Budget Committee October 17, 2025   10/17/2025

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:14
    Good morning.
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    My name is Aisha Chugtai and I am the chair of the Budget Committee.
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    I am going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Friday, October 17, 2025.
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    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.
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    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
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    Therefore all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.
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    We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.
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    At this time I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum.
• • SPEAKER_04
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    Council Member Payne is absent Wonsley absent Greenville present Vita present Ellison is absent Osmond is absent Cashman present Jenkins is absent Chavez present
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    Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:30
    I'll also remind my colleagues that we will be using speaker management today so please make sure to sign in.
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    Today we have two presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2026 budget from the Community Planning and Economic Development Department and the Regulatory Services Department.
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    I'll first invite the Community Planning and Economic Development Director Eric Hansen to join us and begin his presentation.
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    Welcome.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:01:55
    Thank you.
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    Good morning Madam Chair, members of the committee.
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    I'm Eric Hansen.
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    I'm the CPED Director.
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    And I'm joined here today by our Division Directors Alfred Port, Steve Poore, Meg McMahon, Karuna Mahajanen, and Julie Lynam.
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    And together with our staff, we're proud to present the CPED's 2026 Supplemental Budget Recommendations.
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    CPED operates within the development, health, and livability area of the Office of Public Service, as you see highlighted on the slide in front of you.
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    and we work to grow a vibrant, livable, equitable, sustainable and safely built city for everyone.
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    We have about 243 professionals that carry out this work daily.
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    We advance planning, housing, economic opportunity and regulatory services that reach every neighborhood.
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    CPED is a diverse and complex department.
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    We serve people through the team you see on the slide and we measure out our success through our impact.
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    Striving for an inclusive city where everybody can fully participate in the economy.
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    Our department continues
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    Our department continues to deliver results that advance priorities.
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    This year we celebrated the opening of Watt Egg Commons, a 39 unit affordable multifamily housing development by Knorr Companies and Redesign, Inc. Watt Egg Commons is an example of how CPED drives forward to increase opportunities for wealth creation, make sure we have more safe, stable, and affordable housing, and advancing a more inclusive economic future.
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    People like Arlene Davis who bought her house on the north side with city support in 1996 is continuing to reinvest in that home with a new kitchen which was funded by a CPED program.
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    Arlene has already raised her four children in this home and with the updates she made she is ensuring that she's retaining the wealth she has created in this home.
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    Our achievements reflect CPED's broader impact for safe housing, real estate development, complete neighborhoods, and equitable access to living wage jobs across all 87 neighborhoods.
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    CPED faces evolving challenges.
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    We have a post-COVID economic economy, which have shifted in consumption patterns.
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    We have uncertainty in federal funding and unexpected events like the one you see
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    on the screen here.
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    CPED still remains resilient and adaptive thanks to the skilled staff and our approving systems.
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    CPED continues to be agile and resilient and is ready to meet the changing world because of the wisdom, skill, and tenacity of our talented staff at every level of the organization and the funding that drives our processes, programs, and investments.
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    We track performance through measurable outcomes.
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    Our CPED Impact Report is our annual report which you can access by scanning the code on the screen.
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    CPED operationalizes the city's strategic goals, plans, and directives to advance our primary objectives.
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    We report on our work through Outcomes Minneapolis.
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    This QR code will be at the last slide too, so if you miss it we can catch it on the back.
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    Here are our performance measures.
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    CPED's impact serves as a department reporting to Outcomes Minneapolis.
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    It measures progress in five key indicators.
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    Affordable housing, workforce development, small business growth, and equitable economic opportunity.
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    We track disparities by race to ensure that our work closes, not reinforces the historic gaps we see in our city.
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    We understand that our system was developed with intention to benefit some over others, especially between race and class in Minneapolis.
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    As the City's Community Development Department, it is our responsibility and obligation to correct the harms of this system.
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    Highlights from CPED include historic level of affordable housing production with $90 million invested through the trust fund over the last five years creating nearly 4,000 units, 450 adults advancing through workforce programs, and afterwards averaging about $23 an hour in wage, putting millions of dollars into Minneapolis' households, and a majority of our participants are BIPOC residents.
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    Going further, I'll share six metrics that demonstrates our impact.
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    First, you see this graph which tells the story about who has been able to buy affordable homes constructed with CPED support.
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    Through the Minneapolis Homes Program over the last four years, this program has funded home buyer education, down payment assistance, and home repairs.
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    Minneapolis has one of the largest home ownership disparities in the nation.
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    And home ownership is the ticket to the middle class.
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    Through Minneapolis Homes, we are expanding access to home ownership, critical to building generational wealth.
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    Harrison Townhomes is an example.
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    CPET invested $2.13 million to help families like Rika Barbers purchase an affordable home through a community land trust model.
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    For Harrison Town Homes, CPED partnered with nonprofit entities City of Lakes Community Land Trust and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to keep costs lower for homeowners.
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    Residents own their home and the land trust retains the ownership of the land.
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    This way the price is more affordable for both Rika and whoever buys it from her in the future.
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    Our second measure is youth workforce development.
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    Over 2,000 youth participated in workforce programs, gaining paid experience and pathways to long-term careers.
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    Our two main programs are WIOA and Step Up, which bring together Minneapolis young people who face barriers to employment with local employers through work readiness training, internships,
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    which all build to equitable access to careers and lead to a diverse, skilled, and prepared workforce of the future.
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    The data on the screen depicts the 800 plus participants in the WIOA program over the past three years.
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    We see this partnership in action at Wildfire Cafe, a community-based service provider in our WIOA program.
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    Under this program, in-school and out-of-school youth get help with employment training, education, and wraparound services.
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    People like Lee, who's pictured here, had left high school and was on house before participating in this program.
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    But during the program, she made three goals to graduate from high school, to find a place to live, and to graduate from college.
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    Today she is a high school graduate, she has a place to live, and she's well on her way to graduating from college.
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    CPED supports our next generation of emerging developers with a strong focus on BIPOC entrepreneurs through our Developer Technical Assistance Program, or DTAP.
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    We provided over 1300 hours of support and guidance through both training and one-on-one assistance.
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    Most of the people receiving these services are people of color.
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    People like Jennifer Korea of Imani Construction.
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    She shows mentorship and equitable access can close the racial wealth gap.
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    With more than 15 years in construction, she partnered with CPED about a decade ago through the Minneapolis Homes Program to rehab homes in North Minneapolis.
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    Since then, her company has completed over 150 remodels and 18 new builds, creating both wealth and income for her company, but pathways to families to create wealth through home ownership.
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    Today, Jennifer is one of our mentors in the Emergency Developer Program and Council's new DTAP participants, sharing her experience with others on how to succeed.
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    We also have technical assistance for entrepreneurs.
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    CPED supports people to start, sustain, and grow businesses within the city through the BTAP program, the Business Technical Assistance Program, where community-based organizations offer direct services for business planning, licensing, financing, marketing, and operations.
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    BTAP helps build a stronger, more inclusive local economy.
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    When last year we partnered, we provided over 6,000 hours of support to entrepreneurs with over 80% of those hours in service to BIPOC entrepreneurs.
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    Haley Utley and her partner Kayla Barth opened QueerMunity in the heart of Uptown last year as a space for the LGBTQ plus community and allies to come together
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    and create a connection in a safe, supportive environment.
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    They offer a range of educational, cultural and arts programs,
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    queer immunity fills a gap in the Twin Cities for community space for LGBTQ plus people.
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    CPED supported this business through support for marketing and online presence through BTAP and a $75,000 2% loan program loan so they could renovate and buy their space.
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    The fifth measure I'll talk about is past technical assistance.
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    Technical assistance only goes so far for an entrepreneur, and a good idea is only a good idea if you don't have capital to execute it.
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    CPED provides funding to entrepreneurs to act on those ideas through the Ownership and Opportunity Fund and the 2% loan program.
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    Each program provides capital to either purchase real estate or equipment for their businesses.
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    The Ownership and Opportunity Fund began in 2020 We've helped 27 businesses with $13.6 million to help them purchase their buildings And on the screen you see our 2% loan program investments from the last year The city matches the private lender up to $75,000 for capital purchases And last year we invested $2.1 million to support 35 businesses in this program
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    Opening a year ago, Adigo Wellness is a BIPOC and women-owned business, and it's offering services like yoga, acupuncture, and reiki in a community-based setting.
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    Adigo's vision is that their providers reflect the diversity of the people they serve.
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    Our 2% loan program helped the Adigo team purchase the building in Uptown, and the $75,000 loan supported the transformation of the new space to align with their vision, in addition to other supports we provided through BTEP.
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    The final data point I'll bring up is permit values.
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    Permit values reflect a strong private investment and gauge our private market activity and interest in the city.
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    While housing and economic development programs are measured in the millions, private market activity is measured in the billions.
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    It is also an indicator of how much work is flowing through CPET as we handle the development process from development concept to grand opening.
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    This year, we're on track for a 15th consecutive year of over a billion dollars of permit value.
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    As we are nearing that billion, we have issued 24,000 permits to date.
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    Groove Lofts was a lengthy, complex, innovative development that converted an office tower into a residential in downtown.
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    Every CPED team played a role in this process, both assisting with the tax increment financing to support the private market, private investments plus the historic tax credits and the development process around reducing red tape and moving it through the development process as quickly and swiftly as possible.
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    Today, Groove Lofts features 216 new homes, including 44 units that are affordable.
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    Let's move on to the CPED budget.
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    Now that you've seen our impact, we are recommending a $115.3 million general funded budget for CPED in the coming year.
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    This budget includes $3.5 million in reductions and an additional $11.5 million of mostly non-general funded additions.
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    The different color-coded bars on this chart represent the budget by expense category over the past few years.
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    and projected into 2026.
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    I'll explain the reductions for the year later in the presentation, but overall, about 37% of CPED's proposed budget will go to contractual services, 25 to capital equipment, 23 to salary and wages, and fringes and operating costs are at 8 and 7%, respectively.
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    We break that budget down by our divisions.
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    In our five divisions, Housing Policy and Development, Economic Policy and Development, and Transfers and Debt Services each come in about 25% or a quarter of the budget, while Development Services, Operations, and Planning fill in that final quarter of our budget by division.
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    CPED currently has a vacancy rate of 7% with 18 open positions and we are actively recruiting these open positions while also evaluating the vacancies to align staffing to the department's evolving needs.
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    Recruitment remains challenging in certain roles due to salary competitiveness.
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    Our directors are working with HR to address wage compression, exploring career laddering opportunities, and conducting a full market review competitive analysis.
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    of our unrepresented positions in 2026.
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    We're also reviewing workflows for greater efficiencies.
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    These efforts will likely lead to some restructuring in the coming years.
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    The recommended 2026 budget reduces our FTE count from 243 to 238.
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    with 191 of those positions coming from the General Fund and 47 of those are in a special revenue fund.
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    And this is a little note for CPED.
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    Federal funding decisions are really important to CPED because of those FTEs, a part or all of about 67 of our positions have a federal source for funding.
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    I will next walk you through program changes recommendations
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    First I want to talk about our budgeting approach, give you a little context of how we made decisions.
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    Our budget aligns with our mission and our core values, our director's core values of community impact, empowering staff, our agility, and being anti-racist.
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    It prioritizes maintaining essential housing and economic development strategies and outcomes.
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    We look at staff development and operational resilience amid tighter resources.
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    Guided by our 2025 work plan and Minneapolis 2040 comp plan, CPED's budget strategy represents the best thinking our managers and directors have about how to deliver the best services even though we're facing leaner times.
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    The budget focuses on efficiency, equity, and long-term sustainability while continuing to invest in people and reduce disparities.
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    This is not a do more with less proposal.
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    It reflects the realistic trade-offs and our commitment to do as much as possible with the resources available.
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    Administrative and support is
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    is what we call Operation Innovation.
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    It's a division run by Karuna Mahajanen, and they provide leadership around financial management, communications, data analysis, and keep our department running effectively or efficiently.
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    This team does a lot to keep all the work I've highlighted moving smoothly.
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    This team is the people behind the people who manages and support internal services, provides information for effective decision making, manage special projects and process improvements for effective coordination and service delivery.
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    The management of resources supporting and the management of resources supporting employee work.
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    The 12-member team has a $12 million budget and oversees CPEDS communications, finance, HR, and IT functions.
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    The increase you see on this slide is to accommodate the premium of the self-insurance budget, which increased by almost $5 million.
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    This area also drives our culture work.
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    We are committed as a department to be a workplace of inclusion and belonging where everybody can show up as their true selves.
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    We have help on this journey from the CPED leadership and our Labor Management Committee and through our Racial Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, or RIDE committees.
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    We see CPED coming together on this slide at appreciation events and being around each other is building stronger bonds and a more effective team.
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    Development Services is led by Steve Poore.
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    It's our largest division with 81 employees.
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    It includes construction code services and the development review teams.
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    It completes the development cycle that planning starts with plan review, permitting inspections, and issuing certificates of occupancies plus a couple other programs.
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    The division's budget is $12.7 million.
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    It shows a moderate increase from 2025 for cost of living.
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    The Development Services Division is responsible for ensuring quality built environment throughout the city with a customer service first mission.
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    Development services ensures high quality development while requiring that building construction and rehabilitation projects in the city meet the standards for safety, livability, health, and environmental sensitivity.
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    Moving on to economic policy and development.
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    It's a division of 66 members in five teams and is led by Julie Linum.
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    This division helps people build wealth through business activity in vibrant commercial districts.
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    It manages and redevelops commercial real estate holdings, prepares people for work, and manages over 5,000 business licenses.
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    The mayor's recommended budget of $26.2 million is a drop of $7.4 million from 25, which I will explain later in the presentation.
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    This division has five teams, a small business team, business development, business licensing, employment training, and the Promise Zone.
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    And they foster a healthy and sustainable diverse Minneapolis economy meeting the needs of BIPOC communities historically cut off from economic opportunity.
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    Results matter for this division and BIPOC people account for more than 70% of participation in all their programs.
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    Housing Policy and Development team is led by our Housing Director, Alfred Port.
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    They have two main areas of focus.
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    Those are affordable housing rental and affordable housing ownership.
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    And they create new and preserve existing affordable rental and ownership housing.
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    We support low and moderate income households through education, down payment assistance, providing loans and grants to help existing homeowners, and through production.
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    The Division includes 37 people across two teams, Residential Finance and Residential and Real Estate Development.
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    In 26, we are proposing eight recommended changes, including reductions and additions that net out to be $8.5 million.
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    Since 2018, the City has significantly increased investment in housing and homelessness, investing over $400 million during this period.
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    CPED continues to prioritize deeply affordable rental housing at 30% AMI, which equates to $39,700 in annual income for a family of four.
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    After revising the affordable housing trust fund scoring in 2024, 43% of our applications are meeting these targets, producing over eight times more deeply affordable homes than between the period of 2011 to 2017.
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    Minneapolis has one of the largest homeowner gaps in the country and homeownership remains central to our goals.
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    In 2024, 103 households became homeowners through the city programs.
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    Since 2022, 123 have received critical home repairs averaging about $47,000 a project and about 70% of Minneapolis homes participants and over half of the developers in that program are BIPOC or women-led advancing equitable access to housing and wealth building.
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    Our planning division is a division of 42 people led by our planning director Meg McMahon and it supports residents and property owners to invest in the city aligning with the 2040 plan and Centered on equity and resilience.
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    They have five staff teams including code development community planning land use design and preservation zoning administration policy research and outreach or the pro team and
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    They manage, review, and enforce land use, zoning preservation, and environmental review applications and the public process that go with them.
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    Planning is responsible for setting the vision for the city and starts the process to realize that vision.
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    In 2026, Planning's budget increased about a million dollars in support of the base budget for Nicolette programming and the start of the 2050 comprehensive planning process.
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    CPED continues to prioritize strategies that engage historically underrepresented communities while leading regulatory reforms tied to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
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    We're ensuring Minneapolis grows as an equitable and sustainable, inclusive, and resilient city.
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    Debts and transfers
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    is the exciting part of our budget that talks about a program that is administered for specific CPED financial resources, both with external partners and between CPED funds.
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    This service is provided in partnership with our very capable development finance partners in the finance department, and it's recommended to put $27.4 million into the 26th budget to support obligated funding tools like our TIF districts.
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    I will now go over the reductions, the additions, and the changes to the 2026 base budget.
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    In 2026, CPED is proposing ongoing general fund targeted reductions totaling just over $3.5 million and a net decrease of two full-time equivalent positions.
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    These changes reflect the budget approach I shared a few minutes ago, and let me walk through the key changes.
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    One, food and beverage operating costs.
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    This is a modest reduction of $7,500 to achieve.
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    that we'll achieve through internal cost efficiencies.
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    Two, adult workforce tech hire program.
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    This is a half a million dollar reduction.
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    This reflects changing labor dynamics and where the current program demand has declined to an oversupply of trained candidates in the technology fields.
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    3.
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    Ownership and Opportunity Fund.
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    This is a half a million dollar reduction of the ongoing component and I will talk about the one-time components in a second.
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    The program retains an existing balance and the additional one-time funding for 2026 and subsequent years will not be needed and it will still allow it to continue to support
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    business ownership and wealth building opportunities without that allocation.
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    And when we get to a point where we need more funding, we'll ask for one-time appropriations.
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    Number four, budgeted position reductions.
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    This is about $210,000 in reductions from two positions.
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    These reductions were selected to minimize disruption to existing operations and play a part in the broader reorganization efforts.
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    to improve efficiency.
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    Number five is the East African Homeowner Education Program.
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    It's a $95,000 reduction and we know that the participants can continue to access home buyer education and services through the broader Minneapolis Homes Program.
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    Number six is a senior housing co-debatement program.
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    This is an $810,000 reduction.
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    This service would then be consolidated into our existing Minneapolis Homes Rehabilitation activities so that seniors will still have, continue to have the opportunity to access support for property maintenance.
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    Number seven is Emergency Housing Voucher Program.
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    This reduction is $1.4 million.
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    This reduction of $1.4 million is effectively a shift to the Stable Homes Stable Schools Program, which I'll elaborate on the next slide.
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    This change is one of the most difficult.
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    for us to evaluate as we compare CPED's focus and success on housing stability, ownership, and production against the need for rental supports.
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    While the proposed move puts us into stable homes, stable schools, we acknowledge the scope of housing instability and needs for support are large in the city.
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    We also acknowledge that the sources of funding from other levels of government like Hennepin County
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    who continue to lead.
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    There are other sources like other governments like Hennepin County who will continue to lead on direct cash-based housing assistance.
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    Next slide is about the additions.
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    Most of these additions are in special revenue funds that I will explain.
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    In addition to the reductions, we are looking at about 11.5 million dollars in general fund and special revenue sources.
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    And now let's break down this way.
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    Number one, stable homes, stable schools.
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    As mentioned on the last slide, the appropriation shift from emergency housing vouchers to this program will support over 260 families that are participating in the Minneapolis Public Schools that have about 770 children within their households.
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    This is a collaboration between the city, the school district, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Hennepin County, YMCA of the North, the Polat Family Foundation, and it helps prevent homelessness and keeps students in their schools and communities.
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    Stable Homes Stable Schools will experience a fiscal cliff in quarter two of next year without additional funds, which is information we provided to the City Council in September.
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    about this program and we have conducted briefings with about half of you.
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    Staff will be back in front of the City Council in November with a separate action to move other funding to stabilize stable homes and stable schools.
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    Number two is Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
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    This is a one-time local affordable housing
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    This allocation of $7.35 million will sustain City's most critical housing production tool in the Trust Fund.
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    The investment supports the creation and preservation of affordable housing, rental, and other dedicated funding sources such as TIF set-asides, which have begun to decline.
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    Number three is Minneapolis Homes.
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    It's a one time LAHA allocation of just over a million dollars to continue to expand home ownership opportunities for first generation and low income buyers.
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    Number four is the emergency shelter response.
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    This is another one-time LAHA investment of a million dollars to provide support to the city's joint powers agreement with the Hennepin County that lead coordinated the lead coordinator of the coordinated entry system who administers all our outreach, essential services, shelter operations and rapid rehousing programs.
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    Number five is a one-time use of the downtown assets fund in the amount of $240,000 for property maintenance at the Kohl Center, which then will allow us to continue proper stewardship of this facility while we continue to work out an operating contract with the next operator Arts Nest.
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    Number six is the People's Way Property Management.
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    This is a one-time general fund addition of $100,000 to support the maintenance of the People's Way as the city continues through the community engagement and planning for its future.
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    And the final one on this slide is the Development and Technical Assistance Program and it's a one-time general fund investment of $350,000 to keep this impactful program moving.
  • 00:32:22
    I want to remind you of the approved base budget items for 2026.
  • 00:32:26
    I'll go through that.
  • 00:32:28
    It's about $4.32 million in investments in housing, economic development, workforce training.
  • 00:32:33
    As I said, we are proposing cutting the ongoing appropriation for ownership and opportunity fund as we have a $2 million one-time allocation in 26, and that should get us to the next budget cycle and through the process.
  • 00:32:46
    Number two is an ongoing allocation of $850,000 to support small business growth.
  • 00:32:51
    in the Business District Support Program and the Facade Program under Great Streets.
  • 00:32:57
    Number three is a Youth Workforce Program, ongoing investments of just over half a million dollars to continue support for our youth employment pathways, ones that I've just described.
  • 00:33:08
    Number four is the start of the 2050 comp planning process, a $300,000 investment into that plan.
  • 00:33:15
    so that we can ensure that we'll have the plan written and approved and in place by January 1, 2030, which is just around the corner.
  • 00:33:23
    Number five is the Business Technical Assistance Program.
  • 00:33:26
    This is an ongoing investment of $200,000 to continue that program.
  • 00:33:30
    And number six is Nicolette Programming.
  • 00:33:31
    It's an ongoing allocation of $400,000 to provide resources and programming for activation and management of Nicolette Mall to help maintain its role as a vibrant and welcoming public space in the heart of downtown.
  • 00:33:46
    Now, I've come to the end of this presentation.
  • 00:33:50
    I want to thank you again for the time and the division directors in the audience today.
  • 00:33:55
    I also want to particularly share thanks to Sue Kleppe, our budget analyst, John Girardino, and Manny Vinavong, who are our accountants.
  • 00:34:05
    I want to thank Ben Zimmerman, Justin Carlson, Justin Coles, and Director DeCenza on the budget team for guiding us through this.
  • 00:34:12
    Angie Skildum and her entire team at the Development Finance Group, Wes Durham, Sarah Milner, Dorothea Marty and Jen Rulong-Smith in our Pro and Comms groups that put extra effort into making sure that this presentation was as great as it as I think it was.
  • 00:34:29
    And on behalf of the people of CPED, thank you Madam Chair and committee members for this opportunity to present our recommended budget and we are happy to answer any questions you might have.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:34:38
    Director Hanson, thank you for your robust presentation.
  • 00:34:43
    I will first note that we have been joined in this committee by Council members Wonsley Jenkins and Council President Payne.
  • 00:34:56
    I don't think I missed anybody right.
  • 00:34:58
    He was here at the beginning.
  • 00:35:01
    With that, I am going to see if my colleagues have any questions or comments.
  • 00:35:08
    I'll first recognize Council Member Rainville followed by Council Member Wonsley.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:35:13
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 00:35:15
    Thank you, Director Hanson, and up to all your staff that's here today, but I just want to let you know I really enjoy working with all your staff.
  • 00:35:22
    They return my calls, they're available for meetings, they go out into community with me, so that's very important to me and I appreciate that.
  • 00:35:30
    I do have one question.
  • 00:35:32
    You had mentioned the affordable housing trust was going to get a seven million dollar increase from, you call it a special tax, is that that new statewide tax, or state imposed tax?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:35:45
    Yeah.
  • 00:35:45
    Madam Chair, Council Member Rainville, yes, yes sir, that's the local sales tax that we can use for housing uses.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:35:51
    Great, thank you.
  • 00:35:52
    That's it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:35:55
    Thank you.
  • 00:35:56
    We've actually got a couple more folks in queue, so next I'll recognize Council Member Wonsley, followed by Council Member Vitah.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:36:06
    Thank you Vice President Chuktai.
  • 00:36:09
    Just starting at the top, around slide 14-15, where it gets into DTAP and small business support, could you provide an update
  • 00:36:19
    on the pilot for loans for small businesses impacted by construction.
  • 00:36:24
    It wasn't clear where the funding was located within CPED for that specific pilot.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:36:33
    Madam Chair, Councilmember Wonsley, that is a new program that we have not written.
  • 00:36:38
    I was hopeful and I'm glad that you put it right out front so we can talk about it right away.
  • 00:36:43
    I was hopeful to have an update on all of the new things that were added to the 2025 budget because some of them aren't completed and underway and some of them aren't and that is one of the programs that we have not written yet and so I will be will be collecting a status update on all 2025 budget allocations so that we can share what the council would it just wasn't ready today but that one has not started yet
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:37:05
    would that be shared through the Biz Committee then in the last cycle that we have going before the new year?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:37:14
    Madam Chair, Councilmember Wonsley, we could have it, I think the best way is probably just me sending an email with all of the updates of those programs.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:37:25
    Okay, because I'll get to this later, it sounds like that will require a program design, which in our conversations does have to come through for council authorization.
  • 00:37:36
    That's what I said, would it then just be coming to the next biz too?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:37:39
    Madam Chair, Councilmember Wanza, I think I misunderstood your question.
  • 00:37:42
    So yes, when we have that program, that program would have to go to the council to approve it before we could administer funding anything.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:37:50
    Okay, and right now is the timeline to get that figure out before the end of the year?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:37:55
    We're still working on that timeline.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:37:57
    Okay.
  • 00:37:59
    And then going to, which I think is tied to some of the just like outstanding things, is there tracking of funding allocations given to the cultural corridors?
  • 00:38:13
    it would be great to know just in our budget kind of where the funding is standing for our cultural corridors like on average what is spent in supporting business interest residents within them because we've had a long standing conversation around how we need to of course balance investments not only in downtown but also these other key areas of our city.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:38:38
    Madam Chair, Councilmember Wonsley Funding from the city for cultural corridors is in multiple departments But it does make sense to have us work with those other departments to report back on what's available
  • 00:38:51
    A lot of the programs are in our Arts and Cultural Affairs Department, which they have reported back through the Biz Committee a number of times on their progress, because they're getting that money out in the field and making great headway.
  • 00:39:05
    There are some programs, most of the programs that CPED offers, cultural districts are an eligible area.
  • 00:39:11
    We have a very rare occasion where it's specific to just cultural districts, but I can talk to DCO Jelly and talk about a
  • 00:39:21
    collaborative response on cultural districts in general.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:39:26
    Yep, I'll note that for the clerks and a follow-up memo.
  • 00:39:29
    And again, a figure amount of what do those programs and initiatives represent financially.
  • 00:39:36
    Great.
  • 00:39:37
    And then going to slide 37.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:39:38
    Councilmember Wonsley, if I can just interrupt, I want to make sure our clerks got that.
  • 00:39:42
    An administrative follow-up that outlines all of the ways in which the city across the enterprise funds cultural district
  • 00:39:53
    Council,
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:40:12
    I recall CPED giving an updated presentation on this initiative that council brought forward last budget cycle and the presentation noted that it was pretty successful in supporting or meeting the goal of this program and from my understanding not only was the fund almost fully spent, CPED also shared that since costs have risen
  • 00:40:35
    the impacts of these loans have also lessened and essentially more resources would be needed.
  • 00:40:42
    So it actually signaled to me that this could have been an opportunity to bring more resources into it.
  • 00:40:47
    But as you just highlighted in your presentation in the performance book that you all believe that Minneapolis Homes is the place where it
  • 00:40:56
    It could absorb the same type of needs for seniors who use this service.
  • 00:41:01
    So just for timing, in a follow-up memo, we'd like to have data on the number of seniors providing or provided abatement or housing stabilization services via Minneapolis Homes, specifically for 2024, 2023, and 2022, when there was no dedicated funding.
  • 00:41:22
    I can also email this question over to our clerks.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:41:26
    Council Member Chuck Tai and Council Member Wonsley That's one of those programs where we have unfortunately some trade-offs and when we were meeting our budget targets we had to look at where we could be efficient and when there was another resource well while we know we'll have fewer dollars for rehab there were other resources available and that's the reason why you see that recommendation and yes we can get you the information on seniors served through both those programs
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:41:55
    I think we already have it first, senior abatement, just Minneapolis homes.
  • 00:42:00
    And then going to slide 38 again with the emergency housing shelter, I wanted to get clarity on how CPED was envisioning how to spin this recommended appropriation.
  • 00:42:13
    For example, will this pot of money be divvied out to
  • 00:42:17
    shelters that you're currently in partnership with the county on, or will there be an RFP process for organizations to come in and bid for that one million, so just one more clarity around that.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:42:28
    Madam Chair, Councilmember Wonsley, on your question about the JPA, the Joint Powers Agreement we have with Hennepin County, that's where we would allocate the money to, and I'm going to make a turn to my Housing Director about a potential question, the answer about the RFP.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:42:47
    Good morning, everyone.
  • 00:42:48
    Alfred Port, Housing Director of CPED, through the Chair, Councilmember Wansley.
  • 00:42:55
    The dollars will be contracted through a joint powers agreement with Hennepin County.
  • 00:43:05
    In collaboration with Hennepin County, it's my understanding that with a $1 million award, they're envisioning that these resources will support the extension of
  • 00:43:17
    winter warming shelter beds through 2026 and we're anticipating about 150 beds will be available during that time period.
  • 00:43:26
    How they are going to identify the selection of those shelters, it would follow their process and we'll engage with them in that vein.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:43:37
    Okay, so again this is going directly to the county through that joint powers agreement, not an RFP process on our side.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:43:44
    That is correct and I would add that like
  • 00:43:47
    the previous conversation around program design we will come back to the biz committee with the program guidelines and the authorization to seek the contracting with the county on the JPA.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:44:04
    Great.
  • 00:44:05
    And then going to stable homes, stable schools.
  • 00:44:10
    You already know that about half of my colleagues have received briefings on this.
  • 00:44:14
    I'm one of the colleagues who did.
  • 00:44:15
    So I do have a couple of follow-up questions just for the public record.
  • 00:44:22
    I believe we've already, or my office, shared this with you, but of course we've received a number of questions from the public regarding the description of this change item on the budget book, specifically asking how my, or sorry, asking my office how stable home, stable schools serve the same populations as individuals who would be eligible for the emergency housing vouchers program.
  • 00:44:47
    So I just want clarification, Stable Homes, Stable Schools is only available for families who are in Minneapolis Public Schools, that's correct?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:44:56
    Madam Chair, Council Member Wonsley, Stable Homes, Stable Schools is available to about 95% of families that have elementary students in the Minneapolis Public School system.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:45:11
    So families who have children in the Minneapolis public school system.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:45:15
    At the elementary level.
  • 00:45:18
    At the elementary level.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:45:19
    So in that case and also the spirit of the governance and transparency again we've asked if you could reflect this impact or around the changing of cutting EHV to route that dollar amount to stable home, stable schools to show that the impact would be 150 unsheltered individuals.
  • 00:45:37
    It's not the same population that is served by
  • 00:45:41
    Stable Home Stable Schools.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:45:44
    Madam Chair, Council Member Wonsley, it's safe to assume that the majority of the people that would be on the emergency housing vouchers would not be eligible for Stable Home Stable Schools because Hennepin County has a, anybody with kids that are homeless get housed immediately.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:46:04
    I'll take a look
  • 00:46:20
    Director Hanson, also you shared with the council over an email update that there is around a $3.2 million dollar fiscal cliff for stable homes, stable schools.
  • 00:46:34
    And when the Frye administration expanded this program back in 2023, I believe you all were aware that there was going to be a need for ongoing dollars to sustain this program.
  • 00:46:44
    I'm curious to know what were your plans for loan term stability of this program since my amendment was just passed and I'm talking about emergency housing vouchers.
  • 00:46:54
    That just got approved in December so I imagine prior to that even being on the table let's say in a world where we did not bring that forward you had considered other options to fill that gap and would like to know what those other proposals you all were looking at.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:47:10
    Chair Chuck Tai, Councilmember Wonsley.
  • 00:47:13
    Yes, this is this is another as I said in my remarks This is one of the other challenging parts because we know that there's need exceeds the resources that we have At this at the budget markup last year.
  • 00:47:26
    We had a we had a conversation back and forth about Stable home stable schools where I was I think unsatisfactorily in answering your questions about the pending fiscal cliff
  • 00:47:39
    We did not know about the timing of that exactly when we did the last year's budget.
  • 00:47:45
    We have since learned it's quarter two of 26 through our analysis this summer.
  • 00:47:52
    The partners have been working on fundraising but has taken a little bit of time to ramp up and we are working on a full budgeting because the component you see from the city staff is about long range affordable housing vouchers.
  • 00:48:11
    and not the short-run program and we have been asked by a few council members what the full budgeting is so even in the email that I sent to you in September that talks about that where you get the 3.2 million dollars that's on the on the city's the city funded side we have gotten some information late this week we are aggregating that into some things that is
  • 00:48:32
    Understandable for for most people and we will be getting that out To find out who is also funded because we have to have that question who is in on stable home stable schools within the partnership Because the city of Minneapolis is one of the biggest funders Of the program and so at some point in time we need we'll see if there's opportunities for others to step up
  • 00:48:53
    and so that analysis was ongoing and then it kind of hit us.
  • 00:48:58
    So it's not an advantageous position to be in and we're just trying to be as transparent as we can.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:49:05
    And just going back to the timing, can you share a bit more around when did you all learn of the approximate budget shortfall?
  • 00:49:15
    It sounds like you didn't have that information by December of last year, so when did that come about?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 00:49:23
    Council Member Chuck Tai, Council Member Wonsley have been pulled for my housing director.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:49:31
    Through the Chair, Council Member Wonsley, the Stable Home Stable Schools Program had an expansion, I believe in 2023.
  • 00:49:43
    And 2024 was the first full year of the implementation of that expansion.
  • 00:49:52
    In January of this year, we received the last invoicing from Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
  • 00:50:03
    That invoice positioned us to understand what the total cost of this expansion would be.
  • 00:50:11
    So we knew that there would have been a fiscal cliff
  • 00:50:15
    We did not know at what point that fiscal cliff was going to hit.
  • 00:50:19
    So when we presented in the budget last year, we weren't in a position to say that a fiscal cliff would have hit in mid-year 2026.
  • 00:50:31
    We still had some reserves in the stable homes, stable schools budget.
  • 00:50:39
    and we were comfortable that it would support our program operations in 2025 therefore allowing us to have these conversations for the 2026 budget so we knew that there was going to be a fiscal cliff with the expansion we did not know what that number was after we were able to evaluate those numbers
  • 00:51:01
    based on the results from the invoices that we received from Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, we're now positioned to understand that the fiscal cliff is going to hit around mid-year of 2026.
  • 00:51:14
    And I should add that there are ongoing conversations with the collaborates or with the other members about trying to identify a strategy to ensure that this program is sustainable.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:51:28
    And again, just with time lining of things with the reserves question where you share, you felt pretty confident that that could cover 2025.
  • 00:51:37
    I'm trying to recall in the email that you sent, you all had to pause referrals this summer, correct?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:51:44
    Yes, we're pausing referrals this summer because where we took add new families,
  • 00:51:52
    the resources in 2026, if they weren't able to cover that, then we'll be putting those new families in a position where we may not be able to follow up with our commitment.
  • 00:52:04
    So that was the decision that was made to cause the pause.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:52:08
    So the reserves that were, I don't know how much you were intending for 2025, it did not take into account a need to pause mid-year then?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:52:18
    The reserves were sufficient enough to carry us through 2025.
  • 00:52:23
    Even as we stand today, there's about $300,000 that's going to be available that could go towards supporting the 2026 efforts.
  • 00:52:38
    But even with that, there is still
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:52:41
    So the reserves, had you not paused the referrals of bringing on new families, would the reserves cover all of 2025?
  • 00:52:56
    Yes.
  • 00:52:58
    Okay, so what was the point of pausing once again?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:53:06
    Because we have sufficient resources,
  • 00:53:10
    to go through 2025, were we to add one new family or five new families, the commitment is for four years.
  • 00:53:21
    So if those additional families were added, come 2026, we would not have sufficient resources or 2027 to continue to support those families and would put us in a position where that commitment wouldn't be able to live up to that commitment.
  • 00:53:40
    The decision was made by all of the members of the collaboration to pause.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:53:46
    And so the reserves is to support basically the existing families and right now the proposal for EHV is to just support existing families, not bring on new.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:53:57
    The proposal that we presented to the members that
  • 00:54:05
    accepted our invitation to provide a briefing showed that we have, there were three scenarios.
  • 00:54:14
    One of the scenarios talked about continued the program operations as is.
  • 00:54:20
    The second talked about pausing, not taking any new referrals.
  • 00:54:26
    And then the third was taking new referrals as families drop off, we'll bring on
  • 00:54:33
    I think the option that you're referencing is the third option where we're saying, as families drop off, we'll then add new families to the program.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:54:47
    So, okay, I want to shift, coming back to this, I did want to get an update on
  • 00:54:59
    Council moved the $1.8 million to be disbursed for emergency housing vouchers for 2025.
  • 00:55:05
    Is there still a plan to disburse those funds to NPHA as council approved or bring forward a different proposal for council to consider?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:55:18
    So the proposal that's before, that we're bringing forth is to reallocate the 1.4, I mean the 1.8 million dollars from 2025 to support the Stable Homes, Stable Schools core program.
  • 00:55:36
    In the mayor's recommendation, the mayor's recommendation for 2026,
  • 00:55:42
    takes the $1.4 million of the emergency housing vouchers to support stable homes, stable schools.
  • 00:55:49
    There is still a gap in stable homes, stable schools moving forward.
  • 00:55:55
    So our intention is to use the $1.8
  • 00:55:59
    As well as the stable home stable schools pilot to fill that gap the rationale for going down the path of using recommending the use of the 1.8 is if the 1.4 is not available in 2026 and we use the 1.8 and brought in families and
  • 00:56:20
    Come 2026 or the following year when the 1.8 resources have been depleted, there wouldn't be any resources to support those families ongoing.
  • 00:56:31
    So we believe that if we were to put families in a position where they are now housed, a year from now we'll be able to continue to meet the obligations as the program was intended.
  • 00:56:45
    So we have this part of the recommendation is to redirect
  • 00:56:50
    on the $1.8 million to support the core Minneapolis, I mean, Stable Homes, Stable Schools program.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:56:57
    So just to summarize that, the council's appropriation for 2025 will not be enacted by CPED.
  • 00:57:04
    Instead, you all are talking about using the appropriation that was passed by this body to redirect it in 2026 and basically not implement emergency housing vouchers for this year.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:57:16
    That is the recommendation.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:57:20
    Great.
  • 00:57:21
    I'll shift to comments.
  • 00:57:25
    I really just want to end this by addressing my colleagues.
  • 00:57:29
    One, I want to be fully clear that I plan to bring an amendment to restore their emergency housing vouchers because our city's current approach to unsheltered homelessness
  • 00:57:40
    is absolutely failing and it's not working.
  • 00:57:44
    There is no need to reinvent the wheel here and there's a housing first approach that is before us through the emergency housing voucher program that has demonstrated tremendous success.
  • 00:57:56
    And we also are seeing the city's approach towards just doing encampments weeks after another just moves people from one place to another spot and exasperates trauma for our already vulnerable community.
  • 00:58:10
    We worked very closely with NPHA and our county partners who are already severely overburdened and under-resourced themselves, especially in light of the federal funding cuts that we know all of us are feeling.
  • 00:58:24
    And I'm pretty sure as the leaders of tackling a lot of our homelessness issues, they're going to rely on these partnerships with us.
  • 00:58:32
    But it is deeply troubling, as we just heard, that when we do force these partnerships, then we have
  • 00:58:38
    the administration being the Frye administration that then will go and undermine our work and that is specifically playing out in this case where two programs that are meant to reduce homelessness, one amongst MPS families and students and those experiencing unsheltered homelessness, they're essentially being pitted against each other and that's not
  • 00:59:01
    is acceptable.
  • 00:59:02
    Emergency Housing Vouchers again is an incredibly important program that can support our work of addressing homelessness, reducing it, and meeting this body's resolution around declaring unsheltered homelessness as a public health emergency.
  • 00:59:19
    They are counting our partners, our public housing authority partners, they are
  • 00:59:27
    actually using this as a model to go across the country that are being praised as an effective model towards reducing homelessness.
  • 00:59:38
    And many cities are looking to mimic this and we have the ability to implement it right here in our own backyard and it's just troubling that we can't even do that.
  • 00:59:46
    under this particular administration.
  • 00:59:49
    So I again just want to emphasize like I have no desire to be acting like we're in a scarcity mindset when it comes to homelessness.
  • 00:59:58
    We have the ability to be forward thinking to appropriate the resources that could reduce homelessness in our city by 20% by the county owned accounts through implementing emergency housing vouchers and that's exactly why I look forward to working with my colleagues to restore that funding.
  • 01:00:15
    And
  • 01:00:16
    While also maintaining and complementing, yes, we want to make sure that MPS students are not facing housing insecurity.
  • 01:00:24
    It's just really deeply disappointing that this is the option after two years and three years of knowing that stable home, stable schools was not going to be in a financially sound position that this is the only solution that was brought forward.
  • 01:00:41
    and I really want to say thank you to my colleagues who have approached this issue with a level of seriousness that we have not seen from the administration and I look forward to working with you all who are interested in using this budget cycle to build on our commitment towards doing this meaningfully.
  • 01:00:58
    But yeah, again, deeply disappointed.
  • 01:01:01
    Thank you for presenting the information to the public and as opposed to just keeping it in private meetings through the briefings, but I will defer to the rest of my colleagues who are in queue.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:01:12
    Thank you.
  • 01:01:12
    Next I'm going to recognize Councilmember Chowdhury followed by Councilmember Palmisano.
  • 01:01:17
    Director, there's about four more people left in queue.
  • 01:01:20
    Go ahead.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:01:22
    Thank you Council Vice President Chug Thai.
  • 01:01:25
    Thank you Director Hanson for your presentation.
  • 01:01:27
    Sorry, I'm struggling with my mic here.
  • 01:01:29
    It's like a mile away from me.
  • 01:01:32
    Yeah, really appreciate just presenting on like the work of CPED.
  • 01:01:37
    It's a very, very highly active department that gets a lot of stuff done and it's been a privilege to serve on the Business Housing and Zoning Committee to kind of see the work in person and have appreciated all the leaders that you have on your team that have shepherded us through this last year.
  • 01:01:55
    We'll just kind of jump into some of my questions right away.
  • 01:02:00
    So I had some questions about the shelter funding that LAHA is being used for.
  • 01:02:10
    I just kind of wanted to get an understanding on how did we land at one million of that funding going there?
  • 01:02:16
    Why is one million the number?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:02:22
    Chair Chaudhuri, or Chug Thai and Council Member Chaudhuri.
  • 01:02:26
    My names are too close together.
  • 01:02:29
    I'm going to defer to the Housing Director here.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:02:35
    Good morning.
  • 01:02:37
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Chaudry, the one million dollar number was arrived at through conversations with our colleagues at Hennepin County.
  • 01:02:54
    There is, the county released a request for proposals early on and
  • 01:03:02
    the resources that they had was not sufficient to cover the needs that were met, I mean the needs.
  • 01:03:11
    So as a result of that, they believe that where they're to be provided a million dollars,
  • 01:03:20
    those resources could be used to support the efforts through creating new beds or extending the availability of beds through 2026.
  • 01:03:32
    So that's the rationale for that was the basis for the million dollars.
  • 01:03:36
    But as we all talked here today, the homelessness issue is front and center to the work that we do.
  • 01:03:46
    $1 million, $10 million, $50 million, the resources are needed from the city, the state, the county, and the feds and philanthropy.
  • 01:03:58
    But that's how the million dollars was derived.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:04:02
    Thank you.
  • 01:04:03
    And Director Port, these next few questions may also be for you because it is housing related.
  • 01:04:09
    For the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, that seven million and some, that's all coming from LAHA, or is that the total amount for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund this year?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:04:23
    The total amount?
  • 01:04:24
    Through the Chair, Council Member Chaudry, the total amount of the affordable housing trust fund recommendation is 17
  • 01:04:39
    $17 million.
  • 01:04:41
    The $7 million that's being referenced is a combination of the sales tax, which is about $3.8 million, and $3.5 million of TIF resources.
  • 01:04:59
    Last year we had $4.5 million in TIF that supported that effort.
  • 01:05:06
    This year we have $3.5 million more.
  • 01:05:09
    So the combination of the TIF resources and the sales tax revenue is what comprises the seven plus million dollars.
  • 01:05:20
    Okay.
  • 01:05:20
    But the total budget for the trust fund is going to be $17 million for 2026, or what we're recommending.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:05:29
    Got it.
  • 01:05:30
    And then, how much of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund this last year, financial year, did we spend as a city?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:05:40
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Chaudry, the 2025 awards have not yet been brought forward.
  • 01:05:51
    Staff is finalizing the reports with a recommendation to Biz sometime in November.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:06:00
    Okay, do you remember how much it was for the year of 2024?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:06:03
    2024 was 17.5 million dollars and I believe we have allocated all if not most of them and the plan is
  • 01:06:24
    During the course of the year, projects that may need some additional dollars could come through a pipeline process outside of the RFP process and those resources would be used to support that effort.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:06:41
    Okay, great.
  • 01:06:42
    I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow up with some more questions to you over email just directly about affordable housing trust fund, just going back to the LAHA for shelter, that $1 million is that going to be used for shelter operation funding through the county?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:07:03
    The resources are being used to help with making additional beds available, especially during the winter season.
  • 01:07:20
    So those cold weather days where those shelters will extend their hours, the purpose of that would be to make those beds available for families.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:07:33
    I kind of understand how the process goes from the city putting in 1 million dollars and what the county process will look like.
  • 01:07:41
    I heard you mentioned an RFP.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:07:44
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Chaudhary, as is customary with all joint powers agreements with the county,
  • 01:07:52
    We enter into that relationship talking about outcomes and we transfer those resources to the county and the county implements their process for this election.
  • 01:08:07
    I'm almost certain that
  • 01:08:10
    for resources such as these, they go through a rigorous request for proposals process.
  • 01:08:18
    So I'm going to defer to them on the approach that will be employed.
  • 01:08:23
    At this point, we have not gotten the details on the formulation of that.
  • 01:08:28
    the approach that will be employed is once this million dollars is approved or if this million dollars is approved we'll continue to engage with them and talk about the process and when we bring forth the recommendation those details will be included in there.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:08:45
    Okay, thank you.
  • 01:08:47
    I appreciate it.
  • 01:08:47
    I'm gonna just kindly maybe request that us as a city work with the county to maybe get a better understanding of how they're planning on using the 1 million dollars because it is a significant amount of our LAHA contribution and I feel a little bit uncomfortable kind of not understanding what their plan process is and how it plays into the larger
  • 01:09:11
    I also want to kind of understand like how they landed on 1 million on their end and what they're putting together so if there's a way to get a memo from them so they can kind of articulate
  • 01:09:39
    more to the city what the process looks like after we hand them a million of our laha.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:09:46
    Sure, thanks.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:09:47
    Great, thank you so much.
  • 01:09:50
    My last question I believe is going to be for Director Hanson.
  • 01:09:55
    I also kind of wanted to swing back around and talk about the budget allocation that was made last year by me and Council Vice President Chug Tai on the hardship, forgivable loan funding for businesses on construction.
  • 01:10:13
    So I hear from you that it has not been written yet.
  • 01:10:17
    Could you kind of walk us through on the why and like
  • 01:10:20
    what processes CPED has been going through because I would love to see this funding go out for me personally I know a part of it was allocated towards Lake Street and I know Hennepin of course but on Lake Street in specific I represent a part of Lake Street the furthest eastern portion of it that over
  • 01:10:40
    the last five years has never gotten PPP funding, has never gotten, did not get the Lake Street lift funding.
  • 01:10:48
    There's maybe like one type of support funding that some of the businesses got and their number one thing is
  • 01:10:57
    debt and loss of revenue from the beeline construction and a few businesses specifically for that amount of debt that they were never able to close have had to shut their doors which is hard to see especially like a beloved like coffee shop like Milkweed Coffee like that was a part of their reasoning.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:11:21
    Chair Chugtai, Council Member Chaudhry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:11:23
    There you go.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:11:25
    Got it.
  • 01:11:25
    Nailed it.
  • 01:11:28
    Yeah, so the way we look at these programs is, especially things that are added during the markup process, is we kind of put them into a queue.
  • 01:11:36
    The $900,000 program is a very extensive program because we're talking about loans, forgivable loans or payable loans, we haven't figured that out yet, of two businesses for losses
  • 01:11:51
    due to something else.
  • 01:11:52
    So we saw this in the central corridor, the green line construction.
  • 01:11:56
    There was a set aside from philanthropy for businesses and it required, and we also did this early in the pandemic where we set aside our two percent loan program for direct grants to businesses at five and a ten thousand dollar rate.
  • 01:12:15
    A program like that requires a lot of underwriting to make sure that we're meeting the public purpose test because we're constricted on what money we can put into private non-business and we want to make sure that we have the proper oversight because this is something where you'd have to like to sit down with the business and figure out was the loss in the business
  • 01:12:42
    Attributed to the construction and it's more complicated because we're looking at Lake Street Hennepin Avenue and Lowry Not all of those projects were Minneapolis funded construction projects.
  • 01:12:55
    As you said, it's the beeline Metro Transit Construction on Hennepin or on Lake Street ours is on Hennepin and then it's a county project up on Lowry.
  • 01:13:03
    So
  • 01:13:03
    and so it takes a little while and so we're working through the list of things to do from the 2025 budget.
  • 01:13:11
    We just haven't resourced the writing of that.
  • 01:13:16
    We've done some preliminary analysis but we just haven't resourced writing that program yet and I know it takes a while.
  • 01:13:23
    I'd like to tell the council new programs take about six to nine months and I appreciate we're in the 10th month of the year.
  • 01:13:29
    This one's taken a little bit longer because of the volume of things that we have.
  • 01:13:34
    and then I want to make a shameless plug that those businesses on Lake Street are eligible for the 2% loan program and the ownership and opportunity fund.
  • 01:13:42
    If PPP and all those other programs that were from other organizations, they can get resources from us.
  • 01:13:48
    In fact, I do believe we have an ownership and opportunity fund award on that east part of Lake Street, but that's also available.
  • 01:13:53
    If people are watching and wondering if there are resources available today, those two programs are open.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:14:00
    Okay yeah I think especially if there is any budget amendments this year one thing that would be helpful for me is just some proactive communication about what's going on as an author I'm kind of just like wondering I know we've had a couple of check-ins here and there but knowing what's going on before we get to budget is really helpful.
  • 01:14:26
    I would love to get a better understanding of what the future timeline is going to be to get a program like this lifted.
  • 01:14:34
    I appreciate Councilmember Wonsley sharing that it would be nice to have a discussion about it before the end of the year.
  • 01:14:45
    And I know that there is that list from 2025.
  • 01:14:53
    My personal preference is I think since we are already at the point of looking into our next budget year and making decisions about our priorities for next year and then also closing out this calendar year as a council that we do end up talking about it in biz over email, maybe even both.
  • 01:15:17
    I think a little bit more communication on that would be really helpful.
  • 01:15:20
    and I won't have you answer this on the dais today, but I am curious about understanding which programs including pilots have been implemented or like what
  • 01:15:35
    Council,
  • 01:15:51
    as council members we don't get into the weeds of the work of CPED.
  • 01:15:55
    You guys are always in it and always doing it and I see that very clearly and so it is helpful for us to kind of know like this is kind of the culture and tenor of the department and it shifts especially when there are different compounding things that are going on it's like federal funding being at risk so that'd be really helpful.
  • 01:16:14
    That's all my questions for now thank you so much Director.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:16:17
    Thank you.
  • 01:16:17
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano followed by Council President Payne.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:16:23
    Thank you for this presentation.
  • 01:16:24
    Before I begin, I want to say thank you to your department for helping me navigate a really difficult situation earlier this year when a water main pipe broke at 50th and Penn and flooded a small commercial node.
  • 01:16:39
    development services, the small business team, yes, partnering with public works, but others offered on the ground presence, comfort, advice, you were showing up to help me and the property owner, the business owners, the apartment owners, the apartment residents, everybody jumped in.
  • 01:16:59
    into a serious emergency, frankly, and helped me navigate a complex process.
  • 01:17:06
    So I just want to thank your team for their dedicated work.
  • 01:17:11
    In terms of your presentation, I can see you had some tough decisions regarding your recommendations for reductions in your budget.
  • 01:17:19
    and per the spotlights on residents and business owners, congratulations.
  • 01:17:25
    You deal with some highly technical and complicated funding arrangements and you leverage them all for the best outcome and like Council Member Choudry said, I think some of the funding streams might be shifting or in jeopardy and yet you change the lives and generational opportunities for our residents and that's what we want you to do.
  • 01:17:47
    A lot of your work is actually done behind the scenes and we don't see that until something comes before us at council.
  • 01:17:54
    But your outward facing employees and development services work directly with our residents.
  • 01:18:03
    Those jobs aren't easy but they really ensure the safety and livability of our housing stock.
  • 01:18:08
    I'd actually like to commend you for making tough choices on the reduction and elimination of some programs.
  • 01:18:16
    It's not easy, but it's exactly what we asked staff to do.
  • 01:18:20
    Identify programs that were underutilized, underperforming, duplicative, or could be serviced by other kinds of programming.
  • 01:18:29
    Of course we'd like to keep everything
  • 01:18:32
    but reductions like this are going to allow us to lessen the property tax burden and still provide the needed services for our residents.
  • 01:18:40
    So I was pleased to see that.
  • 01:18:43
    From my perspective, it's a little scary to move the Ownership Opportunity Fund to all one-time funding but it's already funded for 2026 and I have faith in us as a body
  • 01:18:58
    overseeing the budget that will meet your needs.
  • 01:19:03
    Can you give us a sense of where are you at with funding right now?
  • 01:19:07
    Do you have a surplus or a deficit?
  • 01:19:10
    Do you feel like you have the resources to meet expected demand in the Ownership Opportunity Fund?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:19:20
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Palmisano, you're welcome for responding.
  • 01:19:25
    That's the picture of the business that is impacted.
  • 01:19:28
    I also want to thank the Public Works Department and Police Department.
  • 01:19:32
    It was a collaborative effort to make sure we addressed the risks in the emergency.
  • 01:19:38
    And on your question about ownership and opportunity fund, yeah it was a tough choice.
  • 01:19:43
    It was a tough choice.
  • 01:19:44
    That is an ongoing revenue source for that program.
  • 01:19:48
    We're very detailed about how we make decisions, so we're making good choices about using this public fund for a program that most cities don't use.
  • 01:20:01
    They don't have an equity building, a forgivable loan program with no payments, and so we realize how important it is to make really sound choices.
  • 01:20:15
    I have to give I'll have to give you the the balance of I thought I have them in my notes But I have to get you the balance of that fund, but we think with the two million dollar allocation That's already in the approved 26 budget We will be able to get down the road and still be able to service the people that come through the pipeline as effectively as we have done since we started this program in 2020 and then it'll be a conversation, you know through the mayor's budget process probably for the next biennium and
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:20:43
    Okay, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:20:44
    If you don't mind council member can I just quick interrupt to make sure our clerks grab that as follow-up to get the body the balance of the opportunity.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:20:55
    We'll give you a full breakdown.
  • 01:20:57
    I got a chart.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:21:00
    A question about the FTE reduction in the development review team.
  • 01:21:05
    Can you tell us how you expect that's going to impact service to residents?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:21:11
    Councilmember Palmesano, can you repeat your question?
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:21:13
    Yeah, I think there's a reduction small one in the development review team in terms of FTE counts and so I'm just curious how you think that's going to impact
  • 01:21:23
    residents that are seeking development review because sometimes I think we all probably get people trying to stoke the process further along and they're finding barriers.
  • 01:21:36
    Some of them are their own.
  • 01:21:37
    We're waiting for something from the applicant, but I don't see your development review team sitting around waiting for the next project.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:21:47
    I do appreciate also the kind words about the Development Services Division.
  • 01:21:53
    I will say they are the consummate professionals.
  • 01:21:57
    either through our MDR team, which is the face, the public customer face coming into the door.
  • 01:22:04
    Our plan review team that is making sure all of those things are, all the plans are drawn so that building when you build it doesn't fall over.
  • 01:22:12
    And then our construction code services that make sure that you built what you built.
  • 01:22:15
    And every time I'm in front of them or around them, I'm amazed by,
  • 01:22:20
    Not only the understanding they have of their trade and their craft but about the city in general I always learn something more about the city because they're out there all the time with respect to this loss We have to be more efficient about using, you know, getting those things through that's I mentioned that we are doing process and evaluation of our processes across the department and
  • 01:22:42
    And every time as we look at that, we're in a little bit of a lull in production.
  • 01:22:48
    So I talked about the tens of thousands of business permits.
  • 01:22:51
    I think it's like 27,000 so far this year.
  • 01:22:54
    Last year we had 44.
  • 01:22:56
    So we're a little bit low because we're in a downward market trend.
  • 01:22:59
    We're still getting the value in those permits, but we're not getting the volume of permits.
  • 01:23:04
    but we as a department and our directors team is looking at every single FTE vacancy and is it worth putting into that position that was vacant or is it a place in some way so it's going to be evolving while we've identified that if we're seeing some things push on that team and slowing down our
  • 01:23:24
    level of service.
  • 01:23:26
    That's the thing I'm trying to do.
  • 01:23:27
    I talked about this last year is we need to get better understanding of our levels of service with reductions in staff.
  • 01:23:33
    That process is underway.
  • 01:23:35
    We should hopefully have that in the coming year.
  • 01:23:38
    And that's, you know, if we see pushes, then can we pull resources from other teams and find out where we find our efficiency.
  • 01:23:45
    So it is more art than science right now about how much of an impact.
  • 01:23:51
    But the good thing about it is we have
  • 01:23:53
    great director in that department that whenever you call me I call him and he calls you and he gets it all done.
  • 01:23:59
    So we got that for now, but we can't survive on having that extra effort by Steve all the time.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:24:08
    I'll end by just recognizing that you're actually receiving some additional funding this year which is an outlier compared to other departments and those additions mostly focus on deeply affordable housing, stabilizing housing, responding to homelessness, and economic opportunity development.
  • 01:24:29
    I think those are all laudable goals and that they are needed in our city.
  • 01:24:35
    We can't fund these initiatives on our own.
  • 01:24:37
    but we can help.
  • 01:24:39
    Although we really need to be working with Hennepin County on housing issues and mapping out how we don't, how not to duplicate funding for long term success.
  • 01:24:50
    So I appreciate your job.
  • 01:24:52
    It's not easy and thank you for this presentation.
  • 01:24:56
    Thank you.
  • 01:24:57
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:24:57
    Next I'll recognize Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:25:00
    Thank you Vice President, and thank you for the presentation.
  • 01:25:03
    I wanted to maybe get some clarifying questions building off of some of Councilmember Chaudry's questions about the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
  • 01:25:12
    You mentioned 3.5 million of that new money is coming from LAHA for the 7.3, the remainder of that being TIF.
  • 01:25:20
    Could you just clarify what was the total
  • 01:25:23
    Through the Chair,
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:25:51
    President Payne, when the LAHA was approved, there was $3.2 million, $3.3 million that we received in 2024
  • 01:26:13
    but the intent was, the decision that was made at the time was we would use those resources as part of the budget process for 2024.
  • 01:26:26
    So that $3.3 million coupled with what we are anticipating in 2025 of $8.6 million gets us to about $11.8 million.
  • 01:26:44
    What we are doing is using about $6 million of that
  • 01:26:50
    in this budget recommendation, and it's made up of $3.5 million to the trust fund, $1.3 million to Minneapolis Homes, I'm sorry, the 2026, I'm looking at the 2025.
  • 01:27:07
    In 2026, it's $3.85 million to the trust fund, a little over a million dollars to Minneapolis Homes, and $1 million to the shelter.
  • 01:27:20
    for a total of $598 million.
  • 01:27:26
    The goal then would be what we receive this year would go to support the next year's budget.
  • 01:27:35
    So that's the frame that we're projecting.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:27:40
    So the total distribution we're anticipating in 2025 is 8.6.
  • 01:27:47
    That is correct.
  • 01:27:49
    And what's the distribution timeline of that?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:27:54
    So we are
  • 01:28:00
    If I'm, through the Chair, Council President Payne, are you asking what's the time frame that we have to spend the dollars or what's the- No, when does the wire transfer go through?
  • 01:28:16
    look at our colleagues at the budget office.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:28:21
    We can follow up with you.
  • 01:28:22
    And then subsequently, I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, when we're getting a distribution in 2025, we are actually using that to plan for 2026, so is there like a time lag or am I not understanding that correctly?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:28:37
    Through the Chair, Council President Payne, the distribution comes in two phases.
  • 01:28:43
    Around the first quarter and I think the second distribution comes in around the third quarter.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:28:57
    I'll ask you to first introduce yourself.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:29:00
    Hi there.
  • 01:29:00
    I'm Ben Zimmerman.
  • 01:29:01
    I'm a principal budget analyst Council President Payne.
  • 01:29:05
    There's a certification for the current year's receipt of law funds, which I believe is in July June or July and then there are two Distributions and again, I believe that's one in the summer time and then one that comes in through December To clarify if that's yeah, when was the certification?
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:29:23
    I
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:29:24
    I don't have an exact date, but I believe it was late July.
  • 01:29:30
    I can confirm that.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:29:31
    Thank you.
  • 01:29:33
    The specifics are less critical.
  • 01:29:34
    I'm just trying to understand broad timing as it relates to our budget cycle.
  • 01:29:42
    I think that's it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:29:45
    Okay, and let's just note that for administrative follow-up, just some clarity on LAHA.
  • 01:29:50
    Okay, Council Member Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 01:29:53
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 01:29:54
    I just went on Hennepin County's homeless shelter bed availability link online and I just want to read out loud the shelter capacity this week.
  • 01:30:05
    So on October 13th, there were only two shelter beds available.
  • 01:30:11
    available at 10 p.m. at night.
  • 01:30:14
    On Tuesday, October 14th, there was zero.
  • 01:30:16
    On Wednesday, there was zero, and we don't have data on yesterday's.
  • 01:30:21
    And the reason I am bringing that up is because we need to be taking the cuts to programs meant to address untreated homelessness very seriously.
  • 01:30:33
    The cutting of the emergency housing voucher program is something that we need to restore because it's something that we did at the last council budget process last year.
  • 01:30:44
    I'm very disappointed that the mayor decided to not prioritize efforts to reduce untreated homelessness by cutting this from the budget and have yet to fully implement this program to get to implement this program and I hope that we as a body
  • 01:31:01
    figure out a way to restore it, which is why I was thankful for Councilmember Wanzi's efforts last year to do this work, and then efforts today on the day of saying that she's going to help figure out how we as a body can restore these cuts.
  • 01:31:14
    And this work helps reduce shelter capacity because at the end of the day, helping house more people helps prevent homelessness, helps prevent people from being on the street, and
  • 01:31:26
    especially at a time when there is a lack of shelter capacity every night.
  • 01:31:30
    So I just wanted to make those comments.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:31:32
    Thank you.
  • 01:31:34
    It's been quite a while since you've been presenting and answering questions.
  • 01:31:40
    Thank you for your patience.
  • 01:31:42
    I am last in queue.
  • 01:31:43
    Just have a couple questions for you.
  • 01:31:45
    I think this first one can be an administrative follow-up if there isn't someone who is here that can speak to it.
  • 01:31:53
    But I just am wondering if someone can speak to People's Way Management.
  • 01:31:57
    There's an addition of $100,000 in this year's budget.
  • 01:32:01
    it was a change item last year as well for the same amount so I'm just wondering if someone can speak to like what are the functions that this that these resources are meant to be actually doing and then did we end up using all hundred thousand in 2025 that that is that how we got to that 2026 numbers?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:32:24
    Chair Chuck Chai, the money that we're using is for property maintenance.
  • 01:32:31
    It's so like moving stuff that's been dumped, making sure if there's a water, like there's a water service that breaks, snow plowing, just, you know, basically it is a fund that we use and if we don't use the whole hundred grand, it gets put back into the general fund.
  • 01:32:50
    So it's just a it is an account for us to just do that baseline We're keeping it as is as we've talked about that with the council.
  • 01:32:57
    I don't know how much money we've spent this year I would be surprised if we get to the hundred, but we won't have any money next year That's why we would and we're not going to be ready for it We're it's gonna be a few years before we're looking at trans transferring this to a community partner so we're gonna have to have that expense and that's why we're trying to be as transparent about it as possible and
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:33:17
    That is great.
  • 01:33:18
    So then we'll just note for administrative follow-up that it would be great to get some information about how much of that $100,000 allocation has been used so far this year.
  • 01:33:28
    Excellent.
  • 01:33:30
    And then my next question is about, it's a follow-up I believe to Councilmember Wonsley's first question.
  • 01:33:39
    I know that was ages ago.
  • 01:33:42
    So for the small business support programs that are where you are still in process of figuring out how to disperse them, what is going to happen
  • 01:34:02
    Have you guys thought about what happens with the savings so far in the year or at the end of the year?
  • 01:34:08
    Is that something that you're trying to roll over?
  • 01:34:11
    Or something like, are these resources that are going to fall to the bottom line?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:34:18
    Chair, Chuck Tye, you're referring just for everybody's, I think so we're on the same page, the $900,000 for people that were impacted by construction, that question?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:34:27
    I think it was the DTAP and Small Business Support Programs
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:34:33
    Okay, so DTAP in small business, if we have contracts in place, then they are a component of the rollover.
  • 01:34:47
    If there is funds that are not contracted, then that would roll to the bottom line.
  • 01:34:52
    We typically contract all of those funds.
  • 01:34:55
    We usually get more people that want those funds
  • 01:34:58
    than funds available.
  • 01:34:59
    There are some times where contractors don't spend as much money, but it's negligible in that account.
  • 01:35:09
    But they will be rolled over because we don't have a contracting period that's January 1 to December 31.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:35:15
    So and I think my last question for you then is I think early on in the discussion portion you mentioned you know there were a series of programs that were added to the CPED budget that you were hoping to be able to have some updates on in your presentation today that wasn't in the cards so I think as you work to
  • 01:35:41
    It would be helpful to understand what is happening with each of those programs, right?
  • 01:35:54
    Because as you were talking, I pulled up the change item presentation from August of this year, and every single one of your change items in your department was listed as either being on track or complete, right?
  • 01:36:07
    Like the ones that are complete, I know that's when
  • 01:36:10
    and the City Council.
  • 01:36:26
    everything's going to be happening on time to not and it'd be helpful to just understand from you what the plan is for the savings from each of those programs that will not be dispersed by the end of the year.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:36:44
    Chair Chugtai, yes, in August
  • 01:36:47
    We were optimistic.
  • 01:36:50
    Let's talk about that $900,000 program for businesses, for example.
  • 01:36:55
    We have done some preliminary discussions and then we were going to resource it with somebody to write it.
  • 01:37:01
    Those resources kind of got a little bit
  • 01:37:03
    They're focused on some other things we had some pretty important RFPs going out for some properties We put some resources towards that that's the same team that would under would review and underwrite that program So just got a little bit out of out of sorts, but at the time in August That's why you saw the green circle
  • 01:37:22
    And then but we absolutely Can give you information on the programs and what's been done and where it is?
  • 01:37:29
    we want to make sure you have the information you need and then if we get it set up the Idea would be as we do with a lot of for seabed programs as it would roll over it wouldn't fall to the bottom.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:37:40
    So Great.
  • 01:37:42
    Awesome.
  • 01:37:43
    Um, I come on with Travis.
  • 01:37:44
    Are you in queue again?
  • 01:37:45
    Yes
• • Jason Chavez
  • 01:37:45
    Yes.
  • 01:37:46
    Okay, awesome.
  • 01:37:46
    Thank you.
  • 01:37:47
    Thank you, Council Vice President and Chair Truchter.
  • 01:37:49
    Director Henson, you mentioned that the transfer of ownership over the PwS will take a couple years.
  • 01:37:54
    Can you at least clarify your comments?
  • 01:37:56
    My understanding is that, at least, you talked about the transfer of ownership is different from identifying a community owner.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:38:03
    Chair Chagchai, Councilmember Chavez, very good question because yes, it is different So what we are doing at the People's Way is we are doing a request for qualifications which is we are we're making a decision on a Partner and then that partner will go through a process on what to do with the site So the transfer of the real estate would not happen until that process is done So there's like a two-step the one is we own it while they're doing the development process with community and with the city and
  • 01:38:31
    And then we would transfer it.
  • 01:38:32
    So it's gonna take a little bit of time we're Hopeful to get to the council soon with with a selection of a Operator or a partner and then we go through that process and then we would sell it because we have to go through a public hearing And and a notice we need to have all of these redevelopment requirements met and so we need to know exactly what they're building That's going to take a couple years Thank you.
  • 01:38:54
    Yep
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:38:56
    I see Councilmember Wonsley in queue.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:38:59
    Yeah, just building upon just questions around that.
  • 01:39:02
    I know we were supposed to receive an update on whoever the qualifier would be, the community qualifier, for the people's way.
  • 01:39:10
    Back in the spring, it's now May.
  • 01:39:13
    Back in May, it's now October, and this seems rare.
  • 01:39:16
    I know we do RFPs quite frequently and never seen a delay like this before, so just trying to get a sense of the timeline when we will know.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:39:25
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Wonsley, yet this year, yes, we were hoping for May, this is a really important decision, we're taking as much time, we needed to get some more information, we've had some conversations with the responders, and we'll be bringing forward a recommendation soon, but it's taken us, we're trying to be very thoughtful about who we present, so it's taken a little longer than we thought.
  • 01:39:51
    And I appreciate it's October and not,
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:39:54
    It is very much in the game because it's May and then now it's October and because I know we spent a lot of time going through RFPs and contract administrations and all that stuff like putting guardrails in place and I know it takes time for a community partner to
  • 01:40:17
    go through and you all crafted a very elaborate process for this RFP and they fully participated a number of the bidders and to not for them even have an answer is it seems unprecedented.
  • 01:40:34
    So hopefully that's something we get to wrap up before the end of the year too.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:40:38
    and Chair Chuck Teich, Council Member Wonsley is a little different because when those RFPs we're evaluating a proposal so it's we know what they're going to build this one's a little bit more nuanced because it's qualifications of a development entity that we will partner with that's why it's taken a little bit longer so
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:40:53
    But just clarification, because you all had the public engagement piece where each participant or bidder came and did a public presentation around what they would propose for that site.
  • 01:41:05
    So it seemed like that did happen from those who did participate in the process of that.
  • 01:41:09
    This is what we would like to develop.
  • 01:41:11
    I think you all also during that process interrogated.
  • 01:41:14
    If you don't have that experience, who would you work with?
  • 01:41:16
    And so it sounds like due diligence was done, the partners also rose to the occasion, all with the goal and expectation that a decision would have been made in May.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 01:41:25
    Yeah, our Chair Chuck Tai, Council Member Wonsley, we also heard from that event community wanting to see a partnership with the organizations that were up on that stage that evening.
  • 01:41:37
    And so we've been doing some, we've had some conversations with
  • 01:41:42
    the proposals on potential partnerships.
  • 01:41:46
    And again, yes, that's correct.
  • 01:41:47
    They have a, if they have not done it, it's a non-profit that's leading it with a development team, and so all of those components of their team are being evaluated, but there was some additional feedback we got from that community event and from
  • 01:42:04
    from surveying and that we wanted to make sure that we were being thoughtful about what we heard from the community.
  • 01:42:09
    And so that was a little bit of a, that kind of put a little bit of extra time into the process because of what we heard from community in that February event.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:42:21
    Okay.
  • 01:42:22
    Any questions I have?
  • 01:42:23
    Thank you.
  • 01:42:24
    I'm not seeing anyone else seeking to be recognized so I'll ask the Clerk to file that presentation.
  • 01:42:29
    Thank you so much Director Hanson.
  • 01:42:32
    It was a pleasure.
  • 01:42:33
    We are now ready to welcome our next presentation from the Regulatory Services Department and for this I will invite Director Enrique Velazquez to join us and
  • 01:42:50
    begin the presentation.
  • 01:42:53
    We'll just allow a couple minutes for people to transition in and out of the space.
  • 01:43:15
    Good morning, Director.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:43:16
    Good morning.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:43:19
    We're ready for you to begin.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:43:20
    Wonderful.
  • 01:43:21
    Well good morning Chair Chuktay and committee members.
  • 01:43:24
    I'm Enrique Velazquez and it's my absolute honor to serve this great city as the Director of Regulatory Services.
  • 01:43:32
    Today I will be presenting on our collective progress this year toward our outcomes as well as the budget changes included in the mayor's recommended budget for 2026.
  • 01:43:44
    regulatory services is housed in the office of public service within the development health and livability vertical led by our deputy
  • 01:43:53
    City Operations Officer Brett Jelly.
  • 01:43:56
    Our department's work is closely connected to many of the mayor's 2025 priorities, namely affordable housing, homelessness response, climate action, public safety, and good governance.
  • 01:44:10
    To that end, we collaborate more closely with the Departments of Health, Community Planning and Economic Development, Public Works, and 311 Service Center, among many others.
  • 01:44:22
    Regulatory Services consists of four divisions, Inspection Services, led by Director April Bogard, Operations and Engagement, led by Director Josie Shardlow, Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, also known as MAC, led by Director Tony Schendel, and Code Compliance and Traffic Control, led by Director Ahmed Adawal.
  • 01:44:43
    This year we embarked on a vision of creating one regulatory services.
  • 01:44:49
    We engaged in several efforts to break down silos.
  • 01:44:51
    We're also realigning staff to better suit business needs.
  • 01:44:55
    One of these efforts involved moving two teams out of operations and engagement.
  • 01:45:00
    The two teams are the alternative enforcement team and the housing liaison team.
  • 01:45:05
    and over into inspection services.
  • 01:45:08
    You'll see the new reporting structure reflected in the organizational chart and that half of those FTEs have budgetarily moved over already.
  • 01:45:20
    Our mission is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of residents, visitors, and pets through enforcement, education, and community engagement.
  • 01:45:29
    We strive to provide compassionate enforcement wherever appropriate while pursuing accountability to keep Minneapolis a great place to live in, work in, do business in, and play in.
  • 01:45:42
    This year our efforts centered on four priorities strategic and innovative work, effective and high performing teams, operationalizing race, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and fourthly, developing a work culture that truly reflects our values.
  • 01:46:01
    We've come a long way in 2025.
  • 01:46:04
    So far, we worked on a total of 12 ordinances and legislative directives, including implementing last year's Rancher's Rights mandatory disclosure ordinance.
  • 01:46:13
    We bolstered property owner participation in energy efficiency programs through a new partnership with the Health Department and the Climate Legacy Initiative.
  • 01:46:23
    The homeless response team started conducting housing intake assessments to connect more people to services.
  • 01:46:30
    While we're continuing to refine the encampment closure report, we overcame significant logistical hurdles and launched this joint effort that captures data from both the county and several city departments.
  • 01:46:45
    We cared for an unprecedented number of shelter animals while maintaining a greater than 90% live release rate.
  • 01:46:53
    With all of our external focused work, we made sure to also prioritize supporting our staff.
  • 01:46:58
    We meaningfully invested in our workplace culture through resiliency training, increased connection points between staff and supervisors, and were intentional in our efforts to build internal communications within the department.
  • 01:47:14
    As we've reflected on 2025 as a department, something that stood out was the number of new strategic initiatives we launched despite it being a very full year.
  • 01:47:24
    For the first time ever, we're licensing and inspecting Minneapolis Public Housing Authority properties.
  • 01:47:30
    This historic step reiterates our belief that everyone deserves safe and healthy housing regardless of age, race, ability, socioeconomic status, or citizenship.
  • 01:47:42
    Traffic Control co-launched the Traffic Safety Camera Pilot in partnership with Public Works and is working toward launching the Civilian Crash Investigation Pilot.
  • 01:47:53
    As I mentioned earlier, we started reorganizing inspections.
  • 01:47:57
    This work will continue as the Division next implements a new structure that will help us better manage our large portfolio and deepen inspectors' understanding of their part of the City while reducing or eliminating single threads of failure.
  • 01:48:11
    These steps are crucial to maintain community of service,
  • 01:48:16
    Inspections will also be moving into a new building where staff will be co-located with CPED's construction code services team.
  • 01:48:24
    Co-locating will increase efficiency, collaboration, and connectedness in our shared work between these two work groups.
  • 01:48:32
    Operations and engagement updated over 40 web pages to meet accessibility best practices while making pages more intuitive for the end user.
  • 01:48:45
    We're also simplifying and clarifying our fire permitting processes.
  • 01:48:50
    When we focus on people and the communities we serve great things can happen.
  • 01:48:56
    Shifting from the achievements over to risks, some of our greatest achievements this year dovetail with the risks we're working to mitigate, namely staffing stretched beyond capacity.
  • 01:49:06
    I'm incredibly proud of the innovative efficiencies they've employed to manage through these challenges, but these pressures risk continuity of public services in the long term.
  • 01:49:17
    In the future, we'll not be able to rely on creative solutions to overcome capacity limits.
  • 01:49:22
    Across each of the divisions, we're charged with doing more as community demands for our services continue to grow.
  • 01:49:29
    For example, Minneapolis Animal Care and Control's shelter has long been at maximum capacity as more and more people are surrendering their pets.
  • 01:49:38
    Between 2021 and 2024, the number of pet surrenders nearly doubled.
  • 01:49:44
    And we've already had over 656 pet surrenders this year.
  • 01:49:48
    This is not just a local issue, this is a trend we're seeing at the national scale.
  • 01:49:53
    MAC has reached its physical limits and we've utilized every option we have to manage.
  • 01:49:58
    Looking ahead, MAC's grant-funded foster care coordinator position will expire at the end of this year.
  • 01:50:06
    We rely on nearly 500, 489 to be exact, foster families to temporarily home pets, getting them out of the kennels quicker and in turn reducing the stress and potential behavior challenges that might result so that these animals find their forever homes faster.
  • 01:50:27
    Traffic control and animal care and control implemented body worn cameras.
  • 01:50:32
    We took this critical step to better protect staff as they work in and enter potentially dangerous spaces.
  • 01:50:40
    We did so while understanding that this change to better protect the safety of our staff would also come with additional data requests to manage and administer.
  • 01:50:51
    We also folded the largest portfolio of over 800 Minneapolis Public Housing Authority properties into rental licensing and inspections while keeping our FTE count flat.
  • 01:51:02
    Inspections of these properties are already underway.
  • 01:51:06
    Demands for traffic control, inspection services, and operations and engagement service members continue as we support special events across Minneapolis.
  • 01:51:17
    We absorbed most of this work with our same staffing levels by employing creative solutions.
  • 01:51:23
    In some cases we had to make the difficult decision of repurposing other roles to minimize impacts to our most critical service areas.
  • 01:51:31
    As for learnings, an audit of the MAC facility revealed security risks that we needed to mitigate by adding an on-site security specialist.
  • 01:51:41
    MAC is the only city facility taking cash transactions that does not already maintain a security presence.
  • 01:51:49
    There have also been a number of security incidents at the MAC facility this year that place staff and the public at risk.
  • 01:51:58
    We were actively working on a number of initiatives to strengthen staff safety when the audit finding elevated the priority to add a security presence on site.
  • 01:52:07
    In the mayor's budget, there is a one-time $101,000 reduction from our department's budget to pay for a security specialist at MAC in the interim.
  • 01:52:18
    Allow me to close on this topic with one more learning.
  • 01:52:21
    We've watched as the landscape on unsheltered homelessness has evolved in the past year.
  • 01:52:26
    The number of encampments declined as the Minneapolis Police Department's response has shifted.
  • 01:52:32
    The homeless response team has adapted its approach to continue meeting people in all the spaces unfit for human habitation.
  • 01:52:40
    This means engaging with unsheltered residents on the banks of the Mississippi River, in wooded areas, in vehicles on city streets, and in private parking lots.
  • 01:52:50
    The HRT truly go wherever people are, bringing snacks and other engagement tools as a bridge towards trust building.
  • 01:53:00
    They do so because every single person has value and is deserving of a safe, livable space to call home.
  • 01:53:10
    For the Mayor's 2026 supplemental budget, regulatory services is allocated $31,804,274.
  • 01:53:15
    Most of the increase is dedicated to salaries and wages for existing staff.
  • 01:53:23
    We've made almost a 5% cut in operating costs, among other categories, which help offset some of the increase.
  • 01:53:34
    Here's our department budget broken out by a program, Operations and Engagement.
  • 01:53:40
    Their budget is decreasing largely because of us moving housing-related staff over to Inspection Services.
  • 01:53:46
    And just to clarify, there's not a budget request attached to this change.
  • 01:53:50
    We've simply changed where staff are reporting within the department.
  • 01:53:54
    Subsequently, you'll see an increase in Inspection Services.
  • 01:53:58
    The overall effect for these changes is budget neutral.
  • 01:54:02
    $99,000 that was allocated to the safe parking pilot will fall off this year.
  • 01:54:08
    These dollars were allocated to the pilot despite Minneapolis Code of Ordinances not granting us the authority to implement the pilot.
  • 01:54:16
    So we were unable to use these dollars even though we would appreciate the opportunity to leverage our existing expertise in this area and continue to move forward with it.
  • 01:54:30
    Budget FTE Summary.
  • 01:54:32
    The decrease also captures a reduction in funding for two FTEs, one of which is a vacant homeless response coordinator.
  • 01:54:39
    The other one is the communications manager that's transferring to the communications department as part of an enterprise-wide realignment.
  • 01:54:46
    One nuance here is that the staff member occupying that communications manager position has moved into a different role.
  • 01:54:54
    So really what we're transferring to communications is the funding for that communications manager position.
  • 01:55:04
    As for the programmatic updates, Regulatory Services launched our participation in Outcomes Minneapolis this year.
  • 01:55:12
    Because of the nature of the work, it differs greatly from division to division.
  • 01:55:17
    I'll highlight metrics of success as we discuss each one of the divisions.
  • 01:55:22
    You can view all of our metrics on the public-facing dashboard by scanning the QR code on the very last slide of this presentation.
  • 01:55:30
    First up we have Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.
  • 01:55:33
    MACC partners with the community to ensure the health and safety of people and pets by promoting the responsible and humane care of animals.
  • 01:55:42
    We accomplish this through enforcing local and state laws as well as community outreach and animal sheltering.
  • 01:55:48
    MAC is a rare find in the animal control field for several reasons.
  • 01:55:53
    Our program is community-centric.
  • 01:55:55
    A group of almost 500 volunteers help support animals in our care.
  • 01:56:01
    We offer low-cost adoptions in animal services and have our own veterinary professionals who keep the animals healthy and prepare them for adoption.
  • 01:56:09
    We also lean into our expertise by serving as the lead agency on 911 and 311 calls involving animals and the investigation of animal cruelty charges.
  • 01:56:22
    We track our response time to public safety incidents.
  • 01:56:26
    For calls designated as priority one, the goal is to respond within one hour and we've met that for nearly every single
  • 01:56:37
    Yeah, nearly every single one.
  • 01:56:39
    Most importantly, it's MAC's ultimate goal to save the life of every animal that comes through its doors.
  • 01:56:46
    To measure our success, we look at the live release rate.
  • 01:56:50
    which is the percent of animals that find a home and do not need to be compassionately and humanely euthanized.
  • 01:56:57
    Despite taking in so many animals, some of which have had severe injuries and dangerous behavioral issues, we maintain a 90% and above live release rate.
  • 01:57:08
    This status is very rare for municipal shelters to achieve and is a testament to the dedication of our staff who ensure proper care for the voiceless.
  • 01:57:18
    This year we've also maintained a lower length of stay for animals in our care, which means that they find a home more quickly, giving us a little more capacity to help each animal that needs us.
  • 01:57:30
    Multiple efforts culminated in this success, but we owe a big thanks to our foster care coordinator.
  • 01:57:36
    Last year, nearly 20% of our animals stayed with the foster family, decreasing the burden on shelter staff while ensuring active social engagements within the foster family home environments.
  • 01:57:51
    Inspection services.
  • 01:57:53
    Shaping the health and safety of homes, neighborhoods, businesses, and events, Inspections works to protect the well-being of every community member.
  • 01:58:03
    We do this through proactive inspections, responding to complaints, permitting, consulting on matters of fire safety, and engaging with community.
  • 01:58:14
    Inspections is known locally and nationally for leading the city's robust rental inspections program.
  • 01:58:20
    Beyond rental inspections, we're charged with addressing nuisance complaints in neighborhoods.
  • 01:58:25
    A little known fact is that a significant portion of inspections work actually goes towards addressing issues of owner occupied properties and neighborhood livability.
  • 01:58:36
    On the next slide I'll show data that nuance violations are increasing.
  • 01:58:40
    That's in part because we dedicate our summer interns time to doing proactive enforcement.
  • 01:58:47
    And they've been able to catch more issues before they turn into complaints.
  • 01:58:51
    We do permitting for fire safety at special events, construction sites, businesses, and hazardous material storage, and so much more.
  • 01:58:59
    Inspectors put a lot of work this year into revamping our hazmat protocols and procedures.
  • 01:59:06
    And we tackle the city's most complex housing cases, like trying to get long-term vacant properties back into use and supporting displaced renters.
  • 01:59:17
    Shifting to the metrics, one of our ongoing goals is to prevent renters from being displaced and we pursue this in a number of ways.
  • 01:59:25
    This year we brought 22 properties into compliance through tenant remedies actions, TRAs, against unresponsive owners.
  • 01:59:32
    We have another 28 TRAs in the works.
  • 01:59:36
    We conducted portfolio inspections where we monitor high-risk, high-volume landlords to ensure timely repairs and accountability.
  • 01:59:44
    For the first time ever, we imposed involuntary conditions on rental licenses to ensure owners follow through on complaints.
  • 01:59:50
    We've seen these collective efforts pay off as more rental units are repaired and reactivated for renters rather than losing them to vacancy.
  • 02:00:03
    We also saw unfortunate cases where renters did experience displacement.
  • 02:00:07
    To provide them with stability, we awarded a total of $50,400 in renter relocation assistance to 16 families so far in 2025, with additional cases still pending.
  • 02:00:19
    Renters typically receive payments within two weeks of displacement.
  • 02:00:23
    This quick turnaround reduces the risk of homelessness and builds trust in city programs.
  • 02:00:28
    We implemented a new ordinance, the Prolonged Vacancy Enforcement, geared towards getting long-standing vacant properties back online.
  • 02:00:37
    We'll be presenting on this to Council later this fall.
  • 02:00:39
    What I can preview for you here today is that we've seen 20 properties so far that are actively moving towards one of two avenues, either sale of the property or rehabilitation.
  • 02:00:55
    code compliance and traffic control.
  • 02:00:58
    Traffic control helps keep our streets free and clear and traffic moving smoothly at all times of the day.
  • 02:01:04
    We accomplish this through citywide parking enforcement, intersection control and education.
  • 02:01:09
    You'll see our agents directing traffic during emergencies and rush hour and even at events such as Vikings and Lynx games.
  • 02:01:17
    We're a regular partner for other city departments like Public Works as we provide parking enforcement during snow emergencies and regular street cleanings.
  • 02:01:27
    Our role has expanded in recent years as we now respond to non-emergency issues that were previously managed by Minneapolis Police.
  • 02:01:36
    Focusing on outcomes, for the first time in a long time, traffic control was fully staffed in 2025 and it brought exciting results with it.
  • 02:01:45
    Looking at the bar chart on the left-hand side, you'll notice two things.
  • 02:01:50
    First, we've made significant progress in responding to calls within our service level agreement.
  • 02:01:55
    Today, we made our service level agreement nearly 100% of the time.
  • 02:02:01
    The second thing you'll notice is that the volume of complaints appears to be decreasing since 2023.
  • 02:02:07
    While 2025 is not yet over, we do expect that the downward trend will continue as our stronger staffing levels allow us to do more proactive enforcement, strengthening neighborhood livability, and preempting complaints before they happen.
  • 02:02:23
    Another metric of this year's success was managing an increased demand for special events.
  • 02:02:28
    As Minneapolis grows its reputation as a premier destination to hold events,
  • 02:02:33
    We've met this demand while balancing our responsibilities within the public safety ecosystem Operations and Engagement Operations and Engagement is the backbone for our department They lead strategic efforts across the divisions to improve processes, support accessibility, equity and inclusion, and provide data-driven solutions and financial analyses
  • 02:02:59
    They play a key role in implementing ordinances and creating engagement opportunities for the community to connect with staff outside of enforcement situations.
  • 02:03:10
    This year, ops and engagement organized staff presence at more than 14 community events.
  • 02:03:15
    Our finance manager and team of data analysts tackled strategic projects that increased the efficiency of several programs, informed decision-making on how to best serve residents, and positioned the department to be stronger financially.
  • 02:03:32
    We managed contracts such as the Homeowner Repair Assistance Program, support of the Minneapolis Advisory Committee on Housing.
  • 02:03:39
    The decrease of the division's budget shown on the chart is primarily due to the shift in field-based housing-focused teams out of operations and engagement and over to inspection services.
  • 02:03:54
    Shifting to metrics and outcomes, Ops and Engagement supports the entire department, but one of its larger teams, the administrative team, primarily supports inspection services by issuing permits for special events and fire safety, as well as rental licenses and citation letters.
  • 02:04:12
    Rental licenses continue to increase in Minneapolis, which are presently up by 4.1% since the end of 2024.
  • 02:04:21
    Particularly as the program grows, it's been a priority to tackle process improvement that have helped property owners submit the license renewals on time and streamlined communications to better support 311 and community members.
  • 02:04:38
    Carving out our homeless response from operations and engagement, which is embedded in operations and engagement.
  • 02:04:45
    Just wanted to have a separate call out here.
  • 02:04:48
    The homeless response team serves as the first step in responding to unsheltered homelessness.
  • 02:04:53
    The HRT is out in the city five days a week connecting people to local services and resources and providing culturally considerate, trauma-informed, and equity-focused help.
  • 02:05:04
    Their engagement embraces a long-term strategy.
  • 02:05:07
    We know that a no today to shelter can become a yes tomorrow, in a week's time, or in a year.
  • 02:05:14
    Anecdotally, we know that most of the time we're not just connecting with someone just once.
  • 02:05:25
    We're reconnecting with them over time to build trust and relationships.
  • 02:05:30
    and every time we see them, we offer shelter and resources.
  • 02:05:35
    It's slow, long-term work.
  • 02:05:37
    At the same time, we have to celebrate successes where we have them and we're thankful to have been able to provide 276 housing referrals so far this year.
  • 02:05:48
    In terms of budget changes and reductions, the two proposed budget reductions relate to the homeless response team.
  • 02:05:55
    One homeless response coordinator position has remained vacant for quite some time.
  • 02:06:00
    After struggling to find a suitable candidate through multiple postings and seeing the state of unsheltered homelessness shift in Minneapolis, we paused hiring earlier this year.
  • 02:06:09
    The HRT will continue outreach with its existing five FTE.
  • 02:06:15
    The second light item is nearly $213,000 in contractual services for hand washing stations, portable toilets, and storage for unsheltered individuals' belongings.
  • 02:06:26
    We lacked a viable pool of service providers who were interested in providing hand washing stations and portable toilets.
  • 02:06:34
    Meanwhile, we also saw the number of encampments decline.
  • 02:06:37
    Storage services were also infrequently used.
  • 02:06:41
    and we did go out for bid twice for this specific line item.
  • 02:06:46
    The first time pulling zero interest, the second time just one interested party that was not interested in meeting our specific needs for storage.
  • 02:07:00
    They were not willing to provide storage in community.
  • 02:07:02
    It was downtown only.
  • 02:07:04
    So we elected not to move forward with that issuance of that contract and are planning to still look for a different opportunity to try and find storage options.
  • 02:07:18
    In closing, this has been a very eventful year, one that could not happen without the compassionate care and intention of each of the division directors and the teams they lead.
  • 02:07:28
    There's more work to be done and we're at the ready for whatever comes next.
  • 02:07:34
    Thank you for the opportunity to present on our work and our budget changes this year.
  • 02:07:39
    Thank you very much Chair.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:07:40
    Thank you Director Velazquez and thank you to your team for coming in today and patiently waiting while we work through our first presentation on a Friday.
  • 02:07:52
    I am going to see if my colleagues have any questions.
  • 02:07:55
    I see three people in queue right now.
  • 02:07:58
    So let's all try to be as concise as humanly possible in working through discussions so that we can maintain quorum and everyone can get a, everyone who is seeking to be recognized is able to do so.
  • 02:08:11
    First Council Member Palmisano, then Council Member Cashman, and then Council Member Chavez.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:08:17
    Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for this presentation, Director.
  • 02:08:22
    I really admire the shift in focus of the Inspection Services Division to a renter-first approach, renter-centered.
  • 02:08:31
    I didn't necessarily see that in the slides, but it's in the budget book.
  • 02:08:35
    I've been dealing with a particularly difficult situation in my ward and have experienced the care and compassion and the rented centered approach that your team has.
  • 02:08:47
    Your staff worked with a resident on housing maintenance and livability issues with great purpose and sensitivity.
  • 02:08:54
    This resident stopped living in his car and accepted a deeply affordable housing opportunity.
  • 02:09:02
    and your staff was instrumental in working that through in many ways to a safe and dignified outcome.
  • 02:09:10
    So thank you.
  • 02:09:12
    For the reduction of a homeless response coordinator position, I think I saw that right, I'm glad to hear there's no impact on services expected because this position was added this year but never filled.
  • 02:09:24
    Can you help me understand why the position wasn't filled?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:09:28
    Yes, through the chair, Council Member Palmisano, we did attempt to fill that position multiple times this year and the pool of candidates that were interested in coming on board wasn't there.
  • 02:09:41
    So we tried a number of different opportunities, we engaged and did outreach with through our partners and through the county in a number of different areas to try and expand the pool and we just were not successful.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:09:54
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 02:09:55
    And then I note there are eight vacancies and can you give us a sense of where you're at generally in the process of filling them?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:10:03
    Certainly.
  • 02:10:03
    Through the chair, council member, so we do have eight vacancies.
  • 02:10:06
    I believe four of those are in traffic control.
  • 02:10:09
    We recently
  • 02:10:13
    promoted individuals from our traffic control unit to focus more on the traffic camera pilot project.
  • 02:10:22
    So we have to backfill those specific positions and we're currently working through the hiring process right now.
  • 02:10:28
    We also are hiring two inspection services supervisors as part of the overall realignment.
  • 02:10:35
    Those interviews have been completed and selection is imminent.
  • 02:10:39
    I can feel a nod in the back back here and I'll have to look
  • 02:10:49
    Yes, we do have a probationary release of a homeless response coordinator.
  • 02:10:54
    That posting is currently active and will close on October 28th for any interested parties who are listening.
  • 02:11:00
    We will be actively recruiting and pursuing an additional homeless response coordinator.
  • 02:11:05
    We have four individuals.
  • 02:11:06
    We have a fifth FTE.
  • 02:11:08
    We're looking to backfill that fifth FTE that recently vacated.
  • 02:11:12
    And I believe there's one more position.
  • 02:11:14
    I'll have to look into that last position and get back to you.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:11:18
    That's okay.
  • 02:11:18
    This gives me a general sense of it.
  • 02:11:20
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:11:21
    Certainly.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:11:23
    Let's note that for administrative follow-up.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:11:25
    Councilmember Cashman, then Councilmember Chavez.
  • 02:11:28
    Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Director Velasquez and the whole team for coming in.
  • 02:11:32
    I think you have all been undergoing a lot of change in the department in the last couple of years and really appreciate your nimble ability to work with the council on new ordinances and policies so it's great to see a lot of the work
  • 02:11:45
    really coming online and I really appreciate that and look forward to continued conversations.
  • 02:11:52
    I know we talked about having a study session as a council on the reform of the tiering system and rental licenses and I look forward to working with you on that.
  • 02:12:01
    I just wanted to ask a little bit about prolonged vacancy enforcement, but I do understand you'll be coming to Biz Committee to present on some findings of how that's going, but I'm particularly interested in how many properties went into prolonged vacancy enforcement that yielded 20 that are going into rehabilitation.
  • 02:12:19
    Do you know how many have gone into PVE?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:12:27
    Through the Chair, Council Member Cashman, there were 59 properties that went into the prolonged vacancy enforcement this year and as I stated before there are 20 and even 20 properties that are moving forward in one of two capacities selling their property so that it can go to somebody who's interested in actually redeveloping that space or rehabilitation of the property.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:12:54
    Thank you.
  • 02:12:55
    I would say that's pretty good results from just a few months of operation.
  • 02:13:02
    Thank you for that.
  • 02:13:02
    I look forward to hearing more.
  • 02:13:05
    And then on code compliance and traffic control, I'm just curious under what circumstances traffic control personnel direct traffic and under what circumstances MPD officers do.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:13:20
    Through the Chair, Council Member Cashman, I'll start and then Director Adao can assist.
  • 02:13:26
    So Traffic Control directs traffic during rush hour.
  • 02:13:29
    They're the primary entity within the city that does conduct traffic.
  • 02:13:35
    They will also engage in special events activities.
  • 02:13:38
    As part of the Black Events Special Event Committee, they evaluate what the conditions are.
  • 02:13:45
    and which agents are required, how many agents are required or will it be a requirement that perhaps a uniformed or off-duty Minneapolis police officer comes into that space to navigate traffic.
  • 02:14:03
    Any additional comments you'd like to make?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 02:14:07
    My name is Ahmed Adel, and I'm the Director of Minneapolis Traffic Control.
  • 02:14:11
    Thank you, Madam Chair, Councilmember Cashman.
  • 02:14:15
    There are some events that Minneapolis Traffic Control is more responsible, mostly the Target Center, Target Field, or U.S. Bank, or Gophers, or most of the open streets, we do take those as the lead.
  • 02:14:28
    But there are also some other events that we coordinate and collaborate with MPD, and especially the Pride events due to security.
  • 02:14:36
    and the 4th of July.
  • 02:14:39
    So there are some events that we collaborate because some of the intersections or the traffic management is so many intersections that we do manage and none of my team are able to accommodate that request so MPD will participate.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:14:57
    Okay, thanks.
  • 02:14:58
    So is there a policy that guides that decision-making or is it on a case-by-case basis?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 02:15:02
    It's mostly case by case, but most of the events that relate to the venues, we do take that responsibility, and some we do have contractual agreement with them.
  • 02:15:17
    But most of the other events that require securities, MPD takes the lead, but we do sit with them at the table with Public Works, because we do not approve permits.
  • 02:15:27
    Most of the permits are approved by MPD and Public Works.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:15:32
    okay well thank you for the information I asked this because I'm interested in fiscal responsibility around this and I know what we've recently learned that with our parking systems you know we're paying
  • 02:15:46
    off-duty cops and it could be over $100 an hour versus bringing that in-house into traffic control would save the city, this is the taxpayer, more money and could be more streamlined so I'm just interested in this for future purposes which is why I was asking about that.
  • 02:16:04
    And also interested in how we could effectively expand MPD's capacity by taking them from the traffic control functions that they're doing and allowing them to then improve their response times too.
  • 02:16:16
    priority one calls and so on.
  • 02:16:19
    So that's the basis of my questions and I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about where that's shifting, where we've shifted in those resources.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 02:16:30
    As you guys noticed the metrics that Director Velasquez shared, we're already at capacity right now and we only have about 45 traffic control agents that oversee over 700 events with more than 8,000 traffic control hours
  • 02:16:50
    in addition to the 311 complaints and all that.
  • 02:16:52
    So we are finding creative ways to manage that, but we're also open to discussions on how we can assist.
  • 02:17:01
    But knowing that we have capacity and we're willing to have that conversation.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:17:06
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 02:17:07
    I appreciate it.
  • 02:17:09
    My next question was about page 18.
  • 02:17:13
    How many of the 276 referrals for housing resulted in a successful placement of housing?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:17:23
    Through the Chair, Council Member Cashman.
  • 02:17:28
    So if I understand the question, how many of the housing referrals actually took up the offer of housing or how many moved into housing?
  • 02:17:37
    So that's data that we don't have and the county also does not track for us.
  • 02:17:43
    Okay.
  • 02:17:44
    So we know we're able to provide the referrals.
  • 02:17:47
    We don't have visibility on the back end of how many people actually went into housing as a result of the referral.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:17:54
    Okay.
  • 02:17:55
    It does feel important.
  • 02:17:56
    I'm wondering if it's part of our encampment reporting ordinance.
  • 02:18:01
    It does feel important to try to
  • 02:18:05
    follow these individuals through to success with placement and just something to think about trying to find a way to track in the future.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:18:17
    Yes, thank you for that, Councilmember Cashman.
  • 02:18:19
    That's certainly a concern for us as well, because we would love to be able to see how successful are we as a system, as a city of making the referrals and helping people progress on their trajectory towards safe, stable housing.
  • 02:18:34
    And it's something I continue to raise up with the county as we try to find a pathway to be able to answer that question.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:18:44
    Okay, thanks.
  • 02:18:44
    Well, that's all the questions I have for now, but I also wanted to congratulate the Animal Care and Control Department for really incredible outcomes of success.
  • 02:18:55
    Responding to over 90% of Priority One calls within an hour is very admirable.
  • 02:19:01
    And
  • 02:19:02
    I just think it's worth celebrating all the great work that that department does.
  • 02:19:05
    Thank you so much.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:19:06
    Excellent.
  • 02:19:07
    Thank you Um, so for everyone's awareness, we will be losing quorum in seven minutes when we will have to adjourn this meeting So next council member Chavez then council member Wonsley.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:19:15
    Thank you.
  • 02:19:15
    Director Velazquez, can you clarify because I feel like Now I got two confusing points unless they're two different positions What position was paused and then I think you said there was a position that's being hired at the end of the month or something.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:19:31
    Yes, through the chair, council member Chavez, we have five FTE.
  • 02:19:37
    We're in our proposed, currently there are six FTE in the proposed 2026 budget.
  • 02:19:42
    We will lose one FTE of a homeless response coordinator and we're currently in the process of hiring that fifth homeless response coordinator team member.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:19:53
    Thank you, and why are we losing one of the homeless response coordinators?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:19:57
    So as part of the process of evaluating the budget at the enterprise level, this position had been vacant pretty much the entire year.
  • 02:20:06
    We tried to hire it multiple times and weren't able to gather it.
  • 02:20:12
    a talent pool to be able to fill the position and The options were to eliminate a vacancy or eliminate a position with somebody in it We made the hard decision of eliminating eliminating the vacancy even though this is in one of our priority areas Okay, but people did apply for the position There were people who applied for the position.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:20:36
    Yes, I guess the concerns I'll share is I remember I
  • 02:20:39
    last year when we were passing our encampment reporting ordinance concerns were that a lot of these individuals from HRT were going to be doing paper pushing instead of being out on the street and I guess my concern is now that that concern was raised by staff
  • 02:20:55
    and now that position wasn't hired so that the math doesn't add up for me if there was concerns about paper pushing instead of being on the ground and then not hiring for the position.
  • 02:21:06
    Even though people did apply, I just want to publicly share my concerns with that because the math isn't mathing over here.
  • 02:21:11
    The other question that I have is about
  • 02:21:17
    The storage situation, did the staff communicate with the City Council that you weren't going to proceed with storage options possibly in the south side or locations that aren't just in downtown or that you were struggling to find someone that was willing to do this work?
  • 02:21:31
    I think my concern is that people need storage and why are we finding out in October that this isn't happening?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:21:40
    Through the Chair, Council Member
  • 02:21:43
    So addressing the first part of it, and then I'll address the second with respect to the paper pushing, recognizing that we need our field-based teams.
  • 02:21:52
    We need our homeless response team in the field.
  • 02:21:54
    That paper pushing is being done by me so that they can maximize their time in the field and engaging in all that work.
  • 02:22:01
    So it's on me to manage that work.
  • 02:22:05
    The encampment closure reporting, all of the tracking, all of the project management, I do that.
  • 02:22:10
    For the second piece,
  • 02:22:13
    I don't recall if we communicated with City Council on the direction we were taking with respect to storage.
  • 02:22:20
    I would have to look at my notes on that and get back to you.
  • 02:22:24
    We did issue an RFP twice to try and secure storage or trying to do outreach with individuals to secure storage.
  • 02:22:34
    First time, no applicants for no responses whatsoever for the RFP and then we did a bigger push
  • 02:22:43
    outreach communication.
  • 02:22:44
    I personally reached out to every single one of our providers and only one expressed partial interest but ended up not applying and the only one that did apply was the Minneapolis Downtown Council to utilize the funding to continue programming that they were already doing already paying for that was separate from what we were looking to do with and what council authorized us to do with the funding.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:23:10
    Thank you.
  • 02:23:24
    and now cutting funding in this budget for encampment response when it comes to public health services, I think we have to be realistic and that homelessness is not going to end next year.
  • 02:23:35
    The current budget proposed by the mayor is not going to end homelessness and then cutting funding meant to do public health services for folks experiencing homelessness is now going to be, a lot of it is going to be severely cut.
  • 02:23:48
    I just don't know how we're going to address homelessness next year with this budget and I think I just wanted to raise those big flags and concerns.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:23:58
    Excellent, thank you.
  • 02:24:02
    Council Member Wonsley, did you get out of queue?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 02:24:05
    No, we can get up out of here.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:24:09
    Council President, make it quick though.
  • 02:24:11
    Very quickly.
  • 02:24:12
    Hard to get it quick.
  • 02:24:16
    So I guess I'll say we're conducting a fee study right now.
  • 02:24:19
    I know that your department is dealing with some of our most complex
  • 02:24:25
    I've had the big nursing home in my ward.
  • 02:24:32
    I'm really grateful that you were able to bring a little bit more security to that building but there's still people breaking in and it's just hard and it's complex and it's not about
  • 02:24:43
    necessarily reg services not doing its job, but it is a complex job that I don't know that reg services exactly has the capacity to respond to.
  • 02:24:53
    And I'm just curious about the practical realities of your resources and your capacity.
  • 02:24:59
    Are we over relying on the general fund to be able to meet these complex challenges?
  • 02:25:05
    I know that we passed our strengthened regulations on tier 3 properties but I'm dealing with some properties in my ward that are tier 1 that have absentee landlords who don't live in the state who have literally blocked my staff from calling them and they're not getting resolutions and so I just struggle with
  • 02:25:27
    some of these really complex livability challenges and does reg services have the resources it needs to actually meet them?
  • 02:25:34
    Because I don't, maybe kind of took Councilmember Chavez's statement more than question, does this budget actually meet those needs?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:25:47
    Through the Chair, Council President Payne, complex problems that also require a very complex response.
  • 02:25:58
    It's a hard one to answer, sir.
  • 02:26:00
    We have a number of different initiatives that we're working through.
  • 02:26:03
    There's the new ordinance that recently passed that we think will be a big benefit, redoing our rental license ordinance, which will also be a benefit, but it doesn't necessarily speak to the vacant property and that takes some significant partnership.
  • 02:26:19
    So we have to rely on our partners
  • 02:26:21
    across the city to help us solve for those acute types of issues and preserve community livability.
  • 02:26:29
    We also have new software that is going to help us on the back end so that our staff can be more attentive, can have sharper focus when out in the field to address some of those different complex issues as well.
  • 02:26:42
    So to wrap up, it's probably too soon to tell just yet how effective those specific changes will be.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:26:50
    Yeah, I'll just finish and say maybe what we need to do is just do some really focused work in the next year on how we can leverage a enterprise-wide approach to some of the challenges that happen to land on reg services right now because I don't think that your department is actually in a fair position to be able to handle some of these issues that need that type of enterprise-wide response.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:27:15
    Thank you.
  • 02:27:15
    Wonderful.
  • 02:27:16
    Thank you, sir.
  • 02:27:17
    I am not seeing anyone else seeking to be recognized, so I'll ask the Clerk to file that presentation.
  • 02:27:23
    Thank you all for coming in to present your recommended 2026 budget.
  • 02:27:28
    With that, we have concluded all business to come before the Committee today.
  • 02:27:31
    And if there is no objection, we stand adjourned.
  • 02:27:36
    Thank you.