Budget Committee October 16, 2025   10/16/2025

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:18
    Good morning.
  • 00:00:19
    My name is Aisha Chugtai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:00:22
    I'm going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Thursday, October 16, 2025.
  • 00:00:29
    Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.
  • 00:00:39
    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
  • 00:00:46
    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.
  • 00:00:55
    We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.
  • 00:01:00
    At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:01:05
    Kuntzner, Payne is absent.
  • 00:01:06
    Wonsley is absent.
  • 00:01:08
    Rainville.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:01:08
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:01:10
    Vitak.
  • 00:01:11
    Present.
  • 00:01:12
    Ellison is absent.
  • 00:01:13
    Osman is absent.
  • 00:01:15
    Cashman.
  • 00:01:15
    Present.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:16
    Thank you for having me.
  • 00:01:37
    Today we have three presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2026 budget from the Parks and Recreation Board, the Legislative Department, and the City's Climate Legacy Initiative.
  • 00:01:50
    First, I'll invite Parks Board President Kathy Abene, Superintendent Al Bangura, and Finance Director Julie Weissman to begin the Parks and Rec Board presentation.
  • 00:02:02
    Welcome.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:02:04
    Thank you very much Chair Chuktai and members of the committee.
  • 00:02:08
    My name is Kathy Abeni and I'm president of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and thank you for inviting us to present the 2026 proposed superintendent's budget for the park system.
  • 00:02:21
    This budget was just presented to the park commissioners last night and so we're still going through it but in general I would say it's a budget to be proud of and I hope you find that to be the case as well.
  • 00:02:35
    We worked really hard this year with the mayor's office and then with the board of estimate and taxation and we have a member here of the BET and another that's not present but
  • 00:02:44
    really appreciated their interest in the park system this year and their willingness to hear the needs of the park system and support the parks.
  • 00:02:54
    So with that, I'll just go ahead and turn this over to Superintendent Al Bangura.
  • 00:02:59
    Thank you.
  • 00:03:02
    Welcome, sir.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:03:03
    Thank you.
  • 00:03:07
    Chair Tata and members, it's a privilege being here today.
  • 00:03:11
    Just give me a moment, I'll walk through some things.
  • 00:03:12
    I'm going to turn it over to Director Weissman to then walk through the budget for 2026.
  • 00:03:19
    So for more than 140 years, our park system has been shaped by vision, advocacy, and shared commitment to community.
  • 00:03:30
    Today we have the privilege and also the responsibility for carrying that legacy forward as stewards of our parks.
  • 00:03:37
    The choices we make now, where we invest, what we protect, and how we prioritize will define the future of our parks, our environment, and our city.
  • 00:03:49
    This year we celebrate several major milestones.
  • 00:03:54
    The River Hub at Greco Park opened advancing our climate goals through clean energy generation and conservation while engaging through our Spark Studios and enhancing riverfront and downtown programming.
  • 00:04:06
    Construction is nearing completion on the Upper Harbor Park, a 20-acre regional park that transforms the former industrial riverfront
  • 00:04:15
    into a welcoming space for people and wildlife.
  • 00:04:20
    We also broke ground on the largest ever investment in our Minneapolis neighborhood parks, North Commons Park.
  • 00:04:26
    It's a bold, forward-looking project grounded in the community's rich history.
  • 00:04:33
    Each of these transformative projects is located in a historically underserved area and made possible through strategic directions and investments and strong partnerships.
  • 00:04:45
    They reflect our ongoing commitment to providing world-class parks and facilities that enrich lives.
  • 00:04:52
    Minneapolis parks are essential to what makes our city a great place to live, work, play and visit.
  • 00:05:02
    What with that comes a shared expectation that our parks are for everyone.
  • 00:05:08
    They're well cared for and they will endure for generations to come.
  • 00:05:12
    Balancing, adding amenities for areas of the city that are growing and the underserved or underserved with taking care of what we have was the hardest part
  • 00:05:24
    of this year's budget development and will be our challenge for the next several years to come.
  • 00:05:29
    I am obviously very and continuously inspired by the dedication of our NPRB staff who understand the challenges and whose work brings the mission, vision, values, and life every single day in their work.
  • 00:05:44
    It really is truly an honor to work alongside such a talented and passionate team as the Superintendent of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
  • 00:05:53
    The recommended budget supports the final year of implementation of our 2023-2026 strategic directions, which advances the goals outlined in our Parks for All the NPRB Comprehensive Plan from 2021 to 2036.
  • 00:06:08
    Since 2022, commissioners and staff have worked with focus and determination to ensure the park system's long-term environmental and financial sustainability.
  • 00:06:21
    So thanks to strong board leadership and collaboration, we've achieved several key milestones to help diversify our funding sources.
  • 00:06:30
    We increased our annual parkway repair funding from $750,000 to more than $3 million by 2026.
  • 00:06:37
    We've established a dedicated stormwater utility charge, doubling funding from $824,000 to $1.7 million in 2026 to protect and enhance our stormwater management system.
  • 00:06:51
    We formed a new endowment with the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, ensuring long-term funding for historic infrastructure, regional park and trail upkeep, and natural resource management.
  • 00:07:03
    These pivotal agreements will leave a lasting impact, strengthening quality and sustainability for our parks for generations to come.
  • 00:07:13
    So I'm proud to present my recommended 2026 budget, which prioritizes the care for park amenities and infrastructure, protects the natural resources under our stewardship, expands access to quality programs for youth and senior communities, and invests in the dedicated employees who deliver those essential services every single day.
  • 00:07:37
    So with that, Chair Taktai and members, I'm going to turn this over to Director Weissman to walk through the budget.
  • 00:07:42
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:07:45
    Welcome, Director Weissman.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:07:49
    Thank you, Chair Taktai and members.
  • 00:07:55
    We began our budget development in April and May this year.
  • 00:08:00
    This is the second year of our first biennial budget and the adopted plan in 2025 for 2026 was the base of our budget development this year.
  • 00:08:19
    We talked about, during our discussions, expenditure pressures due to wage inflation and capital investment needs, our system equity investment needs for workforce and other operating costs, closing the youth investment gap, reducing revenue resulting from the decline in property tax collections,
  • 00:08:42
    and the growing disparity between the MPRBs of financial forecasts and the city's projected property tax levy increases for the MPRB.
  • 00:08:53
    When we started the budget process, we had a projected deficit of over six million dollars.
  • 00:09:04
    The superintendent engaged two staff work teams, the revenue team that was tasked to identify and generate new revenue for our park system over the next three years.
  • 00:09:17
    And that work team will continue their ongoing work.
  • 00:09:23
    We also engaged a service level team
  • 00:09:25
    to identify and evaluate potential service level reductions in the event of a recession level budget cuts.
  • 00:09:35
    As you know, our tax levy on September 17th was set at 6.11%
  • 00:09:43
    of which increased the mayor's recommendation to support Greco and upper harbor parks.
  • 00:09:51
    And so recession level cuts were not faced in this budget.
  • 00:09:58
    How do we balance our budget?
  • 00:10:01
    We balanced it through new ideas in revenue generations, innovative staff-led suggestions.
  • 00:10:10
    temporarily holding some vacant positions, eliminating other vacant positions, and increasing fees in some categories based on market rates.
  • 00:10:24
    For example, childcare, golf, and parking.
  • 00:10:31
    Again, as the superintendent mentioned, we have our strategic directions and performance goals that have set our expectations for that period of time.
  • 00:10:47
    So the act boldly for our climate future, the reduction of carbon footprint, we've reached that performance goal with the opening of Greco Park as a net or as a zero carbon building, as well as our participation in the XL solar for our electricity.
  • 00:11:15
    And for the first time in the 2026 budget, we have contracted with Placer AI and we now have visitor data that we can use to help support our decision making process.
  • 00:11:33
    Our Strategic Direction B, Cultivate a Community's Place in Honor and Cultural Traditions This budget continues our work with the NPRB Indigenous Action Plan
  • 00:11:48
    and our work with Dakota leadership over the modifications and additions to some significant policies including the tobacco and cannabis policy as well as our naming policy.
  • 00:12:06
    for implementing a quality youth and generational programs.
  • 00:12:12
    We are building on the success of the citywide youth discount programming model and expanding it in the summer of 2026 to youth sports and senior programs.
  • 00:12:30
    Our youth investment, this budget still holds three youth program specialist positions vacant until we reach our full property tax allocation in 2027.
  • 00:12:48
    For caring for our park assets, this budget includes the care, maintenance and activation of Graco and Upper Harbor Parks and it restores the cuts we heard loudly from the community as well as our commissioners.
  • 00:13:04
    and we restored the cuts to the 2025 ice rink operations which eliminates further closures and it restores ice rinks but on land rather than water bodies at Powderhorn and Weber Park.
  • 00:13:24
    For stewarding our natural resources, we are expanding our, slightly expanding our natural area maintenance funding through our seasonal natural resource specialists and continuing to build our stormwater management program.
  • 00:13:47
    So some other budgetary highlights.
  • 00:13:51
    We are proposing to reduce our property tax collection rate again in 2026.
  • 00:13:59
    We're reducing it from 98.5% to 98% due to the collection rate.
  • 00:14:07
    The park board's budget in the general fund is more
  • 00:14:13
    dependent on property taxes and we need to leave room within our budget.
  • 00:14:19
    We have not added to our general fund balance since 2020 because of the recovery from COVID as well as the reduction in property taxes.
  • 00:14:35
    So we need to adjust and make some room in our budget.
  • 00:14:39
    We're adding a sponsorship program.
  • 00:14:42
    This is something that came out of the revenue team and is one of the things that they believe could generate the most revenue for the park system.
  • 00:14:52
    We are adding some leave management coordination due to the implantation of the Minnesota Paid State and Family Medical Leave Program.
  • 00:15:04
    We're eliminating Rec Plus at 40th Street Park in the mornings and Key Waden due to low enrollment.
  • 00:15:12
    Youth at those locations will be offered enrollment at other suitable sites.
  • 00:15:18
    We're adding a mobile beer garden concept that will travel weekly to the neighborhood park locations that came out of the revenue team.
  • 00:15:27
    It will be designed similar to Parks on Tap in Philadelphia and there's a few other park systems that offer that amenity.
  • 00:15:40
    We're adding paid parking at Neiman Sports Complex and increasing event parking to support the general fund, expanding sand volleyball at East River Flats, and adding youth athletic development camps.
  • 00:16:00
    So now I'll get into the budget itself.
  • 00:16:05
    Our budget documents and everything that we have provided to our board is available on our public website at minneapolisparks.org backslash budget
  • 00:16:19
    The first part of the budget book is the budget message and highlights, which are the things the superintendent and I have highlighted for you.
  • 00:16:28
    The highlights section is where you'll find the very detailed changes that have happened in each fund and within each division and department.
  • 00:16:41
    Our strategic performance goals is the next section and you can see detailed information of the movement and the tracking through the budget process on those performance goals.
  • 00:16:59
    The background information, the park commissioners have new districts in 2026, so this chart shows the old commissioner districts with the highlighted areas and then the new commissioner districts with the dark red line to show the comparison.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:17:22
    Property taxes.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:17:28
    We are 17.4% of the total city tax.
  • 00:17:33
    That's slightly lower than 2025 as our property tax levy increase was 6.1% this year.
  • 00:17:45
    For local government aid, local government aid hasn't increased since 2024.
  • 00:17:53
    I highlighted that with our board.
  • 00:17:57
    It's really important as we work with our lobbyists and the legislature that they consider increasing local government aid to keep pace with inflation.
  • 00:18:09
    By not increasing local government aid, it makes us more reliant on property taxes.
  • 00:18:17
    In our general fund, we had a 6.11% property tax levy increase, but because we reduced our property tax collection rate, that's why our increase in taxes is 5.6%.
  • 00:18:34
    We overall have a 5.3% growth in our general fund.
  • 00:18:40
    You'll notice for revenues, we have an increase in revenues by $804,000.
  • 00:18:47
    That's directly related to the work of the revenue team and also a response, you know, we really truly want to reduce the reliance on property taxes in the general fund and
  • 00:19:03
    we're going to be working hard to do that.
  • 00:19:08
    Unfortunately for this budget, the reliance on property taxes is still 81% and again that is driven by local government aid not increasing.
  • 00:19:24
    On the expenditure side, again we're showing almost 73% is wages and fringe.
  • 00:19:33
    And then I'll point out that our 2026 plan which was the basis for this budget development estimated a growth of 5.1% in our general fund so we maintained to our plan and the 5.3% is realistically due to the increase in the city fees
  • 00:19:59
    We did add some new items in this budget, the sponsorship position, the leave management position, but those were funded through other budget cuts and increase in revenue.
  • 00:20:19
    This shows the expenditures by division and you'll see city management fee contributions and other is a very large negative number and that's because that's where our provision for wage adjustment lies within our budget and 2026 is the year where all our union contracts are settled and under contract
  • 00:20:45
    So the wage increase, step increases, everything are reflected in the division budgets
  • 00:20:55
    This is our six year financial projections and you will notice in 27 and 28, just forecasting forward to the next two year budget, we have a 5.6% increase estimated for 27 and a 4.4% increase estimated for 28.
  • 00:21:23
    and the drivers of that is the system equity investment workforce needs, workforce and other operating cost needs coming forward.
  • 00:21:39
    So as President Abeni alluded to, these conversations around investing in these new parks and facilities will continue.
  • 00:21:51
    The largest one in 2027 is North Commons Park.
  • 00:21:56
    And I'll just note that the new nickel it is not on this chart at this point in time as we are developing the scope of what that will mean a new park in that area will mean and understanding when that park would come online so
  • 00:22:22
    For a special revenue fund, we increased our natural areas maintenance, again with seasonal support.
  • 00:22:34
    In our enterprise fund, we have our revenues aren't increasing at the level of expenses this year.
  • 00:22:44
    One of the reasons is Ohlone leaving the waterworks site.
  • 00:22:52
    So we need to allow for the selection of a new
  • 00:22:57
    concessionaire there and allow time for them to get established and build their business.
  • 00:23:05
    We are utilizing 350,000 of reserves and that is due to some renovations that will be happening at Columbia Golf Course.
  • 00:23:21
    This shows the operations within the Enterprise Fund and all know Water Works has a larger loss in 2026 that gets absorbed through the net incomes of the other operations of the Enterprise Fund.
  • 00:23:40
    The Enterprise Fund is not supported by property taxes.
  • 00:23:44
    It is a self-supporting fund.
  • 00:23:51
    and here is our Enterprise CIP which is modified slightly from what was planned for last year and the addition is some bird safe glass that will be happening at the Sculpture Garden and we had to reduce some of our rehab program categories in order to fit that into the CIP.
  • 00:24:19
    For storm water, with the implementation of the utility charge, on this chart you'll see the two items in yellow, monitoring and public education.
  • 00:24:32
    That is what the park board did prior to our utility fee being instituted.
  • 00:24:39
    And so all of the items in blue are the additional responsibilities that we are able to take on for our stormwater system through that utility charge.
  • 00:24:55
    With this recommended budget, we are including a 2027 and 2028 plan for our stormwater fund.
  • 00:25:06
    This is specifically to get board approval and board input, adopted input into these plans in preparation for our work with the city and
  • 00:25:22
    and getting our utility rates set through the city's budget process.
  • 00:25:33
    You'll note in 2027 that we have improvements of $400,000 with this recommended budget and the 2027-28 plan.
  • 00:25:47
    We are recommending our first stormwater capital improvement program and We will be working directly with City Public Works on the process for establishing establishing that
  • 00:26:07
    Internal Services funds, we have our equipment operations, IT operations, and our self-insurance fund.
  • 00:26:22
    The capital improvement program, I will not provide information for you today.
  • 00:26:28
    Our capital improvement program will be presented to you when the capital improvement programs are presented.
  • 00:26:40
    So what's next for our budget process is we have a public review, comment, and any potential amendments
  • 00:26:50
    We have board meetings on November 5th, November 19th, December 3rd And at the December 3rd meeting is when the board will, at committee, adopt the budget and adopt any potential amendments And then we move to City Hall on December 9th to adopt the budget And we are available for questions Thank you
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:27:20
    Thank you for that presentation.
  • 00:27:23
    Colleagues, are there any questions or comments related to this budget?
  • 00:27:28
    And before we continue to discussion and questions, I will note that we have been joined in this committee meeting by Council Members Jenkins, Choudry, and Council President Payne.
  • 00:27:44
    I'll first recognize Council Member Chavez, followed by Council Member Cashman.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:27:49
    Thank you Chair Chai and thank you all so much for being here.
  • 00:27:53
    I have a few questions.
  • 00:27:54
    The first is if I can get an update on the Uptown Mall Plan, that would be appreciated and the $300,000 that could have been saved along with NPRB staff time that you all left on the table.
  • 00:28:11
    Is there anything reflected in this budget?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:28:20
    I don't have a response for that.
  • 00:28:28
    We will have to get back to you on that.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:28:37
    If we can first have you introduce yourself.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:28:39
    Yeah, Jennifer Ringel, Deputy Superintendent, Minneapolis Park Board.
  • 00:28:43
    That is actually part of our capital program, so that would be more of a discussion when the capital discussion happens.
  • 00:28:49
    I just wanted to say that that wouldn't fit into the operating part of it.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:28:54
    And then, uh, Chair Choctaw, do we know when that's going to come before this body?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:28:58
    So the capital budget will be presented to this body on Monday, October 27th at 10 a.m.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:29:04
    Great, so I will ask that question again and in preparation I would hope to get a response.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:29:09
    Yes, hopefully folks will come prepared to respond to your question.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:29:12
    And the questions I'm going to ask today might be in other parts of your budgets but hoping to see if there's anything in your proposed budget that you have all requested changed in regards to forcing your La Yuna Park Board employees on strike last year trying to see if there's any changes in this budget to ensure that staff are being respected.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:29:40
    Chair Taktai and Member Chavez, I'll first start that this budget supports fully all of the negotiated and approved contracts.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:30:04
    Thank you, Jennifer Ringgold again, Deputy Superintendent.
  • 00:30:07
    So, you know, we were very grateful that the mayor's budget supported all of the funding that we needed for staffing, and we're also very grateful that the BET established a funding rate that would allow us to fully staff Graco and upper
  • 00:30:24
    Harbor Park.
  • 00:30:25
    Those two things are a significant piece that don't then dilute the existing resources that we have within the system and place additional pressures on staff and stretch them thin.
  • 00:30:35
    So we're very appreciative of those things.
  • 00:30:37
    Within the organization in terms of kind of culture and climate, there are many pieces that we're working on.
  • 00:30:43
    Most recently we just had a rodeo which was really substantial out at Neiman where we were able to see staff show off some of their greatest skills whether it's tree climbing or other aspects of using equipment and we are looking forward to that being an annual event.
  • 00:30:59
    But that's I think an ongoing project, an ongoing bit of work for us is to work on culture especially after the strike that we experienced last year.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:31:11
    Thank you Do you have an update on the youth positions at the park board cut?
  • 00:31:18
    And is this is it being restored?
  • 00:31:20
    Is it being proposed?
  • 00:31:21
    It was youth programs youth Positions at the park board cuts.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:31:25
    I'd like to get a response to that Chair Tuktai and member Chavez the youth program specialists were not cut
  • 00:31:35
    The vacancies are held because of the youth investment gap where ARPA ended at the end of 2024.
  • 00:31:46
    We don't reach the full 2.6 million in property taxes until 2027.
  • 00:31:53
    So those three positions are still held in 2026.
  • 00:31:58
    but they plan to be hired in 27 when we have the full property tax.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:32:05
    Thank you.
  • 00:32:05
    So the positions were not repurposed last year or anything or the year before that?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:32:10
    No.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:32:10
    Have they just been sitting vacant?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:32:12
    Yes.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:32:12
    Why have they been sitting vacant?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:32:15
    Because it was the board's decision to close the youth investment gap by holding those three positions vacant.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:32:27
    and what was done with, so the funding is just sitting there not being used for anything then?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:32:33
    Member Chavez, there isn't money for those three positions yet because we get $260,000 annually until 2027 to reach the $2.6 million.
  • 00:32:55
    So because ARPA ended in 2024, we no longer have the full funding for those positions.
  • 00:33:05
    In 2025, our gap was $520,000 and we closed that gap with holding those three positions vacant and eliminating a transfer to our capital project fund.
  • 00:33:22
    And then in 26,
  • 00:33:25
    The gap is $260,000 and those three positions are being held until that $260,000 is received in property taxes next year and then those positions will be hired.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:33:44
    Okay, I'm gonna follow up over email and hopefully I get to ask more questions when the next time you're before this body to give more specifics the other questions I have is I was watching the board of estimate and taxation meeting and Mayor fried make comments about raising fees and parking to balance your budget you slightly touch on it in this presentation is there a plan that the park board has in regards to raising fees for parking the mayor didn't make valid points after you all requested the board of estimate taxation to raise the poverty tax levy for residents in Minneapolis and
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:34:17
    Chair Chuktai and Member Chavez, I'll first start that we have an enterprise fund and again that enterprise fund is separate from the general fund, it is completely self-supporting
  • 00:34:36
    So the hundred or so FTEs that work out of that fund are funded through the revenues that are generated.
  • 00:34:45
    All of the assets including the paid parking lots and those type of things are funded through the Enterprise Fund.
  • 00:34:56
    And so you will see
  • 00:35:02
    in this chart that our parking operations generate $2.6 million annually, but that is in the Enterprise Fund and it supports the activities in the Enterprise Fund.
  • 00:35:19
    So what we did this year
  • 00:35:21
    is we identified Neiman Sports Complex.
  • 00:35:25
    That's a general fund operations and there's the ability to put paid parking there and so that paid parking will benefit the general fund.
  • 00:35:36
    We also made the decision to increase the amount of event parking that we charge throughout our system when there are events and
  • 00:35:51
    Transfer those dollars out of the enterprise fund into the general fund to support general fund operations So in our also in our our
  • 00:36:09
    rate model and our schedule for parking.
  • 00:36:12
    It's similar to the city where there's multiple levels of fees that can be charged and they can be automatically adjusted based on usage.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:36:25
    Thank you and the reason I'm asking is because on slide four you discussed balancing your budget and one of those ways is you mentioned parking so I'd like to get a more specific plan on what that is and a response to the mayor's question so we can if we can write that down for a follow-up that would be great and then the other question
  • 00:36:46
    that I had and my last one.
  • 00:36:48
    Is there anything in your budget to support micro entrepreneurs in our parks?
  • 00:36:52
    I think you all have been following the city's process where we pass an ordinance to expand the amount of locations where
  • 00:37:02
    Food runners cooperate from we respected the park boards ask and keeping it 200 feet away from Park and Recreation Because that was something that we intended to keep on there as a good faith effort to support MPRB But I want to get an update.
  • 00:37:16
    Is there anything in your budget to support compliance or support?
  • 00:37:20
    entrepreneurs in our parks
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:37:25
    Thank you for that question and I know this has been a big project.
  • 00:37:33
    Both the city and the park board have focused on this for quite a while in terms of how to work with vendors and how to bring that into both I think the city and into the parks.
  • 00:37:42
    My understanding, and I apologize I'm not fully aware of all the actions that the city has taken, but my understanding is that the city has progressed and has a way for vendors to become licensed at this point, which has been one of the key pieces for us in order to be able to then provide locations and provide aspect.
  • 00:38:01
    We have had the mechanisms in place
  • 00:38:04
    for individuals to be able to get permits.
  • 00:38:06
    They just needed the proper licensing.
  • 00:38:08
    So we will just be able to enact that work at this point.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:38:14
    Thank you.
  • 00:38:15
    So we'll follow up with all that then.
  • 00:38:18
    That is it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:38:19
    Thank you.
  • 00:38:21
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Cashman followed by Councilmember Rainville.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:38:25
    Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Ms. Wiseman for the presentation.
  • 00:38:30
    Just a couple things that Ward 7 residents really care about in terms of the park board.
  • 00:38:36
    I wanted to ask about ice rinks as well as tree planting.
  • 00:38:39
    So I heard you mention that you have restored funding for the ice rinks at Weber Park and Powderhorn Park.
  • 00:38:45
    I assume that those are like in addition to the other ice rinks in the city but can you tell me the status of the Lake of the Isles ice rink in the 2026 budget?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:38:56
    Chair Chuktai and Councilmember Cashman, ice rink operations are fully funded within the recommended 2026 budget and we've also had that conversation so they will open the season starts in 25 and carries over into 2026 and
  • 00:39:17
    So the only two ice rinks that were closed in 2025 were Powderhorn Park and Webber and so those will reopen and every other ice rink will be operating as it did in 2025 including Lake of the Isles with the warming building.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:39:39
    Okay, that's great to hear.
  • 00:39:40
    It was very popular last year.
  • 00:39:42
    Of course, it's hard to predict the weather these days.
  • 00:39:44
    So it's
  • 00:39:45
    We're very uncertain about whether, you know, we can't promise that it will be a great ice rink year because we don't know, but I'm glad to see that you restored that really, really popular budget line.
  • 00:39:57
    And then on the, what's the tree planting budget for NPRB for 2026?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:40:03
    Chair Choctaw and Council Member Cashman I don't know that off the top of my head I would love to be able to respond to you I think it's in the two to three hundred thousand dollar range or maybe more
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:40:22
    We can know that for follow-up.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:40:24
    Yeah, I'll follow up.
  • 00:40:26
    The other thing for tree planting is we have been very successful lately with obtaining grants to enhance our tree planting as well.
  • 00:40:36
    So we'll provide you with a complete update on that.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:40:40
    Okay, the other question I had was how much revenue did the carbon offset program bring in?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:40:50
    Chair Chuck Tai and Council Member Cashman.
  • 00:40:55
    In this recommended budget, we are transferring $96,000 out of the carbon offset program into the general fund for tree planting.
  • 00:41:12
    That's a couple of years worth of revenue, so it's not generating
  • 00:41:22
    It's generating about about that much over a couple year period.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:41:29
    What was it expected because my understanding was that it was expected to cover the tree planting budget but it sounds like it's you know it's less than a third than what the tree planting budget is.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:41:44
    It was never intended to fully fund the tree planting.
  • 00:41:54
    It was to enhance the tree planting to expand the number of trees that we can plant.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:42:03
    Would it be possible to follow up with a little more detail on
  • 00:42:06
    what the $96,000, what period of time that covers and then modeling what it's expected to bring in so that we can plan for tree planting budgets in the future and understand a little bit better where we'll need to supplement it from the city side and what we can expect from carbon offsets.
  • 00:42:24
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:42:25
    And then my last question was what is in the 2026 budget for 4th of July fireworks?
  • 00:42:31
    I know that's also been a question from constituents.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:42:42
    Chair Chug Thai, Councilmember Cashman.
  • 00:42:45
    So our Fourth of July event usually is in about the $20,000 to $25,000 range.
  • 00:42:52
    And that is in part funded, funds the fireworks themselves and some of the other staffing.
  • 00:42:58
    and we're increasingly looking for that event to be an event that also covers its own costs through whether it is the vendors who are there and a percent of that vending or other types of activities that we can generate revenue on.
  • 00:43:13
    But in general, the length of obviously the fireworks show is a great determinant on how much it costs and we're usually at a couple of thousand per minute so that's usually how we think about that.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:43:29
    Okay, that's good to know.
  • 00:43:31
    I'm personally not a huge fireworks fan given the pollution aspects, the noise pollution, air pollution, all the other environmental impacts, but that's the decision for the park board to make on the length of time and how much you fund that.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:43:47
    Chair Chug Thai and Council Member Cashman.
  • 00:43:51
    We have, you might remember, we tried a laser show not too many years ago and there's other ideas that we do consider over time.
  • 00:44:00
    We have yet to find one that is as popular with the community as that, but we do continue to look for other options.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:44:07
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:44:08
    That's all the questions I had, Madam Chair.
  • 00:44:10
    Thank you, and then finally I'll recognize Council Member Rainville.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:44:14
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 00:44:17
    I want to start out with a compliment and I do have one question.
  • 00:44:20
    So I just want to thank all the staff who participated in this budget.
  • 00:44:23
    I see that you're facing a reality of less revenue coming in and the burden that property taxes have on our residents, so thank you for that.
  • 00:44:32
    And in particular,
  • 00:44:34
    The question I have is
  • 00:45:01
    And one of your slides you talked about researching the visitor modes of public access in order to set a baseline.
  • 00:45:09
    I'm just curious, could you expand on that a little bit?
  • 00:45:12
    It's a very mysterious statement.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:45:15
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Rainville.
  • 00:45:19
    So this is something that I'm guessing the city might be using or at least contemplating using in different ways as well.
  • 00:45:27
    And this, there are different programs that you can basically get subscriptions to and it allows you to access cell phone data to get an understanding of how many individuals are coming to particular locations.
  • 00:45:40
    and depending on kind of the level of detail within those individual users you can also get a sense of are they arriving by foot, are they arriving by bus, are they coming by vehicle, what are the modes by which they are attending.
  • 00:45:55
    We just saw a fantastic presentation from Meet Minneapolis which helped us understand how Meet Minneapolis is using this data and gives us a great sense of
  • 00:46:04
    how visited parks are as well.
  • 00:46:07
    So they're using a different product, but there are products that are coming into I think Dana analytics for multiple agencies at this point.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:46:15
    Great.
  • 00:46:15
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:46:16
    That's it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:46:17
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 00:46:18
    And then I'll recognize Councilmember Bittau.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:46:20
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 00:46:21
    I just wanted to quickly say thank you all so much for the presentation and the commitment to North Commons Park.
  • 00:46:27
    It's looking really good over there.
  • 00:46:29
    I just check it out every now and then.
  • 00:46:31
    I appreciate the commitment you have to the community on this park.
  • 00:46:35
    I know you've experienced lots of cuts and setbacks trying to get this park up and built and ready for community.
  • 00:46:42
    and just want you to know that you are greatly appreciated.
  • 00:46:45
    The community is excited about it.
  • 00:46:47
    People are talking about the future of North Commons Park and how we welcome others from around the state and visitors from all over to this space.
  • 00:46:55
    It's going to be a world-class park and we are so happy to have it in North Minneapolis.
  • 00:46:59
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:47:02
    Thank you.
  • 00:47:03
    I'm not seeing any further questions or discussion.
  • 00:47:07
    Is there anything you wanted to just share to wrap up?
  • 00:47:11
    I saw some.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:47:14
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Vita, we do want to thank the city as well.
  • 00:47:19
    Clearly, you all have been great supporters on North Commons, so thank you.
  • 00:47:22
    We look forward to bringing that online.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:47:25
    Excellent, thank you.
  • 00:47:27
    With that, thank you so much for coming in this morning and sharing your 2026 budget.
  • 00:47:34
    I wish you a lot of luck as you continue to work through your budget process towards the end of the year.
  • 00:47:39
    I will ask the Clerk to file that report and we are ready to move to our next presentation.
  • 00:47:51
    All right, our next presentation is from the Legislative Department.
  • 00:47:56
    I will invite City Clerk Casey Carl and other leaders from the Legislative Department to come and begin this presentation.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 00:48:09
    Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:48:12
    I'm going to turn it immediately over to our Director of Administration, Destiny Zhang, who will be walking us through the Legislative Department budget proposal for 2026, recommended by the Mayor.
  • 00:48:23
    This includes the City Council and Office of City Clerk and its divisions.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:48:27
    Director Zhang, welcome.
  • 00:48:29
    Good morning, Chair Chuk-Thai and members of the committee.
  • 00:48:32
    Again, my name is Destiny Xiong.
  • 00:48:34
    I have the pleasure of serving as the Director of Administration for the Office of City Clerk.
  • 00:48:39
    Today I will be presenting on the 2026 Mayor's Recommended Budget for the Offices of City Council and City Clerk.
  • 00:48:47
    Following my presentation, Robert Timmerman, City Auditor, will present on the Office of City Auditor.
  • 00:48:56
    First, we'll start out with an overview of the Legislative Department.
  • 00:48:59
    In accordance to City Charter, the Legislative Department is a separate department of the Minneapolis Municipal Government under the general oversight of the City Council.
  • 00:49:08
    The department encompasses the City Council and the offices of City Clerk and City Auditor, and its purpose is to provide institutional support for the Council's official legislative policymaking and oversight functions.
  • 00:49:25
    This slide shows the current organizational structure of the Legislative Department.
  • 00:49:29
    For the Office of City Auditor, it highlights the three distinct units that make up the audit program, along with FTE counts.
  • 00:49:37
    FTE counts reflect both the 10 FTEs included in the Mayor's proposed budget and the restoration of the two FTEs that are excluded.
  • 00:49:45
    The City Auditor will provide more detail on this later in his presentation.
  • 00:49:50
    On the Office of City Clerk side, the Legislative Support and Operations team are displayed as separate divisions.
  • 00:49:57
    However, they will be referred to collectively as Legislative Support and Operations Division for the purpose of budget.
  • 00:50:07
    This chart represents the expense trend for the legislative department against the 2026 recommended budget.
  • 00:50:14
    Between 2025 and 2026, you'll see that salaries and wages have increased.
  • 00:50:20
    This is due to the FTE increase and reclassification of several positions within the Office of City Clerk.
  • 00:50:28
    Contractual services has increased as well to reflect the 2026 gubernatorial election funding.
  • 00:50:37
    With that overview of the legislative department, we'll now take a closer look at the City Council.
  • 00:50:48
    The mission of City Council, together with the Mayor, enacts local laws to govern the community and public policies to direct and oversee the city government, oversees and evaluates the performance of the administration, has control of city property and finances, and represents the needs, priorities, and interests of the wards that constitute the City of Minneapolis.
  • 00:51:10
    The overall budget is decreasing slightly by $5,804, which is a 0.01% reduction.
  • 00:51:18
    Decrease is driven by decreasing fringe costs that are offsetting growth in salaries and internal service charges.
  • 00:51:28
    There are no changes to the Council's budget FTEs for 2026 and remains at 41 FTEs.
  • 00:51:39
    The City Council had a great term.
  • 00:51:41
    As of October 6, 2025, as a council you completed a total of 2,529 official acts.
  • 00:51:49
    This includes 769 resolutions, passed 89 ordinances, and acted on 1,671 items.
  • 00:51:58
    Great job.
  • 00:52:04
    The Mayor's recommendation included an enterprise reduction for food and beverage.
  • 00:52:08
    This includes $2,000 in Council's operating budget for food and beverage.
  • 00:52:16
    Next, we'll shift our focus to the Office of City Clerk.
  • 00:52:21
    The ORC chart shows the Office of City Clerk and FTE count by divisions.
  • 00:52:25
    The Office of City Clerk has a total of 70 FTEs.
  • 00:52:31
    As required by City Ordinance, the Office of City Clerk is responsible for managing the legislative processes and the day-to-day affairs of the City Council, serving as the official repository for all Council journals, records, files, and legal instruments.
  • 00:52:46
    Our shared purpose is simple and powerful.
  • 00:52:49
    Together, we enable informed decision-making for community governance.
  • 00:52:53
    And through our service, an accessible and accountable system of local government is achieved.
  • 00:53:01
    In everything we do, we are guided by our core values, providing information that is accurate, relevant, and timely to support effective decision making and public trust.
  • 00:53:15
    On this chart, you'll see the budget by program over the last three years.
  • 00:53:19
    For 2026, the overall budget is increasing by $4.6 million, representing a 35% increase.
  • 00:53:27
    This includes the increase in one-time funding for election and voter services, as well as the increase due to the transfer of the Legislative Research and Oversight Division from the Office of City Auditor.
  • 00:53:43
    The total budgeted FTE count for the Office of City Clerk reflects a net increase of 15 FTEs in the 2026 Mayor's recommended budget.
  • 00:53:55
    This confirms Council's transfer of 10 FTEs from the Office of City Auditor to establish the Legislative Research and Oversight Division, along with including five FTEs added administratively.
  • 00:54:09
    We currently have four vacancies, two of which are developing the JAQs for.
  • 00:54:13
    We also have the manager outreach and constituent services position.
  • 00:54:18
    HR has completed the job analysis.
  • 00:54:21
    Once HR has finalized this position, we will start the hiring process.
  • 00:54:25
    It is our goal to start the hiring process immediately, which I expect will happen by the end of this month or early November.
  • 00:54:32
    and the Manager, Budget and Fiscal Advisor position within the Legislative Research and Oversight Division.
  • 00:54:38
    This position is currently posted and accepting applications.
  • 00:54:44
    Next we'll dive into the programs within the Office of City Clerk.
  • 00:54:49
    Starting with the Elections and Voter Services Division, this is the current organizational org chart of the Elections Division.
  • 00:54:59
    The Election and Voter Services Division plays a vital role in Minneapolis by managing all local elections with fairness, security, and efficiency.
  • 00:55:07
    This division ensures voters can easily register and maintain accurate records, provides equitable access to voting, and leads outreach efforts to promote informed participation in our democracy.
  • 00:55:20
    Their work centers on four key goals.
  • 00:55:22
    One, ensuring voters are election ready.
  • 00:55:24
    Two, voters have equitable and impartial access to the ballot box.
  • 00:55:29
    Three, the city is prepared and ready to conduct elections whenever required.
  • 00:55:35
    And four, making certain every ballot is accurately counted.
  • 00:55:38
    We will see their program budget for 2026 has an increase of 1.8 million dollars.
  • 00:55:49
    I want to take a moment to highlight some exciting developments from our Election and Voter Services Division, which continues to set a high standard for election administration.
  • 00:55:58
    Recently, the Division was nationally recognized by the United States Election Assistance Commission, receiving an award for best practices in recruiting, retaining, and training poll workers.
  • 00:56:09
    This honor was specifically for their innovative Student Election Judge Interpreter training program, an initiative that not only strengthens our polling workforce but also promotes inclusivity by training student interpreters to assist voters with limited English proficiency.
  • 00:56:26
    Building on this commitment to accessibility, the Division has launched a new hotline for curbside voting, which will be piloted in this year's municipal election.
  • 00:56:37
    This hotline allows voters who need assistance or cannot enter polling locations to cast their ballots safely and conveniently from their vehicles, ensuring no one is left out.
  • 00:56:48
    Additionally, the City has rolled out new express vote ballot marking devices across all polling sites.
  • 00:56:54
    These devices enhance the voting experience by providing assistive technology that supports voters with disabilities, making the process more independent and accessible for everyone.
  • 00:57:06
    Together, these achievements showcase how the Elections and Voter Services Division is not only committed to running fair and secure elections, but is also a leader in innovation and accessibility, reinforcing our city's dedication to an inclusive democracy.
  • 00:57:26
    The 2026 mayor's recommended budget includes $6.2 million in one-time funding to administer the 2026 gubernatorial election matching what was included in the 2026 plan.
  • 00:57:43
    Next we'll dive into our Information Governance Division.
  • 00:57:46
    Here you'll see their current organizational structure.
  • 00:57:52
    The Information Governance Division is responsible putting in place the controls that manage the city's records and data.
  • 00:58:00
    Their work ensures in compliance of state law.
  • 00:58:05
    Their work is centered around effective controls for managing information and the city being open by design.
  • 00:58:11
    You'll see the budget program has increased by about $366,000.
  • 00:58:21
    Next, I would like to highlight some significant accomplishments from our information governance team, who plays a crucial role in managing the city's data and records efficiently and effectively.
  • 00:58:32
    One of their biggest milestones is the revamp of the citywide retention schedule.
  • 00:58:36
    Previously, the city managed over 1,300 separate record series across the departments, creating complexity and confusion.
  • 00:58:45
    The team streamlined this down to about 200 series.
  • 00:58:48
    This is still pending state approval, however, making it much easier for everyone to follow.
  • 00:58:53
    Alongside this, they developed a brand new user-friendly interface, rolled out required trainings, and updated city talk resources, all set to launch citywide in 2026.
  • 00:59:06
    This simplification will save time and improve compliance across every department.
  • 00:59:11
    The team also launched a new data management framework with a dedicated city talk site that clearly outlines how the city handles data, working closely with records and IT.
  • 00:59:22
    They began rolling out small, targeted data projects called plays to improve processes.
  • 00:59:28
    They also reengaged data and records liaisons with departments with fresh tools and regular meetings, strengthening collaboration across the city.
  • 00:59:39
    Despite a 20% increase in data requests over 2023, the team continues to respond quickly and accurately.
  • 00:59:47
    To support this growing demand, they are launching a new open city portal in the fourth quarter.
  • 00:59:53
    This portal features automated workflows designed to make handling data requests faster and more efficient, helping the city stay responsive to requests.
  • 01:00:03
    Together, these achievements demonstrate the information governance team's commitment to modernizing how we manage data and records and improving transparency.
  • 01:00:16
    Next, I would like to introduce our newest division, the Legislative Research and Oversight Division.
  • 01:00:21
    This division was established by transferring the Policy and Research Team and the Oversight and Evaluation Team from the Office of City Auditor.
  • 01:00:30
    Here is the division's current structure.
  • 01:00:32
    As a part of this transition and realignment of responsibilities, positions within the divisions are under review to ensure they align with its focus on research and oversight.
  • 01:00:48
    The Legislative Research and Oversight Division supports, informs, and facilitates the work of the City Council through consultative services, independent research and analysis, and technical support of the Council's legislative policy making and oversight functions.
  • 01:01:04
    Their work is focused on providing non-partisan research in support of policy making and analysis of city financials.
  • 01:01:11
    You'll see that their program budget from the Office of City Auditor was transferred over to the Office of City Clerk.
  • 01:01:21
    I am proud to share the impactful work of the Legislative Research and Oversight Division, which continues to strengthen how the City approaches research, public engagement, and internal growth.
  • 01:01:31
    On the research front, the team has completed 17 detailed reports, including several large-scale, multi-phase projects that have informed key policy decisions.
  • 01:01:41
    Notably, they hosted the City's first report-driven public policy study session, marking a new way to directly connect research with policymaking.
  • 01:01:50
    They also participated in their first community presentation of report findings to an appointed board and commission, helping to bring transparency into the process.
  • 01:02:00
    Behind the scenes, the division made significant strides in organizational development.
  • 01:02:06
    Phase one of the legislative research and oversight restructure was completed by merging divisions and transitioning the team from the Office of City Auditor to the Office of City Clerk.
  • 01:02:16
    To support this change,
  • 01:02:18
    the team developed a comprehensive operations manual and related documents that clearly define their new structure and functions.
  • 01:02:27
    They also initiated reclassification efforts to create updated position titles and descriptions that better reflect the division's evolving roles.
  • 01:02:36
    Together, these accomplishments highlight the division's commitment to delivering rigorous, nonpartisan research, fostering community engagement, and building a stronger and more effective enterprise.
  • 01:02:49
    Next, I will dive into the Legislative Support and Operations Division.
  • 01:02:55
    This team manages core operations of the legislative department.
  • 01:02:59
    Their work is centered on governance is job number one.
  • 01:03:03
    Ensuring you all have the information, services, and support necessary in keeping the community informed and involved in governance functions.
  • 01:03:11
    You'll see their program budget has an increase of about $671,000.
  • 01:03:20
    The legislative support team within that division supports the work of the city's governing body and other policy level decision-making bodies within the enterprise.
  • 01:03:31
    Its most important outcome is the publication and preservation of the city's official acts as a municipal corporation.
  • 01:03:39
    Here you'll see their current organizational structure.
  • 01:03:45
    I'm excited to highlight the impressive accomplishment of our legislative support team, whose work has been essential in strengthening community engagement and governance.
  • 01:03:54
    This year, the team successfully re-established seven appointed boards and commissions, revitalizing key advisory bodies that play a vital role in shaping policies and initiatives.
  • 01:04:05
    In line with the recent reform ordinance, they also launched the Safe and Thriving Communities Work Group, which is focused on advancing community center efforts.
  • 01:04:14
    One of their standout achievements was conducting a record-breaking recruitment cycle for appointed boards and commissions.
  • 01:04:20
    They processed over 400 applications, making this one of the largest and most competitive recruitment efforts in recent history, demonstrating the strong community interest and participation.
  • 01:04:31
    Together, these efforts showcase the legislative support team's dedication to fostering inclusive, effective, and responsive local governance.
  • 01:04:41
    Moving along to the legislative operations team, they manage the day-to-day operations of the legislative department and deliver a variety of delegated services.
  • 01:04:52
    As the organizational hub of the department, its most important function is to enable all divisions to achieve their stated goals.
  • 01:04:59
    Here you'll see their current organizational structure.
  • 01:05:05
    The Legislative Operations Team has made significant strides in enhancing both council operations and public engagement.
  • 01:05:12
    They successfully resolved over 135 complex constituent issues, onboarded nine new council staff members, and supported 51 honorary resolutions by managing planning and logistics.
  • 01:05:25
    To improve public knowledge and outreach, the team created 53 A-Z guide summaries, provided outreach materials to council offices, and organized 10 training sessions with city experts to deepen understanding of city services.
  • 01:05:40
    On the administrative side, they implemented a new CRM system to better track their work, completing 525 service cases to date.
  • 01:05:49
    Among these, the top request categories included non-clerk related inquiries, data requests, and domestic partnership questions.
  • 01:05:58
    They've also processed and certified 269 domestic partnerships.
  • 01:06:06
    In technology, the team enhanced the Legislative Information Management System, also known as LIMS, to support appointed boards and commissions reforms.
  • 01:06:15
    They improved the application process, created member profiles to track services, and launched new city web pages for board members and applicants.
  • 01:06:26
    Working with accessibility consultants, they identify 223 accessibility issues and are collaborating with our vendor to address them.
  • 01:06:34
    The upcoming system update will bring LIMS into full WCAG 2.2 compliance by December 2025, in which we will be ahead of schedule for the compliance by the federal mandate.
  • 01:06:47
    Additionally, the team's Document Solution Center earned four Stewardship Council Certifications reflecting a commitment to sustainable document management.
  • 01:06:56
    Together, these achievements highlight the operations team's dedication to operational excellence, accessibility, and responsive public service.
  • 01:07:09
    For the Office of City Clerk, the 2026 mayor's recommended budget includes a $445,000 reduction in ongoing contractual service funds.
  • 01:07:22
    From the perspective of risk for the Office of City Clerk, there is an escalating challenge as data request continues to grow at an unsustainable pace.
  • 01:07:32
    Up approximately 15% each quarter this year, resulting in a 20% year over year increase, this steady compounding growth is placing significant and ongoing pressure on the team's capacity.
  • 01:07:45
    To keep up, the office has been forced to reprioritize its workload, leading to reduction or elimination of important departmental training and compliance support.
  • 01:07:55
    These are not minor shifts.
  • 01:07:57
    They increase the city's exposure to risk by making it harder to maintain consistent practices and respond to legal requirements.
  • 01:08:05
    The impact of this capacity strain is being felt across the enterprise, and services to other departments are limited.
  • 01:08:13
    Staff citywide are affected.
  • 01:08:15
    and the City Council.
  • 01:08:32
    has introduced a new stream of labor-intensive requests, further accelerating data volume and workload.
  • 01:08:39
    Without intervention, whether through additional staffing, improved tools, or process redesign, the office risk being overwhelmed.
  • 01:08:47
    Continued growth in data requests threatens to erode the city's ability to provide timely, transparent, and legally compliant responses, ultimately impacting public trust and effective governance.
  • 01:09:04
    Next, I'll move into our outcomes Minneapolis measures, specifically with our Elections and Voter Services Division and our Information Governance Division.
  • 01:09:13
    All the charts shown in this presentation is available on the performance dashboard through our website.
  • 01:09:19
    The dashboards are interactive, however, for the purpose of this presentation, snapshots were taken to demonstrate points of data and measurements available for you to access.
  • 01:09:32
    First with the elections voter services, their performance metric includes voter engagement.
  • 01:09:38
    This chart tells a compelling story about how voting behavior in Minneapolis has evolved between 2018 and 2024 in general elections, reflecting broader national trends in voter accessibility.
  • 01:09:51
    Voter participation in Minneapolis shows a clear shift toward early and absentee voting methods.
  • 01:09:58
    While mail-in ballots surged in 2020 due to the pandemic, recent years reveal steady growth in absentee in-person voting, reaching over 46,000 ballots in 2024.
  • 01:10:10
    Despite the shift, Election Day voting remains strong with around 132,000 ballots cast in both 2022 and 2024.
  • 01:10:24
    Over the past decade, voter participation in municipal elections has steadily increased.
  • 01:10:29
    Absentee mail voting saw a significant rise in 2021, reflecting a shift toward more convenient voting options.
  • 01:10:37
    Absentee in-person voting has also grown, reaching its peak in 2021 before a slight decline in 2023.
  • 01:10:46
    votes cast at polls have consistently been the most popular method, though they experienced a decline in 2023 compared to 2021.
  • 01:10:54
    Other absentee voting remains a small but steady part of the voting landscape.
  • 01:10:59
    These two charts demonstrates voters in Minneapolis continue to embrace multiple flexible voting methods with the clear trend toward early and absentee voting.
  • 01:11:08
    The steady rise in absentee in-person voting shows a shift in voter preferences towards convenience and early engagement.
  • 01:11:16
    This data reinforces the importance of offering accessible, secure, and diverse voting options.
  • 01:11:24
    The second performance metrics for elections and voter services is access equity.
  • 01:11:29
    This map highlights Minneapolis' commitment to making voting accessible and convenient for all residents.
  • 01:11:35
    The numerous orange dots represent polling places spread across every neighborhood, while the purple triangles indicate early voting centers strategically located to serve diverse communities.
  • 01:11:46
    The varying shades of blue reflect population density showing that voting locations are thoughtfully distributed to meet the needs of both densely and sparsely populated areas.
  • 01:11:56
    This comprehensive approach helps remove barriers to participation, ensuring that every voter has easy access to polling sites and early voting options.
  • 01:12:09
    This next map displays polling places and early vote centers overlaid on an income map of Minneapolis neighborhoods.
  • 01:12:17
    The shaded areas represent varying income ranges showing how voting locations are distributed across communities with different economic profiles.
  • 01:12:26
    This demonstrates the intentional data-informed equity planning showing Minneapolis' proactive approach to ensuring that residents, regardless of income or neighborhood, has fair and convenient access to the ballot box.
  • 01:12:42
    The third performance metric for elections and voter services is results accuracy.
  • 01:12:47
    This graph highlights four years of 100% election accuracy.
  • 01:12:52
    From 2020 through 2024, this demonstrates that ballots were counted correctly and verified without error.
  • 01:12:59
    It is important to note there is a manual review of randomly chosen precincts to check the accuracy of tabulation equipment.
  • 01:13:06
    This independent verification has confirmed 100% accuracy over four consecutive election cycles.
  • 01:13:12
    The consistent 100% accuracy not only reflects the rigor of Minneapolis' election administration, but also reinforces faith in the city's democratic system.
  • 01:13:26
    With this snapshot, it shows a strong civic participation and transparent election reporting in Minneapolis, specifically here for the 2024 general election.
  • 01:13:36
    The map at the center shows border turnout.
  • 01:13:39
    In the dashboard, you can filter this by precincts illustrating how participation varied across neighborhoods.
  • 01:13:45
    The shades of blue visually communicate difference in turnout with darker areas showing higher engagement.
  • 01:13:52
    On the left, the statistics provide a clear snapshot of the city's election results.
  • 01:13:57
    One citywide voter turnout was 78.1%, a strong indicator of engaged voters.
  • 01:14:03
    Total votes cast 219,417 with the chart breaking it out by early absentee votes and election day votes.
  • 01:14:12
    Again, this underscores the growing role of early and absentee voting, reflecting how voters are using flexible options to make their voices heard.
  • 01:14:20
    The trend chart from 2004 to 2024 shows that voter turnout in Minneapolis has remained consistently high, demonstrating sustained civic commitment over the two decades.
  • 01:14:34
    Next we'll highlight data from our Information Governance Division.
  • 01:14:37
    This chart focuses on outdated records destruction tracking, an essential part of government transparency and information stewardship.
  • 01:14:45
    The chart shows how many departments were contacted and how many had boxes eligible for destruction.
  • 01:14:52
    These are the dates between 2020 and 2024.
  • 01:14:57
    You'll see here that 2020 marked a steady start to the process of old records being disposed of securely 2021 through 2023.
  • 01:15:07
    Activities slowed down reflecting the lingering effects of COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted many in-person administrative tasks.
  • 01:15:15
    Then in 2024 the numbers rebounded showing a return to normal operations and renewed focus.
  • 01:15:24
    Similarly, this chart shows the actual number of boxes containing records sent for departments to review for destruction eligibility.
  • 01:15:31
    It is anticipated that for 2025 we will have approximately 600 boxes eligible for destruction.
  • 01:15:44
    Next, we track the number of data requests we receive and how many we complete.
  • 01:15:49
    This helps us ensure we are providing effective support to City employees, the community, businesses and residents.
  • 01:15:55
    The blue chart shows the number of data requests received, while the green chart shows the number of requests we've closed.
  • 01:16:02
    You'll notice that in 2023 and 2024 we are closing more requests than we are receiving, which reflects our progress in reducing backlogs.
  • 01:16:12
    This data also shows that on average, each FTE handles about 430 requests.
  • 01:16:18
    As mentioned earlier, the volume of data requests continues to grow.
  • 01:16:25
    This chart shows the percentage of resolved requests within different time frames.
  • 01:16:30
    It helps us track how quickly requests are handled and ensures we're providing timely support to city employees, the community and residents.
  • 01:16:38
    The chart demonstrates our commitment to prompt response with 78% of all requests resolved within the first 29 days.
  • 01:16:47
    With that, this concludes the City Council and Office of City Clerk presentation.
  • 01:16:51
    I will turn it over to the Office of City Auditor Robert Timmerman to present the Office of City Auditor.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:17:06
    Actually, I think we're going to pause here and we're going to take some questions for the Legislative Department for the Office of City Clerk and City Council first, and then we'll transition to the City Auditor's presentation.
  • 01:17:19
    Colleagues, are there any questions related to Director Zhang's presentation?
  • 01:17:30
    I'll recognize Council President Payne, followed by Council Member Chavez.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:17:34
    Thank you, Vice President Chagtay.
  • 01:17:37
    Thank you for this presentation.
  • 01:17:39
    One big thing that has been a theme of this term has been really bolstering the legislative department.
  • 01:17:47
    With the new government structure, a lot of the early focus was on the administration.
  • 01:17:51
    Obviously the administration houses the largest capacity of our government, but I'm glad to see the focus on our legislative department this term.
  • 01:18:04
    That's just more of a statement.
  • 01:18:05
    My question is actually related to elections.
  • 01:18:09
    We are all, I think, very concerned about free and fair elections in this moment, and I know that Dominion has been recently acquired by somebody that has some alignment with the Trump administration.
  • 01:18:23
    Do we have any insights into that acquisition and what its impact might be on next year's election?
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:18:35
    I can't answer your question directly.
  • 01:18:40
    Unfortunately, that's because the City of Minneapolis does not use Dominion equipment.
  • 01:18:43
    So I don't know what the impact will be for Dominion.
  • 01:18:47
    We do not use them as a vendor.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:18:50
    I think no ink might be a piece of equipment that we use.
  • 01:18:55
    Maybe you could correct me on that.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:18:57
    I don't recall Council President off the top of my head.
  • 01:19:00
    I'm happy to have our Elections Director give you more information about the equipment that we do use and including the new equipment we're rolling out this year to increase service and processes within the polling places.
  • 01:19:13
    But I want to be very clear, we are not a Dominion community.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:19:17
    Okay, that might be worth a follow up because I think the broader community is very invested in free and fair elections and anything that we can provide as far as equipment and our controls around that equipment to ensure our accuracy I think is something that has really high importance in this moment.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:19:34
    Absolutely, and through the chair, I would just add, Mejong did highlight some of those things, but in terms of security of our elections, I would reiterate what I know all of you know, but for those who are watching, before every election, every single piece of our equipment is tested.
  • 01:19:52
    We actually test it twice.
  • 01:19:54
    We're required by state law to test it once.
  • 01:19:56
    So we do a preliminary test to make sure internally that we know that every tabulator is going to count the ballots the way they're supposed to because we have a preset marked
  • 01:20:04
    to make sure that the results are exactly what they should be.
  • 01:20:10
    And then we do it again.
  • 01:20:11
    And that second test, the logic and accuracy test is open to the public.
  • 01:20:17
    The media comes regularly.
  • 01:20:19
    We, I don't know the right word.
  • 01:20:22
    We broadcast that process as well so that anyone who's interested in watching us test that equipment, certify the equipment, its accuracy, that it's reading the ballots as correctly, is all done in advance.
  • 01:20:37
    And then after the election, as mentioned, there is a randomized poll of ballot results from precincts across the city, and we hand tabulate those to make sure that those machines are actually doing exactly what we said before we conducted the election.
  • 01:20:51
    There is a series in Minnesota of security tests and procedures that we follow rigorously.
  • 01:20:57
    And I'm happy to get you more information about our equipment and those things.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:21:00
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:21:03
    Thank you.
  • 01:21:03
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez followed by Councilmember Chaudry.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 01:21:07
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 01:21:07
    Chuck Chai reading through the achievements when it comes to outreach and constituent services, administrative support, information technology.
  • 01:21:15
    It's very clear that we have some of the hardest working city employees working in the clerk's office.
  • 01:21:18
    So I just want to at least start with that.
  • 01:21:20
    and thank you for sharing this presentation and the work that you all do to not only support council members here but making sure that our city is running, that it's functioning, and that we are doing the very best that we can to make sure that our city enterprise is running.
  • 01:21:33
    So I want to at least start with that.
  • 01:21:35
    When it came to the data request component on page number 34 I appreciate sharing the risks.
  • 01:21:43
    I think it's important that we have that information here as council members Particularly reading that data requests work is increasing at an unsustainable rate straining capacity
  • 01:21:52
    I don't see that as a bad thing.
  • 01:21:53
    It means that people want to have transparency in government, people want to see what elected officials, what the city enterprise is doing, and they need that information and then access that information.
  • 01:22:02
    I think my question here is, maybe for you, Clerk Caro, if you could help us identify this, can we look at vacant positions in the city enterprise and figure out like how we can increase staff capacity to at least make sure that
  • 01:22:17
    Because we are getting more requests at an unsustainable rate, we can at least, I think the solution to this is getting more staff capacity.
  • 01:22:22
    So I guess my question is, how can we address that concern?
  • 01:22:27
    And it's page 34.
  • 01:22:30
    And how can we make sure that we're not straining all the capacity that staff has when they're doing this important work?
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:22:37
    Thank you, through the Chair, Councilmember Chavez, I'll try to address your specific question, but I'll frame that in a larger context.
  • 01:22:43
    I pulled up this organizational chart.
  • 01:22:45
    This is the Division for Information Governance, and as you can see under the Assistant City Clerk, Mr. Rommelhoff, Kristin Rommelhoff, you have a Deputy Director, Mary Zenzen, and you can see two columns of staff beneath her.
  • 01:22:57
    That's the largest, this is the largest division within the Clerk's Office in terms of the number of dedicated FTEs we have.
  • 01:23:03
    And I would
  • 01:23:06
    guess, I don't have exact numbers with me, but I would better bet that this is the largest data practices unit in the state, of any state agency, of any city, of any county.
  • 01:23:19
    But, as Mr. Remelhoff has told you at a recent presentation, we have experienced a 20% year-over-year growth in the number of requests.
  • 01:23:27
    This is not a problem we can solve with people.
  • 01:23:30
    We would be required to add every two years five more FTEs, five more FTEs, five more FTEs.
  • 01:23:36
    Because we produce data every hour of every day of every month of every year.
  • 01:23:40
    And so we just can't keep up with that with people.
  • 01:23:43
    We just can't keep throwing people at it.
  • 01:23:45
    So we are working with our IT partners, we are working at, I think,
  • 01:23:48
    In Director Zhong's presentation, there was a mention of working with data liaisons within every department, training them.
  • 01:23:55
    Years ago in 2015, some of you will remember, and certainly the auditor knows, there was an enterprise-wide information governance audit.
  • 01:24:04
    It found that the city was failing in this regard, and we have worked since that time to really improve and buttress our internal resources, our processes, to leverage technology, and to work in partnership with our departments.
  • 01:24:16
    to really bring that down.
  • 01:24:20
    We have, as she mentioned in her presentation, been successful at bringing the number of closed cases up on par and in some cases exceeding the number of requests that are open.
  • 01:24:31
    We've implemented a 30, 60, 90 day resolution track where we want the majority of all requests to be resolved and closed within 30 days.
  • 01:24:39
    If not, at 60 days we're engaging the department leadership.
  • 01:24:41
    At 90 days we're involving the cabinet.
  • 01:24:43
    in order to move these things forward and keep them elevated so there's an enterprise-wide focus on that.
  • 01:24:49
    The single largest number of requests come from the Minneapolis Police Department and when those functions were transferred to us just a few years ago, it came with a very significant backlog.
  • 01:25:00
    I'm happy to say that we've done a great job of reducing the backlog and are almost at the point where we have leveled that off.
  • 01:25:08
    However,
  • 01:25:09
    because of the extraordinary interest which is only growing in particular in that one agency, one of the things that Director Rummelhoff is pursuing this year is capturing some year-end savings in order to allocate a consultant under our purview that can work directly with the police department next year in implementing those new records retention schedules that Ms. Zhang mentioned.
  • 01:25:31
    Those retention schedules will streamline how long data has to be kept.
  • 01:25:34
    and who has access to it and where is it kept.
  • 01:25:37
    And so having a subject matter expert within our office that is embedded in the police department we think is an example of an innovative partnership between the clerk's office and MPD for us to really address that transparency, immediate access to highly requested data,
  • 01:25:52
    and to reduce the backlog that we are continuing to work on reducing.
  • 01:25:56
    So that's a lot of information I offered back in response.
  • 01:25:59
    I appreciate that opportunity.
  • 01:26:00
    I hope I addressed the specific question.
  • 01:26:03
    If there are more other details I didn't answer, please let me know.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 01:26:06
    Thank you.
  • 01:26:06
    And one last question.
  • 01:26:08
    I don't know what side it was, but it was talking about hiring a position.
  • 01:26:12
    Was it the constituent services one?
  • 01:26:14
    Is that the same one as the comms position or?
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:26:16
    Madam Chair and Council President, I know the two of you will be overjoyed and I am and I want to take the credit for this one.
  • 01:26:24
    I've had to hit a lot.
  • 01:26:25
    This is in fact, this is in fact the communications director position.
  • 01:26:30
    Again, we've called it the outreach and constituent services manager because it needs to tie
  • 01:26:34
    to functions that are in the legislative branch.
  • 01:26:36
    We have a city communications department.
  • 01:26:38
    In the legislative branch, we have Outreach and Constituent Services.
  • 01:26:41
    So this is the manager of Outreach and Constituent Services.
  • 01:26:43
    We've been working with our partners in HR for many, many months.
  • 01:26:48
    And just last week, on Thursday I think it was, right after council leadership's meeting, we were informed that we finally have the reclassification grading done.
  • 01:26:57
    It has to, you know, do a few little bit more tweaks within the internal processes.
  • 01:27:02
    And as Ms. Zhang indicated, we fully expect to be opening that job and recruiting actively by the end of this month, first of November.
  • 01:27:08
    So that is a long time in coming and I'm thrilled to finally be able to stand in front of you and say affirmatively, yes, the job is done and we'll very, very soon be under active recruitment.
  • 01:27:19
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:27:23
    Thank you, Councilmember.
  • 01:27:25
    And then next I'll recognize Councilmember Chowdhury.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:27:29
    Thank you, CVP.
  • 01:27:31
    I don't have any questions, just wanted to make some comments.
  • 01:27:35
    I just wanted to say, yeah, thank you so much for all of your hard work these last two years, but I've also had the privilege of getting to work with the Clerk's Office for a number of years through a lot of highs and lows in the City of Minneapolis and
  • 01:27:52
    It's just these last two years it's been really great to work shoulder to shoulder with many clerks that have been here for a long time and a lot of the new faces that we have here as a part of the legislative department.
  • 01:28:07
    I think you guys see us in our most up close behind the scenes moments.
  • 01:28:13
    You really get to experience us as humans.
  • 01:28:17
    and the City Council.
  • 01:28:33
    Without you, we wouldn't be able to run our offices and do our work.
  • 01:28:38
    You help make sure that we're onboarding our own staff well, that we're problem solving issues and give us additional support to get back to our constituents.
  • 01:28:47
    I think that's been very exemplary is the growth and constituent service support and just
  • 01:28:56
    making sure
  • 01:29:16
    Really great like lots of good support there and then moving through agenda settings and getting 89 ordinances and 1,600 plus actions through You all have been amazing And shepherding us through that and taking our last-minute inquiries and then also like there's obviously moments who are like oh like
  • 01:29:39
    Well, this could have been better or can we do this or this would be helpful in interacting with this department.
  • 01:29:46
    I think that's a real strength of the legislative department is you're really good at taking feedback and putting it into action and also giving us some feedback so we can do our jobs better and I've seen that growth
  • 01:30:01
    and just our teams figuring out like how do we do the work of the legislative branch and build it out at the same time.
  • 01:30:10
    And I am also really looking forward to seeing what will be the next chapter of policy and research.
  • 01:30:21
    I feel pretty confident that our legislative department is going to build that out well.
  • 01:30:27
    already seeing some positive shifts so I just wanted to say thank you and then on top of that elections it's just a lot of work and really really good work so just thank you so much thank you
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:30:40
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 01:30:41
    I'm not seeing any further questions or discussion.
  • 01:30:45
    So with that, thank you Director Zhang and Clerk Carl.
  • 01:30:50
    And we are ready to welcome Auditor Timmerman to continue the Office of City Auditor branch of the Legislative Department presentation.
  • 01:31:07
    Welcome.
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 01:31:10
    All right, thank you.
  • 01:31:12
    Good morning, Vice President Chuktai and Budget Committee members.
  • 01:31:15
    I'm Robert Timmerman and I have the honor of serving the residents of Minneapolis as the City Auditor.
  • 01:31:20
    I was last in front of the Budget Committee in June to discuss the personnel resource needs of the Office of City Auditor.
  • 01:31:28
    At that time, you invested in phase one of a realignment and supported the budget adjustment of four FTEs.
  • 01:31:35
    I also shared with you that the second phase of this investment would be for three FTEs to bring this office in line with peer cities and the rising demand of audit requests.
  • 01:31:48
    Today I'm here to discuss the mayor's proposed budget for the Office of City Auditor and it will be clear throughout the presentation that my request for investment in oversight is quite different than that of the mayor's office.
  • 01:32:04
    Briefly, I'd like to discuss why the Office of City Auditor exists.
  • 01:32:09
    If you recall, when the Minneapolis government structure was reorganized through a voter-approved charter amendment in 2021, just one position was created across the entirety of the city enterprise, and that was the City Auditor.
  • 01:32:23
    At the time, voters chose to make an investment in oversight and accountability to elevate the function of audit.
  • 01:32:30
    Along with this came a requisite responsibility of the City Auditor, Audit Committee, and City Council to ensure but also protect the resources of the Office of City Auditor.
  • 01:32:46
    The Office of City Auditor is the only independent and objective office to provide city leadership with assurance and advisory services and report publicly on the city's regulatory compliance and adequacy of internal controls.
  • 01:33:00
    The Office of City Auditor exists to strengthen trust in city government by providing independent, objective audit and consulting services.
  • 01:33:09
    We work to protect public resources by identifying risks, promoting accountability, ensuring compliance with laws and policies, and helping the city operate more effectively and transparently.
  • 01:33:25
    By improving compliance, governance, and operational controls, our work helps the city reduce costs, enhance service quality, and increase program efficiency.
  • 01:33:36
    Our approach is grounded in nationally recognized audit standards to ensure integrity and impact.
  • 01:33:46
    The Office of City Auditors' values are guided by generally accepted government auditing standards to which we adhere.
  • 01:33:55
    Our values are grounded in integrity, objectivity, fairness, and competency.
  • 01:34:02
    We must act in the public interest by maintaining honesty, courage, and fairness, report audit findings without alteration or suppression under pressure, disclose conflicts of interest and mitigate threats to independence, maintain an unbiased mental attitude,
  • 01:34:21
    Avoid situations that could impair independence in fact or appearance.
  • 01:34:26
    Apply criteria and use evidence-based methodologies to validate conclusions.
  • 01:34:31
    Audit with a lens on equity, safety, and environmental impacts.
  • 01:34:36
    Consider all readers, including those affected by government programs.
  • 01:34:42
    Engage with community stakeholders, when appropriate, to understand lived experiences,
  • 01:34:48
    maintain knowledge and skills through continuing education, meet those continuing education requirements, and pursue certifications as needed, and to adhere to audit standards and quality assurance frameworks.
  • 01:35:06
    Personally, when I took on this role in February, my principal objective was and still is to be a driver in strengthening trust in our city government.
  • 01:35:16
    My appointment guaranteed dedicated and focused leadership to enhance the structure of the office through expectation setting, rightsizing of personnel resources, adoption of generally accepted government auditing standards, and the strengthening of relationships and trust across the entirety of the enterprise.
  • 01:35:36
    I'm proud to share just a handful of the accomplishments and achievements
  • 01:35:40
    that the office has had since I was appointed in February.
  • 01:35:46
    Over the last year, we've completed the 2025 Enterprise Risk Assessment and Risk-Based Audit Plan.
  • 01:35:53
    And we are now in the midst of kicking off the 2026 Risk Assessment.
  • 01:35:59
    We published three audit reports and issued five advisory memos.
  • 01:36:03
    We closed 33 audit issues.
  • 01:36:06
    We're still monitoring 38.
  • 01:36:09
    We secured funding for four new FTEs in the first of two phases to right-size the department.
  • 01:36:16
    We hired three of those in OSS 2 and two Auditor 2s.
  • 01:36:26
    We've developed a new quality assurance and training manager role to align with government auditing standards.
  • 01:36:32
    We've provided audit and risk management training to the Audit Committee.
  • 01:36:36
    updated city ordinance to adopt government auditing standards, updated city ordinance to strengthen real and perceived independence from the Council, Administration, and Office of City Clerk, and supported structural realignment of PAR and O&E to the Office of City Clerk.
  • 01:36:56
    Finally, an ongoing work that is incredibly important is we are working to deepen cross-departmental relations.
  • 01:37:08
    Although the Office of City Auditor does not report to either the council or city administration, we work closely with both to identify risk to the city, examine internal controls, verify compliance with various federal, state, and city regulations, and provide recommendations in all of these areas to improve programs, processes, and the overall resident experience.
  • 01:37:33
    Our office, established to be independent of influence from both the council and the administration, reports to the Audit Committee, whose majority membership is residents of Minneapolis.
  • 01:37:46
    Over the next few slides, I will dive a little deeper into the structure of our office and the work of our audit staff.
  • 01:37:52
    Currently, we are structured with one division, the Internal Audit Division.
  • 01:37:59
    The Office of City Auditor adheres to nationally recognized audit standards promulgated by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Institute of Internal Auditors.
  • 01:38:09
    These standards require the independence, objectivity, and competency that I've described.
  • 01:38:16
    The Internal Audit and Assurance Division is currently the only division we have.
  • 01:38:20
    Staff are performing all functions of audit, including developing the annual citywide risk assessment and risk-based audit plan.
  • 01:38:28
    implementing the plan within current resource limitations and performing ad hoc advisory reviews such as after action reviews and fraud investigations.
  • 01:38:40
    To say it clearly, they are stretched thin.
  • 01:38:44
    And I do want to take a moment to thank them and recognize all of the hard work that they've put in over the last year as well.
  • 01:38:53
    Where we haven't been able to manage internally, we've resourced out to contracted auditors and law firms, which comes at a great expense to the city.
  • 01:39:06
    Currently, in addition to performing risk-based assurance audits, the internal audit division is doing, as time allows, the tasks identified on this slide.
  • 01:39:16
    My vision to realign the work within the office and right-sized staffing resources will lead to the creation of a division that can specifically focus on special reviews, program evaluations, fraud, waste, and abuse investigations, and other advisory services.
  • 01:39:32
    We have successfully, as I mentioned, filled three of the four positions you invested in this past summer, including two auditors for this new division, both of whom start in the coming weeks, one on Monday, actually.
  • 01:39:46
    My ask is that you continue to provide the resources necessary for my office to effectively cover the increasing demands for audit services.
  • 01:39:57
    Comparing the Office of City Auditor's 2025 budget to the mayor's proposed 2026 budget is misleading and quite frankly misrepresents the reality of our current staffing complement.
  • 01:40:10
    The Mayor's proposed budget disregarded your investment in the Office of City Auditor of the four FTEs I mentioned earlier.
  • 01:40:17
    Although the proposed budget verbally states that the administration is investing in two positions for the Office of City Auditor, the reality is that their budget proposal removes two of the four positions you invested in this past summer.
  • 01:40:33
    They made this assertion because they based their proposal off the original 2025 budget rather than considering budget adjustments approved by the council throughout the year.
  • 01:40:44
    The mayor's office resisted an investment in oversight and accountability when we sought the four FTEs during 2025 and I'm concerned it's once again doing the same.
  • 01:40:55
    I'm comfortable calling this out as the budget of the Office of City Auditor should not be used for political gamesmanship.
  • 01:41:04
    I recognize and appreciate the budget shortfall that the city is managing this coming year, but we need to continue to invest in oversight.
  • 01:41:15
    This is a real threat to the independence of the office when the body we most frequently audit proposes to reduce our budget and the ability to provide reviews of their ongoing work.
  • 01:41:28
    Fortunately, the city charter requires that you, the City Council, fund the Office of City Auditor.
  • 01:41:36
    As you can see on the screen, a comparison of 2025 to 2026 provides little value, as PAR and O&E were transitioned to the Clerk's Office during that time, and so visually, it does not do a good job of representing the changes.
  • 01:41:55
    So what did the mayor's budget actually do?
  • 01:41:58
    It confirmed the Council's transfer of 10 FTEs, as Ms. Jung stated earlier, from my office to the Office of City Clerk, as the work of policy and research, as well as oversight and evaluation, was deemed by the City Attorney to be incompatible with the independence requirements of the Office of City Auditor.
  • 01:42:21
    The mayor's budget proposal confirmed the council's transfer of two FTEs to my office and it reduced staffing levels of my office by two FTEs, both circled in red on this slide.
  • 01:42:34
    I want to note that there are real individuals in these positions that would need to be laid off if this reduction occurs.
  • 01:42:42
    This is counter to the mayor's suggestion that his budget protects all staff from layoff.
  • 01:42:49
    Without these positions, our ability to provide timely, meaningful and accurate information back to the Audit Committee and City Council is drastically limited.
  • 01:43:03
    This slide demonstrates the change in FTEs from 2025 to 2026, keeping in mind that the 10 from PAR and O&E moved to the clerk's office, which the mayor's budget then states that it puts us at eight FTEs and that they've increased it by two FTEs to 10.
  • 01:43:28
    The reality is we are budgeted for 12 right now.
  • 01:43:32
    And so with this proposed budget, as I mentioned, there is a removal of two employees
  • 01:43:39
    Currently, our vacancy rate is 20%, 2 of 10.
  • 01:43:44
    One is new.
  • 01:43:44
    We had an internal auditor, one who left about two weeks ago.
  • 01:43:49
    We're in the process of reviewing resumes for that.
  • 01:43:53
    So that has already posted.
  • 01:43:54
    It's working its way through the hiring process.
  • 01:43:57
    And then as I mentioned, the quality assurance and training manager position, that one should actually post today from what I understand.
  • 01:44:07
    As I did mention earlier, we have successfully hired three of the four positions funded this past summer.
  • 01:44:14
    And possibly, and most importantly, we're ready to hire the quality assurance function soon.
  • 01:44:26
    Alright, I want to talk a little bit about what other cities look like for audit staffing.
  • 01:44:32
    This particular slide, and think about this like golf, high scores are bad.
  • 01:44:38
    This is a comparison of residents per audit staff member.
  • 01:44:44
    You'll notice clearly that two other cities who are working through consent decrees, Baltimore and New Orleans, have nearly twice the capacity for audit work as my office.
  • 01:45:07
    The demand for audit is certainly on the rise.
  • 01:45:13
    This is an interesting slide and I want to describe it a little bit.
  • 01:45:15
    The green line is the trend of audit topics that we've considered year over year on our audit plan.
  • 01:45:24
    I do anticipate that our auditable universe will continue to grow.
  • 01:45:31
    Frankly, we've presented to the Audit Committee 29, 25, 26 audits.
  • 01:45:37
    and as I mentioned this last year, we've completed three.
  • 01:45:43
    You'll see that the blue columns indicate the head count of the office and this is a number that was taken from Comet rather than comparing to budgeted FTEs because unfilled FTEs can't perform audits.
  • 01:46:01
    So this is actual staffing and actual audit completion.
  • 01:46:10
    So, to be clear, the Office of City Auditor is underfunded to provide adequate coverage of an entity of 4,000 employees with a budget of over $2 billion.
  • 01:46:23
    In order to meet the demand of oversight work called upon us by the community, administration, and this body, and to provide adequate audit services to review scores of programs and functional areas across the city, we must maintain these two positions that are highlighted in red, and complete phase two of our office's right sizing, which are the positions highlighted in blue.
  • 01:46:52
    Investing in these three new FTEs would be covering the deputy city auditor role, as well as the director of the new division I discussed, and a lead worker to provide audit support for some of our most complex and sensitive work.
  • 01:47:08
    With an investment in 2026, the Office of City Auditor will be in a position to successfully implement our annual audit plan.
  • 01:47:15
    and accept referrals for fraud, waste and abuse investigations and other ad hoc requests such as the after action reviews the council has asked for over the last year.
  • 01:47:29
    This investment will increase our personnel complement to 15 which is commensurate with sister cities across the country and will hopefully set us up for years of success.
  • 01:47:42
    This is an illustration of estimated figures needed to make this investment happen.
  • 01:47:48
    I'm happy to work with the Budget Chair and the Budget Committee as well as the Budget Office to come up with more accurate figures, but these are estimates based on kind of the lower end of a hiring range for the positions to fill out the office.
  • 01:48:14
    And this slide just shows kind of overlaid on the mayor's budget where we would need to land.
  • 01:48:24
    And quite interestingly, just a rough calculation, even if we considered 5% growth year over year from 2021, I think it would put us right about at the $2.4 million.
  • 01:48:44
    All right, so the question I ask of you today is do you envision a city with robust independent audit oversight and advisory function that provides risk mitigation strategies to the city?
  • 01:48:57
    When you consider our recommendations in our reports lead to improved systems, reduced consequences of not adhering to various regulations, and
  • 01:49:07
    and governance considerations that will help reduce the number of citizens impacted by failures to follow our own policies.
  • 01:49:14
    I argue this is an insurance policy we need to invest in.
  • 01:49:20
    I hope you share with me the need for further investment in the office and the oversight role it plays.
  • 01:49:26
    And at this point, I'll stand for any questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:49:32
    Thank you for your presentation.
  • 01:49:33
    Mr. Timmerman, colleagues, are there any questions or discussion related to this presentation?
  • 01:49:44
    Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:49:46
    Thank you Vice President Chugtai.
  • 01:49:49
    In my previous comment talking about our investments in the legislative department,
  • 01:49:56
    continuing on that when we created the strong mayor system we also created the city auditor and I think as we think about fully implementing this new government structure we actually have to take this request with some seriousness because we have lost quite a lot of our authority as it relates to our ability to make adjustments to how this institution functions.
  • 01:50:19
    A lot of our authority has now been transferred to the mayor and
  • 01:50:24
    I have certainly in my time in office felt a lack of tools when it comes to oversight and I do see City Auditor as one of those important tools.
  • 01:50:32
    I know that just this last cycle we passed a resolution to request the Audit Committee to review or recommend potential for taking on some of these high profile cases.
  • 01:50:46
    I know that we haven't had a chance to meet as an Audit Committee and have those conversations but
  • 01:50:51
    I'm wondering if you could put into context, you know earlier in the year I feel you've you've shared you want to say yes to everything capacity permitting I want to I want to understand to what extent capacity has been a component to Some of the recent requests that we've had Sure, that's a great question chair Shug tight and council president the
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 01:51:16
    The most recent request was originally for another after-action review specific to the murder of Mariah Samuels.
  • 01:51:29
    And although, as you said, I would absolutely personally love to review any case that comes across our table or across my desk, the reality is the limited resources we've talked about.
  • 01:51:45
    I was able to work with one of the authors of that resolution to develop a potential audit that will likely occur in 2026 and that will review the different areas across the city where that type of oversight could be provided.
  • 01:52:07
    Preliminarily, it may look like an OIG function
  • 01:52:13
    I don't know until we do the actual audit where that where those recommendations may land and ultimately it will be up to the council to decide you know of those recommendations where do they envision this work but preliminarily I've seen other cities that have an OIG function within their Office of City Auditor or they have an Office of City Auditor within their OIG function so there's certainly a connection between the two
  • 01:52:43
    Sorry, I was just whispered to explain OIG as an Office of Inspector General.
  • 01:52:50
    And so the Office of Inspector General could provide or whatever this function looks like could provide systemic reviews of individual tragic incidents.
  • 01:53:02
    They could also play a function in ensuring
  • 01:53:07
    certain requirements of the consent decree are met and certain requirements that were part of the federal settlement agreement are met because they are not being overseen through the state's consent decree.
  • 01:53:24
    So it's very important work, but unfortunately it was work we had to say, I'm sorry it'll have to wait.
  • 01:53:33
    As you know, I'd love to say yes every single time that there's a need, but resources limiting we occasionally do have to say no.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:53:44
    That's really enlightening and I really appreciate you connecting it to the consent decree work because I've been very clear that I think that institutionally we need to invest in a oversight system that
  • 01:53:56
    frankly can't rely on the federal government to actually hold us accountable so how do we hold ourselves accountable and I do see a role of our city auditor in doing that so I think that puts a higher point on this request so thank you.
  • 01:54:12
    You're welcome.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:54:13
    Thank you.
  • 01:54:13
    There are right now three additional council members in queue.
  • 01:54:17
    So next I'll recognize Council Member Chowdhury followed by Council Member Chavez.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:54:22
    Thank you so much CVP and thank you Mr. Timmerman for the presentation.
  • 01:54:28
    I wanted to circle back to the statement that you made about the positions that are being cut and that
  • 01:54:37
    There are individuals currently within them are being laid off.
  • 01:54:41
    Could you explain a little bit more about what that layoff means and What was communicated to you?
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 01:54:50
    by the mayor's office and making that decision Sure, and I I may need to refer to Miss Zhang in Helping me remember where certain positions came from or are going but when we
  • 01:55:09
    received your investment this past summer.
  • 01:55:11
    The four positions were FTEs that were transferred from the administration in various areas.
  • 01:55:18
    They were non-sworn, so not police officers.
  • 01:55:21
    They were non-managerial.
  • 01:55:23
    They had been vacant for over a year.
  • 01:55:26
    So we put a lot of consideration into the positions that would be transferred.
  • 01:55:32
    As I mentioned, we've filled those positions three of the four.
  • 01:55:38
    What this means is our office support specialist position and the individual in that position started three weeks ago.
  • 01:55:48
    That position would be eliminated.
  • 01:55:51
    That position, I believe, came from the police department, and I'm going to look to... Oh, she's gone.
  • 01:55:58
    But Mr. Carl would confirm that.
  • 01:56:00
    So what I've learned from the administration is that position is intended to be eliminated.
  • 01:56:06
    That FTE to help support their budget adjustments would be eliminated.
  • 01:56:12
    That was an AFSCME position that we committed to hiring and maintaining as an AFSCME position as well.
  • 01:56:21
    As far as the internal auditor too, as I mentioned, they begin on Monday and the other one begins November 17th.
  • 01:56:32
    I can share with you that the individual beginning Monday brings significant internal audit experience, government audit experience, and the individual starting on November 17th comes from a large city, larger than Minneapolis, and he is provided
  • 01:56:53
    years of oversight and accountability of the police department and public safety within that city.
  • 01:56:59
    And so, of course, the difficult issue there is the reality of if the budget proposal is not amended that one of those two auditors would have to be eliminated.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:57:15
    Thank you, and then at the time of the mayor's budget proposal, I assume these positions weren't filled, but we were in the conversations.
  • 01:57:25
    I'm just trying to get like the sequencing of events laid out here.
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 01:57:29
    I know that there's administration members here that are part of the budgeting process that may be able to better answer that.
  • 01:57:38
    I was never asked by the administration what stage of the hiring process we were in, but as soon as you made the investment we ran because of the limited resources in this office.
  • 01:57:52
    So at the time, yeah, we were already in the process of either posting, interviewing, or making offers.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:58:01
    Great.
  • 01:58:02
    I really appreciate that clarity.
  • 01:58:04
    It is troubling to me that you weren't consulted about the state of hiring in these positions.
  • 01:58:11
    I think that should be just a regular part of the conversations with departments as budgeting is done.
  • 01:58:21
    I believe that the City Auditor's Department is a very key component of our city functioning and ensuring that constituents get good services from local government, ensuring that there is no fraud, waste, or abuse.
  • 01:58:40
    And also, I'm particularly looking forward to program evaluation work.
  • 01:58:47
    I think the City Auditor's Department
  • 01:58:51
    evaluating programs, whether it's building inspections or looking at how we are doing services around solid waste recycling, any number of things that this council might have interactions with constituents on that
  • 01:59:11
    Showcase that there is a need for modernization or efficiencies is really really key right a lot of the ways that our city government has been functioning especially in departments that work with constituents have have been doing things the same way for decades and There's a real need to kind of take a look at and evaluate and improve situations that was
  • 01:59:40
    made clear to me in regards to
  • 01:59:46
    a demolition of a house that took place in my ward without a demolition permit and then many issues following that by a contractor that was building the biggest house they could build on a parcel that impacted constituents and I know that that's something the City Auditor's Department is interested in looking at and then there are things that are kind of like
  • 02:00:15
    for our constituents.
  • 02:00:36
    that situations that have led to individuals either facing significant bodily harm or women in particular losing their lives.
  • 02:00:50
    That's something that absolutely needs to be audited and I don't believe that the City Council nor the administration have the capacity or the ability to be unbiased in looking into it.
  • 02:01:03
    That's why we need an independent auditor and as our city grows and as we see more hurdles, especially from the federal level, but even in partnership with our state government we need
  • 02:01:17
    more support in being resilient and looking at how do we ensure that the city of Minneapolis is doing its work well and that it's also above board and we're modernizing and we're becoming more resilient.
  • 02:01:32
    That's going to be the job the next
  • 02:01:36
    next four years for sure but absolutely into the future.
  • 02:01:41
    So for me it is very concerning to see positions that we as a body have pushed for and have stated a significant need be cut.
  • 02:01:55
    I don't think it should be
  • 02:01:57
    I don't think that this should have been something that we would have to fight over or push for and I'm looking forward to the conversation for us to figure out what we can do here because we do need a robust city auditor's department.
  • 02:02:11
    There's going to be a lot of need so I appreciate the insight and the presentation.
  • 02:02:17
    Thank you.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:02:20
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:02:21
    Thank you.
  • 02:02:21
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez followed by Councilmember Palmesano.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:02:26
    Thank you for the presentation, City Auditor Timmerman.
  • 02:02:32
    I think this presentation is important for us to hear from you and learn about the ongoing issues.
  • 02:02:39
    I think I personally will always take any threat to independence very seriously.
  • 02:02:44
    and this is something that I believe we need to fix in this budget because there should never be any threats to independence, there should never be any impacts to any type of oversight because at the end of the day we want to do risk management, we want to make sure that we're prepared for the future and at the end of the day this kind of work helps us save taxpayer dollars in the future which is really important to our tax base.
  • 02:03:06
    I want to read a report from the Helix because I think it's important context of why I want us in this body to figure this out in the upcoming budget, in this coming budget.
  • 02:03:16
    The office of the city auditor identified $177,000 and $462 in what we classify as overpayments to Helix health and housing services.
  • 02:03:25
    A single-source vendor contracted November 2023 by the health department at the urgent request of the mayor's office.
  • 02:03:31
    It went on to say that we also identify significant gaps in contract management and oversight.
  • 02:03:37
    This creates an environment where the opportunity for fraud to occur is significant due to insufficient internal control.
  • 02:03:44
    I ended up going through a presentation as well and it talked about duplicate and erroneous payments.
  • 02:03:52
    These were two invoices that I just read out loud of how much they were.
  • 02:03:56
    learned that the City did not fully review and reconcile supporting documents with invoices to ensure information was complete and accurate with requested reimbursement costs.
  • 02:04:05
    Supporting documents submitted with invoices was not always complete, accurate, and clear with variances in documentation and reimbursement requests and need for additional documentation information.
  • 02:04:15
    The City paid for expenses that occurred prior to the contract start date and prepaid expenses such as software for months when the vendor was not directly performing contract work.
  • 02:04:27
    and I can go on and on and on and the reason I am bringing this up because
  • 02:04:32
    we support oversight, we support accountability and there should not ever be any attempts to interfere with that or reduce any budgets that would then now allow us as City Council to address those issues or figure out what kind of oversight and accountability and what that could look like.
  • 02:04:48
    So I want to at least point out the Helix report because I think the Helix report is a good example of why this work matters and why this work is important because if it wasn't for your department
  • 02:04:58
    We would have never known this was happening.
  • 02:05:00
    So thank you and I hope that we all can restore this and figure this out in the budget.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:05:06
    Thank you.
  • 02:05:08
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:05:12
    Thank you Mr.
  • 02:05:13
    Chair, Madam Chair, and thank you Mr. Timmerman.
  • 02:05:17
    I'm struck by the fact that every other department in the enterprise was asked to propose significant cuts.
  • 02:05:25
    FTEs, contractual services like co-enforcement or voting, reduced programming, these were difficult decisions and they were sometimes not a great source.
  • 02:05:36
    but other departments had to do it.
  • 02:05:38
    And I really appreciate that the cut to the clerk's office is for the legislative department as a whole, but frankly, colleagues, they're shouldering the burden for us.
  • 02:05:49
    I don't know that that's the legislative side of this house living by example.
  • 02:05:55
    This signals to other departments that they have to get by with less but not us, and the reductions don't apply to us.
  • 02:06:05
    Also, Mr. Timmerman, as you know, I'm a strong believer of using the function of audit to hold the public trust.
  • 02:06:13
    That said, can you give us a sense of how much we've spent in outside contractual services this year?
  • 02:06:19
    Because there is something fiscally prudent here, I'm not quite sure what it is, and you and I have discussed in private like the benefits of internal versus external
  • 02:06:29
    expertise and how sometimes external expertise can be fresher, more modern, always being up on particular types of investigations.
  • 02:06:40
    But is this something that will continue to go on if you get your staffing, or can you just talk a little bit out loud about how much we've spent outside for resources and audit.
  • 02:06:54
    I think it's been about $175,000, but I don't know for sure.
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:07:00
    Sure, Chair Chuktai and Councilmember Palmesano, really good question.
  • 02:07:05
    We traditionally have contracted over the years for IT type audits.
  • 02:07:11
    We have an IT auditor in-house who is incredibly capable and there are times when we need to seek additional expertise in areas that are hyper complex such as IT.
  • 02:07:28
    This year, we have contracted with a law firm to assist in our review of the Maturi and Luescher tragedies and there are four individuals from that law firm assisting in that work along with four individuals from my office working on that.
  • 02:07:48
    Originally, the contract was for roughly $90,000.
  • 02:07:56
    and we are at a point where we are moving that forward for an amendment to roughly 175.
  • 02:08:04
    I think we're going to bring it in front of AEO at about 200,000 just to make sure that we're checking all the boxes, we're informing the people that need to be informed.
  • 02:08:15
    As audit, we want to do things the right way, of course.
  • 02:08:20
    But that is the estimate for completing that work
  • 02:08:25
    I will share that some of the reasons for that significant cost increase are because of delays that have occurred due to lack of cooperation from individuals from MPD.
  • 02:08:43
    The insertion of the federation in our review.
  • 02:08:49
    It is quite difficult to
  • 02:08:53
    to manage a very expensive contractor when there are delays like that and keep the costs reasonable.
  • 02:09:03
    So this coming year, I believe what we had proposed in our budget was about $100,000 for contractual services.
  • 02:09:11
    And that's typically what we've included as a line item for those IT-type reviews.
  • 02:09:17
    But even with that, we don't have the funding to do one-off reviews as they come up.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:09:23
    And then your request right now is for the further growth of three FTEs in addition to restoring the two vacant FTEs.
  • 02:09:32
    Well, they were vacant at the time, but they're not vacant anymore, right?
  • 02:09:36
    Correct.
  • 02:09:39
    I see.
  • 02:09:40
    Thank you.
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:09:42
    Sure Chuck, and I see the wheels turning like where is that break-even point?
  • 02:09:48
    And I think it's difficult to pinpoint But there are other works such as the program evaluations the fraud waste and abuse investigations that we certainly are not able to currently do and that we've been asked by many across the council to perform and
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:10:11
    Thank you.
  • 02:10:13
    You know, Mr.
  • 02:10:14
    Auditor, please correct me if I'm wrong here, but as a part of the government structure change that was approved by voters in November of 2021, is it fair to say that the only position that was created by that change is the position of City Auditor?
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:10:34
    Formally by charter, correct.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:10:37
    Council.
  • 02:10:38
    It's just excellent to always remind ourselves that what voters approved was the creation of one new position.
  • 02:10:45
    And across the enterprise, there have been several positions that are created at the cabinet level and deputies for several of those cabinet members in order to quote unquote implement
  • 02:10:59
    the will of voters when the only thing the voters actually approved was the creation of a city auditor and by extension then the importance of an independent oversight function that is neither accountable to the city council nor the mayor.
  • 02:11:16
    Is that a fair thing to say?
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:11:17
    It's, you're spot on.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:11:19
    Excellent.
  • 02:11:20
    And so when we invest in the Office of City Auditor, would it, you know, to me, it feels like misconstruing the truth to say an investment in the City Auditor by the Council is an investment in ourselves.
  • 02:11:34
    Would you, I mean, how does that land with you?
  • 02:11:37
    You're the City Auditor, after all.
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:11:40
    I wasn't going to speak to that, Cher, but I will, because you've asked.
  • 02:11:46
    It doesn't sit well with me.
  • 02:11:48
    Frankly, I've had a lot of conversations about the structural alignment and placement of the Office of City Auditor.
  • 02:11:56
    I absolutely appreciate the support that we get with administrative functions, budgeting functions, things of that nature through the legislative department.
  • 02:12:10
    But on a near daily basis, we are explaining to individuals across the administration
  • 02:12:15
    that although we reside within the legislative department, there is no reporting relationship.
  • 02:12:21
    There is nothing there other than a leverage of economies of scale.
  • 02:12:30
    And so self-funding, it rubs me the wrong way because if you argue that the council or the legislative department is making budgetary decisions,
  • 02:12:46
    It's really no different than the administration trying to reduce by two FTEs.
  • 02:12:51
    I mean this has to be very independent, thought out work that matches the demand for the work.
  • 02:12:58
    It's not, it shouldn't be leveraged for budget savings.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:13:03
    That makes sense.
  • 02:13:04
    Sir, and can you just tell me who is it that you actually report to and who is it that you are actually accountable to?
• • Robert TimmermanCity Auditor
  • 02:13:11
    I report to the Audit Committee and I am accountable to the residents of Minneapolis.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:13:17
    Excellent.
  • 02:13:17
    And is that true for every person that works in your office?
  • 02:13:20
    Do any of you report to the City Council or to the Mayor?
  • 02:13:25
    Wonderful.
  • 02:13:25
    Thank you so much for coming in to present your budget today.
  • 02:13:28
    I will ask the Clerk to file your presentation.
  • 02:13:31
    And with that, colleagues, we are running short on time, so we've worked now with Deputy Commissioner Hanlon to move the presentation for the Climate Legacy Initiative, which will now take place on October 27th, right before we receive the presentation on the capital budget.
  • 02:13:55
    So with that we have concluded all business to come before the committee today and without objection we stand adjourned until our next meeting which will take place tomorrow Friday October 17th at 10 a.m. where we will receive department presentations prepared by the community planning and economic development and regulatory services departments.
  • 02:14:16
    Both of these presentations are available for your review in the legislative information management system.
  • 02:14:22
    Thank you everyone.
• • 02:14:27
    Thank you.