Committee - Regular Meeting

We will begin. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Administration's Operation and Budget Committee of Tuesday, July 28, 2026. We begin our agenda with a 2026 budget update. I will pass that on to Ms. Wetland.

Chair Gautel, Commissioners, as you've heard during our June update, there are substantial budget challenges that we are facing in 2026 that will continue in 2027. The goal of this budget presentation 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 fourth update of the year, and in today's presentation, you'll hear about our progress from January through June. 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, Joe. Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Joe Matthews, Chief Financial Officer for Hennepin County. We'll go ahead and jump to the next slide, please. This is a format that you've seen before, and we'll walk through. If you have questions, please feel free to ask, and I'll pause at the end as well. Year over year, our budget FTEs at the end of June, we have 232 fewer FTEs in our 2026 budget compared to the prior year. Just a reminder, we reduced about 240 positions from our 2025 budget to our 2026 budget, just as context for that number. A lot of those reductions were in the human services area. Hired FTEs, so those are people that we have in our payroll system, there are 311.5 fewer FTEs compared to the same point in time last year. And while the variance between budgeted and hired is similar to the prior year, again, because of the reduced positions in the budget, this is a significant reduction in actual staff on payroll compared to last year. I also want to highlight that when you look at the actual FTEs, We're down about 572.1. That's based on hours paid. So folks that are on our payroll or in our payroll system may be on FMLA or they may be on parental leave or paid military leave or other things. So that's a significant reduction compared to what we budgeted for. I do want to point out that that number does not include any employees who are being compensated under the paid family leave law that was enacted that's new this year. Those employees are being compensated as part of that benefit plan and they will not appear on that FTE account if those hours are not being paid for through PTO or regular time. That number averages about 145 FTEs on any given pay period. And we can provide more information if needed in terms of the total number of individual employees served. But on any given payroll, it's about 145 for us. And again, that benefit was not available to employees in 2025. Adjusted for that amount, actual FTEs are still down significantly. And so we are aware that that means that employees are continuing to do the work of the county with fewer people to carry that workload. Let's go ahead and move to the next slide, please. We've seen this slide before, and I'll just walk through briefly. The blue columns are showing the 2026 actual expenditures. The gray columns are 2025, so you can see a comparison of how we're spending month to month compared to the prior year. You'll notice that our budget is not linear. If you look at all of the columns across the year, some are higher than others. We do have some months where we have three periods that land in that month. Most have two. And then also I'll point out that December, that's when we make our debt payments and we have some other months invoices that kind of wrap up at the end of construction season and other things.

So December is always typically a month with higher spending.

Lastly, I'll just remind everyone, in March, most of that increase was due to non-property tax-related expenditures. There were some with our environment and energy services, but the most significant was really for Hennepin Health, which is our Medicaid service that we provide through our insurance arm serving those clients. And so that was really a reflection on claims paid. And that's, again, not property tax funding. I do also want to highlight that if you look at the lines that are going from the lower left to the upper right, the gold line is a linear representation of the annual budget. The green line below it is a representation of our actual spending. You'll note that starting in January, we had already been holding on expenses and positions, so we started out by spending less than budgeted. And we have gradually slightly expanded that as we've been holding on expenses month to month. Again, our goal is not to completely flatten that line out, but we are monitoring to make sure that we are going to try to underspend our 2026 budget, knowing that we have a number of challenges and headwinds coming our way with losses of federal funds and other external factors. Go to the next slide, please. And you can jump one more, please. You've seen this slide before. Right now, as far as federal impacts that are in effect for 2026, the loss of administrative revenue for SNAP is already phasing in. That total annual amount will be about $8 million. The other item that I want to highlight is currently we estimate about $107.7 million of our federal funding is under some sort of protective order. That could be where the county is directly a plaintiff in a lawsuit or where the state or a state agency may be a plaintiff that we are by extension receiving various protective orders. Again, that number is slightly higher than the last time we checked in. That's largely due to the process continuing and also some of our grants falling within that definition as it continues to move forward through the legal process.

Next slide, please.

I want to highlight that we have one new grant on this list. The last item in this list is new from the last time you saw this presentation. There was a Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program grant that has been canceled. We had expended the majority of that funding, but there's about $536,000 that has not been expended yet at the time of cancellation. We will go through and make an effort to, you know, mitigate that to the extent that we can through any processes we have available. We also for 2026 are working to actively solve for that shortfall in 2026. And then we'll address it with all of you in the 2027 budget process for those funds, depending on where they land going forward. Next slide, please. Anticipated cuts, again, this is a reminder. We've looked at these in the past. The SNAP error rate is the most significant amount of funding reduction coming directly to the county next year. It will begin phasing in late next year. There are conversations with the state of Minnesota to pick up some of those cost reductions. We believe that they're planning to pick up half. We also know that HUD has looked at cutting about $12 million in funding that would flow through to Minnesota's, to Hennepin County communities. Not all of that $12 million is directly budgeted in Hennepin County's budget, but it does impact a lot of our partners that we work closely with. And then lastly, the Medicaid losses estimated at our county clinics, so if you think about North Point or Red Door or other public health clinics, is roughly $27 million. And again, that number will fluctuate. There's a lot of uncertainty about exactly how the HR1 pieces will be implemented, but that is the best estimate that we're currently working with. And then lastly, for Hennepin Healthcare System, which includes HCMC, again, you've seen this number before, but their total estimated impact from HR1 is $1.7 billion from 2027 through 2038, and next year is when they will begin seeing some impacts from the disenrollment of Medicaid, and then also they'll begin to see declining directed payments coming shortly after that. Next slide, please. We're going to continue on our oversight around hiring management. So as you saw, we've been able to, through attrition, reduce the overall headcount on our payroll, and we're continuing to do that. We are strategically hiring positions within the county, so it's not a firm hiring freeze. We are trying to make sure that our critical areas of care Areas of health or safety or wellness are being met. So if you think about our jail, our 911 facilities, also critical human services areas that are client facing, we are trying to make sure that we're hiring for those. And we've also been reviewing all contracts and RFPs to make sure that they're performing well and they're continuing to meet the needs of the community and the organization's goals. And then we've also conducted very thorough capital review through our capital budget process and have been working with the capital budgeting task force to make sure that we have cohesive priorities set as that budget's getting ready to come to you all for review this fall. A new bullet on this list is future planning with the hospital. So, as you're all aware, there was significant legislative action taken last legislative session with very significant investment by the state in the hospital itself and also in healthcare as a whole. There's also a state task force that's being formed that will be looking at the future ownership, governance, and financing of the hospital. and the county and the hospital are working very closely together to also talk about our ongoing relationship and the services that we provide to one another to support each other's missions.

Next slide.

Planning ahead for 2027. Again, the budget management strategies in 2026 have been working. We have had flexibility to try to adapt to changing situations. They do certainly seem to keep changing on a weekly basis. But we've had a good team and we believe that we've positioned ourselves well to have good decisions ahead of us as we move into the 2027 budget season. We have ongoing headwinds on the federal level. We've been fortunate that the state has had good financial news so far, but we do worry about whether that will hold and if there is a downturn in the state's economic outlook or budget outlook that could impact us. And then lastly, we are trying to take these successes from 2026 to position ourselves in a way that is sustainable for 2027 and beyond. And so as we look at where departments have been able to successfully reduce costs, we're also looking to align that with their 2027 budget requests and the proposed budget of 2027 that we'll be bringing to you all. Administrator Wettlund will be presenting her budget to you on, I believe, September 22nd. And then lastly, in August, next month, you'll have your first opportunity to see a preliminary discussion on the tax base and what it looks like for 2027, as well as some potential levy scenarios with homeowner impacts. Last slide, please. August 20th is when we'll have that briefing on the budget and property tax impacts. On August 25th, we'll have one more similar budget update to this before we present the proposed budget. And then lastly, again, just to remind you, September 22nd, Administrator Wendlandt will propose her budget to you all, and the maximum levy will be considered by the board on September 29th. Thank you.

Thank you. Colleagues, any questions? I know we've had a chance to have discussions already. We appreciate all the hard work and we appreciate these regular briefings a lot. Thank you. Go ahead, Commissioner Lundy and then Commissioner Adelson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank staff for the update and also thinking that a lot of work have gone into it to get us to hear that we do see the attrition. That is a nice way of dealing with things, but it also does move work onto other people. So I just want to acknowledge that these are the things that are facing us. And I think that on this hand, we've got this. On the other hand, we have property taxpayers that are getting squeezed from city, county, schools as well, and they're feeling it. So I think we're all in this together, and I just want to thank staff for bringing this forward. I know that we have much work to go, but I want to acknowledge what we have been doing and the effects on everybody. So thank you.

Commissioner Ellison. Thank you. I mean, I'm going to echo what my colleagues just said. I mean, I know residents I'm already hearing from in terms of property taxes. And people's COLA increases are not increasing like they have in the past. Our economy is not doing well. We have all these cuts from the federal government as we look to property taxes. I think that we have to be mindful, again, about not pricing people out of their homes. I've been in government for eight years, and I have to say this is probably one of the most challenging years I've been in government, and I was at the legislature during COVID, because we have to make really tough decisions when there's not enough money. We have no longer abundance. We have a federal government that's cutting us at every last turn, organizations that aren't prepared for that. We have a county budget where we have mandated services, We have employee costs going up on health care. I just think we're in this very challenging spot. And I just want to make sure that we find a balance. I don't think we're going to make everybody happy at the end of the day. But I really, truly think that we need to figure out how to balance all of this. And just thank you, Joe, for the update. Helpful. And I just think we still have a lot of work to do. So I think whoever suggested it, our monthly meetings on the budget is very much appreciated. Because I think we have a lot of work to do.

Commissioner Conley. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate these updates because they certainly give us a real-time view of what's happening. And what's happening is the federal government has put counties in a very impossible situation. Recently, the news came out that federal court filings revealed that a lot of what's happening from the federal government is simply targeting blue states who voted against the federal administration. That's petty and it's gross. So I'm glad that when we have the opportunity to join into lawsuits that we do. Because none of what's happening is constitutional. We've put so much of our mission and vision into the dollars that we put out in our budget every year. Our budget is always a really good reflection of what our values are. And what the federal government has decided to do is pit ourselves against our own values. And that doesn't make sense. It's not good policy. It's not good leadership. It's gross. I'm going to say that frequently. You'll hear me say that frequently. It's absolutely gross what counties have been faced with. One of the slides talked about contract cuts and budget cuts. And we're not contracting with organizations that we have histories of contracting with for things like mobile services, for immunizations, for things that keep people healthy and happy. They're very hard decisions that we have to make. Some of our core systems we have to scale down because the federal government decided to target Minnesota because of how it voted. That's really, really gross to me. And I do appreciate that the county and county administration is looking at every avenue to try to save ourselves from a federal government that has no intent on saving us. In fact, Mr. Matthews is right. It's a change every single day. It's a change every week. And we have to be very honest and open about what this is. This isn't that we're in a position where we overspent for several years and now we're trying to rectify the situation. This is a situation where the federal government is intentionally disinvesting from counties and putting us in just impossible situations. We cannot rely on property tax revenue the way that we used to. And that's impossible because that's just the limit. One of the three limited revenue sources and three big sources. revenue sources that we have to deal with. But we're stuck in situations where needed services are being discontinued, where teen pregnancy is not being funded anymore. That's wild. But this is all a result. We can all take this back to the federal government and what they are doing to counties across this country. We just came back from a national conference and county leaders were all talking about what the federal government has done to counties. And our mission coming out of this conference was that we need to stay strong together as counties to save and protect what it is that we do, which is protect the public. And so we're going to continue looking at ways we can get new revenue. We're continuing to look at ways that we can mitigate, I heard that word, Mr. Matthews, mitigate some of the devastating decisions that are coming out of Washington. I think we will continue to do that. We just have to do it harder. But we have to name... what is causing this very difficult budget year, and that is the federal government's attack on counties.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Fernando.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm also appreciative of the information. Just to add to what my colleagues have said so far, you know, Hennepin is 22 percent of the state's population, and we're very proud to be over 40 percent of the social safety net. And when a third of our budget in a very unusual manner is cut or clawed back, reducing expenses is not going to be how we get to our future vision. And that is the acute need now. I believe it is what is needed to ensure that we prevent full closure of services. We all have seen across the country when a service concludes, it is very hard to restart that service. whether it is a hospital or libraries or anything else. And so I want to just acknowledge the pain and dissatisfaction of the feedback we've received. And as we look to the future, And health has, of course, been a primary frame because of health care, specifically with HCMC and clinics over this past year, the HR1 effects, but also because health is the way in which counties, especially Hennepin, have been achieving our strongest outcomes. By viewing our work through a public health lens, we have achieved outcomes that we're proud of, and we want to be able to continue them. And so I'm saying aloud that, of course, with the timeframe we're in, expense mitigation is our predominant tool. But unless and until we establish dedicated revenue for health, a dedicated revenue source for health, I am just really fearful of what that would mean to the community that we've all been able to contribute to. And it's worse than disinvestment. It's the federal government has reallocated our federal tax dollars. And so that's the other aspect. And it's not just like a little bit, like over a third of the county's budget, right? So I just want to uplift dynamic and headwinds. We say all these words that are very generous to the situation. a third of what we rely on financially for over 40% of the state social safety net. And that's just the Hennepin budget. So there are a lot of expectations that we are going to strive to meet. And I just want to express very clearly, we will not shrink our way into the vision that our residents deserve. There needs to be a way in which we more broadly either offer accountability to where how we can receive the tax funds that we've put in. or, you know, how we as Minnesotans determine how we care for our neighbor, and that has to come by way of a revenue source somewhere. More comments, and just wanting to speak into this moment. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks.

Commissioner Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the information, and You know, I appreciate also the comments that my colleagues have made and just want to echo the increased challenges to our staff that we know are happening because of these shifts onto counties from the federal government. We are literally being asked to do more with less. like substantially more with substantially less and that is going to have this downstream impact on all of the services we deliver whether those individual programs are part of the intended uh uh target uh the the grossness as commissioner conley has pointed out like it's It's absolutely disgusting how the federal government has put us into a situation of not being able to take care of our residents in the way that the social contract that we have come to agree upon over the last several decades are just being ripped away from us. And we're trying to pick up the pieces. I also want to acknowledge too that we have an obligation to work alongside the state to make sure that we are able to maintain some of these services that the state is asking us to perform as well. And we're doing that work, and I know sometimes that work, you know, counties have recently found efficiencies in systems and suggested that to the state, and that didn't translate into the state relieving us of some of the obligations. And so I hope in future budget updates in the next rounds we'll be able to see the impacts that the state is having on us as well. because it's not zero. And counties have been working really closely with state to identify ways that we can still take care of residents, whether it be through technology modernization or better processes, finding efficiency in systems that we're operating. And we're also being asked to do more in those areas. And I think a lot of those things we agree that we need to be doing that work, but we need the state to be the partner as well. So look forward to hearing more about the totality of the impact facing us in the budget, because so far this has been very much a federal impact, and we know that there are state impacts as well. We'll have to see what that's coming up, but thank you.

Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to join my colleagues in thanking Joe Matthews and the team, everybody. Also, thank you to employees who are staying at it with increased caseloads, et cetera. Mr. Matthews, you mentioned employee-identified cost savings. I'm sorry, where? I'm not seeing him. Oh, there. I was, like, talking into the void. You mentioned employee-identified cost savings, and I don't need an answer right now, but I'd love to just talk further at some point in the next week or two about how you're seeing those and identifying them. I've had a couple constituents who are also employees come to me and sort of ask for ways that they could submit ideas, and I want to make sure I understand the processes and make sure that people feel like they can understand share ideas in a transparent way and that nobody in any sort of hierarchy feels threatened, et cetera, et cetera. But just want to gather the good ideas.

Yeah, we'd be happy to follow up with you, Commissioner. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much. Thank you. I just want to say I really appreciate my colleagues' comments on here because I regularly meet with Joe and Jody on this budget. There was a lot of discussion, I think, at the beginning of the year between me and the chair and several of our colleagues up here regarding the budget and the fact that we needed to do these open public budget briefings way ahead of time and not wait for the fall when the actual budget briefings come. We thought it was very important that we be very upfront with employees, but also with the general public. And they should know what's really going on and what's working and what's not working for us. And to know the dire straits that a lot of places are in, the cities are in, other counties are in. But I just also want to point out that there are still discussions at the federal level about more budget cuts and about the budgets coming down. This is not over yet. That's the sad point to hear. Also, we need to remind ourselves that as much as the state is really trying to help us, and they are, and I appreciate the work they are doing to try to find pots of money to keep some of these programs afloat, the federal officials are withholding nearly $400 million in total deferred Medicaid payments to Minnesota. That's impactful. And the usual step is usually never that much money when they do withhold dollars. And usually when you start producing some of the audit materials that they've requested, they let some of that money out. They have not. And, in fact, they're talking about doing more. So this is the reality that we're living in. It could possibly get worse. And so I just want to be really upfront and very forward about this. But as those things come up, you're going to hear it in the next briefing if that comes forward. And we're going to make a real – honest attempt to try to keep this stuff on the forefront for everybody to see, to the point where there have been discussions that next year we will probably be doing something very similar with quarterly briefings, too, because this has been so well received and people really appreciate the even greater transparency. But this opens us up for a better public discussion, too, I think, about what really matters to folks. So quickly, Commissioner Lundy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to point out that, you know, just like the state budget, Hennepin County, you know, provides, I think, about 31 percent of the state budget. We also, at the federal level, we are net payers as a state. We're also, as a county, net payers. And the money that we are not receiving isn't, like, going in to pay down the deficit. It's just going somewhere else. And so it is a double hit. We are paying for stuff we're not getting and then we're receiving these mandates. And so it is, you know, if anybody thinks that somehow this is a good financial decision by the federal government, it just means they're taking our money and not giving us any of it back. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, everyone. I look forward to hearing the next budget update from you. Item two on our agenda is minutes from the previous meeting of June 23rd, 2026. Do I have a motion? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any corrections changes? All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. We have some routine items here. I'm going to, I believe, I'm going to put A, B, and C together if my colleagues are in agreement with that. Item, I'll take a motion for item 3A. Second. Okay. Moved and seconded. First, item 3A is ratifications of permits, leases, leases agreements, and related property agreements approved by the county administrator starting April 1st, 2026 through June 30th of 2026. Item 3B is to negotiate two lease agreements for rental space utilized by the Cedar River Opportunity Center at 515 15th Avenue South in Minneapolis starting June January 15th of 2027 through January 14th of 2032. And item 3C is to negotiate Amendment 3 to the lease agreement with 800 West Broadway LLC for rental space utilized by North Point Health and Wellness Center at 800 West Broadway, Minneapolis from January 1 to January to February 28th through 2032. And the amount of $61,762 for the first gross rent. So it's been moved. Does anybody want any further information on these? They're pretty standard. All those in favor signify by aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. So this next two items, they are routine, but they're very different. Item 3D is An agreement with the City of Maple Grove for landscaping services at the Maple Grove Library starting April 1st, 2026 through March of 31 of 2029 and not to exceed of $71,090. Would you like to move it? I would love to move it. I'll second that. Any discussion? All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item 3E is to establish a 2027 premium rate for the self-insured dental care plan applicable to employees eligible, dependents, and retirements. And we had an attachment of the 2027 dental rates. Anyone like to move this?

Move the phone.

Does anybody want further information on this standard, too? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, we'll move on to items for discussion and action. Item 3F actually has an R1. You should have received that earlier today. Hennepin County Youth, so I'll move the R1. Do I have a second? It's been moved and seconded. Hennepin County Youth Activities Grants. This is always a fun thing to do. Lots of great grants and programs. Spring 2026 Play Area Grants, Equipment Grants, Lifeguard Services Grants, Arts and Music Grants, totaling just over $1.2 million. Ms. Swetland. Or is it, excuse me?

Madam Chair, Jennifer Yang, the Director of Grants Management and Administration is here to present this item.

Welcome, Ms. Yang.

Good afternoon, Chair and Commissioners. I'm Jennifer Yang, Director of the Grants Management and Administration Department. It is my pleasure to be here today to share the recommendations for our spring 2026 youth activities grants. For this cycle, funding opportunities were offered concurrently across all grant initiatives, and those are arts and music, equipment, play areas, and lifeguard services. Similar to previous grant cycles, the spring 2026 grant cycle was very competitive, reflecting the community's continued interests and the program's responsiveness to community needs. The county received 82 applications altogether during this grant cycle. The review process for grant applications was a countywide effort, including reviewers from several lines of business and representatives from community organizations. The review panels recommend awarding 26 applications in the total amount of $1,286,919. Of the 26 applications, there are nine arts and music grant applications totaling $146,018, 11 equipment grant applications in the total amount of $101,901, three play area grant applications in the total amount of $900,000, and three lifeguard services grant applications totaling $139,000. The recommended grant awards will allow an estimate of over 30,000 children of all abilities and backgrounds to benefit from increased and improved access and opportunity to youth activities. I'm happy to answer questions, and I want to thank you for your ongoing support of the grant program.

Colleagues, do you have any questions about this? This is always so fun. All the cities are all excited about this all the time. Commissioner Lindy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank staff for working with Brooklyn Center School District. I know they have been eagerly waiting and applying and checking in and seeing how they can improve their applications and continue to move forward. And then I always like to highlight the gift that keeps giving, which is when we train lifeguards, that we train people that, as I mentioned, bore my sons completely and will do it forever. The day you wish you had taken another lesson is a day too late. And so having people who are lifeguards who can learn and then to train others is a way you save a life. And it's life-saving skills that kids are learning and that they should say it loud and proud that they're teaching people how to save themselves. And so I really appreciate and highlight that every time we do something. So thank you.

Thanks. Commissioner Edelson.

Thank you. Just really quick, I'm always grateful for this. And I won't go over them. It's always really appreciate your work. And I think these are such a value to communities. Jody, I apologize. My brain. Perimenopause is brutal, you guys.

I'm telling you.

All right. But with these play grants, they come from the ballpark sales tax. And I'm just trying to think of the future, right, and the planning. When we're looking at this, talk about things that we'll be hit with. At what point will we run out of funding? for this? And do we have an idea of what that looks like? You don't have to know right now, but I do think that we should, you know, make sure we're communicating that with the cities because these are really something where cities have relied on them and we didn't renew the ballpark sales tax and that's where this money's coming from. We don't have money to do this otherwise. So I just think if we could be looking at what that looks like so that we're really communicating in the future, that would be helpful. Thank you.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to extend what Commissioner Adelson was speaking about, that's a really, really good point. I mean, in aggregate, this has helped to offset the property tax portion of the levy essentially for a bunch of our local government school districts and cities. So that analysis would be very favorable and perhaps a little bit more holistic even. I mean, the discussion that we've had this morning and the feedback that has been coming forward from residents, workers, organizations, providers is consistent. Everyone is trying to brace ourselves, and we at Hennepin do have a different type of at least kind of holistic view that we can aggregate in a way for so we can all be eyes wide open in terms of the impact. I appreciate your comment, Ms. Shuttleson. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Any other comments? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. That's always unanimous. Item 3G, agreement with KPC Staffing, Inc., doing business as KP companies for the procurement of consulting services to recruit, vet, and recommend candidates for the reconstitution Hennepin Healthcare Systems, Inc. Board starting August 4th, 2026 through 12-31 of 27 and not to exceed of $125,000 plus expenses. I'll move this. Do I have a second? Administrator Whatland?

Not. Madam Chair, in August of 25, the Hennepin County Board took action, as you know, to remove the corporate board of the county's subsidiary, Hennepin Healthcare Systems, Inc. Since that time, the county board has operated as the direct governing board of HHS. As part of the 2026 session, the Minnesota legislature enacted a health and human services bill, which included a provision requiring the Hennepin County Board to reconstitute the HHS corporate board with qualified members and to transition governance to the reconstituted HHS board by January 15th of 2027. On June 11th of this year, the county board directed the county administrator to identify and retain a consultant to assist with recruiting, vetting, and recommending candidates for the reconstituted HHS board. We have done that, and that's what is before you is the consultant to help us do that. So this item fulfills the request from June of 2026. And Beth Stack is here if you have specific questions about the process for how we retained this consultant.

Commissioner Fernando? Commissioner Lundy?

Thank you. No question. I'm very appreciative that this is coming forward. It is very important that there is an objective and methodical manner by which the incoming board is reconstituted and vetted. My request is to ensure that there's some amount of public feedback opportunity or a mechanism for residents, workers, community members to be able to offer a direct line. Of course, we as commissioners receive feedback. However, this is important to ensure that there is a standardized objective method, and that requires making sure that the public has a chance to weigh in. Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Lundy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would echo Commissioner Fernando's statement on community ability. I also want to make sure that, and I think this is part of the plan, that we have some input on the, there are people in health care who think that safety net hospitals are not a good way to go. And so when you recruit people for a board, I expect and hope that we are recruiting people who understand this is a safe net hospital and has responsibilities to do exactly that, and that's stepping away from that. So I always worry that you can get a new board. Trust me, as the board chair, I'm happy to hand that reins over. But I also just want to make sure that anybody coming in understands that we are not looking to become a hospital that does something other than the role that it does that at least reflect that that people who join that board are aware of that not just because we have had people that suggest that we make changes and not become the safe net hospital that we are so i'm always mindful of that i know that once You let the horses out of the corral, they're going to run where they're going to go, but at least making sure that that is at least something at the forefront that we have the opportunity. Thank you.

Commissioner Adelson. Thank you. Excited that we have an independent company doing this vetting. What I will say is as we go into reconstituting the board from us being the hospital board, we have to look at past mistakes. And I know we have to some extent with the recent review. But we cannot create the same culture that was happening with the past fours. It wasn't working. And it was almost a toxic working environment. Now, if that was happening here at the county, we would not allow that to happen. So I truly believe when something becomes toxic, it's not the result of one person because it's easy to point fingers. It is a result of the larger group. letting it happen, letting it devolve. And so I just really want to make sure as we do this, yes, it is a safety net hospital, but what was happening on that board was not acceptable, which led us to this moment that we're in. And so whatever, as we rebuild it, I know that we'll be talking about bylaws, which I think need to be amended in a way that, honestly, those bylaws should look entirely different than they look today. So I think that we have a lot of work to do before us, and this is just the beginning, and I'm really looking forward to that work.

Thank you. I just want to say that I want to make sure that there's a lot of oversight on all the criteria that we have established that we want to see on the future board members coming back up on the HHS board. I also want us to codify the process for future recruitment so that it has to be done in a specific way so we're not left with people just nominating people who absolutely weren't qualified probably or have the background that we really needed or maybe the expertise in an area that we were seeking. So I just want to make sure we're there. Other comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. And that concludes our agenda for today.