Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome everyone to the Budget Committee of the Whole. Today, the County Operations Service Team continues a series of presentations that focus on performance measures. Today, we are excited to take a closer look at performance measures tied to core processes and functions that keep that keep our county running, like cybersecurity, procurement and contracting, public communication and hiring. These performance measures are already available to review online in the open performance section of the county's open data portal. If you want more information about the

Okay, just very quickly on our first slide, when you say that the properties after three years of tax delinquency get managed by Ramsey County, what does that mean when we manage those properties?

Okay. And how long is that process usually? Because that's all, I'm just thinking that must all cost money, must cost time, right? So how long is that process usually from when we start the management to when we can resale or put them up for sale? Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and appreciate the presentation. I had just a couple of questions, one on the election judges piece. You mentioned the goal of really putting a focus on ensuring that we have judges that reflect the communities that they're in. I want to kind of get a better understanding of what recruitment has been, what the process has been for recruitment, and what differently you all are planning to do to ensure we're reaching a more diverse pool of election judges. Sure.

Gotcha. So with us first having to go through the list that the state provides, do we know the demographic breakdown? Knowing that we are really determined to ensure that diversity and representation through these positions, is it... How much of a gap are we currently looking with that current list that's provided from the state?

Awesome. That'll be helpful. Thank you. And then my other question in regards to elections, just knowing in the lead up to the August primary, and we're continuing to see it in the lead up to the general election, a lot of the concerns that we've been hearing from constituents, are there steps you all are taking to track some of your major takeaways from August and from this coming November, because we know that 2028 presidential will be here before we know it. And just thinking through from a budget perspective of maybe additional needs that might be helpful as we're looking towards those ele

All right, back to the forfeitures. I guess just a general operations question. How much of this do we partner with our municipalities? Is there back and forth with our local partners on this work?

Yeah, I think that was where I was going is more along the lines of code enforcement, safety issues, if a house has fallen into disrepair, if there are fire concerns or other neighborhood issues around that.

And then moving to a different topic, at the top of the presentation, you had said that approximately $1.4 billion in property taxes will be collected. Can you just remind folks how many taxing jurisdictions that includes? Yes.

And then one other question was when we were looking at the restrictive covenants, do we have any idea of how many properties in Ramsey County still have those restricted covenants? I know that there's a, you know, kind of a search and look kind of, you know, it's not just you do a run a database, but where are we at in having a sense of how many still have covenants on it?

And then because while I think removing these covenants is a part of healing our community, knowing the historical harms that were done to be able to understand how we got to where we are today, is that information still held somewhere so that we can see you know, how development was influenced by such of these covenants and what that meant to our community? Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Dr. West, for all this great information. All of our departments are so important. And the public, they all help our residents so much. Your area, they deal with on a regular basis with their property taxes, with elections and everything. So just thank you and everyone for all of your work. People really see this work. And my questions are on a couple different areas. You've got some great numbers here that we look for. In the area of the forfeitures, What is the reason for most forfeitures? Do we get that? I mean, is it just people that no longer can aff

That's a really good thing. If it can be prevented. I think some people think people just either die or they walk away from their home and it's just sitting there. There's generally a reason that people are not able to make those payments. I appreciate the pre-forfeiture work that you're doing to try to help residents with that. So thank you for that. And then the other, on the restrictive covenants, I love the numbers that were going from 13% to 100%. I mean, this is a really good goal. And I know you have a huge effort in that area. And I just wanted, my question is, you answered part of it

No, I really appreciate that. I know that different events, and I know there are organizations that support this work. I don't want to get the word out. I'm thinking League of Women Voters. I think a lot of civic organizations who can put this word out as well, because I'm guessing that people, when they hear about this and they know about it, they want to change it. I mean, we just sold my house I grew up in, and we didn't know there was a covenant on it. We don't check our deeds until we're selling. So we were mortified, of course. There was a covenant on there that there had been. And anywa

That's great. We certainly want to help with that legislatively. Great. Thank you. County manager.

Thank you. No, I'm just glad we're doing that kind of work. And we just want to keep promoting it. So yes, thank you.

All right, seeing no other questions, I want to thank you, Director West, for your work and your leadership in your presentation today. Thank you. And now we're going to welcome up Director Lindsey, who will speak on our communication and public relations. Good morning. Good morning.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions. For the engagement, I think it's really good that we're measuring the engagement. How are we incorporating feedback that we get on social media and relaying that to departments? Thank you, Commissioner.

Okay, that's great. And then, you know, I think it's, I really like how you're tying the successes of the partnership around the Hmong language and tying that to, like, you know, the increases for services because that's exactly what we want and that's exactly the investment of why we invested I believe a few years ago we considered also in the Spanish language also to pilot and also in other languages What may you share more about some of the decisions or what what what else you see needed?

Okay. And then finally just to our online web page, when are we, has that transition and move been finalized now? And are all departments, or I guess like how are you working with departments to make sure that there aren't any broken links or that it's accessible online too on the web page and that it has current information?

And last question, Madam Chair, is what is the top search for Ramsey County's website?

Thank you, Ben. I love that question. So, yeah, we're all interested in that. And I'm guessing there's a few that people are searching a lot. There's a couple, yeah. Yeah, and thank you, Director Lindsay, for all your work and your teams. I've been, we've appreciated your work with commissioners because we are good ambassadors in the community and we do newsletters and I'm always struck by the fact that I do a digital newsletter, but I have a fair number of people in my district that are still not going on a website or they're not accessing. They probably are looking at their emails, so they p

And I'm glad to hear that, and I want to keep encouraging that, that we do use those community newsletters, use our newsletters, use, yes, all of our communities have those resource centers in their lobbies. Our libraries do, but our cities all do. And if we make sure that we have our up-to-date, any county, it doesn't have to be a huge booklet, but it can be a... any kind of a resource in those lobbies and things. And so I just want to encourage us to keep doing that because our cities do want content and they are willing to post all the things that Ramsey County does.

So thank you. I really appreciate that. Commissioner McNutry.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a couple of questions in regards to the influencer partnership. First one, is there a vetting process that we go through when it comes to selecting the influencers that we partner with? And on top of that, are there specific areas that you're hoping that these influencers will cover as they're making content on behalf of the county?

Has the program been effective? How do we measure success with that type of program? Are there a certain amount of engagement that we're looking for from these influencers? What does the success look like for this type of program?

Great. No, I appreciate that. And I know that, as Commissioner McGuire also mentioned, I hope that as we look at the strategy that we continue to utilize the board as a way to continue to leverage our platforms and networks to get the message out even more so. And I'll make a pitch. If you need to reach the millennials, there are three of us here. We're happy to do a podcast together.

OK, thank you. I love the fact that we are moving into the 21st century. We've got to be.

I have several questions, but I'll try to keep them tight. Sure. One of them is just, can you just have a sense of which social media platforms is the county using? I mean, when I think about traditional things like Facebook Instagram and all these other things, but also are we on YouTube? What are all the different ways that we're reaching folks?

Well, a second part of that question was, and how much of our CPR team, and it sounds like very limited, has the capacity, but to be consuming, listening, learning about emerging issues and concerns so that, you know, and this could be as broad as, I know we all do this within our own districts, is, you know, whether or not we personally have an appetite for all the different programs potential platforms that have the time to consume it all, whether it's on Reddit or a backdoor app or a podcast or different things like that where Ramsey County specifically or topics that are impacting us local

Yeah, and I would really encourage us to think about what that means because what is considered media and how people are consuming information right now is anybody with a phone and an audience. And if we're not prepared to be aware of what that means as far as what's happening and how people are engaging with the issues of the day, then we're back on our heels. So I encourage us to continue to explore how we can be as accessible to the residents as possible. To that point, one last thing is I just want to say kudos on the toolkits. I will say that that has been really helpful, I think, not onl

Well, only, I mean, you have limited resources. So I just was asking, you know, just as part of it. But I just want to say thank you. I think that they're extremely handy. I know I've had, like I said, I've had a number of trusted partners in community who are really grateful to be able to just share the trusted information and have it packaged in a way and to see consistent posts from cities, from community groups. from individuals, and it's all leading back to the trusted source, it means it's being successful. So thank you.

Thank you. So to our millennials, do we hit it with all the social media? I didn't hear Snapchat or something like that. Are we still doing that? Okay, no one is doing that. I just kind of believe that we need to really capture that younger generation, because there's so much conspiracy theorists out there within that group of folks, where information is coming from everywhere, that I hope that we can be, as a county, a trusted messenger of facts, data, and research. And so that hit me. And one other thing. Is it response to the social media? OK, real quick.

Oh, yeah. I just wanted to name one more thing, too, that I've been trying to work with. It's just also using plain language in our work as well, too, and actually in all government documents. And so I don't know if that effort had been undertaken. plain language is just so important to communicating across diverse communities, as well as how I like to think about is communicating to folks with an eighth grade reading level, because that's where the U.S. is in terms of literacy.

And I would diddle that, that clear, plain language. Sometimes you can read something and say, so what are they saying? So it's clear that we can make that as simple as we can make that to reach, definitely for like Ramsey County, which is one of the most diverse counties there is, it needs to be simple and clear. And not so much words, too, I think would be helpful. I would just say kudos to the pilot program that you had with the Hmong community. As you look at these numbers and the increase in Hmong language navigators and the service center requests, those are really, really good numbers.

I was like really quick. We got like two minutes.

Thank you, Director Lindsay. I want to thank you for your presentation today, for your information, and for your leadership and your vision to expand. Thank you. Appreciate it. So we're going to take a break, a 10-minute break. It's 10.35, and we'll be back at 10-minute break.

For you, two. Two? I've got to run downstairs. That's going to take me longer than two.

Quiet, he loves me. All right, we'll welcome everyone back from our brief break. We're gonna open up now with our informational service report from Chaitan Ganatra, who is our chief information officer.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, just speaking about cybersecurity, what are the lessons we've learned from other local governments or what we've seen? You know, St. Paul, from St. Paul's experience, they made additional investments this year and last year, too. May you speak a little bit more on the county's investments or previous investments?

That's really great to hear, and I think that's also something that we should even talk about, because throughout all this supplemental performance measure year, I am actually referencing back to our budget and to say this is the value that our taxpayers are getting. So thank you very much, and keep up the good work.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to add my gratitude to the good work that you're doing. I have heard that in at my statewide and national tables as well that people are not able to get insurance for cybersecurity. And I am really proud to say that you're able to get it and at a discount is really commendable. I just want to thank you and your whole department for all the good work that you are doing and for being available to be at those tables because I think it really helps us learn from each other and to really work together with others. So thank you for all of that. I also just wan

Which is something I think we all assumed was happening anyway. And when it wasn't, it was, oh my goodness. So thank you. Thank you for all of your work and your whole team. I really appreciate it.

I'm going to do a quick check-in for us. It's 11.17. We have three more commissioners with questions. And we want to break at 12 o'clock. And we have another presentation. So I'll make my retreat. Commissioner Maynard.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will make this very quick. Thank you again for the presentation. A follow-up question to the public Wi-Fi piece. As it rolls out and you all make your way to hitting that 100% goal, are we prioritizing certain facilities as the rollout continues? And if so, what does that prioritization look like?

Thank you. I appreciate that. And the other question I had is in regards to the cost savings, which I appreciate you highlighting what those were. I'm fascinated by the public library data center. Is that something that's a norm in the Twin Cities metro with other counties as well? And since we have decommissioned that data center, where are those services provided through now?

OK, we're going to keep moving. Commissioner Miller? Nope. Commissioner? Jevenson? No, I already went. Jevenson.

Yeah. So on the Wi-Fi expansion, one of the things I was wondering is if part of the goal is to make sure that our public has access to Wi-Fi so that they can access our services and other needs that they have. Are there any corners of Ramsey County where we don't have Ramsey County buildings that would be kind of a dead zone? And are we working with or just convening other municipalities or school districts or things just to be able to say, hey, this little corner over here doesn't have a county physical presence, but we still want them to be able to have access to Wi-Fi? Have there been coor

I'm not saying that we would then take that on. I just mean to say this is what we have done to provide public Wi-Fi. We seem to have hit x percentage of the map And then to say, are there other entities who could also invest in those specific dead zones to maximize their dollars? That's what I meant, just to partner and convene and collaborate.

Yeah, yeah. And that's what I was thinking more along the lines. If you were able to map and say, here, these particular neighborhoods seem to be outside of what we've been able to kind of cover reasonably, and to see, hey, You know, Roseville, there's a corner over here that seems to be untouched. But people think it's five minutes to the library, so we feel confident. But are there places that maybe haven't been touched? So that was more of that coordination. So thank you on that. Yeah, then the other question I have is I really appreciate that we're bonding for IT infrastructure. I think th

Thank you. All right. So I want to thank you so much, Chief Information Officer Linatra, for your work, for your leadership, for your vision, and definitely for the savings. We appreciate that. Thank you so much.

All right. We're going to keep moving on to our next presenter, property manager, Director Cougar.

Okay, thank you, Director Krueger, for this wonderful presentation. I have a few questions. One on our first slide, you mentioned the maintenance workers, and are they union, I mean, not union, I'm sorry, are they our staff or are they contractors?

And then my next question goes to the one with the workforce and the goal of 32% and how it ebbs and flows depending upon projects. And so are some of those projects done in-house with the contractors and the staff that we have? Or is it dependent on the scope and size of the project? And then does that also affect the numbers as well?

Yeah, and this is another goal. I mean, because you said it, knowing that the workforce is predominantly white, and this is a goal that's going to be harder, I believe, for us to obtain. Maybe this is something we should look at, just how do we measure that, or how do we want to measure that so it doesn't look like we're continuously far off from it. As someone whose husband is Native American and Hispanic and in the trades, it's not an easy route to get into, especially unions and We know that firsthand, so I just wanted to note that and say that as well. Yes, thank you. Just that question. A

And does that just a quick follow-up? Does that also then? attribute to some savings as well in this as yes, I Or how does that, maybe you don't got to go into detail, maybe it's a follow-up email or explanation as well.

So I would like to piggyback on the workforce participation around the racial and ethnic diversity of the workforce around construction. And I think at the state level, 32% was the goal, too. It's not impossible to reach. It may be a little difficult. And we may have to go and be very more creative around how do we pour more diversity into the workforce. I see here you talk about partnering with workforce solution trade groups and contractors to increase participation in careers and to continue work with purchasing and contracting to pursue changes to policies following the disparity study. Wh

So it's going to be a progress. We're not going to wait until 2028. No, no, no. We're already doing something. It's a progress in work. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. Commissioner McGuire and then Jefferson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm so grateful for all of your work, Director Krueger, and your whole team. We are proud of our buildings and we Appreciate the upkeep that you have because we want our buildings to look good and feel good and you know be be sustainable So thank you for that. I appreciate my colleague Commissioner Miller bringing up district energy. It was one of my questions as well to see if we're using that and those of us that serve on our Recycling and Energy Board, you know, we're gonna be asking questions about sustainability and I I appreciate that you brought up the environmen

Okay, thank you. And I'm just grateful that we do have new buildings, that we are looking at the sustainability of them with the solar and with all of those things, which I think is a value of ours. And it brings me to my last question for this time is because now we are going to be 100% – able to collect organics and food scraps in our county starting in February or March when St. Paul will come on board. Then I'm hoping, and I'm just putting this out there, that all of our buildings will be outfitted with our within organics, with our food scraps, recyclables, and landfill bins. Because I no

A big initiative to get to it. We're happy to work with you and, of course, environmental health and recycling and energy. We work with all the haulers. They are all conditioned to do this work, too. Thank you. We need a timeline. I just want to make sure that we're online for that.

I'm putting it on the radar that it's coming online. Thank you. That's really good. Just one quick question before you haven't seen the government building. Has it been completed or is there a date for that to be completed, the outside exterior?

That's awesome. Thank you. Commissioner Jefferson.

OK. So you mentioned that property management does play a role in identifying some potential facilities or properties to be reviewed as part of our Building Stronger Together initiative. And I'm just wondering how much This might be another department, but conversations with our municipalities as they have dreams and visions for the development of their communities. And we are fairly built out as a county. And is that part of it? Have you had anybody knock on the door and say, well, if that corner is free, we have a vision? Or are we not really in that place yet? It's going to be a very though

That's great. And then another one is the managing and administering county leases and property use agreements. I'm just curious, what is the cadence for reviewing these agreements to make sure we're best positioned to maximize the county's dollars and assets?

Okay, great. And then taking a little bit of a twist, I was with my role with DCT, I toured St. Peter yesterday and witnessed how from staff themselves and residents there, how some intrinsic redesigns improved the experience of the people who are in those buildings as well as the safety of the people who are in those buildings. And I know that that is something that we are constantly in discussion. balance with as we modernize our spaces to be the most efficient, but also the most welcoming and also keep, again, you know, given the large, you know, public facing that we have, whether that's l

Yeah, I would say I think that that's something we should kind of be keeping in mind as we, and I'm sure it is, but I mean, I just raised that up. It was such a stark difference in some of the changes that they made that it's investments that I think are worthwhile in other kind of outcomes. And then lastly, I just want to raise up, thank you for sharing the cost savings on the energy consumption investments. As we are part of the JDA and Rice Creek Commons, We are often faced with folks who think that our sustainability guidelines somehow are contrary to our affordability goals, but really ha

All right, well, I want to thank you, Director Krueger, for your work and your leadership and really the hard work and the passion that you bring to providing effective and efficient operations of over the 30 buildings that we maintain and own. So appreciate the work. Thank you. Thank you. So we are going to break for lunch, and we will be back here at 1 o'clock.

Commissioner Zhang, if you hear me, can you turn on your camera?

If I hear you one moment, I'm going to add a spotlight. So you should see it's dual screen now. It's you and the presentation of the council chambers. Oh, yeah. Thank you.

We're going to reconvene and come back. And we have several presentations this afternoon. But we're going to start this afternoon with the Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Coover.

All right. So I'll open up by just asking on page 40, the percent of invoices paid. Yeah. So here you talk about that we are required to pay interest on invoices taking more than 35 days to pay. Who do the interest go to? State, county, the vendor, who?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Commissioner Miller.

Thank you, Commissioner Moran, for bringing that point up. I hear you mention businesses, but where does that fall in for our other, like our grantees, our nonprofit partners, or even our daycare providers? Where does that fall in? And then it's all of it, okay? And then do they have to request that interest? No, it's just something that you guys will automatically be applied to it if it's late.

With the grantees or the vendors that are funded through grants that we receive, and it's maybe pass-through dollars, and then we owe interest, that comes off of what? Where does that come from? Our levy? Then when we are late with those interest payments, because that's, I'm assuming we don't factor in, we could be late on a payment, and so we need more of an administrative cost, or we need more on our end if it's a pass-through grant or if we're a grantor.

Well, why I ask that is like thinking of some of the grants we have and some of the programs that we run and how we grant them out or we partner with community to execute that work. Once that dollars is gone, the dollars is gone. So where does the additional cost then come up for if we're late on an administrative end?

Okay, and please correct me if I'm going too wrong in the weeds here, and you just need to be like, stop, lady. With some of the grants that we have, though, the federal dollars that we have, and tell me if I'm just on a hill and you need to get off this soapbox, Kelly. I mean, that's OK, too. The check's still coming from us. So it would still be on us. It's not like it's just, oh, this is from Garrison. It's coming from us. That's right. Thank you for that. So I think you are correct, Commissioner, that.

OK, and then just a quick follow-up question. What are we doing then to make sure that we hit this goal or we get closer to this mark? Is that additional staffing? Is that software systems? Is that maybe making sure we also get the invoices in a timely manner? Or how are we working to improve this goal? Because you said that sometimes that's a lot of dollars that we're paying in interest. And how do we kind of cut that cost as well?

Okay, I just want to just note before, and then I'll move on, or I'll be done. This is a great example of how we can save dollars, and without cutting staff, without cutting services, and without cutting programs, is being more efficient at work like this. So I appreciate this, and I appreciate the goals and the plans you have to deliver on this.

So when you said a good invoice, what I thought about was, like, some of the biggest complaints from vendors has come from small, diverse businesses, right, who have said we submitted something and we still have not gotten paid properly. Right, huge frustration. And so you mentioned a good invoice. And so we talked about this before around the submission of invoices have not been correct, and there's delay to go back and redo it. is your department doing to front end that? Are you training individuals with new businesses who are now partnering with the county? What is that process like to mini

I was thinking more about the vendors themselves. Is there some training up front? Is there a process that you walk them through so that by the time they're submitting it, it is correct?

Thank you for that, and really working towards getting that front-end part done so that, you know, that was, I know when I first came in, it was some of the biggest issues I was hearing from maybe non-profits, smaller businesses, ethnic businesses, who were saying that what is the delay? It's taking really long, and, you know, and so we talked about the fact of going, you know, doing the orientation and the trainings with these individuals so that, we wouldn't have that huge outcry of what's going on here from those entities. So thank you. Okay, Commissioner McGuire.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, CFO Coover. This was a great job on your first time presenting to us. I think it's the first time in this setting. So thank you for all this good information. My question is around the procurement process, and let me know if there should be a question at another point. But we've talked... at other times about the importance of our procurement and really making our process much more available to minority-owned businesses and our diverse vendors and things. And so how is that going? And I don't know if there's a, I know we only could pick three measurements

I really appreciate that. And thank you. I'm glad it's countywide. And then, of course, the question is, if everybody's doing it, is anybody doing it? You know, if everybody thinks everybody else is doing it. So at some point, the countywide... effort will come up. And maybe you'll address that, Deputy County Manager Kutza. I'm not sure she's a director.

Great. Thank you. I just wanted to know when to look for that. Thank you for all that work. Yeah.

Thank you, and I appreciate all the thought that's going into this, that people are thinking about it. So I appreciate that.

Yeah, I just want to say, looking at our measurements, it looks like some of the changes in procurement and contract time improvements are going in the right direction. I know that we had a workshop recently that looked at some of these updates and changes. Keeping in the lens of our chief information officers, Chaitan Ganatra, about health, there gets to be a point where you get past that initial hump, but then you get to the point where any further improvements, you know, the juice might not be worth the squeeze or the pain point is too much to get to that ever-fine amount. And I'm just wond

OK, well, and I would just say, you all have ways of managing these things as you go through all of these different changes. We trust that process. But just to know that we independently, outside of our board time, have probably gone through change management and processes implementation. And if it starts to get too much, feel free to share that with us, right? And the other one I would just say is that on the performance measures on some of our assets, the idea of outside economic forces impact our returns. For those of us who don't do this every day, can you just give us some ideas of what a

And then I know I've asked this before, but given that we are in a time of high interest rates, is there anything within our sound and solid financial position with the AAA bond rating, with us being having some navigation in the maximum amount that we can bond for, other kinds of things, are we taking advantage of our strong position with the high interest rates right now? In the most conservative and safe way for our dollars, but I mean, given that we have some extra tools that maybe other entities don't have, how are we leveraging that?

Thank you. All right, so thank you. I just want to end by saying or expressing one of the biggest issues in the past that I've heard from vendors or others around executing a contract to purchase good. And the length of time it would take. People complain about how slow government is. Why is the process so low? But I want to say kudos to this department from in 2023, where it was taking 36 weeks. And we've gone from 36 weeks to 23 weeks. And he set a goal to cut that right in half by 2028 to 18 weeks. And so I'm sure that takes a lot of work to make that happen, to be efficient and effective,

OK, so we're going to move on to having our chief human resource officer, Patien Ferguson, come up to present on human resources.

So I just want to take that time to thank them.

Oh, thanks. I'll start it out by just thanking you so much, CHRO. That's what it is. Chief Human Resources Officer Ferguson, thank you for your great presentation, for the work that you're doing. Just a personal note of thanks. When I've referred situations, questions to you, you've been really responsive, and you've been great. Your team's been great, so thank you for that. One thing, I haven't heard it lately, so I'm hoping that it's being addressed, and maybe you just could talk a little bit about it, is when people do apply to Ramsey County, and we do get a lot of applications, because we

Yeah, and I just want to say thank you for having it on your mind. I'm not surprised because you The things that I think we were concerned about with human resources, you've been just one by one sort of helping us feel more confident and trustworthy that we are one county, that our employees don't get different experiences depending on where they work in the county, and that our public is getting similar responses to whenever they try to interact with the county. Thank you for all of that. Well, thank you for asking. And I know it's ongoing, and we just want to support your work and all of you

May I have a question? Oh, Commissioner McGuire. No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Ferguson. I had a question around the retention rate. And I was wondering if we know that some areas in the organization has higher turnover rates than others. I'm thinking specifically of dispatch or FAS. Are those higher numbers reflected in why these numbers are where they're at? I guess because of those higher turnover rates, do we kind of see the average being brought down a bit more? How does that work with including those numbers in this overall average?

Just a follow-up on that. I'm wondering, though, if there is a report when you are, since this is a key target measure, to be able to tear out to say here are the outliers. Yes, absolutely. And then to be able to say that's a sector-based reason, we have some internal work to do, there was a bunch of... you know, retirees in that group. We expect that that won't be an ongoing trend. I think that would be helpful, and I'm sure you're doing that internally, but then that would be helpful to show us as well.

I like that so much. I know that HR. for my tenure here has been some bumpy grounds, to say the least. And to take the time to really dig deep and go deeper, I think, is needed. I appreciate your investigating or taking the time to dig deep or want to go deep and find out what's at the root of how we can do better and be better as an HR in relationship to staff, employees, and others. Because it's important to look at the morale. Is it up or is it down? Is retention up or down? And why, if it isn't? If it isn't flat or steady? But building a trust, I think, is really key. And it was good to he

And so I'm glad that you have created, along with your staff, created that space for that to happen, right? Because at the end, hopefully, it will get you to a better place. Absolutely. To do the work for the people here. For the people. Yeah. Commissioner Miller.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you for this, CHRO, Ferguson. Okay, I just have a couple questions. For the performance measures on the new higher retention rate and the data, what is our sample size or what is the number of people that we're comparing it to for how many people started and retained? Or is this just, or maybe I'm understanding it wrong.

So when I look at these numbers, right, one slide tells us the retention rate for new hire retention rate is 76% or 77, 76% with a goal of 80%. Then I look at the next slide and it's broken down by demographic. I guess I'm just curious about the more of the demographics and on like what was the individual numbers for each rather than the percentage? Oh, it's the individual number. I think that would be a little more helpful with the percentage. And then are we taking lessons learned from the exit surveys to improve and work on this goal and this outcome?

OK. Thank you. That's what I was getting at. OK. And then just wanted to also mention, it might be helpful to look at the data of why people were screened out or why people did not even make it to an interview or didn't even make it to the hiring process. Maybe we have great candidates applying for positions, but maybe our requirements or some of our generated screening process is not really up to par or not really... Accessible maybe if that's the right word, but maybe like how do if we is there a way to track? Who applies and why were they screened out? They didn't have lack of experience la

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just on that point, because it was, I don't know, people will remind me how long ago it was. I think we had a standard required a four-year degree. And so many of our positions, that's not, you don't need a four-year degree. And we were, all these amazing people were being stopped before they could even get to the application, before they could even get in. into a selection process. So have we, we've removed that, I think, already. So we've sort of universally already done things like that. So we've done an initial kind of, okay, that was not what we need. So

No, I appreciate that clarification. It was an equivalency, yes. Thank you. That was really important. Yes. Really important clarification.

That equivalent piece was, I think, really important, too, because my thought, we do not want to penalize someone for having a degree and spending tons of money to get it and work and the sacrifices that they made. But as we do know, lived experience and years of experience can be as equally as important, too. And so removing that criteria, I'm sure it opened up a pool of people that we could pull in to do this work. Yeah. All right. I don't think I see any other questions. So I just want to thank you, HR's chief resource officer, for your work and for your dedication here. And thank you for s

OK, we have a couple of questions here. I'm going to open up with looking at the advisory boards. And I'm just looking at the numbers, the percentage of diversity or the lack of much diversity within the advisory boards. And I think for me, as one who's been over the last few months doing a lot of interviewings to advisory boards is that, how do we find ways to diversify those boards more? And one of the things that I notice is that once folks get on the board, they don't leave. they don't leave. And really, it's not an opportunity for the diversity to be shared, or other people who may have s

You know, versus saying, oh, we want to train someone new to come in, or we want to engage someone new. Have we thought about a different protocol process?

You know I'm going to come. You can call me later. But yeah, I do have my hand up. But you know I'm going to talk about it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I have questions about just two items. One is on the revised countywide administrative policies. What are we measuring the percentage out from, for example, from 2025? The 6%, is that 6% of the 150 countywide administrative policies?

Okay. Let's see. I think my feedback around that is just we should be basically more intentional about our goal for each year rather than saying that we're doing just a percentage of it. We should be setting a goal that we're going to tackle on five administrative policies this year because this is the amount of time that it's going to take versus measuring out of the whole of 150 administrative policies. So that's my feedback about that. And that would be more valuable as a policymaker for us in tracking and making sure that the most important policies are the ones that are bubbling up and al

And then may we also just get an update as well too later on in terms of like what the priorities are or what your office is going to be focused on?

Okay, perfect. And then the other one too, the recovery for damages caused by a third party. May we also get information more on the dollar amounts for those previous years? You know, and I just also want to take an opportunity to just thank the team for recovering such high percentages compared to the general, you know, just general claims. So kudos to that. Yes, thank you, Dan.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Miller.

Okay. Thank you, Maria. This is fabulous. Chief of staff, Maria. This is great presentation. My question goes back to the advisory boards. I just want to make one comment real quick. Rena, we can say no. I mean, it's okay. We're the ones that... And we can say no to some of those long-term standing people. We can go against staff opinion and requests. And if we want to diversify those boards, we can do that. But my question kind of goes to, is this number the percentage of applicants that were applied and selected or were just applied?

Okay. And then my next question kind of goes in the same process. I don't want to cause more work for our team, but do we re-reach out or re-engage with the people who applied and were not selected when there's a next round of applications open? Because believe me, these things are on our calendar. At least... at least twice a year where we are interviewing four boards because different positions roll off and different positions come on and it's a different time frame for each board. But do we re-engage you in the people who have been applied and then not selected?

OK. And I think that's it. That's all that I had. Thank you for the wonderful work you guys are doing.

Thank you. And I would like to say that we have suggested, if there was a great candidate, that maybe we can place him on another board that needed a fill-in. But you are right that we might have to say we need to get more applications in and just you know, say no to the incumbent who's been there for 20 years, 10 years. So, yes. So I do have McMurtry, McGuire, and Dan Jevis.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also have a community advisory board's question. So How much demographic data do we track or collect when it comes to the boards? And I'm just thinking of, I appreciate the focus on the racial and ethnic diversity, but also thinking of making sure we have gender identity diversity and make sure that we're looking at renters versus homeowners, people with disabilities. There's so many different demographics that make up the diversity of Ramsey County that I want to make sure that we at least attempt to try to have reflected in these community boards. Is that a level of

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a lot of conversation on community advisory boards because, of course, we all serve on them. And I just want to remind them. When I first started, there was no coordination there. It would come to our offices and we would just pick. And I would say, no, no, I need to know. What's the makeup on the board now? Who do we need? What's the diversity? And we kept saying that this is what we needed. So then finally the county manager's office said, OK, we'll take this on. Because it was really hard as a commissioner to know that we needed diversity. diversity and to kn

Yes. Going back to the community advisory boards, we've all had a chance to be part of this now and of these interviews and one of the things that I think would really help us as commissioners, as we were reviewing applications and doing the interviews, is to have a greater nuance of the skills set and commitment of the different boards. So for instance, the watersheds oversee really large projects, significant public dollars. Those are a certain type of skill set, commitment, and responsibility. And then also knowing what Within our own departments, maybe there are some strategic projects tha

And then another follow-up I would just say, and this is just I know that there are dashboards and other performance measures that are available, and then obviously we have a direct line to request information at any time. I know I sit on the audit chair, and I will just say I look forward. I know that we continue to build out that team and have a more robust team. internal look at some of our work there. And I look forward to a time when we have more performance measures to show our work and have more transparency to the community. And I know that's a work in progress. So just having that not

And so before we close out on this advisory board, there's a few things that I would just like to share that I think will be helpful. And we're getting better at notifying commissioners that there's open seats for your district. And I would like us to make that a priority, that before they send us something where a candidate who's already on there that they share that there is an opening in our district and allow us, since we have the authority to appoint members, that they allow that to happen before we are given a list of individuals to choose from. And I think that is important, of course,

I have a question on that, Madam Chair, because when I started, they would give us these and say, oh yeah, we need a District 2 rep, so how about you appoint somebody? And I had no idea who else was on the board, so that's why we're so grateful for this process. I think it's never a given. It's just a suggestion that we have balance with the district. So I don't know hardly any boards that require that we just say we want district representation. So That's why we set up this process, so that each one of us wasn't picking someone without knowing what the general group was. So like when you said

I don't know what the process is, what the process came from, what that looks like. That might be helpful for us to all know that too. Because good decision making that is inclusive is important. And so we just like to see that.

We need the addendums. Is that coming from? We have one more. So we're going to work on the proposed 2027 budget addendum. That's coming from Director Louie.

Look. What tab? What tab? Nope, I got it. I combined it in my books.

I'm going to bring my little post-its. I like that.

The only question I have is could we possibly get like an executive summary of everything you just said?

track all of that, but if I had what you just said, it would be better. So if we can get that, that'd be great. I have it right here, so it's ready to go.

Do you, maybe this question's for you, County Manager. Do you know why we would have gotten, or why we will be getting a reduction in county program aid?

Well, isn't it also true that the county program aid is based on some factors around anyone that's 500 and over? And by default, that happens to only be like Ramsey County and Hennepin County?

Yeah, something is wrong with that number. Right. That equation just doesn't add up. And so that's definitely a conversation that we need to be having with our delegation, our Ramsey County delegation, and maybe even others about the inequities that is built in

And we are. We have had these conversations for a long time on this. And we've tried to work the formula differently, but we need such an investment of money into the formula that that's why the legislature won't pass it, even though we have talked to our people about this. So you'd need such an investment into the formula if they can't do it. But we have started the capital complex, the host capital complex tax credit. So that's uniquely us, that will uniquely help us because we're getting, this formula totally doesn't help us. This formula is bad for us. Although we will get another ally bec

Well, that's an inequity right there. So when we are at a disadvantage within that .

So that's why we're doing our own thing with the capital, with the whole capital complex.

You know, and I get it. It's hard to say to someone else, give up some of your dollars.

If we put more money in the formula, everybody will be fine.

Well, Ramsey County has been superb at opening our doors to anyone who come to us, right? We don't, you know, we've been very good of serving everyone. And so I don't know quite what that message has been. I've never heard my county delegation individual ever talk about this. Maybe they might be talking to somebody else, but I've never specifically heard them lead on this or have a conversation as they may have solved the inequities within. And how long has this been in law?

So it might be time to re-look at that, Stan, if it's been that long.

It might be time to look, to have another look. Well, we've been asking. They have looked at it again, and it would just cost too much money.

And to create another narrative. Commissioner, what have you seen?

Yes. I just have a couple of questions just in point of protocol for greater conversation. So we received a fuller budget packet, and the addendum is a couple pages of it. When would be the time to ask some of these just overall general budget questions? Is it now? Is it later? I just want to make sure I'm doing this in order.

No, they're just a little broader than that. So should I throw one out? Yeah, you can throw one out. Throw one out? Okay. So this is a broader thing. When we look at the, there isn't a page number, but it just says the Ramsey County budget. Comparison fiscal year 26 approved to 27. It talks about intergovernmental revenue, and it lists the federal, state, state aides, and other governmental units. It holds relatively flat. Actually, it's down almost half a million. So that doesn't include any inflationary costs or cost of living costs or anything like that. And then there are some drops. And t

Thanks. And then the other one is on the addendum, we talked about some of the different changes in the FTEs that are kind of clean up from before. Is there a way for us to get a... comprehensive FTE change in the proposed 27, or is that what this is? This is it.

It's just on a different page. Thank you very much.

Okay. Are we good? All right. Commissioner Ortega.

No, I just want to add that when we're talking about any of these county program aids or anything else, We really need to be talking with all 87 counties because it's really difficult for any one county or even two or three. Especially when it's the metro and the differences in some of the dollars have to do with the fact that you have

I think I'm going to ask Commissioner McMurtry, because we just came out of the strategic planning session with AMC, that everybody is unified on some of these things. I mean, every county... is hurting because of the SNAP and Medicaid. You know, there's certain issues that we do are all unified on. I mean, clearly we have issues of our own that we need to keep pushing. Yes, we need to keep. And AMC is looking for those places, as Commissioner Ortega says. If we can get every county to care about this, and they do. We have to really focus on that.

No, I agree. We always have a collective AMC legislative agenda. We always come around common concerns and issues and what needs to drive all counties in general. But I still believe that Ramsey County needs to be a messenger of our message.

Well, we totally are, and we have. And we have a good message.

I think we can always do two things at once.

But yeah, it's a 15-year-old conversation, and counties are hurting, and they're going to hurt more. So we get it. I get it. Yeah, for sure. Anything else you want to close? So what do we need to do with the addendum?

It's close. So I just want to close with some closing remarks. And I want to say a big thank you to the County Operations Service team for their presentations today and for serving as the operational backbone of this agency. On the heels of the 2026 primary election, we know how important it is to keep county operations secure, efficient, and free from disruption. The next presentation will be on September the 1st from 1 to 4. The Health and Wellness Service team will present their performance measures. As a reminder, we encourage public participation in the budget process. You can participate