Budget Committee September 23, 2024   9/23/2024

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:31
    Good morning, my name is Aisha Chugtai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.
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    I'm going to call to order our adjourned committee meeting for Monday, September 23rd, 2024.
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    Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all council members, staff presenters, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.
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    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
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    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 encourage and ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments at this time I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum Councilmember Payne present Wonsley is absent, Rainville is absent, Vitol present
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:01:27
    Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:49
    I'll also remind my colleagues that we're going to be using speaker management today so please make sure you sign in to be recognized.
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    Today we have two presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2025 budget.
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    One from Community Planning and Economic Development and the second from the Regulatory Services Department.
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    I'll now invite Eric Hansen, Community Planning and Economic Development Director to begin our first presentation.
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    Welcome, Director.
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    I'll just have you hold on one second.
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    We can't hear you.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:02:24
    How is this?
  • 00:02:24
    Perfect.
  • 00:02:25
    Can you hear me now?
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    Alright.
  • 00:02:29
    Good morning, my name is Eric Hansen.
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    I am the Director of Community Planning and Economic Development, or commonly referred to as CPED, and I'm pleased to present CPED's recommended biennial 25-26 budget.
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    With me here today are our CFED directors and a few other critical staff that help prepare this presentation.
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    So I come here representing a large team and I want to acknowledge our Director of Housing Policy and Development, Alfred Port, our Planning Director, Meg McMahon,
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    Our Director of Operations and Innovation Karuna Mahajanen Our Director of Development Services Steve Poore is out this morning on personal business and I see a few staff Sarah Milner who runs our Policy Research and Outreach team and that's it except for a very brand new person in our team it is a tradition now
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    to introduce the new Economic Development Director at a budget hearing since I was introduced six years ago at the budget hearing.
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    And I'm just delighted to have Julie Linum in the audience who starts her very first day as today as Director of Economic Policy and Development.
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    Okay, let's get into it.
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    CPAT is a diverse and complex department of 245 highly trained professionals you see in this picture.
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    And we collaborate between five divisions.
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    Our first name is community and at the core of our work is serving people.
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    We serve people through the mission which you see on the slide as well and we measure our success through outcomes to build a better city where all people are fully participating in the economy.
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    The past few years have been especially challenging for the department having to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and grapple with the structural issues that led to the murder of George Floyd and the after effects of the unrest from his murder.
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    CPED continues to meet this moment in time.
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    Our team continues to be incredibly creative.
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    and productive.
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    We are reducing barriers through relaxed regulations, we're deploying resources more efficiently and we're helping people get jobs, buy properties, open and grow businesses and find a place to call home.
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    We are unlocking home ownership and we are increasing housing stability.
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    Our comprehensive plan is back on track with Minneapolis 2040 receiving legislative support in this year's legislative session and we are now back to building a more inclusive and resilient Minneapolis Minneapolis is seeing another billion dollars in overall development again this year for the 14th consecutive year and we are a department that is committed to making sure that we are progressing towards an anti-racist department culture
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    where each of our valued employees feel safe to come to work as their whole selves.
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    Together, CPED is making an impact.
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    CPED's impact is measured in outcomes.
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    Ultimately, when we are successful, we will have eliminated disparities in community, especially along class and racial lines.
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    This committee knows the millions of dollars we invest in community and that we invest to stabilize housing, increase property ownership, help with work experiences and help people find good jobs, and the ever evolving safely built environment.
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    We are working to ensure that all the people who call Minneapolis home today will be here into the future.
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    We work in partnership to deliver our outcomes, and you can see the impact through all 87 neighborhoods.
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    Our work is not without risk, however.
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    As we come out of the pandemic, people meet their needs and use our city differently than they did before.
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    We have a bold plan to usher in Minneapolis, usher Minneapolis into this post-COVID world.
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    Minneapolis 2040 has weathered its first set of legal tests, but others could come as it supports change that not everybody is ready to accept.
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    As we move into this next era, we continue to be creative to meet the changing markets, supply chain issues, interest rates fluctuations, and we are also grappling with diminishing external one-time federal sources and disappearing local funds.
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    that will have an impact on CPED programs specifically in affordable housing production.
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    This is not the first time that Minneapolis has had to modernize and move into a new era, and we will meet this current moment just as our predecessors have done with the wisdom, skill, and tenacity of our talented staff team at every level of our organizational chart.
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    The mayor has recommended a $119.7 million budget for 2025 in CPED.
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    This budget includes $10.3 million in change items that I'll discuss shortly.
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    Please note that in most circumstances, these are one-time allocations.
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    I'll talk about some of them that are ongoing.
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    The different codes on the bars in this chart represent the budget for each division within CPED over the past few years.
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    The reduction you see between 2024 is $124 million and the proposed budget in 25 comes from many of those one-time allocations coming to an end.
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    In prior years in 22 and 23, one-time ARPA allocations and annual capital rollover amounts from previous year's allocations explains why those budgets were a lot larger.
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    Currently CPED has about a 3% vacancy with about 7 vacant positions.
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    We have another 10 or so that are in the process of hiring.
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    The department is working to fill all the positions and as we do that we're evaluating each vacancy as an opportunity to meet the changing needs of the department and the city.
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    vacant positions have been challenging in spots to fill as applicants are backing out from offers due to competitive salaries and other agencies or a lack of salary growth in a position that we're offering.
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    Wage compression is also making it difficult for career growth opportunities of existing staff within CPED.
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    Each are adding volatility to recruitment and retention within our, for our people.
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    Next I will provide
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    There we go.
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    Next I will provide more context of the program areas, change item allocations, key metrics of our proposed biennial budget as we continue to serve the city.
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    So we start with the first division planning.
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    Planning has a budget of $7.2 million and is led by Meg McMahon.
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    It supports residents and property owners who invest in the city and it aligns with the 2040 plan and centers on equity and resilience.
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    The 42 members of this team are in five groups.
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    Co-development, community planning, land use design and preservation, zoning administration, policy research and outreach.
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    And they manage, review and enforce land use, zoning preservation and environmental review applications, and the public process that go with those applications.
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    Planning is responsible for setting the vision for the city and starts the process to realize that vision.
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    Planning also uses data to better tell our story, identifying trends, and analyze these results.
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    In this slide, you'll see a leading indicator that we're analyzing right now.
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    The bar chart depicts all housing units starts in the development process that receive approvals called entitlements.
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    Simply gaining entitlement doesn't mean you are building the house right away, but it's a data point of market interest within our city.
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    The market changing risks I mentioned earlier are on display in the housing environment and we've been down year over year in entitlements from a high in 2022 of around 4,000 units down to about 1,100 units last year and we've had about 235 housing entitlements up to this point in 2024.
  • 00:10:51
    I'm sorry, up to July 31st of 2024.
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    This data is new and we currently analyze what it really means and it really underscores the direct city investment we have into both housing production and the maintenance of home ownership and housing real estate.
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    For 2025, we're proposing two recommended change items.
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    One for Nicolette Avenue Programming and the second for the 2025 Comprehensive Plan.
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    Yep, that's right.
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    We are talking about the 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
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    The 2050 Comprehensive Plan we're talking about.
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    Alright.
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    This first proposal has two parts.
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    It's $150,000 of one-time money for next year and $400,000 of ongoing starting in 2026.
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    Both proposals support activation downtown, building on the rebuilt Nicollet Mall, which opened in 2017.
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    Next year we'll be funding to develop a capital and operating plan to increase activity on the mall through a year-round downtown play space.
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    And we'll provide community gathering space downtown for families.
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    In 2026, we're proposing ongoing $400,000 for resources for placemaking, programming, and infrastructure improvements on what we hope to be a bus-free, pedestrian-only Nicollet Mall.
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    What is old is new again.
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    This one-time allocation will begin for four years between 2026 and 2029 and it's for $300,000 a year.
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    Each year, each 10 years, the city has a statutory requirement to submit an updated decennial comprehensive plan to the Met Council.
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    The 2050 plan is due on December 31st, 2028, which is just around the corner.
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    And the complete plan is due a year later in 2029.
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    The funding support that you see here supports a staff-led process much like the previous iterations of this plan with consulting services, community engagement, environmental analysis of our plan, and projected growth, communications, and mapping services.
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    I now move on to the Development Services Division.
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    Development Services, as you know, is led by SEPED's largest division.
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    We have 83 employees, and it includes our construction code services and development review teams.
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    It completes the development cycle that the planning division starts with plan review, permitting inspections, and certificates of occupancy.
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    This division has a budget of $12.4 million which shows a moderate increase just to show cost of living since the 24 budget.
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    This division is responsible for ensuring quality built environment throughout the city with a customer service.
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    First Mission Development Services ensures high quality development while requiring that the building construction and rehabilitation projects meet the city's high standards in terms of safety, livability, health, and environment.
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    and I must say we have a certificate of occupancy for the Dew Nord restaurant which had a celebration of coming back to Lake Street last weekend where our team stepped up and got that thing done about five days early and so they show their willingness to work across departments to get the job done in that high quality customer service first mantra.
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    And they're busy.
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    You'll see in this bar chart, this is a construction activity.
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    We're already at a billion dollars in activity for 2024.
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    That'll be our 14th consecutive year with that much development activity in the City of Minneapolis.
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    So people are continuing to choose to invest in Minneapolis.
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    And a billion dollars in activity means about 30,000 permits issued so far this year.
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    In the past year, we have typically handled about 35,000 or more permits through the Development Services Group.
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    I will now move on to Economic Policy and its 68-member five-team division, now led by Julie Lineman.
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    Those teams are Small Business Team, the Business Development Group, Business Licensing, Employment and Training, and the Promise Zone.
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    And it fosters a healthy, sustainable, and diverse Minneapolis economy, meeting the needs of the BIPOC community, historically cut off
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    from economic opportunity through business development, small business assistance, employment and training, and license enforcement and education.
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    The recommended budget for this division is 31 million dollars, a slight drop of 5.5 million dollars from last year as some one-time allocations are ending.
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    This division helps build wealth through business activity in vibrant commercial districts.
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    We are investing $12 million for businesses to own real estate in areas we are programming to be known in community and active.
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    We are also supporting business people who are not yet ready to own.
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    and with free technical assistance and we have served 400 businesses already in 2024.
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    And if starting a growing a business is not your thing,
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    This division also helps people get the skills they need to stay competitive in the modern workplace, serving more than 10,000 people last year.
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    The people who left our adult program are earning $4.62 per hour or more, which equates to $5.6 million in earned wages for participant households in Minneapolis.
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    And our results matter in this division and across CPED and BIPOC.
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    People count for more than 70% of all economic development program participants.
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    So I'll go over the recommendations for the 25-26 budget.
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    We're proposing 8 change items in 25 totaling $3.3 million and another 6 totaling $5 million for 2026.
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    This first program has two recommended allocations from the mayor.
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    First is a one-time $100,000 general fund allocation that supports intensified resources for Uptown business activities and improvements.
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    Uptown's gone through a lot in the last number of months.
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    And this designates money underneath the Great Streets program for community-based organizations to propose activities that will help the promotion, activation, and organization of the commercial district in Uptown.
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    The second part is a larger move in a few areas of the CPED budget.
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    For many decades, CPED has generated revenue for its work from its work, such as loan repayments or commercial land sale proceeds.
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    Those proceeds had been deposited into several funds that together we call the development account.
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    The development account is a relic from the old Minneapolis Community Development Agency, or MCDA,
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    and the development account had a sizable fund balance when the NCDA merged with the city in 2004 and the proceeds from CPED have gone mainly to and those proceeds have gone mainly to support CPED's work since that time.
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    We have been using the remaining balance of the development account over the past two decades to fund one-time development activity and some ongoing programs and staff costs.
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    Over the past five budget cycles, we have been slowly moving some of those staff costs from the development account onto the general fund in a phased strategy.
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    We are coming to a close on the development account and we have recommended changes in this budget to complete that phase-out plan.
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    which brings me to the second part of this item which is an $850,000 ongoing general fund allocation that starts in 2026 and that will support the Great Streets program and its facade and business district support components which are currently being funded by the development account.
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    The next is a $1 million general fund allocation, one-time general fund allocation to support
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    is to support nonprofit real estate developers.
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    We have used this in the Great Streets program under the
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    GAAP financing program.
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    This component has not been funded very often in the past years as we have tended to put money into for-profit business ownership through the Ownership and Opportunity Fund.
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    We're seeing increased demand for interests of nonprofit organizations to do real estate projects in key commercial areas and this money would be used for that use.
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    The next is that ownership and opportunity fund.
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    This would start in 2026.
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    This would be put $2 million back into that fund so that we can continue to service the pipeline.
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    Right now we have about 40 projects that are in the early stages.
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    We have funding in this program.
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    We expect that in 2026 is when we probably need a little bit of a reload of funding to continue on.
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    And it should help another five to 10 businesses and emerging developers own commercial real estate in the city.
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    The next two allocations are for the Business Technical Assistance Program or the BTAP.
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    The first one is a one-time general fund allocation next year for uptown specific contracts.
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    This is in addition, this is in concert with the Great Streets one that I mentioned.
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    a moment ago.
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    This will help businesses get free technical assistance to help weather through the challenges that they're having in that area.
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    And the second recommendation is a $200,000 ongoing general fund allocation for the BTAP.
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    And this is to replace a $1.2 million American Rescue Plan Act funding or ARPA funding that was funding this program.
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    BTAP is one of the most effective programs the city has to help businesses start, stay, and grow in the city of Minneapolis.
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    The next thing you see on the slide is to maintain our adult workforce program.
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    This request is another one of those phase-outs from the development account.
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    As I shared earlier, the fund balance is diminishing and we will not be able to sustain the current staffing and programs into the near future without this move.
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    This program provides access to career training and employment navigation, navigation, job placement, follow up support for low income, high barrier adults.
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    This is one of the more important programs we have in our workforce development stables and will require funding in order to continue.
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    I move on to the next recommendation.
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    It's also another move.
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    This is to move 3.41 people off of the development account into the general fund.
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    These are existing positions that are filled.
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    We had a total of 12 FTEs that were in the development account that we've been slowly moving over over the last few cycles of the budget.
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    and then the next one is the Youth Workforce Program.
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    Most of the people know this as Step Up.
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    Step Up has helped about 34,000 young people since it started about 20 years ago.
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    This not only gives job skills and direct experience, it also provides an invaluable networking opportunity for these young people as they're starting to learn how to do work and has probably got the
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    One of the best returns on its investment and it is funded through the development account and starting in 2026 with this allocation it would move into the general fund.
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    Our next one is around the climate legacy initiative.
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    This started in 2024.
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    This is one of the components that falls within our employment and training group and it helps with approximately 200 residents find careers in emerging green occupations.
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    This is a relatively new program, so we don't have a lot of outcome data to report yet, but we are getting that established and so in future years if this is approved we can give an update on progress.
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    I think that's two more.
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    We have two more in the economic development group.
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    And these are about property maintenance.
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    So the first one is is around the people's way today We'll be issuing a request for qualifications for the people's way request for qualifications will solicit a community-minded developer to partner with the city for the redevelopment of that city-owned property at George Floyd Square and
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    that process will start today and hopefully have selection in front of the City Council by May of next year through a community inclusive process of selection.
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    That only gets us to select our partner, it doesn't get us to a concept for the development.
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    So this allocation gives us funding for next year so that we can continue to maintain the property as we go through the planning process.
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    And then the last item in this division is funding to maintain the Kohl Center.
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    As you know, this is one of the most important dance facilities in the country.
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    Our colleagues in Arts and Cultural Affairs have been doing an extraordinary job lifting up the voices of the artists that use this facility and articulating the importance of this venue in the city.
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    We have an obligation based on state financing to oversee and manage this as if it was one of our own properties.
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    This allocation helps us make sure that we keep it at its high level of finish.
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    It is in very good condition.
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    It is very out of the ordinary for CPED to stand up and talk about a property in this good condition and we want to make sure we keep it that way while we're working with our friends in ACA as they go through
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    to help with figuring out an operator and hopefully we have an operator next year and those costs will then be borne by the operations and until then this will help keep it shipshape.
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    Okay, moving on.
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    Housing Policy and Development.
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    That is a division led by Alfred Port and they advance racial equity in housing through the expansion of Housing Choice.
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    The 36 members of this division are in two teams, Residential Finance and Residential and Real Estate Development, and they create choice through housing production, increased opportunities for homeownership, and support for homeowners to stay in place with maintenance program funding.
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    This is also the division that manages all of CPED's real estate and provides construction inspections to the CPED-financed housing units.
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    The Housing Division invests in two products, affordable housing rental, affordable rental housing and affordable home ownership.
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    This graph highlights City's affordable rental housing production.
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    For the period of 2018 through 2023, we closed a high of 783 affordable housing units.
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    Additionally, during the same period, we closed nearly six and a half times the average number of affordable housing units at 30% or below
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    AMI and closed those between 2011 and 2018.
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    And to date, up until July, we have had about 439 affordable housing units closed.
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    Our second product is home ownership.
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    Between 2022 and 2024, we loaned $2.3 million to over 170 households with an average income of about $56,000 for down payment assistance.
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    We also, through CPED's owner occupied rehab program,
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    We combine city, state, and federal funding to support 82 homeowners since 2018 to stay in place by making repairs with an average of $49,000 per project.
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    Over half the developers and organizations delivering housing services for homeownership are BIPOC-led organizations.
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    and there have been a strategic alignment in our home improvement program to leverage city resources, better leverage city resources and state resources through a universal application process.
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    So we're seeing progress in home ownership.
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    And for 2025 and 2026, we're performing four recommendations totaling $6.7 million.
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    The first is investment into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
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    The Affordable Housing Trust Fund is the bread and butter program for the city of Minneapolis, which provides gap financing to produce affordable units in the city.
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    It has the $3.794 million that you see in front of you will be added to other funds to get us up to the $18 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund budget that we have recently been allocating out to projects.
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    and it will produce and preserve affordable housing.
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    It helps address housing choice, housing variety and a displacement and stability all through the city.
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    Our next one is a one-time allocation that comes from this new housing sales tax revenue and is to assist in pandemic related eviction moratorium impacted developers.
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    So these are developers who have had operational impacts based on the economic shock of the pandemic.
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    and seen higher operating costs due to inflation, increased insurance rates and security needs.
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    The City will partner with Hennepin County to stabilize existing affordable housing projects and help protect City's investments in affordable housing.
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    While we're producing units, it's important for us to make sure we don't lose units as well.
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    So this investment is here to provide short-term funding assistance to a network of developers with documented funding shortfalls to preserve those units.
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    And it will help reduce displacement and ensure that we still have access to decent and safe affordable housing.
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    The next is Minneapolis Homes.
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    This is another one-time 1.5 million dollar allocation supported by the new sales tax revenue, which will provide gap financing to support the creation of affordable ownership, the ticket to the middle class.
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    And it's especially targeted to the north and south central areas of Minneapolis.
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    Minneapolis Homes provides financing or property to create affordable homeownerships citywide in a home buyer
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    for a homebuyer up to 80% of the annual median income.
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    The program provides sustainable monthly payment of approximately 30% of income and the opportunity to build wealth.
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    Minneapolis Homes has an exceptional rate of service for both BIPOC homeowners and BIPOC developers.
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    Approximately 75% of the homebuyers are BIPOC and the largest demographic served are black households who experience the highest disparities in homeownership rates in Minneapolis.
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    Over half the developers we have served through this program are also BIPOC-led.
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    The next item is a one-time $500,000 funding from the Community Development Block Grant Fund, which is a federal source that will provide some funding to Heritage Park for the rehabilitation of up to 20 vacant units within that community.
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    These units serve households at 50% of the area median income or below.
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    The property has struggled financially for years.
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    There are no replacement reserves or other project resources to cover median needs.
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    Most recently, the city invested $875,000 to assist in stabilizing the project, to ensure the project's financial challenges are addressed.
  • 00:31:33
    The city is proposing the infusion of another half million dollars to help these 20 units get back on the rent roll.
  • 00:31:40
    Investment is critical for long-term stabilization of the property and address the city's access into displacement housing goals
  • 00:31:49
    I move on to a new division, Operations and Innovation.
  • 00:31:52
    The Operations and Innovations Division is led by Karuna Mahajanen.
  • 00:31:56
    This team does a lot to keep all the work that I've highlighted moving smoothly.
  • 00:32:02
    This is the team that are the people behind the people who manage and support our internal services.
  • 00:32:10
    They provide information for effective decision making, manage special projects and process improvements, for effective coordination and service delivery.
  • 00:32:17
    This 13-member team with a very long list of to-dos has a $7 million budget and oversees CPET's communications, finance, HR, and IT functions.
  • 00:32:30
    And on the screen I'm just going to mention this is a award-winning Minneapolis Forward communication plan team to talk about the investments the city made
  • 00:32:41
    after COVID and in response to COVID and the unrest after the murder of George Floyd.
  • 00:32:46
    So some accolades.
  • 00:32:51
    I think I'm getting close to the end here with transfers and debt services.
  • 00:32:54
    The transfers and debt services program administers and manage specific financial resources both with external partners in between CPET funds
  • 00:33:04
    This service is provided in partnership with our very able and supportive development finance team under leadership of Angie Skildum.
  • 00:33:12
    And the recommended $28.4 million budget supports obligated financing tools like TIF.
  • 00:33:18
    So a lot of this is funding that comes in and then goes back out to service the debts that we have managed through city processes.
  • 00:33:27
    And that wraps up my presentation on behalf of the people of CPED.
  • 00:33:31
    I thank you and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:33:37
    Thank you Director Hansen for your presentation.
  • 00:33:41
    I will note that we have been joined by Council members Rainville, Cashman, Wansley, and Jenkins since the start of your presentation.
  • 00:33:53
    There are several members that are looking to be recognized to ask you questions or offer commentary on your budget.
  • 00:34:00
    I'll note that Councilmember Cashman and I need to leave at 11 o'clock to attend the third quarter Clean Energy Partnership meeting, so at that time I will turn over the chair to Vice Chair Koski.
  • 00:34:18
    So you'll notice that the first two members that will ask you some questions are myself and her and that's due to that time restriction.
  • 00:34:28
    Just a couple of questions for you.
  • 00:34:31
    I'll also just congratulate Director Linum on her new role.
  • 00:34:35
    Thank you for introducing that and making note of that at the beginning of your presentation, Director Hansen.
  • 00:34:41
    I want to start by looking at slide six of your presentation at the beginning where you're doing a historical look back to 2022 of your department's annual budget.
  • 00:34:55
    And what I see here is a pretty significant reduction in the annual budget of the department.
  • 00:35:02
    So I'm wondering if you can help us understand why there's been such a dramatic reduction in your annual budget, and if you can just
  • 00:35:11
    offer some comments on what impact that has had on the services that CPED delivers for Minneapolis residents.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:35:20
    Thank you for the question, Chair.
  • 00:35:24
    So it starts in 2022.
  • 00:35:27
    and 2022 is a point of a surge of resources into the city of Minneapolis in response to the impacts of COVID and we've also used those in response to the unrest.
  • 00:35:42
    after the murder of George Floyd.
  • 00:35:44
    So that's what you're seeing a lot of.
  • 00:35:45
    CPED received, since we're so community focused, we received a lot of funding through that American Rescue Plan.
  • 00:35:53
    I think it's like $34 million, which put a surge in the budget.
  • 00:35:57
    Those things are starting to fall off.
  • 00:35:59
    We either spent or traded some of the funding, but we still got the money out to community during the community needs.
  • 00:36:07
    And so we're kind of in that
  • 00:36:11
    We're going into a new era of Minneapolis where people have
  • 00:36:21
    they're using our city differently.
  • 00:36:22
    They're consuming things differently.
  • 00:36:24
    That is having an impact.
  • 00:36:27
    We're seeing that potentially, we haven't analyzed it in Housing Starts in Minneapolis.
  • 00:36:34
    We're evaluating how that impacts business activity, how people are changing on how they come up with how they're gonna invest in the city of Minneapolis.
  • 00:36:47
    And so that could have some impacts on
  • 00:36:50
    City Council.
  • 00:37:00
    That activity might spark back up.
  • 00:37:02
    It's something I raised about direct housing production.
  • 00:37:06
    Private market is slowing down.
  • 00:37:07
    If we are investing in housing production, we'll see it.
  • 00:37:10
    Same with business opportunities, and most notably in employment and training.
  • 00:37:17
    Right now the unemployment rate is really low.
  • 00:37:20
    That is some of the hardest times to find new employees, and so this is a time to skill up folks so that they're ready for expansion as that happens.
  • 00:37:29
    The final part is just looking at our regulations.
  • 00:37:33
    There's been an ordinance this passed through the council last week around conversions of buildings as we looking at those things and we continue to look at those so we're gonna know better about how this is impacting that kind of lagging impact of post, you know ARPA Minneapolis
  • 00:37:49
    probably in 2025 and so the 2026 budget conversation will probably be more robust about efficiencies that we'll need to gain in order for us to continue to deliver at this high level.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:38:01
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 00:38:02
    Thank you for that explanation.
  • 00:38:03
    That's really insightful especially and something for us to be keeping in mind as we're looking at the 2026 budget and all of the different factors that some of them we've had to balance this year and will again next year.
  • 00:38:20
    So my next piece for you is I know there's a greater downtown assets fund transfer into the department to support economic development activities.
  • 00:38:36
    along with Metro sales tax allocation for Minneapolis so I just want to understand where that that money is allocated within the department and and if you can I think this is going to be most appropriate for an administrative follow-up if you can give us a
  • 00:38:54
    of where those appropriations are going, and if you can help us understand for the programs that those resources are going into, I know you highlighted a couple of those in your presentation, but if you can help us understand what those things were funded by prior to those allocations, if that's, we're switching off of, we're reducing the general fund investment in order to increase these additional
  • 00:39:20
    investments, if you can include that as a part of the follow-up.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:39:26
    Chair Chugthai, I will probably call up Director DeCenza for a more robust conversation about the Downtown Assets Fund.
  • 00:39:34
    We're using it in this budget proposal for the Kohl Center as downtown.
  • 00:39:41
    It is a real estate asset downtown that we have to take care of, similar to the Target Center, the Convention Center, PV Plaza.
  • 00:39:48
    I know there are transfers that occur administratively into CPED For from that during the year and I'll let the director December to talk about that on the sales tax.
  • 00:40:01
    That's brand new That is a countywide point two five percent sales tax that helps with housing Programs and it's increasing capacity.
  • 00:40:12
    So we expect to get about six million dollars and
  • 00:40:16
    in the first year, and then, you know, as it kind of ramps up to full capacity, somewhere around $8-9 million a year, the mayor's approach to this is to see what money is and then program it for the next year.
  • 00:40:29
    So the money that we're collecting this year is proposed in three different areas, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the rental housing support, and there's a third one that I am, and Minneapolis Homes.
  • 00:40:44
    And then as we come back next year with the 2026 budget, we'll have some proposals for that fund.
  • 00:40:52
    And that is brand new.
  • 00:40:53
    So, let's see if Director DeCenza can enlighten us about the other thing.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 00:40:58
    Thank you, Chair Chuktai, Budget Committee members.
  • 00:41:02
    The economic development body of work that Director Hansen spoke about, so all of the positions and programming that had been part of the development fund, which is fading away, is being supported by that increased transfer from downtown assets.
  • 00:41:17
    So we took a look at what were the economic development needs that CPET had brought forward through the budget process,
  • 00:41:23
    and try to cover as many of those as possible with the Downtown Assets Fund transfer.
  • 00:41:27
    So that's one reason why you see such a big increase to that transfer into the General Fund this year.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:41:32
    Excellent, thank you.
  • 00:41:35
    And then that is really helpful, thank you very much.
  • 00:41:40
    Just the last quick thing I'll touch on.
  • 00:41:45
    Last year the City Council approved a change item initiated by the administration for the CPED department to hire a director of strategic initiatives.
  • 00:41:55
    which had a $330,000 appropriation which included 156 for salary and wages, 44 for fringes, and 130 in contractual services and one FTE.
  • 00:42:12
    the council received an email notification on Friday afternoon that this position was hired which is really exciting and I guess what I'm a little bit confused about is the email noted that this position was hired into the Office of Public Service specifically which is not where the council made the appropriation and I have not, I went back and checked to see if we received some sort of
  • 00:42:41
    action before the council to approve this adjustment to the budget.
  • 00:42:46
    And that has not happened.
  • 00:42:48
    So I'm just wondering if you can explain what happened here with an appropriation we made into your department last year.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:42:55
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 00:42:56
    I'll break it down.
  • 00:42:57
    It's strategic initiative, director of strategic initiative, and partnerships.
  • 00:43:03
    So the partnerships part is the remaining outside of the fringe benefits and the salary.
  • 00:43:08
    and that helps the city continue to maintain its membership in the greater RSVP partnership, the Cedar Riverside partnership and the Midtown Lake Street partnership.
  • 00:43:18
    The other part is for that FTE.
  • 00:43:21
    The deputy COO Brett Jelly who is out ill today managed the hiring process.
  • 00:43:30
    I think we'd have to get some more information for you about that decision since he is not here.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:43:37
    Excellent, that sounds great.
  • 00:43:38
    Thank you.
  • 00:43:38
    We'll note that for administrative follow-up.
  • 00:43:41
    I will now recognize Councilmember Cashman and turn the chair over to Vice Chair Koski.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:43:47
    Thank you Chair Chug-Thay and thank you for the presentation.
  • 00:43:49
    41 slides.
  • 00:43:51
    It's great to see all that level of detail.
  • 00:43:53
    There is something I'd like to see a little more detail on and maybe you can answer it now.
  • 00:43:57
    Maybe it's for follow-up.
  • 00:43:58
    I would like to understand of the seven cultural districts how much is allocated to each and if it's only from the Great Streets funding stream or if there's another stream of funding that supports those seven districts.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:44:13
    Now chair Koski councilmember Cashman so yeah, the the cultural districts are seven cultural districts and there is programming that is Designated citywide for cultural districts based on your department in CPED right now Most of it is an is an eligible area for great streets programs.
  • 00:44:34
    We had some specific services that were related to American Rescue Plan and
  • 00:44:39
    funding, but right now the program that we have, the Great Streets program is essentially the funding source for cultural district activity.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:44:53
    And how much for each cultural district on average?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:44:57
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Cashman, it's a competitive process, so we do an RFP or a Notice of Funding Availability depending on the program.
  • 00:45:05
    They either do business district support, so activities, promotions, that sort of thing, or facade improvement grant.
  • 00:45:13
    For for that and then we also look at ownership and opportunity fund and give preferences to Projects that are buying real estate in cultural districts.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:45:23
    Okay.
  • 00:45:23
    I see.
  • 00:45:24
    Thanks.
  • 00:45:25
    Yep.
  • 00:45:25
    I will also note I'm really happy to see the hundred thousand dollars gray streets funding and $100,000 BTAP funding for uptown This was a budget priority for me this year, and I'm really grateful that you include it but I can't help but feel like this money should have
  • 00:45:40
    come before the reconstruction on Lake Street in Hennepin, and I know that you've been in this role, you know, only in the last year and so have I, but do you have ideas about how to make sure we're investing in BTAP and Great Streets funding for areas impacted by reconstruction before the construction starts to prevent displacement?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:46:00
    Yeah, Chair Koski, Councilmember Cashman, I have plenty of ideas.
  • 00:46:06
    What I'd say is we have been working with
  • 00:46:10
    We are re-engaging with Public Works and Director Sexton about how the Community Development Department can help with the planning and preparation for major construction projects.
  • 00:46:25
    We had a relationship between the two departments about just a little over a decade ago, rekindling that relationship now.
  • 00:46:33
    based on our feedback about some of these projects that happened in South Minneapolis this past construction season.
  • 00:46:40
    So you're gonna see some things roll out over the next year and we're gonna do this using existing resources so we're not expecting it to have a financial impact to the city but we can use our
  • 00:46:51
    You know a lot of it is just preparation and understanding by the business to know what's going on So connection and we have a small business team that can provide some outreach services and then use the programs around small business lending our great streets programs and real estate programs if as businesses prepare and if there are creative ideas as we always find new creative ideas to do things when we do things new and
  • 00:47:16
    We'll be open to those especially if there's things that come out of the Public Works side of this partnership And then the one thing that I'm going to ask probably you and some other council members is to help me to find what Uptown means Because we're gonna have to draw a box around something.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:47:33
    Yes.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:47:34
    I figure well, that would be the hardest task for us Is to draw that box.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:47:39
    Thank you.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:47:40
    All right Thanks chair
  • 00:47:42
    All right next I'll call on Councilmember Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:47:45
    Thank you Chair Koski and thank you Director Hanson for you and your staff's work in this field.
  • 00:47:51
    The presentation shows a lot of the work that we can really be proud of here in the city of Minneapolis.
  • 00:47:55
    There's also a lot of work that we have to do as we struggle with many challenges facing our unsheltered residents in the city of Minneapolis.
  • 00:48:03
    Can you help us better understand there was a a slide here that talked about the number of proposed housing units
  • 00:48:08
    continue to trend downward following nationwide construction challenges.
  • 00:48:12
    Can you help us better understand that with a little bit more specifics?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:48:17
    Yep.
  • 00:48:17
    Chair Koski, Council Member Chavez.
  • 00:48:20
    So this is this is really new data.
  • 00:48:22
    So after Annually, we will announce as a department
  • 00:48:28
    permit data, housing starts, and top 10 largest projects across the city.
  • 00:48:35
    Just kind of a pulse check of how development is occurring in the city.
  • 00:48:40
    This last year, based on some of the indicators we were seeing nationwide interest in
  • 00:48:46
    Commercial real estate in downtowns across the country and just it just general tenor of development We took a look at it a little earlier.
  • 00:48:55
    So this is data about half year half year in To see where we are so that we can start to understand what what is really causing it And so this this data we're sharing is still being reviewed and analyzed around national trends and around Hold on.
  • 00:49:13
    I've got some notes here around some national trends
  • 00:49:16
    Which slide is that, nine?
  • 00:49:22
    Hold on a second.
  • 00:49:24
    Whether we're, you know, whether we're lining up with national trends or whether we are an anomaly and so far the impacts are in kind of four broad areas around like
  • 00:49:40
    Construction and development costs or construction and development processes supply chain getting products getting people to work there Financing how much it costs to do a building some lane use regulations what I'm assuming is as we we evaluate that we're gonna be pretty much on the vanguard of that Of that movement to make sure it's it's more accessible to build And then just infrastructure those are the four
  • 00:50:03
    kind of areas that we've identified and we're still doing some analysis on what that means.
  • 00:50:08
    But we see it drop.
  • 00:50:10
    It's kind of stark when you look at this chart, if it goes down, and that means that construction activity coming on the back end of these entitlements is expected to maybe have a corresponding drop to it.
  • 00:50:22
    This is only housing, so it doesn't take into commercial industrial projects, but housing has been kind of the bread and butter of our development activity in the city for the last number of years.
  • 00:50:32
    We should have more later this fall, but we wanted to raise it as an indicator of things that we think about as a department, not only what we're in in the moment but also projecting ahead so that we're preparing for potential changes and how important it is for us to continue to invest at this time.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:50:49
    Thank you director.
  • 00:50:50
    I'm very curious to see how this compares to our neighbors in St. Paul But we can follow up with that on a separate.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:50:56
    Yeah, we are we're doing chair Koski councilmember Chavez We're looking at it in context in the in the nationally, but will we
  • 00:51:05
    We always know that if we bring up a data point, someone's going to ask what happened in St. Paul, so we'll do that too.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:51:10
    Great.
  • 00:51:11
    Thank you.
  • 00:51:11
    Appreciate it.
  • 00:51:12
    Additionally, I'm excited to see the results of the down payment assistance program.
  • 00:51:16
    I believe that CPED modified the guidelines in 2016 to address the gaps in home ownership by race in Minneapolis and to get more results that were equitable.
  • 00:51:27
    I'm curious to see if CPED has considered ways to increase access
  • 00:51:32
    In this program with our Native American community and seeing that 1% there, I feel like there's room for improvement and there's ways to increase home ownership access through this program with Native American community members.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:51:46
    Chair Koski, Council Member Chavez, I couldn't agree with you more.
  • 00:51:49
    Our programs are lacking in our effectiveness with the American Indian community.
  • 00:51:55
    We have, if you look at all of our data across all of our programs, that might be one of the lowest participant classes by race.
  • 00:52:04
    and so We can always learn more and be better at those but I'm gonna ask if director port can come up and see if he's got any specifics about Innovated process.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:52:16
    Thank you and the reason I mentioned the guidelines was also because I feel maybe there's room for improvement there to to do so and One again, I love seeing the results I reach out to coo Anderson Keller her when she gave us this update in July through the department summaries But I think there is room
  • 00:52:33
    for us to be able to work together as a council, as a mayor, as an administration to figure out how we can increase that number.
  • 00:52:39
    But yes, go ahead.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:52:41
    Through the Chair Koski, Councilmember Chavez, my name is Alfred Port and I'm the Housing Director at the City within the Department of CPED.
  • 00:52:53
    The points that you raise are valid.
  • 00:52:56
    I would restate some of the comments that Eric made, Director Hanson made, and say that it's both the Native Americans as well as the Hispanic population, that our numbers are significantly lower than the rest of our community.
  • 00:53:15
    We've engaged with organizations to start to think about how we can improve those, including the American Indian Community Development Corporation that has an element where we're providing development gap assistance on the home ownership side, on the development side, to position some of these families.
  • 00:53:36
    to move into housing and affordable ownership housing.
  • 00:53:41
    So the conversation continues and I would love to sit down with you and have some conversations around that.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:53:47
    Thank you so much.
  • 00:53:47
    If my staff is hearing, let's set up a meeting with CPED to talk about it so I don't forget later.
  • 00:53:52
    I have two more questions.
  • 00:53:52
    I'll make it very quick.
  • 00:53:54
    Director Hanson, I want to understand the Affordable Housing Trust Fund funding a little bit better.
  • 00:54:00
    It seems like it may have stayed the same as last year, even though there was a three
  • 00:54:06
    Committee.
  • 00:54:21
    I'm reading it correctly that the affordable housing trust fund either stay the same or lower it a little bit if we're using money from the state that we're getting to keep it at a balance and my hope would have been to increase the affordable housing trust fund with new money from the state not keep it the same but I'm trying to understand this a little bit better.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:54:39
    Chair Koski, Councilmember Chavez, I'll defer to Director Poort again.
  • 00:54:45
    Maybe.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:54:49
    Chair Koski, Council Member Chavez, we can provide you some additional details but we have a base of about nine million dollars on an annual basis and then we fill those additional resources one time on dollars.
  • 00:55:06
    So in the 2025's budget, we saw a cut in
  • 00:55:14
    some federal resources, CDBG and our home.
  • 00:55:19
    We saw some reduction in our TIF resources.
  • 00:55:24
    So some of these dollars are going to be supplanted and we can provide a little bit more detail on where the reductions were and how this reflects in the 2025's budget.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:55:35
    Thank you, I think that information would be really helpful because if you just read it online it seems like we lowered it kind of with even though we putting in 3.5 million dollars from state aid for this issue
  • 00:55:50
    it would be helpful to know that if we're getting less money from the federal government from TIF that it isn't the city necessarily lowering our part but if we could just note that for administrative follow-up we're with CPET to figure out how we can get a better understanding of what these numbers actually mean I think that would be very helpful for this body thanks thank you and then the last question I'll make it very quick
  • 00:56:12
    I'm very excited about the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, all the work that we are doing to build new housing and units across our city.
  • 00:56:18
    I think that is really important to address many of the issues that we're struggling with in the city.
  • 00:56:22
    But I really want to hear more specifics about what is in the mayor's proposed budget to address unsheltered homelessness.
  • 00:56:29
    And when I'm talking about unsheltered homelessness, I'm talking about folks that are currently sleeping outside and what strategies are in his proposed budget right now to address this issue.
  • 00:56:39
    Not talking about affordable housing trust fund.
  • 00:56:41
    I know that can be used as a prevention method for homelessness Not really talking about rental assistance.
  • 00:56:46
    I'm talking about folks that are currently sleeping outside What is in the mayor's proposed budget right here right now meant to address this issue.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:56:53
    Thank you Chair Koski councilmember Chavez.
  • 00:56:56
    Thanks for that question The the next presentation from our colleagues in the Department of Regulatory Services will have some of those questions
  • 00:57:03
    City Council.
  • 00:57:23
    and we're seeing projects like that.
  • 00:57:25
    Tomorrow at the Business Housing and Zoning Committee you'll see an action that helps invest in a 24 unit development for people who are coming out of homelessness and people living with disabilities in the native community.
  • 00:57:40
    So CPED continues to invest at a lower, more deeply subsidized level because of the need for housing at that income level.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:57:51
    Then we have Director Park Chair Koski, Council Member Chavez, there's also a joint powers agreement with the county so we have included in the mayor's budget a million dollars in emergency solutions grant and if not most of those dollars go towards supporting street outreach and rapid rehousing as well as shelter operations
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:58:17
    Is that the same as the rental one or is that separate?
  • 00:58:20
    It would be helpful for us to be able to find it in the budget if we can just note that for administrative follow-up because I don't think I've seen that yet but that would be super helpful.
  • 00:58:29
    Those are all my questions.
  • 00:58:31
    I really appreciate it.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:58:32
    Thank you Councilor Chavez.
  • 00:58:34
    I'm going to go back to your very first question.
  • 00:58:36
    I just want to make sure that Director Hanson, you were able to commit to a time.
  • 00:58:42
    I know that you had asked, but just on the information that he had requested about that, I don't know if you said that the timing of that information would be coming back to us this fall or?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:58:54
    on the Housing Starts Information Chair.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:58:57
    What was your first question again?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:58:59
    It was the Housing Starts, the number of the entitlements.
  • 00:59:02
    We're analyzing that data.
  • 00:59:04
    We're hoping to be reporting on that more fully in a report this fall.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:59:08
    Okay, great.
  • 00:59:09
    Just wanted to make sure we understood the timing on that.
  • 00:59:12
    Great.
  • 00:59:12
    Thank you.
  • 00:59:13
    Thank you and Council Member Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:59:16
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 00:59:17
    I have a couple questions that touch on some of the same parts of the budget and thank you Director Hanson.
  • 00:59:23
    The CPED budget is one of the most complex and you've given a really robust presentation.
  • 00:59:30
    For BTAP, we know that this is a popular program and I have been and will be pleased to support it as a way to build wealth and equity.
  • 00:59:40
    How many businesses have we helped since the inception of this program?
  • 00:59:44
    Do you know?
  • 00:59:45
    Budget materials, and I think maybe your slide, indicated 822 just in 2023.
  • 00:59:55
    So just in terms of, yeah, this one.
  • 00:59:59
    No, let me find it here.
  • 01:00:01
    Not that one.
  • 01:00:04
    I'm just curious, do you have a sense of how many we've helped so far, and do you have an estimate of how many more we can help with continued funding?
  • 01:00:19
    We started this not that long ago, and is there a limit?
  • 01:00:25
    There will always be a pipeline, but my sense when it started was it started with a lot of people in need, and we probably would be reducing that in the first few years, assuming successful connection with the BTAP program.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:00:45
    Chair Koski, Council Member Palmisano, thank you for the question.
  • 01:00:47
    I feel like I was preparing for a thesis dissertation defense today, so that number has slipped my head of how many businesses, and I don't want to put the wrong zeros on it.
  • 01:00:59
    So we will get you that precise number.
  • 01:01:01
    but essentially the businesses that participate get about eight hours of free technical assistance from a number of community-based organizations and while there might have been some pent-up demand for it at the initial construct of the program which predates the small business team it has been something that's being used on a regular basis because people are starting businesses every day and
  • 01:01:30
    the city is just not in the position to provide that kind of technical assistance directly but people call us for it on a regular basis and so those organizations that are providing this technical assistance are actually helping people sometimes figure out they shouldn't be in business but other ways of like how to not only figure out the the technical aspects of like
  • 01:01:53
    and
  • 01:02:09
    Business because our program because not only is it is it impacting businesses that are staying in Minneapolis or choosing because it only can get this if you were in Minneapolis But most you know I think 80% of the participants are BIPOC owned businesses Which we have seen a gap in the in the strategic racial equity action plan that is the economic development goal is to
  • 01:02:31
    not only help businesses, BIPOC businesses open, but also stay open for five years because we feel that's about the time they're a go or no-go point.
  • 01:02:42
    So we'll get you the precise number of how many people and how many businesses we helped, but it still has a need out in the community.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:02:51
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 01:02:53
    We're always looking to just make sure that we've right-sized these programs, and I just was unsure of what the demand was versus the pipeline.
  • 01:03:02
    Your slides and you mentioned the Cowell Center, but the budget book, and this is maybe similar to Councilmember Chavez's question, I couldn't find it in the budget book in CPED.
  • 01:03:13
    So is it coming from another department, do you know?
  • 01:03:16
    And it might be my error, I'm just fully acknowledging.
  • 01:03:22
    I just didn't know if I missed something.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:03:25
    Chair Koski, Council Member Palmisano, I'm going to turn it over to the budget office.
  • 01:03:29
    They probably know more about the budget book than I do.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:03:33
    Chair Koski, Council Member.
  • 01:03:35
    To clarify that, it was really just a limitation of how the budget book was set up and the way our codes and our funds and our divisions are structured.
  • 01:03:42
    So when we established this as a proposed new area, it is currently living on the downtown assets page because of that fund and that division coding.
  • 01:03:51
    So it's a little confusing.
  • 01:03:54
    As it currently stands, that's where that information lives.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:03:57
    Got it.
  • 01:03:57
    Thank you.
  • 01:03:58
    That's helpful.
  • 01:04:01
    Another question for Director Hanson.
  • 01:04:03
    I don't think I have any other budget office specific questions.
  • 01:04:07
    For Minneapolis Homes, I appreciate Councilmember Chavez's point on trying to make this more open to more people or grow the pipelines in different areas.
  • 01:04:22
    I mean, this is a program we should all work to make more known with really good talking points.
  • 01:04:26
    So Just in general how many properties each year are purchased using these funds if I look at the information on this slide It looks like around 70 loans per year.
  • 01:04:37
    Is that fair to say?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:04:41
    Chair Koski, Councilmember Palmesano, let me check with my notes on ones for each day or for each year.
  • 01:04:47
    Hold on We're on slide 33
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:04:54
    I think it would just be a really helpful talking point as we speak and interact with people every day.
  • 01:05:15
    A lot of the ways that people hear about these programs tends to be informal and not necessarily are promotions of them.
  • 01:05:24
    My only other comment about this piece is I was pleased to hear about Heritage Park.
  • 01:05:30
    I've spent a lot of time there over the years, most recently on the tree commission to look at how they do storm water management there.
  • 01:05:38
    but I just think that Heritage Park is an example of our expert city staff evaluating housing needs and making informed recommendations instead of council deciding what's best in a one-off situation.
  • 01:05:51
    So that's just a comment and thank you.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:05:58
    Alright, I think we have a few more things to add for administration follow-up there but I know you're tracking as well.
  • 01:06:06
    Next, Councilmember Wonsley.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:06:08
    Thank you Vice Chair Koski.
  • 01:06:11
    Director Hanson, I know I've had many conversations with some of your staff who've come to my ward and have heard directly from residents some of the things that you raise around like developers,
  • 01:06:25
    is struggling with the changing landscape and the rising cost of development and how that's also led to me having conversations with other developers around 2040 and needing to revisit guidelines after we just
  • 01:06:40
    So I wanted to at least get a sense of you know as we're preparing for 2050 essentially can you share kind of like when that process will start to roll out and involve you know council members I say that because again for developers in my ward there's been the concerns around are we going to revisit
  • 01:07:02
    I think that's a big issue across
  • 01:07:24
    the city right now where a lot of our aging residents do not have affordable housing options in their respective communities and are having to leave.
  • 01:07:33
    So I know in my word the developers who are producing our housing are citing our 2040 guidelines.
  • 01:07:40
    So I'll start with that question first.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:07:42
    Chair Koski Councilmember Wonsley.
  • 01:07:45
    Yes, it's we we do the plan is pretty robust and we're going to get feedback from the development community and then we have to to To react to that I'm going to ask the planning director in a moment to come up and talk about the 2050 plan in more detail of that But we have to be you know responsive
  • 01:08:06
    To a point because we're trying to Make sure that we are having a that we have a city of the future That makes sure that they have those options and I'll agree with you on the house on the senior housing We we have priorities in our housing group to make sure that there are senior housing projects throughout the ward There are some words that just don't have them and we're gonna need more because we see there there is people who want to eat there are a lot more people want to age in place and
  • 01:08:33
    and not want to have the maintenance of a single family home.
  • 01:08:35
    And it's important for us as the life cycle of housing, especially when there's an ownership and wealth building opportunity to provide that housing.
  • 01:08:44
    So I agree with you and the 2040 plan does help us with that density, but I'll ask Director McMahon.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:08:53
    I think that's an excellent question and it's really Well timed I think with what we're seeing in In our development activity pipeline as well as the work.
  • 01:09:09
    We're beginning to do even now around 2050 So we've started the process internally of scoping around what what what are the major items of consideration and I think
  • 01:09:20
    There's the 2030 plan, which I think was very, very flexible to the point where it wasn't always clear what was allowed and not allowed.
  • 01:09:31
    I think the 2040 plan did a lot of amazing work to create a lot of predictability in the market, which I think we saw the benefits of when the market was ripe for new construction and we were seeing lots and lots of new housing being built.
  • 01:09:43
    But obviously it's all a balance right and we have certainly I think over the last couple years Seen examples of projects that did not align with 2040 and yet did align with other community goals that we have for our city And so we have generally been able to find ways to move those forward whether it's through a comp plan amendment or zoning code amendment We're looking at those projects.
  • 01:10:09
    I will say that our team is a
  • 01:10:11
    is currently looking at some options so that we don't have to wait until 2030 to see some opportunities for more flexibility in some areas.
  • 01:10:24
    And I know height has been one that has come up in a few different projects that we've seen, recognizing that land use is really important, but so are other things like affordable housing,
  • 01:10:33
    and Community Health and other goals that we want to achieve.
  • 01:10:36
    So I think we recognize that tension and are working on it and hope to have something sooner than 2030 that we can bring to you all for consideration.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:10:49
    Thank you, Mac.
  • 01:10:50
    And then just my other follow-up question because it was also on the slide under the debt and transfer section.
  • 01:10:59
    Can you give kind of an overview of like where we're at with our TIFs projects essentially?
  • 01:11:06
    I know I'm not on Biz, so I don't often get to hear, you know, how is this financing supporting or correlating with either I'm sure the upticks with development and now where
  • 01:11:19
    It's correlating to now the downshifts that we're seeing as well and do we expect to be expanding to support for other areas that maybe we've identified that might be in need of help.
  • 01:11:33
    I'm just interested of just like the status of our tips.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:11:36
    Chair Cossie, Councilmember Wonsley, I will absolutely need to bring more information from our development finance group about that question, but about where we are with all those projects.
  • 01:11:47
    This is very complicated.
  • 01:11:49
    And in response to should we use that tool, I'm a believer we use all the economic development tools that are
  • 01:11:58
    at our service to try and get the development we want to see in the city.
  • 01:12:03
    And really at the core of tax increment financing is the but for test.
  • 01:12:08
    So if we are using it effectively but for the use of it, nothing would happen.
  • 01:12:12
    So we have to be rigorous about that.
  • 01:12:14
    We have been in the past and we continue to do so.
  • 01:12:16
    We very rarely use it for economic development purposes.
  • 01:12:20
    It is now, we're probably coming into an era where we have to revisit that use.
  • 01:12:25
    We typically use it in the last, in my time in community development we've used it for affordable housing production.
  • 01:12:32
    But we're seeing as as values stop and we are needing to reimagine how we use some of these buildings We probably need to look at that that text that text sources But if it's not used then we wouldn't see the development in the first place So it has been used as a four-letter word in a lot of a lot of contexts, but it is a tool that can Spur on a development for the the future.
  • 01:12:55
    So I do believe it's something that we're going to be looking at as a policy decision
  • 01:13:00
    Within the in front of this body in the in the coming year and then I'll get the information about where we are With all the districts that we have throughout the city
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:13:08
    Awesome.
  • 01:13:09
    If I could have that noted for the staff memo, both for project districts and I'm assuming that's inclusive of the affordable housing projects that's been used.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:13:19
    So that's all the questions I had.
  • 01:13:20
    Thank you.
  • 01:13:21
    Thank you, Councilmember.
  • 01:13:23
    I have myself in queue and Councilmember Osmond, so you're nearing the end here.
  • 01:13:28
    But thank you so much for the presentation.
  • 01:13:30
    I have a few questions and a couple comments myself.
  • 01:13:34
    In the information that we have been given, can you just talk to me a little bit about what factors are driving the, it's a little bit over 6% salary and wage increases in CPED from 2024 to 2025?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:13:52
    Chair Koski, most of the wages are from new contracts.
  • 01:14:00
    coupled with people just progressing in their steps, cost of living increases, that sort of thing.
  • 01:14:06
    I will mention that it has been challenging for us with the current structure of our salaries to be competitive in the marketplace, especially in some of the professional careers, but we're seeing that all across the board.
  • 01:14:20
    And as unions are negotiating, they're negotiating more
  • 01:14:26
    Okay, that's helpful.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:14:32
    And then, according to the biannual personnel report, CPED has one position that's been vacant for over a year.
  • 01:14:48
    It was titled the development coordinator two, I believe so it was almost Looks like it's been vacant for almost two years Can you provide background for the long-standing vacancy and what's the hiring plan for that position?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:15:03
    Chair Koski, thank you so much.
  • 01:15:05
    I have a chart of all of the vacancies that we have I'm not sure how we got to that
  • 01:15:13
    Oh, okay, that's development coordinator.
  • 01:15:15
    So this is a byproduct of people advancing in their careers.
  • 01:15:20
    So people have retired.
  • 01:15:22
    Unfortunately, we had one of our members pass away, and that has kind of moved people up into different positions.
  • 01:15:28
    So succession planning, so people have moved up.
  • 01:15:33
    This is the last rung to be filled from outside that is now
  • 01:15:38
    That position is now out.
  • 01:15:44
    It looks like we have posted that as of the 9th of September.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:15:49
    Okay, great.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:15:50
    So we're getting there.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:15:51
    Great.
  • 01:15:52
    Then can you review and go over CPED's existing vacancies and the hiring plans for those?
  • 01:15:57
    It says there's 16 and 5 of the 16.
  • 01:16:01
    I didn't see a hiring plan on there.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:16:04
    Yep.
  • 01:16:04
    So we have on my chart here, you know, it's it's fluctuates every day We you know, we're moving people in and out as we can I have seven or eight vacancies that are in the Are in the like evaluation process where we're not actively either interviewing having posted or getting the finalization For the hiring of the process.
  • 01:16:30
    We've had a few of our positions where we've had a
  • 01:16:34
    We've either had to offer it multiple times or we've had to start over because a candidate has declined the offer for various reasons.
  • 01:16:48
    So those continue.
  • 01:16:50
    We have a number of positions that are vacant because of the transition in leadership at the department.
  • 01:16:58
    So since I was the interim director, the economic development director was, and then the first year was open.
  • 01:17:05
    I kind of did both jobs until today.
  • 01:17:07
    I'm very excited about today.
  • 01:17:09
    And and there's some associated FTEs that are with the director and with the operations of the department We have been going through a work plan in CPED on how we are best organized
  • 01:17:28
    to meet the moment that is upon us.
  • 01:17:32
    We're making some transitions around some of the organizational structure so that we're better capable of processing data, telling the story around data, communicating that data, but also managing the projects that come into CPED.
  • 01:17:51
    that are sometimes outside of our control because it's a need in community or it's just something that helps us build a better system.
  • 01:18:00
    CPED has extraordinary staff that produce at an extraordinarily high level year over year and underneath it those systems are kind of
  • 01:18:09
    I would say they're sputtering because the performance of our staff and we are working on how to bolster those systems because the more you rely on individuals the more likely they are to burn out and we've seen that turnover and so there are some of those positions that we're keeping in this
  • 01:18:28
    this evaluation process which required me to hire an economic development director and so now we can make some steps forward to position those.
  • 01:18:36
    I think it's like a handful like five to seven and so we should see some of that structural development over the next you know I want it to be a couple weeks but it's probably a couple months because that's how I think it works and then we'll be moving probably in 25 around some some reorganization.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:18:53
    Okay, yeah, I think it sounds like you have a detailed list, so if we can just add that to the administrative follow-up, that would be great.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:19:03
    I can provide the strategic work plan for the department.
  • 01:19:07
    That will probably outline the things that we're trying to do.
  • 01:19:10
    It doesn't identify specific FTEs, but it gives you a sense of the direction we're going.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:19:16
    Okay, thank you Director, that's helpful.
  • 01:19:19
    And then I just, I mean there was a number of really wonderful programs and things that we heard today.
  • 01:19:27
    I just wanted to highlight the Nicolette programming.
  • 01:19:31
    I think we all know that any levy increase will hit and burden homeowners a little bit harder this year due to the decrease in values of downtown.
  • 01:19:41
    I asked myself, you know, how do we change that and one way I think is to make sure that we increase the values of downtown again and then how do we do that?
  • 01:19:51
    Well, I think we need to make sure that we are creating this place that people want to be downtown and demand to be there and want to use the space and I think one way to do that in a space we're missing
  • 01:20:06
    is you know a huge segment I think that we're missing is families.
  • 01:20:11
    We have a lot of individuals that have retired and have decided to move downtown which is incredible but there's not a lot of activation to do with your grandchildren.
  • 01:20:19
    I'm a mother of a tween and teen and you know broader activities there are not a lot for me to do to bring my family downtown.
  • 01:20:29
    I want to see more so I'm just
  • 01:20:31
    I'm glad to see the investment in analyzing this and figuring out how we're going to do that.
  • 01:20:38
    So just a comment there.
  • 01:20:40
    And then I just also want to, kind of on the same heels of that, we are in a tight budget and I noticed that you were able to cut expenses both from 2024 to 2025 and then
  • 01:20:55
    into 26.
  • 01:20:57
    One year, a little over 5%, and the other 7%.
  • 01:21:00
    So appreciate you doing that due diligence during this time.
  • 01:21:04
    Alright, next I will call on cultural Osmond.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:21:07
    Thank you Chair Koski, thank you Director Henson for that very informative presentation.
  • 01:21:14
    My question is Minneapolis Homes.
  • 01:21:17
    I think it's a wonderful program, really families that never dream about having a house now have a house and it's good to hear them come I think maybe the end of the year to Biz or the beginning of the year usually come Biz and we hear that presentation.
  • 01:21:36
    I understand, looking at the last few years' data, there's a huge number of partial city-owned lands that are mainly in Northside.
  • 01:21:46
    I don't want to say like 90%, but it's probably close to that.
  • 01:21:50
    A big chunk of the homes are getting built in Northside.
  • 01:21:54
    In Southside, we do have vacant sites that have been there, some of them even longer than 19 years.
  • 01:22:03
    and also I'm seeing less options of here.
  • 01:22:09
    There's still some included, but less options here.
  • 01:22:12
    So what is it that's making the south side sites not get developed?
  • 01:22:19
    Is it
  • 01:22:20
    I know they have created some issues, especially in my district.
  • 01:22:24
    There are sites that are costing us money because we have to make sure that encampments are not starting there and so on.
  • 01:22:34
    That also includes residential and commercial.
  • 01:22:39
    What is making it challenging for those empty lots to be leased or to be sold or to find a useful way and also
  • 01:22:50
    Is there some kind of policy or somewhere where we can have a limit of you know city sitting on this empty lot for like 19 years I think it's a little bit unacceptable Should have some kind of plan.
  • 01:23:03
    I understand the lack of Staff and you know us throwing everything at your department But I just wanted to know what can we do to expedite the empty lots in South Side, Minneapolis?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:23:17
    Chair Koski, Council Member Osman
  • 01:23:20
    Thanks for this new question to me about our properties.
  • 01:23:24
    I will start with The city of Minneapolis and I've said this to this body a lot is the owner of last resort when it comes to redevelopment property We typically don't go out and actively purchase any kind of land it kind of comes through some sort of process usually tax forfeiture or
  • 01:23:40
    Something that's you know at a level of contamination that nobody in the market wants to take it So we are already taking the really really hard properties to deal with and there are legacy properties that are you know 19 years sometimes is is a new property in certain places in the city and so so we've we have been very aggressive through our Minneapolis Homes program to get those properties back into service and
  • 01:24:08
    We have married that up with new resources around the developer technical assistance program so we're growing our development community as well and we're providing more financing to buy the products that come out of those former single-family home lots.
  • 01:24:22
    We had a real impact of the 2040 lawsuit.
  • 01:24:25
    A number of the properties that you're mentioning in South Minneapolis have development concepts that were on hold because of the 2040 lawsuit, which has slowed the development of those.
  • 01:24:39
    And those are a lot of missing middle projects that are desperately needed throughout Minneapolis.
  • 01:24:45
    And then finally, it really comes down to that
  • 01:24:48
    Comments I made to the chair about the city's system our our disposition policy is about 20 years old And we have a team that is starting to is to work on it It's gonna take about a year a little bit over a year to to evaluate it And one of the questions is how do we make it a little bit more straightforward more options to get properties out on the market?
  • 01:25:12
    The City is not able to just sell the property for speculative purposes because of our redevelopment authority requirements from the state.
  • 01:25:19
    And so there's some oversight that we need to take but are there opportunities to be more nimble when people come to us as opposed to trying to put a staff team together?
  • 01:25:29
    And that's the conversation we've had multiple times as a staff team We only have so many project managers go around and we have a lot of properties.
  • 01:25:36
    So we're doing it in a number of We're taking a number of shots at trying to get these things back in order because we do not want to be property owners of vacant land in Minneapolis
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:25:47
    Thank you, Director.
  • 01:25:50
    I am a big fan of Minneapolis Homes program and thank you for the housing team, but I do like to see more units popping up on the south side of Minneapolis.
  • 01:25:59
    Great things happening on the north side, but the south side increased those lots, hopefully.
  • 01:26:05
    Thank you.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:26:06
    Alright, you are doing such an excellent job, Director, that we do have a few others in queue.
  • 01:26:13
    They've added themselves.
  • 01:26:16
    Councilmember Jenkins.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 01:26:18
    Thank you Vice Chair Koski and thank you Mr. Hansen for this very robust presentation.
  • 01:26:29
    I just wanted to comment a couple of things today.
  • 01:26:34
    Your department released an RFP that just went out around
  • 01:26:42
    The People's Way at 38th and Chicago, which I also think would be a great site for TIF use potentially.
  • 01:26:55
    I think it could definitely meet the but for tests.
  • 01:27:02
    So hopefully we'll be thinking about that in the future.
  • 01:27:04
    But I'm really glad that this RFP went out today.
  • 01:27:11
    We're hosting the final visioning session tomorrow evening and so that's going well.
  • 01:27:19
    But I just really am thrilled to hear that there's some support for the Heritage neighborhood to help those families in North Minneapolis.
  • 01:27:33
    Those properties have been in disrepair for a long time.
  • 01:27:37
    And I know this is the vacant properties right now, but
  • 01:27:41
    Hopefully we can help to revitalize some of the other apartments as well.
  • 01:27:46
    So, just wanted to mention that.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:27:50
    Alright, thank you Councilmember.
  • 01:27:52
    And we have Councilmember Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 01:27:54
    Thank you Chair Koski.
  • 01:27:55
    This is not necessarily for you Director Henson, so no need to panic.
  • 01:27:58
    But I just wanted to address Councilmember Osment's questions about what we could do as a city on these vacant lots that, you know, is impacting Minneapolis in general and figuring out how we can use these for solutions.
  • 01:28:09
    let my colleagues know that in the Public Health and Safety Committee I'm bringing forward a legislative directive to get an update on the former navigation center to get more updates on the results of that but also ways that we could use city-owned land particularly probably vacant lots as a way to address the housing crisis ways that we can improve shelter capacity ways that we can create housing solutions using city-owned land and other land
  • 01:28:34
    and particularly maybe Minneapolis Public School and since they have vacant buildings as a way to address housing.
  • 01:28:39
    So there are ways, this isn't a question for Director Hanson, but I just wanted to let the customer also know that that directive is coming on Wednesday in the Public Health and Safety Committee as we use land use as a city of Minneapolis to address unsheltered homelessness and particularly very interested in what it could look like in South Minneapolis with the variety of vacant lots that we have.
  • 01:28:58
    So thank you.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:29:01
    All right.
  • 01:29:01
    Thank you for that, Councilmember and Director.
  • 01:29:04
    I'm not seeing any further questions.
  • 01:29:07
    I'm going to give it a second here.
  • 01:29:09
    But thank you for this very robust presentation and for all of your staff and directors for being here as well.
  • 01:29:17
    And welcome to your newest member as well.
  • 01:29:21
    So thank you.
  • 01:29:22
    And I'll ask now for the Clerk to file that presentation.
  • 01:29:26
    And you are free to sit down now.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:29:28
    Thank you so much.
  • 01:29:31
    I want to recognize Director Mahajanen for spending most of her weekend helping me with the notes here.
  • 01:29:37
    So most of the stuff I said out loud is because she wrote it down, so I just want to make sure she's acknowledged.
  • 01:29:43
    And for all the people you see on this slide here, they are very fortunate to be working in the City of Minneapolis.
  • 01:29:49
    We're very fortunate to have them as well, and I just appreciate the time to have this conversation today.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:29:54
    Well, thank you.
  • 01:29:55
    Thank you for all of the coordinated effort there.
  • 01:29:57
    It takes a team there.
  • 01:29:59
    Alright, I also want to note that Councilor Chaudry has joined us here.
  • 01:30:03
    And I also want to note the time.
  • 01:30:06
    It's a little after 1130.
  • 01:30:08
    We have the presentation from Regulatory Services next.
  • 01:30:13
    We have, it's scheduled till noon, but I think we are able to go a little bit beyond that, but I just want to
  • 01:30:20
    just bear with us here as we continue to move further through this next presentation.
  • 01:30:25
    So I will now invite Enrique Velazquez, the Regulatory Services Director to begin that presentation.
  • 01:30:31
    Welcome.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 01:30:36
    Thank you so much Chair Koski and committee members.
  • 01:30:39
    I'm Enrique Velazquez and it is my honor to serve the City of Minneapolis as its Director of Regulatory Services.
  • 01:30:45
    Today I'm here to present to you the 2025-2026 biennium budget change items as well as highlight of the great work our dedicated staff do and perform every single day.
  • 01:30:59
    I'll do what I can to make this as quick as possible, yet thorough, so that everyone can get to lunch at a respectable time.
  • 01:31:11
    So to begin, Regulatory Services consists of four divisions.
  • 01:31:15
    Inspection Services, led by Director April Bogard.
  • 01:31:19
    Operations and Engagement, led by Director Josie Shardlow.
  • 01:31:23
    Minneapolis Animal Care and Control led by Director Anthony Schendel and lastly Code Compliance and Traffic Control led by Director Ahmed Adal.
  • 01:31:33
    Each division demonstrates our mission in unique ways and we'll get into division specifics later on in the presentation.
  • 01:31:42
    Priority Objectives Our department's priority objective relates to the mayor's goal for safety.
  • 01:31:48
    The community functions in a way that is healthy and good for all.
  • 01:31:52
    The regulatory service's mission is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Minneapolis residents and pets through a mixture of enforcement, education, and community engagement.
  • 01:32:03
    We focus on compassionate and guiding enforcement as well as community-focused engagement and education.
  • 01:32:10
    The department goals are to develop code that is reflective of our values and prioritizes the safety of people and pets, organize our work to be both effective and efficient with data-informed proactive programming, establish career pathways for team members to develop and advance, and lastly ensure that staff is reflective of Minneapolis communities and is fully prepared to engage.
  • 01:32:34
    We have developed key metrics through the outcomes of Minneapolis' process that we will track and report on once finalized.
  • 01:32:41
    For traffic control, these outcomes center on response times for urgent service requests, snow emergencies, and street cleaning enforcement, managing critical intersections during rush hour,
  • 01:32:54
    In operations and engagement, we will measure voluntary compliance for rental license renewals, the percent of housing violations identified during portfolio inspections, and the percent of appeals that did not elevate to an administrative hearing.
  • 01:33:08
    For Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, we will report on the animal live release rate, animal bites and exposures responded to within one hour of first report,
  • 01:33:18
    the percent of violations that lead to compliance and a conversion rate for foster animals that are then adopted into their forever homes.
  • 01:33:26
    Lastly, with inspection services, we'll focus on resolving complaints within service level agreements, rebuilding a hazmat program to conduct inspections and collect needed information as a part of a coordinated emergency management approach,
  • 01:33:41
    Measure the percentage of vacant building registration properties that sign restoration agreements and progress through the off of the list within the allotted two-year time interval.
  • 01:33:52
    Next I'll share more specifics on some of the statistics we're most proud of and that most illustrate the department's fine work.
  • 01:34:01
    So achievements.
  • 01:34:03
    We are stabilizing department leadership and filling open positions.
  • 01:34:08
    Over the course of the past year, several leaders accepted promotional opportunities elsewhere within the city and in other municipalities.
  • 01:34:18
    The executive team and the extended leadership team have been rebuilt, many of whom are in the room today.
  • 01:34:25
    MAC continues to find innovative ways to keep animals in community.
  • 01:34:29
    FIDO Field Trips is a perfect example of that.
  • 01:34:32
    More than 1,200 individuals have enthusiastically registered for the program, leading to 152 unique dogs that have gone out on field trips exploring the city with their human companions.
  • 01:34:47
    With the increase in staffing approved in the 2024 supplemental budget, we were able to reopen for Saturday service starting on June 8th.
  • 01:34:56
    Saturday hours provide opportunities for the public to adopt animals and to engage with staff outside of the standard work day.
  • 01:35:03
    Since resuming on June 8th, we adopted, reunited, or connected 96 animals to families or our rescue partners on Saturdays alone.
  • 01:35:15
    We successfully launched the on-demand rental property owners and managers workshop program.
  • 01:35:20
    This is in addition to the quarterly in-person workshops that take place over Microsoft Teams.
  • 01:35:26
    Through these courses, rental property owners and managers can take the class online whenever it's most convenient for them and their life circumstances.
  • 01:35:36
    We're also translating the course into multiple languages, increasing accessibility for the diverse communities we serve.
  • 01:35:43
    Our coordinated enterprise-wide encampment program continues to grow and evolve.
  • 01:35:49
    Fire inspections and traffic control stepped up to meet the demand of increased community events.
  • 01:35:54
    We increased community outreach efforts with our first renters rights resource fair, with FIDO field trips as mentioned before, doors open Minneapolis, and tabling at various community events.
  • 01:36:09
    Overnight shift at traffic control became operational five nights per week.
  • 01:36:14
    and we're on pace to address the backlog of COVID era rental property inspections by the close of this year.
  • 01:36:22
    Vacant building registry ordinance was changed to address prolonged vacancies, just to highlight a number of the different achievements or successes that we've experienced over the year.
  • 01:36:32
    Now, flipping over to the other side of the coin, what are some of the different risks that we face?
  • 01:36:39
    We have a stressed workforce.
  • 01:36:41
    workforce that faces increasing demands and with long cycle times to backfill open positions, each of which add pressure on existing staff to deliver much needed services to community.
  • 01:36:54
    The rebuilding efforts for leadership and extended leadership team has an impact on our ability to be thoughtful and planful for future operations.
  • 01:37:05
    We've spent a lot of time and effort rebuilding our team this year, which made it difficult to do all of the more strategic, forward-looking work that we would have liked to have accomplished this year.
  • 01:37:16
    We have increasing non-personnel costs that are not accounted for in the budget.
  • 01:37:22
    The MAC budget lacks custodial services, which seems like it's a very innocuous thing, but when we lack those custodial services, it's the staff that then must take on that work
  • 01:37:34
    shifting away, taking away from their ability to actually do the field work or do other veterinary services, perform surgeries and the like.
  • 01:37:45
    We also lack sufficient funding for overtime and on-call pay for our staff, our animal control officers who go out and respond nights and weekends and overnights.
  • 01:37:59
    This has been an oversight for the past several years and we have traditionally been able to cover this utilizing salary savings.
  • 01:38:08
    Animal Control has also outgrown their current building and is seeing increasing demands.
  • 01:38:12
    We're not successful with securing funding for the new building through the click process this year.
  • 01:38:20
    And we're not currently staffed for this current ongoing spike in intakes, criminal investigations, and dog bites.
  • 01:38:28
    We are maintaining a 90% or higher life release rate, which is challenging with the prolonged increase in intakes.
  • 01:38:35
    Building demolition costs are highly variable.
  • 01:38:38
    This makes it difficult to predict and budget for this specific area and this specific important function that supports community livability and then overall safety.
  • 01:38:51
    We are currently repurposing positions to rebuild our Hazmat program, which has, for all intents and purposes, been relatively dormant since 2019.
  • 01:39:05
    programming and staffing.
  • 01:39:07
    Our proposed budget is essentially kept flat with the exception of two budget requests, one of which includes two new staff members.
  • 01:39:15
    The mayor's recommended budget includes a proposal for $850,212 in ongoing general fund investment.
  • 01:39:22
    The proposal is for regulatory services to expand its unsheltered homelessness response activities.
  • 01:39:28
    These funds will support the addition of 2.0 FTE
  • 01:39:32
    Homeless Response Coordinator positions.
  • 01:39:35
    If successful, the additional staff will increase the existing program from 4 FTE to 6 FTE.
  • 01:39:42
    The additional staffing will go towards supporting individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness with greater frequency and responsiveness as community reports the presence of unsheltered residents.
  • 01:39:53
    In addition to staffing, the proposal includes funding for ongoing personal storage solutions located in community as well as downtown, supplemental wintertime warming shelter services for Hennepin County, and lastly, convert existing contract services from grant funded to general funded.
  • 01:40:11
    The second budget proposal calls for a $100,000 one-time general fund investment for regulatory services to further the affordable home ownership and preservation program by helping low-income homeowners address outstanding housing orders.
  • 01:40:28
    The focus of this program is to ensure housing maintains life safety and livability so that the resident remains in their home and do not face displacement.
  • 01:40:42
    I'll note here at present there are 9.8 vacancies and four open requisitions.
  • 01:40:49
    Animal Care and Control is in the process of hiring four Animal Control officers.
  • 01:40:56
    Two FTE for housing inspectors are currently vacant.
  • 01:41:01
    And the reason being for that is that we have two inspectors that are currently on loan to Environmental Health as part of the healthy homes led abatement program which is an ARPA funded program and once that program sunsets at the end of this year those two staff will return to regulatory services and resume their role as housing inspectors and
  • 01:41:27
    We have faced some difficulties in filling positions for homelessness response.
  • 01:41:32
    After the promotion of a homeless response coordinator to the manager of that program, we've gone through three rounds of recruitment to try and backfill for that single position.
  • 01:41:42
    Second,
  • 01:41:43
    We are repurposing one of the vacant homeless response coordinator positions into a lead coordinator position to help with some of the administrative overhead for that manager position.
  • 01:41:55
    And it has taken upwards of five months to work through the job analysis questionnaire process to adjust that position.
  • 01:42:03
    That work has just concluded and we'll be able to post for that within the coming weeks.
  • 01:42:09
    Other hiring processes that are currently in motion, Traffic Control will hire an additional 2.0 FTE Code Compliance Specialists by the end of this year, in addition to the eight, I believe, that they already have hired.
  • 01:42:22
    And we're working to fill all open vacancies.
  • 01:42:25
    We've been experiencing turnover, but are willing and are working towards stabilizing staffing.
  • 01:42:33
    Alright, over the next series of slides, I will shift focus to individual divisions and programming.
  • 01:42:41
    So Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, led by Director Tony Shindell, provides quality care for all animals housed at the Minneapolis Animal Shelter, support the health and well-being of the community as it relates to animals, protects the community by ensuring the care, control, and protection of animals, and promotes and supports the responsible and humane care of animals.
  • 01:43:06
    Activities include providing field service, responding to animal-related calls, sheltering pets of all kinds.
  • 01:43:15
    All kinds.
  • 01:43:16
    Even if you don't think it's a pet, somebody will think it's a pet.
  • 01:43:21
    Conducting criminal investigations for animal cases.
  • 01:43:24
    Providing most medical procedures in-house, preparing animals for adoption and helping reduce their length of stay in shelter.
  • 01:43:32
    Leading robust volunteer and foster care programs to help rehome animals.
  • 01:43:37
    facilitating adoptions and much, much more.
  • 01:43:41
    Shifting focus to outcomes and performance metrics, data and progress, as we've deepened our community relations and responded to evolving needs, MAX staff continue to be stretched thin.
  • 01:43:54
    We responded to a total of 20,000 calls in 2023.
  • 01:43:59
    Year over year, animal cruelty cases are on the rise.
  • 01:44:03
    With them, the subsequent criminal investigations are increasingly complex.
  • 01:44:09
    Further taxing staff capacity.
  • 01:44:11
    Additionally, severe dog bite cases have increased by more than 20% from 2022 to 2023 and are projected to grow by an additional 28% in 2024.
  • 01:44:23
    Shelter and medical services have expanded beyond sheltering animals to rehabilitating them physically and emotionally.
  • 01:44:31
    so they can be successfully rehomed.
  • 01:44:33
    Throughout the entire year, our shelter has remained at max capacity, largely due to an increase in surrendered pets.
  • 01:44:42
    While our volunteer and foster programs have helped MACC absorb some of the increased demand temporarily, MACC's shelter continues to operate at maximum capacity.
  • 01:44:52
    Our foster program provides much needed relief by reducing the length of stay in our shelter and connecting pets with loving homes.
  • 01:45:00
    This year, the Foster Program grew to house over 30% of our cat and dog intakes, trading space for more animals in the shelter during an extremely busy year.
  • 01:45:10
    In 2022, we saw our live release rate dip below 90% because animal intakes increased.
  • 01:45:18
    However, since the Foster Program expanded in 2023, we've seen it help us maintain a 90% or higher live release rate.
  • 01:45:26
    Second, innovative programs like vital field trips have helped increase pet adoptions and made room for more animals in need of acute care.
  • 01:45:38
    Shifting to Code Compliance and Traffic Control led by Director Ahmed Adal.
  • 01:45:43
    Code Compliance and Traffic Control, their objectives are to ensure streets are clear and usable environments for all city residents and visitors.
  • 01:45:52
    They manage for safe and expeditious traffic flow in the city's busiest and most critical areas.
  • 01:45:58
    Activities include on-site traffic control that allows for safer, more efficient traffic flow during rush hour, large events and special events around construction sites and during emergencies or natural disasters.
  • 01:46:12
    multi-departmental response coordination such as supporting public works including temporary posting for constructions, street cleaning, snow emergencies, open streets events, supporting police department and fire department for emergencies such as accidents, structural fires, protests.
  • 01:46:30
    Business Licensing and Valet, proactively educating community members about traffic and parking compliance by attending community events and multicultural radio shows, providing no-cost traffic services to community-led food distribution events.
  • 01:46:47
    Code enforcement runs 24 hours per day, five days per week.
  • 01:46:51
    And then on those two additional days, they run 16-hour days.
  • 01:46:56
    to support timely response to critical parking regulations and complaints.
  • 01:47:01
    Traffic control is a critical component of the city's public safety mechanism.
  • 01:47:06
    They do so by educating the public about parking regulations and managing traffic in the city.
  • 01:47:12
    By the numbers, traffic control responded to 26,065 parking complaints, demonstrating our commitment to addressing community concerns promptly and efficiently.
  • 01:47:23
    We collaborated with Public Works by enforcing parking regulations during winter street sweeping operations.
  • 01:47:30
    Provided 11,300 hours of traffic control services including rush hour, construction, and special events.
  • 01:47:38
    Notably, we observed a 4% increase in event traffic hours even though we were able to adapt to changing demands.
  • 01:47:45
    However, this continues to stretch resources.
  • 01:47:48
    We provided strategic enforcement and traffic services to MPD public safety initiatives such as late nights and warehouse district life.
  • 01:47:59
    Successfully implemented the use of android cell phones for issuing citations reflecting our technological innovation while also remaining fiscally responsible.
  • 01:48:09
    We supported MPD during the Warehouse District Live events by enforcing parking regulations and directing traffic, freeing MPD staff in time and resources to respond to emergency situations.
  • 01:48:21
    We've made significant strides in building a more diverse workforce with employees on staff who possess language mastery in five different languages other than English.
  • 01:48:30
    This diversity enables us to connect with and serve the residents and visitors of this great city.
  • 01:48:40
    Inspection Services led by Director April Bogard.
  • 01:48:43
    Inspection Services objectives are to inspect rental properties for dignified, safe, and supportive housing for renters.
  • 01:48:50
    Proactively educate and inspect for well-maintained and thriving owner-occupied properties.
  • 01:48:57
    Proactively inspect commercial spaces to ensure safe and well-maintained business spaces.
  • 01:49:02
    supporting welcoming livable and sustainable neighborhoods staffing major special events including sporting events and concerts venues to ensure that all of these are safe for all involved activities include working with property owners and managers and renters to identify code violations either through a complaint based system or through the proactive rental licensing inspections progress process
  • 01:49:31
    recognizing rental housing as community assets, promoting fire prevention, education, and hazard mitigation through effective fire and life safety code compliance programming.
  • 01:49:42
    Serving as an essential partner in furthering the renters first policies and with the housing liaison team, which assists homeowners and renters navigate open orders and complex housing situations.
  • 01:49:56
    Shifting to outcomes and performance metrics,
  • 01:49:59
    The rental licensing data includes all rental licensing inspections for both single-family duplexes, triplexes, as well as the high occupancy dwelling units.
  • 01:50:11
    In addition to rental licensing inspections, staff responded to more than 10,000 complaints in 2023.
  • 01:50:17
    More than 97% of these complaints were responded to within the SLA.
  • 01:50:23
    These are inclusive of nuisance complaints for rental and owner-occupied properties.
  • 01:50:28
    Staff evaluated and inspected more than 2,600 permits inclusive of special events, fire suppression, kitchen exhaust cleaning, and many more fire and hazardous material related permits.
  • 01:50:44
    We proactively educate renters and property owners about their rights.
  • 01:50:48
    We identified and corrected more than 1,300 life safety violations.
  • 01:50:53
    On the subject of hazardous material, there has been no dedicated funding for hazmat inspections since 2019.
  • 01:50:59
    We are retooling existing positions in 2024 so we can resume performing this critical function for the safety of all Minneapolis and all those who visit Minneapolis.
  • 01:51:10
    Hazardous materials, if not properly handled or stored, can lead to catastrophic incidents such as fires, explosions, chemical leaks, and environmental contamination.
  • 01:51:21
    Regular inspections help identify potential hazards, ensure compliance with safety regulations, and prevent accidents that could endanger the lives of residents and visitors of the city.
  • 01:51:35
    Our fourth division, Operations and Engagement, is led by Director Josie Shardlow.
  • 01:51:42
    Operations and Engagement staff include the Administration and Customer Experience Team, Data Analytics Team, Communications and Community Engagement Team, Housing and Rental Liaison Team, Alternative Enforcement Team, and the Homeless and Encampment Response Team, in addition to the department's interagency coordination, aid to the director, and finance services manager.
  • 01:52:07
    Their objectives are to equip regulatory services staff with the resources and tools they need to work effectively and efficiently.
  • 01:52:19
    They ensure customers can easily access and navigate systems effectively and intuitively.
  • 01:52:24
    They provide equitable and transparent access for residents to city information and resources.
  • 01:52:30
    Educate staff so they are equipped to proactively engage with our most vulnerable communities.
  • 01:52:36
    develop and implement a diverse set of elevated compliance tools that prioritize renter protections to engage property owners and ensure renters have safe, habitable, and dignified living conditions.
  • 01:52:52
    Activities include delivering strategic coordination to process improvement and public policy, organizing staff participation in community events and meetings to help facilitate trust building with residents and connect them to critical services, providing customer service and facilitation for administrative hearings,
  • 01:53:12
    actively supporting alternative enforcement to support renters and offer a continuum of enforcement actions to uniquely address complex housing situations, ensuring accurate oversight and management of data, an annual rental license tiering process, research and visualization projects,
  • 01:53:32
    statistical analysis and performance metrics, providing services required for internal departmental functions, including fleet, human resources, IT, property services, budget and procurement.
  • 01:53:45
    Through a coordinated and intentional approach, the homeless response team proactively responds to the needs of unsheltered individuals in Minneapolis, focusing primarily on encampment residents.
  • 01:53:57
    shifting focus to outcomes and performance metrics.
  • 01:54:00
    We hired several critical roles in 2024, beginning with the Director of Operations and Engagement, the Homeless and Encampment Response Program Manager, the Finance Services Manager, Interagency Coordinator, Alternative Enforcement Project Coordinator, a Bilingual Spanish Housing and Rental Liaison, along with filling multiple vacancies in the Administration and Customer Experience Team.
  • 01:54:26
    From an operations perspective, we've seen a big increase in the number of event permits.
  • 01:54:31
    This slide shows how working with fire inspections, staff processed 223 events in 2023, and we project an estimated total of 284 in 2024.
  • 01:54:46
    The city is rebounding from post-pandemic and civil unrest activities.
  • 01:54:50
    Processing rental license applications is an important part of the Regulatory Services Administration and Customer Experience team's work.
  • 01:54:58
    The team processes over 23,000 rental license renewals in 2023, as well as 2,766 new rental license applications.
  • 01:55:09
    These licenses cover approximately 110,000 rental dwelling units.
  • 01:55:16
    We collected over $1.5 million in rental license fees so far in 2024, 37% of whom paid online through a credit card processing gateway, a program enhancement that rolled out in late 2022.
  • 01:55:29
    The data analytics team maintains 23 public-facing dashboards in addition to numerous internal-facing dashboards that enhance data transparency and help inform decision-making at all levels across the department.
  • 01:55:44
    This division also handles administrative citation appeals hearings, of which we process 159 appeals for a total of 32 hearings in 2023.
  • 01:55:57
    For the interest of time, I'll skip ahead to jump forward to one of our two new budget proposals.
  • 01:56:09
    In the mayor's recommended budget, it calls for $850,212 in ongoing general fund for regulatory services to expand its unsheltered homelessness response activities.
  • 01:56:22
    The proposal mitigates risks to community livability for unsheltered individuals in encampments and the surrounding community members.
  • 01:56:33
    What these funds will procure are the addition of 2.0 homeless response coordinators into the program to support individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness by connecting them to resources, services, storage and shelter and storage solutions.
  • 01:56:50
    It includes private security services to augment city security staff where needed and personal storage solutions for those residing within encampments who wish to store their personal belongings.
  • 01:57:04
    Currently we have a contract with the Downtown Improvement District for storage services, specifically downtown.
  • 01:57:12
    We recognize that this has created a barrier for individuals that wish to store their personal belongings, and there's also a limit to the amount of storage that they're able to provide.
  • 01:57:22
    To date, very few individuals have taken us up on the offer of storage solutions, so we're evaluating how we can stand up
  • 01:57:31
    We're also looking at ongoing funding for Henneman County's Continuum of Care shelter providers and wintertime warming shelters.
  • 01:57:56
    Similar to the last couple of years, we've provided $250,000 to Hennepin County for the winter warming shelter operations, and we would wish to continue to do that.
  • 01:58:07
    Goals and performance metrics we'll measure are continued and improved coordinated response to the unsheltered crisis, measured by the number of encampments as a rolling average, number of successful engagements and encampments, 311 cases, police calls for service, and shelter and housing availability.
  • 01:58:24
    Expected impacts, recognizing that 68% of those who call the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of encampments home, Phillips and Whittier, are predominantly BIPOC residents.
  • 01:58:39
    Medium household income for those neighborhoods is approximately $46,000, which is about $30,000 less than the city's median household income of $76,000.
  • 01:58:50
    That's based on the 2002 data.
  • 01:58:53
    input from community and stakeholders.
  • 01:58:57
    Staff have engaged encampment residents daily and we're moving towards a regionalized response and engage other agencies and departments weekly to review, analyze, and coordinate response.
  • 01:59:08
    Additional staffing support will provide increased opportunities to engage with unsheltered residents at their earliest opportunity.
  • 01:59:18
    Now our second proposal is one for the Affordable Homeownership Preservation.
  • 01:59:25
    It calls for a one-time funding of $100,000 to support this specific pilot project.
  • 01:59:33
    The project allows residents with low and fixed incomes who are facing the prospect of displacement due to unattended repairs that render their home unsafe opportunities to repair these essential orders.
  • 01:59:45
    The project focuses on serving lower-income individuals, those with disabilities, and seniors who are unable to make the repairs themselves.
  • 01:59:55
    The number of households served will depend on the scale of the projects.
  • 01:59:59
    Each project will be for a maximum of $20,000 per home and will be to support repairs of the critical orders issued to address life safety and quality code violations open on their homes.
  • 02:00:11
    The average direct project costs are approximately $11,000.
  • 02:00:16
    The program utilizes volunteers and generous donations of in-kind materials so that the majority of costs will go towards the repairs and not staff.
  • 02:00:27
    If the residents were to seek competitive bids for these repairs, the average retail value of these repairs would cost in the order of $25,000.
  • 02:00:38
    And we're working with PMI to finalize metrics here.
  • 02:00:41
    The finalized metrics will be incorporated into the budget book in October.
  • 02:00:45
    Preliminary measures include number of households who avoided displacement, the amount spent per home and dollars leveraged through in-kind partnerships, and then participate in demographics as well as their location by neighborhood, ward, and street zip codes.
  • 02:01:03
    So expected impacts, residents must meet certain criteria to qualify and participate.
  • 02:01:08
    The majority are below 30% AMI and 34% of the participants are non-white BIPOC residents.
  • 02:01:18
    17% have a physical disability and 25% are older adults that are age 65 plus.
  • 02:01:31
    And here's a snapshot of each of these different asks and what the requests are year over year.
  • 02:01:39
    Unsheltered homelessness response being ongoing with a salary increase projection for 2026.
  • 02:01:47
    That's why you see a bit of a change in 2026 over 2025.
  • 02:01:53
    And as I mentioned, affordable home ownership preservation is one time funding of $100,000.
  • 02:02:00
    And this concludes my presentation.
• • Emily Koski
  • 02:02:02
    Thank you so much, Director.
  • 02:02:04
    And I see I have a few of my colleagues are in queue.
  • 02:02:09
    Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:02:11
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 02:02:13
    Thank you for this presentation.
  • 02:02:15
    I know some neighborhood associations used to use their NRP money for some of the offerings similar to the affordable housing homeownership preservation program but one of the challenges with that during the old NRP
  • 02:02:33
    like phase one money was that there weren't consistent guidelines between programs, not many, not all the neighborhoods offered this kind of assistance.
  • 02:02:43
    And so I was really interested to read more about the affordable home ownership preservation pilot.
  • 02:02:51
    I'm curious, how long has this been going on?
  • 02:02:54
    And does it say, I didn't see how many property owners that we've assisted with it yet?
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:03:03
    I don't have that information at the top of my mind.
  • 02:03:15
    I have a few numbers in mind, but I want to make sure that we get you the most accurate information.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:03:20
    I'm just like just ballpark curious if for follow-up
  • 02:03:25
    I think it's a really interesting program and it's nice to do one with consistent guidelines across the city.
  • 02:03:32
    Hopefully that will help with uptake and getting everybody who would be eligible for that program, you know, using it.
  • 02:03:40
    Also, I just wanted to thank you for the numerous reg services folks from data analytics people to animal care and control to traffic services that came out to Southwest High School this past year for career fairs You know, I saw a lot of young people's eyes Be opened to what a career might look like as a public servant Should they go forward with college or not?
  • 02:04:08
    and
  • 02:04:10
    These are positions that they've never really thought about before and it's because of your team.
  • 02:04:17
    So thank you and thank you for creating that culture where people spend the time like that with young people in our community.
  • 02:04:24
    I appreciate it.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:04:26
    Thank you so much.
• • Emily Koski
  • 02:04:29
    All right, next we have Councilmember Vita.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 02:04:32
    Thank you, Chair Koski.
  • 02:04:33
    No questions, just to gush all over you and your department.
  • 02:04:38
    You know, the biggest thing I hear in Ward 4 is livability issues, right?
  • 02:04:44
    And your department has really done a fantastic job at
  • 02:04:48
    is answering the call to that.
  • 02:04:52
    First, Animal Care and Control.
  • 02:04:54
    Tony is doing a really good job at managing those services.
  • 02:04:59
    They're needed now more than ever, especially with dog bites up, and as I found out, bats on the loose.
  • 02:05:06
    In the city of Minneapolis, I did a
  • 02:05:09
    a ride along with Sue who is just fantastic and amazing.
  • 02:05:13
    I learned so much from Sue in four hours about the work that Animal Care and Control does and you know just to hear what we deal with like how we have this city that has this program for animals and it's like a city within the city you know like they they have very different needs than
  • 02:05:32
    I appreciate that
  • 02:05:52
    we've been facing for a long time.
  • 02:05:56
    I feel like they really are listening to the community needs and that's block by block.
  • 02:06:00
    Every situation isn't the same and I appreciate your staff's approach to that and the opportunities they take to speak with community members I think is necessary and they've been doing a really good job at getting out of the cars and explaining to people
  • 02:06:16
    you know what's happening and how it's happening and that really gives me a lot of relief as a council member if your staff takes the time right then and there to explain to people what's happening and not have, I've seen your staff, the traffic control and animal care and control de-escalate situations that escalated really quickly
  • 02:06:37
    and I really do.
  • 02:06:38
    I appreciate the work they're doing and also the inspection services.
  • 02:06:42
    You know, we get lots of complaints and war for about other property problem properties is a number one issue and the coordinated care and services that your department brings to that is it is just
  • 02:06:55
    is wonderful.
  • 02:06:56
    It really is refreshing and wonderful to have a team of people who want to work with my office, who want to work with all the resources we have at the city to help with problem properties and problem areas, rather than just trash being on the ground and
  • 02:07:11
    folks needing additional resources around that.
  • 02:07:15
    The north side deals with a lot of dumping.
  • 02:07:17
    You know, it's an issue we have, I believe it's because we're so connected to first tier suburbs that have to pay for a lot of the things that get picked up for free in Minneapolis and so we deal with a lot of dumping and your team has been helping us navigate through that a lot.
  • 02:07:35
    I'm always going to support whatever you ask for here.
  • 02:07:38
    Go big.
  • 02:07:40
    But I do, I appreciate the work, I appreciate the collaboration with my office in particular on teaching us a lot of things and helping to navigate through these sometimes very complex issues but very important livability issues as I started out saying.
  • 02:07:57
    It is the number one thing in Warford.
  • 02:08:00
    Most of the times when you have a conversation with people, right away it's connected to regulatory services and it's always a pleasure to reach out to you and your team and get relief for Warford residents.
  • 02:08:12
    So thank you very much and keep up the good work to your entire department.
• • Emily Koski
  • 02:08:18
    Thank you Councilmember.
  • 02:08:20
    I put myself in queue and then we have Councilmember Osman as well.
  • 02:08:24
    So I just have a comment around the affordable home ownership preservation program and I just appreciate seeing this in the budget.
  • 02:08:34
    I believe that programs that avoid displacement are critical right now so I'm grateful to see this.
  • 02:08:40
    And I think this program does more than just what you state here.
  • 02:08:45
    It's a gateway to learn about what's happening in a resident's life.
  • 02:08:53
    It's able to get residents access to other services.
  • 02:08:56
    So we may see something on the outside of a home, but there's
  • 02:09:02
    I know that this amount is a decrease from the ARPA funding, is that correct?
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:09:28
    Yes, thank you, Chair Koski.
  • 02:09:29
    I believe the ARPA funding was $250,000 over two years, so it's a slight decrease.
• • Emily Koski
  • 02:09:35
    Okay, so a slight decrease and, you know, I'm anxious to see a little bit more of the data that comes forward, but from what I understand, I personally would like to see this as ongoing funding and increased as well.
  • 02:09:50
    So we'll stay tuned to see how this continues to move forward.
  • 02:09:54
    So, alright, thank you so much.
  • 02:09:56
    And now we have Councilmember Osman.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:09:58
    Thank you, Director.
  • 02:10:00
    Thank you, Chair Koski.
  • 02:10:01
    Appreciate it.
  • 02:10:03
    I think Councilmember Fita kind of summed it up, a complex issue.
  • 02:10:09
    You guys take care of it.
  • 02:10:10
    Your departments are doing all the things on the background and super appreciate and I appreciate your leadership and your connection to my office as we deal with many challenges that takes place in Ward 6.
  • 02:10:24
    I wanted to
  • 02:10:27
    We are...
  • 02:10:28
    We continue to adopt new policies and the ones we have done is the rental protection recently, pre-eviction and vacant building registration that we have adopted and we continue to improve and add more ordinance and that I'm sure creates more work for you and more work for your team and has there been any request on
  • 02:10:58
    City Council.
  • 02:11:16
    The issue that your department deals with it all the time that probably took so much time of your schedule is incumbent response that has been very challenging in some areas and has there been any increase of your homeless outreach team respond?
  • 02:11:37
    I don't think it's an effort we have.
  • 02:11:39
    I think what we deal with City of Minneapolis is
  • 02:11:44
    encampments is actual issue that continue to come back, that continue to make the challenge for mostly in South Minneapolis area and we need to respond more and has there been any increase on that?
  • 02:12:01
    Will this step be increasing on the encampment response team?
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:12:07
    Thank you Chair Koski.
  • 02:12:08
    Council Member Osman.
  • 02:12:10
    I'll take each one of those questions one at a time.
  • 02:12:13
    So with the first component of any requests for additional staffing with respect to the new ordinances that have passed with respect to
  • 02:12:25
    We do not have any additional requests that did not already make it into the budget.
  • 02:12:32
    We believe that we have the staffing that we need and are making adjustments where necessary.
  • 02:12:38
    It's something that we do routinely.
  • 02:12:41
    As staff leave, we evaluate why did that person leave, what are the current needs for the business to be able to sustain and deliver services to the community, and how do we need to adjust that position so that we can respond
  • 02:12:55
    and attempt to stay ahead of whatever the community needs are.
  • 02:12:59
    Same thing with respect to the vacant building registry.
  • 02:13:02
    While we do have existing staff that focus on vacant buildings, there are some adjustments that we'll make programmatically to shift some of the existing work over to inspectors that do the proactive tiers rental license inspections so that our vacant building registry staff can focus just on the vacant buildings, whether it's
  • 02:13:26
    Residential properties commercial properties mixed-use properties just so that they're able to focus on those areas and provide continual support For that program and for that ordinance and make sure that that work is successful with respect to
  • 02:13:44
    Homelessness and encampment response.
  • 02:13:46
    We currently have two staff a manager and a Homeless response coordinator one of whom is on vacation for the next week, which means our team is now down to 50% And we currently have 32 encampments around the city doing the math not enough personnel to go out and do engagement and outreach with all of the individuals at every single encampment
  • 02:14:07
    even throughout the course of a week.
  • 02:14:10
    And we do have budgeting for four staff in that team with thanks to the supplemental budget from 2024 that changed the staffing model from ARPA funded to general fund for the four staff before they were grant funded.
  • 02:14:30
    So we do have the four positions.
  • 02:14:33
    We just need to hire them and we're working through that currently.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:14:36
    How many positions?
  • 02:14:39
    Four.
  • 02:14:39
    Four positions?
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:14:40
    We have four positions.
  • 02:14:42
    Four total.
  • 02:14:43
    Manager and three homeless response coordinators.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:14:46
    Okay, thank you.
  • 02:14:48
    I wanted to kind of get that information.
  • 02:14:50
    It's really important that we increase the homeless outreach team because these are the folks that are making that first contact and trying to build that relationship with the unhoused folks that are living on the streets and especially the ordinance we recently passed that also requires more of your time and team and I hate to see staff taking away from staff and putting, you know,
  • 02:15:16
    on behind the desk.
  • 02:15:18
    I'd rather have those folks reaching out, building those relationships, connecting those presidents in need to services, and definitely working with the government agencies to make sure that we are addressing this crisis in the city of Minneapolis.
  • 02:15:33
    If there's any additional support you need, please let me know.
  • 02:15:39
    We'll definitely look into the budget and see what we can do to increase the homeless outreach team.
  • 02:15:45
    Thank you, Director.
  • 02:15:46
    Appreciate it.
• • Emily Koski
  • 02:15:48
    Alright, thank you Councilmember.
  • 02:15:50
    I am not seeing anybody else in queue.
  • 02:15:53
    So thank you so much Director for your presentation and for answering all the questions thoroughly as well.
  • 02:16:01
    So right now I will ask the Clerk to file that presentation.
  • 02:16:06
    and again thank you for that.
  • 02:16:07
    With that we've concluded all business to come before the committee this morning slash this afternoon and without objection we stand adjourned until our next meeting which is this evening at 605 p.m. where we'll have our first public hearing on the 2025 budget.
  • 02:16:22
    And then we have a Budget Committee meeting in these chambers again tomorrow, September 24th at 10 a.m. where we will receive presentations from NCR, Arts and Cultural Affairs, and IGR.
  • 02:16:36
    All of these presentations are already in LIMS.
  • 02:16:39
    And so with that, thank you.