Committee - Regular Meeting

today. Item one on the agenda is the minutes from the previous meeting of May 12, 2026. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any corrections, changes? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. We have a couple of items for new business. The first one is 2A, authorizing pilot project for registering title to abstract portions of Part Torrens residential property. May I have a motion? So moved. Mr. Rogan.

Madam Chair, thank you. There are about 9,800 tax parcels in Hennepin County that consist of both abstract and registered torrents property. And this pilot project is targeted to see if we can reduce that number. And the examiner of titles, Allison Schubring, is here to provide background on this item.

Welcome, Ms. Schubring.

Madam Chair and Commissioners, my name is Alison Schubring. I'm the Hennepin County Examiner of Titles. And the Examiner of Titles is the department responsible for the registration of land in Hennepin County and for bringing land from the abstract system into the torrent system. There are two methods for registering land. One is a court proceeding known as an initial registration. And then there's also an administrative process available for registering property without title defects. And this is known as the Certificate of Possessory Title or CPT process. And the county board authorized this process for registration of title by resolution in 1990. So we've had it going for quite a while. So I'm here today to request authorization for this 2026 pilot to register the abstract portions of part Torrens residential parcels via the CPT process with waived fees in order to prevent title problems, to reduce county recorder staff time, and to reduce resident burdens to registering the abstract portion of their property. There's a need for this pilot because our dual system can create confusion and added cost to residents. As you know, Minnesota records land in two systems, the abstract system with the county recorder and the torn system with the registrar of titles with the assistance of the examiner of titles. When a parcel includes both land types, residents must file in both offices. So this doubles fees, and it also doubles staff workload. And failing to record in both offices creates title issues. As Mr. Rogan mentioned, there's about 9,800 parcels that fall under this dual-enrolled land type right now that include both abstract and torrents parcels. The torrent system provides benefits because a torrent certificate of title provides conclusive ownership. It streamlines future title exams and indexing. It links more readily to GIS and tax records. It protects landowners against adverse possession, losses from fraud or errors that's guaranteed by the state, and it eliminates the need to maintain an abstract of title or file affidavits of non-identity. So for this pilot project, the examiner of titles will assist seven owner-occupied homeowners, one per commissioner district, in voluntarily registering the abstract portion of their dual enrolled parcels via the administrative CPT process. We'll prioritize eligible parcels by the lowest estimated market value in each district, all below the 2025 county median for single-family homes. We'll remove the barrier by waiving the $273 in county title examination and recording fees that typically deter residents from pursuing a CPT. And owners who utilize this process also otherwise face document drafting, legal fees, outside abstracting costs that they will not need to incur by participation in this project. For some context, by statute, Torrens Land in Hennepin County cannot be returned to the abstract system, so this makes the one-time registration a durable fix for these properties. This pilot also aligns with the county's disparity reduction values by targeting the connectivity and housing domains, as lower-value homeowners often face the steepest procedural and fee barriers. This pilot reduces costs, simplifies filing, prevents title problems, and extends torrents protections, providing a clear certificate of title for the resident's entire property. If successful, we'll evaluate how the model can be expanded to reach more homeowners across the county and reduce the number of these dual-enrolled properties in Hennepin County. clear better titles, lower resident costs, more efficient recording, and a tested path to scale for homeowners most affected by barriers to registration. So the examiner of titles and the registrar of titles respectfully ask that the board authorize our pilot project for the voluntary CPT registration of the seven properties, one from each commissioner district, and approve the fee waivers totaling $273 per pilot parcel for accounting title examination and recording fees. Thank you very much. Any questions?

This is really exciting. This is so great. We would have never thought of something like this. This is so great. Very innovative. And I'm excited because one of the things we do hear about in other parts of the country is where people put their name on somebody else's title and theft. And so this is good to hear that the torrent system is so much more secure and everything. Commissioner Fernando, I think you wanted to comment.

Thank you. This seems very brilliant, honestly. Brilliant and kind of boring, which seems to be a proper intersection for saving money and streamlining services, values aligned, specific problem, precise pilot. On the very end, it mentioned that should this be successful, it might be helpful for legal aid and others. Is that meant to express that there, you know, usually maybe just like administrative consequences, but can there be pretty serious consequences to, you know, not completing this in the way that you're proposing in the pilot?

I think we want to explore how it goes by using our office. And then we want to get as many properties dual enrolled as we can. So if that requires help from outside agencies, if it's something that just our department, we're a very small department, can't do on our own, just exploring partnerships with legal aid or the bar to see if we can get some help in getting more properties registered.

Understood. Madam Chair, I was wondering if for some reason somebody would be evicted or something if they did it incorrectly. Is that okay? That's not what we're talking about. This is assisting with the implementation of the pilot. Just wanted to double check. This is very smart. Thank you for bringing it forward. I look forward to seeing the results. Thanks, Chair.

Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you. I'm also excited about this and had a question about how you were thinking about disparity reduction, and then you answered it. So thank you very much for that. I did want to ask how the bar mentions that there, and I think you said 9,800 parcels that consist of both. How many parcels are there in Hennepin County, just to sort of get a flavor? Total parcels? And at a scale is good like I don't need the exact number 445 thousand tax parcels.

Thank you.

I've got David Gates deputy And Would there be and I wanted to ask is the is the pilot Walking these seven properties and their property owners through the process is are we trying something new or is it just to really study the process and see how we might simplify it or Streamline it yeah, thank you commissioner green.

It is trying something new it would be actually walking them through their process These are proceedings that are generally done by an attorney and their clients, so we will be Drafting the documents for them it involves an application some affidavits, its administrative process. So we'll have the examiners in our office helping to prepare those documents, meeting with the residents, giving them a view of their current certificate of title that they have for part of their property, an aerial photo confirming that all the information is correct. We'll have a notary on site in the county recorder's office to get any documents notarized and set up those meetings and actually walk them through the process. So it is trying something new we're encouraged and hopefully we will have people who want to participate in the process and then see where we can go from there.

Thank you. And would a property owner know that they are in both?

Likely not. Usually they don't know that they have dual enrolled property.

And my last question, thank you, is there anything that might be learned in this process that could be applied to the effort to remove racist language from title?

We certainly always take a look at every certificate of title that we review. And if there is anything on there, we will issue what's called an examiner's directive at that time to remove that. If we find that in our title examination for the abstract portion, we can certainly work with the owner to get the affidavit filed to remove those as well. But that's something that we look at with every examination that we do.

Nice, nice. So there's a pairing. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Any other questions, colleagues? Comment, please.

Go ahead, Commissioner Anderson.

Thank you. Very, very interested to learn more about this. You know, the things we learn on this diet. Amazing. I'm curious, is there anything like you listed out wonderfully all the reasons that people should change and simplify. Is there any reason that somebody, a person would want to stay in a dual enrolled? Like I don't. I'm trying to figure out why, like other than the fee structure and not wanting to go through the process, that could be laborious, but is there any benefit to a property owner for this?

Thank you, Commissioner Anderson. I don't see any benefit that would remain from remaining dual enrolled. And like I said, owners don't generally know that they are. It increases the fees. They have to pay double. And it really leads to a lot of national companies don't know that we have two systems, and things only get filed in one office, and it creates title problems. And we've even seen that in preparing for this pilot project. that some of the properties that we're looking at aren't eligible because they have title defects. And we can only use this process for properties that don't have title defects, the administrative process. So I really think there's only benefits to getting that whole parcel registered and having a certificate of title for your whole parcel rather than it remaining dual enrolled. And it often happens by redevelopment. So that's how they end up. becoming part abstract and part torrens is that, you know, a large tract of land is registered and then it gets redeveloped and they plot the lots and now you've got a line running down the middle of your house where it's part abstract, part torrens.

Got it. I really appreciate that. Thank you. The, yeah, I think you answered it, like how does this happen and you kind of, thank you.

Yeah. So how does somebody know if they have a title defect?

It's usually their title company, and it generally happens when you're selling, buying or selling. So the title company will do an examination, and that's when they'll discover that there's some kind of a defect. And that really usually needs to be fixed by a court action. So this would be saving, you know, these properties don't have title defects, but it could create a title defect if things don't get filed in both offices. So it could prevent a future need to do a quiet title action to clean up a title defect and save a bunch of legal costs. But it's generally done as part of the buying and selling process when you discover a defect or an argument with your neighbor if something goes wrong.

Any other questions? All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Schubert. Thank you so much. And our last item is item 2B, probably not as crazy but really innovative but really fun. Negotiate an agreement with TechLogic Corporation Design and Construction of Installation of Automated Materials Handling System at the Southdale Library starting August 18, 2026 through August 18, 2028 with a not to exceed of $320,112. I'll move this. Second. Moved and seconded. Mr. Rogan.

Madam Chair, this is certainly not brilliant and boring because AMHs are not boring. Madam Chair, this is to purchase an AMH, an automated materials handling machine for the Southdale Library. It would be our eighth ultra sort, which are the larger ones. We bought one in 2022 for Southdale and have moved it subsequently to Brooklyn Park. This would be to set us up for the new Southdale library when it comes online next year. Southdale in 2024 was the fifth highest in circulation. And just to give some context to that, they process 650,000 items every year, and that's about 53,000 a month. And this automated machines, we have 18 other ones that are in the smaller libraries, but They're the blue bins that you see in the library that go around that make it so that we can process those materials. We have about 15 million materials that are checked out every year from the Hennepin County Library System. And the AMH across the system really makes sure that we're able to process those and move books around the system efficiently and effectively. And so this is just to purchase the one for, as Madam Chair, as you said, for $320,000.

This is exciting. I don't know if anybody's seen one of these in action. Central Libraries is really cool. It's very easy to visualize. So if you haven't, go see it. And Linda, you've got one in your own neighborhood now, so you can go look at yours there. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. And that concludes our agenda.