“here.”

Responding to roll call.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“I move approval of the April 27th, 2026 LBAe minutes and the April 27th, 2026 regular meeting minutes.”

Moved to approve the minutes.

“here”

Responding to roll call.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“a second.”

Seconded the motion to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“a second.”

Seconded the motion to approve the minutes.

“thank you for your hard work. Um, I'm very grateful that um, there's a plan moving forward for HCMC. Um, being a person that has been working with the county quite a bit for family members who need services, these cuts are devastating. Um, I'm have some means, but I am not a wealthy person by any by any means. And um, these cuts are really devastating. And I really encourage people that listen to this meeting to call their federal legislators and encourage them to reinstate funding for social services, Medicaid, SNAP, housing because the people this is the some of these cuts are supposedly punishment for quote unquote fraud that is already being prosecuted here in Minnesota and the only people that are suffering are the people that were already the most vulnerable people and needed these services. So, I just want to thank you for your service. You and I have a lot to catch up on and talk about. Um, but you know, I think these cuts are really devastating and I I it's amazing that we, you know, can offer what we can offer. And I just want to say I'm I'm sure I can speak for all of us that we want to be your partner because these are the issues that cities and counties grapple with and we have to support our residents and they need these services. So thank you.”

Expressed gratitude to Commissioner Eden and shared concerns about county service cuts.

“here.”

Responding to roll call.

“here.”

Responding to roll call.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“here”

Responding to roll call.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“here”

Responding to roll call.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the agenda.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“We do. Thank you, mayor and councel. There is one item on the agenda this evening. Item 6A, which is the recognition of the 2026 Minnotonka Essay Contest Award winners. Um, the winning essays were added to the packet, so they are included in the item and they are also available on our website. Um, this concludes the changes. So, with that, mayor, I turn it back to you for consideration.”

Describing the agenda changes and returning it for consideration.

“I was anticipating your call for I'll I'll move to approve the agenda as amended.”

Moved to approve the agenda as amended.

“yes.”

Voting to approve the minutes.

“Wilburn, yes. Calbertt, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Maxwell, yes. Shaq, yes.”

Called roll for the agenda approval vote.

“Wilburn, yes. Calbert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Maxwell, yes. Shaq, yes.”

Called roll for the minutes approval vote.

“So this is the first year the DEI commission o hosted this essay contest and they selected the theme belonging. There were two categories grades 6 through nine and grades 10 through 12. The judge judges panel consisted of the DEI commission and members of the senior advisory board. And I am pleased to announce the winners who had an opportunity to meet earlier this evening.”

Introducing the DEI commission's essay contest.

“Minnetonka won the Olympics. So congratulations you guys. Very good. Uh nice job Minnetonka. We're going to have to count we're going to have to copy this with the counties. Maybe we could do it with like Ramsy or Washington or something. I love that idea.”

Congratulating Minnetonka on winning the Olympics and suggesting county-wide events.

“Heather Edson, Honeypin County Commissioner. I've um am been in this role now two years. Um, and so I'm going to walk you through kind of what the county's up to. You've probably heard the good news. We got the HCMC funding, which is like very exciting.”

Introducing herself and mentioning exciting news about HCMC funding.

“Sorry, I'm going to need you. Oh, hold on. I did it. Did you do it or is that me? You did it. You did it. Okay, you'll just do it for me. Sorry. I I hit 45 and technology is no longer my friend. Okay. All right.”

Having trouble with the presentation technology.

“So, uh, county was established 1852. How what, uh, what year was the state established? Does anybody know? Just because it's 50. Nice. All right, council member. I want to play trivia with you. uh 45 cities in Henipin County, 1.3 million residents. You think about an equivalent state is Rhode Island. So there's lots of several states where the population is actually the same. And so um other the other counties, sorry, I'll just one more and then I'll promise I'll stop. How many counties in the state of Minnesota? Anybody? 87. I heard it. 87. Yep. 87. 87. So the other 87 or 86 counties are always like, "Oh, the state of Hen Independent." I'm like, "Actually, we technically are the size of some states." So, I get it.”

Providing trivia and statistics about Hennepin County and Minnesota.

“Um, so eight eight Fortune 500 companies, 100 plus lakes, plus the Mississippi with the largest lake of course being Lake Minnotonka. Um, 607 square miles and 11 watershed districts. And we will keep going. Thank you for that.”

Listing key statistics and features of Hennepin County.

“But child protection permits, we do licensing. Um, we have the county attorney's office, the sheriff's office, we do h we help with um adult representation services, which mayor, last time I think I talked to you, I was going to housing court to shadow them for the day, which was really interesting. So, a lot of really important things. We are the safety net between the cities and between the state and it's a we do a lot of really important work, but just some of the things that you know day-to-day that people I think forget. One of the examples I've been using for city councils, gosh, am I really loud, sorry, I love I can't I have a loud voice here. I'm just going to put it over there. um is is when you go to a restaurant and you're eating at a restaurant and you're thinking who is inspecting this to make sure it's up to code kind of a county public health is going in there and making sure so it's it's just one of the examples that you're thinking I don't interact with county services that often and actually um people do people do even if you're not receiving disability waiverss or Medicaid services there's a lot of really important things that we do and thank you good timing okay so 3.15 billion is our budget. Last year our our levy point um we raised at 7.79% um or 7.7 no percent is different 7.79 levy uh uh levy points and um looking at that you can see here's the property taxes and I have some good charts which are going to show how the trends what that's been looking up and that's coming up shortly but you'll see a big part of how county um supports itself is through property taxes. There's also state and federal funding.”

Describing county services and budget, emphasizing public health inspections and property tax reliance.

“You'll see 50% of our budget is health and human services. Then we have you think resident services are where our libraries are in. Um, operation and disparity elimination. We have housing in there and it's the operations of the county. It's uh things like workforce development, law, safety, and justice. You have the county attorney, the sheriff in there. But we also run the adult detention or the um juvenile detention center. We also have probation and law, safety, and justice. Capital improvements, you're thinking about our roads, bridges, and also um the capital improvements is where our libraries are. And public works, of course, um is also just the maintenance of of how we run county roads.”

Detailing county expenditures by line of business.

“You'll see the trend that we are going is is an over reliance on property taxes to fund county services. Now, I want to show you um Oh, there it goes. Okay, so the next one I want to point you to is the federal government, which is three over. again, blue 2024, light blue 2025, green 2026, and you'll see that that funding um has gone down and state it if you'll see it kind of es and flows. Um, and so but it has gone down. Now, what's interesting about the county too is I think if you're not thinking about it top of mind, a lot of what we do, about 70% of the work that we do is mandated by the federal government and the state government. So there are things we absolutely have to do, but yet the funding is not tied, right? I mean, you guys have obviously, it's funny, when I was at the legislature, people would say unfunded mandates, and I was like, "Oh, come on. We just have to shift how we do things." And then you're like, "Well, technically, there are things that we have to keep the community doing well, but if we don't fund it, where does that funding come from?" As you can see, the trend is that those funding sources go down and property tax funding goes up, right? You just want to tie that correlation there. All right? All right.”

Discussing trends in funding sources, highlighting reliance on property taxes and decreasing state/federal contributions for mandated services.

“You'll see our health expenses are drastically increasing. Um, and so in that uh some of the things that we've had to do over the last year is remember when the federal government was uh not doing well with in terms of passing SNAP funding. um the the county government has to step in and so we've put out $3 million to make sure that people had food to eat. Um, there's other multiple things that you're thinking about where we've had to step in where when our state and federal government are not working for people, it's the counties that are because we have the resources. It's sometimes taking away from other resources. So I the other thing I want you to highlight um is the fourth one over under human services. You'll see in blue 2025 um how the funding for green 2026 went down for human services. Now most people when they think about what the county does is a lot of human services. That's one of our primary things and we're having to not be we're having to with attrition having to hold positions and and struggle with funding because of some of the instability of all the other systems. So just wanting to kind of big picture so you guys see what's happening at the county. Um, but you'll also see for capital improvements we have that um expenditures the money going out is we're reducing that because we have less money so there's less money to spend on capital projects.”

Explaining increased health expenses, county intervention for SNAP funding, and decreased funding for human services and capital improvements.

“Um, so property taxes um I've heard a lot about it and I absolutely agree the trend is not it's not sustainable. So, we have to figure out what we can do because whether we, you know, we all would like to change the federal government to be stable and not have the partisan fighting, but to do the things for the people. But the reality is is we're not going to be able to change the federal government. We have control of the county. And so, what we have to do is really look at not pricing people out of their homes. And so, um, trying to be, uh, cognizant of the budget that we have. Um, we understand that. I'll just want I want to say as the county commissioner for the area I understand that this is not sustainable that we are trying to level out property taxes um so that doesn't continue to go up but what Minnetonka saw specifically is about a 10.5% increase and now tax capacity comes in with this um I swear people need a PhD to understand exactly what it looks like but it I think it's 1.25 25, right you guys? Where because a lot of the homes in Minnetonka in a lot of the district 6, if you're over 500,000 or more, you're actually taxed at a different capacity for the state of Minnesota. And so some of that is the portion of the pie that we pay for is bigger for those homes that that have that. And because of the amount of um homes that have that, the percentage is larger in Minaco. And feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions.”

Addressing the unsustainability of property taxes and Minnetonka's specific increase, explaining tax capacity for higher-value homes.

“So, um, food security for SNAP. So 8 million of that. So now um so what SNAP looks like in other states is the actually the state administers SNAP. In the state of Minnesota, it's the counties that administer SAP. So, we qualify people. They come through the county. We qualify them and then we approve them and they get the funding through the USDA which goes to the state and then the money goes directly from the state of Minnesota to the person, but the county has the first interaction. We have all the administrative costs. They're cutting 8 million of our administrative costs. So same responsibility to do to do the qualifications but the funding is not there. Um, that also we have the terminated grants for FEMA which was shelter housing. Um 2.8 million was cut from that. And so we'll keep going.”

Detailing cuts to SNAP administrative costs and FEMA grants for shelter housing.

“So, um, the error rate uh 32 other states in the United States actually have an error rate that is higher than the state of Minnesota's. Ours is 8.6 and uh other states are higher. And the HR1 the big bill that was passed uh what that says is essentially if your air rate is not 6% or less that you will be um you will incur these costs. And so um it is that is something that we're anticipating um as as a cost.”

Discussing the SNAP error rate and potential costs due to HR1 legislation.

“And HUD these are the permanent permanent shelter permanent housing funding that we have 12 million and I saw Ronnie Secretary Ronn Ronnie CR when I was in Washington DC for a conference and I had talked to him and I said listen he he made some statements and then he left without questions and I followed followed down in the hallway and I was like wait don't leave I need to ask you questions because the permanent support of housing has been very successful in Henipin County and so making the 12 million of cuts because what the current administration believes is there's too many people receiving the benefits that should be working more. But the problem is is if we take people out of permanent supportive housing that were formerly homeless, we are creating another problem and the cost is significantly more than 12 million. So we're genuinely worried about this. We had a good email back and forth. He did email me back but there's no commitment. I will keep trying, but I'm I'm I'm genuinely worried about that. And it's it's more than the cost. It's it's what are we going to do about the people that are going to lose housing?”

Expressing concern over $12 million in cuts to permanent supportive housing, citing potential negative consequences and increased costs.

“And so that is really positive news for the hospital. It really is good news. Um, and then there's 500 million that looks like it will be available to apply for and not just for HCMC, but for other hospitals. those other hospitals are struggling as well. And so, and then there's a task force that will be done to look at our governance and long-term sustainability. I've been doing a lot of research on this. We want to make sure that we secure and stabilize HCMC, which this money will do. But, you know, possibly looking at a hospital authority other states have, but learning from what those models have done and figuring out ways um to sustain it, but also remove it from the liability of the county, too. I mean, we're we we had $40 million last year. So, a levy point is 10 million. 40 four levy points were just for the hospital alone. And so and we were caring for 20 million of that was for people that were outside of Henipin County. And so we don't want to turn people away, but we need a funding mechanism that the state can show up for as well. So that we're not looking to property taxes to pay for people's healthcare, but people's people getting health is absolutely a priority. So it's not getting rid of that. It's saying we believe in health for people, but we need to have that as a shared cost with the state.”

Discussing positive news regarding HCMC funding, potential hospital authorities, and the need for shared state responsibility in healthcare funding.

“As much as I love the hospital, I've had to do a lot of research cuz I don't know anything about running a hospital. When I ran for the seat, it wasn't like, you know what, I want to help run the hospital. That don't know about it. I don't. And um I it has been it's been a learning curve. And so, I truly believe in the mission of of Henipin County Medical Center, though. and I want to see it thrive and survive. But I want experts around that um that hospital to make sure that politics stays out of it and that it really is about patient care.”

Reflecting on the learning curve of managing the hospital and emphasizing the need for expert-driven, patient-focused operations.

“This is great news uh for the city. We sent an email out council members and mayor um and also city members. 9,000 will be Henipin County will be giving for onetime funding to help with elections this year. We are also looking at how to be more supportive for elections in the years ahead and keep going.”

Announcing $9,000 in one-time funding from Hennepin County for elections.

“We have our youth cris crisis stabilization center which opened up in December of 2026. It was about 20 million to open with 13 beds. It has 247 care students that will go there are 8 to 17. Um, and it's about it's a short-term stay facility. Now you might say $20 million 13 beds that's a lot of money. But the reality is is every time we were in every time we're in care of a child we are in we are responsible for all of the cost and and quite frankly one child could cost us well over a million and especially when we're sending that child out of state where they're far away from their family. That's not good for that child. It's not good for the family and it's really hard for kids. we see more reoccurrence of coming back in to crisis care at that point. So this is really a positive positive intervention that we are seeing and um very very good for our county. So we would like to see residential treatment facilities there's not enough of them and if you have a a child that has behavioral like acting out physically people would reject reject and that child has nowhere to go. So, that's the next level of of attention that I would like us to pay attention to because oftentimes those kids end up in like a juvenile detention center or in a facility that they should not be in.”

Detailing the new youth crisis stabilization center, its costs, benefits, and the need for more residential treatment facilities.

“And we have a new public safety headquarters in Plymouth. I don't that was an opening last May. Um, and it's lovely. If you haven't seen it, let me know and I can we'll do a tour again this summer. Last year we did the medical examiner's office. Open to all. But we'll do a few more tours this year. So, I'll send an email. You guys just signed up for which ones you want to come to. But this one's good and we'll keep going.”

Mentioning the new public safety headquarters in Plymouth and inviting tours.

“Minnetonka and other county or other cities like Edina are working together and they got this funding here for the 631,000 for grant funding to work on autothefts that are happening. I mean, there's this new I'm sure the police chief knows much more about this, but I was seeing there's like a fob thing where people can like walk up and I'm going to decimate it, but anyways, it's there's in there's innovation. There's innovation on autothefts. And so, we need to make sure we're keeping up with that. So, we're preventing them before you know, unfortunately ends up being a lot of young people getting creative. You're like, use your force for good. But yeah, so hopefully this will be helpful. this funding that we're receiving and these are infrastructure projects that we have going. Baker Road, um, we're doing a lot of pavement resurf resurfacing. Um Gleon Lake, that's also reconstruction. We have pavement, curb, storm water, sidewalk, and then ADA accommodations are going all across the county. So, you'll see that on Ed Prairie Road pavement preservation as well.”

Discussing auto theft collaboration funding and ongoing infrastructure projects like road resurfacing and reconstruction.

“And if you I can send this as well as a follow-up. This is a great map uh just to show all the capital projects that we're working on and it's timelines if people are getting questions, but you can always council members and mayor always just call me or text me. I'm really really responsive. I I truly appreciate hearing from you on on issues. And that is it I believe. Happy to take any questions.”

Offering to send follow-up information on capital projects and encouraging communication.

“Good job, Halo. >> Congratulations again. We're so pleased that you participated and you wrote a wonderful essay.”

Being congratulated for winning the essay contest.

“Come on up, Ellanie, and accept your award.”

Being called to accept an award.

“What would Ponch do?”

Recalling his childhood inspiration for law enforcement from the TV show Chips.

“staff was all saying universally that if they have a tough situation, Scott's the person to call on.”

Described by staff as the go-to person for tough situations.

“Congratulations, Scott, on more than 36 years of service. You'll be greatly missed.”

Being congratulated on his retirement and his service.

“Law enfo”

His background information was cut short in the document.

“he made some statements and then he left without questions and I followed followed down in the hallway and I was like wait don't leave I need to ask you questions because the permanent support of housing has been very successful in Henipin County”

Commissioner Eden's interaction with Secretary Ronnie CR about housing funding.