doing that, I'm nerding out over here. So, okay. >> I want the record to show she is a nerd. Uh, sheriff with [laughter] >> I'm not going to disagree with you, Commissioner. I'm just kidding. Um, so there's two services that we need to think about. There are services where people do such as landlords will come and ask us to do services, but there's also court services that they do use utilize the sheriff's office for. So, it's a round of a things and not everything's in the same spot as far as um those kind of mandates. Yep. >> More info to come. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. I want to thank the sheriff's department for presentation. >> Okay. We'll move on the agenda. We have a few items left. So 2A is minutes from July 28th. If I get a motion, a second. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second uh to approve the minutes from July 28th. Any questions, additions, corrections? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh the next three items I believe are routine. If there's no objection, I will group them if I can. >> Second. >> We have a motion. Second uh to group through 3A, 3B, 3C. 3A is agreements with district court for DWI court program probation services and treatment court testing and monitoring services 10126 to 9:30 27 receivable combined of 231,000. 3B is agreement with Ostera Initiative Minnesota prison doula project extending end date through 93027 increasing not to exceed by 56,000 for new total not to exceed of 111,200 and finally 3C is an agreement with independent school district ISD 281 for GED testing services extending the end date through 123127 increasing not to exceed by 46,000 for new total not to exceed of 171,000 does anybody need background of questions. >> Question. >> Uh, we have a question. Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I'm um really uh a big fan of the prison doula project. This is um item 3B. I think they do incredible work um in toward in terms of um making sure that parents have the right skills that they need um and the supports once they are um exiting the ACF. My question was just do does this support extend beyond release? Um, and if not, is there a um perhaps warm handoff to another uh support system for um parents who are exiting um these facilities and and um moving back into society. Thank you, Chair Lundy, Commissioner Connley, and Commissioners. I'd like to invite Monica Long, who's a division manager at the ACF, who can provide background and answer these questions. along superintendent at the community corrections ACF. Um the doula services actually do extend beyond um time at the ACF and typically many of our residents who are at the ACF also have social work uh social service attachments as well. So, as part of transition planning, we do ensure that there is that warm handoff as they work to transition um out of the facility. >> That's great news. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of 3A through 3C say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. And with that, the agenda of the law, safety, and justice committee is complete. I'll declare the meeting. I I'm going to stay cuz I want to vote in that last thing. >> It's all good. No, it's all good. >> I need to look before I text everybody else. going to be here late enough. I'm going to want dinner. [laughter] I will call to order our public works committee for today. Our first item on our agenda is an update on the county's cost participation and maintenance policies. Uh, Henipin County is in the process of updating our cost participation policy to evaluate their effectiveness in supporting our mutual goals of cross agency partnership in building and maintaining our transportation systems. This process is meant to be collaborative, including internal and external workg groups to build a framework, gather input, and foster effective dialogue to ensure that our policies are financially responsible, efficient, and receptive to the diverse needs and goals of the county and our partner agencies. Here to introduce and share a bit about the update is Lisa Cerny, Casey Atkins, and Carla Stevie. Welcome, >> Chair Anderson. Thank you, and we appreciate the opportunity to provide this update today. And with that, I will hand it over to Casey. >> All right. Thanks, Lisa, and good afternoon, commissioners. I'm Casey Atkins with Transportation Project Delivery. In the next few slides, I will share more about the history and philosophy behind the policies, requests for change by several of our city staff partners, and our process for updating the policy. Next slide, please. Thank you. As [snorts] we update the policy, it's important to understand the purpose and philosophy. These policies provide a clear mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities both for funding and maintenance with our capital, road, and bridge projects. We ask our city partners to cost share on project elements that provide a more local benefit and support more city interests and needs. This also ensures a vested interest in the project outcome. Working with 45 different cities, it's important to ensure transparency and consistency through this policy and our projects. [snorts] Next slide, please. The county's cost participation policy was first established in 1978. The policy has been revised several times with our current policies adopted by the board in 2020. The timeline also shows the history of our complete streets policy, first adopted in 2009 and updated in 2023 with green streets incorporated. Although not shown, it's also important to mention that our climate action plan was adopted in 2021 and our toward zero death action plan was adopted last year, which has emphasized the importance of safety and active transportation along our roadways. Next slide, please. Public Works and County Administration receives letters from several city staff, leadership, city engineers, and public works directors. This slide outlines the specific asks from these cities for changes to the county's policy. For capital, the ask is to remove all city costs for complete and green streets elements, including multimodal and storm water elements. For maintenance, the ask is for the county to financially partner with the cities to maintain complete and green streets elements. and for process to better understand the city's priorities and their ability to cost participate earlier in the process. Next slide, please. The board approved a resolution earlier this year regarding this the policy updates which highlights the value of our city partnerships to build and maintain our transportation system that transportation funding resources and priorities at federal, state, county, and city levels have evolved and key key dates for the update. Next slide, please. As part of the process, we developed a stakeholder workg group with 17 large and small cities in urban, suburban, and rural areas. This collaboration is important to build a framework, gather input, and have effective dialogue with our city partners. We also want to ensure our policies are financially responsible, transparent, and receptive to the diverse needs and goals of the county and our partner agencies. Next slide, please. This has been an iterative process. Uh the city workg group has generally been meeting monthly since February to generate ideas and provide input. We've been taking this feedback and analyzing data and impacts and there are also touch point with touch points with all of our city partners to gain their feedback throughout the process. Next slide, please. In the next few slides, I will share more about the first of two surveys sent to our city partners and provide some initial recommendations for a base scope concept, rightway, and storm water costs. Next slide, please. Our first survey to all cities asked about cost participation models, base scope concept, ability to pay, and how cities currently fund transportation projects. The slide shows the specific questions asked and feedback provided by 29 of our city partners through the survey. In total, the workg group and serve in in total through the work group and survey we heard from 32 of our 45 cities. In general, we heard that cities preferred the current detailed cost participation model which is cost by line item. overall support for the county paying 100% for a base scope concept and [snorts] general support for ability to pay, but mixed results on what this should be based on. Next slide, please. In our conversations with cities, we've discussed a base scope concept that would be fully funded by the county. In our current policy, the split for new sidewalks and trails is 50/50 between city and county. Similar to Mindot's recent policy update, we proposed the county will pay 100% for base scope active transportation elements. This aligns with the new TAA funding which came through the 2023 legislature which is mostly focused on active transportation. This also aligns with our updated complete and green streets policy toward zero death action plan, disparity elimination, and climate action plan. Next slide, please. The base scope definition as shown on the slide here is supported by both county and city staff. With this change, the county will pay 100% of the active transportation base scope elements. Cities would pay 100% of elements above and beyond the base scope. The base scope will vary based on the context, system, and community needs. Next slide, please. Transitioning to rightway. Our current policy has a 50-50 cost split with the county covering the full cost for cities less than 5,000 in population. We are proposing the county pays 100% of right-of-way costs for the base scope focused on active transportation elements. The base scope will consider right-of-way constraints to stay within the current right ofway when possible while also meeting community and system needs. Next slide, please. >> [snorts] >> In terms of storm water treatment, the region has new regulatory enforcement standards and Henipin County is generally paying for capital and maintenance costs to meet those requirements. We intend to reflect this change with our policy update. Next slide. And then for storm water conveyance, our current policy is 50/50 for cities greater than 5,000 in population, covering 100% for small cities. We discussed the cost split for this shared infrastructure at length with our city workg group. Based on these discussions and staff analysis, there are two options for consideration. The workg groupoup preferences that the county pays for 100% of these costs within county rightway. However, since storm water conveyance is an interconnected system between the county and cities, staff recommended recommend to base the cost share on contributing area, not a straight 50/50 split as in the current policy with a maximum of 50% for cities to provide fairness when they are contributing less than 50% of storm water. [snorts] The county will continue to cover fully cover these costs for small cities. And with that, I'll hand it over to Carla. Thanks, Casey. I'm Carla Stevie, county engineer, and I will uh shift the conversation to maintenance. In the next few slides, I will share more about results from the second survey that we sent to all of our city partners, feedback received through the city workg group, and some initial staff recommendations for maintenance. Next slide. Based on our current policy, cities are responsible for off-street sidewalk and trail maintenance. This partnership is important to effectively and efficiently serve our residents. In the survey, we asked about city maintenance policies and practices for snow and ice clearance, specialized equipment used, biggest challenges, and cost. Feedback was provided by 25 of our city partners through through the survey and through the workg group. Next slide. The cities were clear in the workg group and in the survey that the biggest challenges for bikeway winter maintenance is the timing of plowing and snow storage followed by staffing equipment and then cost. The challenges shared by the cities is due to city and county snow removal operations conflicting with each other. Next slide. Another important data point shared by the cities is the annual cost per mile to clear snow and ice. For trails, the majority indicated that the cost per mile is in the $250 to $500 range. The cost for sidewalks was generally more than trails due to the width and equipment needed. Next slide. Given that the biggest challenge shared by the cities is the timing of county and city plowing, staff recommend maintaining the current policy while focusing on improved coordination and we've been discussing improving ways to improve this with our city partners. In addition, we will continue to consider width in the base scope which impacts city plowing costs. Next slide. Transitioning to the capital improvement program, I'll share more about the requests from cities regarding our CIP process, ability to pay, and anticipated program impacts. Next slide, please. As we've been meeting with the city workg group, they have requested more funding for cost participation and partnership opportunities and a desire to better align city, county, and city capital programs. The request for more funding is outside of the cost participation policy and staff recommend considering that this as part of the CIP and budget process. Next slide, please. The county currently considers a city's ability to pay, especially for small cities that do not receive state aid. For our small cities, our cost, our current policy includes a greater county cost share and our practice has included flexible invoicing terms for cities as needed. Mindot recently updated their policy and ability to pay was a significant change. Cities generally support using ability to pay, but differ on what the cap should be based on, whether that's tax capacity, state aid, or a combination of the two. Staff recommend holding on any additional changes until further evaluation is completed and consider this in the future. We will continue to connect with Minda to understand impacts with their change as well as supporting a regional research study for local funding so that we can continue the conversation in the future. Next slide, please. As we continue through this process, we're estimating impacts to our program from a highle review. the change with the change in the base scope costs only there would be a reduction in local city costs of 25 to 30 million in our 5-year CIP. This would likely result in the county needing to shift one project per year depending on the project length, city size, and cost. Next slide, please. And here is a reminder of our schedule. We are at the August board check-in and we'll be providing recommended updates in January January 2027 with anticipated board adoption in spring of 2027. And that concludes our presentation and thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much. Uh do my colleagues have questions? Yes, Commissioner Gatau. >> Actually, I don't have so many questions as I just have comments. So, and I'm I'm sure you're not surprised hearing from me because I talked to public works directors and engineers, not just in my own district, but outside my district. And I will tell you that they were surprised to see this presentation coming before the um the board and that they didn't get a chance to review it and have comments around it first. And so that was one of the the feedback pieces that came right to me because they really are looking for more dialogue um dialogue around just the whole thing around base scope elements and definitions around that. what is the base scope? Um, and when we look at these active transportations and what cities want, you know, is there going to be any room to negotiate any of that because it's a safety issue and we all have the zero uh fatality rules. Um, rightway is another big thing about who pays for right away and how much and what can be afforded. Um I think two um cities um cities still want to have more conversation around the storm water and that has to do with that the cities have to pay for all their own storm water and put in their own storm water dollars and for their own upgrades and so does the county and they don't the cities don't charge back the conveyance of water into theirs from the county roads. So, they're saying that the county should pay for theirs and they they pay for their own uh storm sewer as they they see it. And so, there's a lot of conversation that I think still needs to take take place. And again, to um as as we heard the city's uh costs about um the challenges of keeping the sidewalks and trails clean through the winter when the county comes over and plows over them several times, sometimes without them being able to um keep up on that. And so they're having a hard time keeping up on trying to keep those trails open. Um and and I think it's worth the time right now to start talking about uh the ability to pay because cities are really struggling with it. They're actually stopping projects or doing half of projects are saying we can't do it this year and having to put things off. And I think we need to have more dialogue and discussion around that. And I think if we sat down at the table and had more conversation and less presentation that they would get the opportunity to speak. I know they did talk about the length of the meetings and that longer meetings might be more necessary and to take on more topics very specifically and also too just about the location always being out in Madina. Maybe some of the locations could be closer at one of the other city halls or something like that for for people. Um and and that was more of like the format that Mandot had. Um and so and also too came up the increased funding for city-led projects because you know some of them were expecting the 50-50 split and that's not what that is when that comes to it and so fewer cities will lead a city project and that that hurts the city too when they really need to get a project and they've got some federal funding or other state funding through and then they need some help from the county and the county can't come up with a 50/50 split. though I just think that we need to spend more time with longer meetings and more dialogue. That's what I really hear. We they want to talk about more about definitions and they they want to hear some more about true negotiations and see less surveys and more dialogue. That's what I heard. >> Thank you. Um Commissioner Fernando, >> thank you chair. Thank you for the uh for all of the data and acknowledging that we won't be, you know, considering something more formal until next year. Um my interest is on the revenue side. [sighs and gasps] Of course, we're all being asked about revenue and so greater understanding around what is the revenue that populates our cost participation and what is the revenue sources that populate the municipality, the city's cost participation. Um that is what residents are asking of us to look into. re-evaluate the total amount that um that households are contributing. Um so just to be more specific, I had learned that there uh we generally pool our funds and then sequence our projects. There are some cities that um do special assessments for their portion of cost participation to the parcels themselves. So that's where it would be um interesting because in the there might be an inequity occurring, but the data will uh share more. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you, Mr. here. >> Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Great presentation. Um, I appreciate all the work that went into this. Um, and and the conversation about assessing property. So, that's going to happen um with a big project that's coming up in my district um where the city assesses the homeowners for part of their cost. We don't do that, but um that's how they recoup the payment of the work that needs to be done in coordination with our project. So some really something to take into consideration because um uh that's not in most of the project area. I'm talking park park and Portland here. Uh most homeowners aren't going to necessarily be able to afford that. I really want cities to rethink uh assessment processes, but that's a different topic. >> [snorts] >> Um but related um the question I had was just around for capital costs active uh transportation and for um right of way we're moving from 50/50 cost share to 100%. So we would cover um everything for base scope elements, right? That takes a significant cost burden off of cities at the expense of one project of ours per year or or per year in the CIP. I'd like to talk about that for a second. So um for if we were to delay if and this has city approval like cities agreed that this is the direction that we should go, etc. And I want to be mindful of cities. I also want to be mindful that we have projects that we need to get done that are in our CIP and they're in there for a reason. So, if we delay one project a year, I'm wondering like how that would be determined. And if it wasn't like if if it wasn't a 100%, you know, county um uh payment or like 100% county responsibility for base scope elements, then what happens if it was 9010? What happens if it's 8020 as opposed to 50/50? Does that save us having to delay a project? So, there's two questions in there somewhere. >> Chair Anderson, Commissioner Connley, I will start and the team can let me know if I if we need to modify that. Um, so, Commissioner Connley, I think your first question is if um kind of what projects would be impacted if we were to reduce projects by one a year. Is that kind of your first project or first question? Um so we have not done a full analysis of that. Um part of what we would anticipate doing when we come back this winter for your consideration and of adoption this spring is to discuss an implementation plan. And at that point in time we would have gone through more analysis to understand you know details dollars projects where projects in the CIP are they do they already have a base scope defined? Do they not have a base scope? So don't necessarily have a specific answer for you today, but that is work that we anticipate we will need to do and you will want to know and understand that before you take action and then can you please repeat your second question? >> Yeah, just thank you. It and that um that's helpful to know that that you're thinking about it that be part of the overall implementation uh as we move towards the winter months here. But the second one was really just if we were to avoid delaying a project by one year, does that mean a different cost split? Like did were cities given 9010, right? 8020. Like if our share wasn't 50/50 but significantly more than what it is now, maybe not 100. Does that save us a project from being delayed? And were cities receptive to that if you did have conversations about it? >> Chair Anderson, Commissioner Connley, I can share in general. So, as we were trying to figure out project components to cover in various different percentages, um, cities really did prefer to have that detailed line item like sidewalk, curbon, gutter, um, boulevard, um, like it is today in our our policy, not necessarily just a would you do a 9010 split. they liked the detail and that that um that level of conversation on each project. Uh we could continue to have the conversation and ask them uh uh that question. Uh we still have upcoming um meetings with the city work group. Um so we're happy to to take that question back and have further conversation. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, it's just for me it it's are there other scenarios that might save us from having to delay a a project? We've got uh remind me the road miles in Henipin County, 2,200 road miles in Henipathan County. And we've got a lot of really important projects like happening across the county right now and um and into the future. And they're needed improvements, right? These are safety improvements. These are complete um restructuring of roadways to meet our zero deaths goal, to be ADA compliant, all of the things. And so I would hate to have to um like be moving those down the line to accommodate a policy that I think could be maybe configured in a way that um could work for cities and maybe there's a scenario where we wouldn't have to delay any projects. So thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Commissioner Lundy. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh just a couple questions I had was on that slide on the difference between trails, bikeways versus sidewalks, that cost differential. Um [clears throat] I was curious. I think they all use the same equipment. So then it's really about how it's really about how much they're plowing sidewalks and then if they're getting snow pushed into the sidewalk. Is that a I'm trying to understand that that's like a close number. That is a big number. Or is it because they just have more sidewalks? Commissioner or Chair Anderson, Commissioner Lundy, I believe it is primarily related to sidewalks are narrower, which means that you can't run certain equipment down the sidewalk to do the clearing. And so you have to have special additional specialized equipment. You move slower, takes more time, costs more versus trails are often times wider. For example, if you can drive a pickup truck with a blade on the front of it versus a Bobcat with a smaller blade, um just the amount of time that it takes, the the the number of miles you can cover in a shift is is very different, which is often times what leads to the difference in cost. >> Okay? Cuz I've never seen I only have Brooklyn Park to go on, so I only what I know it's not a small city is that never seen a truck on a sidewalk. It's always the same equipment doing the trails, the sidewalks and bike p which is fine. I meant uh I was curious if that part about the disconnect on maybe we could coordinate better is pushing snow where they have to go back out the sidewalks and replplow a second time cuz I'm guessing you know if it's a trail and I I'm using definition of a park trail or bike trail it the needs are probably a little less than someone just trying to get their kid to the bus stop which would be a sidewalk is >> Chair Anderson Commissioner Lundy it really does depend upon which city and what the situation is um as it relates to sidewalks and trails and and how and who uses them when and I mean you you really touched on it is we are having we are in the process of scheduling meetings with our city partners around the coordination of plowing snow. How do we make sure that if we're out there um we're not filling in something that the city or others had just done? And so that's part of our plan for uh followup from these conversations in the October timeline. >> Okay. And um [gasps] I'm just trying to look through the notes. So, uh I would agree with Commissioner Goautell about the I think the definitions I talked my cities and they were just there was not agreement on what it what is is right that that this means that uh and so I think that might be something that I would just ask if staff go back and you know do we just ask that open-ended question do we all agree on these definitions? I've seen, you know, project books where um you have a definitions page where you just everybody agrees here's what this means and then throughout the whole document. I don't know if that's what you do. Um but [clears throat] it just it was a common question I got from a few of my cities on that. The ability to pay I think is really important. Um but I also just what I shared with the cities was I want to provide a base ability to pay. I don't need if someone wants goldplated uh street lights with a fourlane sidewalk on each side and someone else just wants the basics, we pay the same for either one. They can pay the extra if they want. I think that's fair. Um because I think you know, Commissioner Connley, I've talked about when trails cross into new cities, suddenly everything changes. And is it this county doing that or is it the city doing that? Because there is differences when you cross things in there. So, uh, I think that would be important on the ability to pay. Um, I think there's, you know, there's limits and so I I whatever we can find, I think, you know, maybe property tax valuation is a kind of an equitable thing because it it's common. I also know some cities spend more money on their streets than others do. So, I don't want to reward or bad or good behavior. If they want to spend less, it's not my job to make up their gap. if cuz Brooklyn Park, we had to do a franchise fee because we found out our asphalt was deteriorating twice as fast because of some decision 20 years ago. So, we had to enact a franchise fee to cover that. Um, I'm also curious and I I think understanding how cities do assessments, they are very different between city and city where some assess the full value, some of it's 40%, some don't. you know, like uh Brooklyn Park, we agreed to do a franchise fee, which I gladly put a sunset clause on, which I know they'll never take off uh because no one's going to want to put back assessments, but sometimes they're not assessing things at all. They're everybody pays a franchise fee on the utilities. I think Plymouth does that as well. So those things kind of go into cost where if we're paying for a project and the cities then turn around on assessing the same people who are benefit who are on that project who's paying what are we paying the city are they going to lower the tax the property tax owners burden or they just going to put it into their general fund I don't know I'd like to know I mean they can do what they want but if they're assessing the full value and then they're also on the other side getting money from us to offset uh I don't think that's the same either. a question on storm water. Um, so if I'm not sure the county is wrong, I know city is much better. So someone has a new development, green space, they're put in a new building, they have to account for storm water, they we do all those calculations, there's a fee that goes into it, there's a whole bunch of stuff. If that water, do we assess based on the fact that a new building goes up which dumps water into our storm water system? Because if they put a new building up and suddenly then we go back 5 years and have to redo it, we have to account for that new volume. >> Chair Anderson, Commissioner Lundy, Henipin County does not have a storm water fee. Many cities do have storm water fees where they um and that's kind of their way of generally managing storm water runoff from private properties and then creating the uniform billing rate that they then charge the property for the the amount of runoff. Um because I'm just wondering if they create more storm water and we go back in to redo it and we have to account for this new development that actually means the costs got shifted to the county for this new building going in. And I also know the fee only apply depends on the city. Some cities say if you can take care of your storm water on site you don't have to pay the fee but if you have to dump it in the system then they start charging. So I guess my point is I I don't know if I'm making sense and as a development can affect our storm water when we go back out 5 years later and have to redo something that we have to account for more volume. Um and then there's the argument are we going to see more volume because of climate change or just things changing. Um so I'm kind of curious in that. So I I think overall I like where the plan is headed. I think as you said there's work to be done but I do think that definitions really would be benefit because I didn't catch it. I caught it from cities complaining and so then I think of well if we're not all agreeing on what things are then that's like starts up bad policy. Uh and the last thing I had was just understanding that cost the how much it sounded like MDOT didn't quite do the backend calculation on their what promises made in the front end. Um I'd like to not make that mistake. So, um, whatever we promise at the front end, we should be at least know what is that going to affect us. And I think it would mean delaying projects, which I think everyone's like, "Ah, we're okay with that. That sounds really cool." But the longer you delay projects, the more things just, uh, pile up later on. So, um, that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Um, I appreciate it. I I've also heard from my cities. um not going to repeat a lot of the the same uh comments but have heard similar themes of uh ensuring that we have um full engagement and continuous engagement in the process that uh you know I heard the same same thing that you did about kind of the surprise they the group that was convened didn't know about the county recommendations yet um until the presentation was scheduled and then they were a little bit like oh um so I think we should make sure that we are continually engaging and uh re-engage with that group to make sure that we are communicating and um providing enough space to get feedback on the proposed recommendations um so that we can avoid some of the uh that kind of back and forth that uh that ends up happening. Um, Commissioner Lundy, you brought up a really interesting point about fees for storm water management. Um, do we have like I know we can't assess property owners for things I don't want to because I got assessed for street improvements and storm and gutter and curb and everything and I hated it. Um it's a it's another bill that I have to pay and I'm bitter. Um but the is there like is there a different mechanism if we were to that we have at our disposal if cities said like want to to go about this that we could uh apply a fee to like properties that's not property tax like that would be a storm water fee um because based on uh how much water would flow into uh a thing because we don't have development or land use authority. Um and so we are left dealing with um uh the decisions that cities are making. Um, and then it's using a system that's underneath our roadways that we may not have uh complete control over how it's how it's being impacted. Um, and so I'm I'm curious if there are any mechanisms at our disposal to help with that or is it just we have to incorporate it into a cost of a project that we get through federal, state or local funding. Um, and that's it, right? Um, I don't know if you can answer that, but >> Chair Anderson, I um, I can share, you know, state aid funding does cover drainage costs, expenditures. Um, I think what you're asking is, are there additional or new revenues that we could identify in order to help cover the increased storm water cost? >> Yeah. Well, and >> especially because I mean this has been true for a very long time and I've as I've learned about this, state aid does not cover the cost of maintenance. Um and so um as maintenance costs are going up and as climate change is impacting the amount of water that we have to deal with, we are going to have to do more to manage all of this. Um, and so yeah, I'm just curious what else. >> Cherry Anderson, I would need to work with the county attorney's office in order to uh respond to that. >> There's obviously clear >> clear legal guidance and and whatnot that we would need to think about from another revenue collection perspective. >> Very good. Great. >> Can I have can I have one more comment? I just want to go back because you had you brought up a really good question about capacity. So did Commissioner Lundy. Um, and I can tell you that in the cities that I have have oversight in that redevelopment doesn't happen because there are capacity issues with the infrastructure. It just doesn't happen because they they can't overloaded or they can't put it on there because the pipes can't handle it or that they can't have they don't have a water line large enough to be able to have the capacity to be able to put the sprinklers in that were required for the upgrade. So, those are the things that actually really happen and I don't know a county going back 5 years later and tearing up a road to put a new storm. So or anybody. So that just doesn't happen. Um I just wanted to to remind us that cities are funded mostly for their roads and everything like this through their gas taxs and that's what they use and they bond against they can bond against it and everything but it's going down. It's going down tremendously especially with the EV vehicles and people driving less and the more fuel efficiency. So while we were we were giving a a lovely tax through the state. Thank you state and and my council was for for that. They have nothing. And in fact, there's their ability to pay is going down as the costs are going up. So, this is this is the rub that they're feeling and that's why we're we're hearing from them. And I think it's a a big concern um for them and and I want to make sure that they don't have to delay their projects because they are turning them down. They're saying we can't do it or we can't do this half, we can only do half or we can't do this project at all. We don't have the money. We're bonded out and we can't because of our bond rating. So I I think we have to be realistic about where we might need to go to. So I think there should be give and take in negotiations. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing no none, I appreciate the the update on this. Look forward to hearing more from uh on the process and the the final recommendations and kind of um where we go from here uh into next year. So, um, the next item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our previous meeting. Uh, may I have a motion? >> So, moved >> and a second. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second for our minutes. Any additions, corrections, or comments on the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. >> We have uh several items of routine new business. And in the interest of time, I will look to approve the block. Um items 3A through 3F. >> I'll move the block. Second. [laughter] >> We have the the a motion and a second for the block. I'll read them into the record. Item 3A is an amendment to an agreement with Mandot City of Plymouth and Three Rivers Park District adding retaining wall ownership and maintenance with no additional county costs. Um the item 3B is to negotiate an agreement with Mandot for the Henipin Avenue suspension bridge large bridge project fund grant uh receiving $9 million in state bonds. Uh item 3 C is to negotiate an agreement with MDOT and the 106 group LTD to perform an architectural history survey on CAST 23 in Minneapolis. Estimated county cost of $10,500 in our TAA active transportation fund. Uh item 3D D is to negotiate an agreement with Three Rivers Park District in the city of Minnotonka relating to construction and cost participation in CAS 61 Plymouth Road and CAS 73 Hopkins Crossroad multimmodal trail project uh with a sub project with a not to exceed $500,000 in county bonds. Items 3E is to negotiate an agreement with Three Rivers Park District in the city of Minnitonka relating to construction and cost participation in a multimmoal trail project on Cass 60 Baker Road, a sub project uh with a not to exceed of $500,000 in county bonds. Item 3F is to negotiate an agreement with Mini Minneapolis for cost participation and maintenance for multimmoal improvements along North Side Greenway, a sub project uh with a county cost not to exceed of $496,000 in county bonds. Any comments on any of these items? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Those items are approved and that is the end of our agenda. Almost. That's Okay. All right, guys. Um, last uh last committee. So, I will call to order resident service, the resident services committee. It's Tuesday, August 25th. It is 4:34 p.m. Um, our first order of business is to approve the minutes from August 13th. If I can have a motion. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. The motion carries. We have one addendum under new business today. If I could have a motion to put 2A before us. >> So move. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Thank you. Item 2A is a resolution affirming Hipan County's commitment to ensuring free and fair elections. Mr. Rogan, can you give us some background on this? Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioners, the resolution before you um highlights the county's commitment to free and fair elections, and it has a kind of a lengthy background with a lot of whereas clauses that provide background on the role of the county board, election officials, and the county canvasing board. As you know, we've had uh open forum three different times where we've had citizens come in, over 40 of them now, um and and ask for um uh to ensure that we have free and fair elections. Um, several of the whereas clauses highlight some of the efforts that Henipin County and our partners have undertaken this year to preserve freef fair elections, including providing comments opposed to the US Postal Service rule regarding delivery of absentee ballots, joining an amikas brief at the United States Supreme Court, asking the court to uphold an injunction barring implementation of this rule, not approving access to polling places to US Department of Justice representatives during the primary. um and the Secretary of State's decision to not provide unredacted copies of Minnesota's complete voter registration list to the federal government. Other whereas clauses highlight that public confidence in elections really depends on the secure, accurate and transparent [clears throat] administration of the election process and that we have a long history here in Henipin County of elections officials, city election officials, and uh thousands of election judges um carrying out their duties in accordance with Minnesota law. Finally, several of the clauses highlight the the limited role that county commissioners have in actually administering the process or certifying uh election results. Instead, that work is done by the Henipin County Canvasing Board. And the canvasing board has five members, two of whom are appointed by the county board here. And this year, uh it is Commissioner Edelen, uh and Lundy who are on that board. The resolution then ends, uh with um uh doing three separate things. First, it um uh asks that you all reaffirm your oaths to support the US Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. It directs staff, including me, the county auditor, and the elections director, to take efforts to maintain free and fair elections in Henipin County and uh to take actions to oppose any unlawful requests for election data or unlawful requests that could impact the election process. And finally, it directs me uh I chair the county canvasing board to ensure that all county canvasing board members take the required oath of office on November 9th uh when we're scheduled to meet to canvas the general election results. And with that, Madam Chair, I could take any questions. >> Uh thank you. Um and with that, Trernando, I'll be coming to you. Um but one, you know, one of the things I I want to thank all of the residents that that came today. Um and I I very much support this. One of the things I will say is never before have we faced um the threats to our democracy and to our election process that we are facing now. Um when you think about uh in 2024 and it says 40 I looked up the numbers 47.3% of our ballots in Henipin County were absentee ballots. Now of course that absentee was early voting then and it's different now. So how many were actually mailin votes? Um you know we'd have to distinguish between that. But with Trump's March 31st executive order, which directs the postal service to not transmit an email in or absentee ballots that are not on a list, um I think residents are genuinely concerned and I think that this resolution is incredibly important. Um with this uh you know are as you were say stating uh Mr. Rogan about the oath of office that you'll take with the election. Do our you know do the postal workers take that same uh oath of office? It is a type of uh tampering with our elections that is uh shocking and uh something that I am glad that we are reaffirming that we will be following state laws. Uh and those have always historically been the laws that uphold our our elections. And so um I'm glad residents are paying attention. I'm glad that they understand just how much counties do to protect uh their elections and I I think people coming here is actually really supportive of the work that we will be doing and so I was really happy to see and I hope we will continue to see people coming here and making sure that we will be protecting their elections cuz we will we we really will. So uh chair Fernando you are up. >> Yeah thank you madam chair. I too want to open with gratitude to the residents and the coalition members both locally across the state and uh nationally who are uplifting this for those who administer elections which generally are counties. Second, I want to thank administration for putting this together. This contains um a number of whereas clauses which colleagues I think with the 2026 year we've had is important for us to codify into the record the experience from a governance perspective that we are having that our residents are having. So, I'm very very happy to reaffirm uh my own oath and and vote in favor of this. I want to make one um typo note. The fourth to last whereas clause from the bottom where it names the candidates being board members, uh there's one uh surname that is has a typo. So, want to just correct that. And that's all. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. And Commissioner Gatau, >> I won't be long, but I do want to say too, I I really appreciate the fact that we're going for a resolution. And when I talked to some of the folks in the group, I talked about how much bigger and more public this was us doing a resolution and coming out to the residents in front of everybody on camera saying these kinds of things instead and just, you know, sign signing the pledge, which is a great pledge. That's fine. I mean, but I also I'd also, you know, we're getting people the Secretary of State is speaking out about this. uh Keith Ellison is speaking out about this, but I also and they have responsibilities to pieces of this as well as we do too, but I have heard comments and and concerns at other town halls. Um one specifically recently with uh uh Congressman Ilhan Omar and people all over, not just these coalition groups, but people all over just general citizens are really concerned about their ability to vote and not be intimidated. >> Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Gatel. Commissioner Lundy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh just uh I'm I'm grateful for staff for this because, uh you know, I met with the group as I've come here and I I don't sign pledges. Um I've been burned too many times where the pledges end up in other people's hands. So, uh this is for me a perfect vehicle to reaffirm what we want to do. Um and I think that highlighting the thing changes that are just being made unilaterally and across the board when we are 50 states and we have different state laws that you can't just apply a uniform law with without Congress passing it and like president signing it which is not the case. So u just you know that highlight I also think that there's probably an opportunity we talked when Jenny Helms was here about information. I think it would be useful because when I was meeting with the group that has been presenting uh to us uh there was also misinformation that they had like they were asking us to put sheriff deputies at every polling location. I was like nope can't do that one. Um and also the they didn't understand that if a trespassing is given actually it's local police that respond not the sheriff. So I think there's some opportunity I think for even more so that people have expectations met when they see something that we have a process that's very defined that we follow that that we do it and um that process is important. We can't shortcut it like we can't let the president decide that he can just decide when and wherever he wants to do things. That's also the same process. So that we have to live up to our processes first and foremost cuz once you break process you now have given people grounds to say wait a minute. Um and so I think that and um I think it's important and I just want to say this guy said it with them. I think that all states should be counting their ballots like Minnesota or Florida do. The fact that California takes weeks to count does not give anybody confidence in anything because when you see that and I'm not sure about everywhere else but you're like okay how can Florida and Minnesota get it done first night and other states can't. I think it's about willpower and so I think that feeds into this narrative that people can point to and say ah see it's this and um so I think we're doing the right thing with this resolution. I feel better supporting this as a board because it comes from us and uh you know at the end of the [clears throat] day we're going to do and follow what happens and we're not going to do anything that we don't want to unless we're ordered to. I think that's uh the part and then we'll have allies who are there. I just want everybody who can vote to be able to vote. It's very simple. If you're eligible to vote 100% you should be able to get that. I think that's that's always my goal and I think that this helps us live up to that. So, thank you, >> Commissioner Green. >> Um, thank you, Madam Chair, and and thank you to the team for bringing this forward. Really appreciate it. Uh, and I also want to add the to the thanks that have been shared. Thank you to the elections offices across the country and here in Henipin County. Um, I know I so appreciate the the calm, the expertise, the the deep knowledge that uh that office has and and carries forward when they're answering questions from members of the public. Um, it's such a boost in confidence um both for me and residents. Um, as has been outlined, this is a hugely important question. One of the um questions that I suspect we've all received in email I certainly have is a a little bit of like what are what are you doing Henipin County? What are Henipin County? What are you doing to make sure that these bad things don't happen? and I appreciate all that we're doing and I think um there is some um some balance to be found that's talking about everything we're doing and also not um fanning flames of concern. Uh and I guess it's all, you know, it's it's it's um everybody would probably plant their flag on that spectrum in a different place. I'd like to see us lean a little bit further into like here's everything we're doing um to just further that confidence. I understand why we're not sort of going all the way with that. And so I myself am clearly representing some sort of um pull [laughter] in both directions. Uh I the last thing I wanted to say is that um well I guess I guess I think I'll just conclude it there. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Commissioner Green. Uh Commissioner Anderson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um you know I just want to say thank you for for bringing this up obviously. Um, and I think most importantly, I want to express gratitude for the historical context of Henipin County administering elections in such a way that people have confidence in our elections here. um despite this administration's attempt to undermine the uh the confidence in it and as we've heard uh there's a lot of people that are very nervous about that. But we have been doing our job for a very long time in uh making sure that our elections are free and fair and accurate and that more people are able to participate in our elections than uh than the year before. Right? We are always trying to find ways of expanding participation and I am so thankful that we live in a county that is prioritizing participation and involvement in our election process. So I am like yes to all the things that have been said. Uh appreciate the the public who has come and spoke to us uh about making sure that we are upholding an oath that I think everybody here uh and really across the state of Minnesota. I think we all take that oath really seriously. And I know that reaffirming that oath is, you know, [clears throat] like I think every time I'm taking a vote, I am reaffirming my oath that I took when I was elected. So, um I think to Commissioner Green's point, uh getting the word out of the things that we are doing to help calm people, you know, like provide reassurances because we are doing a lot of really important good things. The preparations that we were told about uh in the leadup to our primary elections is ongoing. We are uh looking at further strengthening our systems through equipment purchases and I know that you know I have complete faith in our election teams in our process. Uh and I think our public should have absolute confidence in our ability to administer a free and fair election again this year because we damn well better make sure that it happens and we will. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Anderson. Commissioner Connley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just really responsive to what we've been hearing, um, for a while now from residents all over the county, um, constituents and folks outside of our district boundaries. I just want to also say that it is not lost on me that as we approach or as we uh are in the 250th year of this country, we are in a position where we are defending rights, basic rights and reaffirming the oath that we took to the constitution which is the law of this land which is the overarching laws by which we exist here in this country. um the constitution that that um as commissioner Anderson said, every time we are voting, we are reaffirming that oath. That is symbolic of the oath that we took to even hold these seats. Um we've taken those oaths multiple time, many of multiple times, many of us. Um but [snorts] it's still not lost on me that voting rights are are completely under attack and have been. We are privileged to live in a state where where we just over this primary we broke the record for um the number of people who voted for the fact that in the state of Minnesota in Henipin County we can vote freely fairly. We have multiple different ways to vote early voting absentee voting. I am a traditional in-person day voting day person. Um, [snorts] but I think about states in the south where they are systematically removing polling places from predominantly black communities to disenfranchise to to completely um uh eliminate the opportunity for some communities to vote. That's astounding. Uh not surprising, but astounding to me the the lengths of which the federal administration will go to remove the right to vote because voting is powerful. I don't need to tell people that. Um, and when you remove that power from people, I'll even go further and say the way that we've seen redistricting happen in this country just within the past several months, how uh, congressional districts have been redrawn uh, to change or to tip the scales in the favor of a dominant demographic, right? It's mind-boggling to me. And so I'm appreciative of the privilege of living in a state where I know that I'm um I've got uh access to voting that hasn't been in my time of being a voter uh hasn't been stripped away from me through really uh egregious, overtly racist ways. Um and so uh while this is um protecting [clears throat] our vote and and and outlining ways in which we um can be good stewards of the public vote and how um we can just be good elected officials by by um by remaining true to the oaths that we took to be elected officials. Um, I just want to to just reiterate that um, voting rights in this country are under attack and vote the voting rights act really was an instrumental piece. It it is an instrumental piece of what makes this a country in the first place. Um, so 250 years later, here we are um, trying to defend that. And so, um, those are my comments, but I'm certainly grateful that we have this board action as a tangible way to show our residents that we're not playing around. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Connley. And then, Commissioner Alum, you had a follow-up. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just I I forgot to mention when I asked for I think it would be really useful for or elections team to actually put the diagram of when your vote comes in when's it counted absentee versus you put it in a machine cuz those things are some are held and then they're put in a machine all at once and then I think we need to be very specific how ballot is handled because I think that's one of those ways aha this is happening or oh the big dump of you know at the last minute and that's where they cheat and stuff and no it just means people voted a certain way and here's how we count it and I think we need to tell people that um also I think we should use this I think everybody was here should be signing for election judge I know we had a few but one of the best ways to ensure election integrity is to be an election judge and we don't suffer from too many election judges so to me I think that is an opportunity to really go out and publicize at every level like hey if you really care about this we need you every two years and here's the steps of what you have to do. Here's the training. Here's what you have to do. I think it would be uh helpful as well. Um and then cuz by publicizing what we're supposed to be doing makes us live up to it. And I think about we talked about it when I met with them where we left the gate up on a vehicle that was carrying ballots which is not our policy and we owned it. The person I think is no longer working in that role. uh but all those things matter and because it feeds into stuff and so every time we fail on a policy people use it as an aha versus uh we use that. So I do think all these things are are good things and more we tell people what we do. Um but I do think we should use this as election judge recruitment at every level um that we can. So thank you. Well, and with that, um, I was just going to say too, uh, some of the voters or some of the voters, some of the residents that attended the meeting today, um, were wanting to make sure we were partnering with cities. I think making more information around the election and how it works. Um, I think people are very interested in it because of the threats to the election. Um, you know, publicly, how how voting works, um, how counties get the votes, how we certify the election, how we work with cities. Um, also, you know, I know that during the primary, we the attorney general's office, the county attorney's office, the Minnesota Secretary of State, the county elections team was very much in close communication with all of them. I think people should just have a general idea that we we are preparing for this. We do understand that um there were some some some potential threats to the well, at least some people that wanted to come within a period that they were not allowed within 100 ft of a polling place. So we we do have a plan and so I think making sure people understand that. Um and Mr. Rogan, do you have anything to say to all of that? >> Uh just um Madam Chair, uh we will uh be doing more outreach. you know, we we have planned um some outreach events and we you know, based on this feedback, we'll we'll look at some other other ways to kind of highlight what you've talked about about the process, the how it works and and um the steps that we've taken um to ensure that we are going to have um free and fair elections. And I'll just remind folks, I know that the um the folks from open form aren't here anymore, but uh mail voting starts on September 19th and there is no prohibition uh right now for our mail balloting is going to happen the exact way that it happened for the primary. We are primed and ready to go. Those ballots will go out on September 19th and I have every expectation that the postal service is going to follow that. [gasps] Um there's obviously litigation that's happening but but right now I think you know one of the the commenters you know said that you the fact that you can't vote by mail you know that that's not true. You can vote by mail right now and certainly if you cannot we will that will be an enormous deal. So you you can vote by mail and the other thing I'll say is that you know the open the the early voting um is new this year. Most cities have it at their at their city hall. And the city of Minneapolis, um they uh you can vote at the in in northeast at the open voting center and then they have one on the north side at the Urban League, one on the south side at um the uh Bethl Lutheran Church and then this year they're going to have 12 popup events on particular days um moving around the city. Um that's all advertised on their website. So there, you know, I think people are really trying to make sure that that we're working in ways to expand the franchise and try to make it so that we're meeting people where they're at and trying to uh meet that goal of trying to make sure that everybody who wants to vote has has the ability to vote and we have more opportunities to do that in in different ways um uh this year than we have in the past. >> Yeah, that's great. Commissioner Lenn, you had another followup. Just I I do believe the county needs to take a look at the fact that not everyone gets the same treatment as Minneapolis because not everybody has Minneapolis money. So if you're in a small city and I don't mean to reach into District 7, but if you're in a small city, it's not your fault. That voter has the same rights as a voter who lives in Mill City in Minneapolis. I know that's not what you're saying, but when I hear about all these events, it's not the same. And it's not a small city's fault for the fact that they cannot afford to do those things. They don't get money for that. Um and so I do think I think about the special elections where we were telling people out in Corkran to come downtown to cast their vote because our city hall couldn't staff a thing. So I know that's not what you're saying, but it just reminds me that it is unequal on some of the stuff and I realize why it is, but it it shouldn't be. I just feel strongly that a voter, no matter where they are in the county, should have the same access. So, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Okay. Well, with that, um I just I wanted to say just one more thing. No president, governor, county commissioner for that matter or political party should decide whose vote matters. Our job is to protect the rules, protect the process, and protect every eligible voters's right to participate in our democracy. And that's exactly what we have been doing and what we will continue to do. So, with that, we will move to a vote. All those in favor of approving item 2A, please say I. I >> opposed. The motion carries. That concludes resident services. Thank you. We are adjourned. >> 45. But I'm just