Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

for June 23rd, 2026.

Please rise if you're able and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good.

First up, we will go out to the audience to see if there's anybody who wishes to address the board on an item that is not on the agenda or is on the consent agenda.

I'm not seeing anyone come forward.

Next, we can review the agenda and ask for approval.

Move approval, Madam Chair.

There's a motion. Second. Second. Thank you so much. We will... All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. That motion prevails. Agenda is approved. Next step, we will consider the consent agenda. Is there a motion or changes?

Madam Chair, I'll move the motion.

Second. Second. Any discussion for the motion? Hearing none, we will make a roll call on the consent agenda.

Jenny? Commissioner Drozdy?

Yes.

Commissioner Heyman-Roland? Yes. Commissioner Atkins? Yes. Commissioner Slavitt? Yes. Commissioner Workman? Yes, with the exception of 6.7. Commissioner Halverson? Yes. Commissioner Holberg? Yes, with the exception of 6.7.

All right, with that, we have the approval of the consent agenda. Next up, we move to our regular agenda, and we have an informational presentation. on elections and election readiness and the likes of Michelle Bluthold, our Elections Director. It's always election season, right? Yeah. Welcome. You deserve democracy.

Well, good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners. Thank you for your time today. I'm so happy to be here. um my name is michelle bloom very excited to be with you today and talk about elections and how we are uh how we are ready um okay uh believe it or not it's 133 days from today is november general election um not like we're counting but um But I just want to reiterate some of the steps that we've taken to make sure that our elections are ready for a busy and exciting year. We always want to remind folks that voters should have confidence in our processes because they're built on transparency. There's clear procedures and safeguards at every step. Our office remains in close communication with our legal counsel and the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. to make sure that we continue to administer elections in accordance with all state and federal laws. This year, we're being especially proactive in public polling place safety to make sure our polling places remain safe, welcoming, and free from intimidation and safe again for our voters and our election judges. Our focus this year is on ensuring that voters have accurate information and that every eligible voter can participate in elections that are secure, fair, and transparent. And we just want to make sure that all of our election judges are ready. All of this is to say that we conduct elections that are free, fair, secure, and transparent. We have given and are given all of our election judges extra training and support this year to make sure that they understand clearly who is permitted in a polling place and who is not, what activities are allowed and what activities are not. They're also well aware of how to get assistance if any issues arise, who to call, when to call. And addressing that ahead of time is really critical to make sure that election day runs So speaking about who is allowed inside a polling place. So it's essentially anybody who would be there otherwise and anybody who has a need to be there. So anybody who would be there otherwise would be maybe it's a church and it's somebody who works in that church and that's fine for them to be in that. polling place because they're there on a daily basis anyway. And then anybody who has a need to be there, such as a voter or election judge or another specifically authorized person. So that's somebody who's there to assist a voter when a voter brings in their children, observers who are authorized, a peace officer if their presence is requested by an election judge to assure order, and appointed challengers. Those can be appointed by political parties or nonpartisan candidates. But just a reminder on peace officers, their presence is only allowed if an election judge requests their presence to restore order. And then once order is restored, they would need to. Of course, they're allowed to be there if they're actively voting as well. All of this is defined clearly in state law. so um so this is a question that i've been asked numerous times this year so happy to just reiterate the presence of federal agents in or near the entrance of any polling place is prohibited by multiple state laws and multiple federal laws this year i have been very proactive in meeting with every city clerk, township clerk, and city managers and administrators, just to make sure they understand their role in establishing polling places. They establish the polling place, and if an incident were to arise, there are provisions, it's very clearly defined in the law, a way to relocate the polling place if needed, but that's ultimately their call. So we've made sure they understand we will support you. We will help you. What can we do to help get the word out? But that is ultimately their decision. So they understand that now about relocating in case of emergency, what would come with them to make that decision. And then last month I met with the chiefs of police from every large city in Dakota County and the Dakota County Sheriff to talk about the law enforcement response. I wanted to make sure they were all aware of this information and also prepared and they understood what they would do. I wanted them to have a plan. If somebody calls 911 to report an incident, do you know where your polling places are in your city? And do you have a plan of how you would respond to that? So they are aware and they're ready to respond as well. While we're talking about elections, I always like to remind people that elections are run by local clerks. Those are the clerks of schools, cities, and townships. Those are your neighbors and friends, the people you shop in the grocery store with. All of those are people who take an oath to follow the law. They're taking an oath to prevent fraud and conduct their work in a fair and impartial manner. All voting in Minnesota is done on human-readable, verifiable paper ballots. Those ballots are counted by tabulators that have been certified and thoroughly tested, and I'll talk about that a little more in a moment. But before every single election, we publicly test every machine, every choice on every ballot, every oval. every ballot question, every candidate, every everything. And then after every election, we have our public post-election review. That is a manual hand count of a sample of ballots to ensure that our tabulators are working correctly. Tabulators are secure, they're efficient, they are accurate, they reduce human error, they cost far less than hand counting large numbers of ballots. And so our system of paper ballots combined with machine tests and thorough audits gives us multiple layers of security and accountability. So I wanted to touch on our new voting equipment. Last year, every single city, town, and school district in Dakota County signed onto a JPA to execute We seem to be using the latest technology and tamper proof technology in encryption and accessibility. We're going to be using the vendor that was overwhelmingly preferred by all of our municipal parks and accessibility. day um that was it during a demonstration mode and so it does show both during um i'll confirm this but my understanding is during the election day um it's just going to show that daily count so that's how many people voted that day not necessarily in the lifetime of that machine but yeah i just record it just say for those that are skeptical protected count maybe lessons right yeah verbatim

yeah i mean it seemed like it's not public it's just 15 votes where do they come yeah i appreciate that feedback questions or comments so madam chair just just to maybe emphasize so those numbers were for demonstration purpose only and that's i think what we need to be able to share with the public Maybe even when I, you know, when I post it, I'll just say, you might notice that, you know, this is for, this machine is for demonstration purposes only. All machines will start at zero whenever, yeah. Maybe a good idea.

Madam Chair and Commissioners, we can certainly talk to the communications team about updating that image to what they'll actually see. That's probably a good idea. Instead of in that demonstration mode. That's a great touch.

It was a good catch. I saw it too.

So how goes the election judge recruitment? Is it something that people are excited to do or are we having challenges?

Yeah, Madam Chair, we're very fortunate in Minnesota to have a lot of people that are willing to volunteer and be part of the election judge team. To serve. Everybody that I'm hearing from, from my city clerks, have all of their rates full. I just talked to Eden yesterday, and they said, please don't send any more people our way. So, yeah, we're not aware of any issues.

It's much better than I thought we were going to hear it, honestly, this early.

I have one more question. I just want to share my appreciation for you and your team and for all the behind the scenes work that has to happen in order to make it safe and secure elections. And this presentation is really helpful. I'm glad I saw the same. as Commissioner Holberg, and I'm glad that you're going to adjust that because we don't want any questions that are, that don't have to be, right? I mean, we want everyone to have their questions answered, but not pose something that creates a question that, you know, cause distrust. So you have done, and your team have done a remarkable job of creating a safe, secure elections process, which helps us to trust that. And that's exciting. So thank you.

Great county leaders. Oh, I have one more question about the voting machines. How long were the old machines in use?

Yeah, that's a good question.

So they were in use for over 11 years. I don't know how long they were... how long they were in use. I believe they were certified a few years before they were put into use in Dakota County. We're using the latest technology now. We're using the newest equipment more than anybody else in the whole state. So we're very much at the forefront of new technology. But yeah, as a general rule, somewhere between 10 to, 12 to 14 years is where you'd be looking at for voting equipment replacement. And yeah, that was where the equipment was, was about 11 to 12 years.

That's helpful to know.

It is helpful. They're going to ask that question.

We needed to do it. I look like Mary Beth Schubert. I'm going to jump on the names today. Good morning, Beth. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge that Michelle had participated in an MTR interview last week, which ran this morning.

Thanks a lot for the presentation. It's good to get an update and hear how things are going.

I know we'll hear more as things progress. Any final thoughts, questions?

None.

Thanks a lot.

We'll let you get back.

Ready to post the video when it's adjusted. Thank you again.

Next up, we can talk interagency reports.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We had our meeting in Anoka County. And that was way up there, too. It took me an hour and 15 minutes because of the traffic. And the traffic was 30 miles an hour on 35 the entire way up 35.

I have somebody call it MnDOT.

It was just amazing. So we kind of reviewed the legislative updates, top county priorities, the long-term services and support waiver re-imagining, the IT modernization, $11 million in funding for SNAP, the 205 million for HCMC, Hennepin County Medical Center, the 15 million in the Minnesota African American Family Preservation, and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. And I'm practicing it for myself because it really tells us what it's about. And so that $15 million. Also the Office of Inspector General, which will oversee the fraud. and the 1.2 billion in bonding, which is 6 million for the County Road 50. And this year, as we move forward, the focus for AMC is really going to be on federal legislation because we feel like federal legislation is gonna be really impactful for our state. So that concludes mine. I know that Commissioner, Slavic was there and Commissioner trustee was also was there, so you might want to have. Is there anything else that you wanted to add?

You can go ahead and then if you miss anything, I'll.

So a couple of things. District 10 as you know, that's made up of the seven county metro area. There's other nine other districts across the state and there is some unique things that we saw that a little bit last year with the kind of transportation conversation that they had where they formed the working group. And a couple of points to make out of that. One is we have kind of three emerging continuing topics that we've discussed. The first one being the impacts of the greenhouse gas mandates on our transportation system in the coming years and kind of what that's going to be in there. We have the engineer from Anoka County, who's very well-spoken and very knowledgeable on this topic. I'm here on just kind of one of the challenges of emphasizing that the state's still not understanding or willing to accept what the impacts of that might be. Some of the workarounds that counties are trying to figure out with that, which really seem to be one-time workarounds, but then also how it would be in the seven county metro than they are in necessarily other parts of the state but the there's also some questions of are they going to go and make the seven county metro have a different set of standards uh compared to the rest of the state on some of these things we want to make sure that that is not the case that um in many of our policies if you're going to go and put the sledgehammer of mandates on seven county metro you should be making them statewide or maybe you shouldn't make them at all it's kind of the conversation that happened on issue number one um number two is related to solid waste, particularly the legislature commissioned a really interesting study that basically said to want 90% of our waste stream to now go out of landfill and burners don't count. So they basically hit us on both sides. That processing doesn't count and landfills don't count. So I don't know where this is going to go when we've struggled up to this point here. That is out for public comment. I may be looking to staff other comments. The other staff are having to go in and do a response on that, whether that's done staff-wise or as elected officials. But that is just another example of an unrealistic mandate. I'm sure our environmental resources staff are quite well aware of that. But I know that that was something that we were asked to bring back to our board to say, please go in and have a strategy before the public comment goes on that because it just doesn't add up on so many different ways. And then the third one was just related to just the mandates and the new parts that are impacting our county budgets. Also not necessarily a seven county thing, but the numbers are bigger and some of the people impact that has a much different impact on there. So all of those hot topics created a further conversation saying, I think district 10 as a whole should be meeting more than twice a year. Saying that, just kind of a big transition. We tried to talk to our suburban work group that we couldn't get everyone. What ultimately is coming out of this is that there seems to be an additional meeting of the seven county commissioners and staff coming together on some of these things that are backing us and speaking as one voice of the larger counties. Potentially, it brings in some of the greater Minnesota larger counties, but particularly the seven coming together, which I have not seen necessarily in my time as a commissioner, that there was a energy. One point of that is usually when we have our district 10 meetings, everybody's in kind of a classroom style. We were in a round very similar to this and you could probably go out for a couple more hours. That's how engaged you had and you had some of our most progressive county commissioners in the state and some of most conservative and they were aligned and they were working together and they were very much. There was an energy in the room and I think that don't be surprised if we see at least We might see, come January, the seven county metro commissioners and staff getting together early in January to kind of continue with these next topics.

I hope so.

Sorry, that was long-winded, but the first thing I noticed you missed.

If I could, Madam Chair, hit it 100%. But I would say on waste, one million of our four million tons in this state is burned. And the HERC issue facing us in the metro has significant impacts on Dakota County. Because we're more or less where all the waste gets deposited out of the seven-county metro with PFAS and all these issues that are floating out there. the impacts are going to be significant uh if we don't get some changes at a state level especially uh on the burners now on a learning from that meeting also consumers we all are creating more trash it's not less even though we're seeing the recycling you with perception hey we should watch the amount of waste uh the numbers increasing But the other thing I did learn from this, even if the Herc is closed, they're looking at that'll be a consolidation center. They're still anticipating pulling about 40% of the waste out of there that's burned today.

So it's like product stewardship, she said. Which I thought was really great.

We get a lot of packages that just come to everyone's house every day that We're there 10 years ago, and that waste volume is increasing.

Okay. Madam Chair. First, I have to go to Commissioner Worker, and then Ms. Shannon. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Since we're talking trash, you put me on the EMC Solid Waste Work Group, and we had a team's meeting yesterday. And I'm going to phone a friend.

because she's in the room.

The MPCA released two documents, the policy and what was the other?

Mr. I think it's sort of our resources director. Most recently, the resource management plan. So that's a statutory plan.

Or use your outside voice. Yeah, I have a quiet voice.

So this resource management plan was issued by the PCA, but it was a statutory requirement for them to complete and respond to what the statute was meeting that landfill goal by 2040 or 2045. At that team meeting, we heard from AMC staff that I think the expectation was going to be more the PCA showing that it would be very difficult to meet that based on what our infrastructure and what our financial capability is. And instead they are pushing that no, we need to make that. And there was no mention necessarily of how we would help the counties and how to finance it and more focused on the upstream management, like reuse and waste reduction when we don't have some of those systems in place. So a lot of the counties, in the state are up in arms right now. That meeting was very helpful because I understand some counties are asking for extensions because the document is, I don't know, over 300. I haven't gotten through all these things. And so we as staff are looking through that and we're also connecting with the other counties and trying to strategize. Do we do our own comments? Do we do it through the SWA or EMC? And I think what I heard at yesterday's meeting is a suggestion for each county to do their own because the PCA is not really interested in making any changes. That's what I heard. I don't.

Well, we heard it yesterday that basically you can say anything you want about this document, but as it's written, it's the way it's moving forward. So it basically doesn't matter that we have issues reaching these goals and it, that dovetail on to the i'm meeting because i'm a part of this group meeting in july with the mpca regarding the same document i haven't gotten the agenda yet so i'm not here we don't that's a little bit wrong we've okay that was canceled no no if it's not sorry that's okay

Can I answer? Please. Okay. Sorry. That's why I said your name and then I held my hand up. So go.

There's two meetings of commissioners happening and it's making it very confusing for staff. And I get a sense also for commissioners. So we're trying to navigate this. As you said, there's an association in Minnesota County, a solid waste work group of commissioners and staff. The PCA also put in our waste plan. We need to collect all the commissioners all together to talk about waste. They're trying to plan it. I'm not impressed with how it's going. And so I'm doing my best to just monitor and figure out how strategically and what topics are being brought in. And so I would make a suggestion as the commissioners to both bring forth that resource management plan and some of the issues and we have staff can help kind of frame some of those concerns. We'll continue to work on mass mass.

So, so is Robert rules, lots of people want to talk. So everybody gets to talk once and then go back. And so I'm gonna have to share over to speak and then share.

Yeah, I think my question is, are they still doing all this based on 2014 legislation with that they don't have to do any rulemaking or whatever. They can just do whatever they want.

I'm not sure. I'd have to look into that. I really don't know.

So Mike's shaking his head. This is just unprecedented. And I would just make the point that if we want to engage on this next thing, I think we have to clearly delineate how much this is costing metro counties to even get close to the first round of mandate. But I don't know what the percentage that we're trying to reach or whatever. And the disparity between Greater Minnesota and the Metro. I mean, somebody's got to pull these horses. This will be a legislative issue, no doubt, next year. I mean, that's just... This is totally out of it. Just a quick comment.

I went out and the MPCA tried to find the resource draft document. Could you forward that out to each of us or where is that part?

It's 300 pages. Yeah. Just do the executive.

Well, it's 300 pages.

We love trash. We love trash. Great. Anything else? That was a robust AMC update. Lots of activity happening. Oh, yes, there's a board meeting. Thank you all. Next up, the Metropolitan Emergency Services Board.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We had an executive committee meeting on June 10th, primarily budget. Next meeting is the 8th of July. And budget will be flat.

As a preview. Minnesota Inter-County Association, I was at, it's not at the entire meeting, so Mr. Jassy, I hope you can jump in. We had... recap of the legislative session and we talked a bit about work groups in the interim for folks to participate on. So just our own microstructure and work that we're going to do in legislation development by coming here. Anything to add?

Good summary at this point.

Metropolitan Mosquito Control Commission. We have a thank you.

We have a executive board meeting tomorrow. And we're going to be talking about looking at the construction project. Oh, good. For Maple Grove and the lab. And no mosquitoes. I had a mosquito. I went and got mosquitoes out there. I have no mosquitoes. You sent them my way.

I did.

I did.

It's been a nice spring. Because I've been married for almost 25 years, we do things like listen to podcasts together. We listen to a whole lot on mosquitoes. And I said, here we are. Splitting sandwiches. The Metropolitan Mosquito Control Board really did get that information so well. My husband said, did you know that? Yeah. So, uh, National Association of Counties. Not fun right now. Education Advisory Board Commissioner Holberg.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So we met last week. Nothing super exciting, but. We they have identified the first glitch in the scoring criteria for the regional solicitation that they inputted bad data in preparing a map that would show congested areas and it's worth 10 points. And it would have helped some of our projects given the congestion, but given where we are in the process, the decision was made to not trying and fix it or reapportion those points in other areas. So it's kind of unfortunate, but I don't think that this is going to be the last problem with the solicitation process. So stay tuned. And if I might, my extra credit committee, maybe I should have brought it under AMC, but the reducing vehicle mile travel working group in which the Metro engineers, the Carver County engineer on that. There's a lot of consternation on the greenhouse gas stuff. And of course this reducing vehicle miles is a component of getting points for mitigation, et cetera. But there's, it's just so odd because you have the, You have the MnDOT folks that have to be on the mission, right? So they've been charged with doing this. And virtually everybody else on the call is like, this is a total mess. We don't think your matrix are going to work, your modeling. I, again, raise the issue of this, who gets credit for mitigation in their model where they showed the project in Willmar that they would get points because there was apartments built in St. Cloud, that that really wasn't gonna work so good. And then also the unresolved issue in the Metro where Metro Council and MnDOT are moving towards a kind of a mitigation bank, if you will, because they control the federal funds. So like they wanna control the resulting benefits from federal fund investments. in their mitigation bank, but nobody's been able to answer the question that if say 10% of the project is a regional solicitation grant and 90% came from county or local sources, do they still get 100% of the mitigation benefit? I mean, this thing is a mess on SOHO. any levels. The only thing I think we can be grateful for is that we have that we beat the clock on 3550. And that we don't have anything imminently in the queue. That's going to be impacted by this. But I just, I mean, after decades in government, this is probably one of the most ill conceived backward, when you think of the amount of time statewide in every county and city from engineers on electives and people just trying to do the right thing that has been spent trying to figure this out. It's just, it's so counterproductive. And I just continue to be amazed that MnDOT just keeps plowing through when everybody's starting up all these flags everywhere about This is majorly impossible to figure out, let alone make sense of. So stay tuned, but I'm glad that it came up at AMC. I don't know if they've disbanded the working group or whatever, but it's very detrimental to any type of progress on AND THIS IS MY EDITORIAL COMMENT, BUT GIVEN THE FLIGHT OUT OF MINNESOTA, PEOPLE ARE JUST SO FRUSTRATED WITH THE LACK OF INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE CONGESTION WHEN THEY SEE OTHER STATES BEING ABLE TO BUILD THINGS AND GET IT DONE IN THAT PARK FOR A LITTLE BIT OF TIME, IT'S A LOT LESS THIRD.

FRUSTRATING.

THANK YOU. VERMILLION RIVER MOTHERSHED.

WE NEED IT ON THURSDAY.

Right. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Career Force in West St. Paul will be hosting five employers and community resources for the next hiring event. And that's going to be on Thursday, June 25th from 2 to 4 at the Northern Services Center. And these are the, there's some really good, some good jobs for, okay, here we are. Okay, so ACR Homes, Presbyterian Homes and Services, Department of Transportation, the Department of Natural Resources, and Concordia University. And so there's solid jobs like family, household jobs that are available. And if you want to have your next career, here's a possibility for you. So thank you, Madam Chair.

That's it. Other reports from commissioners. I just have a couple of quick things. First and foremost, I needed to shout out personal experience that I had with our waste management, since we're all talking Trish. We had a large event at our house, a graduation party and a hundred people or more that showed up to eat. and um we were able to compost almost everything compost or recycle almost anything with the help of dakota county and um their uh they loan out containers and we collected everything and um it was really great really easy and i encourage other people to do it all i had to do was make sure that i had you know compostable plates napkins and cups and silverware which was really easy to get and That was really cool to kind of have that experiment in my own backyard. So thank you. And everybody learned a lot as they stood there trying to figure out where to put their garbage. The other thing I just wanted to make mention, so I haven't been doing kind of my by the numbers updates for a few meetings. We've had a lot going on, but I did want to just make mention because we did get to celebrate the recent opening of the Lebanon Hills Foundation. maintenance facility and greenhouse, which was pretty spectacular. I get to drive by it a lot and I always am happy to see it. But that exists and the success of that program exists because of volunteers. And we have nearly 60 master gardeners that are registered as county volunteers who show up to help us propagate plants in floods. So not the little things that you get from the greenhouses, but actual deep plugs so that these native plants can get a good head start on improving the ecosystems in our parks and natural spaces around the county. These seedsters, this is a group, 8,200 plants in the 2026 program. So that's what's going into the ground. And that is, anybody who's planted a garden knows what that takes to do 80 square feet of plants. And so just wanted to say thank you and congratulations. And the numbers speak for themselves. This is very impactful. And we really want to thank our volunteers. Paul.

Madam Chair. Yes. What I'd like to emphasize about your report, which was excellent, is that these are native Dakota County species. And then I would like to add our event that's going to be happening with the Apple Valley Arts Foundation is happening on Friday. And the Master Gardeners and the Apple Valley Eco Advocates and the Natural Resources is going to be on site with us. for distributing seeds. And I believe butterfly plants, what are they called? But well, yeah, milkweed plants are gonna be available and they're gonna be getting that. So I really appreciate their partnership and our community just loves it. And we're grateful for the master gardeners.

It's always one of the masters. That's all I've had. Anything else from the numbers? I'm going to turn it over to Heidi for an update.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple of items. I just wanted to call out for the public an item that you approved in the consent agenda 9.10, which is just a good example of win-win. And this is a program that will transport food from our farmers markets when, you know, when we finish up at a farmer's market at noon and think maybe it's a little bit hot and there's produce that the farmers know it's not going to last until the next farmer's market, but it's perfectly good still. This program will transport that food to our food shelves here in Dakota County. It's just a great example of when, when, when, and then it's a small little thing, not that much money, but a key kind of just finding those key bridges between systems. So I call it out as good work from our environmental resources department. And then, Madam Chair, my only other update for you at board meeting is about our boardroom, which hopefully you've been watching. I'm well pleased with our project managers and with our construction company. They expect to be ready, everybody in that mood, for the next board meeting on July 7th, and we're excited to be back in that space. So that feels like it's gone fairly fast.

So thank you. Everybody's working so hard. And I have to say, just one more time for the record, we're doing this not for the beautification, but to make sure that we can manage technology and that people can participate fully in the matters of the public. So I'm excited to see all that come to fruition. Great. Anything else for the good of the owner? Hearing nothing, we can entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion. I'll sign it.

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, no? Thank you. We are adjourned. We will be convening in