Committee - Regular Meeting

5:06 – 5:21•DGDebbie Goettel

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Administration Operations and Budget Committee of Tuesday, October 6th. We begin the agenda here today with minutes from the previous meeting of September 22nd, 2026. May I have a motion to approve?

5:22 – 6:17•DGDebbie Goettel

It's been moved and seconded. Any corrections or changes? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item two is actually a public hearing on the updated Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Regional Plan for Metropolitan Regional Workforce Development Area number four. The public hearing will be conducted in person and via telephone. Persons not in attendance today but interested in commenting will be invited to call a toll-free conference number now, which is 1-855- 340-8151. I'll say that number again. It is 1-855-340-8151. And it's displayed on the screen as well. While we wai

8:13•DGDebbie Goettel

Colleagues? I think we're just happy to see the great collaboration between the different counties and entities. Thank you for the hard work. I'll ask if there's any callers on the line.

8:28 – 9:04•DGDebbie Goettel

Okay, so I'm going to, while we still leave that line open, I'm going to welcome anyone in person who might be here for the public hearing. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please step up to the podium. On the podium, there's three lights. The green light starts your time. The yellow light illuminated. You have 30 seconds then. Then you need to conclude your comments. The red light indicates your time's up. Is there anyone here in person who would like to come speak at the open public forum? Anyone? I'll check again then. Is there anybody calling in?

9:10 – 9:30•DGDebbie Goettel

Seeing no one who wishes to comment on this to close, I will ask for a motion to close. Moved and closed. All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion closed. Thank you. We'll move on to item three, which is new business. I'd like to have you move items 3A and 3B together. Do I have a motion for those?

9:32 – 10:48•DGDebbie Goettel

They're very similar. 3A is an agreement with the city of Waysetta to purchase law enforcement and terrorism prevention equipment starting 7-15 of 26 through 12-31 of 26 and not to exceed of just under $10,000. Item 3B is an agreement with the city of Richfield to purchase new law enforcement and terrorism prevention equipment starting 7-15-26 through 12-31 of 26 and just for a little bit of over $12,000. Is there comments or questions? Anybody want any background? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Those two items pass. Item 3C is an agreement with the Task Unlimited Buil

11:48•DGDebbie Goettel

Wow, that's great news. Any comments or questions? Go ahead, Commissioner Green.

11:52 – 12:15•MGMarion Greene

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to thank you, Ms. Welliers and the team, because this project is just... or Perspectives was such a beloved institution in St. Louis Park. And I remember being so glad that there was sort of this plan had developed. And I appreciate sort of every step of the way that we're looking to sort of get it back on track. Thank you.

12:15 – 12:54•DGDebbie Goettel

This is so worthwhile. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item 3E is to negotiate Amendment 4 to a lease agreement with St. Anthony Shopping Center, LLC, for lease space at 2941 Pentagon Drive, Northeast St. Anthony for the St. Anthony Library. Extending the period. Okay. Sorry, I got really excited. May 31st, 2032. Becca. Okay. Let me at least read. It's $115,430 for the first year's rent and operating expenses. Do we want to hear anything about this? This is such a great thing. Go ahead. Can we get some background first, and then I'll le

13:31 – 13:48•IFIrene Fernando

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glad everybody's satisfied. We would like it to be bigger, at least the local residents. So I just wanted to express, I know we've talked a lot about libraries over the course of the last six months, but really the last several years. This is just 5,000 square feet, right, if I'm looking at this right?

13:51•IFIrene Fernando

Does anybody happen to know a median or average kind of library size? I'm just curious.

14:14 – 15:28•IFIrene Fernando

So Madam Chair and colleagues, I'm sure everybody's gotten a lot of library feedback over the last several months because of various reasons. And so what I appreciate is I have a renewed understanding as to how vital certain libraries are, especially when they're the only public space available. So the feedback that I received is even with the satisfaction, folks are wondering, can things be open for longer for communities that don't have a lot of publicly available space? St. Anthony Village is very small and other than their city hall, which we as a county have assisted with doing some pilot

15:30•ACAngela Conley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to ask how many of our libraries are leased versus county-owned buildings?

15:56 – 16:18•DGDebbie Goettel

Any other comments or questions? This is a good day. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. We move on to the addendum part of the agenda. 3F is to direct the county administrator to explore options for the provision of medical services in county-operated correctional facilities offered by Commissioner Conley. Commissioner Conley. I will move it. Second.

16:19 – 17:44•ACAngela Conley

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So yes, colleagues, this bar is very straightforward. I have had some really good conversations with county administration about this. You'll see a bar later in the Law, Safety, and Justice Committee. That's a pretty hefty dollar amount. And what I'm looking for with this board action is to do a few things. One of the whereas clauses is what stands out the most, and that's that the cost of providing comprehensive medical care in three spaces, the adult detention center, adult corrections facility, and juvenile detention center have just been increasing, and that

17:45•DGDebbie Goettel

Comments and questions? Commissioner Lundy, then I'll go down the line.

17:50 – 18:57•JLJeffrey Lunde

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is a great idea. Second thing, I just always, when we talk about this at the county, I always talk about the need for better space, whether it's in our facilities, that's designed for people who may be really suffering mental health or addiction crisis as part of it. And the other part is also within the hospitals itself, where not just the county, but any law enforcement that takes someone directly to the hospital, They have to, I use the term, sit on the person. So they have to leave their officers there. And I just wonder, is there a better way for us to

19:00 – 20:57•IFIrene Fernando

THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. I'M ALSO EAGER TO SUPPORT THIS. It says including but not limited to, so there's obviously a lot that could be placed in here. So I appreciate the scope. This is getting at the correctional facilities that would be seen within the county government's responsibility. I see that you're also mentioning the county jail, which of course I share responsibility with the sheriff, and I think Commissioner Lundy, you're getting to that a bit. I think it would be favorable to understand what the changes and expectations have been from a best practice and then from a legal standpoi

20:58 – 21:32•MGMarion Greene

Commissioner Green. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Commissioner Conley, for bringing this forward. As I looked at this, I felt in many ways that it sort of put in black and white on a piece of paper sort of the natural discussion and next questions that come out of a bar that I think we're seeing later today. And so I really appreciated you sort of spelling it out and making sure I and hopefully others are not making any assumption that this wouldn't be an area of investigation. Thank you.

21:33 – 22:57•DGDebbie Goettel

Anyone else? I have just a quick thing. I just want to note, too, that along with the escalating costs, or also the acuity has changed in what we're seeing, too. And I'm, like my colleagues up here have always spoke, I'm looking for better models of care. And I think there are better models of care that serve us better than what we have right now, and perhaps that has better and different outcomes. So thank you, Commissioner Connolly, for bringing this. Other comments or questions? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item 3G is to establish the Hennepin County Committee on

22:57 – 26:25•IFIrene Fernando

So, colleagues, many of you, we each year have been discussing child well-being because it was a part of a settlement agreement from 2019. And, of course, there's a history that predates that. But our settlement, the Hennepin County settlement agreement was a five-year period, and that concluded in Two years ago. Two years ago. And so this board said, let's monitor for another couple years. And so the Child Well-Being Committee, for which Commissioner Gautel, Commissioner Edelson, and I are currently sitting on, we worked with staff and with providers to say, We appreciate the five years and t

26:25 – 27:40•DGDebbie Goettel

Well, I want to thank you, too, Commissioner, because you were the lead author. And we were filtering in through you and through the office. So I just want to thank you for that. I wanted to go back to even some more background in this, what people might not know. When I came on this board, I mean, it was right when we started the child well-being program. and there was across the country there was these outcries, and there were lots of lawsuits across the country. We were the only one, the only one that got a consent decree. Otherwise, everybody had to pay up, and I mean it was millions and m

27:46 – 29:35•MGMarion Greene

Commissioner Green. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, co-authors. I wanted to take something that you had said, Chair Goodell, and sort of underscore it, the issue of us having the consent decree instead of settling. and highlight that one of the reasons I think that happened is because we really got ahead of the consent decree by establishing this committee in the first place. Like, its roots sort of came before the consent decree and really came out of a report that was done at the time that was just – you know, sort of ripped the wool from our eyes about the urgency of what was needed.

29:37•MGMarion Greene

Yes, exactly. I read that that's the intent. The intent is internal folks. No, no external. Oh, maybe I didn't catch that.

29:49 – 30:02•IFIrene Fernando

One, two, three. Madam Chair and Commissioner Green, it says the county administration shall convene a working group comprised, so that looks internal, in order to develop the organizational activities and to develop an approach to membership.

30:05 – 31:15•IFIrene Fernando

So the idea would be we want the activities to continue and we know it must be in a different form, but how do we kind of get there? And the intention for that is, but regardless, as you mentioned, this is meant to kind of Codify a whole number of you know spans greater than our time on the board So if you end up coming up with more information what we want counsel and admin to look at this with a fine-tooth comb anyway this will be kind of our action that Places it in the record and for example in the whereas clauses It cites a bar from 2017, 2020, and then the 2015 bar, which, you know, then

31:16 – 31:30•MGMarion Greene

Sorry, can I have the mic back? I just want to wrap it up. So thank you for answering that question. I had seen the reference to the other bars, but it didn't spell out for me. Anyway, now verbally understanding it.

31:30•DGDebbie Goettel

There might be a wordsmith in there that we could – we have time to do a wordsmith.

31:34 – 31:53•MGMarion Greene

I mean, the resolution to me is the meat, and I appreciate you clarifying the phrase that I had sort of glossed over. I saw working group comprised of and sort of locked there. Anyway, just thank you. I look forward to diving in, and I appreciate this distinction of the tiered nature of the conversation.

31:55 – 33:26•ACAngela Conley

Go ahead, Commissioner Conley. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the three of you for bringing this before us. I lost track that we were nearing the end of the Child Welfare Committee, and so this just makes perfect sense. I think we should continue the work. When I was transitioning off as chair of this committee, our vice chair. I think we were on together. We're co-chairs. We were co-chair. We were really heavily involved in the passage, and it's in here in the warehouse clauses, the African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. It's the first time I'

33:27•DGDebbie Goettel

Other comments? Any others? All those in favor of the R1 signify by aye. Excuse me? Progress. You want to progress it?

33:36•IFIrene Fernando

Yeah, ma'am. I'd like to progress it to the next board meeting. I think it'll be easier to come back with edits with an R2.

33:45 – 33:57•DGDebbie Goettel

It's been moved and seconded to the progress of the R1. All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. This item is progressed. And that concludes our agenda. Thank you, everybody, for the great feedback. Appreciate it.