Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to today's budget hearing. Item one on our agenda is the open forum playback from our previous budget hearing, which was yesterday. We will hear recorded public comments from the Public Works and Law Safety Justice lines of business budget presentation held yesterday, October 7th. Public comments on the budget are recorded after each budget hearing and at the end of today's meeting, I'll give directions on how you can comment on today's topic. At this time, I'll ask staff to play the public comments that were recorded at the end of the previous budget hearing.

Thank you so much. The next item of business is to approve the minutes from our previous meeting of the October 7th budget hearing of the Public Works and the Law Safety Justice Lines of Business.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. The county administrator submitted her budget to the county board on September 22nd. The proposed budget totals $2.993 billion and was based upon a property tax levy increase of 8.15%. The Board adopted a maximum property tax levy increase of 8.15% on September 29th. Today, we will hold hearings on the proposed 2027 budget with presentations from the County Attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Office. These hearings are intended to allow Board members to understand what's included in the prop

Debbie Gotell, Hennepin County Commissioner, District 5. Irene Fernando, Commissioner, District 2.

I'm Marian Greene, Commissioner, District 3.

And is there anybody that would like to introduce themselves in the seating area back here? I'm happy to provide the opportunity. If not, we can – if you have an opportunity to present, I invite you to – I think just acknowledging that Sheriff Litt's in the room. I will definitely be doing another round of introductions at our next – at the next part of the presentation. So not ignoring you, Sheriff. Thank you for being here. Let me see. All right. So with that, I would like to introduce Hennepin County Administrator Jody Wendland, who will be introducing today's budget. Ms. Wendland.

About 50 minutes here for this portion of discussion. So we have, I think, plenty of time, but let's be mindful so that we can each have our discussion and questions answered.

Well, I mean, given the opportunity. But Commissioner Conley, I think I'll move this way and kind of radiate out from me.

I'll gather my thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. And thank you so much, County Attorney Moriarty, for the fourth year of coming in under budget and for your service to the residents of Hennepin County for the four years that you have been our county attorney. I am super grateful for your service. how you've looked at justice, how you've looked at youth throughout your tenure. So thank you for that. I had just a couple of questions primarily out of the budget booklet, but I'll start with the slides. Very impressive work. I'm looking at slide number five. I'm really interested in, I appreciat

Thank you for that. That makes sense. And I think that that's prevention. That's proactive. That's keeping them out of a cycle of a carceral system. I'll say that. I'll also just comment that I very much appreciate, slide six, all of what you're doing to hold the federal government, ICE, CBP, accountable for the terror that our communities face this year. unprecedented attacks on our democracy on our neighborhoods on our residents resulting in two of our neighbors being killed. I appreciate that you have not stopped seeking justice for what happened during Operation Metro search. And I'm sure

And so that's the other, really, the other question that I had around that same is, could we do the same for the reduction for the restorative practices grant, which concludes June 30th, 2027, right? So restorative practices are important. They're something that should be incorporated into your office. And I think that your office has done that well. So my question was really, you know, if that is a grant that doesn't, that isn't something we can apply for next spring, could we also fund that work in-house?

I just have a couple more things. I really, really appreciate that we are doing the gun on arrival work with funding from the city. I think that we could do that work and we could do it very well. Which brings me to, I think I'll close with just the work around domestic violence. One of the things that you said really stuck out. First, I just... I think that the work of DASC, our Victim and Witness Services, is outstanding. I've seen it for myself. I've seen them on the street. I've seen them respond in ways that I could not have imagined. And so that we are taking care of them as a staff, as

Thank you so much for that. I think that we all can support whatever it is that we need to do differently. It's something that we've talked about a lot as a board. So again, I just want to thank you for your service to the residents of this county and for your briefing today. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So I will thank you also for your service.

I know it's been an interesting four years, but I think you've definitely, I think, you know, when people will say their views about you, I'm like, you know, she's been exactly who she said she was the entire time. So I will applaud you on that, truly. And I think that's all we can do is we all bring different perspectives to governments. And if people don't agree with us, we still have to hold our own ground. So I just want to acknowledge that. So on the presentation, and I reviewed the book as well, just a few things. I'm always a big fan of the Be at School work, and you know this, and we'v

I was like, I never said that. To be clear, that was not my... But what I will say is the community is very worried. And there's been multiple shootings. And somebody's... I mean, there was gun bullets through somebody's home. So we can move on. But I just would say this is... I'm not saying what population is, because I always say flip it to test it. If somebody said that about Jewish people, I'm Jewish, that would not be okay. You can't be responsible for an entire group of people. But what I will tell you, whether it's gang violence, gun violence, group violence, whatever you want to call i

I'm sorry. No, one sec. We are running very short on time at this point in order to have everybody offer their feedback, and I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to. So brief response. Yes.

Oh, I agree. All Somali people are not responsible here. That's for sure. I completely disagree with that.

No, I'll talk to Mary offline about anything.

Commissioner Gautel. Thank you. Thank you. I will try to be brief. I want to go back to where you opened up and I want to talk about the protection of staff. First of all, thank you for joining us. it matters. And it bothers me because who's going to want to take these jobs if this is where you're at? Also, who's going to run a run for office when you're targeted? You're targeted. We are all targeted. I remember the people who handcuffed themselves to your front door. This is something that I, this is a whole new ball game that happened. And I've been a public servant for 22 years. And this ju

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, County Attorney, for your presentation. I, too, mostly have comments and express gratitude for your work. Fourth one already, although you were here at the table, you know, my first year, so.

You feel kind of comfortable up here from my perspective. So, for sure, I want to open with gratitude, and as many know, I like to up lift that you have unique authorities as an independent elected, as the two independently elected county-wides are both in the room and want to appreciate that. And so I'm not going to cover as much on the how you do your work. But of course, the seven board members have a unique authority with respect to budget. And in this present year, but really the last few years and going into the next few years, this board has really sought to really deepen our understand

Thank you. Thanks so much for this presentation. I wanted to just move quickly through some remarks here, and I think I've got one question Thank you for highlighting that your team is experiencing increased threats and doxing. I really appreciated you letting us know that. That's terrible. Yeah, very sympathetic. So I don't know how much you're coordinating with, because you are elected in your own right, We're seeing in other parts of the county a bar chart that looks like this. Oh, wait, no, that's not the slides. It's the breakout of property tax versus not other funding. And I know that t

Thank you. I think I just have a few things and really express appreciation for my colleagues for really asking and highlighting the things, many of the things that I would have done myself. So it saves me some of the trouble. I did just want to uplift a few things that stood out to me as well. And so some of it is duplicative. Definitely appreciated the highlighting of the safety concerns of your office and the necessity of making sure that our employees are safe. And I think that is something that everybody should agree to. that our employees, anybody's employees, should be safe at their wor

Thank you so much. With that, I'll declare us in recess until 1.35. Give us an extra minute. Welcome back, everyone. I'm going to bring us back to order-ish. Before we start on our next presentation, I would like to provide another opportunity to do a quick round of introductions. Kevin Anderson, District 7. Debbie Gotel, District 5.

Irene Pernano, District 2. Angela Conley, District 4. Heather Edelson, District 6.

And I would invite anybody in the audience who wishes to introduce themselves that they may do so. If not, that's fine. If you have a part in the presentation or are called on for questions, I would invite you to introduce yourself at that time. With that, I'll turn it over to Administrator Wendland to kick off this next part of the presentation.

Thank you. I will now... kick off to comments and questions. I'll start on this side at the end.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Sheriff Witt and the entire team. Some of this is a little bit repeat because that's how I try to situate these briefings. Very much grateful for your independent elected authority and how that needs to engage with, of course, the authority of this board from a financial perspective. So first and foremost, thank you for your partnership. The recent financial numbers, of course, you and others know the county board has been seeking to monitor and support this for several years now. And I have to say I was pretty heartened at the last, at the most recent financia

So I still feel a little kind of Spider-Man meme going on because we need to fill, we need to staff this position So we want to move, somebody wants to move folks over, a proposal to move folks over, but the vacancies are because we're not hiring fast enough. So then we have to hire. So, yeah, if there's just a sentence on it, and then I can kind of, we can kind of carry on.

Our vacancies are- I think if that's all right, I'm sensitive to my colleagues being able to speak. I think I'll just ask follow-up for this then. I mean, if I heard you correctly, there's a difference of position and we're not at the end of budget, so this is a perfectly appropriate set of questions. There's differences of perspective on how to fulfill the FTE count. I would love to know more about that and what services are at risk or not at risk. I'm asking for kind of two reasons. One reason is one that I've talked a lot about before. I totally agree that any deputized mandated service to

Government Accounting Standards Board. Government Accounting Standards Board has a new rule coming forward that will apply to the next calendar year, is my understanding. So it's like layperson to layperson here for those watching at home. And my understanding is that they're going to be a lot stricter on budget allocated versus difference of spend with explanation. I don't know what that looks like in actuality. I don't know what that means. I am not the person. But I'm on a few different audit committees in various forms, and this has been uplifted. And so that's my interest because... Yeah,

And Mr. Chair, then the data should, Mr. Chair, totally hear you. And we've heard that also. That should be another thing that we've heard in common as a theme across areas. And then we, that means we need to be analyzing the data that accounts for that. You know, so that's not a counter. That's like, we want to have a full picture and an accurate picture. And it changes daily. So we've got to stay fluid. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks. I want to start with the budget book, and I want to talk about pages 4 and 5, and I want to make a blanket comment that I made yesterday as well. I want to talk about all the great work, and I know the sheriff had something to do with it too, so I wanted to re-mention this again today about all the different areas that we work on disparity elimination. And I said this, and I still believe it, this is some of the best visible examples that we actually have in our community and helps the people most in need. And so I just want to say that. I also want to point out just a couple of things

Well, that's really helpful with the suicide watch that you already do and trying to make sure that you get enough visibility to whatever it is. This is just one more great tool. So I just want to say thank you for that. And I love the fact that you're requiring transitional housing and housing stability as some of our folks leave the jail, so I appreciate that. And then on the environment and climate action, the HSCO, Public Safety Service Headquarters, is designed to operate at a net zero energy. I just wanted to state that because I think that's something without shouting out, and we're tal

Nobody. OK. I do want to thank you, too, for another piece that you do that goes without a lot of fanfare. And that's the work that you do around technology scams with our seniors and vulnerable people. There's so many of them that you hear. You hear all the time about the dollars that somebody loses that were scammed out of them. And I know that you are trying to be out in front of this. You're trying to get in front of those people and talk about those very programs. I know you've sent me information on them, and I've passed it on, so I just want to take it to some of our town halls. So than

That was too funny. Commissioner Edelson.

I'll go. My computer died, which is the whole thing. So I'm going to read off my phone and up here. Okay, so thank you for your work. The computer's throwing me off here a little bit. One second. I think I wrote it down. Okay. Okay, so we had a overall 13% increase rate, 21.4 million, 18 FTEs. With the FTEs, are we, is it specifically going to jails? I think there was for telecommunications as well, right?

Perfect. Good. And then that's good. I was curious about your people that are on paid leave. Do we have like an overall summary on paid leave? Because it's interesting. It was brought up yesterday and I'm very supportive of the program. I just thought I was just curious how much impact that you guys are seeing with the paid leave program for the Sheriff's Department.

Sure. Got it. OK. Well, and so much of what you do is covered by statute. There's ratios, things like that. So philosophically, I was thinking about this last night. I'm looking at other counties where also populated counties like we are across the US. And while crime might be down, you still have ratios, which doesn't drive the budget down. So it's just really interesting, right? It's this whole philosophical idea to get your head around. I was like, well, hold on. So interesting, but then I went and looked, and just the ratios that you have on pretty much everything that you do, and you are

Okay, regional gang violence, group violence, whatever. What are we doing?

Thank you, Sheriff. I remembered. Oh my gosh! It's working. I'm on, you know, the hormones. It's helping. Okay. So, all right. So, it's interesting because this is where we can say maybe, like, politics are maybe slightly different because I know, like, I thank you, Commissioner Fernando. Maybe flock cameras. Is that what you were thinking when you were referencing it before? Like, no?

There's lots of times. I know. I know. I know.

So, okay. So, listen. So, interesting. So, I know flock cameras are up and people are, like, don't necessarily love them. But... And we don't want to share. I'm not pro-sharing with the federal government. But it's interesting, because in Europe, they have CCTV, right? And I just feel like that would be amazing here, that we would be able to have. Because right now, there's been multiple shootings, Half the time we can't catch people. It's like we don't want to lock people up for a long time. That should be all of our goal. But ultimately, we should be able to catch people, intervene so they'r

Unless you want to hear more about perimenopause.

No, thank you so much for the presentation, for what your officers do every day out in the streets of Hennepin County. It's very much appreciated. I wanted to say that systems modernization is a big deal, I think, all over. Hennepin County has been trying to get updated systems for years because they're just outdated. Technology needs to advance within government the way that it's advancing everywhere else in society. I couldn't agree with you more. One of the things that I was thinking about, oh, and unfunded mandates? You're speaking our language because we have been dealing with that for ti

Yeah. And so annexing is happening, all of that. But I'm curious about this Jail Population Oversight Committee because we, well, I'll speak for me. I first heard about it when the annexing first started because of the DOC order, right? Um, and one of the questions that I thought of immediately, and this was what a couple of years ago was like, what did we do when it was COVID and we had to get a bunch of people out of the jail? What I heard was we were able to do that. And I think population was down to like 500, but. population of like the types of offenses that are in the jail right now are

So you're talking about a larger jail? Yes, ma'am.

I know Administrator Wendland. Thank you.

Can we get a list of that maybe later on this week? That would be helpful.

I'm going to speed up so Marion has some time down there. We're good. Okay. So I'm going to move to the budget booklet. I just want to understand and get some clarity. Page 15, there's local revenue sources and there's fees for services. Local is always zero. Fees for services have gone up. So I'm wondering if, because when I think local, I'm thinking of like your city, park police, metro transit, other things, but maybe is fees for services where like the JPAs for other jurisdiction, patrol, like that type of work, where that is accounted for?

So mostly fees for services is what you're getting in for serving other jurisdictions? Got it. Thank you for that. The last two I have is just, I want to go back to the, and maybe this is something that we can continue to have conversations on as budget season continues. Budget season has really been all year, but just the staffing, right? So on page 16, it's been mentioned, right, that there's a bit of a difference between your office and OBF around positioning of vacant, or reallocation of positions. So I'm wondering if in June, those positions were vacant, are they still vacant now?

And so thank you. Here's where I need to understand, because all across the county and every department, we're reallocating positions because of how financially constrained we are. So the increase in the budget, the 13% increase of property tax, is specifically for staffing, is what I've seen in this budget booklet, critical area staffing, so the jail, records, et cetera. So there's additional dollars. over 13% over this year for hiring, right? Because of what we learned from the matrix study, because of all the work that was done there, which I'm certainly grateful for. So with the additional

THANK YOU. I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT ADMINISTRATOR WENTLIN, JOE MATTHEWS.

Yeah, and Mr. Chair, we've discussed that, and I agree with you. I think the positions themselves, not the people, right, are something that we can think about. And as you all continue to talk, like, If there needs to be licensed peace officers doing something other than being in the jail, then if there's vacant positions that need to be reallocated, we look at the positions and not the people.

I agree. And that's a refrain that it's a theme that we're hearing throughout budget season. I will say that I do not disagree. I think that the major focus this year has been on the jail for obvious reasons, right? We had to staff up that jail. And so perhaps there is another staffing study. But I think the ones that we've done that really gave us insight as to vacancy factor and what the staffing level should be for the jail, because that was the big driver this year, I think were important. But I hear what you're saying about looking at the other parts of the office. So thank you for that. Increasing by $4.7 million for a total of?

Mr. Vice Chair, I believe it was about $5.5 million roughly.

So then that begs the question then, is the $10 million that's budgeted for 2027 over time something that you can stay within as an office?

That's quite all right. I just want us to get to a number that is a sustainable number, that is a number that you can stay within so that there isn't overages. What that looks like depends, as you stated, as you discussed, on a number of different things. But I want to be able to approve a budget for 2027 that includes a number that is comfortable. So I know that we've got two more months to keep talking. We've got lots of conversations happening, but I want to really, I know you do too, want to feel comfortable with a number for overtime that makes sense for you and for your office and what y

Thank you. Commissioner Green, I know we missed you for a portion.

Thank you. I appreciate just having an opportunity to say hello and apologize for missing the bulk of the presentation. And I've really appreciated hearing the discussion. And I have some questions and follow-up that I'll provide via email. And I just wanted to say that into the microphone because constituents might wonder why I haven't spoken up. And you might have wondered where I was. So thank you.

thank you I think you know again my colleagues have have covered a lot of the things I just want to express deep appreciation for the work that you're doing under the strain of kind of the the time that we are in right like it is incredibly stressful to be in local government in law enforcement at a time when the federal government is putting additional strains on property taxes, of which you rely on primarily to fund positions. And so we are all trying to find our way through in staffing numbers, in position management, in everything, and find that balance of where the public accepts what we'

Yeah. think that's that's kind of where I'm at and as I said the told the county attorney we are here overseeing the budget you get to decide how to administer that budget and you know it's a it's a lot of trust that we're we're putting in you to to manage that and I believe in you so thank you yes we do have

This could be for follow-up. You said a lot of things that I was curious about. So for the follow-up with the last jail with peace officers, that statement, I've already asked for the staffing there. So I'm interested in understanding more what that means. Again, I've expressed interest in deputized versus civilian staff. Second thing I want to uplift is, and I can't believe I The budget book, so just to make sure I got this right, federal contributions from the federal contribution next year is proposed to be not just barely $300,000. The number of federal requirements, I just, so for those w

And the property tax requirement is 180, so that's at least easy math. 10%. So I'm saying this because we're asking these questions from a budget perspective because that is the lens for which we're meant to ask questions. So I'm not insensitive to the pressures that are being faced. And this pressure is just not a sustainable mathematical pressure. And so I wanted to say that out loud. I was also interested when you said 14 commitment beds. That's a lot. Plus 24. I heard somebody say plus 24. I mean, and we all know there are like kind of no state beds. So I, you know, it does seem appropriat

Thank you. Now, I will move us along on our agenda. The next item on our agenda is Old Business 4A. I would take a motion to lay over this item until 12 p.m. noon on Monday, October 19th, when we will reconvene. So moved. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

OK. Nice try, Sheriff. Okay, item five is the open forum. Members of the public can call in to record a comment specific to this hearing that will be played at the board at the following budget hearing. For those not able to view or listen to this meeting live, a recording of this meeting will be available on our website at hennepincounty.gov slash board meetings or on our Hennepin County YouTube channel. The call line to record a public comment will be open for four hours beginning at 7 a.m. tomorrow. The phone number is 612-688-3545. Instructions for participating are also available at henne