Budget Committee September 12, 2024   9/12/2024

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:28
    Good morning, my name is Aisha Chugtai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:00:32
    I'm going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Thursday, September 12, 2024.
  • 00:00:37
    Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all council members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.
  • 00:00:47
    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
  • 00:00:54
    Therefore all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments at this time I'll ask the clerk's to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum council member Payne is absent Wonsley present Rainville present Vita present
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:01:23
    Ellison is absent.
  • 00:01:25
    Osman is absent.
  • 00:01:27
    Cashman?
  • 00:01:27
    Present.
  • 00:01:29
    Jenkins is absent.
  • 00:01:31
    Chavez?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:01:32
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:01:34
    Chaudry is absent.
  • 00:01:36
    Palmesano?
  • 00:01:37
    Present.
  • 00:01:38
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 00:01:39
    Present.
  • 00:01:41
    Chair Chigabay?
  • 00:01:42
    Present.
  • 00:01:43
    There are eight members present.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:45
    Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.
  • 00:01:47
    I'll also remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management, so please make sure you sign in today.
  • 00:01:56
    Today we have two 2025 budget presentations, one from the Civil Rights Department and one from the Communications Department.
  • 00:02:03
    We'll start with the Civil Rights Department, so I'll now invite Director Michelle Phillips to get us started with the 2025 recommended budget for the Civil Rights Department.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:02:14
    Good morning, Chair Chuktai, Vice Chair Koski, members of the committee.
  • 00:02:19
    Michelle Phillips, Director of Civil Rights.
  • 00:02:29
    I'm also here with our division directors, Director Kayla Mancanadera, as well as Director Johnny Burns and Director Sherlonda Clark that will be here to assist me through this presentation.
  • 00:02:48
    I wanted to first start with our org chart.
  • 00:02:51
    So this org chart is an org chart from July.
  • 00:02:55
    It's slightly outdated as I'm working through some restructuring within our department, but it still outlines our divisions as they stand at this moment.
  • 00:03:06
    But again, we are going through some restructuring.
  • 00:03:09
    I also have some information regarding vacancies, should that come up a little bit later on, but it is not on this particular org chart or any of the slides outside of the fact that there are 11 as we move forward.
  • 00:03:26
    So I'm also working through our mission and kind of recalibrating our mission for our department to make sure that it is in alignment with the ordinances that we have that govern the work that we do in our Department of Civil Rights.
  • 00:03:41
    We're devoted to advancing accountability, upholding our civil rights and human rights laws, as well as local living prevailing wages.
  • 00:03:51
    and the City of Minneapolis.
  • 00:04:01
    The overall goals that I have are department restructuring to ensure that there is alignment with our resources.
  • 00:04:08
    to strengthen our internal controls, timely completion of our investigations, ensure that they are impartial, fair assessments.
  • 00:04:17
    Our data quality and community engagement and education is in alignment with our mission, vision, and values of this enterprise as we continue to move forward.
  • 00:04:31
    Our department priorities are mainly focused on three core areas compliance, credibility, and culture compliance with our applicable local, state, federal laws and our settlement agreement our impending consent decree that we have not entered into as of yet filling all our vacancies with the appropriate skill sets to ensure that we are fulfilling our mission as outlined
  • 00:04:59
    establishing stronger internal controls for all divisions to maintain compliance and accountability within the department as well as for any of the investigations and compliance assessments that we must do outside of our department in alignment with our mission.
  • 00:05:16
    establishing credibility in the investigative and compliance process with transparent and accessible data.
  • 00:05:23
    That's also meaning timely data on our dashboards and using any other platforms needed to ensure that our information is accessible, easily digestible and understandable for all of our community members and stakeholders and all alike.
  • 00:05:39
    stakeholder and community communication, ensuring that we have a strategic communications plan and community engagement plan as we work with the neighborhood community services.
  • 00:05:51
    I think that's what it is, NCR.
  • 00:05:53
    Sorry, still fairly new, seven weeks in.
  • 00:05:55
    I've been working and trying to establish those partnerships as they are the enterprise point of contact and they have established community credibility.
  • 00:06:06
    encouraging our culture and collaboration, teamwork and accountability and professionalism.
  • 00:06:13
    So I think one thing that I noticed when I came here is that we kind of are a little siloed in ways that I think that we can help to bridge gaps when it comes to our teamwork and making sure that we have not only community partnerships, stakeholder partnerships,
  • 00:06:30
    but partnerships within our enterprise.
  • 00:06:33
    We don't want to duplicate services and we want to ensure that if folks already have a path forward and a plan forward that we can kind of hijack for lack of a better word and jump on some of those plans and community events so that we are also out in community, educating community about the direct services and impact that we can have with the work that we do.
  • 00:06:54
    Invest in our pertinent professional development for staff and I say pertinent because I need All of the staff to be at the skills that they need to be to ensure that we can continue on Providing the services that the enterprise and the council expects of us So making sure that all of our investigators our compliance officers our leadership as well has the tools that they need to be successful in the work that we do moving forward and
  • 00:07:27
    I had a little help on this slide because I was not here in 2023 and I just got here in 2024.
  • 00:07:34
    So we have several different programs that we were working through that were very successful.
  • 00:07:39
    So we want to continue to support the pilot programs with the Minneapolis Small Business and comply with our city labor standards, assist with the city clerk's office with providing more direction and support for our community commission on police oversight,
  • 00:07:55
    continuing to work to meet the terms of the Minneapolis Department of Human Rights court enforceable agreement.
  • 00:08:03
    And we're working through the migration of a new case management system for OPCR, which is currently in progress.
  • 00:08:12
    our risks.
  • 00:08:13
    We may get to capacity in our current space by the end of the year.
  • 00:08:16
    I am hopeful we are working through filling our vacancies and I'm extremely excited with the partnership that we have with HR and our budget partners as well.
  • 00:08:27
    And we need to re-prioritize establishing stronger quality assurance protocols
  • 00:08:33
    I think a lot of the reasons as to why we kind of derived at where we were were because we didn't have internal protocols to kind of govern how we do business within our department.
  • 00:08:44
    So working with the division directors to make sure that those are aligned and codified so that we have clear expectations of our staff and we can have timely completion of our assessments and investigations within our department.
  • 00:09:02
    this is kind of our outline and progression of our staffing all the way through to our plan 2026.
  • 00:09:12
    Currently, here we have 12 vacancies.
  • 00:09:15
    I have been working and I've been able to create, not create, but get another position that I'm working on to make sure that we have appropriate supervision and oversight in OPCR.
  • 00:09:27
    So there's 13 with that new one, which isn't necessarily in these numbers that was just done.
  • 00:09:40
    As I work through with administration, currently it is myself in our kind of administration division as well as a program assistant and we have an admin analyst.
  • 00:09:55
    So we don't really have as much administrative support while we start to work through
  • 00:10:00
    supporting our divisions with budgetary needs, HR needs, and making sure that we have the standard operating procedures and protocols within our department.
  • 00:10:10
    So it's a heavy lift, but we're going to get it done.
  • 00:10:14
    The department's administration of course supports all of our divisions in making sure that we have overall budgetary health effectiveness and efficiency in how we do our business.
  • 00:10:24
    The department's administration sets the overall standards and expectations to ensure strategic outcomes are met.
  • 00:10:31
    We're working with PMI, with Outcomes Minneapolis to ensure that those are measurable and obtainable and reasonable as we continue to move forward and of course transparent to show the progression in our work.
  • 00:10:43
    We monitor and lead the creation and the implementation of the department's strategic plan.
  • 00:10:49
    We are working on a department strategic plan.
  • 00:10:51
    I think it's always good to have a North Star to move forward with.
  • 00:10:55
    Again, it's a couple of different projects in the air, so I'm working on prioritization and making sure that I keep in communication with the rest of the division directors.
  • 00:11:06
    And then also, of course, work with the division directors to lead effective community conversations
  • 00:11:12
    Education and Engagement Strategies.
  • 00:11:18
    And I'll go ahead and ask for our Director of Contract Compliance to come up to talk about the Contract Compliance Division.
  • 00:11:24
    Director Burns.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 00:11:29
    Thank you, Director Phillips.
  • 00:11:31
    I want to talk a little bit about contract compliance.
  • 00:11:33
    Again, we have five areas in contract compliance that we are in charge with, and one is that we're setting goals and approving contracts to our small businesses to participate on city construction, development, and commodity and purchasing projects.
  • 00:11:51
    We also are approving affirmative action plans for anybody who does over $100,000 worth of business with the city on a yearly basis and making sure those contractors commit to non-discrimination when they perform work on our contracts.
  • 00:12:08
    We also make sure that workers are paid and classified appropriately.
  • 00:12:12
    That's one of our big
  • 00:12:13
    things that we've been focusing on this year.
  • 00:12:15
    We've had a lot of people out doing site visits, interviewing workers, doing investigations.
  • 00:12:21
    We do a lot of investigations that may not turn up any issues but we also make sure that holds contractors accountable.
  • 00:12:28
    We are actively monitoring contracts meaning that every month when payments are made, every week when
  • 00:12:34
    payroll is submitted by contractors.
  • 00:12:38
    Contractors who don't submit payroll, we're requesting that, we're following up, we're making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to do to be in compliance with all our city contracts.
  • 00:12:47
    And then we're also certifying small businesses through the Minnesota Unified Certification Program and that is a lengthy process or an investigation for those different companies.
  • 00:12:57
    As you can see, here's our current numbers through, I'd probably say September 2024.
  • 00:13:04
    These numbers are different than last year, if you remember last year's numbers.
  • 00:13:08
    We're actively monitoring 127 contracts, $444 million.
  • 00:13:14
    Our big area that we monitor, though, is the city construction and development, which is the CPEC contracts, multi-family, single-family,
  • 00:13:23
    housing projects.
  • 00:13:25
    Those projects, or mixed-use facilities also, those projects have the most employment, the most subcontractors, and sometimes the most problems they have.
  • 00:13:37
    So we have to make sure that we do our due diligence to ensure contractors are in compliance.
  • 00:13:43
    We also certify 47 small businesses this year, which is, we're probably going to beat last year's record, which is the most that we've done in probably 15 years in the department.
  • 00:13:53
    and we're probably going to shatter our affirmative action plan record too.
  • 00:13:57
    All of this stuff is done, the director talked about establishing credibility, making sure that we have processes and procedures in place and when you have processes and procedures in place and you hold people accountable, including myself, then we are able to meet a lot of goals and deadlines and make sure that these numbers are there.
  • 00:14:15
    So far this year we have
  • 00:14:19
    got about $26,000 back for 39 workers.
  • 00:14:22
    Not a lot of money, but $677 to a person is a lot of money for a lot of people who are out there.
  • 00:14:28
    So we continue to do investigations, we continue to hold contractors to making sure they pay their workers on time and they classify them appropriately.
  • 00:14:39
    We focus this year on outreach.
  • 00:14:42
    The director talked about being in the community, making sure that we are visible, that we're transparent, that we're out there, people know who we are.
  • 00:14:51
    We've worked with Black Business Week.
  • 00:14:52
    I attended probably three or four of the Black Business Week events.
  • 00:14:58
    I was on the planning committee, also on the Latino Business Week, also that's coming up in October.
  • 00:15:03
    We're going to do a joint training with our Labor Standards and Enforcement Division
  • 00:15:07
    and get out to the community and talk to them about some of the things dealing with wage theft and also their rights around wages and their workers' rights.
  • 00:15:20
    There's still the challenges to affirmative action.
  • 00:15:22
    The different people who fight against affirmative action are fighting hard, so we have to do our due diligence to make sure we're doing everything above board and we're legally defensible in everything that we do, but also making a difference in ensuring that people get opportunity, a real opportunity to either be in a business or either to get employment that I think most people just want an opportunity and that's what we provide.
  • 00:15:44
    The last thing I will talk about too is that we've been working on the disparity study.
  • 00:15:49
    I know that's been kind of quiet, but the disparity study is active.
  • 00:15:53
    We have supplied numbers to the consultant.
  • 00:15:57
    This disparity study, I think as we talked about, is probably going to be the largest in the nation as far as number of entities.
  • 00:16:05
    We have just about every metropolitan agency in the Twin Cities involved, including Rochester.
  • 00:16:12
    which is a little farther down but they're going to start crunching numbers and we'll have a meeting with them in October or November to go over some preliminary numbers and make sure that we provided them with all the information that they need.
  • 00:16:25
    So I believe that's all that I have to present and I'll turn it over to the complaint investigations panel.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:16:33
    Good morning.
  • 00:16:34
    As Director Phillips noted, I'm Kayla McConandiera.
  • 00:16:38
    I'm the Director of the Complaint Investigations Division within the Civil Rights Department, and I'm also currently the Interim Director of Labor Standards, so I'm going to present both of those sections of this presentation today.
  • 00:16:48
    I was hoping to start with our video, but it sounds like tech-wise the audio is not necessarily going to play, so I will do my best to stand in.
  • 00:16:56
    So for the Complaint Investigations Division, our general objective, our task is to enforce the Minneapolis Civil Rights Ordinance.
  • 00:17:03
    and we do that by accepting and investigating complaints of discrimination.
  • 00:17:08
    This video that's here that we're not watching today but that I would encourage you to take a look at later if you have a chance and send out to community members who might be experiencing discrimination in the city explains our process for what we do when we receive those types of complaints, what sorts of things we can investigate.
  • 00:17:24
    Largely we're tasked with
  • 00:17:26
    investigating discrimination based on protected class.
  • 00:17:29
    Protected class is an element of your identity that you cannot or should not be asked to change.
  • 00:17:34
    They're delineated in the ordinance, but there's quite a few, so I like to use that definition to help people kind of understand what we're talking about.
  • 00:17:41
    But it's things like race, sex, disability, religion, national origin, and the like.
  • 00:17:46
    And we have jurisdiction to investigate discrimination in many different areas of life, including employment, housing,
  • 00:17:53
    public accommodation, so any place where you visit a restaurant, a store, and are looking for some sort of service and also in public services, so interactions with city employees are something that falls under our jurisdiction as well and a variety of other areas that we don't see as often but also investigate when they come up the activities and outcomes for this past year 2023 and then up to this point in 2024 I can report that the division has closed 78 cases in 2023
  • 00:18:22
    and to date in 2024, I have 36 it's actually 37 we're in our very busy case closure time frame so that updates pretty much by the day and then in 2023 we facilitated $260,000 approximately in monetary settlements for victims
  • 00:18:39
    of discrimination and in 2024 so far again that number is 76,000 on your screen but it's actually 166,000 as of today.
  • 00:18:49
    We had a couple good cases close.
  • 00:18:52
    We use mediation considerably often in our process so all of our investigators are trained mediators and we offer early mediation in almost every case that comes before us unless there's a really good reason not to.
  • 00:19:05
    They're voluntary so not everyone participates in mediation in our process but a lot of people do and we find that they're extremely successful especially in situations where someone has like a continuing relationship with whoever they believe is discriminating against them.
  • 00:19:20
    So good examples of this are people that are still employed and have made a charge of discrimination regarding their current employer and they wish to continue being employed.
  • 00:19:29
    and need to kind of figure out a positive way to move forward.
  • 00:19:33
    Similarly in a housing situation where someone is still housed somewhere but believes that the property owner at that location is potentially engaging in discrimination of some sort.
  • 00:19:44
    So we've seen a lot of success there.
  • 00:19:46
    We've been very focused over the last couple of years on our case timeline.
  • 00:19:50
    So last year we set the goal of
  • 00:19:51
    completing investigations.
  • 00:19:53
    So once a case gets to that investigative stage where it's fully in our hands and we're kind of running the show on how fast that gets done, the goal is that those are completed in 150 days.
  • 00:20:02
    In 2024 so far we have met that goal 75% of the time in 75% of our cases and our average case timeline for
  • 00:20:12
    the complaint investigations division is 114 days.
  • 00:20:17
    I will also highlight that we've maintained no backlog of appeals before the Civil Rights Commission so as many of you know when we make a decision in the department as to whether or not it appears that discrimination occurred.
  • 00:20:29
    If we determine that we do not think that that is the case, those cases can be appealed and are reviewed by members of our Civil Rights Commission.
  • 00:20:37
    And so for a long time, there was kind of a long-standing backlog in that particular area.
  • 00:20:42
    There is no backlog anymore, and we've been working effectively with the Commission to make sure that those cases keep moving.
  • 00:20:48
    We've also seen a decrease of appeals themselves, which has also helped with that as well.
  • 00:20:54
    And then I'll also highlight that kind of on the flip side, we have seen an increase in public hearings.
  • 00:21:00
    So public hearings are what happens if we make a finding of discrimination, we attempt to conciliate the case, which is kind of a more intense version of mediation where the department is also a party and we're trying to reach a positive outcome.
  • 00:21:12
    Whether that looks like monetary settlements, training, policy changes, all very dependent on any particular case.
  • 00:21:19
    but if that's unsuccessful and we're unable to reach a positive outcome then it goes to what we call a public hearing which is also in front of our civil rights commissioners and that's where they get to take a look at the case and all the evidence and decide whether or not you know they believe that discrimination has occurred and that the civil rights ordinance has been violated previously we hadn't had one of those for many years we had one last year
  • 00:21:42
    and we now have five in the pipeline happening.
  • 00:21:45
    So there's a lot going on in that kind of public hearing space which I think is exciting.
  • 00:21:51
    Oh, that's going to start the video.
  • 00:21:53
    There we go.
  • 00:21:54
    Some other things that I want to highlight, so one of the things I talked about last year and remains a pretty significant priority in the complaint investigations division is our work on source of income discrimination in housing.
  • 00:22:08
    And that term refers to the provision in our ordinance that protects folks and prohibits discrimination.
  • 00:22:15
    against people that use rent subsidies to pay for their housing.
  • 00:22:18
    So whether that's like a Section 8 housing choice voucher or some other sort of housing subsidy.
  • 00:22:24
    As many of you know, that was on the books as of 2018 but there was a lawsuit and an injunction and so we couldn't actually enforce it.
  • 00:22:32
    until December of 2022.
  • 00:22:35
    So as soon as it hit a point where we could enforce it, we really focused on both outreach and education to make sure people knew that we could enforce this moving forward and then also began of course enforcement as well.
  • 00:22:48
    So some of the outreach and education that I'll highlight, we did a variety of internal stakeholder
  • 00:22:53
    to make sure that they were aware.
  • 00:23:15
    that this was now prohibited under the ordinance.
  • 00:23:18
    I think it's been quite successful in that since then we've received 39 complaints around this type of discrimination and we filed 10 director's charges.
  • 00:23:28
    A director's charge is something we have power to issue under the ordinance when we have reason to believe that the ordinance has been violated but we don't necessarily have a complaint from a member of the public.
  • 00:23:38
    where most of these come out of is doing proactive enforcement of having civil rights staff complaint investigation staff look for these violations on actual like advertisements for housing right so it's a violation of our ordinance to say no section 8 no housing subsidy in a listing for a property
  • 00:23:56
    and so when we have found those we began in the early part of this process we understood that people didn't necessarily know that this was in place we started with warning letters that's what we did for the first year in 2023 but as of January 2024 when we saw those in advertisements we did start issuing directors charges and then we run them through our investigative process like we would anything else
  • 00:24:18
    and have settled the vast majority of those cases.
  • 00:24:22
    They're fairly straightforward when we have a screenshot of the advertisement that says the thing that is prohibited by the ordinance.
  • 00:24:28
    So that has been successful.
  • 00:24:30
    We've closed 26 of those cases.
  • 00:24:33
    Some of them remain open and are still being investigated and have reached a settlement total just in those specific type of cases of a little over $21,000 so far.
  • 00:24:43
    And then I'll also highlight work that we've been doing with Councilmember Chavez and Councilmember Wonsley and others around the civil rights ordinance and making amendments to those ordinance.
  • 00:24:55
    We're really excited about that process.
  • 00:24:57
    So we've been engaging on ensuring robust protections across the board in our civil rights ordinance.
  • 00:25:03
    conforming with federal and state law with our protections that we provide in city ordinance and then fixing holes and simplifying processes, learning from how we've seen the ordinance play out in our current work and how we could improve efficiencies and make sure that everyone is covered who is intended to be covered by the spirit of the ordinance.
  • 00:25:21
    And then last, I will highlight work with our Civil Rights Commission as I've already highlighted.
  • 00:25:26
    They participate in our actual case processing which is a really valuable role that they play so we always work with them on that and then we've also been able to spend a lot of kind of extra time working on this public hearing side of things because that is a relatively new part of our process that's coming up more often so working with them a lot on that.
  • 00:25:44
    They also just completed a very successful youth essay contest which was geared towards Minneapolis middle schoolers and asked them to write an essay about a diverse hero of their choosing so we had a first, second,
  • 00:25:56
    and third prize winner and we had an award ceremony at our last commission meeting which was really, really positive.
  • 00:26:05
    And then they also have been fully engaged on these ordinance changes as well and are very energized and excited to be a part of that process.
  • 00:26:14
    All right, moving into labor standards.
  • 00:26:17
    So the objective of the Labor Standards Enforcement Division is to investigate reported violations of labor standards and resolve disputes or demand payment of back wages and damages for affected workers.
  • 00:26:28
    As many of you know, the key labor standards that we're focused on enforcing and that we have here at the city level is making sure that sick and safe time is available to employees.
  • 00:26:38
    That provides one hour
  • 00:26:39
    of time off, sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked for employees across the city of Minneapolis, making sure that folks are paying our city's minimum wage, which is $15.57 per hour right now and is going to go up in January to $15.97 per hour in the city of Minneapolis, and then also ensuring that wage theft is not occurring.
  • 00:26:59
    So we receive all of those types of complaints and investigate them as they come in.
  • 00:27:03
    and really have an impressive number of cases that we get through each year and settlements that we receive.
  • 00:27:10
    So in 2023, that division closed 178 cases and facilitated $642,000 in monetary settlements that impacted almost 3,000 workers.
  • 00:27:22
    and then so far in 2024 the division closed 84 cases and facilitated $240,000 in monetary settlements impacting 641 workers.
  • 00:27:34
    We also work really closely with some partners on different projects.
  • 00:27:38
    So Director Phillips already talked a little bit about our small business pilot program.
  • 00:27:43
    So we're working with Rutgers Workplace Justice Lab and we've worked
  • 00:27:48
    pretty closely with Councilmember Koski on that project but making sure that we are providing the technical assistance especially to very small businesses to ensure that they really understand what our labor standards are and have the tools to be able to actually adhere to them.
  • 00:28:05
    That came out of an understanding looking at the cases that were coming into labor standards enforcement
  • 00:28:11
    and really seeing that, especially for our very small businesses, it was not necessarily willful violations of our city's labor laws, right?
  • 00:28:18
    It was a lack of knowledge, a lack of tools and ability to adhere to them.
  • 00:28:22
    So that's been really successful.
  • 00:28:23
    It's moving into phase two, which is really going to focus on community bookkeepers.
  • 00:28:28
    Our phase one of that pilot project really identified
  • 00:28:30
    those individuals as kind of the key people that small business owners were turning to for this type of assistance.
  • 00:28:37
    So we're really focusing on that in phase two and excited about that.
  • 00:28:42
    And then I'll highlight our very valuable partnership with our co-enforcement partner, Setool, a local worker center that does a lot of training, awareness raising, and then also addressing these types of cases and complaints that come in through
  • 00:28:56
    through their worker center and resolving what they're able to resolve and then referring cases to the Labor Standards Enforcement Division when necessary and appropriate to go through our full investigative process.
  • 00:29:10
    And then last I'll highlight our work with the Workplace Advisory Committee.
  • 00:29:14
    who really was instrumental in getting a lot of these things on the books and really has been a part of that process all the way through as well as working with Minnesota DLI especially as Sick and Saved Time has gone statewide and coordinating with them on what that looks like when cases come in that are occurring in Minneapolis and some of the differences between the state law and the city ordinance.
  • 00:29:37
    So with that, I will pass it back to Director Phillips.
  • 00:29:41
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:29:45
    Thank you, Director.
  • 00:29:46
    And my apologies, this was kind of a little bit of a, I don't want to necessarily say rush, but I've been juggling a couple of different things, so if anything is missing or I notice the formatting as well, please just give grace.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:30:01
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:30:02
    Our Equity and Engagement Division is overseen and responsible for our Division Director, Shalonda Clark.
  • 00:30:11
    I was kind of in a rush, so she didn't necessarily help as much as possible.
  • 00:30:16
    I was asking for some information from her on this, so I'm going to go ahead and speak high level about the division.
  • 00:30:22
    Historically, it has acted as the liaison for the Civil Rights Department.
  • 00:30:27
    as well as any enterprise on equity issues and engagement opportunities.
  • 00:30:32
    They've also worked with the enterprise and community stakeholders to co-create a more equitable Minneapolis.
  • 00:30:38
    Prior initiatives include Urban Scholars, Black Business Week and Source Income Community Listening Sessions.
  • 00:30:47
    Last month they just concluded their 2024 Urban Scholar season.
  • 00:30:51
    I think many of you guys were there or some of you had urban scholars and participated in that.
  • 00:30:56
    I know Councilmember Chavez is an alumni of Urban Scholars, so I just want to shout him out and the successful completion of that program.
  • 00:31:08
    The Police Conduct Review, OPCR, the mission of the office is to be an impartial division within the Department of Civil Rights that investigates public allegations of police misconduct by City of Minneapolis police officers.
  • 00:31:25
    We are currently in the process of recruiting and or hiring.
  • 00:31:29
    Many staff members within that department, which includes the OPCR permanent director.
  • 00:31:35
    We also have an OPCR investigations supervisor and case investigators.
  • 00:31:40
    The restructuring of OPCR will be to improve the operational effectiveness and efficiency of the department to ensure that we do not have the backlogs and delays and challenges in providing the direct services that are much needed to our public constituency.
  • 00:31:57
    reestablishing and strengthening our partnership with community organizations such as the Unity Community Mediation Team.
  • 00:32:04
    We've just reestablished that partnership.
  • 00:32:07
    Maybe three weeks ago we went out and did a training with them on complaint intake process.
  • 00:32:13
    with many of their partners and we are also going to have trainings that are site specific in the coming weeks.
  • 00:32:20
    Those are being scheduled, the majority of them, as well as our complaint investigations division.
  • 00:32:26
    They will also be joining us to help to train our community partners as we move that forward.
  • 00:32:32
    As far as the backlog goes, as of September 4, 2024, there are 89 cases that are still in the intake stage within the backlog.
  • 00:32:44
    10 of those are assigned to our intake supervisor, which is a newer position that we've created to ensure that there is oversight over investigations
  • 00:32:53
    as well as intake.
  • 00:32:56
    Eleven are assigned to one intake investigator and nine are assigned to another intake investigator, so those are actively being vetted and in the preliminary vetting stages.
  • 00:33:08
    We have ten that are actively with our outside investigator, which is Wally Repert.
  • 00:33:15
    as we move forward.
  • 00:33:17
    And then we have approximately 100 cases that are in the investigations unit that are assigned to our investigators in that process.
  • 00:33:35
    I know that this was spoken about a little bit on Monday regarding background checks, MPD and funding for civil rights and others.
  • 00:33:44
    $30,000 was proposed for civil rights.
  • 00:33:49
    The $30,000 for the background checks, all OPCR investigators and staff must go through MPD background check to ensure that they can have access to information regarding police misconduct cases.
  • 00:34:03
    and the City Council.
  • 00:34:22
    and PDs background investigations unit to do our investigation our background investigations for impending staff as well as our new commissioners which could be a lengthy process so this would hopefully expedite that process so we can get our newer commissioners in background checks panels up and running a little bit quicker as well as our staff and
  • 00:34:42
    and we'll also be having some Department of Civil Rights staff who are not necessarily division specific background checked just in case there needs to be some assistance in OPCR.
  • 00:34:54
    We have those individuals that have been background checked can help with either data management
  • 00:34:58
    For example, we are actively doing our interviews next week for a business data analyst who will be a business data analyst for the entire department, but will also have an MPD background check to help with the OPCR data backlog and to ensure that we have the data transparency that they need.
  • 00:35:17
    So that's what kind of we will be using this particular funding for.
  • 00:35:28
    Our Director of OPCO is not feeling well so she is not here but we're here and we stand to answer any questions from this body.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:35:38
    Thank you for your very thorough presentation Director.
  • 00:35:43
    Colleagues, are there any questions or discussion items for the Civil Rights Department?
  • 00:35:49
    I will first recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:35:53
    Director Phillips, welcome to your first Minneapolis budget season.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:35:58
    I want to recognize the hard and sometimes thankless work, even hostile work that your department handles.
  • 00:36:05
    The commitment to advancing the rights of residents and workers and women and minorities and other protected classes is a really important work.
  • 00:36:13
    It's part of the fabric of our city.
  • 00:36:16
    For OPCR
  • 00:36:18
    My curiosity is about how are we coming along with a backlog of cases and how might this funding allow you to operate more efficiently?
  • 00:36:27
    You went over some numbers pretty quickly in your presentation.
  • 00:36:31
    Do you or does somebody know, I recognize Carolina isn't available to join us today, but do you have a sense of how many cases remain or how many cases haven't been assigned anywhere yet?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:36:45
    Yes, so in March of 2024, we started out with 206 cases classified as backlog cases.
  • 00:36:54
    As of September the 4th, there are 89 classified as backlog cases that are in the intake.
  • 00:37:00
    Of those 89, 30 are assigned to either the OPCR intake supervisor or intake investigators.
  • 00:37:08
    So that would leave us with 59 as of right now that have not been assigned or triaged during the preliminary process.
  • 00:37:17
    Once those cases are vetted to ensure jurisdiction, we've done the preliminary work, gathered our
  • 00:37:24
    Documentary evidence, BWC footage, all the things that are needed to move the case forward whether it goes to an outside investigator or stays within OPCR then procedurally how we're going to be working this through is that it will be packaged up by intake and then given to the OPCR investigations supervisor to be assigned to an investigator to continue and finish on that investigation.
  • 00:37:47
    So that's where we are as far as the backlog goes.
  • 00:37:51
    The backlog and intake, fastly moving through it, they are working through this now.
  • 00:37:56
    I expect these numbers to go down but then also understanding that we still have to continue on with those investigations so it will move in effect from intake into investigations be assigned and those are being actively worked on and the investigations staff members are carrying approximately 30 cases each.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:38:16
    Well, um, thank you.
  • 00:38:19
    It's a hard number to swallow that initial backlog, but it sounds like you and your team are making good progress on it.
  • 00:38:24
    So thank you.
  • 00:38:25
    I agree.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:38:25
    Thank you.
  • 00:38:28
    Um, thank you.
  • 00:38:30
    Next I'll recognize council member Wonsley.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:38:34
    Thank you Council Vice President Chuktai.
  • 00:38:38
    Director, you mentioned Urban Scholars Program and just wanted to get a sense of what would be needed to expand it or to support it back to where we had it in previous terms where I know that was enjoyable
  • 00:38:54
    program that council members got to participate, all of us, in terms of having an urban scholar and this particular year that was different.
  • 00:39:03
    So just wanted to get a sense of what would it look like or what is needed to expand that program.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:39:10
    So I've actually been looking into our urban scholars program and kind of how it has historically been operating and what is needed, the support and the resources as well as looking at the totality and jurisdiction of the Department of Civil Rights
  • 00:39:25
    and I think it's a great question.
  • 00:39:26
    I've been talking to the enterprise about what is needed and quite frankly is civil rights the appropriate place for it to grow and evolve and to be cultivated in a way.
  • 00:39:39
    I went back and took a look and saw the curriculum hadn't been updated since 2013.
  • 00:39:45
    During very past Director's time and are we investing in the program?
  • 00:39:53
    I think it's a great and a fabulous program But we are looking into that exact question as of right now, and I have no problem with following up with you Look forward to hearing that follow-up.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:40:02
    Thank you.
  • 00:40:03
    Yes, ma'am Thank you.
  • 00:40:06
    And finally, I'll recognize vice chair Koski and
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:40:09
    Thank you Madam Vice President and thank you Director Phillips and wonderful job.
  • 00:40:13
    I appreciate you being here and congratulations getting through your first presentation so for the Budget Committee I should say I know you've done many others and will soon just a couple questions and totally okay if we you need to
  • 00:40:31
    You know get answers later to the some of these as well.
  • 00:40:34
    So I noticed that the salary and wages Increase was a little over 8% and I was just curious if you knew what the cause of that was So our budget analyst Lindsay Ehrman is here if she wants to kind of come in and talk about that We were I know she broke it down to me, but I don't want to be incorrect.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:40:55
    So I'm gonna phone a friend Great.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:40:58
    Thank you
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:41:05
    Good morning, Council Vice President Chuktai, Budget Co-Chair Koski.
  • 00:41:12
    So we are seeing growth in personnel costs across the enterprise, and then as far as civil rights, you'll see in schedule five that there's an additional FTE that is added, and that is because we had to do some corrections with CDBG, so onto the general fund as well of a splitting, and so that added a little extra growth into civil rights.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:41:34
    okay is that the you had described that there were 12 to 13 I think on the on the list is that what is that what you mean by the additional FTE no different okay in a different division okay this is at the department level that
  • 00:41:50
    gotcha okay sounds great thank you so much and just you had talked about the vacancies and I was just wondering if you could go in a little deeper around those so maybe just clarify the 12 to 13 positions I know that there were looked like there are seven of them that were in the midst of interviews there were a few that
  • 00:42:12
    were maybe in different parts of the hiring process and there was one that had been open for one year so if you could just maybe go through those or I'm happy to get the information later too.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:42:23
    Sure, so I actually have a little cheat sheet and I can kind of go through them so our Labor Standards Director and I think that's the one that you may be talking about has been open for almost a year or so.
  • 00:42:34
    We actually have our candidates starting on September the 30th, so that will be filled The director of OPC are the permanent director.
  • 00:42:44
    We are in the process of doing those interviews We had first round interviews last week and this week and next week our second round interviews and
  • 00:42:52
    so that position will also be filled.
  • 00:42:55
    There is a project coordinator at the administration level that has been reclassed to a business data analyst and those interviews are also scheduled for next week and the week after.
  • 00:43:08
    There is a wage theft investigator whose interviews will be scheduled on the 25th and I only know this because I asked the director right before I got here.
  • 00:43:19
    here.
  • 00:43:20
    So September 25th, those interviews are scheduled.
  • 00:43:23
    We have two complaint investigations officers, one in LSED and one in CID.
  • 00:43:29
    They had a joint recruitment that has closed.
  • 00:43:33
    We are delaying those interviews until our LSED director gets on so that they will be doing those interviews in October.
  • 00:43:40
    Our case investigator, we have one that is in the background stage right now who will be assigned to intake to help with that backlog.
  • 00:43:47
    They are in the hiring process and we're awaiting MPD background.
  • 00:43:51
    We have a project coordinator supervisor that I have changed the title of the name to an OPCR investigations supervisor.
  • 00:43:59
    Those interviews are scheduled for next week.
  • 00:44:01
    Case investigators, there are two.
  • 00:44:04
    We are working on doing another recruitment.
  • 00:44:07
    There is another two case investigators that will be vacant as well.
  • 00:44:12
    I am reclassifying those two case investigator twos so that they have more capacity, skill set to do more complex investigations within OPCR, maybe multiple officers or higher level ranked officers as we move forward.
  • 00:44:28
    So that reclass, I'm working with HR to do that.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:44:32
    Okay, thank you so much.
  • 00:44:33
    Yeah, the one that I was thinking about was the project coordinator.
  • 00:44:36
    It sounds like that's been open for three years, but it sounds like you're reclassifying that and are in the hiring process.
  • 00:44:43
    Yes.
  • 00:44:43
    Got it.
  • 00:44:43
    Okay, that's great.
  • 00:44:44
    And then just one last question about the background checks, the proposal.
  • 00:44:50
    Can you just describe a little bit of how much time and capacity you think this will help and support the team?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:44:59
    So I know as of right now it usually takes like six to eight weeks for the background check MPD honestly has been really great I'll ask like hey we need panelists that are available so they'll put a rush on it which may cut it down to about four weeks or so which has been helpful but I'm hopeful that this will turn around to approximately two to maybe three weeks even quicker if we outsource thanks appreciate that
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:45:24
    You're very welcome.
  • 00:45:25
    Wonderful.
  • 00:45:26
    We have reached the end of questions and discussion items for you, Director.
  • 00:45:30
    Thank you for coming to present your budget.
  • 00:45:33
    And we will now welcome the next department.
  • 00:45:38
    Thank you.
  • 00:45:38
    Our next presentation is going to be by the Communications Department.
  • 00:45:47
    So I will now welcome Michael Vlachovich, our Interim Communications Director, to begin that presentation.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:46:04
    Chair Chigtai, council members, thank you so much for having me today.
  • 00:46:09
    My name is Michael Vlachovich.
  • 00:46:12
    I am the interim director for the city's communications department.
  • 00:46:17
    Glad to be here with you all today to discuss the mayor's proposed biennial budget for our team.
  • 00:46:24
    I want to lead off with an overview of how the department is structured.
  • 00:46:30
    We have a Deputy Director, Michael Douglas.
  • 00:46:34
    He oversees a team of three focused on strategic and internal communications.
  • 00:46:40
    That's the more proactive slice of the work we do.
  • 00:46:44
    There are two media relations coordinators, Jess Olstead and Alan Henry.
  • 00:46:48
    They are focused on liaising with members of the press, helping tell our city's story through traditional media.
  • 00:46:56
    The Multimedia Services Team is our largest division of work.
  • 00:47:00
    There are five team members led by our Multimedia Services Manager, CJ Harrison.
  • 00:47:07
    And finally, the digital and social media work our team does is anchored by Digital Communications Coordinator, Jordan Gilgenbach.
  • 00:47:16
    Priority objectives for our department really center on equitable, timely access to city information regarding policies, programs, and services.
  • 00:47:27
    That's true for residents, businesses, visitors, as well as departments and divisions here within the city, newsrooms and reporters as well.
  • 00:47:37
    Those objectives are all done in service of our overarching mission which is to ensure that people in Minneapolis have the information they need when they need it.
  • 00:47:49
    We've broken out by
  • 00:47:52
    Platform here, the tactics we deploy for realizing those strategic objectives beginning with media, when we talk about media, we're referencing traditional, that's print, TV, radio, as well as cultural, which I know we'll touch on later.
  • 00:48:09
    Digital media, that's social channels as well as the city's website.
  • 00:48:15
    Multimedia, we're referencing audio and video support and production, as well as live streaming city programming.
  • 00:48:24
    Internal and external work products.
  • 00:48:26
    When we talk internal, we're referencing things like the city's newsletter or the intranet page.
  • 00:48:31
    And external work products are inclusive of graphic design software like Canva, billboards, and logos or icon production.
  • 00:48:42
    I want to briefly highlight some of the past year's achievements realized through these tactics.
  • 00:48:49
    starting with the work we're doing on paid digital.
  • 00:48:53
    This is in addition to managing all of the city's official platforms across social media channels.
  • 00:49:00
    Jordan has been driving on paid advertising work.
  • 00:49:04
    It's a relatively new body, but you can see significant growth across key performance metrics.
  • 00:49:12
    From 2023 to year to date 2024, we've seen a tenfold increase in the number of people reached through our paid advertising work, a jump from 42.6 million
  • 00:49:25
    impressions this year up from 5.6 million last year and we are already nearly at 300,000 links clicked up from 46,000 all of 2023.
  • 00:49:36
    I know that there is an industrious end to 2024 as well as the beginning of 2025 plan for the paid digital work as well.
  • 00:49:48
    The multimedia team also provides enterprise-wide support.
  • 00:49:53
    Last year they supported 117 department-driven multimedia projects for 13 departments.
  • 00:50:01
    They handled nearly 300 live government broadcasts, the majority of which were council and committee meetings like this one.
  • 00:50:11
    They're on pace to meet or exceed those numbers in 2024 with a slight uptick in press events.
  • 00:50:21
    We've also launched a still photography service that we're offering as part of our communications work.
  • 00:50:32
    For media relations we've included a breakdown of coverage from September of last year to the same time this year.
  • 00:50:40
    In that time we have tracked nearly 1300 unique contacts with members of the press
  • 00:50:48
    Most of that coverage has been local to Minnesota with a handful of stories generating national interest about our city.
  • 00:50:57
    Majority of this coverage has been the result of incoming questions followed by coverage generated by a press release or news conference and then proactive messaging.
  • 00:51:09
    Our goal as a team is to increase that proactive messaging slice of the pie to 15% next year.
  • 00:51:18
    On a daily basis, we receive roughly seven to ten unique inquiries a day and the team who handles that, Jess and Alan, do broader writing projects for the city as well, helping ensure that city staff are prepared before they talk to members of the press and tracking metrics like the ones you're looking at presently.
  • 00:51:40
    We've also included a breakdown of inquiries received by departments.
  • 00:51:44
    I think this helps give a flavor of the variety of the work they do.
  • 00:51:48
    Not surprisingly, we have seen the greatest interest reside with two of our largest departments, Public Works and CPED.
  • 00:52:00
    Casting forward a bit, we are keen on generating more proactive interest in the work that other city departments are doing as well.
  • 00:52:11
    On the internal communications front, our team produces Minneapolis Matters, that's the bi-weekly newsletter that reaches 4700 city staff, comes out 25 times annually.
  • 00:52:23
    The open rate for that email is about 37%, which as far as industry performance is concerned is pretty strong.
  • 00:52:30
    The city's intranet page, we frequently collaborate with the team who supports that as well.
  • 00:52:35
    We posted 223 news stories so far this year along with 260 events for city staff to consider.
  • 00:52:48
    External communications, news bites, a service with which you are all familiar.
  • 00:52:53
    We curate a collection of news stories that council members as well as enterprise leaders can draw from for their communications with residents.
  • 00:53:01
    That's done on a weekly basis and 51 times a year.
  • 00:53:05
    The City news update is curated, written, and sent 51 times weekly to almost 18,000 subscribers per edition.
  • 00:53:14
    Our graphic design work we've continued to expand access to Canva helping ensure that city staff throughout the enterprise are equipped with software to produce high quality professional grade visual products on their own.
  • 00:53:28
    The licensure
  • 00:53:28
    It's up to 147 staff members and we're continuing to put public service announcements up on billboards around Minneapolis.
  • 00:53:40
    As far as risks are concerned, we want to highlight coordination capacity.
  • 00:53:45
    As we continue implementing the new government structure, our team is tasked with supporting a large swath of multi-departmental projects.
  • 00:53:56
    They're complex, they require a lot of collaboration with staff throughout the enterprise, so we're continuing to ensure that we've got the right processes, role definition, and working relationships in place to support that work.
  • 00:54:08
    Staff turnover, we're also keen on ensuring the well-being of our employees.
  • 00:54:12
    Five of our 13 team members have started within the last three months, so that will remain a focus.
  • 00:54:22
    For programming and staffing, we have two programs.
  • 00:54:25
    That's Enterprise Communications, the bulk of the work, much of which we've covered in the preceding slides, and Public Access TV, which accounts for about $472,000 annually.
  • 00:54:38
    You all have allocated 13 FTEs and we are presently fully staffed.
  • 00:54:47
    Public Access TV, really simply, the city is committed to providing local media resources for content creation that reflect a diversity of voice as both independent and non-commercial created for and by the people of Minneapolis.
  • 00:55:04
    Since 2020, we have been working with the team at Speak Minneapolis as our public access vendor.
  • 00:55:11
    Speak Minneapolis, and I'll note Rebecca Smith from Speak
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:55:16
    is here.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:55:18
    They are a member-powered media center reimagining the future of media in Minneapolis.
  • 00:55:24
    They have two studios, one in Northeast and South, where they host classes, provide access to equipment, as well as production studios.
  • 00:55:32
    If you haven't had a chance yet, I highly encourage getting out for a site visit with the SPEAK team.
  • 00:55:40
    Just pulling a handful of the accomplishments from last year in this that the SPEAK team provided.
  • 00:55:45
    They've grown membership up to 151 members.
  • 00:55:49
    It's 75% of whom are Minneapolis residents and they've also placed an emphasis on youth and diversity.
  • 00:55:57
    29% of their members are under 18 and 71% identify as BIPOC.
  • 00:56:07
    and just a quick recitation of some of the core communications functions that go into the $2.2 million in programming.
  • 00:56:16
    We continue to provide communications to support to achieve the programmatic and policy objectives of client departments.
  • 00:56:25
    Continue to work on telling the city's stories and engaging audiences through channel diversification as well as some of the nuts and bolts digital work associated with that.
  • 00:56:38
    One unique service that the communications team provides in partnership with NCR and community media outlets is our cultural media program.
  • 00:56:49
    Like I said, we work with community media outlets to develop and produce content and programming that is both in language and culturally relevant.
  • 00:56:58
    To produce those shows, we work closely with Director Moe, Taylor and their teams coordinating production schedules, translation services, and ensuring that city messaging helps bridge information gaps and build trust through this programming.
  • 00:57:12
    A few of the key metrics that we've looked at for 2023 and 2024 are shows produced and unique topics discussed.
  • 00:57:21
    You'll see in 2023 we produced 97 shows and considered 38 unique topics.
  • 00:57:27
    In 2024, so far we've produced 70 shows with 34 unique topics considered.
  • 00:57:37
    We are requesting $25,000 in ongoing funding to continue supporting the expanded cultural media content that was initially made possible by ARPA funding that is scheduled to sunset this year.
  • 00:57:53
    The programming doesn't require any new FTEs.
  • 00:57:59
    Again, the objective of this cultural media work is to ensure that public information remains accessible, equitable, transparent, and timely.
  • 00:58:07
    It will help us reach diverse audiences while providing consistency, predictability, and stability for East African community media partners planning this programming.
  • 00:58:21
    That's our presentation.
  • 00:58:22
    Happy to take any questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:58:24
    Thank you for that presentation.
  • 00:58:27
    Director Vlachovich.
  • 00:58:29
    Colleagues, do we have any questions or comments for the Communications Department?
  • 00:58:34
    I'll recognize Vice Chair Koski.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:58:36
    Thank you Madam Vice President.
  • 00:58:38
    Thank you so much for the presentation.
  • 00:58:40
    I just had one quick question.
  • 00:58:42
    I noticed that there was a, in your fringe line item, it was almost a 10% increase from 24 to 25 and I'm just wondering what brought that to that level.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:58:59
    Chair Chug Thai, Vice Chair Koski, I will look over my shoulder at our analyst Justin Carlson.
  • 00:59:05
    My understanding is that one staff member who had elected no coverage departed, another who has a number of dependents has joined the team.
  • 00:59:15
    Is it time for the increase?
  • 00:59:16
    Is that right?
  • 00:59:17
    I have to elaborate on that.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:59:23
    Chair Shek, Vice Chair Koski, the Director says it's absolutely accurate.
  • 00:59:27
    What we look at is salary growth overall, so in wages it was 3% increase from 24 to 25 within expectations.
  • 00:59:34
    Seeing that 9%, it's a $42,000 increase in fringe accounts.
  • 00:59:38
    Obviously it was a red flag for our team as well, but looking at the selection in healthcare coverage, the variation from no coverage to single to family, that allocation shifted from 24 to 25, creating about a $25,000 difference in their budget.
  • 00:59:51
    taking that out and correcting for that, they would have been under 5% increase for 25.
  • 00:59:56
    Great, thanks so much.
  • 00:59:57
    That's helpful.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:59:58
    Mr. Carlson, before you go, will you just quickly introduce yourself?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 01:00:03
    Happy to.
  • 01:00:03
    Justin Carlson, Principal Budget Evaluation Analyst supporting the Communications Department.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:00:08
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 01:00:12
    Any further questions?
  • 01:00:14
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Chaudry followed by Councilmember Palmisano and that will reach the end of our question and answer period.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:00:23
    Thank you, Council Vice President.
  • 01:00:26
    I don't really have any questions, just wanted to make some comments.
  • 01:00:29
    Really appreciated the presentation here today, just kind of understanding how our reach is growing as the City of Minneapolis.
  • 01:00:38
    I was really excited to see that.
  • 01:00:41
    and look forward to learning what the plans are into 2025.
  • 01:00:47
    Just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone on the communications team for doing that effort and then also making sure communications happened over the last four years during really difficult and hard times in our city.
  • 01:01:02
    I'm going to call out Jordan really quick.
  • 01:01:05
    Thanks for taking on TikTok, man.
  • 01:01:08
    It's really fun to see that pop up and have that type of presence.
  • 01:01:16
    Looking to the future, I'm particularly interested in how this body can partner in public service announcements and the growth that we can do there.
  • 01:01:26
    Really highlighting the work that happens in the city enterprise, but also looking at how can we also communicate to residents that might need information about other public
  • 01:01:38
    And then finally Councilmember Palmisano
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:01:58
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 01:01:59
    I'm really pleased to see the budget item for cultural media programming switch to ongoing.
  • 01:02:04
    We're always trying to scrap in some extra dollars there, but as we become a more diverse community, we have to be nimble and sensitive to a broader delivery of communications.
  • 01:02:17
    So the ongoing nature of funding here helps us to be a lot more intentional than we've necessarily been able to do or to commit to in the past.
  • 01:02:26
    Mr. Vlachovich, I'm curious, which paid digital campaigns would you anticipate continuing into next year with the money that you have allocated?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:02:36
    Sure.
  • 01:02:37
    Chair Chugtai, Councilmember Palmisano, I think we can say with confidence that the As You Go campaign from Public Works, some of the Climate Legacy Initiative, programming as well that's already received an appropriation,
  • 01:02:51
    and I think other work will largely be a dictate of decisions you all make over the next few months but I know that the work is, and elections is a standby, but I know the work is broad and spans departments and those are the ones I can think of offhand that I think have already secured funding but I'd be happy to follow up and clarify too.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:03:12
    No, that sounds about right from, you know, the things that we have going on.
  • 01:03:16
    I was just curious.
  • 01:03:17
    Thank you.
• • 01:03:18
    Thanks.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:03:19
    Excellent.
  • 01:03:20
    Director, that concludes the questions and comments that committee members have for you.
  • 01:03:25
    Thank you for coming to present your budget today.
  • 01:03:27
    And with that, colleagues, we have concluded all business to come before this committee today.
  • 01:03:33
    And without objection, we stand adjourned until our next meeting, which will be tomorrow, Friday, September 13th at 10 a.m.
  • 01:03:42
    I don't know why we decided to go with such an unlucky day, but here we are.
  • 01:03:47
    We are going to be receiving budget presentations from the 311 service center from IT and on the technology improvement plan which is going to be a cross departmental presentation.
  • 01:04:01
    The presentation for the 311 service center is already in LIMS and not only is it in LIMS, it's been there for a couple of days.
  • 01:04:08
    So the 311 service center is on top of it.
  • 01:04:12
    We do not yet have presentations for IT or for the technology improvement plan.
  • 01:04:16
    I'm sorry Director Cameron, I'm looking right at you while I'm doing this.
  • 01:04:19
    But we will hopefully have those soon.
  • 01:04:23
    Please take a look at those ahead of time.
  • 01:04:24
    Thank you everyone.