Remarks by Mary Jo McGuire
68 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 3
- Play at 3:42:36
“Thank you, and I appreciate all the thought that's going into this, that people are thinking about it. So I appreciate that.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 4:09:03
“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…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 4:11:42
“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…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 4:27:56
“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.…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 4:29:42
“No, I appreciate that clarification. It was an equivalency, yes. Thank you. That was really important. Yes. Really important clarification.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 4:53:32
“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.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:01:20
“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…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:10:14
“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…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:13:38
“I'm going to bring my little post-its. I like that.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:21:15
“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…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:22:19
“So that's why we're doing our own thing with the capital, with the whole capital complex.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:22:29
“If we put more money in the formula, everybody will be fine.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:23:28
“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.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:28:51
“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.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 5:29:39
“Well, we totally are, and we have. And we have a good message.”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 28, 2026
- Play at 1:45:57
“Yeah. I just want to add a vote to that. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm so glad. Commissioner McGuire. Because Commissioner McMurtry, you bring up a really good question. And when we say the county's got money, we hardly got money. But the state got money. that they didn't use yet or wherever it is for a statewide system, which I think we all agree should happen, but we don't know when that's going to happen. And so then they said, oh, okay, you want money, so we'll give the counties money, which they gave us like a pittance to do. I mean, it's not even enough to do one county, and it gave…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:30:42
“Thank you, Madam Chair. So yeah, just some clarity. So on the page before that, the percent of MFIP participants employed, is this an increase? Or this is just like when we say 2% and 4%, is that the total of people that we want employed? Or is that an increase? I mean, really, is it that? We're not employing very many people. Am I reading these numbers correctly? I mean, this is a huge deal. I'm thinking that that's a goal of this program, is to get people up and out. And employment is a huge issue, as you know. So, but this is, I mean, I know we want achievable goals and we'll keep…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:33:03
“And Madam Chair, yeah, I appreciate that clarification in what this is looking at. Because people on MFIP are working. And if maybe we had a higher minimum wage for some of these people, they could exit off some of these programs. But they can't afford their child care, their housing, and everything, and live on a small salary. It's just too much. To exit off MFIP requires a lot of things to happen. But it's really the systemic inequities we have in how much people make and how much cost to support a family. So yeah, a number of these people are working and on MFIP. And it's just that the…”
Board of Commissioners · Aug 27, 2026