County Board - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'll call to order this meeting of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. I'm Irene Fernando, Chair of the Board and District 2 Commissioner. I'm joined by District 1 Commissioner Jeff Lundy, District 3 Commissioner Marion Green, District 4 Commissioner Angela Conley, Vice Chair and District 5 Commissioner Debbie Gotel, District 6 Commissioner Heather Edelson, and District 7 Commissioner Kevin Anderson. Hennepin County acknowledges that the magnificent land and vibrant waterways from which our institutions benefit are located upon the cultural, spiritual, and indigenous homeland of the Dakota Oyate. Hennepin County calls attention to the Dakota people's ongoing connection to this special place. Before we begin today's meeting, the Board wishes to acknowledge the passing of former Commissioner John Derris. Commissioner John Derris represented District 1 and served on the Hennepin County Board from 1975 to 1993. He was a servant leader and a champion for light rail. His service will be held tomorrow at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, and the Hennepin County Board will further honor him during our August 18 board meeting. On to the agenda. The first item is the Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me. Next is to approve the agenda. May I have a motion, please?

So moved.

Second. Thank you, Commissioners Anderson and Conley. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Three is Hennepin Highlights, and today we have a Hennepin Highlight on midterm elections, and so I'll invite Jenny Gelms, Election Director, up. Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Commissioners. My name is Ginny Gelms. I'm the Director of Elections for Hennepin County. And if you haven't heard, it is election season. So I'm pleased to come here today to talk about a few things going on in the elections world and give some tips for folks who are interested in participating in the democratic process this year. So right now, we have early voting going on, actually, for the primary, which is next week on Tuesday, August 11th. Of course, we have the general election coming up on November 3. And our absentee voting for that begins on September 18. And early voting for that begins on the 16th. Now, you may notice me using some new vocabulary. We have not had early voting, true early voting in Minnesota prior to this year. So it's the first time that we have actual early voting in Minnesota. as opposed to in-person absentee voting. So this year, that was a law that was passed in 2023, and this was the first year that we were actually able to implement that statewide. So the difference between in-person absentee, if you've ever come to vote prior to election day to your city hall or to the government center, the difference that you might notice now if you come during the early voting period is that you do not have to fill out an absentee ballot application. and you can put your ballot directly into a ballot counter instead of a series of envelopes. So from the voter's perspective, it's a little bit more streamlined and it's a little bit easier. There is still in-person absentee or that older process is still in place for every day prior to 18. So starting at day 46, we start mailing out ballots to voters who have requested ballots in the mail, and we have in-person voting for folks to start on that day But because it's not early voting yet, you still have to do that absentee process. But if you wait until day 18, then you can start with the early voting process, which is going on right now for us. As I mentioned, voting by mail is still an option, still a popular option for a lot of folks. And of course, there's always voting in person at the polling location on election day. One tip that I have for people is early voting has become so popular that if you wait to vote early, if you're still voting early, but you wait until the weekend before or the day before the election, you're probably going to see longer lines at your early voting location than you would if you just went to your polling place on election day. So if that's an option for you, that is my tip. But of course, all of those options are available for anybody to use for any reason that they would like. I know a lot of people still prefer going to their polling place on election day and kind of seeing their neighbors and checking in with the election judges there. So those are all options. For folks who do vote through the mail, we do suggest that folks put their ballot into the mail no later than a week before election day. So for anybody out there who's still holding onto their ballot for the primary, this upcoming primary, get that in the mail today. We cannot count those ballots unless we receive them by election day. So we need to get those ballots in hand. That's state law by Election Day in order to be able to count them. So get those into us. And if it's too late to mail your ballot in, you can always come drop it off in person prior to Election Day. Or if it's an option, you can still go to your polling location and vote if you haven't already turned in a ballot. So we had a few other legislative changes come in this year, one around early voting that made it a little bit more flexible for our early voting locations, in particular our cities who do host early voting. They now have the option to be open for just the early voting period or the full 46-day absentee and early voting. And we did see some cities in Hennepin County take advantage of that option. And I would just like to give some context around that. We have been hearing from cities for many years that as early voting has become more and more popular, it's been burdensome for some of our cities to be able to administer that for the full 46 days. So that is why this option was enabled by the legislature to give some flexibility for those cities. And honestly, most of the foot traffic that we see in early voting does happen during those last two weeks before the election. So we did see some cities do that change and do an 18 day period for this year as opposed to the full 46 days. We haven't received a lot of push back on that from voters. So I think it's going over pretty well. We did work with our cities to say, hey, if you're taking advantage of this option, please make sure that you're communicating out to your voters to make sure that they know when they can come vote. And that seems to have gone pretty well. Another legislative change that came through this year is making candidate addresses private on the form that they file to get on the ballot. And so this is ensuring more privacy for our candidates. So we are in the process of also, this also applies to our campaign finance reports. So we are right now redacting candidate addresses off of campaign finance reports, and that would be why if you go to our website right now, you can't necessarily see all the campaign finance reports that we used to have up there. We're in the process of redacting them and getting them back online. I also wanted to mention that the Office of the Legislative Auditor did release a report this year looking at how voter registration is handled in Minnesota. They were tasked with seeing how the administration of that is done in Minnesota and making any recommendations for improvements. And I'm happy to say that the report was largely positive. The only things that they suggested that counties change are things that Hennepin County already does or don't apply to Hennepin County. So we're sitting pretty when it comes to voter registration in Hennepin County. I want to take a minute to talk about all of the risk management that goes into putting on an election. Because we are hearing from a lot of voters, and I'm sure commissioners are as well from your constituents, a lot of concern about what may go on on Election Day or leading up to Election Day. And I just want to Let the voters of Hennepin County know That we are doing absolutely everything to make sure that everybody who wants to vote can do so safely and without interference And of course this is something that we've been doing for a very long time But the environment has changed I will say that in the elections department we do an annual risk assessment and where we go through, we get in a room with all of our internal partners and some external partners from cities, the state, and we come up with all of the possible nightmare scenarios that keep us up, what could happen in the run-up to an election or on election day itself. Everything from physical risks, cyber hacking, staffing risks, what if we have a pandemic and we have to throw an election? All kinds of risks that could disrupt the process, including what if somebody shows up at the polls who's not allowed to be there and what happens? And in our risk process for this year, we came up with over 160 risks that we then go through and we come up with plans for all of those risks that are high impact or high likelihood. And so we have plans on plans on plans for everything that could happen on election day. So I just want to give some assurance to people that we can't control everything that happens, but what we can do is be prepared for it, and we are. I've been in the elections business for 20 years, and I can very honestly say we have never been more prepared for an election than we are for this one. So I want people to know that they will be safe, and we will have their backs, whatever way that they choose to vote. We do routine coordination with our state partners and our city partners as well. So we provide training. We provide backup to all of our city clerks on these topics as well. And I also want to take a minute to talk about how great and accurate our voting system is, because this is another question that we get. In Minnesota, we're very lucky because we have a combination of paper ballots and computer ballot scanners. And this is the best of both worlds. Paper ballots is the absolute backup. It is a physical record of something that the voter themselves actually touched and marked. that we can always go back to and look at if we need to. And you combine that with the accuracy of having computers actually do the ballot counting. When it comes to the accuracy of the computers, I can say one of the things that we do after every even year election is we go through a post-election equipment review. This is required by statute. And we randomly select a portion of precincts in the county, and we go back and do a hand count of all of the ballots in those precincts and compare the results of the hand count to what the equipment came up with on election night. We do that every even year. And again, every single even year, every time we've done it, we can, when we're doing a hand count, see some differences where voters maybe circled a candidate instead of filling the oval, or they fill in two ovals and they crossed out one. We're allowed, when we're doing the hand count, to make a voter intent determination. that the ballot equipment couldn't do, isn't expected to be able to do. So there are some differences here and there for that reason. I've literally seen zero unexplained differences when we've done those post-election equipment reviews. So the equipment is incredibly accurate. And that's, of course, partly due to the fact that we also do a whole bunch of testing on all the equipment prior to the election. In fact, equipment is tested twice before every single election. We do pre-election accuracy testing, and that's to make sure that we've got all the programming right and the equipment counts the ballots the way it's supposed to. And then we have another test, which is a public test, where anybody who is a fan of watching paint dry can come and watch us fee test ballots through the ballot counters and see that, yes, the equipment does count the ballots the way that we say that it does and that it's supposed to. So our system is incredibly accurate, and I have every confidence in our voters should, too. I do want to take a minute to talk about some of the federal government impacts on our process for this year. One thing that has been in the news is the Department of Justice has been sending requests to various jurisdictions across the country to monitor the elections. And it's true that this is something that the Department of Justice has done in the past. And that has been routine in the past. We're in a little bit of a different environment this year as opposed to the past. So I just wanted to bring it up because we've been hearing a lot about this from voters. And Hennepin County has been listed in the news as a potential jurisdiction that the DOJ wanted to come send monitors to. I can say as of right now, we haven't approved any additional monitors or observers from outside Hennepin County. The state statute in Minnesota is crystal clear about who is allowed to be in and around a polling place, even within 100 feet of a polling place. And the list is very small. It's voters. It's people who are in line with voters to help them vote. It's election judges. And it's anybody authorized by the county elections office or the state elections office. And it could include peace officers if expressly invited by the head election judge to handle an issue in the polling place. Absent that express invitation and request by a head election judge to handle an issue in the polling place, say a fight breaks out or something like that, then peace officers are expressly not allowed to be in and around polling places. And that's because that can be seen as voter intimidation. So I also want to ensure voters that, again, in Minnesota, we have really great election law, and it is very clear about who's allowed to be there and who's not. And we stand ready to make sure that if anybody shows up who's not allowed to be in the polling place, we'll make sure that they are not allowed to be there. So I want people to know that we have their backs on that, too. I also wanted to just mention we've had, again in the news, some executive orders that would be from the federal government that would change the way that elections are conducted in this country. In particular, there is one that is proposed to change the way that mail voting takes place all across the country. That's not currently in effect because of some court, some adverse court decisions. And I will say we did submit, we, Hennepin County, did submit comment on that executive order stressing our objections to the way that that would have been rolled out had it been rolled out. So we're continuing to keep an eye on those kinds of things on various lawsuits as well. And then on request for information, Just generally, this is something I would like the board to know. We have had just an incredible increase in the amount and the depth of requests for information that our office is receiving around data, all pieces of data that come through the elections process. Of course, a lot of the data that we handle in the elections office is public data. But some of it is private. Some of the voter information is private. And I just wanted to bring this up because it is an increasing part of what we do and is requiring an increasing amount of resources. We've got people who basically work on this full time and it requires attention from folks from around the office because of the kind of the width and the breadth and the depth of the information that we're routinely being required to provide under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. So that just goes to some of the resources that we're going to be requesting for in the future, which leads me to our 2027 budget preview. I just wanted to let you all know, speaking of those ballot scanners that are highly accurate, They are also nearing the end of their planned life. So we are preparing to replace all of our polling place ballot scanners as of next year. And we will need some funding to be able to do that. And the reason we want to do that at this time is to make sure that we're not trying to limp through a presidential election cycle with old equipment. That wouldn't be a good situation for the voters of Hennepin County. So we are going to be asking for some funding to be able to do that in 2027. And I also, there are a couple of other things that are coming up in 2027 that are a little unusual. We would have a potential for a statewide special election in 2027, depending on who ends up winning the governor's race. If we do have a vacancy in a statewide office, we'll have to do a statewide special election, which we wouldn't normally have to do in an odd year. If we do have to do that, we'll need to be able to hire seasonal folks to be able to handle that, which we wouldn't normally do in an odd year. And also at the end of 2027, we actually start preparation for the 2028 presidential election, including the presidential nomination primary, which happens early in 2028. So sometimes I hear people say that we don't have elections every year, and I always like to correct them. We do have elections every year, and even if we don't, we're planning for the next one. And finally, I would just like to leave with this quote from Secretary Steve Simon. We've had a really good record in Minnesota making sure that our polling places are islands of calm. And we have every reason to expect that will continue. And I have every reason to expect that will continue in Hennepin County as well. And two last lighter notes I want to mention. We have been hearing from folks who are just really fired up about being involved in the process, want to help the democratic process. My number one suggestion for people who want to do that, where your efforts would be most appreciated, sign up to be an election judge. And you can call your city office and sign up to work where you live and to help your own neighbors vote. That is my number one plea for people who want to get involved. Probably second, please help your neighbors get to the polls. If you can give people a ride to the polls, that would be great too. And I would also like to mention that we have a very fun contest going on. This is our first year doing this. We have opened a contest for students to submit submissions for the first ever Hennepin County election judge button. So students who live in or go to school in Hennepin County can go to our website, download a form. We have a little template they can fill out and give us their artistic work to be selected to potentially be the inaugural Hennepin County Election Judge button that we'll produce and give to election judges this year. And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions from commissioners, Madam Chair.

Yes. Well, first and foremost, I just want to thank you and the whole team, all the work that you do with the state, with cities, as you mentioned, with judges and with volunteers. And I want to thank you for your diligence and your preparation. Especially earlier in this year, we received public comment in this room speaking about democracy and elections, and this is a very well-timed Hennepin highlight to ensure that everyone knows that the primary is right now, that, as you said, people should be able to vote safely and without interference, and personally really appreciate the specific points of reassurance you've been able to offer for voter access and for voter confidence. So thank you for that. I want to open it up in the event, Commissioner Adelson.

Thank you for the presentation. Very timely, a week, seven days to go to the primary. I think we'll all be happy to not have all of those attack ads constantly on our TVs and on our computers. But with that, I want to talk about the voting machines and then the funding requests that you have there. With that, with the potential special election and then in 2028, tell me how long just so that I understand what it looks like to do that transition of the voting machines. Do you do like a phased-in approach? How do we check and make sure? And also, what is the lifespan of them just so I know how long we've been using them?

Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioner Edelson. The lifespan of these machines is 10 to 15 years. We're in the upper end of that. Our equipment will be at the very upper end of that, our current equipment, if we continue to use it through 2028. The way it would look is if we do have the funding in our budget for 2027, that is when we'll make the purchase and we will start rolling out. A lot of times when we're able to purchase equipment in an odd year like that, we can do kind of a A PHASED ROLLOUT WITH ANY CITIES THAT HAVE ELECTIONS IN THE ODD YEAR SO WE CAN GET THOSE INTO THOSE CITIES EARLY AND THEN HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF SOME TIME TO GET FEEDBACK ON THE INSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND THAT KIND OF THING TO GET US READY FOR THE BIG ROLLOUT IN THE EVEN YEAR. SO THAT WOULD BE HOPEFULLY OUR PLAN.

thank you madam chair um just first i want to thank you and your staff and i also want to acknowledge the roles that city clerks play in this the cities have to do this when they have local elections everybody has to do the same kind of the work at every level and everything kind of goes up and then we all sit and hit refresh on the secretary of state's website going where the hell's the results and refresh five seconds later, and then refresh five seconds later. So I just want to acknowledge just how tough it is, and it's hard to get the judges. You know, younger judges are the hardest, because usually if you become an election judge, you tend to do it for a long time. I've met people who've done it for 40 years. So getting people who want to be election judges younger, because then they get trained, then they start to become, and then they can really become part of the process. I tend to see people who tend to retire out of being an election judge rather than just quitting. So frankly, the election wouldn't work without them. I mean, walking in, asking questions, handing a ballot, that stuff is irreplaceable. People want to cast their ballot. One thing I was curious about, and I got this question, I wasn't sure. So given it's a primary, if a person votes one party, they have to vote that party all the way through. If they jump, does it invalidate their whole ballot process? Including the nonpartisan race?

Thank you for that question, Madam Chair, Commissioner Lundy. No. So, yes, you're correct that for a partisan primary, you're only allowed to vote in one party column. So you have to select that column, and then you cannot vote in the other column that you didn't select. So you can't choose race by race which party you're voting in. It's one party. Then if there are partisan offices, usually it's going to be on the back of your ballot. If somebody made a mistake and voted in more than one party column, that would not invalidate their votes for the back of the ballot. So the machine will count the maximum amount of the vote that it can. I also want to say that if folks are voting in the polling place or they're voting early in a way where they're putting their ballot directly into the ballot counter, the counter will produce an error message if someone made a mistake like that and will let them know. So they have the option to return the ballot, spoil it, and get a new one.

And then if... for a privacy person like myself, if I vote for partisan, then the partisan party gets my information. Is that correct or is that incorrect?

Commissioner, Madam Chair, Commissioner Lundy, that's actually not correct for a partisan primary like the one that we're running on Tuesday. It's actually entirely, we don't know what party column you're voting in. We simply hand you the ballot and then you in the privacy of the voting booth get to select which party column you're voting in. So we don't know which one you selected. So we wouldn't even have any way to give your information to the parties. I think where this confusion can come up is it works a little bit different in the presidential nomination primary that we run in a presidential year. Those work a little bit differently. And there are actually separate ballots for each party. So you have to request a particular ballot to be able to vote in those elections. So that information is part of your voter record.

Okay. So thank you for that because I've always assumed the opposite. And I consider myself independent. I don't want to be on anybody's list. I certainly don't want to be on his list for how that guy vote or who I choose, what race I decide to get involved with. So I've always just skipped the partisan stuff and just stuck with the nonpartisan. But just last, I just want to thank you. And I do think one of my former council members years ago said that elections are just the cost of doing business as a government. And so there is no savings. There is no, can we find a way to get by? There is an absolute... requirement that any level of government offers elections to the best ability. So in that regard, you know, the equipment, all that stuff has to be done. It's just there is no special, like, oh, we can save some money here because that is the bedrock of everything we do. And if we don't offer the best options and people, then I think that we fail. And if we fail there, then everything has failed after that. So, again, thank you very much.

Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you so much, Ms. Gelms. This is obviously perfectly well-timed and very reassuring. I know I'm going to be sort of cutting this clip out of this meeting and sending it around. I really appreciated your direction that people become election judges. I know just as I interact with residents and constituents, I always like to leave a conversation having offered something to a resident that's like, well, here's what to do with that energy or that passion or that concern. And so I think that's fantastic direction. I also wanted to say I served as an election judge like 20 years ago. And it was one of the most exciting days. I will remember it forever. Just such a moment to be in touch with the amazing thing called democracy that we have going on in this country and a time to really sort of get in touch with it on a personal level and see it at work and sort of feel its hope. And so I really hope that people will take that advice that you're giving people. Thank you.

Great. And with that, I just thank you and the team so much and make sure that people vote. So thank you very much for the presentation. Next on the agenda are the minutes from the previous meeting, specifically 4A, is for the July 14, 2026 minutes. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Thank you, Commissioners Cotell and Conley. Any notes or corrections? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 5 is referral of correspondence and department communications. 5A and B are correspondence, and 5C to 5U are department communications. May I have a motion to accept and refer as recommended? So moved.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioners Lundy and Green. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Six is commendations, for which we have none listed. Seven is commissioner communications, and we have one, the Givens Collection of African American Literature offered by Commissioner Conley. Go ahead, Commissioner.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm super excited about this one. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a history nerd. And recently, my staff and I learned about the Givens Collection, which is currently at the Elmer Anderson Library at the University of Minnesota in D4. This is a collection of African-American literature that spans 250 years of Black history in the United States. So as we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, through many events and educational opportunities this summer, I wanted to share about this incredible resource. of black history right here in our county. And I'm very excited that the curator of this collection, Davu Seru, was able to join us here today. Thank you. And I would like to invite him to share a little bit about the collection and its history.

Well, thank you. Hello, citizens. Hello. I apologize for the flip-flops and the short pants. I mean you no disrespect. I choose comfort, though. Which way is north? Somebody help me. So the river's over there. Okay. I come to you from the north side originally, but we didn't, we haven't always, my family lived in North Minneapolis. We came here in 1862, fugitive slaves from Virginia, and landed on the river in Hastings, in Dakota County first. So we moved from Dakota County to Hennepin County. And then I got the crazy idea to cross the river, where I am now in Ramsey County. But every day I take the Green Line, most days, over to the University of Minnesota, where, again, I am responsible for caring for this cultural treasure that is the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life, which I've come to tell you about. So the Archie Givens Senior, pardon me, Collection of African American Literature and Life includes novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, literary criticism, periodicals, and biographies that span 253 years. So we're talking before. the Declaration of Independence, 250 years, three years of American culture. The Givens Collection has particular strengths in the areas of the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Renaissance, of the Jazz Age, First World War to about the Depression, most famously situated in Harlem.

But we had a renaissance happening here in Minneapolis as well, in Hennepin County.

My family was involved. And the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, the next great cultural moment in black American arts and culture. The collection also holds a significant number of books that relate to African-American art, education, social sciences, sports and entertainment, as well as works by or about continental Africans and other Africans in the diaspora. With tens of thousands of rare books and archival and manuscript materials that document the history of black literature and culture, including correspondences, pamphlets, screenplays, newspaper clippings, photographs, sheet music, and ephemera, the Givens Collection is an invaluable community and academic resource. Next slide, please. It comes here to the Twin Cities in 1985. I'm going to correct myself. It was brought here by people who were thinking about us in 1985, thanks to the leadership of one Claudia Wallace-Garner and my teacher, Professor Emeritus of African-American Studies and English at the University of Minnesota, Dr. John S. Wright, who assembled a patrons council composed of various families in the community, many of whom were of Dr. Wright's generation, folks who came up in these Twin Cities in the 1960s at the University of Minnesota on campus, black students organizing, et cetera, the Belptons, the Estes, the Josie Johnsons, names y'all might know from this place. And they helped reimburse the university the value of the collection. half the value of the collection, and then they got busy in organizing around it. It came in as the Richard Lee Hoffman Black Studies Collection, private, but was renamed in honor of Archie Givens, Sr., the first black millionaire in the state of Minnesota, early 20th century. We might have called Mr. Givens pictured there a race leader. He was born on the North Side in 1919, a fateful summer in this country's history. Mixed race, grew up using the services of Phillis Wheatley Settlement House, now Community Center, since the 1960s. One of those places, like Hallie Q. Brown in Ramsey County in Rondo, that were, during the progressive era, emerged to provide a safe place for African-Americans migrating from the South and elsewhere in Jim Crow Minneapolis. right, in Jim Crow Minneapolis. Where is it safe to go? Where can you get a hot meal in this town, et cetera? Archie Givens grew up using the services of Phyllis Wheatley. He was born in 1919. Wheatley Settlement House was founded in 1924. So as a young kid, a mixed race kid on the north side, he would use the services and eventually become a leader there. Please flip the slide. But again, when he passed in the 70s, his family, who had created a foundation in his name, began to shift its focus from providing scholarships for young black men at Macalester College, who wanted to work in lucrative and civic minded sort of professions. They shifted their focus to literature and literacy. And then in 85, when the collection was brought over, they were joined with other families. As pictured there, you see Mayor Belton down in the front on the left and others who, again, would take ownerships of the collection as cultural property and make sure that it got out to the community. The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is the actual property owner of the Givens collection. However, however, this group of people who saw to its coming to the Twin Cities would get active in making sure that they got out.

Please flip the slide.

Highlights of the collection include the Penumbra Theater Company papers. If you're not familiar with Penumbra Theater, you ought to be. It is one of two extant black repertory theaters in the country that has been around since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s. And we have it here. So August Wilson, the great American playwright, got his start as a poet turned playwright. So Penumbra Theater's collection, or papers with the Givens Collection. Correspondences of the great Harlem Renaissance poet, County Cullen, written in his fine handwriting. Dozens of them did span 1919 to 1929. He was in communication with a former faculty member of the University of Minnesota who, as a young man in the 20s, was a student at Columbia in New York, a man named William Fuller Brown, Jr., professor of physics and engineering. But we have those correspondences. Josie Johnson, Dr. Josie Johnson's papers, first Black Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota, civil rights icon in our communities, still with us but in Atlanta now with her daughters in her 90s. Mary Kyle, the old South Side. Mary Kyle was a newspaper woman in South Minneapolis who published the Twin Cities Courier. Her papers and her family papers are in the collection. Over across the river, excuse me, on this side of the river, at Anderson Library, 80-some feet below ground, where the Givens collection lives with these other collections, are dozens of oral histories taken down during the Great Depression from Cahoma County, Mississippi, of formerly enslaved people who were still alive during the Depression. Those manuscripts have never been published anywhere, and they live below ground in Minneapolis here. And so the Federal Writers Project of Narratives of Formerly Enslaved People are part of the collection. Lou Bellamy Rare Book Collection, a stunning collection of hundreds of books in rare fine condition. And then Umbra Search African American History is another highlight. Umbra Search is a web tool for people interested in African American history. that gives them access to about 1,000 archives throughout the country. It's a product of the Givens Collection. You type in Phillis Wheatley, Black Arts Movement, Harlem Renaissance, et cetera, and you will get access. A young person with a phone will get access to about 1,000 archival collections throughout the country, anything that's been digitized there. Please continue. But the centerpiece of this collection, I've said her name once already, a name that people, black women in particular in this community, would make sure that we remembered beginning in 1924. Please flip the slide. And that is Phyllis Wheatley. Again, the woman after whom Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House would be named in 1924. Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, which we have in the Givens Collection in first edition, and I bring it out anytime somebody's over, especially young people, put it in their hands, is the first work of literature to be published by an African American. And in this case, as a slave, before there was a United States in 1773. A young woman who was born in West Africa in Senegambia brought to Boston in 1761, enslaved and named Phyllis after the ship that brought her here. She would do a very remarkable thing, this young woman. In addition to publishing a work of poetry that would become the first book, she would achieve international reputation as a writer. She would dine with President George Washington at his headquarters in Cambridge. After reading her poetry, Ben Franklin paid her a visit. And her presence caused a stir among the founding fathers. Case in point. What we have on the slide here is a letter as it appears in a memoir published in 1839 by someone who knew Wheatley. But it is a facsimile of a letter that George Washington sent Wheatley in which he commends her for her genius. Next slide, please. Nine years after the publication of her book, Thomas Jefferson, a great statesman, president, et cetera, in his notes on the state of Virginia, would say the following. Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks, is misery enough? God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar ostrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. He goes on. Religion. She was an incredibly pious. Pardon me. That was my timer telling me I went over my time. Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis Watley. Couldn't get it together to spell her name correctly. But it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name, questioning whether she did it in the first place, are below the dignity of criticism. So there was disagreement among the founding fathers about what to do about this young girl who, up from slavery, out of Africa, where the savages live, has proved something, disproved prevailing thoughts about African-Americans or African people. She obviously exhibited quite a bit of genius in this young woman who mastered Greek, Latin, the Old and New Testament, Greco-Roman oratory, et cetera, in about a 10-year window before she died tragically at around 30 years old. Please move us on. The point here is that the Givens collection is a part of a history. I mentioned by talking about Hastings and my family, et cetera, is linked to another history here of African-American cultural leadership in Minnesota that since the 1860s had featured groups organizing around literature as an act of self-respect and civic duty. The founders that brought it here knew that having a world-class archive representing African-American cultural life at the U would provide an opportunity to educate locally, nationally, and abroad about the ways in which Black people and our achievements enrich the United States and the world. And we have evidence in the Givens collection. Thank you. I'd gladly answer any question that emerges.

Just blown away. I just want to say thank you for holding this collection with joy and love and a passion for what this history means to not only Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis, but to this country, especially at a time when we're celebrating 250 years. It makes sense for us to highlight and uplift that history that we have that is so powerful. And I'm just moved by it and grateful And I might be spending a lot of time 80 feet below the Anderson Library relatively soon because I could easily get lost there. But I want to thank you so much for your presentation today.

You're welcome. Anybody been down there? Seen the caverns? Yeah? Pretty remarkable. There's not a whole lot like it in the country. And we have it again over on the West Bank.

We have Commissioner Lundy and then Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank you for the presentation and the information. I also want to just re-highlight what you mentioned, which is the archives. As a person who had to do my archival search for my research, my thesis in Russian, having access to primary source material is first and foremost the only material that matters. Second, tertiary source material doesn't matter. Having access to primary, where you can see people's direct writings, where you can infer what you want by reading it, especially when you, I'm guessing there's oral history, and there's things that people who want to do deep research into these topics have access to. And so I just, of course, was really fixated on that because if people really want to get, don't read a book, read what someone wrote in their own words and make your own mind up with what they meant and what they believed. So thank you for the presentation.

You're welcome, but I would push back and say also read a book.

laughter

As people who have libraries, we would agree with you. Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Commissioner Conley. And thank you. Just so interesting and yet another, like, oh, how cool this thing is here. I did have two questions. One of them is it feels, as you were speaking, I felt so lucky that this was here and that those people made that decision, as you said, with us in mind. How does this compare to Indianapolis? Or I'm thinking of some other major city in a different state that's also a university town. I would like some context.

Outside of Chicago, it is the greatest gathering of the effects of African-American historical life in the Midwest. There's nothing like it again. The Vivian Harsh Library, which is a part of Chicago Public Libraries, because of the sheer size of the African-American community there, is more substantive. But when the collection was on for sale, the private collection was for sale in 1985, it was thought to have been, again, the best you know, most best preserved thing like it, you know, of its kind on the marketplace. And so, again, folks who brought it understood that. It has grown four times its size since it came in. 3,200 books have now become tens of thousands of books and archival collections I'm collecting now. I get calls. One story, I was on the north side recently. I walked away with 60 boxes of books from a woman's house who had recently made a transition, Gladys M. Randall. She led the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center for a time. She was a family therapist. I go. Her daughter invites me over. Their house is up for sale now. They're trying to get rid of all these books. I go over and we start talking. She starts asking me, saying family names. You know, these people, you know, these people. No, no, no, no. Eventually, though, we land on a family name that we knew in common. And it occurred to us we were cousins by marriage. Her mother lived around the corner from the house I grew up in at 1922 Penn. I'm over at 1801 Oliver. where I see this massive rare book collection that this black woman had been gathering my whole childhood, unbeknownst to me. So we are still collecting. The collection is growing. It is our job to preserve and grow it because, again, it is unlike anything in these parts. And so we're quite proud of it. It's a shame that more people don't know about it, but that's why I'm here. That's why we show up and we have exhibits and write articles and whatnot so people know.

Yeah. One statement and then another question. So I remember a number of years ago that an amazing collection of photography was gifted to the Hennepin County Libraries. And I just wanted to make sure that there's seamlessness between whatever.

Are these color photos or black and white photos?

I believe black and white.

OK, so that's John Glanton. My great grandfather, Clarence, who came to Minnesota in 1911 and married a black woman who was born in Hastings. Julia is in that book. John Glanton was a photographer who captured the Black Twin Cities in the 40s and 50s. His counterpart, Charles Chambliss, took photographs in North Minneapolis and South Minneapolis and Hennepin County. primarily, in the 70s and 80s. And there's a book about that that I wrote and published in 2017 through the Historical Society Press. It again shows what the black cultural community was like here in the 70s and 80s. It's called Sight, Sound, Souls, The Twin Cities Through the Lens of Charles Chambliss. It's a different look at us. It's not the Duluth lynching. It's not riots. It's not marching. It's a lot of black joy on display by people who are confident in themselves and have a great deal of pride and are nurturing and taking care of one another. expressing their lives in this mundane and banal fashion that is just the everyday. A look at us that most people don't get, a lot of people don't get to see. And so you have these photo photographers, writers, visual artists like Setu Jones and Takumba Akin, people whose names we're trying to write down, make sure that people know about because there is a rich history. in our cities that needs to be told. And many of us are walking around with it through oral traditions, but some of us go to school and write it down for other people to read. So that's what we're doing.

The question that I had was, how does somebody, like, I want to know more. I'd like to show up and see something, but I also don't want to be a trouble. Like, how does a lay person sort of come and learn more about the client?

Be trouble. Contact me directly. It's easy enough to get a hold of me through the University of Minnesota Libraries website. That's my job. I'm the gatekeeper, and I have people over all the time. Again, this is my little settlement house situation that I've set up for, especially for people who aren't from here. come here and don't really understand the layout of the cities and how black people have ended up where they are and historically over time how those things have changed. And there are people whose families have been here for a long time and are proud. We're just as awkward and passive aggressive as the other folks that live here too because it's cold, you know. So, yeah.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Commissioner Goodell.

I just want to thank you, too, because I have the pleasure to be administration and libraries for Hennepin County for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea about these beautiful archives and everything. And I want to thank you specifically for bringing this out to people and saying this is available to you. Come. Come. And the other question I had is those beautiful archives that you have of the personal audio stories, is anyone going to bring that out and bring it to life? Is anybody working on something to bring those beautiful audios out?

So you're talking about the oral histories from Coma County. So these are all written and typed. This is a woman, Carrie Campbell goes down to a plantation in Mississippi during Jim Crow times and writes down what people tell her for the most part. Scholars have been coming in and artists have been coming in to use or work with these materials. There was a children's book author who came and was looking for a story to tell in a children's book and went through various, you know, manuscripts, but some of them have been digitized and put online. I'm really waiting and encouraging artists and writers now to come and use these kinds of materials. Again, it's because we also are charged to some degree with making new stuff to put into the archive.

That would be beautiful to take those stories and bring them to life. Thank you. Thank you for being here today.

Well, yes, I'll extend my gratitude to you as well, and certainly want to thank the generations of people that took risk in order to collect these stories, who fought to ensure that you're able to share this with us today. And earlier, we had a presentation on elections. It just strikes me that we are in a very particular moment in our shared humanity, in our democracy, in any functioning civil society that access to information and an accurate understanding and a robust understanding of our histories is a dynamic and in motion activity and one that we can constantly invest in. So really appreciate your work. Appreciate you coming over. And if you're open to it, would love to take a photo with you. Sounds good.

I just literally just got an email from my staff.

We are on to item 8 on our agenda, which is the claims register. 8A is the claims register for the period ending July 17, 2026, 8B for July 24, and 8C for the period ending July 31, 2026. May I have a motion for all three, please? So moved. Thank you, Commissioners Connolly and Green. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Nine on the agenda are consent items, which would have passed unanimously out of committee. Today we have 9A to 9P. May I have a motion for the block, please? Thank you, Commissioners Gotell and Edelson. Colleagues, any items that you'd like to highlight prior to voting on the block? Commissioner Lundy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to highlight 9F, so youth sports grants, and particularly the grant for Brooklyn Center family. It may look like a playground, but it's actually part of an effort by their school district to set up a family center because they see families in August and then in November, December, I mean, where people are moving schools given the oftentimes turbulent times some of their residents have. And so they are really putting together a center where it's not just about kids. It's also about the families. It's about services. It's about our library setting up a thing to get people library cards so they can go sign up for things. And so this is just one more piece so that the family can come and stay and not have to worry about where their kids run off to. They actually have a place where their kids can take part and have fun. So I just want to highlight that it is about play, but it is about so much more in this case. And just grateful that this is part of that package. Thank you.

Absolutely. Any other items? Commissioner Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Also highlighting some of the great work in the youth sports grant that we're approving for the lifeguard services. And I mean, there are so many different things and so happy to see the expansion of the arts and music grants that are now a part of this. And just it's so wonderful to see the extent and where we're able to reach into different communities with that. So really thankful for that. Thank you.

Commissioner Green.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to highlight item 9-0, which is the 2026 Environmental Response Grants, which are just one more cool thing that the county's up to in the community that oftentimes is supplemental funding to various projects that cleans up environmental issues or manages stormwater or, I don't know, various things and is very additive to projects.

Thank you. We have 9-8 and 9-P before us also acknowledge that there are several items that really demonstrate our partnership with the state. We have several provisions here because we deliver services alongside in partnership with the state and really appreciate a number of items with receivables. With the block before us and no further discussion, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 10 are non-consent items, for which we have none. 11 is our progressed items. These are items that would have progressed from committee to board without a vote, for which we have none. 12 is old business. We also have none. And 13 is immediate approvals, and we have several. 13A is to establish a public hearing on the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Local Plan at the Administration Operations and Budget Committee of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners on August 25, 2026, beginning at 1.30 p.m. Move approval.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioners Green and Cotel. Ms. Wentland.

Chair Fernando, Commissioners, Item 13A and Item 13B that you will be moving next to both establish public hearings. 13A is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Local Plan, and 13B is to receive comment on the Program Year 2025 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report and Planning. for the 2027 Annual Action Plan related to the HUD, CDBG, HOME, and ESG programs in suburban Hennepin County. Staff are available to provide information if needed. Mei Zhang, Chief Workforce Development, is here if you have questions regarding Item 13A.

Yes, thank you. So, colleagues, this is to establish a public hearing in alignment with our federal process. If there are no specific questions on WIOA, we'll bring it to vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13B, to establish a public hearing for comment on the program year 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report and planning for the 2027 annual action plan related to to HUD, CDBG, HOME, and ESG programs in suburban Hennepin County. The hearing will be on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 1.30 p.m. I'll move this. May I have a second? Thank you, Commissioner Lundy. Colleagues, again, this is establishing a federal hearing. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all those in favor of 13B, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13C are agreements, two agreements with the state of Minnesota to provide election recount services for automatic recounts for the 2026 primary and general election. I'll move this. May I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Conley. Ms. Welland.

Chair Fernando, Commissioners, Item 13C is for two joint powers agreements with the state to provide election recount services for the upcoming primary and general election, if needed. Minnesota Statute 204C.355 requires a recount of votes when certain criteria exist. The Secretary of State has authority to delegate a recount to county auditors. These agreements accomplish that. Dan Rogan is available, and Ginny Gelms is also available if you have questions.

Colleagues, any questions on this? This is for preparation and compliance for our elections. Hearing and seeing none, all those in favor of 13C, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13D is the sale of approximately $350 million of tax-exempt general obligation bonds for capital improvements and refunding and approximately $125 million of tax-exempt general obligation refunding bonds contingent upon market conditions, fixing the form and specifications thereof, and providing for their execution, delivery, and payment. May I have a motion for 13D, please? Thank you, Commissioners Gotell and Anderson. Ms. Wetland?

Chair Fernando, Commissioners, Sarah Brown from the Office of Budget and Finance is here to provide information on this item.

Welcome.

Madam Chair, County Board members, my name is Sarah Brown. I am the Treasury Officer in the Office of Budget and Finance. The resolution before you authorizes the sale of tax-exempt general obligation new money and refunding bonds in the total approximate principal amount of up to $475 million. The bonds will be issued in two series. The first series, 2026A, will be issued in an amount not to exceed $350 million. Of the total, $225 million will be issued as new money to finance capital improvements in the county's adopted 2026 to 2030 capital improvement plan. The new money portion will be issued as fixed rate debt, 20-year obligations with a final maturity in 2046. The remaining portion of the 2026A bonds, up to $125 million, will be used to refund Series 2016B and Series 2017C. The refunding bonds are expected to generate an estimated $16.5 million of net present value savings, or roughly $1.5 million annually. The second series of bonds, 2026B, will be issued in an amount not to exceed $125 million. The bonds will be used to refund series 2016A and 2017B. These refunding bonds are expected to generate an estimated $12.2 million of net present value savings, or roughly $800,000 annually. Similar to refinancing your mortgage, the county will refund debt outstanding under the right market conditions, which is what we're doing so this year. The bonds, both bonds, were rated by S&P Global ratings and Fitch ratings, and both rating agencies reaffirmed the county's AAA rating with a stable outlook. A high credit rating lowers our borrowing costs because lenders view us as low risk, thus offering reduced interest rates. The county will be issuing both series of bonds in a competitive sale on Thursday, August 20th. And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, and I just want to acknowledge that you had really good news in the middle of that with AAA bond rating being reaffirmed. I wanted to verbally uplift that, so thank you. Colleagues, discussion on this item? Discussion on 13D? Hearing and seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13E is the Hennepin County funding commitment for the Metro Blue Line Extension LRT project. May I have a motion, please? Absolutely.

Second. I'd like some comments also, Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for the motion, Commissioner Lundy, and for the second, Commissioner Conley. I just, in transparency, will have Commissioner Lundy speak first since the project is largely in District 1 and Rail Chair Green can go next and you'll be third. So that's when we get to the discussion. So the motion and second before us is a very exciting item. I know that there's a staff presentation, so I'll leave it to you, Ms. Welland.

Chair Fernandez, commissioners, I believe you have an R1 that needs to be moved.

I even wrote that down. We have an R1 with a motioner and seconder. And so now the R1 is before us, which has a clerical correction in the background, but no change to the published clauses. Is that correct?

Chair Fernando, Commissioners, in addition to that, to the edit in the background for this item, I'd also ask that you amend your motion with the R1 to include the updated numbering for the companion HICRA action, Resolution 26, HICRA-0012R1, to that second resolving clause.

Great. With a motion and a second for the R1 that acknowledges the background and the companion action that the Rail Authority has not yet voted on, we will bring it to you for a presentation. Thank you.

Chair Fernando, Commissioners, thank you. Lisa Cerny and Dan Soller here can provide background information to this item.

Welcome. Thank you, Chair, Madam Chair, Members, Commissioners. I'm Dan Soller, Director of transit at Hennepin County, and I'm very happy to be here today, and thank you for allowing time today to present background and context on the board action request that you're going to consider today to increase the county's financial commitment to the Blue Line Extension light rail transit project. On an aside, I want to mention that I'm honored today to give this presentation because as a young engineer, The first person I ever heard speak about light rail transit in the Twin Cities was one Commissioner John Derris. Many years ago, that is, when I was a young engineer, so I'm honored to be able to do this presentation today. So I'll have a packet with additional information as well in front of you, including numerous letters of support from community advocates, labor unions, downtown council, Minneapolis Regional Chamber, more than 40 elected officials from every level of government that represent the corridor residents along here, also included our additional materials on how the Blue Line Extension advances county priorities around disparity elimination and climate action. So, Hennepin County has been invested in completing this project for many years. Hennepin County's worked together with partners from the Met Council, municipalities, various state legislators, federal administrations, and others as this project has advanced. I KNOW MOST OF YOU ARE AND ALL OF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THIS PROJECT BUT A LITTLE BIT OF A BACKGROUND ON THIS PIECE. THIS BLUE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT IS A 13.4 MILE EXTENSION OF THE LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM IN THE TWIN CITIES. 13 stations starting in Target Field. It extends the existing Blue Line, which is running from the Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis at the Target Field, and will extend from there through north Minneapolis, the city of Robbinsdale, the city of Crystal, and up in through and to north Brooklyn Park, and then the other surrounding communities that are around that. Half of the projected riders on this new line are expected to come from households that do not own a car. They rely on transit every day to get in about their business, work, school, and other things. So our project staff under the leadership of this board, as you gave us direction previously, and in direct response to the community when we made our change, has prioritized preventing displacement as part of building this project at every stage of the way. The goal has simply been to make sure that people that are affected by this project and that it's being built to serve are there to experience the benefits that will come with this particular project. And so we want to make sure that the people that are impacted are the people that also then realize the benefits. It's a simple and clear goal that's led to many of the decisions we've made on engineering and other things and changes to this project. And through all of this, this project still remains very competitive for federal funding. It remains the most affordable project per mile of other LRT projects that are around the country being built in the Capital Investment Grants Program, which is the federal program that we participate in. So this is a long history chart here. It goes back starting to in 2008, Hennepin County began the lead as the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority of beginning the environmental documentation, the alternatives analysis, and choosing a route. And so I won't go through the whole history, because we certainly don't have enough time for that. But it began then, and then about the midpoint of this, we had worked on a project that was what we sometimes refer to as Blue Line Extension 1.0, the project that was going to come down Highway 55 and up the Burlington Northern Railroad Corridor. Somewhere also in that middle time frame, some of us changed positions. I used to be working at Met Council. Now I'm here. Commissioner Lundy was a mayor and now has come here, so we made some changes there, but we also had to change the project so We had gotten that project and to advance through the CIG program with a completed environmental document, 90% plans complete, and a set federal participation of around $752 million. But we had to make a difficult decision in 2020 to look at a option for this alignment that did not include utilizing Burlington Northern right-of-way. and staying off of the railroad right away. We were unable to kind of complete that piece, and so we stepped back to the drawing board. But that tough choice also became an opportunity to bring on new community supported route, to find areas and ways that we could serve destinations and populations that we weren't able to solve before by coming through North Minneapolis and more directly through Robbinsdale and Crystal. And so now we've completed yet a second full environmental impact statement on this project. It's very hard to complete an environmental impact statement. It's very hard to complete two on the same project. But we've finished that. We've received municipal consent from our cities very positively, very much by all of our cities and yourselves as the county board. We've reached municipal consent. We've moved forward to 90% design on the project, and we're ready to now continue to move this forward for the second time. So this map then shows the current light rail system. And so the original Hiawatha line was built to kind of serve south Minneapolis and the south suburbs. We built, and I worked directly on the Green Line, which connected to the east, St. Paul, into Minneapolis and downtown. The southwest line is getting ready for opening day, which connects to the southwest suburbs. And this blue line extension then kind of completes the fourth leg of that system, which then serves the northwest area of Hennepin County. So now it provides a light rail line that serves all – it connects that area, that north Minneapolis area with – various schools, the airport, and many other destinations.

Light rail can't be built everywhere.

but it needs to be part of a transit system that includes everything from microtransit and arterial BRT and our own roadway system and sidewalks and bikeways and everything else to help serve transportation needs throughout our county. So a little bit about what the project then helps to do. So a common refrain that we hear, part of what we hear from the community that we work with is that this project isn't just about the train, it's also about the people. So it's important about who we're serving as well as what we're building here as well. So not only is it important how many people will ride on this line, but who those people are. There are 43,000 people that live very near a blue line extension light rail system. So it taps into a large significant population of our metropolitan area and our county. A third of those people are young people. Many of them don't have access to a car. They come from diverse backgrounds, and many are struggling to make ends meet already. This project is at an unprecedented and provides an unprecedented investment into our future in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. These are just some of the statistics of what's there. 200,000 jobs exist near existing and planned blue line stations so people can come to them as well. And this, again, we always talk a little bit about the fact that this is not a commuter rail line. This is a light rail line, meaning it goes both directions all day long. So it wants to bring people to here, not just people to downtown, but people from other parts of the metro area to the stations along the Blue Line extension to serve those. communities. And so it serves the airport and hospitals and clinics and 55 different schools all the way from elementary schools and the Twin Cities International School in North Minneapolis all the way to the University of Minnesota as it follows through there. So part of our work on this line was really our direction was let's find a community accepted route. And so we were not only destined with taking on public engagement, but remember 2020 was when I said we pivoted. So we were taking on public engagement during the time of the pandemic. And I've been I've attended a number of public meetings in my career, in the thousands. And I can tell you this was by far the most robust and opportunistic public engagement. We tried a lot of things. And we really tried to get the voices of people that were going to be impacted and that could be benefited heard and take that into account, all the way from the creation by Commissioner Lundy of the driveway meeting, which I spent many summer evenings in driveways with both Commissioner Lundy and Commissioner Fernando. We were in parks. We were in people's driveways. We were in school basements. We were all over, as well as trying to do things virtually and trying to do that. And we really wanted to make sure that we weren't just hearing from the loudest voices, but a variety of voices that represent the diversity of this quarter Hennepin County we also led the way in contracting directly with community and cultural organizations that was something new that I had not done before and so that was a that was an exciting way to make sure that we involve people who you know oftentimes aren't always direct not everybody would just goes to a open house and wants to hear. Maybe they're not comfortable with that. So we tried to find ways to really bring people into this so we could talk about this. We even worked with local artists. We worked with all kinds of different methodologies to find creative ways to engage people in this project. And I'm believing we did a wonderful job of really getting both positive and negative feedback at all times throughout the entirety of the piece to lead us to this alignment. So we know, we believe, and we know that there is strong support for the Blue Line Extension Project. When we went through municipal consent, we received 33 of 38 votes to approve our municipal consent plans and to move this along. Very important part of the process because It then lets you kind of have a basis that you're actually moving forward with a design that the community and that policymakers along here support. At the end of this process, every jurisdiction then voted emphatically to move this forward. We've partnered very closely with our cities. They've been very integral to this piece because besides just the physical planning, there's been a lot of things that have been – that's a long timeline, 2008. So there's been projects that have been waiting, and cities have had to kind of – hold their stuff together, Hennepin County as well, streets, utilities, and things like that, so that we can get this project to the finish line. Each city has approved zoning changes along here to allow for the kind of transit-orientated dense development along the station. So they've been at the table with us on that. They've updated their comp plans. They've put those pieces in place. And they're fully ready to leverage the new development patterns that'll take place, like it has along other lines in here. But as I said before, the cities are also dealing with real costs of delay in getting this there. They've deferred infrastructure. Recently, I was driving on West Broadway in Brooklyn Park, and I saw the crews working by Shingle Creek. And when I got to City Hall, I said, what are they doing there? Did a $500,000 emergency repair on a water main that would have been replaced as part of the Blue Line Extension project. when we first started talking about this over 10 years ago. And so the timing of needing to get to these improvements is in place. And so that's just one example of the number of things that have happened along this line. So the Blue Line Extension Project will be the most significant investment that we as a county have made to further the goals of disparity elimination across all of our county domains. There's a packet of information that you have that kind of describes the numerous ways each of the domains in disparity elimination work are impacted. But this project will greatly reduce disparities in transportation and connectivity by serving communities with high rates of transit dependency. One other example I want to highlight is the project's potential to reduce disparities in employment. 6,000 jobs end up being created just to build this light rail project over the next six or seven years. The goal is to have as many of these jobs going to local workers as possible. And again, serving the people that are impacted. And when considering downstream impacts and long-term economic growth, the Blue Line Extension will support 40,000 more jobs. The immediate impact to employment disparities will be around development near... Stations this light rail extension will connect corridor residents to one-third of the jobs in this region with one other transfer to high frequency Network so if you're somewhere on the blue line extension and you make one transfer either on to green line or on a Arterial BRT you'll have access to one-third of the jobs in this Twin Cities metropolitan area There will also be 23,000 more jobs than today that they can access by transit. So this really then significantly reduces employment and income disparities in communities that have relatively high unemployment rates, low household medium income, and high rates of housing cost burdens. So also, we always talk about the transportation benefit of a light rail line. Also, there are significant economic development benefits that come along with building light rail. It brings prosperity to communities through increased economic development, providing better paying jobs, and increasing the tax base. We've seen more than $14 billion $14 billion in economic development along our existing and planned light rail lines, both along the original Blue Line, along Central Corridor Green Line, and also already constructed and in place along Green Line Extension as that project nears opening day. That's four times more per mile than along other high frequency transit networks. And so for comparison, the Green Line has seen 10 times more investment along it than the original cost to build that. That's a 10 to 1 return on investment along that alignment. Economic development also then leads to tax impacts. And so this development is transformational for cities and provides revenue to the county as well. The increased revenue supports services, programs, municipalities and Hennepin County. It also reduces the need for potential future levy increases by increasing property taxes in other ways. The development we've seen along light rail just in Hennepin County is currently generating $186 million in property tax revenue annually. So this corridor is ripe for this kind of development and for the cities along here. It expands the tax base and will have a major impact on their budgets and tax rolls. And certainly all along here, we've talked with community groups all along from the Target Field all the way to Northern Brooklyn Park. And I can tell a story about something that's in the works to kind of generate some economic impact along there. So that's some of the basics then of the project. Where are we today? What's the current project status? We're closer now, even than ever, to getting this moving and to breaking ground, something I would definitely really love to see. So our schedule status has some recent milestones and some next steps. So we have, as I said, completed a second record of decision. So we are through the federal environmental process. We have a record of decision. We are at now the basis of being on the cusp of submitting for a full funding grant agreement. In order to submit a full funding grant agreement to the federal government, you must complete FTA's risk assessment process to help them evaluate the validity and where your budget numbers are and the level of contingency that you've got in the project. They've done that, and that was completed here just recently in the spring. And the 90% plans are complete and are reaching 100% completion, hopefully by the September-ish timeframe of this year. So while that's what's done, we've got to execute a few critical third-party agreements. We've got an agreement that's at the PUC right now for a master utility agreement with Excel. We've got some agreements with Burlington Northern and Canadian Pacific. Not nearly as complicated or as difficult or as unattainable as we had before, but we're moving through those. We're getting them done. Those are key measures to get to a full funding grant agreement. Finalizing local funding. is a key piece and needs to be completed before a full funding grant application. That's part of what our actions today here at the board will get to. And then our hope for then is to submit that full funding grant agreement this fall. So what does that lead to then? This is how we then take the steps to get to opening day. 2027 is getting the FFGA, getting our procurement out there to do what we're going to do is a best value procurement to put in place a systems and civil construction contract. We're trying some things a little differently here to build in some competition in the market. We can talk about that at some point. That hopes to be done in 2027. Construction, we've spread out 2028, 2029, 2030, and 2031. That sounds like a really long time, and it is. But this is like a mini-CIP along this route. And so we need to minimize where we're impacting various areas. So it's kind of like this one long project is splitting up a whole bunch of small construction projects that we can link together then with systems and testing work in 2020, 2032 to open in 2033. So that's the longer piece that gets us to the end. So that's the end of my presentation, commissioners. Thank you. I'm going to hand it over to Lisa to talk a little bit about the financing.

Thank you, Dan. Chair, commissioners, I'm Lisa Cerny. I'm the Assistant County Administrator for the Public Works Line of Business. As Dan described, getting these projects to opening day takes determination and careful financial management and oversight. The reality of light rail projects is that they are expensive. And they also provide undeniable return on investment when done right for residents, businesses, communities, our region, and our state. As you can see, Blue Line Extension 1.0, as Dan described, had a project budget of $1.54 billion. At that time, the county commitment was almost $680 million. And as you heard Dan also describe, you've heard why the history and why that has changed and really why we have a better project today. In early 2024, when the project was at 30% design, the preliminary cost estimate for the Blue Line extension was $3.2 billion. Through the municipal consent process in the fall of 2024, some key changes were made to the project. Those additions added slightly additional funding, But we do believe that they provide a better project that will maximize the benefits of light rail in the communities for generations to come. After incorporating these changes and completing an extensive risk assessment process with FTA earlier this year, an updated budget of $3.58 billion was set. This budget includes a large contingency of 32%. 32 percent is more contingency than projects are technically required to carry at this stage of project development. But it is a number that was identified through the risk assessment process and learnings from past projects. At a point of comparison, the Green Line Extension project had a 17 percent contingency at this stage and was a far more complex construction project. Before Met Council can apply for a full funding grant agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, critical third party agreements need to be in place, and all local funding needs to be committed. The federal share is set at $752 million, or just 21% of the overall project budget. This is a smaller share than the roughly 50% the federal government has contributed to other light rail projects in the region, which leaves a larger burden for local funding partners. After careful consideration and consultation with our federal lobbyists, we concluded that requesting additional federal funding was not a viable option. Working with our partners at the Met Council, we have identified about $190 million in potential cost savings, which would bring the project budget down to about $3.39 billion. The Project Decision Board approved these reductions at their meeting last month, and just last week the project team discussed them with FTA, who was supportive but will need to complete a formal review. If the FTA approves these cost savings, as we expect them to, that will leave roughly $223.5 million in unfunded needs. We are hopeful we can work with our project partners to eliminate that final gap in the coming weeks. The board actions before you today requesting county commitment draw entirely from existing revenue sources that have been dedicated and reserved for capital construction of light rail. They require no new revenue. The largest funding source is what we call our county transportation sales and use tax. It's an existing 0.5% sales tax on all purchases in Hennepin County and a $20 fee on all new motor vehicle purchases. This tax was established in 2017 by the Hennepin County Board with the intent of using it to fund construction of the Blue Line Extension and other major transit projects. It replaced a previous quarter percent regional sales tax from the County Transit Improvement Board, otherwise known as CTIB, which was dissolved in that same year. Additionally, the county's local funding commitment for the Blue Line extension will include some property tax levied through the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority in accordance with that body's mission to advocate for, plan, and fund rail transportation corridors. The action before you today In the board meeting, so the meeting you're in today, because we kind of mixed the conversation between rail authority and board, so just want to be very clear. Resolution 26-0284R1, that would be the approval to increase Hennepin County's funding commitment for the Blue Line extension to $1,896,000,000 and cap the combined total contribution for Hennepin County. The Transportation Sales and Use Tax with Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority in the amount of $2,254,000,000. I'm going to speak to, but you'll be taking, considering this action in the Rail Authority. So the second resolution is the Companion resolution that will be discussed in the rail authority and that is to bring forward a commitment of three hundred and fifty eight million dollars or a maximum of ten percent of the project budget Chair and commissioners. Thank you for your time and careful consideration of these important board actions today And we are happy to stand for any questions

Thank you. And we already have a little bit of a queue. I'm privileged to serve District 2, which is kind of the beginning of the Blue Line Extension project. And so I want to start with Commissioner Lundy, who represents District 1, which is the second half of the extension.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to correct you. The Blue Line Extension starts in Brooklyn Park and ends at the Twin Stadium. Just about orientation on that. So I want to thank Dan and Lisa for the update and the detail. I think sometimes we get lost in the rhetoric, and we stop talking about the numbers. And so I like the slide about 2008, because I got elected to city council in 2007. In 2007, we were talking about putting off the water mains on West Broadway. because the blue line was coming and we didn't want to start doing that. So the half a million is probably a yearly expense on the things that go wrong with the sewer and water line in Brooklyn Park. That is nothing new. That is a constant thing where these things do hit, and they hit property taxes, and they hit the water funds and stuff like that. So a few comments. I tend not to be prim and proper, and I'm I can apologize for it, just the way that it rolls. But I do want to talk about money, because I think a lot of people think that we're afraid to talk about money when we talk about the blue line. I'm very willing to talk about money. So let's talk about money. So you're talking about Let's talk about money from Hennepin County. So For the state government they get about 31 to 33 percent of their money comes from Hennepin County We're the largest County population. We have the most activity I don't know the number is what the federal government gets, but I'm gonna bet it's probably let's just call it the same number 31 percent we are a net contributor to the federal government and meaning we give more money to the federal government than we receive. There are people that are hoping that the federal government says, we don't want to deal with this project because they want to have it killed, which I think is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Let's give money to somebody. Let's be in line to receive money. and then let's hope that they don't give it to us. It's our money. We're giving it to the federal government. We are in line in their rules following it. The people that we compete with for businesses are right behind us, and they're hoping we fail. At the end of the day, when you're in projects, you hope that something happens, that you're going to move up. Because these things take decades. People like Nashville, Denver, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Texas. Why do I mention them? Because as mayor, they were my competition every time an international business came to town saying we're looking at investing in Brooklyn Park. Here's your competition. It was those same cities. It wasn't New York. It wasn't LA. It wasn't Seattle. It was those same regional cities who are in line to get light rail. And for those who are not familiar with how site selection committees work, a business, international especially, will hire a firm to come and do a glance. Here's our criteria. They'll go out and visit cities. You will be blind. You will not know the company that's thinking about coming here. You will just know their criteria. International companies look for things that look like where they come from. I spent 10 years in international business. People like to buy things where they are. And everybody in here does it. When you go somewhere, you kind of think about, I kind of feel more familiar and comfortable here. And so... You can lose or win just by do you have things. International companies tend to like light rail. They also like buses. They like cars. And that's the order of things. And if you don't have light rail, you're done. That's just it. Blue Line has always been on the thing. We use that to recruit. We absolutely advertise Blue Line. Takeda Pharmaceutical, the third largest pharmaceutical company, came here. Talk to them. If anybody doesn't believe me, they'll tell you they're here for Blue Line. Tesla's there. Olympus Medical, Kurita, Japanese companies. It's not an accident that Japanese companies co-locate and go to the same area because they come with the same needs and wants. We are not doing well as a state in recruiting international businesses. We are not the place that people are investing money. We need to pick up the pace and we need to make ourselves look more attractive to people who want to come and invest money. Rail is one of those. And why is rail over buses is because buses move. Rails don't. I always say that when they put two pieces of metal lying parallel on the ground for 13 miles, they can't take it from us, because that's my experience with transit. Transit moves, and what was there yesterday is not here tomorrow. So we, as a state, we are a high-tech state. I'd love if we were a low tax state. We're not. And I don't see it changing. We can become less high tax. But when you have high taxes, people expect infrastructure investments to reflect the high taxes. They don't want to move to a place where I get to pay high taxes and I get nothing for it. And so you talk about that and you talk about the federal dollars. I want our federal money back. I'm greedy. We paid into that fund. The federal government is having fun. I don't know about anybody here, but my federal taxes haven't gone down. They haven't gone down a bit. They're taking the same amount that they did. They've done the same thing to federal. I'd like our money back. And one way to get money back is to get what's due to us. The fact that they won't change the agreement or we've been told that they will not look kindly on that is, I think, wrong. There is more money. One of the reasons that we're not the only people facing this that – people are not happy is because everybody is in the queue waiting for investment. We're not the only ones. And as this investment gets pulled away or it doesn't show up, where is that money going? Because if it's not going back into federal government. I think, Dan, I had some notes about the return on investment. But in my district, we are predominantly residential housing. And if you haven't done a municipal budget, I know Mayor Gotell has. and your city is very residential, good luck when your tax increase goes right to someone's house thing. Because if you are dependent on houses to pay, I think Robbinsdale is 95% residential. When you raise taxes for services, it goes right to someone's house. And it goes whether you're a homeowner or a renter. And you need that tax base, that thing to kind of bounce it off. You need commercial development. You need other high-value things to kind of even out the pie so that things aren't always falling on that. And so this area is very dependent on fiscal disparities. And don't get me into that because that's a whole different thing. But it is an acknowledgment of the fact that we have disparate impact on the metro. And so that helps to level it out a little bit where some people have a lot of businesses and someone has all the workers. And so it makes it very hard for municipal municipalities. It also makes it very hard for schools. It's not just about cities. It's about schools who also... And so I think a few things to continue just talking about money is we are paying for something we're not getting. The state put a transit tax, which we lobbied for. I testified. I know Commissioner Green, I think many people talked about it, so that to invest in transit so there's a reliable fund of money for Metro Transit to invest in transit. The operating budget for Metro Transit has gone up 48%. And I asked every one of my cities, are you seeing 48% more transit? And I guarantee the answer is, we'd be happy to saw 4.8%. We are not getting that money. We are sending that money every day. We make purchases in Hennepin County to fund it. And just so you know, nearly half the money for Metro Transit tax comes from Hennepin County. That means nearly half of the money that Metro Transit is not spending on transit comes from our pocketbooks. So let's keep talking about money. It's roughly, I think, about $200 million. I'll depend on Brendan, another smarter than me, to tell me if that number's right. But we are providing that per year. I just like it back. Just invest that money. The idea that Metro Transit doesn't have money or the wherewithal, they have the money. They lack the money. Fortitude and the willpower to do this and we need to help provide it for them Counted trans County transit tax is also an investment in transit, so I'll just say it this way my district is paying two taxes for transit I guarantee we are not getting that return on investment at all and No offense to Commissioner go tell I don't mean it that way, but I'm going to do a comparison so comparing Brooklyn Park to Bloomington two ends of the blue line and Very similar cities. That similar, I actually think that disparities, I don't know Bloomington, so I won't speak to it, but in my district I know where they are. So Bloomington, we all pay the same tax. We're all paying it. Bloomington has the blue line, orange line, red line, D line, future Airbnb. I'm not smart, so I use fingers. It's really easy on the Brooklyn Park. I don't need fingers. This is how many lines Brooklyn Park has. Say it. And I think that is disgusting that the most diverse area, which is my area, has this number of transit, but is paying taxes. And so we have been patiently waiting. I have, as mayor, went three times with Metro Transit, met council to lobby. I knew Green Line was ahead of us. Green Line had to get done. Green Line extension, I should be specific. I went there. I lobbied for it because I knew until Green Line extension was done, Blue Line extension couldn't take place. We did that. All the mayors have done that. We have sat patiently in line for many years and had done our work. We've been patient. We've paid our taxes. We are waiting for this. And this moment for that investment is now. And that disparities, I could show a map. We've got lots of them. I discovered that people either care or they don't care. Because the people who say they care, if they did, they would act differently. when they look at maps, and maps that show disparities on education, financial challenges, housing cost burdens, access to health care. Oh, by the way, what's on this blue line? Two large hospital systems that provide a safety net, North Memorial Robbinsdale and HCMC. So the one place that people need to go to get health care sit on this blue line as well. I think the time has come for action. The time has come for Metro Transit, who has money, and we are giving them money. It's not someone else's money. So I know that there are state leaders who talk about it's money. It's our money. We're paying for that tax. My residents, every time they make a purchase, are paying for something they are not getting. Metro Transit has $2.3 billion. which is about the same amount of money we're investing today, now that I think about it, that's sitting in a fund that's called unallocated transit opportunities for the next 25 years, 2025 through 2050. They're a document, they're funding, which means that they're looking for stuff to invest in, and I don't know what the hell it takes for someone to realize this is the opportunity. This gap is artificial. It could be closed tomorrow if people had willpower. It could be closed with action. What we are doing today, and I am happy. I know I don't sound happy. We are taking action. This is what action looks like. When you say you care and you want transit and you want to do something more than just sit and rub your hands together, talk about how much you care, this is what's called action. You vote to take money that you have been accruing from people's pocketbooks for a purpose. and you put it in action. And so what I'm asking the Metro Transit is step up, do their damn job, invest in the communities, because it is disgusting. It's institutional racism. And if I can ever give an example, this is it. When you have a district, an area of mine, that is 60% diverse, you have to wonder, why can't we just be treated the same as everyone else? I'm not asking for anything new. I'm just asking if we could be treated with the same respect, the same people that other lines have been treated with. It's very simple. Just do that. Do your one job that you have, which is deliver transit, and do that investment. I am passionate about this project. It is why I ran for one more term as mayor, a third term. It is why I ran for county commissioner. It is the number one reason. I'm here is because it takes willpower to get this all the way through. And I've been proud to be working on this. I am proud to be part of a group that believes in transit and takes action. And we just need our partners to have that same stick-to-it-ness to spend our money on a project that will benefit a lot more people. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner Green. Thank you, Madam Chair. So And thank you, Commissioner Lundy, for those remarks. I'd like to start with a moment of reflection and appreciation that Hennepin County has such a strong and clear vision around transit and transportation. And I sort of purposely am looking at my colleagues up here to thank you each. Our vision is that all Hennepin County residents, no matter their income or background, have access to reliable, efficient, and safe transportation options that support the health of our residents, communities, and climate. Achieving that vision takes commitment and courage to build out a robust transportation system that carries us into the future. And transit is an essential part of that transportation system. We need trains working with buses, working with local roads, working with trails to give residents the freedom to choose how they move and to piece together their routes. The county delivers on that vision by investing heavily in light rail projects that transform communities and also by building out bus rapid transit lines. Our light rail lines are the main arteries of our transit system. They have the highest capacity and connect our most important major destinations, and they are the routes that attract new riders. And by the way, as was already mentioned, this week our community is celebrating the life of former Commissioner John Derris, a commissioner who first hatched a vision for light rail for Hennepin County in the 1970s and 80s. So this is a really exciting day. The blue line extension is the missing northern piece of our region's light rail network. The success of our entire transit system depends on this being built. In fact, I want to ask, can we even call it a system if this line does not get built? The future success of our transportation network is tied to the success of this transit system. The blue line extension is expected to serve 10,000 plus daily riders and 1 million new annual transit riders. And I wrote in my notes, upbeat, smile. I feel like what I'm talking about has so much import that I'm like, you know, glaring. But it's exciting. It's really exciting. We want to provide affordable, high-quality transit options for Hennepin residents, which mean less time traveling from point A to point B. I'm so compelled when Commissioner Lundy talks about how young people from his district cannot get to the U directly. Like that's criminal along with various other things that he listed that are also criminal. Less congestion, less reliance on expensive personal vehicles to get around. Imagine if we all approached life not just assuming that you have to have the at least $7,000 a year expense of having a car. It just kills me that that's like a part of something that we as Americans accept. And we can't. And we, as Twin Cities residents, don't want to accept that. And we want to build a region where that's not accepted because we can do better. I was really struck by Mr. Soler's slide of all that will be connected on the Blue Line extension. Just that list of things was so comprehensive. And I'm proud that Hennepin County has a clear vision when it comes to transit and the courage and commitment to build it for future generations. When I was first in elected office at the legislature, a mentor pointed out to me how easy it is to vote no and how hard it is to vote yes. One can always find fault with an idea and then that's your excuse to say no and then reject it. But to step into yes takes courage and takes risk and takes vision. Additionally, as regional leaders, we're challenged to make tough decisions, decisions for which we probably won't be around to see their long-term value. And good governance is doing exactly that. So this project has spanned many county boards, many state and federal administrations. I'm honored to be here at this moment to take this vote to move this project forward. As the county steps up to increase its contribution to this vital project, I want to acknowledge the scale of the investment, not to exceed of $2.25 billion. when the county and rail authority contributions are combined. To state the obvious, that is a lot of money. And it's going to bring amazing benefits to our communities long after our service to Hennepin County residents is done. Interesting to hear, actually, that the green line is already, in a way, paying off in terms of the investment that it has sparked. And that is within our lifetime. So that's very tangible. I also feel it would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that this isn't the first time I've been up here helping solve a funding gap for a major transit project, having previously been on the dais for this stage of the Green Line extension. The Blue Line Extension is not the Green Line Extension. We have applied many important lessons learned from that project to this one to avoid some of the challenges that some of us still carry scars on from that project. And further, the support amongst elected leaders for the Blue Line Extension is remarkable and does make me think, so what about this funding gap if we're all so in favor of this project? One thing that is the same, though, is that the Met Council is once again hesitating on being part of the solution. One of the main recommendations of the state legislature's report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor in 2023 was that the government entity responsible for light rail transit construction, which is the Met Council, must also bear some financial responsibility for construction costs and any potential cost increases. The Met Council contributing the final couple percent of project costs would create that skin in the game that the OLA recommended. As I look back on the Green Line extension, at this same point in the project's trajectory, the county and the Met Council ultimately split the funding gap 50-50. The Blue Line extension deserves the same support. I'm hopeful that our partners at the Met Council will work with us to bring light rail to these communities that deserve the investment of light rail just as much as the communities along the Southwest Corridor. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Connolly.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to echo what my colleague said, but I'm really focused on something Mr. Soler said. Where's Mr. Soler? There he is. And I'm going to quote it. This project isn't about the train. It's about the people. And I think that is so powerful. You all, we have just been very intentional about this project and how... We bring people into it, making sure that people are a part of this project who historically just have not been. Government typically will place a project somewhere of a large scale and then come and back and tell community what it is. And that's just not how things should be done. I really appreciated the characterization of it as a partnership with community. It's not just in community engagement to me. It's this partnership. We are doing this together. to plan, to design a project, that's just critical. That's how you gain trust in community. That's how you do good work for community and with community. And it's important, especially when working with diverse communities, and that we're not just listening to the loudest voices in the room, which can also be deafening, or those with the social capital to show up all the time or write into the newspaper or go on television and talk about their opinion. Not everybody has that. Not everybody is able or willing to come to a planning meeting on a weeknight in the middle of the summer. So I can tell that this project just has been intentional about how it engaged with communities, how it worked with community organizations and cultural organizations We spoke about that, working with local artists. And just I think I saw like 946 community events. That's wild to me. You're everywhere. I heard driveway conversations. This is how you bring it home to people. And I think that this project has set a standard for community projects for of this scale. And honestly, other jurisdictions should really take note on the way that Hennepin County has approached this blue line, has approached this line. And our residents, our communities deserve robust transit options. We deserve it. I've been to a lot of different cities and have seen built out transit systems. And when I come back home, I know that we deserve it. So again, this is not a project about a train. This is a project about people and people's access. And that, I think, is what should be underscored. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Hiddleston.

Well, I'm going to take a bit of a different tone here. And I apologize, because this is coming in as an immediate approval. And I just learned about this yesterday. And so with that, I have to be honest. I know that several of my colleagues are very excited. And honestly, I'm excited for you. I'm excited for the district. I am concerned that we didn't have more of a robust understanding about Maybe everyone else knew, but I did not know about the large investment that was going to be coming when we got the new numbers from Met Council when they came out in mid-June with, what is it? I have the number here, $3.58 billion. The understanding that we would be committing $2.25 billion and where those accounts are coming from, I'm going to be honest right now, that's my approach when we go into government. I want to say yes, but I don't understand where that money is coming from. And I need to know how it impacts the county. And so as much as I wish I could vote yes, I cannot. Explicitly on this part of it, the $1.8 billion, it is coming from, I understand, Lisa Cerny, you had said it will be funded through a majority through the transportation sales tax established in 2017. But I don't know how much. And so for me to be able to say yes to something like this, my constituency, they're going to expect me to understand exactly what that looks like. And I can't say that I do. I also would just say in the future, if we're doing a project like this, which by the way, I actually very much support the idea of Blue Line. And I quite frankly think Blue Line should have been built before Green Line. But as we look at this, the cost has dramatically gone up. And then when you also look, which I understand, I just want to understand the funding mechanisms. But also, since President Trump has taken office, FFGAs, there has been, since January 20th of 2025, not one FFGA that I can find has been approved. And then you also go back, and that $7 billion, which is just sitting in the CIG, ACCOUNT RIGHT NOW, MONEY HAS NOT GONE OUT. IT'S JUST SITTING THERE. SO WE'RE RUSHING THIS THROUGH, AND THEN WE HAVE THIS GAP OF THIS $225 MILLION, AND I UNDERSTAND, COMMISSIONER LUNDY, YOU'RE GOING TO SAY WE'RE NOT RUSHING IT THROUGH BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN WORKING ON IT FOR YEARS. I'VE BEEN HERE FOR TWO YEARS, THOUGH, AND AGAIN, HEARING ABOUT THIS NEW AMOUNT YESTERDAY, I WOULD JUST SAY THAT WE STILL HAVE THAT $225 MILLION THAT WILL BE ACCOUNTED FOR, AND I JUST I will be a no on this part. I will be a yes on the HICRA part for the $358 million. I understand what that's coming from, but I'll just end it with that.

Commissioner Henderson?

Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation. As you all know, I have been a supporter of transit and the Blue Line extension since before I took office. I am excited for this project to move forward. I do have problems specifically with how we're paying for this and the impacts of it. This is being funded through our transportation sales use tax. And it is the county's probably one of the most important tools that we have in order to improve transit and potentially roads, bridges, safety projects, other mobility needs. Commissioner Green, you listed out the, like, kind of the entirety of that list. I really appreciate that. and committing the this amount of of money to this project will commit the that fund essentially for the next 20 years um and commissioner lundy you made a fantastic point about waiting for a project and the need for a weight And you held up your hand of the number of transit projects that your district has Well, you know how many projects my district has even planned zero you know how many will be available for my district with Dedicating the money for this project zero we will not have the capacity to do a damn thing for my district in for the next 20 years. And if we don't have partners to help pay for this, then I can't in good faith, on behalf of the residents of my district who want to see transit built out and expanded into the western suburbs, take away the capacity to even think about additional transit projects. Waiting for transit and being told to wait and you know wait your turn that's a story that we hear every day in district 7. and there are 200 000 people in my district who are paying this tax that aren't going to see the benefit because we don't live in the area that is going to be served by this and we are not going to have the chance to see a benefit of these funds going into their communities because they're all gone and and so I really really wish that I could vote for this because it is such an important project and But I have to vote for my residents who are not going to see the benefits of this, who are going to continue to pay into it and not have even the possibility of seeing something built out. And so I will remain pro-transit. I'm going to remain advocating for building out capacity so that we can actually do something that will benefit, in fact, everybody in the county. And that's that will be continuing my my commitment to this board to the people of my district and We have to make sure that we are Leaving ourselves some capacity and this unfortunately doesn't do that.

Thank you Thank you, I want to say I really respect all my colleagues comments and their passion around all this and I want to say that, you know, my district is really blessed. You're right, Commissioner Lundy. Not only do we have all those lines in Bloomington, they go through Richfield, a lot of them, too. Guess what? The Southwest Light Rail is in Eden Prairie in my district. So, yes, am I blessed? Yes. I'm really fortunate to be blessed that way. It's helped a lot of my residents. Some of my family is transit-dependent. I want families elsewhere to have that option, and I can't think of a more viable, more needed, and I believe that the blue line extension should have happened before the Southwest light rail extension did. I do too, and I'm fully supportive of this. I want to see other families that really need this get the opportunity to do it. I also want to see the investment in those communities along that corridor. I know what it's meant to my communities, and it's been tremendous. You know, I had the opportunity, and I really enjoy being on the Change Control Board with some of my colleagues up here. And so I'm going to talk about it kind of that way and everything. When I look at this project coming up, I'm hoping I get to stay on the Change Control Board. It doesn't go through my area, but I tell you, I know what's going on. And I know what didn't work in the last projects, and I know what went right in those last projects. And so we had a lot of lessons learned. Some of the big things is we actually own all the right-of-way around this line. This is phenomenal. This will keep that project moving. There's no tunnels. We have very few freight line issues to have to go through. We're doing a best value construction. It's a different take on things. It'll be a better take on things. And furthermore, you know, the county will have a lot more oversight on this. And I think that's a real positive thing to keep things on time and on budget. I'm an engineer. And that's how you run projects, on time and on budget. And you have to have the oversight, though, to make that happen. And when I think of our partnership, with our partnership, they need to step up. Met Council needs to step up. They have those dollars. They have committed to these kind of transportation projects. And if we wanted to do more transportation projects out in some of the areas, like your district, where we could, they have the money to do it. They could be the seed money to make these things happen. They're not here yet. I hope that they get there. I know we're continuing our conversations, and I'm really excited to move this piece forward. I think this talks about the commitment we started 10 years ago, and I was on board then, and I'm on board right now to move things forward. And I think once we get here, when we have a change at the legislature, a change in other places, we may see a different take on transit. And it may not be what it is today, somewhat stagnant. And I know that the same thing with the FSG happened when the former Trump administration was in. And we got through that. And we made it happen. But we need to start now and not be dragging our feet on this. Because waiting until 2028 is not the right solution for getting this project going and getting off the ground. Because we know one thing that happened when we delayed the Southwest Light Rail. It cost a lot more money. And it just costs a lot more money because when you wait that long, more trees, more shrubs, everything grows up around this. The infrastructure around it crumbles even more, and everything costs more because of that. So doing it now makes sense to me. Thank you.

Thank you. I, too, respect all of my colleagues' contributions. And before we proceed to vote, I'm very excited to be on the record as well. Twenty years ago, the summer I moved into my North Minneapolis home, I attended my first Blue Line community meeting. I was not a commissioner at the time. I was a neighbor, a 20-year-old neighbor who wanted the train to come. While my preferred route in 2006 was not selected at that time, I was and remain grateful to the thousands of workers and neighbors who kept that project going. And today, to have the privilege on voting for the biggest investment, the biggest step that we've taken towards this train coming to the community I call home, to the communities who've experienced the most significant patterns of disinvestment, is truly an honor. A lot of you have been at this just as long, some of you longer, as mentioned, and I extend my sincere and heartfelt gratitude at your resolve. Hennepin County is 22% of Minnesota's population and over 40% of the social safety net. With today's board action and the companion action and the rail authority meeting after this, Hennepin's contribution will formally increase to 63% of this total project budget. In order to address climate action, expand regional transit, grow the tax base, and connect people to education, jobs, health, and more. I am very proud to soon be voting in favor of the largest single investment in public transit in Minnesota, especially during a time of compressed resources and compounding needs. Because we will not shrink our way into the future our kids deserve, and we will not shrink our way into the future our elders have earned. And I say Minnesota because the vast majority of this allocation comes from sales tax dollars, dedicated revenue raised specifically to advance transit projects. This is a huge deal, and it is a direct reflection of the community's vision for themselves, and it is in direct service to building a shared humanity that we are proud to pass on to future generations. So let me reemphasize who this investment is for. Half of the people expected to ride this line comes from households with zero cars. Half. These are residents that are not choosing transit. They are counting on transit in the hottest days and with snow on the ground. And we have been waiting for decades. This train means that a night shift health care worker can get home safely. It means our elders can get to their health appointments. It means a mother with a toddler and two grocery bags doesn't have to make four transfers, and they can get home efficiently. It means riders reach one-third of all jobs in the region with a single transfer. That's 23,000 more jobs that they can reach today. The communities along this corridor have endured redlining and a century of transit planning that prioritized commuters who could choose transit over neighbors who need transit. I'm thrilled at the full regional system because that means I will get to access this full region, and so will my neighbors. The riders alone justify this strain, but everyone will benefit from it. I want to spend time here because I think it's the least understood part of the vote that is in front of us today. Right now, commercial property values in downtown Minneapolis, where the government center is, has fallen almost 35% since 2022. This is happening in downtowns across the country, and that is a significant amount of money. But government budgets, demands, and government levies don't shrink when the tax base shrinks. the total levy still has to be collected. So when commercial value falls, someone else covers the difference. And in Minneapolis, where I live, the data shows that that somebody is the homeowner. Over the last five years in Minneapolis, the homeowner's share of property taxes has gone from 47% to 56%. That's nearly 10 percentage points shifting onto residents. This is not a number in a spreadsheet. It's a family opening their tax bill and wondering what changed. It's not just that the growing needs that we are experiencing in our communities that intensify property tax pressure for families, although that's a lot of times what people think. And that is true. There is pressure because of the needs that our communities are facing. Mathematically, though, there's a significant pressure from the tax base moving, shifting the tax base reliance from commercial payers to residential payers. which is why the development aspect of this line is essential to change the trajectory of what's possible for the math in generations to come. So in addition to expanding transit service for countless people, including myself as a regular transit user, in addition to affirming tens of thousands of jobs to construct and operate the line, many of them good paying union jobs, as well as developing mass transit because we are a world-class community deserving of world-class service and because our itty-bitty children are really concerned about climate action. In addition to all of those factors, a question in front of this board is whether we accept a shrinking commercial base, including the risk of discontinuing services or eliminating jobs, or do we work to build and invest in more commercial areas to make our community more stable, more vibrant, and lasting for future generations? Land near light rail generates about 27 times more property tax per acre than previous. Development along our existing light rails produces $186 million every year right now. This is not a projected number. Right now, $186 million every single year for cities, schools, and this county. When new commercial value comes online, more shoulders can carry the same load, and the residential portion of property taxes can shrink or perhaps hold steady when our levies might have to grow. So let's talk specifically about where taxes go, because taxes fund government levies. Local levies fund teachers, snowplow drivers, and social workers. It funds libraries, emergency response, and the services our neighbors call our offices about every single day. When we grow what we have to work with, we can give people what they need, what they've asked for, without asking already stretched families to give even more. Strong public goods create strong communities, and this is one way that we can pay for strong public goods. Rail is unique in how quickly it can change the trajectory, because in comparison, bus rapid transit brings about a quarter of the investment. And so we've talked a lot about North Minneapolis as well. I live on the north side. I was very proud that the C line came on in 2019. So I entered a board that did not yet have the C line. I ride the C line. That was actually the route that I wanted for the blue line. But that was literally 20 years ago. And had there been light rail on 55, where the C line is right now, there'd be so many restaurants, maybe a grocery store. And if I invite anyone to ride the sea line on 55 and it goes up Penn, I'm proud of Hennepin's investment at the Four Corners with North Point. But there is not additional development. There isn't additional funding or restaurants or the compounding benefits, cascading benefits that come with light rail. As mentioned in the very comprehensive presentation, I want to be clear that we have heard community because investments, large-scale investments such as this, have pushed people out in the past. And so the Blue Line Extension is the first transit project in the nation with anti-displacement built directly into the project itself. We are following the guidelines of 18 months of community work, 17 policy recommendations, and a state program that was written into law. The people who have waited for this train will be here to ride it thanks to the vote today. So before I conclude, I want to thank the residents and community organizations who fought for this train for decades. Kira and the Anti-Displacement Work Group, Corridor Cities and their councils, state delegation, Met Council and the governor, and of course, Hennepin County and project office staff. Without each individual person, every aspect of feedback, we would not be here in this historic moment today. When I got to the county in 2019, this project had been stalled for multiple years due to a dependency on a railroad company such that the community didn't realize. We thought we were going to open this thing up a while ago. And so I have to express this 1.0 to 2.0 that was discussed, this investment could have concluded at that time, and people fought for it. And I'm so, so, so grateful because we did not quit. So again, in 2020, Blue Line Extension project entered a new phase, which brings us here today. In that year, 18,000 conversations resulted in a better route. In 2022, the new route was accepted. In 23, the county board approved $75 million to keep the project moving. In 24, every city on the corridor voted yes. Minneapolis, Crystal, Robbinsdale, and Brooklyn Park. In 25, the federal government signed off on our final environmental review, and just this past June in 2026, the project completed its federal rating application and risk assessment, establishing the official budget, which is how we get to be in a position to submit a final FFGA later this fall. Money has flowed out of North Minneapolis and the northwest suburbs for 100 years. This vote is how we help to systemically make that money flow back in. This is one of several steps that need to take place before the Met Council can submit a final full funding grant agreement application, and we look forward to completing the promises we've made to community, and I'm very eager to vote in favor of this action today. So colleagues we've all had a chance to speak are there any other further discussion before we bring this to vote All those in favor of or would we prefer roll call?

Let's let's do roll call Commissioner, I'm on D. Aye Commissioner green aye Commissioner Conley aye Commissioner go tell aye Commissioner Edelson?

No.

Commissioner Anderson?

No.

Commissioner Fernando?

Aye. And 13 prevails with five in favor and two opposed. Colleagues, that arrives at the end of our agenda, so a motion to adjourn. So moved. Thank you, Commissioners Anderson and Lundy. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, but don't go too far. There's a rail authority meeting coming up next.